timdinsd
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What is the most IOPS one can expect from an EMC Clariion CX300?
We are currently using a CX300 for vmware and exchange 2007 and are trying to get the most out of our current investment in terms of performance. We have four shelves available with different drives, 1) 15 x 146gb 10k, 2) 15 x 73gb15k, 3) 15 x 300gb 10k, 4) 10 x 500gb 7.2k. What could be done within a single shelf or even two shelves to get the highest IOPS?
Thank you,
Tim
Thank you,
Tim
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ASKER
We also have a CX700 that we can use, would we see a big improvement in performance going to that? Thank you for the fast and thorough response!
The CX700 has more processor oomph and more write cache, but the most important thing you can give VMware is lots and lots and lots of disk spindles. I very much doubt you'll see much of a difference unless you have a BIG environment. If the CX300 keeps hitting write cache forced flushes, it means that you need more disks - and the same applied to a CX700. A CX700 has more cache, so it will take a bit longer to saturate it, but the same rule applies. Forced write cache flushes = buy more disk.
ASKER
Meyersd is definitely an authority on matters of storage, just read his many responses to storage related questions. Extremely helpful.
Thanks! Glad I could help.
If the CX300 is going to be coming out of maintenance soon, check out the new CX40-120 - it supports up to 120 drives and you'll find maintenance enewal will go a long way to buying a brand-new box.
One last thing - set your read cache to about 25MB and max out write cache.