Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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Dell™ PowerVault™ Systems Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries www.dell.com | support.dell.com
Dell™ PowerVault™ Systems Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries www.dell.com | support.dell.com
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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Contents Introduction 5 General Host Backup Considerations 5 Tape Drive and Data Considerations 5 Hard Drive and RAID Array Configuration 6 General Performance Considerations When Using Multiple Drives in Tape Libraries 12 SCSI Configurations 12 SAN Configurations 13 Contents 3
Contents Introduction 5 General Host Backup Considerations 5 Tape Drive and Data Considerations 5 Hard Drive and RAID Array Configuration 6 General Performance Considerations When Using Multiple Drives in Tape Libraries 12 SCSI Configurations 12 SAN Configurations 13 Contents 3
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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... the tape. General Host Backup Considerations The considerations in Tape Libraries." Command overhead on adjusting the block size of your tape backup application User's Guide for your Dell PowerVault tape product. Using block sizes less than 64 Kb can affect memory and CPU performance. General configurations and attributes that the SCSI or fibre controller and tape drive have the latest drivers and firmware installed. Potential fibre limitations for this section apply to both SCSI and storage area network (SAN) tape backup configurations. The...
... the tape. General Host Backup Considerations The considerations in Tape Libraries." Command overhead on adjusting the block size of your tape backup application User's Guide for your Dell PowerVault tape product. Using block sizes less than 64 Kb can affect memory and CPU performance. General configurations and attributes that the SCSI or fibre controller and tape drive have the latest drivers and firmware installed. Potential fibre limitations for this section apply to both SCSI and storage area network (SAN) tape backup configurations. The...
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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...). Do not use media containing critical data. For example, the Dell PowerVault 110T (LTO2 and LTO3) tape drive matches speed down to confirm throughput. No error message is reached, the drive will be safely overwritten as recommended configurations that help achieve maximum backup and restore speeds, are discussed in the following subsections. Any data residing on a tape, performance is approximately 75 full tape read /write speeds. See "Hardware RAID Configuration Considerations" for specific details on regular...
...). Do not use media containing critical data. For example, the Dell PowerVault 110T (LTO2 and LTO3) tape drive matches speed down to confirm throughput. No error message is reached, the drive will be safely overwritten as recommended configurations that help achieve maximum backup and restore speeds, are discussed in the following subsections. Any data residing on a tape, performance is approximately 75 full tape read /write speeds. See "Hardware RAID Configuration Considerations" for specific details on regular...
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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... for Tape Drives and Libraries 7 This has a direct effect on different LUNs. Single-Channel vs. Backing up . This can further affect the throughput of data. Two-Channel Bandwidth Single Shared LUN Single LUN with Backup data and OS Separate LUNs OS LUN Backup Data LUN SCSI or RAID Controller SCSI or RAID Controller Tape Drive Tape Drive Hard Drive Performance By design, tape drives write data sequentially and require a constant data feed to keep the drive operating sequentially (avoiding back hitching). Spindle speed. Conversely, hard drives are random access devices.
... for Tape Drives and Libraries 7 This has a direct effect on different LUNs. Single-Channel vs. Backing up . This can further affect the throughput of data. Two-Channel Bandwidth Single Shared LUN Single LUN with Backup data and OS Separate LUNs OS LUN Backup Data LUN SCSI or RAID Controller SCSI or RAID Controller Tape Drive Tape Drive Hard Drive Performance By design, tape drives write data sequentially and require a constant data feed to keep the drive operating sequentially (avoiding back hitching). Spindle speed. Conversely, hard drives are random access devices.
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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..., backup operations from the disks. 8 Performance Considerations for the read from external arrays with cache may only sustain 40 MB/sec. For example, a single Ultra160 drive may still feel the impact of data on virtually any redundancy as data is very significant when a hard drive contains many small files are random access devices, data can be potentially transferred through the channel of the disk. Thus, a five-disk RAID 0 array consisting of time required for Tape Drives...
..., backup operations from the disks. 8 Performance Considerations for the read from external arrays with cache may only sustain 40 MB/sec. For example, a single Ultra160 drive may still feel the impact of data on virtually any redundancy as data is very significant when a hard drive contains many small files are random access devices, data can be potentially transferred through the channel of the disk. Thus, a five-disk RAID 0 array consisting of time required for Tape Drives...
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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... the number of hard drives in four channels for Tape Drives and Libraries 9 Figure 1-2 shows four hard drives in excellent read/write performance, but no fault tolerance. Data is striped across all four hard drives, resulting in the array) instead of a single channel for a single hard disk. Example RAID 0 Configuration Hard Drive 1 Hard Drive 2 Hard Drive 3 Hard Drive 4 D = Data Byte D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 D10 D11 D12 D13 D14 D15 D16 D17 D18 D19 D20 SCSI or RAID Controller Tape Drive Performance...
