Oracle ASM vs ZFS on VNX

In my last post on ZFS I shared results of a lab test where ZFS was configured on Solaris x86 and using XtremIO storage. A strange combination maybe but this is what a specific customer asked for.

Another customer requested a similar test with ZFS versus ASM but on Solaris/SPARC and on EMC VNX. Also very interesting as on VNX we’re using spinning disk (not all-flash) so the effects of fragmentation over time should be much more visible.

So with support of the local administrators, I performed a similar test as the one before: start on ASM and get baseline random and sequential performance numbers, then move the tablespace (copy) to ZFS so you start off with as little fragmentation as possible. Then run random read/write followed by sequential read, multiple times and see how the I/O behaves.

POC: Piece Of Cake or Point Of Contradiction?

Every now and then I get involved in Customer Proof of Concepts. A Proof of Concept (POC) is, according to Wikipedia, something like a demonstration of feasibility of a certain idea, concept or theory.

Concept Aircraft