IBM System Storage LTO Ultrium 6 Tape Drive Performance White Paper

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IBM ® System Storage ® September, 2012

IBM® System Storage® LTO Ultrium 6 Tape DrivePerformance White Paper

By Rogelio Rivera, Tape PerformanceGustavo Vargas, Tape Performance

Marco Vázquez, Tape PerformanceIBM Guadalajara



IBM® System Storage® LTO Ultrium 6 Tape DriveTape Drive Performance White Paper

Table of Contents

Introduction.....................................1

LTO-6 Tape Drive Overview............1

Performance Overview....................2

Performance Evaluation..................2

FC Data rate Performance..............4

SAS Data Rate Performance..........9

Tape Capacity...............................13

Locate and Rewind Performance..14

Load/Unload Performance............15

Speed Matching Performance......16

Conclusions...................................17

The LTO-6 tape drive featureshardware encryption of data, twointerface options, and two formfactors. The data rate improvementfrom the previous generation is 14%and the tape capacity also increases67% from the previous generation 5.

Introduction

This white paper describes the performance of the IBM® System Storage ® LTOUltrium 6 tape drive (LTO-6 tape drive) working on open systems environments.

LTO-6 Tape Drive Overview

The sixth generation IBM LTO-6 tape drive offers a great storage capacity and anexcellent performance using technology designed for the mid range opensystems environment that include IBM System p®, IBM System i® and IBMSystem x® servers; selected Oracle® and Hewlett Packard® serversand Intel® servers running supported versions of Microsoft® Windows®or Linux®.

There are 2 interfaces available for the LTO-6 tape drive:

• 8Gb Fibre Channel (FC-8)

• 6Gb SAS

Both interfaces are available on half and full heights models.

The IBM LTO-6 tape drive offers a native data rate of up to 160 MB/s an increaseof 14% over the previous IBM LTO-5 tape drive.

The IBM LTO-6 tape drive offers a new generation of data cartridge (gen6 media)

that offers a native capacity of 2500GB (6250GB with 2.5:1 compression) 1.7x thecapacity of the previous gen5 tape cartridge generation. This new capacity isachieved in the same tape length (846m) as the gen5 media due to a higher density format (gen6 format).

The IBM LTO-6 tape drive will support the Linear Tape File System (LTFS) whichpresents the tape storage as a file-based storage system. Additionally the IBMLTO-6 tape drive is able to read and write previous generation 5 mediaand read only generation 4 media to help customers protect their existingtape investments.

Page 1




Performance Overview

The key features of the IBM LTO-6 tape drive are designed to improveperformance and capabilities when compared to the IBM LTO-5, IBM LTO-4 andother vendors tape drives, some of the improvements are:

• Native data rate of up to 160 MB/s

• Native data physical capacity of 2500GB

•

The data compression engine improvements- data that compresses withLTO-5 drives at 2:1 should now compress at 2.5:1

• Faster tape drive mechanism (9 m/s for half height drives) which resultsin quicker locate and rewind times

• Support for 8Gb FC and 6Gb SAS connectivity

• SkipSync Function to provide small file backhitchless flushcapability

• Cache buffer: 1024MB (full height models) and 512MB (half heightmodels)

This white paper examines the performance benchmarks of the IBM LTO-6 tapedrive and associated features. The performance of the different drive host

interface types will also be closely examined.

Performance Evaluation

All the performance benchmarks were run on one or more of the followingsystems:

• Server IBM System x3850 running Linux RHEL 6.1with an LSI® SAS 9212-4i4e HBA and a QLogic®QLE2562 8Gb FC HBA.

• Server IBM System x3755 running Linux SUSE 11 SP1with an LSI® SAS 9200-8e HBA and a QLogic® QLE2562 8GbFC HBA.

• Server IBM System x3250 running Linux SUSE 11 SP2 with aQLogic® QLE2562 8Gb FC HBA.

Page 2




The performance benchmarks used for the tests are a toolbox of in-house C-based performance measurement tools designed to fullyexercise the host interface and tape drive with the least amount of overhead. As such, the primary goal of the benchmarks was to provide apicture of the maximum capabilities of the LTO-6 tape drive. All datarates/capacity reflect a decimal basis where MB = 1,000,000 bytes andGB=1,000 MB. Actual tape drive data rate and cartridge capacity mightvary depending on factors such as data compression, server and diskperformance variables.

