Performance is one of the main concerns in maintaining consistent data across distance. SRDF/Metro helps to maintain high performance in a few ways:
- It utilizes the closest storage system to the Microsoft SQL Server failover cluster node for all I/Os. Even if cross-links are used, they are in passive (standby) mode, as long as the paths to the local storage system are working.
- It optimizes database read I/O latencies, as PowerMax has a large capacity cache. When the required data is in the PowerMax cache, reads are satisfied directly from the cache. Otherwise, the data is fetched from the local storage NVMe flash media, utilizing features such as Optimized Read Miss to make the transfer even faster.
- It optimizes database write I/O latencies, as writes are sent to the local storage system’s cache. Since PowerMax cache is considered persistent, there is no need to wait for writes to be flushed to the NVMe storage. Instead, the writes are immediately replicated synchronously from the local storage system cache to the remote storage system cache and acknowledged to the database server.
As a result, SRDF/Metro is well-suited for Microsoft SQL Server failover cluster deployments. It is quickly deployed and easy to use.