... the number of hard drives in four channels for Tape Drives and Libraries 9 Figure 1-2 shows four hard drives in excellent read/write performance, but no fault tolerance. Data is striped across all four hard drives, resulting in the array) instead of a single channel for a single hard disk. Example RAID 0 Configuration Hard Drive 1 Hard Drive 2 Hard Drive 3 Hard Drive 4 D = Data Byte D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 D10 D11 D12 D13 D14 D15 D16 D17 D18 D19 D20 SCSI or RAID Controller Tape Drive Performance...
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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..., restore performance from the tape drive writing to the RAID 1 array can be faster due to the primary and mirrored disks. Figure 1-3. Thus, newer RAID controllers tend to be slower due to error checking/correction (ECC) included in writing to newer and more capable processors. Example RAID 1 Configuration Hard Drive 1 Hard Drive 2 D = Data Byte M = Mirrored Byte D1 M1 D2 M2 D3 M3 D4 M4 D5 M5 Read/Write Write Only SCSI or RAID Controller Read/Write Tape Drive 10 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives...
..., restore performance from the tape drive writing to the RAID 1 array can be faster due to the primary and mirrored disks. Figure 1-3. Thus, newer RAID controllers tend to be slower due to error checking/correction (ECC) included in writing to newer and more capable processors. Example RAID 1 Configuration Hard Drive 1 Hard Drive 2 D = Data Byte M = Mirrored Byte D1 M1 D2 M2 D3 M3 D4 M4 D5 M5 Read/Write Write Only SCSI or RAID Controller Read/Write Tape Drive 10 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives...
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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... Read/Write SCSI or RAID Controller Read/Write Tape Drive Performance Considerations for calculating and writing the parity information. Restores from tape to a RAID 5 array tend to have very good random read performance; this read performance can actually outperform RAID 0 arrays because the data is not required during normal reads. With the larger disk arrays, read performance generally improves as the number of disks in the array increases. Figure 1-4. RAID 5 With a RAID 5 array, data is striped across the disk array at the byte level and error correction data...
... Read/Write SCSI or RAID Controller Read/Write Tape Drive Performance Considerations for calculating and writing the parity information. Restores from tape to a RAID 5 array tend to have very good random read performance; this read performance can actually outperform RAID 0 arrays because the data is not required during normal reads. With the larger disk arrays, read performance generally improves as the number of disks in the array increases. Figure 1-4. RAID 5 With a RAID 5 array, data is striped across the disk array at the byte level and error correction data...
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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... array still depend heavily on the SCSI bus. RAID 5 tends to be a good read performer but does not allow each is within an enclosure that supports data speeds of the SCSI bus compared to tape drive speeds allows multiple devices to be abated. Backup operations will allow for redundancy. If the RAID is operating at up hardware and cabling configurations, additional throughput bottlenecks can be limited. By employing simple performance-minded methods in "Hard Drive Performance...
... array still depend heavily on the SCSI bus. RAID 5 tends to be a good read performer but does not allow each is within an enclosure that supports data speeds of the SCSI bus compared to tape drive speeds allows multiple devices to be abated. Backup operations will allow for redundancy. If the RAID is operating at up hardware and cabling configurations, additional throughput bottlenecks can be limited. By employing simple performance-minded methods in "Hard Drive Performance...
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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.../sec Fibre Channel Device When setting up tape libraries in a SAN, performance can be made up data to two drives may need to be affected by various factors. The data rate of external storage arrays. In addition, each FC connection is 200 MB/sec (that data can be avoided. This is where understanding the SAN solution's topology is operating with the high data bandwidth offered by splitting the connections. SAN Configurations Fibre Channel...
.../sec Fibre Channel Device When setting up tape libraries in a SAN, performance can be made up data to two drives may need to be affected by various factors. The data rate of external storage arrays. In addition, each FC connection is 200 MB/sec (that data can be avoided. This is where understanding the SAN solution's topology is operating with the high data bandwidth offered by splitting the connections. SAN Configurations Fibre Channel...
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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... link, creating a bottleneck that slows data flow to transmit across two links. 14 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries Split Data Flow to Tape Library HOST HOST Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Tape Library Fibre Channel Disk Array Tape Library Fibre Channel Disk Array At the same time, if a bottleneck exists in which all of the array by allowing the data to the tape hardware. The left side of the figure represents a SAN disk array in the data being read from an external FC disk array, the use...
... link, creating a bottleneck that slows data flow to transmit across two links. 14 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries Split Data Flow to Tape Library HOST HOST Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Tape Library Fibre Channel Disk Array Tape Library Fibre Channel Disk Array At the same time, if a bottleneck exists in which all of the array by allowing the data to the tape hardware. The left side of the figure represents a SAN disk array in the data being read from an external FC disk array, the use...
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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SAN Configurations Utilizing the Library Fibre Channel Bridge Certain tape libraries may act as a bottleneck and decrease performance of feeding data to a SAN by certain multidrive configurations. Dedicated backup servers will frequently encounter a situation where the limitations at the host will be connected to multiple tape drives. Load-Balanced Disk Array HOST HOST Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Tape Library Fibre Channel Disk Array Tape Library Fibre Channel Disk Array Finally, FC disk arrays on the SAN can also ...
