SPECstorage™ Solution 2020_vda Result: Oracle - Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE Eight Drive Enclosure Hybrid Storage System

Oracle	SPECstorage Solution 2020_vda = 1650 Streams
Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE Eight Drive Enclosure Hybrid Storage System	Overall Response Time = 18.04 msec

Business Metric (Streams)	Average Latency (msec)	Streams Ops/Sec	Streams MB/Sec
75	3.250	750	342
150	5.588	1500	683
225	6.623	2251	1029
300	7.102	3002	1367
375	9.226	3752	1716
450	11.133	4503	2057
525	13.156	5253	2401
600	12.188	6003	2744
675	12.324	6754	3084
750	14.845	7504	3427
825	16.761	8255	3768
900	16.026	9006	4113
975	17.456	9756	4456
1050	20.317	10507	4797
1125	21.819	11257	5140
1200	22.071	12006	5484
1275	27.648	12757	5834
1350	26.535	13508	6172
1425	29.399	14259	6513
1500	29.434	15009	6856
1575	35.184	15748	7189
1650	83.097	16154	7379

Product and Test Information

Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE Eight Drive Enclosure Hybrid Storage System
Tested by	Oracle
Hardware Available	October 5, 2021
Software Available	November 10, 2021
Date Tested	November 2021
License Number	00073
Licensee Locations	Redwood Shores, CA, USA

The Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 High-End (HE) system is a cost-effective, unified storage system that is ideal for performance-intensive, dynamic workloads. This enterprise-class storage system offers both NAS and SAN capabilities with industry-leading Oracle Database integration, in a highly available, clustered configuration. The Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE provides simplified configuration, management, and industry-leading storage Analytics. The performance-optimized platform leverages specialized read and write flash caching devices in the hybrid storage pool configuration, optimizing high-performance throughput and latency. The clustered Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE system scales to 2.0TB Memory per controller, includes 32 CPU cores per controller and 20 PB of disk storage. The Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance delivers excellent value with integrated data services for file and block-level protocols with connectivity over 32GB FC, 100GbE, 40GbE, 25GbE, and 10GbE. Data services include 5 levels of compression, deduplication, encryption, snapshots, and replication. An advanced data integrity architecture and four RAID redundancy options optimized for different workloads provide a strong data protection foundation

Solution Under Test Bill of Materials

Item No	Qty	Type	Vendor	Model/Name	Description
1	2	Storage Controller	Oracle	Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE	Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE, 2 x 32-Core 2.6GHz Xeon Platinum-8358 CPU. 2048 GB DDR4-3200 DIMM. 2 x 3.84TB NVME Intel SSD boot drives.
2	64	Memory	Oracle	Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE	Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2, 32 x 64GB DDR4-3200 DIMM. Memory is order configurable, a total of 2048GB was installed in each storage controller.
3	8	Storage Drive Enclosure	Oracle	Oracle Storage Drive Enclosure DE3-24C	24 drive slot enclosure, SAS3 connected, 20 x 14TB Western Digital 7200 RPM - SAS-3 Disk Drive, 2 x Samsung 200GB - SAS-3 SSD, 2 x Samsung 7.68TB - SAS-3 SSD. Dual PSU.
4	160	SAS3 HDD	Oracle	WDC W7214A520ORA014T	14TB Western Digital 7200 RPM - SAS-3 Disk Drive. Drive selection is order configurable. A total of 160 x 14TB Western Digital 7200 RPM - SAS-3 Disk Drive drives were installed across eight Oracle Storage Drive Enclosure DE3-24C.
5	16	SAS3 SSD	Oracle	Samsung MZILT960HBHQ	Samsung 200GB - SAS-3 Solid State Disk. Drive selection is order configurable, a total of 16 x Samsung 200GB - SAS-3 Solid State Disk drives were installed across eight Oracle Storage Drive Enclosure DE3-24C. These Drives are used for write accelerators.
6	16	SAS3 SSD	Oracle	Samsung MZILT6HALA	Western Digital 7.68TB - SAS-3 Solid State Disk. Drive selection is order configurable, a total of 16 x Samsung 7.68TB - SAS-3 Solid State Disk drives were installed across eight Oracle Storage Drive Enclosure DE3-24C. These drives are used for ZFS L2 Adaptive Replacement Cache.
7	4	Client	Oracle	Oracle x8-2	Oracle x8-2 Client Node, 2 x Intel Xeon Platinum-8260 24-Core, 2.4GHz processors. 256GB RAM. 2 x (2 x 100GbE). Used for benchmark load generation. One is used for the prime client.
8	4	OS Drive	Oracle	HGST H101812SFSUN1.2T	HGST 1.2TB - 10000 RPM - SAS-3 Disk Drive. 2 x 1.2TB - 10000 RPM - SAS-3 Disk Drive, one each of the disk drives in the Oracle x8-2 Client Node was installed for OS boot drive.
9	1	Switch	Arista	Arista DCS-7060CX-32S	Arista DCS-7060CX-32S, high-performance, low-latency 100/40/10/25/50 Gb/sec Ethernet switch.
10	12	Network Interface Card	Oracle	Dual 100-Gigabit SFP28 Ethernet	Mellanox ConnectX-5 VPI Dual Port QSFP28 100GbE Ethernet HBA, two in each ZS9-2 controller and two in each x8-2 Client (Oracle Part Number 7603663). Can be ordered at the same time when ordering the Oracle ZS9-2 controllers.
11	1	Switch	CDW	Netgear Gigabit Switch GS724Tv4	Netgear Gigabit Switch GS724Tv4 switch is used for the management and configuration network only.

