Infinio Accelerator Product Overview White Paper November 2015
Table of Contents Executive Summary.3 Disruptive datacenter trends and new storage architectures..3 Separating storage performance from capacity..4 Introduction to Infinio 5 Simple to evaluate, implement and manage.7 How Infinio works.9 Infinio: Architecture overview..10 When to deploy Infinio and customer use cases 11 How to get started.13 2
Executive Summary IT decision makers have many options when selecting new storage systems or upgrading those that can no longer keep up with the needs of applications. Aging storage systems can be replaced with all-flash, hybrid or conventional arrays, or packaged along with the compute and networking elements in a hyper-converged system. If not ready for a complete rip-and-replace, SAN or NAS arrays can be upgraded with a new shelf of disks. Each one of these solutions has its use cases, and each one can successfully meet a set of customer requirements. But one thing that they all have in common, in addition to requiring a considerable budget, is that each one adds more hardware to the already bulky, complex and very hardware-heavy datacenter. Server-side storage acceleration is a new product category that emerged in the past few years to address the problem of lagging application performance in a simpler way. The underlying technology, packaged as a software-only or a combination software-hardware solution, brings storage performance closer to applications to reduce latency. This is done while leveraging server-side resources and driving disruptive economics. Infinio is a leading provider of a software-only, server-side caching product that can help address performance issues independently of capacity in a cost-efficient, easy and very economical way. It is a viable alternative that should be considered when exploring options for adding performance to an existing storage array or when combining with best of breed capacity-optimized storage arrays in datacenter refresh projects. Disruptive datacenter trends and new storage architectures Storage performance can be hard to sustain in virtualized environments. Taxed by the demands of tier-one applications and virtual desktop environments, overburdened storage systems are often at the root of performance issues. Three disruptive technologies have put an enormous pressure on datacenters in general and specifically on storage: Virtualization has dramatically changed the effectiveness of platforms that were designed and optimized for physical workloads and locality of reference. The I/O blender effect, caused by multiple VMs sending their requests for processing simultaneously, creates highly random, bursty I/O patterns that are very difficult to handle by conventional arrays, resulting in increased latencies. Flash technology, which provides a significantly faster, lower latency method of persistent data storage, can successfully handle these performance limitations. Although flash-optimized arrays support orders of magnitude greater performance, the media itself requires special processing and has its own distinct limitations. 3
Scale-out application architectures replaced traditional individual 1:1 scaleup applications, now requiring that the same spindles and storage processors handle increased workload. Distributed architectures also rely on copies for data protection, rather than traditional RAID, adding to the explosive growth of capacity that needs to be handled by storage. Modern storage architectures emerged in response to these disruptions. Hardware-based solutions such as all-flash arrays, hybrid arrays, and hyperconverged systems often require large budgets and may be disruptive in nature, with complex installations, new product training and changes to operations. Server-side storage acceleration products constitute the most innovative and disruptive group of the newest solutions on the market. With its software-only product that is offered at a fraction of the cost of alternative hardware-based products, Infinio is one of the leading solution providers in this category. Separating storage performance from capacity In conventional hybrid and all-flash arrays, storage performance has been coupled with storage capacity, making it difficult and costly to scale one without the other. Since arrays often run out of performance before they run out of capacity, a complete rip-and-replace upgrade of an array or a costly addition of extra disks is the most common way for many companies to add IOPS to their storage environments. Server-side storage acceleration technology, an alternative design, addresses this need in a more cost-effective and flexible way. This innovative architecture separates storage performance from storage capacity with a scale-out server-side solution for performance that is coupled with a centralized model for capacity. At the foundation of this approach is the belief that: Storage performance is best suited to server-side execution because it is the closest to the applications that it serves. Because it leverages commodity resources such as RAM and CPU, it can be economically disruptive with the lowest $/IOPS costs. Storage capacity is best served with centralized capacity- and cost-optimized, high-density arrays. When existing arrays can be retained for longer, or when new capacity-optimized arrays can replace expensive performance-oriented hardware, this solution can drive the lowest $/GB costs. 4
