Abstract

New generations of servers are expected to deliver higher levels of performance and Dell’s 16th Generation (16G) server series does just that. Integral to overall server system performance is the performance of the storage subsystem. The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 12 is the new generation RAID controller available on all Dell PowerEdge 16G servers. PERC 12 delivers a performance boost that goes well beyond typical generational improvements. According to Dell, new controller-level hardware developments provide a particularly dramatic boost in performance with PERC 12.

Dell Technologies commissioned Tolly to evaluate the performance of PERC 12 and document its dramatic performance improvements by comparing it to both PERC 11 and PERC 10 for SAS drives and PERC 11 for NVMe SSD. In addition to customary “0 to 60” benchmarks of read/write, random/sequential IOPS and throughput, the tests also included real-world, operations- focused benchmarks. Specifically, these additional benchmarks provide answers to key questions, such as: 1) “How long will it take to rebuild an array under load?”, 2) “What kind of read/write throughput can be expected during rebuild?”, and 3) “What kind of latency can be expected during rebuild?” With PERC 12, there are significant benefits for all upgrading users.