Block Protocol SCSI Workloads

Block workloads simulate the process of accessing SCSI block devices across a Fibre Channel or Ethernet network (iSCSI). For block access, there are far fewer metadata commands comparing to file or object access. This is because the metadata is primarily abstracted by the filesystem or object storage (or data structure for raw storage), so queries to discover file layout turn into actual reads. To characterize block data it is important to understand the basic command mix, if the data is being accessed sequentially or randomly, the I/O request sizes, any hotspots, data content, and how LUNs are being used.