Figure 1: Infinio decouples storage performance from capacity to deliver more flexibility and better economics. The design of Infinio Accelerator is based on the premise that the two roles of storage - to provide the performance and the capacity that applications need, are best done separately. In this approach, the I/O layer is co-located with the application workloads, enabling IT managers to improve storage performance by separating it from storage capacity (Figure 1). Introduction to Infinio Infinio Accelerator v2 is a software-only server-side cache technology that allows administrators to add performance and IOPS in VMware environments independently of storage capacity. It enables SSD-class performance and reduced latency with no additional hardware. In both existing and new storage deployments, Infinio can accelerate storage performance by 10X resulting in dramatically reduced performance and capacity costs. Results can be seen instantly following the non-disruptive, 30-minute installation that doesn t require any downtime, data migration, or reboots. Figure 2: Infinio positively impacts the entire stack from server through network to storage. Infinio Accelerator positively impacts the entire stack (Figure 2): Performance is improved by serving requests locally from the host-based cache. The traffic on the network is reduced due a large portion of read I/O requests being served from cache. 65-85% of read requests are being offloaded by storage freeing it to process additional workloads. 5
Infinio leverages existing idle resources in a cluster (such as RAM and CPU) to create a global, deduplicated caching layer that runs exclusively in RAM. Once activated, this caching layer intercepts read requests and rapidly serves them back to the application, offloading 65-85% from storage systems, improving latency, and smoothing out latency spikes. Infinio operates independently of the storage capacity tier, and can be used with any shared storage array using file (NFS) or block (Fibre Channel and iscsi) storage protocols. And finally, Infinio improves storage performance without any disruption to the current environment. Datastore configurations, snapshot and replication setup, backup scripts, HA, and integration with VMware features like DRS, VAAI and vmotion all continue to function the same way once Infinio is installed. Installation doesn t require a reboot or any downtime. With a single click, even the removal of Infinio is non-disruptive (Figure 3). Figure 3: Datastore configurations, snapshot and replication setup, backup scripts, and integration with VMware features vmotion all stay the same and require no change. In short, Infinio is the most cost-effective, easiest way to add storage performance to a VMware environment. By bringing performance closer to applications, Infinio delivers the following value in an entirely non-disruptive way: Reduced storage latency for applications by up to 10X. SSD-class performance with no new hardware. Reduced storage performance costs with server-side resources ($/IOPS) and capacity costs by extending life of existing storage systems or enabling lower-cost replacement storage ($/GB). 6
Licensing Infinio is licensed per socket for each ESXi host in an Infinio cluster. Software may be purchased for perpetual or term use: A perpetual license allows to use the licensed software indefinitely with an annual cost for support and maintenance. A term license allows the use of software for one year. For more information on licensing and pricing, contact your channel partner or sales team. Infinio Accelerator v2 system requirements VMware vsphere ESXi v5.x-6.x and vsphere vcenter. Accelerator Console VM: 1 vcpu, 4GB of RAM and 30 GB of storage. Accelerator Cache VM: 2 vcpus reserved and a minimum of 8 GB RAM. The maximum number of hosts in an Infinio cluster is 32 for vsphere 5.x-6.x For complete requirements, contact your channel partner or sales team. Simple to evaluate, implement and manage Infinio s installation is easy and entirely non-disruptive with no reboots or downtime. It can be completed in just a few steps via an automated installation wizard. The installation wizard collects vcenter credentials, then just a few clicks later it deploys the Infinio Accelerator Console (Figure 4). Figure 4: An automated installation wizard facilitates the deployment of Infinio s Accelerator Console in 30 minutes. 7
