Storage performance is always a topic of discussion, and this discussion specifically covers the PowerVault MD3000i, which includes some experts from the product development team.

Technical Community - Background Reading

MD3000i Performance Monitoring

Discussion: MD3000i Performance Monitoring

Virtualization Frontier: Exploring MD3000i with Videos

Chat Transcript

DELL-ScottH	Official chat starts in about 25 minutes, but we usually just hang out and chit chat until then
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DELL-ToddM	What's up peeps?
DELL-ScottH	Todd!
DELL-ScottH	My twirl problem is fixed; proxy setting in IE
DELL-ToddM	That's almost too easy of a fix, but you should never complain about how easy the fix is—just be happy that it is fixed!
DELL-ScottH	Yes, and to think I was going to re-image my laptop!
DELL-ToddM	You should still re-image the laptop—put XP on it!
DELL-ScottH	Maybe, or Ubuntu! :-)
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DELL-ToddM	Hey Tony!
DELL-ScottH	Hello Tony
tonyhgras	Hi, am I too early?
DELL-ToddM	The chat officially starts in about 15 minutes
tonyhgras	Ok
DELL-ToddM	We're just waiting for everybody to join and doing some pre-chat chatting that is typically off topic
tonyhgras	Fine, I'm new to this; My English is not that good, also...
DELL-ToddM	That's okay, my English isn't that great either, At least that's what my teachers from school would probably say :)
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tonyhgras	That's fine. So, what's the idea, do you propose a topic?
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DELL-ToddM	Today's topic is going to be MD3000i performance. Are you familiar with the MD3000i?
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DELL-ToddM	Hey Duncan!
DELL-ScottH	Hey Duncan!
depping	Hey guys
tonyhgras	Yes I am, but I'm now involved in a project around AX4-5i
depping	To go straight for the 1,000,000 question...will you get an IBM, Apple, Dell laptop, Todd? ;-)
DELL-ToddM	I asked for a Dell E series laptop, but I think that only the D series was available
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DELL-ToddM	I just couldn't jump all the way to a Mac; what would I do with my right mouse button?
DELL-ScottH	You didn't ask for the Mapple laptop? :-)
DELL-ScottH	Hello Roger !
depping	If I knew, I would have asked for the Mac, but they gave me an IBM instead
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DELL-ScottH	Hello Slbrown
slbrown	Hello Scott
Dell-RogerF	Greetings
DELL-ToddM	Hey Roger
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DELL-ScottH	Hello Jen
DELL-ToddM	Welcome Jen
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DELL-ScottH	Hello David
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DELL-ToddM	Welcome to everybody. We will get started on the MD3000i Performance chat in just about five minutes
DELL-ScottH	Hello koen, welcome back!
DELL-ToddM	Giving everybody time to get connected
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DELL-ToddM	Hey Koen
DELL_AndyF	Hello all from snowy Switzerland
koen.vdvelde	Hi all, nice to see you back. Hi Tony, nice to meet you here! ;-)
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DELL-ScottH	Hello Andy! Send some snow this way !
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koen.vdvelde	Any one interested in starting an Internet snow fight here?
DELL-ScottH	Hello Brace!
tonyhgras	Hi Koen, I'm here, as I told you
DELL-ScottH	Hello Doug
DELL-Doug	Afternoon Scott
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DELL-ToddM	Hey Doug, thanks for coming!
DELL-Doug	Certainly
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brennels	Hi Guys, hope you had a Happy Turkey Day
DELL-ScottH	mello ronst and mrokkam
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DELL-ScottH	Ate waaayyy too much
DELL-ToddM	The turkey was good at our house; It was even better that the Cowboys won
Jason	I loved watching the family fight; who won the election
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Jason	That was better than the turkey
DELL-mrokkam	Hello Scott, rest of the room! Good afternoon
DELL-ScottH	Hello Greg! How’s the mms2009 session planning going?
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ramseyg_Dell	:) Going well
DELL-ToddM	Welcome jliebster
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Jason	Jason hits koen.vdvelde with a snowball…wack. Take that geek!
