Putting the Pieces Together
Advanced 3ware RAID Features and Performance Architecture
storswitch
™
maximizes controller throughput
— StorSwitch is a unique non-blocking switch
fabric architecture that allows 3ware controllers to concurrently communicate to all attached SATA
drives through a pool of 32 direct memory access (DMA) channels for unparalleled performance
and data availability. The result is superior overall system performance compared to non-scalable
hub-based systems that share the bandwidth of a single DMA channel.
storsave optimizes data protection and performance
— StorSaves’s revolutionary combination
of powerful reliability enhancements and a battery backup unit (BBU) maximize data protection
and system reliability without sacrificing controller performance. StorSave permits 3ware controllers
to use both controller cache and disk cache during SATA RAID operations. This strengthens array
performance during optimal usage, as well as during degraded RAID 5 and RAID 6 operations which
means faster rebuild times. StorSave Profiles allow user-specified levels of protection vs. performance
(9690SA, 9650SE, 9590SE and 9550SXU only).
streamfusion maximizes application performance under multiple loads
— An intelligent
cache algorithm dynamically optimizes RAID 5 and RAID 6 disk accesses and efficiently manages
data through controller cache for guaranteed bandwidth. As the number of data streams increases,
the total bandwidth is divided equally among them. Application performance will not suffer
during heavy traffic or when multiple applications are accessing data simultaneously. 3ware RAID
controllers are not the performance bottleneck, as is often the case with software RAID and
other hardware RAID controllers.
Hard
Drive
Hard
Drive
Hard
Drive
Hard
Drive
Up to
1.5 Gb/sec
per port
3ware SATA Hardware
RAID Controller
Advanced
StorSwitch
Architecture
• Protects drive and controller cached writes in the event of a power loss
• Uses controller and drive write cache in all modes
• Dual caching for faster rebuild times
Block 10
Block 7
Block 4
P1 Parity
Disk #1
Block 11
Block 8
P2 Parity
Q1 Parity
Disk #2
Block 12
P3 Parity
Q2 Parity
Block 1
Disk #3
Q4 Parity
Block 9
Block 6
Block 3
Disk #5
Striped Data with Distributed Double Parity —
RAID 6
Host Data
P4 Parity
Q3 Parity
Block 5
Block 2
Disk #4
RAID
0 “Striping”
M
I
E
A
N
J
F
B
ETC. . .
L
H
D
O
K
G
C
RAID
1 “Mirroring”
D
C
B
A
D
1
C
1
B
1
A
1
=
RAID
5 “Rotational Parity”
3 Parity
A2
A1
A
0
B3
2 Parity
B1
B
0
D3
D2
D1
0
Parity
C3
C2
1 Parity
C
0
D2
D1
1
Drive 1
D2
1
D1
Drive 0
Drive 3
Drive 2
Stripe
RAID 10 "Striped Mirror"
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
Mirror
I/O
I/O
I/O
I/O
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1
2
4
8
16
StreamFusion Performance
vs. Competition
StreamFusion assures scalable high performance
Iometer 2004.07.30dual Xeon 2.6 Ghz/1GB system/WinXP SP2/HDS7222525VLSA80/fw
V36OA60A/64KB stripes/RAID 5/all other settings at default
# Streams
AMCC
Competition 1
Competition 2
StreamFusion in Action
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1
2
4
8
16
StreamFusion Performance vs. Competition
StreamFusion assures scalable high performance
Iometer 2004.07.30dual Xeon 2.6 Ghz/1GB system/WinXP SP2/HDS7222525VLSA80/fw
V36OA60A/64KB stripes/RAID 5/all other settings at default
# Streams
AMCC
Competition 1
Competition 2
StreamFusion in Action
9
Common RAID levels
RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD
Block 10
Block 7
Block 4
P1 Parity
Disk #1
Block 11
Block 8
P2 Parity
Q1 Parity
Disk #2
Block 12
P3 Parity
Q2 Parity
Block 1
Disk #3
Q4 Parity
Block 9
Block 6
Block 3
Disk #5
Striped Data with Distributed Double Parity —
RAID 6
Host Data
P4 Parity
Q3 Parity
Block 5
Block 2
Disk #4
RAID
0 “Striping”
M
I
E
A
N
J
F
B
ETC. . .
