This Storage Intelligence (StorInt) dispatch covers Microsoft Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013/2016 Solution Review Program (ESRP) results[1].  Since we last reviewed this from 1001 to 5000 mailbox category nine months ago, there have been 4 new submissions that include the InforTrend DS 1016R and 3 Dell PowerVault MD3820F (for FC-Direct, FC-SAN and SAS connected storage). Two of our top 10 charts have changed which we show below.

Latest ESRP V3.0 & 4.0 (E2010&E2013) performance

In Figure 1 we show our Silverton Consulting, Exchange database transfers per second chart per spindle (disk drive).

Figure 1 SCI’s ESRP reported top ten database transfers/second/spindle

In Figure 1 one can see the InforTrend EonStor DS 1016R came in at number five with ~93 database transfers per second per spindle.  The FC attached DS 1016R used 16-4TB 7200RPM disk drives and with ~1480 database transfers/sec they were able to place in the top 10 here. which placed. In Figure 1, there are a three of submissions using 15Krpm (3) and one using 10Krpm, with the rest being 7.2Krpm drives. Fujitsu’s DX600 S3 was the only higher ranked submission using 7.2Krpm drives. Infortrend was the only submission in Figure 3 using 4TB drives.

Next, we report on ESRP reported Log Playback Time in Figure 2.

Figure 2 ESRP Top 10 log playback time results

In Figure 2, we can see all three new Dell PowerVault MD3820f submissions ranking at number three, four and five, with 0.41, 0.43 and 0.51 second log playback times. All three systems were configured the same with 15 900GB 10Krpm drives. We like log playback because it’s a mixture of background Exchange database updates at the same time as sequentially playing back log’s against the active database.

What’s surprising to us is that these relatively new Dell PowerVault systems didn’t do as well in database transfers per second per drive spindle (see Figure 1). All three of these systems didn’t hit very good database transfer rates. But the did surprisingly well here, in log playback. If we had to guess we would say that database transfers per second is a heavily cache influenced workload and the log playback is more just raw disk speed. As evidence of this hypothesis there are only 2 7.2Krpm drive submissions in the above list (NetApp Fas2040 and HPE Smart Array P411/D2600) and all the rest are 10K or 15Krpm drive submissions.

Summary

We’re always happy to see new submissions, especially in the midrange 1K to 5K mailbox category where we feel a majority of organizations probably fall. We firmly believe that ESRP is the most comprehensive, real world measure of storage system performance that exists today, even if Microsoft won’t call it a “benchmark”.  Submissions at this mid-range mailbox count category aren’t as sexy as the over 5K mailboxes but still provide useful information for mid-sized customers.

It’s also good to see different interface submissions. The Dell PowerVault MD3820f showed how the same storage performs under FC direct, FC SAN and SAS host interfaces. It’s not surprising that the SAS system performed best in Log Playback but it also did best in (not shown) database transfers per second.

Constructive comments on how to improve our analyses for Exchange or any of our performance reports are always welcome. Moreover, if you detect errors in this or any of our other performance reports, please do let us know and we will correct them as soon as possible.

[Also we offer more block storage performance information plus our OLTP, Email and Throughput ChampionsCharts in our recently updated (May 2019) SAN Storage Buying Guide, or for more information on some select ESRP performance results please see our recently updated (May 2019) SAN-NAS Storage Buying Guide, both of which are available for purchase on our website.]

[This performance dispatch was originally sent out to our newsletter subscribers in April of 2017.  If you would like to receive this information via email please consider signing up for our free monthly newsletter (see subscription request, above right) and we will send our current issue along with download instructions for this and other reports. Dispatches are posted to our website at least a quarter or more after they are sent to our subscribers, so if you are interested in current results please consider signing up for our newsletter.]  

Silverton Consulting, Inc., is a U.S.-based Storage, Strategy & Systems consulting firm offering products and services to the data storage community.

[1] ESRP results from https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dn756396.aspx as of 27Apr2017