DELL-ScottH	Oh yeah the political conversations were the best at Thanksgiving. My family was heavily divided...and that's all we need to say
DELL-ToddM	I thought that the election was over
koen.vdvelde	Lol :-)
DELL-mrokkam	I think the only political debate that was a win was about Palin ;)
DELL-ScottH	Oh no, after a year, someone finally found the sounds!
brennels	Nice feature, I like it
Jason	I would love to have that in a meeting at my company
DELL-ToddM	I need more cowbells
DavidSzp	Dude, I was wondering why my computer was making bear noises! I was in a different tab
DELL-ScottH	I gotta have more cowbell!
Jason	More Cow Bell
DELL-ToddM	Okay, So let's officially start today's chat
DavidSzp	That was good timing :-)
DELL-ToddM	Yes, thanks
DavidSzp	No problem
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DELL-ToddM	Today we are going to finish our three part chat series on the MD3000i, with a chat focused on MD3000i performance
jliebster	That was totally an enterprise-level cowbell
DELL-ToddM	This topic can actually be quite broad, and I am open to whatever aspect you guys want to talk about. Additionally, if there are other MD3000i questions or topics that you want to bring up, we can do that too
DavidSzp	I'm still working on getting my second Esxi server to talk to my MD3000i So I haven't quite gotten to performance testing yet...about to schedule the Remote Install Assistance
DELL-ToddM	I would like to let Dell-doug introduce himself
DavidSzp	You guys got me farther than I was last week with the second ESXi box, thanks...not quite there though.
jen	I am preparing to add an MD1000 to our MD3000i; has anyone had any issues with performance after adding the MD1000?
DELL-ToddM	David, Good to hear that you got farther along. Do you know what the issue is with the second ESXi system?
DELL-Doug	Hi then everyone, I am with Dell's Storage Engineering Development team for the MD3000\MD3000i
DELL-ToddM	Doug was kind enough to agree to help out on this chat. I am very happy that he was able to come. Jen, I have always had both expansion MD1000s attached to my MD3000i, so I didn't do an expansion
DELL-Doug	Jen, the performance of your system should generally increase by adding more shelves plus disks to existing disk groups
DavidSzp	Todd, No, not sure. I added the server to the MD just fine but rescanning for storage on the ESXi box doesn't show the LUNs. The other ESXi box is configured the same (except for IPs of course) and it sees my two LUNs just fine. The hosts are part of the same host group.
DELL-Doug	David, just in case, check to be sure the virtual disk is assigned to the host group and not a host group member host
DELL-ToddM	David, when you do get around to performance testing there is a way to use the command line to gather array-level performance stats on the MD3000i
koen.vdvelde	Well, I've got two questions about performance: first one is how performance is influenced by RAID configuration? Is it right that if a RAID 5 with five performs at 100 MB/sec (just to say something) that a spindle with 10 disks will have performance at 200 MB/sec?
DavidSzp	Yeah it's assigned to the group. I'm wondering if it's a NIC issue; NIC 1 I could pull a DHCP IP on but not connect to using ESXi VI Client until I moved management to NIC 2; now it works fine. But now NIC 1 is doing iSCSI...or not, as the case seems to be :-) But the MD sees its iSCSI name...
tonyhgras	Which is the best way to measure the performance of the array?
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DavidSzp	Todd, I have seen the Kb article about performance testing on the MD; possibly going to try it :-)
koen.vdvelde	Good question, Tony...in fact that was my third question out of two :-)
DELL-Doug	David, do you see the Access LUN on that host then? (LUN 31)
DELL-ToddM	I put together a wiki page with an example on Dell TechCenter
DavidSzp	Right now I have my array (15 1 GB near-line SAS) partitioned with four disks in a RAID 10, and the rest in a RAID 5 except for one hot spare.
DavidSzp	Doug, no I don't see the Access LUN on either of the two hosts. I don't think, I'll double-check
tonyhgras	I mean, which setup should we use for that?
DELL-Doug	Koen, no not necessarily. Scaling isn’t truly linear per physical disk; it’s more dependant on the segment size and your I/O size
DELL-ToddM	The only way that I'm aware of to get array-level performance information is through the command-line interface
DELL-Doug	Toddm, also the tech support bundle; we walk through that in the performance tuning white paper
DELL-ToddM	What is the tech support bundle?