Configuration Diagrams

Component Software

Hardware Configuration and Tuning - Physical

Software Configuration and Tuning - Physical

Item No	Component	Type	Name and Version	Description
1	Oracle ZFS Storage	Storage Controller OS	8.8.39	Oracle ZFS Storage OS Firmware.
2	Solaris	Workload Client OS	Solaris (11.4-11.4.37.0.1.101.1 )	Workload Client Operating System

Oracle x8-2 Client Nodes
Parameter Name	Value	Description
vers	3	NFS mount option set to version 3
rsize, wsize	1048576	NFS mount option for the read and write buffer size.
forcedirectio	forcedirectio	NFS mount option set to forcedirectio
rpcmod:clnt_max_conns	4	Increases the number of NFS client connections from default of 1 to 4.

Software Configuration and Tuning Notes

Best practices settings for network and NFS client and the Oracle ZFS Storage using the 100GbE Ethernet for optimized performance includes setting the workload client NFS mounts of the Oracle to use forcedirectio, and read and write NFS buffer sizes to 1048576 bytes each.

Service SLA Notes

None

Storage and Filesystems

Item No	Description	Data Protection	Stable Storage	Qty
1	160 x 14TB HDD Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE Data Pool Drives	RAID-10	Yes	160
2	16 x 200GB SSD Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE Log Drives	None	Yes	16
3	Samsung 7.68TB - SAS-3 Solid State Disk ZS9-2 HE Read Cache Drives	None	Yes	16
4	3.84TB NVME Intel SSD Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE OS Drives	Mirrored	No	4
5	HGST 1.2TB - 10000 RPM - SAS-3 Disk Drive x8-2 Client Node OS Drives	None	No	4

Number of Filesystems	2
Total Capacity	930 TiB
Filesystem Type	ZFS

Filesystem Creation Notes

Two ZFS storage pools are created overall in the System Under Test (one storage pool and ZFS filesystem per Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE controller). Each storage pool is configured with 76 HDD drives, 8 write accelerator SSDs (log devices), 8 L2 Adaptive Replacement Cache SSDs (read cache), and 4 hot spare HDDs. The storage pools are configured via the administrative browser interface. Each storage controller assigns half the disk drives, log devices, and cache devices to be used. Next, the storage pools profiles are set to mirror (RAID-10) across the 76 data HDDs drives. The log profile and cache device profiles used are set to be striped. The log construct in each storage pool is the ZFS Intent Log (ZIL) for the pool. The cache construct is the ZFS L2 Adaptive Replacement Cache for the pool. Each storage pool is also configured as a ZFS filesystem which is then configured with 16 ZFS filesystem shares. Since each Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE controller is configured with one storage pool and is a ZFS filesystem and contains 16 ZFS filesystem shares, the System Under Test has 32 ZFS filesystem shares (32 NFS shares). There are 2 internal mirrored system disk drives per Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE controller and are used only for the controllers NAS operating system. These drives are exclusively used for the NAS Firmware and do not cache or store user data. The Oracle x8-2 workload clients mount the 8 NFS shares across 2 100Gbe networks such that each client accesses the 8 NFS shares via 2 network paths over 8 NFS mounts (see Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE Filesystem and Network Configuration Diagram).