There are a number of factors that impact performance, especially datarate at high compression ratios and large block sizes. Server hardwareperformance, server slot and operating system/device driver performance are important factors. Another source of variability in thedata rate performance tests could be due to the firmware used for theFibre Channel and SAS connections.

Since this white paper is primarily concerned with looking at LTO-6 tapedrive capabilities, it is beyond the scope of this whitepaper to attempt topresent a complete picture of the relative performance characteristics of

all possible host server/HBA/tape drive combinations. However, whenappropriate an attempt will be made to provide some idea of howoperating system or HBA selection can affect data rate performance.

Page 3




Fibre Channel Data Rate Performance

The data rate performance of the IBM LTO-6 Fibre Channel full height tape driveis described by the following set of charts that show how the drive behaves whenwriting or reading data that compresses uniformly at ratios 1:1, 2:1, 2.5:1, 3:1 andmaximum (80:1) using differing block sizes and LTO gen6 media.

The IBM LTO-6 tape drive

achieves a native data rate of 160 MB/s with LTO gen6 media.Higher rates are reached withcompressible data and the new2.5:1 compression engine.

LTO6 FC FH Write Data Rates Gen6 Media

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)

D a t a R a t e ( M B / s )

1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

LTO6 FC FH Read Data Rates Gen6 Media

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)

D a t a R

a t e ( M B / s )

1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

Page 4




The following charts show the IBM LTO-6 Fibre Channel full height tape driveperformance when writing or reading LTO gen5 media with data that compressesuniformly at ratios 1:1, 2:1, 2.5:1, 3:1 and maximum (80:1) using differing blocksizes.

The LTO-6 drive can read andwrite LTO gen5 media at the LTO

generation 5 operating point.With no compressible data adata rate of 140 MB/s isachieved.

LTO6 FC FH Write Data Rates Gen5 Media

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)


1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

LTO6 FC FH Read Data Rates Gen5 Media

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)


1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

Page 5




The following set of charts show streaming data rate performance of the IBM

LTO-6 Fiber Channel half height tape drive when writing or reading data thatcompresses uniformly at ratios 1:1, 2:1, 2.5:1, 3:1 and maximum (80:1) usingdiffering block sizes and LTO gen6 media.

The half height form factor driveprovides similar streamingperformance as compared withthe full height drive.

LTO6 FC HH Write Data Rates Gen6 Media

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)

D a t a R a t e

( M B / s )

1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

LTO6 FC HH Read Data Rates Gen6 Media

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)


1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

Page 6




The following set of charts describe the IBM LTO-6 Fibre Channel half height tapedrive performance when writing or reading LTO gen5 media with data thatcompresses uniformly at ratios 1:1, 2:1, 2.5:1, 3:1 and maximum (80:1) usingdiffering block sizes.

The half height form factor drivecan read and write LTO Gen5media with similar rates as

compared with the full heightdrive with LTO Gen5 media.

LTO6 FC HH Write Data Rates Gen5 Media

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)


1:12:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

LTO6 FC HH Read Data Rates Gen5 Media

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)


1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

Page 7




The above performance benchmarks show IBM LTO-6 Fibre Channeltape drive performance (full height and half height models) from one or more of the systems: IBM system x3850 running RHEL 6.1 with aQLogic® QLE2562 HBA, IBM system x3755 running SUSE 11 SP1 witha QLogic® QLE2562 HBA and IBM system x3250 running SUSE 11 SP2with a QLogic® QLE2562 HBA. It must be noted that results from theIBM system x3850 for Max compression ratio at 512KB block sizedropped about 9% from those shown, however, the rest of the data ratesfor all the compression ratios and block sizes were consistent on allsystems. In this case, some aspect of the host-side configurationdecreased the system data rate performance for the specific casementioned.

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SAS Data Rate Performance

The data rate performance of the IBM LTO-6 SAS full height tape drive isdescribed by the following set of charts that show how the drive behaves whenwriting or reading data that compresses uniformly at ratios 1:1, 2:1, 2.5:1, 3:1 andmaximum (80:1) using differing block sizes and LTO gen6 media.

The SAS data rate performancecapability of the IBM LTO-6 fullheight drive meets expectationsat all compression ratios.