Once the Accelerator Console is running, administrators can choose which datastores to accelerate. From the Console, they can easily track progress with at-a-glance statistics that show Infinio s impact on the entire environment, with single-click access to more detailed statistics on the performance of each datastore and virtual machine. Infinio s interface is intuitive, requiring no special skills or training (Figure 5). If the evaluation ends or the environment changes such that Infinio needs to be removed, it takes just a single click to uninstall Infinio with no disruption. Figure 5: The Infinio Accelerator Console allows to track progress with easy stats. Figure 6: Cache size can be adjusted symmetrically or asymmetrically depending on the desired levels of I/O offload and the amount of available RAM. Cache size can be easily adjusted in order to achieve higher offload rates. This can be done symmetrically, with the same size RAM from each host, or asymmetrically if one of the hosts can afford to contribute a larger amount of RAM. The minimum amount of RAM per host is 8GB with many of Infinio s customers using no more than 24GB per host for best results (Figure 6). 8
How Infinio works Infinio inserts a shared, high-performance caching layer into the I/O path between the hypervisor and storage using the Path Selection Policy (PSP) 1, a part of VMware s Pluggable Storage Architecture commonly used for multipathing. Infinio replaces the native policy with a custom PSP that is VMware-certified and supported. Infinio s unique hybrid architecture combines this kernel module with an Accelerator Cache VM for the most optimal deployment: while a virtual appliance manages the caching layer, the kernel directly intercepts I/O and responds to cache misses, enabling Infinio to provide the lowest possible latency across all operations. (Figure 7). Figure 7: Starting with just 8GB of RAM per ESXi host, Infinio creates a global, deduplicated cache that offloads the storage array from read requests. Here are some highlights of the Accelerator operations: Deployment starts with a guided installation of the Accelerator Console VM (OVA file) in which vcenter credentials are collected. One Accelerator Console VM is required for each vcenter. Once the Accelerator Console VM is installed, datastore acceleration can be turned on with a single click. For each ESX host connected to any accelerated datastore, Infinio deploys a single virtual machine, called an Accelerator Cache VM. Each Accelerator Cache VM uses two vcpus and a minimum of 8GB of reserved RAM from each ESXi host in the cluster, to create a pooled, deduplicated, distributed caching layer. The amount of RAM can be increased based on its availability and the workload requirements. The results are visible almost immediately with the at-a-glance advanced monitoring which becomes available for all accelerated datastores, allowing 1 This example describes the operation of Infinio s block protocol software. 9
visibility into aggregate performance improvements, as well as drill down to the per-datastore and per-vm level for more granular performance analysis. All intra-node communication is carried over the existing vmotion network. Infinio: An architecture overview Infinio s core engine is a distributed content-based memory cache that scales out to accommodate expanding workloads and additional nodes. Content-addressable distributed cache Infinio is a content-based cache which tracks commonly requested content, enabling highly efficient and granular deduplication. (This is in contrast to what most other caching products do, which is to track commonly requested data based on its location.) The deduplicated nature of the cache means that if any node in an Infinio cluster requests a piece of content, it may already be in cache, even if it is that node s first request. The directory structure is a highly efficient, optimized design commonly found in high-end scale out architectures. Cache bookkeeping is kept to a minimum and is asynchronous to the I/O path (Figure 8). Figure 8: Infinio s distributed, content-aware cache allows for efficient deduplication across VMs and hosts. Global deduplication The net effect of the content-based design is a deduplication rate that can increase the effective cache size by several times the committed physical RAM. This method of content tracking enables Infinio to deduplicate at a very granular level, which is the key to best utilizing small amounts of RAM from each host. The distributed, content-aware indexing scheme makes maximum and optimal use of the available cache memory by having only one copy of any given page regardless of its address across the cluster. This makes for a uniquely effective cache architecture that has far greater impact then its resources would imply. 10
