Mellanox IB Achieves 10.4GB/s Running Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. announced that its RDMA technology for IB running Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V achieved a record of application performance and efficiency for remote file system, database and virtualized data center.

Benchmark results delivered 10.36GB/sec throughput and consumed 4.6% CPU overhead. Those benchmark results show that cloud service providers can have the performance to meet their required SLAs at high efficiency.

The performance demonstrated in the benchmark solves the performance bottlenecks that frequently occur in the modern virtualized data center that are due to the exponential growth in the number of VM per physical server. A higher number of randomized I/O requests can now be served when using Windows Server 2012 SMB Direct to access data on a remote file server and database that resides in the cloud.

"Windows Server 2012 includes notable innovations such as SMB Direct. We’re excited to see the benchmark Mellanox is announcing with its FDR 56Gb/s IB running on Windows Server 2012," said Ian Carlson, director, Product Marketing, Microsoft Corp.

The performance results were established using the new Microsoft SMB Direct protocol implemented in Windows Server 2012 RC running over Supermicro Servers and JBODs, OCZ’s Talos-2R SSDs and LSI MegaRAID SAS 9285 storage controllers enabled with LSI Fast Path I/O acceleration software, all connected by Mellanox’s IB interconnect solution. The system solution is available through Supermicro – OEM RAC Model SRS-14URKS-0604-01-VI011.

"Data consumption demands are growing at an exponential rate and require solutions that can deliver leading-edge performance and scalability," said Kelly Bryant, VP of marketing, RAID Storage Division, LSI Corp. "We’ve worked closely with Mellanox to ensure that our LSI MegaRAID controllers provide the enhanced I/O acceleration performance and data management that make them a key part of building world-class enterprise systems."

"Supermicro is excited to work with Microsoft and Mellanox to come out with such a performance optimized solution for Windows Server 2012," said Mike Ling, VP of operations at Super Micro Computer, Inc. "The success of such a great achievement in performance is a result of collaboration between true market leaders."

SMB Direct takes advantage of Mellanox’s RDMA interconnect technology to provide greater performance and reduced CPU overhead in enterprise data center applications. RDMA-based technologies include the company’s FDR 56Gb/s IB and 40GbE with RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) interconnect products.

"Virtualization has proven to be the most effective technology to increase data center efficiency. Mellanox’s interconnect solution plays a key role in solving the I/O bottlenecks that occur when accessing storage in a highly virtualized data center," said Gilad Shainer, VP for market development at Mellanox. "Using Windows Server 2012 SMB Direct over Mellanox’s RDMA-enabled interconnects simplifies cloud infrastructure deployment and maintenance, which results in higher efficiency and better ROI."