An argument is made for the use of SSD devices in benefiting HPC applications with large I/O components in a Sun BluePrints Online article by Lawrence McIntosh in Sun's Systems Engineering Solutions Group and Dr. Michael Burke in Sun's Strategic Applications Engineering. The two compare traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) and the newer solid state drive (SSD) technology in high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

Two approaches are used:

Application-based benchmarking

This was performed using the ABAQUS, NASTRAN, and ANSYS finite-element analysis (FEA) applications, in order to evaluate the effect of SSD technology in realistic HPC applications. These applications are commonly used to benchmark HPC systems.

Storage performance benchmark testing

Using the Lustre parallel file system and IOZone benchmark application, the testing was performed, in order to evaluate large sequential I/O operations typical for the Lustre file system employed as a compute cluster data cache. These tests were performed using three system configurations:

• A baseline test using the Lustre file system with a single HDD-based Object Storage Server (OSS)

• A Lustre file system configuration using a single SSD-based OSS similar to the baseline test

• A comparison test using the Lustre file system and two SSD-based OSSs in parallel

The results of these tests demonstrate significant benefits in the use of SSD devices for HPC applications with large I/O components, the authors write, concluding:

"Use of SSDs with Sun servers and blades has demonstrated significant performance improvements in single-system runs of FEA HPC application benchmarks, and through the use of the Lustre parallel file system. There is significant promise that other applications with similar data throughput needs and workloads will also obtain increased bandwidth as well as a reduction in run times."

Topics covered:

• SSD technology review provides an introduction to SSD technology.

• Single system application performance compares HDD and SSD technology using well-known HPC applications (ABAQUS, NASTRAN, ANSYS benchmark applications)

• SSD usage with the Lustre parallel file system compares an HDD baseline configuration with SSD-based configurations for the Lustre file system.

• Appendix: Benchmark descriptions and parameters details specifics of benchmarks used in the study outlined in the article.

More Information

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IOZone Benchmark [...read more...]

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