Enterprise applications can yield a deduplication rate of 5X and higher. In specialized environments, such as VDI, these ratios can be even greater. Consider a cluster with 4 nodes, each of which has allocated 8GB of RAM to Infinio. In our example, a deduplication rate of 7X, 32GB of physical RAM can yield over 224GB of effective cache size, enabling a significant percentage of the working set to reside in RAM. Scale-out design Infinio s content-based architecture ensures that the cache is distributed across nodes in the cluster. A consistent hashing function enables the entire cluster to share the caching load equally, eliminating hotspots or bottlenecks on any one host. As the cluster gets bigger, performance gets better. Each additional host contributes more RAM to the pool of cache, and each additional application provides more opportunity for deduplication. I/O scales out with application growth, increasing performance linearly as more nodes are added. Nodes and datastores can be added non-disruptively, and uniform distribution of work is preserved during cluster changes such as adding or removing a node or a datastore. In this distributed design, data is always protected. Infinio doesn t keep any unique content in cache and immediately writes all data to persistent media. So if the cache itself fails, all the data is still safely on disk. All the other nodes in the Infinio cluster are still operational, even if a physical node fails. Key customer use cases Many of Infinio s current customers deploy Infinio to solve a current storage performance problem in a cost-efficient, non-disruptive and rapid manner. Infinio delivers an immediate performance boost while extending the life of current storage, deferring storage expansion or refresh, and avoiding additional hardware purchases. Enterprise applications Traditional storage systems are often overwhelmed by performance demands from virtualized tier-one applications. Solutions that require additional hardware, like shelves of drives, SSDs, or flash devices can be prohibitively expensive and unreasonably complex. Infinio can: Reduce the cost of storage performance in tier-one applications. Provide enterprise-class results for applications like SQL, Exchange and Oracle. Preserve constant, undisturbed datacenter operations. 11
Virtual desktops Virtual desktop deployments are often considered for their security, manageability, and ability to support remote workers. However, the unique performance characteristics driven by VDI can often drive up the cost of storage prohibitively. Due to the homogenous, easily deduplicable nature of VDI workloads, Infinio can deliver dramatic results with minimal amounts of memory allocated to cache (Figure 9): Improve the end-user experience by eliminating boot storms and smoothing peak load, increasing adoption rates. Restart stalled deployments or Proofs of Concept. Figure 9: Gold images, common application executables and common user files are deduplicated and served back from cache to the VMs at low latency. Preserve capital investment in the existing storage infrastructure. Build and test automation Software build and test environments often struggle to provide adequate infrastructure for these operations. Not only are the access patterns taxing on a classic storage array, but they can be also hindered by lower-performing, older storage devices. Whether for a software startup or a well-established enterprise software provider, Infinio can (Figure 10): Improve wall-clock build times and concurrency. Avoid false negatives in the test phase. Enable better results from existing infrastructure. Figure 10: Source code, test automation and exemplar data are a very good fit for a globally deduplicated cache. 12
Datacenter refresh The most dramatic economic benefits can be achieved when Infinio s performance acceleration is combined with best-of-breed back-end storage, delivering new levels of performance, flexibility and cost. For datacenter refresh projects, Infinio can: Increase storage performance for any array. Contain costs on new initiatives by boosting storage performance without needing to overbuy spindles. Enable to maintain existing vendor relationships and operations. How to get started The benefits of Infinio Accelerator, including 10X reduction in latency and extended life of storage systems are appealing to many IT decision makers looking to improve storage performance in VMware environments. Many organizations can find great value in gaining SSD-class performance without investments in new hardware or changes to their operations, across a variety of applications. For more information, or to get started with a trial, see the resources listed below. Watch a short video about Infinio s technology Read more about Infinio Accelerator. Hear from Infinio s customers: Boone County Health Center; Masergy; Health Information Associates See all white papers and collateral on this Resources page, including Boosting storage performance from the server side, and Infinio VDI Workload Analysis See a 3-minute Infinio product demo Start a free, no obligation 30- day Infinio trial 222 Third Street Suite 3300 Cambridge, MA 02142 617.374.6500 info@infinio.com www.infinio.com 13