Specifications
6
Principled Technologies, Inc.: Dell PowerVault MD3000i high-availability testing on
Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V
Iometer target workload
We used Iometer to simulate a file server workload on both Dell PowerEdge R710 systems in order to add
additional load to the storage array during our tests. We forced a target IOPS of .60 to .75 IOPS per user per file
server and made sure the File Server IOPS stayed within the target range during our test runs. Figure 6 shows
that the IOPS per user for the two Dell PowerEdge R710 servers, running the Iometer file server simulated
workload, were within the desired range during testing.
Iometer test name IOPS per user results
200 users 500 users
Optimized File Server Performance .75 .80
Degraded File Server Performance .79 .85
Figure 6: Actual IOPS for the two Dell PowerEdge R710 servers running the Iometer file server simulation workload. In all cases, the
IOPS per user stayed in our target range.
Storage array under test
The disks in the Dell PowerVault MD3000i were eight 300GB 15,000 RPM disks, two 146GB 15,000 RPM disks,
and four 500GB 7,200RPM disks. We tested the array using iSCSI connections. We tested the storage array
using the eight 300GB 15K RPM drives to hold the database VHDs, two 146GB 15K RPM drives to hold the SQL
and Exchange logs VHDs, and four 500GB 7,200 RPM drives to hold the OS VHDs.
Figure 7 identifies the Dell PowerVault MD3000i SAN Array as tested including disk counts, the amount of
useable storage, and the RAID technology used.
Dell PowerVault iSCSI SAN
Arrays Dell PowerVault MD3000i SAN Array
Disks
8 300GB 15K RPM SAS disks, 2 146GB 15K RPM SAS disks, and 4 500GD
7200 RPM SATA disks
Formatted storage capacity 2,046 GB
Connection iSCSI
RAID technology RAID 10
Figure 7: The Dell PowerVault MD3000i SAN we tested.
Workload in optimized and degraded system states
Figure 8 shows the VM distribution of the Dell PowerVault MD3000i and two Dell PowerEdge R710 servers in an
optimized state, and Figure 9 shows the VM distribution of the Dell PowerVault MD3000i and the single Dell
PowerEdge R710 server in a degraded state.