FAS3200 Dramatically Boosts Expandability

Collaboration with Intel for Performance

The FAS/V3210 and FAS/V3270 use Intel® Wolfdale processors while the FAS/V3240 uses Intel Harpertown. NetApp Engineering worked directly with Intel to modify the Intel chipset to allow NetApp NVRAM to be part of main memory.

As you probably already know, all NetApp systems use nonvolatile memory to log incoming write requests as a means of accelerating write response times. This has typically been provided as a separate card or a dedicated portion of the motherboard. Providing NVRAM from main memory is faster and also decreases cost.

NetApp Engineering worked with Intel to create a self-refresh sleep mode in the Intel chipset called Asynchronous DRAM Refresh (ADR) that allows a portion of main memory to be backed by an on-board battery. This gives the NVRAM the same high bandwidth as main memory and simplifies the motherboard design.

The performance gains we’ve seen with the FAS/V3200 line are due in part to this change as well as to the great performance we’ve seen from the Intel processors. For instance, on the SPECsfs benchmark (SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3), the standard benchmark for measuring NFS performance, the FAS3270 delivers 101,183 ops at 1.66ms ORT while the previous FAS3160 midrange submission was 60,507 ops at 1.58ms ORT, providing almost a 70% increase in SFS throughput.


For out-of-band management of NetApp SAS disk shelves, NetApp has created its Alternate Control Path (ACP) technology. ACP enhances data availability by giving a storage controller the ability to reset a storage channel without having to communicate over that channel. If a channel is down or misbehaving, a quick reset can bring it back online without external intervention. ACP allows a storage system to recover from faults that might otherwise require it to reboot, and that’s a big advantage.

ACP gives you a back door into your disk shelves. It is completely separate from the SAS data path and provides new options for nondisruptive recovery of shelf modules, including the ability to reset or power-cycle an individual I/O module or an entire domain. We designed in the ability to power-cycle an entire shelf as well. ACP technology enhances the ability of Data ONTAP to automatically reset a misbehaving component in order to return it to a fully operational mode without disruption.

Zdroj:
https://communities.netapp.com/docs/DOC-9215