For those of you who were interested in the benchmark results of the
NetApp 840 and EMC Celerra read on.  You'll see the NetApp 840 is the
fastest for this type of benchmark, though, according to EMC, they have a
new data-mover with dual processors and twice as much cache (1GB) coming
out very soon.  I wonder how that will compare to an 880.
The following results were generated by an in-house benchmark program that
attempts to measure real-world file/dir read and write speeds.  The code
is written in Java, and is multi-threaded, so it makes full use of the 4
processors in the E4500 I'm using for testing.  The E4500 has 4GB of
physical memory and is attached to both the NetApp 840 and EMC Celerra
with GigE through a dedicated Cisco 6509.  The NetApp 840 has 3GB of
memory, and the Celerra has 512MB on the data-mover and 4GB on the
Symmetrix.  Both are using NFS3 over TCP.
I'll also try to get the Iozone numbers posted soon.
The two programs I'm using are called dirtest and readtest.  dirtest
writes a hierarchy of directories containing file of a specified
size, and readtest reads the files in that hierarchy, each keeping track
of the time it takes.
Note: for the write test (dirtest is the actual program name) throughput
is calculated using file space over elapsed time, even though the elapsed
time includes the time to create the directories as well.  Even so, since
directory creation takes a relatively small amount of time compared to
writing files, the throughput calculations are useful, especially with
larger files. With smaller file sizes, however, much of the time taken is
for directory creation, and this should be taken into consideration
when trying to rationalize the results.
Threads = 16, Levels = 3, Branches = 4, Files = 4
Directories to be written = 1344
Files to be written = 5376
 ***** NetApp 840 *****
dirtest (writes hierarchy of directories containing files of specified
length)
File Length     File Space      Elapsed time    Calculated
(Bytes)         (KBytes)        (milliseconds)  Throughput (KB/Sec)
--------------  --------------- --------------  ----------
2               10.5            4686            2
3               15.75           4669            3
4               21              4677            4
6               31.5            4707            6
8               42              4702            8
12              63              4691            13
16              84              4664            18
24              126             4723            26
32              168             4718            35
48              252             4813            52
64              336             4774            70
96              504             4864            103
128             672             4933            136
192             1008            4808            209
256             1344            4717            284
384             2016            5476            368
512             2688            4707            571
768             4032            4324            932
1024            5376            4350            1235
1536            8064            4583            1759
2048            10752           4742            2267
3072            16128           4937            3266
4096            21504           4977            4320
6144            32256           5108            6314
8192            43008           5343            8049
12288           64512           5922            10893
16384           86016           6232            13802
24576           129024          7238            17825
32768           172032          8814            19518
49152           258048          11369           22697
65536           344064          14061           24469
98304           516096          20652           24990
131072          688128          26487           25979
196608          1032192         38479           26824
262144          1376256         50039           27503
393216          2064384         74266           27797
524288          2752512         99089           27778
786432          4128768         146789          28127
1048576         5505024         195042          28224
1572864         8257536         291421          28335
readtest (reads what we just wrote with dirtest)
File Length     File Space      Elapsed time    Calculated
(Bytes)         (KBytes)        (milliseconds)  Throughput (KB/Sec)
--------------  --------------- --------------  ----------
2               10.5            3890            2
3               15.75           4383            3
4               21              4534            4
6               31.5            4673            6
8               42              4233            9
12              63              4527            13
16              84              4610            18
24              126             4784            26
32              168             4555            36
48              252             4405            57
64              336             4697            71
96              504             4847            103
128             672             4605            145
192             1008            4629            217
256             1344            4692            286
384             2016            4750            424
512             2688            4967            541
768             4032            5011            804
1024            5376            5203            1033
1536            8064            4961            1625
2048            10752           5100            2108
3072            16128           5193            3105
4096            21504           5221            4118
6144            32256           5455            5913
8192            43008           5582            7704
12288           64512           6254            10315
16384           86016           6822            12608
24576           129024          7434            17355
32768           172032          8044            21386
49152           258048          9970            25882
65536           344064          11594           29676
98304           516096          15185           33987
131072          688128          18721           36757
196608          1032192         26726           38621
262144          1376256         35415           38860
393216          2064384         52214           39536
524288          2752512         69109           39828
786432          4128768         102884          40130
1048576         5505024         136483          40334
1572864         8257536         204612          40357
 ***** EMC Celerra *****
dirtest (writes directories and files)
File Length     File Space      Elapsed time    Calculated
(Bytes)         (KBytes)        (milliseconds)  Throughput (KB/Sec)
--------------  --------------  --------------  --------------
2               10.5            4872            2
3               15.75           4924            3
4               21              5271            3
6               31.5            5152            6
8               42              5168            8
12              63              5501            11
16              84              5460            15
24              126             5714            22
32              168             5584            30
48              252             5405            46
64              336             5770            58
96              504             5831            86
128             672             5923            113
192             1008            6466            155
256             1344            6009            223
384             2016            5897            341
512             2688            6142            437
768             4032            6137            656
1024            5376            5888            913
1536            8064            6177            1305
2048            10752           6135            1752
3072            16128           6315            2553
4096            21504           6469            3324
6144            32256           7139            4518
8192            43008           6730            6390
12288           64512           7764            8309
16384           86016           8384            10259
24576           129024          10431           12369
32768           172032          11049           15569
49152           258048          14560           17723
65536           344064          17897           19224
98304           516096          23960           21539
131072          688128          29263           23515
196608          1032192         42773           24131
262144          1376256         54041           25466
393216          2064384         97181           21242
524288          2752512         129826          21201
786432          4128768         240172          17190
1048576         5505024         310822          17711
1572864         8257536         454180          18181
readtest (reads what we just wrote with dirtest)
File Length     File Space      Elapsed time    Calculated
(Bytes)         (KBytes)        (milliseconds)  Throughput (KB/Sec)
--------------  --------------  --------------  --------------
2               10.5            4279            2
3               15.75           4247            3
4               21              4858            4
6               31.5            4899            6
8               42              5340            7
12              63              4724            13
16              84              5325            15
24              126             5410            23
32              168             5059            33
48              252             4888            51
64              336             5624            59
96              504             5265            95
128             672             5517            121
192             1008            5593            180
256             1344            5592            240
384             2016            5297            380
512             2688            5715            470
768             4032            6358            634
1024            5376            5333            1008
1536            8064            5348            1507
2048            10752           5526            1945
3072            16128           5592            2884
4096            21504           5617            3828
6144            32256           6289            5128
8192            43008           6055            7102
12288           64512           6368            10130
16384           86016           7624            11282
24576           129024          7738            16674
32768           172032          9099            18906
49152           258048          11597           22251
65536           344064          14100           24401
98304           516096          19976           25835
131072          688128          25949           26518
196608          1032192         41360           24956
262144          1376256         60134           22886
393216          2064384         111230          18559
524288          2752512         146978          18727
786432          4128768         230392          17920
1048576         5505024         307887          17880
1572864         8257536         457403          18053
-- 
Mark A Bentley
Technology Development Group
AT&T Wireless Services