DELL-Doug	From smcli, save storagearray supportdata file="filename", or MDSM > Support > Gather Support Data
koen.vdvelde	@dou, is this tech support bundle also talking about these different factors that influence performance? If not, where can I find more (readable and understandable :-) ) on this?
DavidSzp	Doug, on the ESXi host that can see the LUNs, in Configuration > Storage Adapters I see SCSI Target 0 with my two LUNs, and SCSI Target 2 with two LUNs; both are the same set of LUNs (there are only two LUNs on the array) but no Access LUN shows up
DELL-Doug	Koen, the wiki article Todd put together on capturing point-in-time data is still very useful. The support bundle captures aggregate data from boot until point of capture
DELL-ToddM	The wiki article I'm talking about is at: http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/md3000i+performance+monitoring; be sure to right-click links to avoid exiting the chat
DELL-Doug	David, I'm sorry, it’s labeled “dell Universal Xport Scsi Disk Device” usually. In your management GUI it’s assigned as an access LUN
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DavidSzp	Doug, I see the Access LUN (twice) in the MD configuration software, but nowhere in ESXi. I just see the 1 TB and 100 GB LUNs I created manually—LUN IDs 0 and 100
DELL-ToddM	Another way to monitor the performance is at the host level, where you could use Perfmon on Windows, for example
DavidSzp	Access LUN is 31 in MDSM
DELL-Doug	The white paper posted at: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pvaul/en/pvault_md3000_whitepaper.pdf; it has details about how to use the support bundle data. Again, that white paper is going through a new revision currently
DELL-ToddM	Sometimes to really understand your storage performance you will need both the array- and host-level information. This may sound a bit like I'm asking for it, but I actually haven't heard anybody complain about the MD3000i performance :)
DELL-Doug	Todd, yes, I agree; it’s imperative to know what is going on at both levels to really get the most out of your system. Although, at some point, it’s tuning for that last 2–3 percent
DavidSzp	Doug, in MDSM, under the Modify tab, I went to Host-to-virtual Disk Mappings. That's the only place I see the Access LUN. Virtual Disk Name "access" shows up twice, once accessible by "host Group Esxi" (my host group) and once accessible by "storage Array"—both with LUN 31 and empty disk capacity. I have the option to remove it, but that's it.
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DavidSzp	Doug, oh wait, I can change the LUN or host on the Access LUN that's assigned the Host Group ESXi, but not to the storage array itself
DELL-Doug	David, yes, that is correct. On your host you should (hopefully) see the Universal Xport device
DELL-ScottH	VI rules
DELL-ToddM	I think that part of the reason I don't hear anything bad about the performance is that it is a low-cost iSCSI array and most are not buying it for high performance; they are just expecting good performance, which I think it provides
DELL-Doug	You are correct that it should be assigned to the host group, not a specific host if your trying to cluster it
tonyhgras	Todd, in your experience, is it common for the MD3000i to be deployed as VMware storage?
DELL-ToddM	Yes, that is very, very common. It comes up on this site as a configuration over and over again
tonyhgras	Small deployments, right?
DELL-ToddM	Yes, usually small and first-time deployments of SAN to support ESX
DavidSzp	Doug, I don't see the Universal Xport Device anywhere in either ESXi server. I just see the "iscsi Software Adapter" connected to the SAN identifier of the MD, with just the two LUNs I've added showing below twice (once for SCSI Target 0, once for SCSI Target 2)...because of dual controllers?
DELL-Doug	David, my guess then is the problem is most likely on your host side; check the iSCSI Sessions tab under MDSM to make sure the host is logging in correctly
tonyhgras	Any complaints?
DELL-ToddM	An MD3000i is a very inexpensive way to be able to support Vmotion
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DavidSzp	Tonyhgras, I'm doing what some would consider to be a small VMware ESXi deployment on my MD3000i
koen.vdvelde	Well, mine is still not in production (but is intended as VMware storage), but since it's not "on load" yet no one didn't complain yet! That's why I was wondering whether I could create a kind of stress test just to see how well it is performing now...and use it as a reference if we get into trouble one day
tonyhgras	Fine David, how many ESX boxes?