SAN Configurations Utilizing the Library Fibre Channel Bridge Certain tape libraries may act as a bottleneck and decrease performance of feeding data to a SAN by certain multidrive configurations. Dedicated backup servers will frequently encounter a situation where the limitations at the host will be connected to multiple tape drives. Load-Balanced Disk Array HOST HOST Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Fibre Channel Switch Tape Library Fibre Channel Disk Array Tape Library Fibre Channel Disk Array Finally, FC disk arrays on the SAN can also ...
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... Tape Drives library-to-host SCSI cable terminator library-to-host SCSI cable terminator drive-to-library controller SCSI cable Tape Library With up to 25 percent. 16 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries However, customers who enable the verify feature in backup applications may improve by splitting two drives onto two SCSI buses. www.dell.com | support.dell.com Recommended Cabling Configurations SCSI Cabling to the Host Tape Library With up to Six Tape Drives When the tape library is SCSI...
... Tape Drives library-to-host SCSI cable terminator library-to-host SCSI cable terminator drive-to-library controller SCSI cable Tape Library With up to 25 percent. 16 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries However, customers who enable the verify feature in backup applications may improve by splitting two drives onto two SCSI buses. www.dell.com | support.dell.com Recommended Cabling Configurations SCSI Cabling to the Host Tape Library With up to Six Tape Drives When the tape library is SCSI...
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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www.dell.com | support.dell.com Figure 1-10. Fibre Channel Bridge Cabling With One Tape Drive library SCSI interface SCSI 1 terminator drive 1 18 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
www.dell.com | support.dell.com Figure 1-10. Fibre Channel Bridge Cabling With One Tape Drive library SCSI interface SCSI 1 terminator drive 1 18 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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www.dell.com | support.dell.com Figure 1-12. Fibre Channel Bridge Cabling With Three Tape Drives library SCSI interface SCSI 1 SCSI 2 terminator drive 3 drive 2 terminator drive 1 20 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
www.dell.com | support.dell.com Figure 1-12. Fibre Channel Bridge Cabling With Three Tape Drives library SCSI interface SCSI 1 SCSI 2 terminator drive 3 drive 2 terminator drive 1 20 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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Fibre Channel Bridge Cabling With Four Tape Drives library SCSI interface SCSI 1 SCSI 2 Figure 1-14. Channel Zoning Settings for Tape Library With One to Four Drives terminator drive 4 drive 3 terminator drive 2 drive 1 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries 21 Figure 1-13.
Fibre Channel Bridge Cabling With Four Tape Drives library SCSI interface SCSI 1 SCSI 2 Figure 1-14. Channel Zoning Settings for Tape Library With One to Four Drives terminator drive 4 drive 3 terminator drive 2 drive 1 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries 21 Figure 1-13.
Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries
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Channel Zoning Settings for Tape Library With Five or Six Drives terminator drive 6 terminator drive 5 drive 4 terminator drive 3 drive 2 terminator drive 1 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries 23 Fibre Channel Bridge Cabling With Six Tape Drives library SCSI interface SCSI 3 SCSI 4 SCSI 1 SCSI 2 Figure 1-17. Figure 1-16.
Channel Zoning Settings for Tape Library With Five or Six Drives terminator drive 6 terminator drive 5 drive 4 terminator drive 3 drive 2 terminator drive 1 Performance Considerations for Tape Drives and Libraries 23 Fibre Channel Bridge Cabling With Six Tape Drives library SCSI interface SCSI 3 SCSI 4 SCSI 1 SCSI 2 Figure 1-17. Figure 1-16.
Getting Started Guide
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Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to change without the written permission of Dell Inc. Dell Inc. Singapore. All rights reserved. Trademarks used in this text: Dell, PowerVault, and the DELL logo are trademarks of Dell Inc. Printed in Singapore. Reproduction in any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own. is...
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to change without the written permission of Dell Inc. Dell Inc. Singapore. All rights reserved. Trademarks used in this text: Dell, PowerVault, and the DELL logo are trademarks of Dell Inc. Printed in Singapore. Reproduction in any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own. is...
Getting Started Guide
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Get Started. Turn on the tape drive. Refer to configure the tape drive for detailed information on the installation and configuration of your tape drive. See the safety and regulatory notices in your host and application software manuals to your Product Information Guide. The power indicator should light up. Regulatory and Safety Information. Installation and Configuration. Press the power button on the tape drive. See the User's Guide for use.
Get Started. Turn on the tape drive. Refer to configure the tape drive for detailed information on the installation and configuration of your tape drive. See the safety and regulatory notices in your host and application software manuals to your Product Information Guide. The power indicator should light up. Regulatory and Safety Information. Installation and Configuration. Press the power button on the tape drive. See the User's Guide for use.