#Azure Storage Spaces direct #S2D Standard Storage vs Premium Storage

I see this often in the Forums Should I use Standard Storage or should I use Premium storage. Well it Depends Premium cost more that Standard but even that depends in the basic. Can a $ 4000 Azure Storage space configuration  out perform a $ 1700 Premium configuration. this blog post is not on how to configure Storage spaces but more an overview on concepts, did I pick the right machine or did I build the right configuration well it all depends.

I love the HPC vm sizes https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sizes-hpc but also expensive.

So in these setups I did create a storage space direct configuration all almost basic. but Key is here pick the Right VM for the job.

Standard 6 node cluster 4 core 8GB memory total disks 96 Type S30 (1TB) RAW disk space 96TB  and 32TB for the vDisk

Premium 3 node Cluster 2 core 16GB memory Total disks 9 Type P30 (1TB) RAW disk space 9TB  and 3TB for the vDisk

Standard A8 (RDMA) 5 node cluster 8 core 56GB memory total disks 80 Type p20 (500GB) RAW disk space 40TB

So basically comparing both configs makes no sense Couse  both configs are different. bigger machines vs little VM

and a lot less storage.

Standard Storage storage vs Premium

The performance of standard disks varies with the VM size to which the disk is attached, not to the size of the disk.

So the nodes have 16 disk each 16 * 500 IOPS  and with a max bandwidth of 480 Mbps. that could be a issue as would I use the full GB network than I need atleast  125 MB/s

In the Premium it is all great building the same config as in the standard the cost would be $3300 vs $12000. If you have a solution and you need the specifications then this is the way to go.

Can I out perform the configuration with standard disks ? In an old blog post I did the performance test on a 5 node A8 machine and 16 premium storage P20- 500GB 40TB RAW and got a network throughput of 4.2Gbps 

https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/using-windows-storage-spaces-direct-with-hyper-converged-in-microsoft-azure-with-windows-server-2016/

Measurements are different on different machines and basically there is no one size fits all it all depends on the workload or config or needs.

using the script from (by Mikael Nystrom, Microsoft MVP) on the basic disk not very impressive list  high latency but that’s the Standard storage.

The premium Storage is way faster and constant. So when using Azure and you need an amount of load or VM’s there is so much choice if you pick a different machine the results can be better. when hitting the IOPS ceiling of the VM. Prepare some calculations when building your new solution.  Test some configurations first before you go in production.

Azure is changing everyday today this may be the best solution but outdated tomorrow.

Below are some useful links on the Machine type and storage type.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/acu

 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/standard-storage

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/sizes-memory#ds-series

 

Thanks for reading my blog. Did you check my other blog post about Azure File Sync : https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/step-by-step-azure-file-sync-on-premises-file-servers-to-azure-files-storage-sync-service-afs-cloud-msignite/

 

 

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