NetApp E-Series Storage System Workload Test

This test monitors the storage interfaces in the target NetApp E-Series Storage system and reports the I/O processing ability of each storage interface in terms of reads/writes, cache hits, etc. In addition, this test helps the administrators to identify the storage interface that is taking too long to respond to read/write requests.

Target of the test : NetApp E-Series Storage

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each storage interface in the NetApp E-Series Storage that is currently launched.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The nick name of the NetApp E-Series Storage component for which this test is to be configured.

Port

Refers to the port at which the specified host listens to. By default, this is Null.

Rest API Port

This is the port at which REST API connectivity is provided. By default, port 4443 is used.

Username and Password

To collect performance metrics from the target storage device, the eG agent should be configured with the credentials of a user who is vested with "read-only" privileges to access REST API of the target storage device. Specify the credentials of such a user in the Username and Password text boxes.

Confirm Password

Confirm the password by retyping it here.

SSL

Set the SSL flag to Yes, if SSL (Secured Socket Layer) is to be used to connect to the target Storage System, and No if it is not.

Timeout Seconds

Specify the time duration for which this test should wait for a response from the storage system in the Timeout text box. By default, this is 120 seconds.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement

Description

Measurement Unit

Interpretation

Read IOPS

Indicates the rate at which read I/O operations were performed on this storage interface.

Reads/sec

 

Compare the values of these measures across the storage interfaces to know what is contributing to the abnormal I/O activity levels - read operations? or write operations?

Write IOPS

Indicates the rate at which write I/O operations were performed on this storage interface.

Writes/sec

Other IOPS

Indicates the rate at which other I/O operations were performed on this storage interface.

Operations/sec

 

Read throughput

Indicates the rate at which data was read by this storage interface.

MB/sec

 

Write throughput

Indicates the rate at which data was written by this storage interface.

MB/sec

 

Read response time

Indicates the time taken for this storage interface to respond to a read request.

Milliseconds

 

Write response time

Indicates the time taken for this storage interface to respond to a write request.

Milliseconds

 

Average read operation size

Indicates the total size of data read from this storage interface.

MB

 

Average write operation size

Indicates the total size of data written on this storage interface.

MB

 

Cache hit data percentage

Indicates the percentage of successful accesses to the cache by this storage interface.

Percent

A high value is desired for this measure.

A gradual/significant decrease in the value of this measure indicates that the performance of this storage interface is deteriorating.

Random I/O percentage

Indicates the percentage of random IO operations performed by this storage interface.

Percent

A high Random I/O percentage indicates workloads that are more likely to stress the system, particularly in terms of IOPS. This is because random access patterns are harder for the storage system to handle compared to sequential ones.

Full stripe writes data percentage

Indicates the percentage of write operations that involve writing to full stripes of data in this storage interface.

Percent

 

CPU average utilization

Indicates the percentage of the cache that is utilized by this storage interface.

Percent

Ideally, the value of this measure should be low.

Compare the value of this measure across the storage interfaces to identify the storage interface that is being over utilized.

Read hit response time

Indicates the time taken for this storage interface to respond to a read request.

Milliseconds

 

Write hit response time

Indicates the time taken for this storage interface to respond to a write request.

Milliseconds