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With the arrival of IBM POWER5™ processor-based systems, advanced virtualization
capabilities, including Micro-Partitioning™ and Virtual I/O, have significantly extended IBM's
leading-edge virtualization technologies.
This throughput analysis highlights Virtual SCSI performance on the IBM eServer™ p5 570 system
with the AIX 5L™ V5.3 operating system. This study is a follow-on to the previous "IBM eServer
POWER5 Virtual SCSI Processors Performance Study".
Throughput, as a measure of the amount of work performed over a period of time, is an important
performance expectation. This paper describes the effects of varying throughput, including
workload used, systems configuration, performance tools, benchmark test script, performance
results and conclusions.
This analysis examines the performance of a Virtual SCSI (VSCSI) implementation using the
Iozone workload. Local I/O is compared with Virtual I/O using FAStT (DS4500) and SCSI
configurations at various throughput levels. Additionally, the effects of simultaneous multi-threading
vs. single threading (ST) are considered.
VSCSI implementation is highlighted as a solution for clients looking to consolidate I/O resources
with a small amount of processor overhead. The new Virtual SCSI capability on POWER5
systems creates new opportunities for consolidation, while demonstrating strong performance
and manageability.
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