The Why and How of SSD Performance Benchmarking

Understand the full performance characteristics of a solid state drive are not as trivial and straightforward as it seems. Unfortunately, reviewing the product specifications or running some standard benchmark test suites do not always paint a clear picture of what an SSD is capable of. A variety of parameters can influence the performance behavior of a solid state drive: current and previous workloads, fragmentation, block size, read/write mix, and queue depth to name a few. This problem was recognized by the SNIA organization and its Technical Working Group has worked on defining a Performance Test Specification that allows for performance benchmarking that result in repeatable and consistent test results. Following this test specification will allow engineers to compare different SSD devices on a consistent basis, as well as making sure that they choose the right SSD for their workload. The Enterprise SSS PTS 1.0 has been published previously and is slowly gaining recognition, while its Client counterpart has been targeting an early summer release. This presentation will provide an overview of the SNIA SSD Performance Test Specification for both client and enterprise SSDs, and provide illustrative examples and explain reporting requirements.

Learning Objectives

Learn which parameters influence the performance characteristic of a solid state drive. Test results will be shared to illustrate the influence of these parameters.
Understand of the SNIA Performance Test Specification for both client and enterprise SSDs. Topics that will be discussed include preconditioning, queue depth, idle tests, random vs. sequential test suites, etc.
Provide a step-by-step guidance on how to set up a test benchmark that creates equal results among the various SSD devices. Both software and hardware setup will be discussed."