Broadcom 9600 series with ScaleFlux 3000 NVMe SSDs
The Broadcom 9600 series RAID controllers are designed for high-performance NVMe SSDs, emphasizing RAID 5 performance for superior capacity economics.
Key customer benefits
Increased uptime
By using fewer components to meet array performance targets.
Improve user experience
With faster rebuild times to minimize degraded-mode performance impacts.
Improve TCO
With more efficient arrays and reduced power & space.
“Transparent compression is ideally suited for
this mixed workload environment as it reduces the write-to-read
performance penalty inherent to all SSDs.”
Challenge
When operating in RAID 5 mode, the RAID controller must perform two read-modify-write operations in the storage array (one for data and another for parity) to support a single host write operation. The random write capability of the SSDs can limit the overall performance of the RAID array, forcing users to buy extra drives to reach their performance needs and get the maximum value from their 9600 RAID Card, even if they don’t need the drives for additional capacity.
Additionally, the mixed read-write performance of the individual drives dictates rebuild times. Long rebuild times mean increased exposure to potential data loss and increased time spent in degraded mode (i.e., lower performance & worse user experience).
Solution
Transparent compression is ideally suited for these write-heavy and mixed read-write workload environments as it reduces the write-to-read performance penalty inherent to all SSDs. The Broadcom 9600 series enables new levels of RAID 5 performance to extend the storage efficiency benefits of RAID 5 to modern, high-performance use cases.
Results
The testing demonstrated that transparent compression yields a significant efficiency increase and reductions in rebuild times and potential failures.
This technology in the drives allows the 9660-16i to operate at full-rated performance using just four CSD-3310 NVMe SSDs (the minimum configuration occupying all 16 PCIe lanes) vs. eight traditional PCIe 4 NVMe SSDs. That means half as many devices to manage and half the power to run the drives. Transparent compression also cuts rebuild times nearly in half for less time in degraded mode and happier users!
In summary, the transparent compression capability of the CSD-3310 enables the construction of maximum-performance RAID 5 arrays with fewer SSDs. It offers shorter rebuild times, which simultaneously lowers the cost and increases the reliability of the RAID solution without sacrificing performance.
Broadcom 9660 RAID 5 Performance with CSD-3310 3.84TB NVMe SSDs
Testing & results.