DavidSzp	Tonyhgras, two main ones with an older system that will probably also do some virtuals
DELL-ToddM	The only complaints I have heard relate to getting used to using MDSM to manage everything. It is a fine tool, but requires a little bit of time to find out how to do everything
DavidSzp	My two main boxes are PowerEdge 1950 III servers, dual-quad 2.33GHz with 16 GB RAm each. Both from the Outlet at the $2,300 to $2,800 range (one had a DRAC and better RAID)
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DavidSzp	Todd, I'll agree with that...for an iSCSI newbie like me it is taking me a little while to get used to the MDSM
koen.vdvelde	Indeed, MDSM isn't my favorite either…too many wizards; I'm still trying to find my way in it :-(
DELL-Doug	David, the two SCSI devices that are reported, what is the name of them? “scsi Disk Device” or “multi-path Disk Device”?
DELL-mrokkam	Davidszp, just wanted to verify, have you found the Dell VMware storage deployment white paper to be of any help?
tonyhgras	What happened with MDSM? It's not user friendly
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DavidSzp	Mrokkam, I have the PowerVault Configuration Guide for VMware ESX/ESXi 3.5, and, yes, it's been helpful from a network-layout perspective especially
DELL-ToddM	David, it really depends a lot on what the VMs on your systems will be doing, but in general I would say that you should be fine with two 1950 IIIs attached to an MD3000i
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DavidSzp	Doug, the "type" for each LUN is "disk" and otherwise I don't see your two terms
DELL-ToddM	It is important to set up the LUNs in a way that makes sense for what you will be doing
DELL-ToddM	LUN = virtual disk in MDSM
tonyhgras	Can we talk about network layout?
DELL-ToddM	Sure, we can talk about network layout. I think that is Koen's favorite topic :)
koen.vdvelde	Tony, my idea is that MDSM is too user friendly, so user friendly that you don't know what you’re really working with at the end
koen.vdvelde	Todd, oh no...not again! :-)
tonyhgras	Mine too
DELL-Doug	David, I don’t have an ESX system handy this moment, Toddm, may be able to better walk through those screens. I'll see if I can find the one you’re seeing here
DavidSzp	Todd, I'm going to upload a screenshot; hold on a sec…or, continue at least :-)
tonyhgras	It's a headache with ESX
DELL-ToddM	I don't have access to my lab systems currently
DavidSzp	http://www.lakeviewchurch.org/temp/esxi-talking-to-md3000i.png; that's the ESXi that's working: Config > Storage Adapters tab
koen.vdvelde	Talking about pictures, just a small side question: is there any way to upload pics to the TechCenter discussion forum?
koen.vdvelde	David, err 404
DELL-ScottH	Yes
DavidSzp	http://www.lakeviewchurch.org/temp/mdsm-sessions1.png; sessions display in MDSM
DavidSzp	I'll double-check the files now
DELL-ScottH	Photos tab toward the top of the page
DavidSzp	Both links work for me
DELL-ScottH	404 error for me; give us admin rights :-) That will fix it
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DELL-Doug	404 here as well for both
DELL-mrokkam	Ah. Go to /temp/. You can browse for the pics
DavidSzp	Try here too: http://www.szpunar.com/temp/
DavidSzp	Same pics
DELL-Doug	Oh non-local referrers are disabled on the Web host?
DavidSzp	Shouldn't be, I just opened from the chat links myself; sorry if they're not working, hopefully second one does work, and thanks for the help!
DELL-ToddM	I don't see anything wrong on these screens
DELL-Doug	David, so that’s your working ESX box? That looks about right; both links from your redundant connection
tonyhgras	Don't know if you guys agree, but I have the impression that VMware iSCSI support is not mature enough
DavidSzp	Todd, yes that's the working one
DELL-Doug	David, so what does the non-working one show?
DavidSzp	Getting that one now
DELL-ToddM	Oh, good
DavidSzp	But mostly the same thing, just no targets
koen.vdvelde	@scott, thanks for the photo link. Maybe my next posts can be a bit shorter
DELL-ToddM	I haven't really had any issues with it working, but I agree that there could be more full featured support like better load balancing options
DELL-Doug	Tony, so what was your network layout question?
