NetApp AFF A800 Introduction
The AFF A800 is the top-of-the-line ONTAP all-flash storage array from NetApp, which atlaunch offered an industry-first, end-to-end NVMe/FC over 32Gb FC, as well as 100GbEconnectivity. To date, we have been working our way through the all-flash AFF lineup, startingwith the potent A200 (having since been replaced by the A220) as well as the A300. Both of theunits we previously reviewed won Editor’s Choice awards. Today we will be looking at theNVMe-based A800 powerhouse that offers the same ONTAP benefits of the previouslyreviewed models, as well as exponentially faster performance and lower latency. While thisinitial review focuses on system performance over Fibre Channel, subsequent articles will diveinto the A800's end-to-end NVMe over Fabrics (NVMeoF) support.
NetApp AFFA800/A800 NVMeOF
Unlike the A200 and A300 that were built for different segments of the midrange market, theA800 is designed for the workloads that demand the most performance (such as AI and DeepLeaning), while also including the robust set of enterprise data services that ONTAP is knownfor. As a point of clarity, NetApp has a series of truly go-fast storage in the EF all-flash family,like the midrange EF570 we reviewed previously. Back to the A800, NetApp claims the systemcan hit 1.3 million IOPS at under 500μs latency and throughput of up to 34GB/s with an HA pair.At scale, this means an NAS cluster can deliver up to 11.4M IOPS at 1ms latency and 300 GB/sof throughput. A SAN cluster can deliver up to 7.8M IOPS at 500µs latency and 204GB/s ofthroughput.Like the rest of the AFF A-series systems, the NVMe A800 can scale to 24 (12 HA pairs) 4Udual-controller nodes in a cluster in NAS configuration. Because this is an NVMe-based system,there is a little nuance when it comes to drive scaling. The midrange A300, for instance,supports 4608 drives where the A800 tops out at 2880. While not likely to be a functional issuewhen deployed, we highlight this just to indicate that NVMe-based systems have differentengineering challenges when considering JBOD expansion shelves than SAS-based systems,so we can't just assume as you move up the product line that everything gets bigger. In a SANconfiguration, the NVMe A800 scales to 12 nodes (6 HA pairs) with support for 1,440drives. That said, if users leverage 15.3TB NVMe SSDs, they can scale up to 2.5PB in a 4Ufootprint. With data efficiencies enabled (assuming 5:1), the A800 supports over 315PB in a 24-node NAS cluster and 160TB in a SAN cluster.
While NetApp has enabled front-end NVMe support in other AFF systems, the A800 offers whatis called end-to-end NVMe support. As noted, we're not going to dive all the way into what thismeans in this review. Suffice it to say that the A800 is the first all-flash NVMe array toaccomplish this. Effectively, what this means is that organizations can take advantage of theemerging wave of NVMeoF capabilities today, while still servicing their more traditionalworkloads over FC. Previously, organizations wanting to take advantage of NVMeoF weregenerally relegated to "science project" types of deployments that while fast, had limitationswhen it came to scale and data services. NetApp's implementation here addresses those shortcomings, while also providing support for the standard connectivity options in both FC andEthernet.Of course, we can't talk A800 without highlighting cloud connectivity and the NetApp DataFabric. Inherent to ONTAP is a deep set of connectivity to leading cloud providers, enablingcustomers to place their data where it makes the most sense, be it locally on the A800 orsomewhere else. NetApp supports cloud and multi-cloud connections with Amazon WebServices, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and others. Broad cloud support lets NetAppcustomers have the flexibility they need when managing their data footprint and the nimblenessto move data around as needed to take advantage of cloud economics, new features or shapetypes, and so on.Our particular build consists of an A800 with 24 x 1.92TB NVMe SSDs with two four-port 32GbFC ports connected per controller (8 ports total) with ONTAP 9.5RC1 installed.
