SPECsfs Test of Huawei Symantec N8500 Clustered NAS

Huawei Symantec Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei Symantec) announced that Huawei Symantec N8500 clustered NAS storage system has achieved the highest IOPS (OPS) score on the SPECsfs2008 NFS benchmark of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC), which far exceeded other competitors.

The latest results further demonstrate the high performance of Huawei Symantec’s new cloud storage solution enabling enterprises to meet the demanding application challenges in the cloud computing requirements.

SPEC is an authorized organization that evaluates the standards and performance of computer systems, aiming to build, modify and identify a series of standards for evaluating the application of the capability of servers. SPECsfs2008 is the latest version of the SPEC benchmark that measures file server throughput and response time. It provides a standardized method for comparing performances across different vendor platforms.

SPEC is a globally recognized organization, and so it is important for Huawei Symantec N8500 clustered storage system to apply for the globally recognized SPECsfs2008 standardized test. The results show that the Huawei Symantec N8500 clustered storage system has the highest OPS rating at 176,728, with an overall response time (ORT) of 1.67msecs and 960 disk drives with an export capacity of 234TB.

"We are very satisfied with the test results of the Huawei Symantec N8500 clustered storage system on a globally recognized testing platform, and to know that our product’s features rank the highest in the industry," said Mr. Su Liqing, vice president of Huawei Symantec. "The SPECsfs2008 NFS benchmark reaffirms that the Huawei Symantec N8500 cluster is able to meet the demands and requirements of today’s enterprises with its high performance capabilities and quick response time, thus achieving a highly cost effective cloud storage environment."

Huawei Symantec recently developed its newest N8500 clustered NAS storage product with three leading advantages. First is its unique clustered infrastructure design. Although the Huawei Symantec N8500 system still utilizes the common disks available in the market, the structural design of the internal system engine and the disk controller are unique, and the storage scale and throughput surpass other systems. The N8500 product can handle more file storage and metadata processing rather than only throughput.

Secondly, the Huawei Symantec N8500 NAS system utilizes the design for clustered file system which enables every NAS engine node to share the same storage pool simultaneously. Meanwhile, every node can work either independently or cooperatively. The N8500 product also provides file-lock that makes many NAS engines read and write the same document simultaneously. This feature improves the response time and performance of the NAS system when there are many clients accessing.

Lastly, Huawei Symantec N8500 product offers more ethernet interfaces than the traditional NAS system. There will be four to six ethernet interfaces for every N8500 engine. The maximum number of engines can reach up to 16 while the ethernet interfaces can be increased to 96, which fulfills the bandwidth demands for the entire NAS system.

The unique clustered infrastructure design, clustered file system and extra interfaces gave Huawei Symantec N8500 the ability to obtain the highest OPS rating in the SPEC test. This achievement showcases Huawei Symantec’s leading position in the NAS field.

To read the SPECsfs benchmark results