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SERVER PROFILES
While synthetic 100% read or 100% write workloads do a great job of testing the underlying technology and reporting easy to understand results, they aren’t always indicative of how the drive will be used by the end user. Workloads that simulate enterprise environments try to bridge that gap without being overly complex. The process of measuring our server workload performance is the same as measuring random. The drive is first secure erased to get it in a clean state. Next, the drive is filled by sequentially writing to the RAW NAND capacity twice. We then precondition the drive with respective server workload at QD256 until the drive is in a steady state. Finally, we cycle through QD1-256 for 5 minutes each measuring performance. All this is scripted to run with no breaks in between. The last hour of our preconditioning, the average IOPS, and average latency for each QD is graphed below.
The Database profile is 8K transfers, and 67% percent of operations are reads.
During our database run, the Micron 5100 Series SSDs didn’t do so well. The Samsung and Toshiba SSDs are the clear winners here.
The Email Server profile is similar to the Database profile, only it 8K transfers at 50% reads and 50% writes.
During our email server profile the Micron 5100 MAX did better than during the database profile. This is most likely due to its strength in write performance, however, during mixed workloads that write performance strength isn’t enough to overcome the competition. The Samsung SM863 and Toshiba HK4E both beat out the 5100 MAX, however, the 5100 MAX overtakes the Samsung at QD32. The 5100 ECO is bested by the Toshiba HK4R and Samsung PM863 until QD16 as well. Just like the 5100 MAX, the 5100 ECO overtakes both the Toshiba and Samsung at QD32.