SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 Result

Apple Inc. : 3.0 GHz 8-Core Xserve
SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 = 8053 Ops/Sec (Overall Response Time = 1.37 msec)


Performance

Throughput
(ops/sec)
Response
(msec)
798 0.8
1597 0.8
2403 0.9
3203 1.0
4006 1.0
4810 1.2
5609 1.3
6417 1.9
7219 2.4
8053 4.7
Performance Graph


Product and Test Information

Tested By Apple Inc.
Product Name 3.0 GHz 8-Core Xserve
Hardware Available February 2008
Software Available February 2008
Date Tested February 2008
SFS License Number 77
Licensee Locations Cupertino, CA

The Apple Xserve system is a server providing network file service, utilizing a direct-attached Promise fibre channel RAID storage system.

Configuration Bill of Materials

Item No Qty Type Vendor Model/Name Description
1 1 Server Apple Z0E7 3.0 GHz 8-Core Xserve with 16GB (8x2GB) of RAM
2 1 Disk controller Apple MB356G/A 4-port 4Gbps Fibre Channel adapter, firmware 1.3.14.0
3 1 Network adapter Apple MA471G/A Apple dual-port gigabit ethernet adapter
4 1 Disk controller Apple TQ811LL/A VTrak E-class SAS Fibre channel RAID array with dual controllers and 16 drives, firmware SR2.4/AEK
5 2 Disk enclosure Apple TQ813LL/A VTrak J-class SAS JBOD enclosure and drives

Server Software

OS Name and Version Mac OS X Server v10.5.1 (9B2117a)
Other Software N/A
Filesystem Software N/A

Server Tuning

Name Value Description
Spotlight indexing disabled disabled Set via service com.apple.metadata.mds off
Increase the metadata cache maximum size 380000 Set via sysctl -w kern.maxvnodes=380000
Increase the metadata cache buffers available 120000 Set via sysctl -w kern.maxnbuf=120000
Number of NFS Threads 110 Set via serveradmin settings nfs:nbdaemons=110

Server Tuning Notes

The sysctl tunings above increase the maximum size of the filesystem metadata cache.

Disks and Filesystems

Description Number of Disks Usable Size
This set of 48 disks is divided into 6 8-disk RAID-0 groups that are each exported as a single LUN. All data file systems reside on these disks. 48 13.4 TB
This single boot disk is for system use only. 1 80.0 GB
Total 49 13.4 TB
Number of Filesystems 6
Total Exported Capacity 13.4 TB
Filesystem Type HFS+ Journaled
Filesystem Creation Options Default
Filesystem Config Each filesystem uses one LUN with 64K RAID0 stripes, 8 drives per file system.
Fileset Size 936.2 GB

Each filesystem uses one LUN using HFS+ Journaled's default configuration. The hardware RAID deviates from its defaults using ReadCache and WriteBack on each file system, and each controller is set to have Host Cache Flushing disabled. All other hardware RAID settings are the default, including using 64KB stripe size. The fibre channel RAID is direct attached to the Xserve.

Network Configuration

Item No Network Type Number of Ports Used Notes
1 Gigabit Ethernet 2 Included motherboard ethernet ports
2 Gigabit Ethernet 2 PCI-Express ethernet add-in card.

Network Configuration Notes

All network interfaces were connected to a Linksys SRW2024 switch.

Benchmark Network

Sets of two clients were attached to a single subnet, 3 subnets total. Interconnect was via a Linksys SRW2024 gigabit switch.

Processing Elements

Item No Qty Type Description Processing Function
1 2 CPU Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5472, 3.0 GHz, 2 chips, 8 cores, 4 cores/chip, 8MB L2 cache, 1.6 GHz FSB, DDR2 FB-DIMM memory TCP/IP, NFS protocol, HFS+ filesystem

Processing Element Notes

None.

Memory

Description Size in GB Number of Instances Total GB Nonvolatile
Xserve main memory, 800MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM 16 1 16 V
Hardware RAID system main memory, with 72-hour battery backup 2 2 4 NV
Grand Total Memory Gigabytes     20  

Memory Notes

The mirrored write cache is backed up with a battery unit able to retain the write cache for 72 hours in the event of a power failure.

Stable Storage

NFS stable write and commit operations are not acknowledged until after the RAID storage system has acknowledged that the related data stored at least in non-volatile RAM. The storage array has dual storage processor units that work as an active-active failover pair. When one of the storage processors or battern units are off-line, the system turns off the write cache and writes directly to disk before acknowledging any write operations.

System Under Test Configuration Notes

Default configuration, except as listed in Server Tunings.

Other System Notes

Spotlight indexing was disabled.

Test Environment Bill of Materials

Item No Qty Vendor Model/Name Description
1 6 Apple Inc. Mac Mini Macintosh with 512MB RAM and Mac OS X 10.4.11

Load Generators

LG Type Name LG1
BOM Item # 1
Processor Name Intel Yonah processor
Processor Speed 1.8 GHz
Number of Processors (chips) 2
Number of Cores/Chip 2
Memory Size 0.5 GB
Operating System OS X 10.4.11 (8S2167)
Network Type Built-in NIC

Load Generator (LG) Configuration

Benchmark Parameters

Network Attached Storage Type NFS V3
Number of Load Generators 6
Number of Processes per LG 12
Biod Max Read Setting 2
Biod Max Write Setting 2
Block Size AUTO

Testbed Configuration

LG No LG Type Network Target Filesystems Notes
1..2 LG1 1 /Volumes/r0s7a,/Volumes/r0s7b,/Volumes/r0s7c,/Volumes/r0s7d,/Volumes/r0s7e,/Volumes/r0s7f N/A
3..4 LG1 2 /Volumes/r0s7a,/Volumes/r0s7b,/Volumes/r0s7c,/Volumes/r0s7d,/Volumes/r0s7e,/Volumes/r0s7f N/A
5..6 LG1 3 /Volumes/r0s7a,/Volumes/r0s7b,/Volumes/r0s7c,/Volumes/r0s7d,/Volumes/r0s7e,/Volumes/r0s7f N/A

Load Generator Configuration Notes

All filesystems were mounted on all clients, which were connected to the same physical network.

Uniform Access Rule Compliance

Each client has the same file system mounted from the server.

Other Notes

(No other report notes)

Config Diagrams


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First published at SPEC.org on 18-Mar-2008