01.10.2014: LoadDynamiX – What’s New In Version 3.8?

<strong>01.10.2014:</strong> LoadDynamiX – What’s New In Version 3.8?

LoadDynamiX Product Release Highlights

Load DynamiX unveils major updates in LDX - E version 2.5 and TDE version 3.8. The October 2014 release is built on two primary objectives:

  1. Boost test engineering productivity
  2. Improve testing realism

Boost Test Engineering Productivity

Set up hundreds of test iterations in minutes.
Often the exact production workload characteristics are not known. To make sure the right applications will be deployed on the optimal storage systems and configurations, it is essential to scan your storage systems with a very wide range of diverse workload characteristics to analyze what types of workloads the storage systems are optimized for, and what types of workloads will cripple the storage systems.

The LDX - Enterprise Workload Iterator feature allows the user to very quickly set up hundreds of iteration tests, ranging from extremely simplistic workloads such as 100% sequential reads on 8KB, to extremely complex workloads encompassing a mixture of block sizes with different values, sequential and random read / write operations, and different degreesof compressible and deduplicable data patterns. All tests and permutations run unattended from a single command. At the end of the run, a tabular report is automatically generated, providing critical insight for storage engineers to make business decisions.

Improve testing realism

Measure the effect of compression and deduplication
Data compression and deduplication are among the top features used in reducing enterprise storage footprint, especially in flash storage. Validating the implementation and effect on storage performance of data compression and deduplication algorithms at scale is the key capability storage architects need in addressing this critical aspect of enterprise storage. The all new Fibre Channel and iSCSI LDX - Enterprise Protocol dedupe and compression workload models hide the complex testing methodology behind the scenes, and opens up simple and self - explanatory parameters for storage engineers to validate data compression and deduplication implementations.

Verify production storage network readiness with realistic Composite Workloads
In a virtualized or converged data center with a shared infrastructure, dedicated storage, physical server and physical links are no longer reserved for specific applications. Rather, virtualization serves as the infrastructure platform, and storage, servers and links are shared resources where any application can be running on any component at any time. In many cases, different applications that are diverse in nature can be running on the same shared resources simultaneously. Taking a leap from traditional workload benchmarking methods where storage protocols are validated one at a time, independently, the LDX - Enterprise Composite Workload feature allows the user to create many different workloads, across different storage protocols, and run them all at the same time against the converged infrastructure.

Load DynamiX takes networked storage validation to the next level, and does it more cost - effectively and efficiently than any other vendor.

Other exciting features include the official release of the LDX Virtual Appliance, Amazon S3 support, a brand new SCSI CDB builder, and more.

 

TDE v3.8 Feature - Function/Benefits

New Appliance

1. Virtual Appliance (LDX-V)
Significantly improve time-to-market and/or product quality by enabling all engineers and developers to perform functional testing with their own dedicated Load DynamiX Virtual load generation appliance. LDX-V uses the same software UI, same workflow, same statistics, same Projects and same API used by the physical appliances. Engineering and QA can share test Projects, test results and scripts. It can be installed on any server running VMware ESXi.

Appliance Features

1. Amazon S3
Extends our S3 support by providing easy creation of Amazon S3 test scenarios and workloads with pre-built commands for the most common S3 operations. Also includes per-command statistics.

2. Openstack Keystone Authentication
Enables running Openstack Swift test scenarios that include token-based authentication with Openstack Keystone. Both XML and JSON request / response bodies are supported.

3. Unicode Support (UTF-8)
Enables test scenarios and workloads that operate on file names, folder names, Shares, user names, and more with international characters encodings.

4. MPIO enhancement – Weighted Path Load Balancing
Adds the commonly used Weighted Path load balancing algorithm for MPIO on the FC Series Appliances. Gives the user the ability to specify the weight to each MPIO Path independently for I/O load balancing.

5. FC Initiator Queue Depth Control
Provides the ability to assess the optimized Initiator Queue Depth configuration for the storage array under test.

6. Auto Population Of Discovered FC Targets
Significantly improves the usability in specifying one or more available FC Targets in a test scenario. Once discovered, the available FC Target(s) can be drag-and-dropped into the scenario editor or populated into a User Parameter file.

