Preconditioning
With the introduction of Workload Data Importer, the common use case for block performance testing broadened. To better align the product workflow with the methodology of testing block storage arrays, a new Preconditioning Workload is introduced, separate from the workload test itself.
The previous product workflow is as follows. For backwards compatibility, this previous workflow is still available with WorkloadWisdom.
Open FC/iSCSI Workload Test 1.
Select Run Pre-Test Only or Run Pre-Test before the Test to precondition the system under test.
Start FC/iSCSI Workload Test 1 (if not done in Step 2).
Open FC/iSCSI Workload Test 2.
Select Do not run Pre-Test.
Start FC/iSCSI Workload Test 2.
Open FC/iSCSI Workload Test 3.
Select Do not run Pre-Test.
Start FC/iSCSI Workload Test 3.
And so forth.
The new product workflow is:
Open the new FC/iSCSI Preconditioning Workload and start.
Open FC/iSCSI Workload Test 1 and start.
Open FC/iSCSI Workload Test 2 and start.
Open FC/iSCSI Workload Test 3 and start.
And so forth.
To access the preconditioning workloads, select Preconditioning from the home page.
There are two preconditioning workloads; FC and iSCSI. Clone the desired preconditioning workload and name it accordingly.
Before you can run the preconditioning workload, you need to apply it to a Test Bed that contains the storage array that you want to precondition. You can do that by clicking either the Start button or the Edit button.
When using Start, your information is not saved as the default settings for the next time you open the same workload.
When using Edit, your information is saved as the default settings, that are displayed the next time you open the same workload.
After the Test Bed information is saved into the default settings of the workload, the Run Now button is available as long as the Test Bed is currently available for use.
The preconditioning workload supports a subset of the Common Workload Concepts and Settings, and more specifically, a subset of the Block Protocol SCSI Workloads settings. The major difference is that the user interface is simplified to show only what is needed to precondition an array rather than to create a production like workload.
The CDB Length (size of the SCSI header) is configurable. Typically, this setting should be 10 unless the LUN is larger than 2TB or large request sizes is used. For larger LUNs or request sizes, 16 is most the most common. You can use this for cases where the best option is unknown. It adds very minor overhead and should significantly change the time needed to precondition.
You can specify request sizes like other workloads. The data can either be written sequentially or randomly to the I/O region specified. In either case, each logical block address of the LUN is only written one time.
Data parameters can be set like other block workloads except the choices are limited to random data content and data reduction options to avoid patterns that do not adequately precondition the array.
The workload supports load properties, tracing parameters, runtime parameters, and start parameters.