StarWind Virtual SAN ODX (Off-loaded Data Transfer) Configuration and Performance Tuning Guide

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1 #1 HyperConverged Appliance for SMB and ROBO StarWind Virtual SAN Configuration and Performance Tuning Guide APRIL 2015 TECHNICAL PAPER

2 Trademarks StarWind, StarWind Software and the StarWind and the StarWind Software logos are registered trademarks of StarWind Software. StarWind LSFS is a trademark of StarWind Software which may be registered in some jurisdictions. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners. Changes The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change without notice. While reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy, StarWind Software assumes no liability resulting from errors or omissions in this document, or from the use of the information contained herein. StarWind Software reserves the right to make changes in the product design without reservation and without notification to its users. Technical Support and Services If you have questions about installing or using this software, check this and other documents first - you will find answers to most of your questions on the Technical Papers webpage or in StarWind Forum. If you need further assistance, please contact us. Copyright StarWind Software Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of StarWind Software. In 2016, Gartner named StarWind Cool Vendor for Compute Platforms. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. About StarWind StarWind is a pioneer in virtualization and a company that participated in the development of this technology from its earliest days. Now the company is among the leading vendors of software and hardware hyper-converged solutions. The company s core product is the years-proven StarWind Virtual SAN, which allows SMB and ROBO to benefit from cost-efficient hyperconverged IT infrastructure. Having earned a reputation of reliability, StarWind created a hardware product line and is actively tapping into hyperconverged and storage appliances market. In 2016, Gartner named StarWind Cool Vendor for Compute Platforms following the success and popularity of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance. StarWind partners with world-known companies: Microsoft, VMware, Veeam, Intel, Dell, Mellanox, Citrix, Western Digital, etc TECHNICAL PAPER 2

3 Contents Introduction... 4 How to check if ODX really works... 5 Summary... 9 Contacts TECHNICAL PAPER 3

4 Introduction This document is for experienced StarWind users and Microsoft administrators, who want to decrease the workload caused on the network by using ODX. It reveals how exactly one can check if ODX is working properly and how productive it is. ODX (Offloaded Data Transfers) is a feature that allows speeding up certain copy and move operations by allowing them to be performed on the storage, instead of running it between the client and storage through the network. The servers only send each other corresponding commands and service info, while data exchange is performed between storages themselves. As a result, creation and copying of data happens much faster without serious channel load, which is especially good for slower networks. ODX is supported on Windows 8/2012 and higher. TECHNICAL PAPER 4

5 How to check if ODX really works 1. Create ImageFile device in StarWind. 2. Connect the device on client through iscsi Initiator. TECHNICAL PAPER 5

6 3. Using Disk Management, initialize and format the disk. 4. ODX is turned on by changing registry key. Here's the PowerShell command used. Administrator rights required! Set-ItemProperty HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem -Name "FilterSupportedFeaturesMode" -Value 0 «-Value 1» will turn ODX off Set-ItemProperty HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem -Name "FilterSupportedFeaturesMode" -Value 1 Enabling ODX: TECHNICAL PAPER 6

7 5. Creating a vhdx file on the disk (disk E in this case). This may be done in GUI, but is easier in PowerShell. This way we'll automatically see the time it took to create/copy the data. Creation: Measure-Command { New-VHD -Path E:\TestVHD-15GB.vhdx -Size 15GB -Fixed} Copying: Measure-Command { Copy-Item E:\TestVHD-15GB.vhdx E:\CopiedTestVHD.vhdx} 6. The workload on the channel between client and server is the main tell of ODX work. In case of a fast channel and small vhdx-file, the difference in time won't be really big, but the change of network load is always clear. Without the ODX it would take this config 10 minutes to create data. The load is quite serious: With ODX on, the time is just 5:59. TECHNICAL PAPER 7

8 Network load is almost nullified, only a tiny amount of data is transferred: Copying files or VMs between server storages may be also used for testing. In case there is a cluster, it is possible to create, copy and move files between CSV volumes or migrate VMs. TECHNICAL PAPER 8

9 Summary ODX support allows StarWind to offload multiple routine storage operations from the Hyper-V hosts to the storage array itself. Thus, these operations are carried out much faster and with no impact on the hypervisor operation. TECHNICAL PAPER 9

10 Contacts US Headquarters EMEA and APAC (UK) (Germany) (France) (Russian Federation and CIS) Customer Support Portal: Support Forum: Sales: General Information: StarWind Software, Inc. 35 Village Rd. Suite 100 Middleton, MA USA , StarWind Software Inc. All rights reserved. TECHNICAL PAPER 10