DavidSzp	Same URL but file Esxi-notworking-storageadapters-md3000i.png
DELL-ToddM	Before everybody drops off, I wanted to just announce quickly that this is my last chat as a Dell employee
tonyhgras	Same old conflict: one versus two networks
DELL-ScottH	Koen, I thought we made you a writer so you can create your own pages on the site...if not, I am doing that right now
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DELL-ToddM	In fact, today is my last day at Dell. I will be working at VMware starting next week :)
DavidSzp	So I saw on Twitter/blog...congrats on the move! Are you going to come help me in these chats as a VMware employee then? ;-)
koen.vdvelde	Todd, should we only change the @dell.com to @vmware.com to continue getting your great level of support?
DELL-ToddM	Thanks, David. Everybody can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/virtualtodd
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DELL-mrokkam	Congratulations, Toddm
slbrown	Congrats on the move, Todd
DELL-ToddM	I will still be around and active on Dell TechCenter, but I won't be leading the chats
DELL-ScottH	Oh that reminds me, we need to remove your admin privileges :-)
DELL-ToddM	And I will have a slightly different perspective on virtualization :)
DELL-ScottH	You will be missed here. No more Hyper-V testing?
DavidSzp	Todd, so you'll be better equipped to help me get ESXi working then :-)
DELL-ScottH	Koen, you are now a writer, and that means you have to lead some chats too :-)
koen.vdvelde	Ooops, so that was not a joke. In that case, congratulations! Hope to meet you again one day!
DavidSzp	If Todd does Hyper-V testing, he'll probably just have to make sure VMware wins :-)
koen.vdvelde	Thanks, Scott. Now just need to find a subject to write about
DELL-ToddM	Probably a lot less Hyper-V testing.
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DavidSzp	Or at least the published tests with Hyper-V will have VMware winning. The ones that Hyper-V wins I don't see being published
DELL-ScottH	@koen, you can create a whole page dedicated to multi-pathing iSCSI
DavidSzp	Please do Koen!
koen.vdvelde	If I get a solution to it myself, one day!
DELL-ToddM	Thanks to everybody for their support of TechCenter; it has been a lot of fun for me
tonyhgras	Appreciate that "koen corner"
koen.vdvelde	But now Todd is at the source of all the VMware information; he might find out why VMware discourages the use of two-subnet iSCSI setup?
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Dell-RogerF	Good luck, Todd. Let us know if we need to hold early morning chats so you can join
DELL-ScottH	"koen Corner"...I like that; Koen you should create that page
tonyhgras	You like the name?
DELL-Doug	David, something does seem odd with that second host...it almost looks like its logging in to its session with the wrong ID
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koen.vdvelde	Hey, don't push me too hard...for now; the details in the discussion topic contains everything I know, but all extra input is more than welcome. It might make it worth re-writing it in a new wiki page! :-)
DavidSzp	Doug, I uploaded another screenshot of the MDSM session manager
DavidSzp	Called Mdsm-sessions2.png. It shows the "unknown" item in detail, which looks weird
DavidSzp	Initiator iSCSI name is screwed up with odd ASCII characters
koen.vdvelde	But wasn't this chat supposed to be about performance? What stress tests are you guys using? (for example, to compare VM against Hyper-V) And what results does the MD3000i provide (for example, against ESX...)?
DELL-ToddM	I like to use a real application for testing, and usually use the DVD Store test application
DavidSzp	Don't let me stop you talking about performance...I'm interested in that too but thankful for the configuration help
DELL-ToddM	This is a database-based tool that I co-created with Dave Jaffe and open sourced a few years ago
DavidSzp	Is this DVD Store test application available? I keep seeing stuff about it around here
DELL-Doug	Koen, I was just waiting for the questions ;o)
DavidSzp	Jinx
DELL-ToddM	It is on Dell TechCenter: http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/dvd+store
DavidSzp	Cool
DELL-ToddM	There are of course other tools—the one you use should be somewhat similar to what you are going to run in production if possible
DELL-Doug	Koen, Dell uses a number of applications to test with, everything from Syntetics (IOM, Iozone, Dt, and so on) to more real-world (Jetstress and DB tools) to some fake-real applications
DELL-ToddM	Quick reminder: next week's chat will be on...(Scott or Greg, fill in information here)
Koen.vdvelde	Performance testing? :-)
DELL-ScottH	Next week we are starting a series on Microsoft System Center
ramseyg_Dell	Configmgr and the Dell Updates Catalog!
