Hi Radek- Lets break down whats happening during the pre- and post- deduplication stages, this should help explain performance impact. Remember that NetApp deduplication on FAS and V-Series systems involves 2 steps - 1) enable dedupe on a volume (sis on) then at some point 2) dedupe the data in that volume (sis start) When you 'sis on' a volume, the behavior of that volume changes.  Every time it notices a block write request coming in, the sis process makes a call to Data ONTAP to get a copy of the fingerprint for that block so that it can store this fingerprint in its catalog file.  This request interrupts the write string and results in a 7% performance penalty for all writes into any volume with sis enabled.  We know its 7% because we measured it in our labs and lab machines don't lie - however every customer I've spoken to says they can't tell the difference, I guess we humans aren't quite so precise. Now, at some point you'll want to dedupe the volume using the 'sis start' command.  As sis goes through the process of comparing fingerprints, validating data, and dedupe'ing blocks that pass the validation phase - in the end all we are really doing is adjusting some inode metadata to say "hey remember that data that used to be here, well its over there now."  Nothing about the basic data structure of the WAFL file system has changed, except you are traversing a different path in the file structure to get to your desired data block.  Like going the the grocery store, you can take Elm Street or Oak Street and depending on traffic either way might get you there faster. Thats why NetApp dedupe *usually* has no perceivable impact on read performance - all we've done is redirect some block pointers.  Accessing your data might go a little faster, a little slower, or more likely not change at all - it all depends on the pattern of the file system data structure and the pattern of requests coming from the application. Larry ... View more

Andrew, In general, the answer is yes - a volume that has been deduped should not show any appreciable read performance degradation.  Since WAFL is a random-layout filesystem, deduplication merely re-randomizes the data blocks.  Also remember that NetApp dedupe does not use containers or lookup tables to rehydrate data, we just redirect the existing block pointer metadata.  Having said that - I have seen a few cases where read performance degraded, but this is unusual and not predictable - it all depends on the block layout pattern and the pattern of read requests.  And as I mentioned earlier - you can always undo dedupe if you don't like the results. Another point worth mentioning is using dedupe together with the Performance Acceleration Module (PAM.)  PAM is dedupe-aware so you can actually improve read performance after dedupe with this combination.  We've done some tests and I think published them that show dramatic improvement in VDI "boot storm" response times as a result of dedupe and PAM. What has your experience been? Larry ... View more

Andrew, There are 3 key factors that effect the performance impact of dedupe- 1) The NetApp FAS or V-Series model 2) The amount of duplicate data in the volume 3) Other processes the system is servicing during the dedupe process If we look at a typical scenario (impossible, I know, but bear with me) - lets say we have a FAS3070, a 1TB volume with 5% duplicate data, and the system is fairly quiet.  This would be a typical setting for running dedupe overnight on a regular basis.  I would expect this system to complete dedupe in less than an hour and have no impact on workloads (since there aren't any running). On the other hand, if we have a FAS2050, 90% duplicate data, and the system is running at peak load - the dedupe process will take many hours and you will likely see some performance degradation resulting from dedupe. The problem is that there are too many variables for us to give an exact number.  Instead, we recommend two things: 1) If your application or system is extremely performance-sensitive, don't run dedupe 2) If you are concerned that dedupe will create an excessive performance penalty, run a POC first Also, remember that your can easily turn off dedupe, and/or "undo" dedupe if you don't like the results you get. Hope that helps, Larry ... View more