topic Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results? in ONTAP Discussions

IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

Maurice-FreeOnes — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:53:03 GMT

Hello,

I am thinking about upgrading the complete FAS2750 stack we have from IOM6 to IOM12. Does anybody have any experience with the performance increase when doing this? The SAS and SSD disks we have do all support 12 Gb/s, only not the SATA shelf. I am wondering or it's worth the money to upgrade all IOM6 to IOM12 modules. In theory there should be a 100% perofrmance increase isn't it?

Regards, Maurice

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

SpindleNinja — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 13:50:56 GMT

the shelf is still a DS2246 though right? the backplane runs at 6.

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

paul_stejskal — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 23:56:55 GMT

I've only seen 6Gb/s be a bottleneck on high end AFFs. You have to be pumping over 1 GB/s through them disks to even begin to hit limits. Don't forget you have 4 PHYs, so you get 24Gb of througput functionally, or about 3 GB/s per stack.

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

Maurice-FreeOnes — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 08:06:56 GMT

This is on of our stacks:

XXXXXX::> storage shelf show

Module Operational
Shelf Name Shelf ID Serial Number Model Type Status
----------------- -------- --------------- ----------- ------ -----------
1.0 0 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DS224-12 IOM12E Normal
1.1 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DS2246 IOM6 Normal
1.2 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DS2246 IOM6 Normal
1.3 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DS4246 IOM6 Normal
1.4 4 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DS224-12 IOM12 Normal
4.0 0 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DS224-12 IOM12E Normal
4.1 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DS2246 IOM6 Normal
4.2 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DS2246 IOM6 Normal
4.3 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX DS4246 IOM6 Normal
4.4 4 SHFGD1703000417 DS224-12 IOM12 Normal
10 entries were displayed.

Our SAS disks can run on 12 Gb/s, our SATA have a 6 Gb/s limit.

It's the plan to replace all IOM6 for IOM12 if that brings a performance boost.

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

aborzenkov — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 08:25:03 GMT

I wonder if such configuration is supported. According to current documentation, only one transition between IOM6 to IOM12 is allowed and here there are two transitions.

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

Daniel_66 — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 14:45:51 GMT

As per "12Gb SAS SE Presentation_v1.5.1.pptx" in Field portal, multiple stack transitions between IOM6 and IOM3 are permitted with ONTAP 9.2P1 or later.

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

SpindleNinja — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 14:54:53 GMT

You're talking 6 and 12 though. where did 3 come in to play here?

from the 12GbSAS deck - A maximum of one transition from 12Gbps to 6Gbps modules is supported

What does config advisor say when you run it at this system?

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

Maurice-FreeOnes — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 16:49:18 GMT

1225017 - ONTAP support for mixing IOM6-based and IOM12-based shelves in the same stack

https://mysupport.netapp.com/site/bugs-online/product/ONTAP/BURT/1225017

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

SpindleNinja — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 19:45:57 GMT

Right " Only one speed transition is allowed." like their example:

Controller <-> IOM6 <-> IOM6 <---> IOM12 <-> IOM12 <-> Controller

From your output it looks like you're doing:

controller -> 12 -> 6 -> 6-> 12 -> controller

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

aborzenkov — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 07:24:27 GMT

@SpindleNinja wrote:

from the 12GbSAS deck - A maximum of one transition from 12Gbps to 6Gbps modules is supported

It is a bit unclear whether embedded IOM (IOM12E) is counted here (it says "external stack" about entry systems). Also it seems the primary use case for lifting this restriction is extending existing IOM6 stacks by IOM12 shelves. So I am not sure if even IOM12E - IOM12 - IOM6 - IOM6 would be valid ("IOM6 CIRCLE ports must be used for connection to IOM12 ports" and when going from IOM12 to IOM6 we connect IOM6 with SQUARE port ...).

So it amounts to - is IOM12E - IOM6 speed transition or simply (IOM6) stack attachment?

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

SpindleNinja — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 11:51:26 GMT

Fair point.

I wonder what AIQ Config advisor will say. @Maurice-FreeOnes have you run config advisor against this?

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

Maurice-FreeOnes — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 22:09:54 GMT

I first have to upgrade ONTAP and will then do the check and get back here with the results.

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

luiz_silva — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 22:29:10 GMT

Hi,

Would you have already an answer for this?

I think I have similar situation:

Current configuration:

Controller 2750 + External Shelf DS224C with IOM12

Is it possible to add the end of this a DS2246 Shelf with IOM6 ? (not very common scenery and there is a NOTE regarding IOM6 Square Port that cannot be connect to IOM12 ports).

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

Maurice-FreeOnes — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 17:05:06 GMT

Ok we are more than 1 year later. We have mixed cluster IOM6 and IOM12. Do you think it makes sense to upgrade all IOM6 to IOM12 now? Also way more SSD's have been added/replaced to the cluster

See the current situation for example:

cluster-cl-001::*> volume move show -vserver * -volume * -fields replication-throughput
vserver volume replication-throughput
------------------- ----------------------- ----------------------
svm_iscsi_001 volume-name-001_vol_004 -
svm_iscsi_001 volume-name-001_vol_005 189.9MB/s
svm_iscsi_001 volume-name-002_vol_005 355.5MB/s
svm_iscsi_001 volume-name-003_vol_001 480.4MB/s
svm_iscsi_001 volume-name-003_vol_003 485.0MB/s
svm_iscsi_001 volume-name-004_vol_004 436.6MB/s
svm_iscsi_001 volume-name-004_vol_005 165.1MB/s
svm_iscsi_001 volume-name-006_vol_003 455.7MB/s
svm_iscsi_001 volume-name-008_vol_001 205.2MB/s
svm_nfs_001 volume-name-_001 5.22MB/s
svm_nfs_001 volume-name-_006 104.7MB/s
svm_nfs_001 volume-name-_002 162.4MB/s
svm_nfs_001 volume-name-003 266.5MB/s
13 entries were displayed.

Not counting regular throughput, only volume moves I have running now.

Re: IOM6 to IOM12 upgrade, performance results?

Maurice-FreeOnes — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 17:06:10 GMT

Where / how can I check the best for total throughput of the cluster?