High Performance Storage

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GaryL
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Tue Apr 03, 2012 7:39 pm

We have a SAN with SQL Server Temp databases on RAID 10 drives. We are thinking of moving them to memory to get even better performance. Do you have any products like a RAMDISK that is supported on Windows Server 2008R2 and can create RAMDISKS of up to 32Gb in size?
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anton (staff)
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Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:21 pm

1) Bad idea. Use StarWind with caching and SSD back end.

2) Standard 64-bit edition of our RAM disk package supports unlimited capacity (OK, limited with size of your non-paged pool).
GaryL wrote:We have a SAN with SQL Server Temp databases on RAID 10 drives. We are thinking of moving them to memory to get even better performance. Do you have any products like a RAMDISK that is supported on Windows Server 2008R2 and can create RAMDISKS of up to 32Gb in size?
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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GaryL
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Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:07 pm

Hi Anton,

Please elaborate:
1)Technically why would caching to SSD be faster than RAMDISK? Since TempDB is only temporary data it appears perfect for RAM with no need to store on Disk.
2)Is 64bit RAMDISK supported on Windows Server 2008R2?. Is there a version that can be purchased or just the free version I see on the website that sales told me is unsupported.

Thx.
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Bohdan (staff)
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Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:38 am

2) Yes. Don't forget to check "Large drive (AWE mode)" option. You may use the free version.
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-free
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/Microso ... iscsi-test
Last edited by Bohdan (staff) on Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Anatoly (staff)
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Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:48 am

Dear GaryL,
GaryL wrote:Technically why would caching to SSD be faster than RAMDISK? Since TempDB is only temporary data it appears perfect for RAM with no need to store on Disk.
If you are not affraid that your data will be 100% lost after power outage or similar situation than you can use RAM disk.
GaryL wrote: Is 64bit RAMDISK supported on Windows Server 2008R2?. Is there a version that can be purchased or just the free version I see on the website that sales told me is unsupported.
Our software works on WS2008R2, so feel free to use it. My colleague Bohdan provided you the link to download in the post above.
Best regards,
Anatoly Vilchinsky
Global Engineering and Support Manager
www.starwind.com
av@starwind.com
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anton (staff)
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Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:04 pm

1) I did not say this.

2) Who exactly told this so? Name?
GaryL wrote:Hi Anton,

Please elaborate:
1)Technically why would caching to SSD be faster than RAMDISK? Since TempDB is only temporary data it appears perfect for RAM with no need to store on Disk.
2)Is 64bit RAMDISK supported on Windows Server 2008R2?. Is there a version that can be purchased or just the free version I see on the website that sales told me is unsupported.

Thx.
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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allfusion
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Mon Apr 09, 2012 2:02 am

anton (staff) wrote:1) Bad idea. Use StarWind with caching and SSD back end.

2) Standard 64-bit edition of our RAM disk package supports unlimited capacity (OK, limited with size of your non-paged pool).
GaryL wrote:We have a SAN with SQL Server Temp databases on RAID 10 drives. We are thinking of moving them to memory to get even better performance. Do you have any products like a RAMDISK that is supported on Windows Server 2008R2 and can create RAMDISKS of up to 32Gb in size?
where is the 64-bit edition?
when download and install
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/custome ... kSetup.exe
from
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/high-pe ... k-emulator
we can't create the "local ram disk" with size larger then 112MB on a computer with 80GB free memory
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Anatoly (staff)
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Mon Apr 09, 2012 2:05 pm

Dear allfusion,

I would recommend you to use StaRWind Free. You can download it by using teh link below:
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/download-free-trial

After you will install it and connect to host you will be able to create RAM disk.

Also, could you please clarify one thing:
When you are tryinh to create the RAM disk, is there more then 112 Megs of RAM free? Maybe something else is using the memory?
Best regards,
Anatoly Vilchinsky
Global Engineering and Support Manager
www.starwind.com
av@starwind.com
allfusion
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Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:23 am

thanks for the reply,

the same computer ,we have create a iscsi ram disk through StaRWind Free ,the size is 16GB.
but the performance very poor.
we logon to this iscsi ram disk locally(discover the target using "localhost")
,and test the performance with hd-tune [ ... ]
,the average transfer rate only at 160MB/sec
as the comparison
the "local ram disk" created with "starwind ram disk" average transfer rate is 2000MB/sec

when we trying to create the "local ram disk" using "starwind ram disk",
there are 80GB FREE mem,nothing else useing the memony,
there are no any activity app on the computer with cpu usage 0%
by the way,when we try to create local ram disk ,the cpu usage rise to 7.6%(1/16),
and come down to 0% after create successed

Anatoly (staff) wrote:Dear allfusion,

I would recommend you to use StaRWind Free. You can download it by using teh link below:
http://www.starwindsoftware.com/download-free-trial

After you will install it and connect to host you will be able to create RAM disk.

Also, could you please clarify one thing:
When you are tryinh to create the RAM disk, is there more then 112 Megs of RAM free? Maybe something else is using the memory?
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Bohdan (staff)
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Thu Apr 12, 2012 9:51 am

Did you check the Large drive (AWE mode) option?
In what way was the RAM disk connected to the computer? Locally (127.0.0.1) ?
allfusion
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Fri Apr 13, 2012 5:54 am

Did you check the Large drive (AWE mode) option?
yes
In what way was the RAM disk connected to the computer? Locally (127.0.0.1) ?
locally(127.0.0.1)
Bohdan (staff) wrote:Did you check the Large drive (AWE mode) option?
In what way was the RAM disk connected to the computer? Locally (127.0.0.1) ?
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Anatoly (staff)
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Fri Apr 13, 2012 12:36 pm

To be honest I haven`t any experience with the Benchmarking software that you have used.
Would you be so kind and perform testing with ATTO benchmark and share results with us (screenshot)?
Best regards,
Anatoly Vilchinsky
Global Engineering and Support Manager
www.starwind.com
av@starwind.com
allfusion
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Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:26 am

Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:25 am

atto benchmark result
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anton (staff)
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Mon Apr 16, 2012 11:44 am

For RAM disk it's DOG SLOW. Do you have write-back (or any type of...) cache for RAM-based storage disabled?
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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allfusion
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:26 am

Wed Apr 18, 2012 2:15 am

Do you sure there are any cache mode for RAM disk ?
we only find the cache mode for "Image File device"
anton (staff) wrote:For RAM disk it's DOG SLOW. Do you have write-back (or any type of...) cache for RAM-based storage disabled?
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