L
H
D
O
K
G
C
RAID
1 “Mirroring”
D
C
B
A
D
1
C
1
B
1
A
1
=
RAID
5 “Rotational Parity”
3 Parity
A2
A1
A
0
B3
2 Parity
B1
B
0
D3
D2
D1
0
Parity
C3
C2
1 Parity
C
0
D2
D1
1
Drive 1
D2
1
D1
Drive 0
Drive 3
Drive 2
Stripe
RAID 10 "Striped Mirror"
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
Mirror
Block 10
Block 7
Block 4
P1 Parity
Disk #1
Block 11
Block 8
P2 Parity
Q1 Parity
Disk #2
Block 12
P3 Parity
Q2 Parity
Block 1
Disk #3
Q4 Parity
Block 9
Block 6
Block 3
Disk #5
Striped Data with Distributed Double Parity —
RAID 6
Host Data
P4 Parity
Q3 Parity
Block 5
Block 2
Disk #4
RAID
0 “Striping”
M
I
E
A
N
J
F
B
ETC. . .
L
H
D
O
K
G
C
RAID
1 “Mirroring”
D
C
B
A
D
1
C
1
B
1
A
1
=
RAID
5 “Rotational Parity”
3 Parity
A2
A1
A
0
B3
2 Parity
B1
B
0
D3
D2
D1
0
Parity
C3
C2
1 Parity
C
0
D2
D1
1
Drive 1
D2
1
D1
Drive 0
Drive 3
Drive 2
Stripe
RAID 10 "Striped Mirror"
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
Mirror
Block 10
Block 7
Block 4
P1 Parity
Disk #1
Block 11
Block 8
P2 Parity
Q1 Parity
Disk #2
Block 12
P3 Parity
Q2 Parity
Block 1
Disk #3
Q4 Parity
Block 9
Block 6
Block 3
Disk #5
Striped Data with Distributed Double Parity —
RAID 6
Host Data
P4 Parity
Q3 Parity
Block 5
Block 2
Disk #4
RAID
0 “Striping”
M
I
E
A
N
J
F
B
ETC. . .
L
H
D
O
K
G
C
RAID
1 “Mirroring”
D
C
B
A
D
1
C
1
B
1
A
1
=
RAID
5 “Rotational Parity”
3 Parity
A2
A1
A
0
B3
2 Parity
B1
B
0
D3
D2
D1
0
Parity
C3
C2
1 Parity
C
0
D2
D1
1
Drive 1
D2
1
D1
Drive 0
Drive 3
Drive 2
Stripe
RAID 10 "Striped Mirror"
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
Mirror
Hardware vs. Software RAID
All AMCC 3ware RAID controllers incorporate onboard processors to deliver true hardware RAID. Software RAID schemes use the system’s
processor, exploit host memory, compromise reliability and potentially rob the system of as much as 60% of its CPU cycles just to process
RAID calculations.
JBOD = J
ust a
B
unch
o
f
D
isks
• Applications requiring high bandwidth
performance but no fault tolerance
• Video production/editing
• Pre-press applications
• Provides fault tolerance and a read speed
advantage over non-RAID disks
• Applications requiring high availability
• Accounting
• Payroll
• Financial
• Most versatile RAID level providing performance,
fault tolerance and storage efficiency
• Video production/editing
• File and applications servers
• Database servers
• Email servers
• News servers
• Internet/Intranet
JBOD refers to an unconfigured disk attached to a RAID controller
• No fault tolerance
Block 10
Block 7
Block 4
P1 Parity
Disk #1
Block 11
Block 8
P2 Parity
Q1 Parity
Disk #2
Block 12
P3 Parity
Q2 Parity
Block 1
Disk #3
Q4 Parity
Block 9
Block 6
Block 3
Disk #5
Striped Data with Distributed Double Parity —
RAID 6
Host Data
P4 Parity
Q3 Parity
Block 5
Block 2
Disk #4
RAID
0 “Striping”
M
I
E
A
N
J
F
B
ETC. . .
L
H
D
O
K
G
C
RAID
1 “Mirroring”
D
C
B
A
D
1
C
1
B
1
A
1
=
RAID
5 “Rotational Parity”
3 Parity
A2
A1
A
0
B3
2 Parity
B1
B
0
D3
D2
D1
0
Parity
C3
C2
1 Parity
C
0
D2
D1
1
Drive 1
D2
1
D1
Drive 0
Drive 3
Drive 2
Stripe
RAID 10 "Striped Mirror"
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
SATA Disk
Mirror
• Data is first mirrored, then striped across across
the drives to provide double drive failure
protection without the parity calculation
performance penalty of RAID 5 and RAID 6.
The mirror provides the redundancy.
• Ability to recover from a drive failure in either
mirrored set