DELL-ScottH	Greg Ramsey from Dell is our guru
DELL-ScottH	Here's the link to the first chat: http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/12-09-08+dell+software+updates+catalogs+and+microsoft+system+center+configuration+manager+%e2%80%93+part+1
ramseyg_Dell	We're going to spend a few weeks chatting about Dell integration with System Center Configuration Manager
koen.vdvelde	Doug, are any of these freely available? And are there any reference test results available?
DELL-ScottH	Greg will also have other members on his team on other System Center topics
ramseyg_Dell	Next week we'll focus on how you can easily manage Dell updates with Configmgr
ramseyg_Dell	Updates like BIOS, firmware, drivers, and so on
tonyhgras	Can't you do this with ITA?
DELL-Doug	Koen, IOmeter, IOzone, Jetstress, and so on are all freely available tools
koen.vdvelde	Greg, aren't we supposed to use OpenManage and/or SUU and/or the new Dell Management Console for that? (As I've been told on the future of computing tour this week)
ramseyg_Dell	All the tools we will discuss are freely available, and are used specifically with Configmgr
ramseyg_Dell	As always, "that depends"... :)
ramseyg_Dell	If you have an existing Configmgr Infrastructure, you may want to leverage that
ramseyg_Dell	And, we'll be talking about both server updates and client (workstation) updates
DELL-ScottH	Yes, all about choice...not forcing customers into toolsets if they already have tools they like
ramseyg_Dell	With the update catalog, you'll be able to detect and deploy updates just like Microsoft security patches in Configmgr
DELL-ScottH	Thanks again to everyone for joining...we wish Todd the best of luck!
DELL-ToddM	I've gotta run to my next meeting; thanks to everybody and see you next time
ramseyg_Dell	Good Luck, Todd!
DELL-Doug	David, you might try removing and re-adding/connecting that second ESX host (from the ESX side, not the MDSM side)
koen.vdvelde	Yes, Todd, good luck! (Sent sound: "crying baby") :-)
tonyhgras	Good luck, master, can you clone yourself?
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DELL-ToddM	Hey, that's what virtualtodd is for—a virtual clone
DavidSzp	Doug, thanks for the tip. I'll try that!
DavidSzp	Thanks for the assistance! If I don't figure it out, Remote Install Services gets to, probably next week :-)
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tonyhgras	Too much time working virtual
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DELL-Doug	Tony, feel free to ask performance questions ;)
tonyhgras	Do we have time?
DELL-ScottH	Gotta run to present to some new hires. This room never closes stay as long as ya'll need
DELL-Doug	I will be on a bit longer, and I'm sure I'll be watching the feedback on the page @ http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/12-02-2008+md3000i+performance
tonyhgras	One question I'd like to make is about the MD3000i versus Ax4-5i in terms of performance
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tonyhgras	The host connections side is pretty similar on the two arrays (two SPS, two NICs each), so the performance difference should be related to the internal architecture
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DELL-Doug	Tony, with a defined fixed access pattern, that would be a good assumption
koen.vdvelde	Tony, I did compare ESX to MD3000i once, but wasn't aware of these special test programs at that time. I did use a plain cp-command (from console at ESX1 to ESX2) and didn't see much difference. That was: max throughput at about 20 MB/sec, which is much slower than what I would expect (especially for the FC4-Esx)
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tonyhgras	Koen, in your setup, how many VMs do you have on the ESXs?
