Re: What is the difference between Flash storage and a Flash Storage system like the V9000/V7000 -- MIDRANGE-L

Hi Paul

re 3) Compression is using less space to store the data (removing
duplicates etc) like zipping each sector (poor description but hopefully
you get what I mean), What you are describing is de-duping which is
different.
re 4) *Maybe* you could do that, but even if you could, why would you
unless you only have one or two LPARs ? From memory, you have a bunch of
guests so just be done with it and go the VIOS route. You will get far more
value out of having the storage exposed at the LPAR layer and being able to
mess with the LUNs directly for flash copy etc.

On Wed, Mar 28, 2018 at 1:43 PM, Steinmetz, Paul <PSteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Paul,

1) From the V9000 data sheet, it contains flash modules, AE3: 6, 8, 10 or
12 3.6 TB modules; or 8, 10 or 12 8.5 TB modules; or 8, 10 or 12
18 TB modules.
2) From what I'm reading this could configured with VIOS or without VIOS,
is this correct?
3) From the data sheet, the V9000 does data compression. Does this also
mean each block of data is only written once. If the same block appears,
does not write it again?
4) Possible configuration - attach a V9000, or smaller, to a Production
LPAR, then host storage (NWS) to a client R&D LPAR, not sure if this is
valid?

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Musselman, Paul
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2018 6:49 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: What is the difference between Flash storage and a Flash
Storage system like the V9000/V7000

We've been using the V7000 and the V9000 for the past 5 years. The V9000
is all solid-state (Flash) memory. It's faster than SSD, which is faster
than Disk. It's the fastest storage, not counting Flash Storage.

Flash Storage (if I understand it correctly) is memory attached to the
iSeries main processor. It's like going into WRKSHRPOOL and seeing "Main
Storage Size (M) . : 4 000 000.00" That's going to make the Address
Translator -very- happy-- all that memory that we've been telling it that
it has available-- well, 4 TB of it are really there! No need to swap all
that data back to mass storage (ie the V9000), it can live in main memory.
Whuff!

We've been using SAN storage for 5 years or so now--

We started with a V7000, populated with all the disks in the world. The
disk space is lumped into a single mass of storage. It can be sliced and
diced into more usable chunks, and allocated to any computer that can
access the SAN.

The disk in the V7000 we had was RAID-10. That's mirrored raid 5-- so
it's very hard to have a failure that results in loss of data.

From the iSeries point of view, there are virtual 'disks,' but these have
no relationship to real disks. The data is doubly-dereferenced-- the
iSeries RAIDed 'disks' are mapped over a chunk of the V7000's RAID-10
storage, so you have no idea which disk(s) are actually storing your data!
Hopefully, all of them are-- random access!

We later added a Texas Memory Systems 'flash appliance' to the mix. This
is like a whole bunch of thumb drives all plugged into a single backplane.
Once again, it's RAIDed (don't remember the number) so it's hard to lose
data. We had an early system; it hadn't been IBM-ized. So one time when
we lost a memory card it required a power off to replace it. But this is
still 'remote' storage.

Then came end-of-lease, and we moved to a V9000 using flash memory. Even
more like lots of thumb drives in-a-box. The memory itself is a
2-rack-unit tall box, surrounded top and bottom by 2-rack-unit IO boxes
(don't ask me the real name-- they each have 2 channels of access to the
memory in between). In 6 rack units we have 30 or more Terabytes of
storage. Just as the V7000 with disk sliced and diced the storage into
usable chunks, so does the V9000.

Advantages-- about the fastest storage you can get (not counting a model 9
with Terabytes of system memory-- but that's not storage. That's live
memory!). When we added that TMS Flash appliance to the V7000, it was just
plugged in, and there it was. Migrating to the V9000 we let the V7000 talk
to it, and copied the data from one to the other. The only interruption
was to bring down the CPU so our business partner could migrate the load
source to the V9000. We woke up the *new* iSeries, et voila! We were
running on a faster machine, with no save/restore to tape, no reloading; it
was like a slightly more complicated IPL. That's the nicest part about it.

Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Steinmetz, Paul
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2018 5:57 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion' <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: What is the difference between Flash storage and a Flash Storage
system like the V9000/V7000

What is the difference between Flash storage and a Flash Storage System
like the V9000/V7000

I found this Redbook, (a bit dated 2013) REDP-5020 https://www.scc.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/11/Flash-or-SSD-Why-and-When-to-Use-FlashSystem.pdf

Thank You
_____
Paul Steinmetz
IBM i Systems Administrator

Pencor Services, Inc.
462 Delaware Ave
Palmerton Pa 18071

610-826-9117 work
610-826-9188 fax
610-349-0913 cell
610-377-6012 home

psteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx<mailto:psteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx>
http://www.pencor.com/

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