Findings and exploration of Intel Optane 900p Under ESXI

[marcoi]

Yes, something is not quite right, with the CrystalDisk 4K Q32T1 results for the 900P on bare metal. I've seen Samsung 960 PRO M.2 NVMe with Samsung NVMe driver, hit around 360 MB/s on the 4K Q32T1 test.

Is Win 10 and CrystalDisk installed on separate boot drive?

Win 10 and CDM were on separate drive from 900p. The 900p was bare.

 

[marcoi]

You should try the NVMe-controller instead of the Paravirtual one. It’s made for backend NVMe storage.

I did try the nvme controller but it seemed to have worst results then standard.

 

[marcoi]

Increase the thread count in CDM

Can you post setting screen shot of CDM for testing?

 

[marcoi]

Side note. I flipped the server back to esxi host. I wanted to re test freenas with para virtual control, but when I added it and drives they don't show up. Anyone know if there is support for paravirtual under freenas?

 

[Rand__]

@marcoi Do you need some alternate data points?
Still waiting for a freenas fix so I can spin up a win vm to test if you need it?

 

[marcoi]

@marcoi Do you need some alternate data points?
Still waiting for a freenas fix so I can spin up a win vm to test if you need it?

That would be great

 

[Rand__]

Your Box/OS has a 4k issue - benchmark is done in a minute then you see for yourself

Edit: Here you go, Win2012 R2

 

[marcoi]

Guess I'll try the card in a different box

 

[Rand__]

Or different OS if thats easier

 

[nkw]

Could it be due to size 260 vs 480gb?

FWIW, here is a 480GB Optane 900p on bare metal Windows 10:

 

[Rand__]

2nd line is not directly comparable due to different settings

Else the ESX one is not too bad

 

[marcoi]

So i put the card into another system ( X10SL7-F based) and i got way better results on bare metal w10 install with no patching and intel drivers installed.

Next is testing dell again but a different slot.

 

[vrod]

I did try the nvme controller but it seemed to have worst results then standard.

That's weird... I've had better performance with it. You also installed the Intel ESXi NVMe driver right?

 

[marcoi]

That's weird... I've had better performance with it. You also installed the Intel ESXi NVMe driver right?

I install the intel nvme driver in the vm host not at ESXI host. Is that what you meant?
Can you post some of your results with the nvme controller?

 

[vrod]

If you are benchmarking through virtual disks (vm residing on vmfs with nvme backend, then you should install the driver in esxi. If using pasthrough, then of course in vm (windows)

 

[CoadyTech]

I put a 900P in my HP DL360e Gen8 and initially got some good performance, but nothing near what it could do. So I installed Intel's NVMe driver for ESXi and here's what I got:

 

[marcoi]

I put a 900P in my HP DL360e Gen8 and initially got some good performance, but nothing near what it could do. So I installed Intel's NVMe driver for ESXi and here's what I got:

Do you have a link for the driver?

 

[CoadyTech]

Do you have a link for the driver?

Sure, check here:

ESXi 6.5 intel-nvme 1.2.1.15 NVMe Driver for Intel(R) Solid-State Drive DC P3700, P3600, P3500, P3520, P4500, D3600, and P4800X NVM Express SSDs

Do you have a login? If not let me know and I'll upload it somewhere.

Rather bizarrely I seem to get the better performance with VMware's Para Virtual SAS than with the NVMe (in the VM).

 

[marcoi]

I downloaded and installed the driver. I need to reboot the host still. I dont know how much this will improve if at all. I think my host server dell r720 has some kind of issue with the intel 900p where it is limiting the potential of the drive. when i tried the 900p in another server i got the higher benchmarks. I tried the 900p in the dell in three different slots, with all the other cards removed, bare metal install of windows, and nada it always gives the same results.

so i think there might be a bios issue or something.

 

[marcoi]

So this is dell r720 server with intel driver installed for esxi and running para-virtual controller in w10 vm. Notice i had to get T4 to get these numbers.


So far this has giving me the best numbers. Now i jst need to get para-virtual working under freenas.