Storage and Filesystem Notes

All filesystems on both Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE controllers are created with a setting of the Database Record Size of 128KB. The logbias setting is set to latency (the default value) for each filesystem. These standard settings are controlled through the Oracle ZFS Storage administration using the Administration browser or cli interfaces.

Transport Configuration - Physical

Item No	Transport Type	Number of Ports Used	Notes
1	100GbE Ethernet	8	Each Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE Controller is networked via 4 x 100GbE Ethernet physical ports for data.
2	10GbE Ethernet	2	Each Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE Controller uses 1 x 10GbE Ethernet physical port for NAS configuration and management.
3	100GbE Ethernet	8	Each Oracle x8-2 Client Node uses is networked via 2 x 100GbE Ethernet physical ports for data.
4	10GbE Ethernet	4	Each Oracle x8-2 Client Node uses 1 x 10GbE Ethernet physical port for configuration and management.

Transport Configuration Notes

Each Oracle ZFS Storage controller uses 4 x 100 GbE Ethernet ports for a total of 8 x 100 GbE ports. In the event of a controller failure, IP address will be taken over by the surviving controller. All 100 GbE ports are set to MTU 9000. There is 1 x 10GbE port per controller assigned to the administration interface, this interface is only used to manage the controller and does not take part in data services in the System Under Test.

Switches - Physical

Processing Elements - Physical

Item No	Switch Name	Switch Type	Total Port Count	Used Port Count	Notes
1	Arista DCS-7060CX-32S	100/40/10/25/50 Gb/sec Ethernet Switch	32	16	All ports set for MTU 9000. Port count based on 100Gbe.
2	Netgear Gigabit Switch GS724Tv4	10/100/1000 Mb/sec Ethernet Switch	26	6	Only used for Management and Configuration of SUT

Item No	Qty	Type	Location	Description	Processing Function
1	4	CPU	Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE	2 x 32-Core 2.6GHz Xeon Platinum 8358 CPU	ZFS, TCP/IP, RAID/Storage Drivers, NFS
2	8	CPU	Oracle x8-2 Client Node	2 x 24-Core 2.4GHz Xeon Platinum 8260 processors	TCP/IP, NFS

Processing Element Notes

Each Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE controller contains 2 physical processors, each with 32 processing cores. Oracle x8-2 client contains 2 physical processors, each with 24 processing cores.

Memory - Physical

Description	Size in GiB	Number of Instances	Nonvolatile	Total GiB
Memory in Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE	2048	2	V	4096
Memory in Oracle x8-2 clients	256	4	V	1024
Grand Total Memory Gibibytes				5120

Memory Notes

The Oracle ZFS Storage controllers' main memory is used for the ZFS Adaptive Replacement Cache (ARC is a read data cache), as well as operating system memory.Oracle x8-2 client memory is not used for storage or cache of the Oracle ZFS Storage ZS9-2 HE controllers, only for the client OS.

Stable Storage

The Stable Storage requirement is guaranteed by the ZFS Intent Log (ZIL) which logs writes and other filesystem changing transactions to the stable storage of write flash accelerator SSDs or HDDs depending on the configuration. The System Under Test uses write flash accelerator SSDs. Writes and other filesystem changing transactions are not acknowledged until the data is written to stable storage. The Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance is an active-active cluster high availability system. In the event of a controller failure or power loss, each controller can take over for the other. Write flash accelerator SSDs and/or HDDs are located in shared disk shelves and can be accessed via the 16 backend SAS-3 channels from both controllers, the remaining active controller can complete any outstanding transactions using the ZIL. In the event of power loss to both controllers, the ZIL is used after power is restored to reinstate any writes and other filesystem changes.

Solution Under Test Configuration Notes

SPECstorage™ Solution 2020_vda Result

Performance