LTO6 SAS FH Write Data Rate Gen6 Media

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450500

550

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)


1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

LTO6 SAS FH Read Data Rate Gen6 Media

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

550

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)

D a t a

R a t e ( M B / s )

1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

Page 9




The following charts show the IBM LTO-6 SAS full height tape drive performancewhen writing or reading LTO gen5 media with data that compresses uniformly atratios 1:1, 2:1, 2.5:1, 3:1 and maximum (80:1) using differing block sizes.

The LTO-6 SAS full height drivemeets the LTO gen5 data rates

expectations when using LTOgen5 media.

LTO6 SAS FH Write Data Rates Gen5 Media

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)


1:12:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

LTO6 SAS FH Read Data Rates Gen5 Media

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)


1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

Page 10




The following charts show the LTO-6 SAS half height tape drive performancewhen writing or reading LTO gen5 media with data that compresses uniformly atratios 1:1, 2:1, 2.5:1, 3:1 and maximum (80:1) using differing block sizes.

LTO6 SAS HH Write Data Rates Gen5 Media

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400450

500

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)


1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

LTO6 SAS HH Read Data Rates Gen5 Media

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

32 64 128 256 512

Block Size (KB)

D a t a R

a t e ( M B / s )

1:1

2:1

2.5:1

3:1

Max

Page 12




Tape Capacity

The following chart shows the capacity for LTO gen6 and LTO gen5 mediameasured with the LTO-6 tape drive. Tape capacity is obtained by writing 256KBblocks of uncompressible data until an error code is returned when EOT (End Of Tape) is reached. The LTO-6 tape drive with gen6 media increases about 67%over gen5 tape cartridge capacity offering a native physical capacity of 2500GBwhile maintaining the 1500 GB expectation with gen5 media.

The LTO-6 tape drive with gen6media offers a significantcapacity increase over gen5

media.

Tape Capacity

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

FC FH FC HH SAS FH SAS HH

C a p a c i t y ( G B )

Gen6 Media

Gen5 Media

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Locate and Rewind Performance

The following charts show the average time for the LTO-6 drive to locate arandom block id on the tape starting at BOT (Beginning Of Tape), the averagetime to locate a random block id starting at some random location on the tape, theaverage rewind time as well as maximum times measured for the threeoperations. To determine average and maximum times, plenty locate and rewindoperations were made on a completely filled tape.

The full height form factor drives offer faster locate and rewindperformance than the half height form factor drives when using LTO gen6media. With LTO gen5 media, a similar difference is observed.

The full height form factor drivesoffer faster locate and rewindperformance than the half heightform factor drives when usingLTO gen6 media.

LTO6 SAS and FC Locate and Rewind Times

Gen6 Media

9 1 . 9

1

1 1 2 .

1

1 2 0 . 1

5

4 9 .

5 8

3 4 .

2 8 4

8 .

9 7

1 0 3 . 6

1 0 7 . 9

1 0 9 .

2

5 6 .

6

4 0 . 7

5 5 .

7

9 2

8 8 .

4

9 7 . 8

9

4 8 . 8

3 3 .

2

4 8 . 3

1 0 6

1 2 0 . 9

8

5 5 . 6

3 9 . 9

5 5 .

7

1 0 6 . 8

1

0

15

30

45

60

75

90

105

120

Avg BOT

Locate

Avg RND

Locate

Avg Rewind Max BOT

Locate

Max RND

Locate

Max Rewind

S e c o n d s FH FC

HH FC

FH SAS

HH SAS

LTO6 SAS and FC Locate and Rewind Times

Gen5 Media

9 2 . 9

3

9 2 . 6 5 9

8 . 5

3

4 7 .

7 2

3 8 .

1 2 5

1 . 0

1 1 0 0 .

0 1

1 0 0 .

7 3

1 0 1 .

6 6

5 4 . 1

3 8 . 0

8

5 1 . 9

4

9 2 . 8

7

9 3 . 0

6 9

8 . 1

2

4 8

3 8 .

2 6 5

0 . 9

5 9 9 . 7

4

1 0 8 . 0

6

1 0 7 . 3

7

5 3 .

5 8

4 5 .

4 1

5 7 .