7. New SSC & SMC Commands For VTL
Enriches VTL testing with a total of 8 new SSC commands and 21 new SMC commands. All supported SSC and SMC commands are applicable to testing traditional tape devices as well.

8. MPIO / ALUA Integration
Updates MPIO implementation to dynamically initiate a failover based on ALUA port states reported by the storage array under test. Provides more realistic simulation of MPIO implementation from real world initiators and MPIO controllers.

Additional Updates

1. SCSI Custom CDB Builder
Enables the user to create customized SCSI commands for functionality testing and negative testing. The Custom CDB (Command Descriptor Block) Builder is highly integrated with the TDE, which allows the user to use the custom SCSI commands in test scenarios, retrieve per-command statistics and share the custom SCSI commands with teammates using import / export.

 

LDX-E v2.5 Feature - Function/Benefits

New Appliance

1. Virtual Appliance (LDX-V)
Significantly improve time-to-market and/or product quality by enabling all engineers and developers to perform functional testing with their own dedicated Load DynamiX Virtual load generation appliance. LDX-V uses the same software UI, same workflow, samestatistics, same Projects and same API used by the physical appliances. Engineering and QA can share test Projects, test results and scripts. It can be installed on any modern x86 server running VMware ESXi.

Appliance Features

1. Unicode Support (UTF-8)
Enables test scenarios and workloads that operate on file names, folder names, Shares, user names, and more with international characters encodings.

2. MPIO enhancement – Weighted Path Load Balancing
Adds the commonly used Weighted Path load balancing algorithm for MPIO on the FC Series Appliances. Gives the user the ability to specify the weight to each MPIO Path independently for I/O load balancing.

3. FC Initiator Queue Depth Control
Provides the ability to assess the optimized Initiator Queue Depth configuration for the storage array under test.

4. MPIO / ALUA Integration
Updates MPIO implementation to dynamically initiate a failover based on ALUA port states reported by the storage array under test. Provides more realistic simulation of MPIO implementation from real world initiators and MPIO controllers.

Additional Updates

1. Workload Iterator
Boost productivity exponentially by enabling the user to set up hundreds of automated tests within minutes that will provide insight into what types of workloads the storage array / infrastructure is optimized for, and what types of workloads will cripple the storage array / infrastructure.

2. Composite Workloads
Enables testing and validating a storage array / infrastructure that is handling multi-protocol multi-application workloads that are commonly found in highly converged and virtualized data center infrastructures.

3. Test Bed 2.0
Delivers massive update and improvement to the LDX-E Test Bed framework with the ability to create multi-protocol Test Beds, and the ability to run workloads on multiple test ports.

4. TDE Project Test Bed Extractor (BETA)
Enables running imported TDE Projects over different Test Beds by automatically extracting information relevant to a Test Bed (e.g. source address(es), destination address(es), Shares, LUNs, etc.) from the imported TDE Project.

5. Protocol Workload Models 2.0
Enhances all LDX-E Protocol Workload Models to support the ability to specify I/O characteristics for Read and Write operations independently and select Data Content in payload.

6. Compression / Deduplication FC Workload & iSCSI
Enables simple testing of data compression and deduplication with three simple parameters: compression percentage, deduplication percentage and the number of unique duplicates. LDX-E calculates the complex data compression percentages and data replication algorithms behind the scenes.

7. Queue Depth Control
Finds the optimized initiator Queue Depth setting for workloads by giving the user the ability to control the FC Series Appliance ports’ Queue Depth then measure the performance obtained from different Queue Depth settings.

8. Misc. UI Improvements

  • Adds a global “New” button that allows the user to access the creation of new LDX-E resources such as Appliances, Test Beds, Workloads, Iteration Suites, and more from anywhere with a single click.
  • Adds Unified Search that returns all LDX-E resources that match the search keywords, allowing the user to quickly find available resources.
  • Histogram (BETA) Sorts the response time delivered by the storage array / infrastructure to I/O requests from one or more workloads in a series of highly visual and intuitive latency bins.

 

Get the PDF >> Whats New In Version 3.8 - Product Release Highlights (PDF)