DELL-Doug	Tony, were you seeing something drastically different between the MD3000i and the AX4-5i?
koen.vdvelde	At that time: 1 ESX / 2 VMs planned; 3 ESX with 3 to 5 VMs each
tonyhgras	Doug, no, I don't. I'm in the planning phase of the project and just like to know how this two array compares in performance
tonyhgras	Koen, you have this setup in production, right?
koen.vdvelde	Doug, I find this a difficult subject too! In Dutch we say "meten is weten" (I think it translates as, “measuring is knowing”). But as long as there is no standard/no reference, you can't measure, so you don't know. Are there really no standard (or commonly used) methods to test these kind of devices?
koen.vdvelde	Tony, not in production yet. I'm planning for some additional testing (you know one versus two subnets :-) in the next week, and hope to migrate my production servers to it the week after
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DELL-Doug	Koen, standard ways of testing are the real problem; the best thing you can do is find a way to reproduce the pattern you expect to use in production and benchmark on two systems—everything else is just subjective and synthetic honestly
tonyhgras	Koen, talking about network layout, I have a question for you
koen.vdvelde	You're kidding! :-)
koen.vdvelde	Doug, I know...but being an engineer (well, years ago) I find this hard to live with. I'm sure it should be possible to standardize this. If the industry would have the will to do this, but they're probably a thousand (commercial?) reasons, not to do this :-)
tonyhgras	When you configure one-network (NIC Teaming), you don't have any multi-path configuration to do at the ESX, right?
DELL-Doug	Koen, its all about the value of a standard benchmark. There are standard benchmarks out there, and there is a specific way to tune for each one, but it's not the same as being tuned for your specific workload
tonyhgras	These "performance comparison reports" are common between higher-end arrays
DELL-Doug	If you use a test application like a SQL replay to be similar to the type of load you expect in real life; that’s your best bet for comparing, but if you just want some synthetic high water mark number, and then, yes, there are a plethora of such standard suites to run
koen.vdvelde	I think both can (and should exist). If I can test my configuration with a standard test, with standard-test patterns, and compare the results with standard results, then at least I will know if my configuration is configured correctly. After that's done, I can start testing with a more real-life test and fine-tune my configuration to get it to perform better for the load I can expect. But at least I will know that my starting point was correct; wasn't it?
DELL-Doug	Koen, the challenge is determining then how far that standard suite is from your normal work load
koen.vdvelde	Tony, regarding multi-pathing; beats me! I haven't seen it. I think. All you can configure (as far as I remember at this later hour of the day…it's 23:45 in Belgium :-) Are the parameters for NIC teaming (load balancing, failover detection)?
tonyhgras	Doug, are there any settings configurables on the array to optimize performance?
DELL-Doug	Tony, a number
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DELL-mrokkam	Koen, the best way, I guess, would be to have an independent enthusiast Web site where enterprise systems are tested just like processors and graphic cards :-)
tonyhgras	A number?
koen.vdvelde	Doug, another (and maybe even harder) challenge will probably be, how to find out (and simulate) my own, expected, predicted workload. Yes, I agree...it's not easy!
DELL-Doug	Tony, yes, many options are availible: number of disks, VD size, cache size, segment size, RAID level, and so on.
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koen.vdvelde	Mrokkam, you mean like the test you can read in computer magazines? Problem is that they never publish their test methods (at least, not the ones I'm reading). So it's pretty hard to redo their tests on your own hardware
koen.vdvelde	Or do you have a particular Web site in mind?
tonyhgras	Doug, I understand, but these are common to every array
DELL-Doug	Tony, those are the specific options available on the MD3000i, all are adjustable from the CLI, and some are adjustable from the GUI
DELL-mrokkam	Koen, I was just proposing a solution to your statement that there exists no industry standard mechanism to test storage devices. :). I did not have any specific Web site in mind
DELL-Doug	Mrokkam's comment especially applies to multi-user external storage devices
DELL-Doug	Brb
koen.vdvelde	Ok, I see
tonyhgras	People, I have to leave, thanks for all of you
tonyhgras	Koen, do you still need the guide for 2716?
DELL-mrokkam	Take care, tonyhgras :) Ta ta
DELL-mrokkam	I have to leave too
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koen.vdvelde	Tony, if you have time to add it to the discussion forum, yes, please do one of these days
DELL-Doug	Feel free to post further comments to the wiki page; the discussion can carry on there in the long term
koen.vdvelde	I think I'm going to take some sleep too...thanks to all. C U
tonyhgras	Thanks for your time and help, Doug
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DELL-Doug	Certainly
tonyhgras	Bye