0 1

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Avg BOTLocate

Avg RNDLocate

Avg Rewind Max BOTLocate

Max RNDLocate

Max Rewind

S e c o n d s FH FC

HH FC

FH SAS

HH SAS

Page 14




Load and Unload Performance

The following charts show the tape cartridge load and unload times for the LTO-6tape drive with LTO gen6 and LTO gen5 media. The performance when loading acartridge is slightly better for the full height drives. The time to unload a cartridgeis faster for the full height drives and there is no significant difference regardingthe interface type used.

The IBM LTO-6 tape drive has goodload performance for all formfactors, generation media andinterface types. The time to unload acartridge is faster for the full heightform factor drives for both gen6 andgen5 media.

LTO6 SAS and FC Load and Unload Times

Gen5 Media

11.4

22.26

9.8

17.28

11.48

22.62

9.85

17.35

0

5

10

15

20

25

Load Time Unload Time

S e c o n d s LTO6 HH FC

LTO6 FH FCLTO6 HH SAS

LTO6 FH SAS

LTO6 SAS and FC Load and Unload Times

Gen6 Media

21.45

13.35

17.2

11.68

21.34

13.38

17.41

11.52

0

5

10

15

20

25

Load Time Unload Time

S e c o n d s LTO6 HH FC

LTO6 FH FC

LTO6 HH SAS

LTO6 FH SAS

Page 15




Speed Matching Performance

The IBM LTO-6 tape drive disposes of 14 defined speeds to match the host datarate. The implementation of this feature allows to reduce the number of backhitches when the net host data rate is less than the maximum drive nativedata rate, reducing unnecessary tape motion, and may increase overallperformance in certain environments.

To perform this test, host delays are used to vary the speed of the datafrom the host to the LTO-6 tape drive. At each host data rate the number of datasets handled by each speed is recorded (A dataset is the unit of writing for the drive on the physical tape side and consists of collection of

logical blocks, file marks, ECC, and other format attributes). The Y-axisshows both the effective data rate and the number of datasets handledby each speed for the host data rate (X-axis). The chart shows how thedrive selects the appropriate speed from the available 14 speeds tomatch the host data rate and most of the datasets written are handled bythe suitable speed.

LTO6 FC FH Write Speed Matching

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

32 48 65 82 95 111 124 1 37 149 1 59

Host Data Rate (MB/s)

D a t a s e t C o u n t

0

20

40

60

80

10 0

12 0

14 0

16 0

18 0

s1

s2

s3s4

s5

s6

s7

s8

s9

s1 0

s1 1

s1 2

s1 3

s1 4

DR

Speed matching helps toimprove the overall tape drivedata rate at lower host datarates.

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Conclusions

Since the introduction of the first IBM LTO tape drive, every following generationhas incorporated new features and performance improvements to respondstorage needs, now the IBM LTO-6 tape drive in conjunction with the new LTOgen6 media represents an efficient solution for todays growing storagedemands. Native capacity increase from 1500GB (gen5 media) to2500GB (gen6 media) and even more with data that is compressible(6250GB with 2.5:1 compression) while maintaining the same tapelength (846m). This capacity increase does not impact locate/rewindperformance and the faster mechanism for the half height form factorsimproves performance for tape motion operations (locate/rewind times)from previous half height drive generations.

In addition, the IBM LTO-6 tape drive continuous to support mediapartitioning, encryption of data and WORM media.

All the improvements make the IBM LTO-6 tape drive suited for handlingbackup, restore, and archive of higher data capacities at higher data

transfer rates as compared with the previous LTO-5 tape drive.

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THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT ISDISTRIBUTED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EITHEREXPRESS OR IMPLIED. IBM EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANYWARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULARPURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM shall have no responsibilityto update this information. IBM products are warranted according to theterms and conditions of the agreements (e.g ., IBM Customer Agreement,

Statement of Limited Warranty, International Program License Agreement, etc.) under which they are provided. IBM is not responsiblefor the performance or interoperability of any non-IBM productsdiscussed herein.

The provision of the information contained herein is not intended to, anddoes not, grant any right or license under any IBM patents or copyrights.Inquiries regarding patent or copyright licenses should be made, inwriting, to:

IBM Director of LicensingIBM CorporationNorth Castle Drive

Armonk, NY 10504-1785

U.S.A.

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IBM System Storage LTO Ultrium 6 Tape Drive Performance White Paper

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