IOmark-VM measures audited, repeatable price / performance for VMware ESX environments.

Evaluator Group Inc. announces the IOmark Suite for VM, designed to measure and predict real VM workload storage performance. IOmark-VM is the second in a series of workload application performance tools, following in the footsteps of IOmark-VDI – previously named VDI-IOmark. Unlike synthetic workload generation tools, IOmark captures and replays application workloads, providing significantly better measurement and prediction of performance. IT administrators and test labs have been forced to utilize inaccurate tools to measure storage workloads due to time and capital equipment limitations. The shortcomings of these approaches are revealed during deployment, placing the business at risk because of performance issues resulting from running simultaneous applications.

IOmark Suite storage workload application performance tools, includes IOmark-VDI and IOmark-VM. It provides the needed capability to rapidly and efficiently set up and run thousands of VDI or VM workloads against a storage system, test performance, and predict future performance in any configuration. This is done with a minimal amount of infrastructure equipment and testing is done within days, versus spending a month to set up the environment.

“With the release of IOmark-VM, the measurement of ‘how many VMs can my storage system support?’ is greatly simplified,” said Russ Fellows, senior partner, Evaluator Group. “In our lab, we are able to run the application workload from 1,000 virtual machines using a single 2U 16 core server with 192 RAM. This allows us to quickly compare the price and performance of storage systems.”

Running actual workloads ensures that predicted storage results will accurately reflect individual situations, providing users with the confidence that their system designs actually reflect their application requirements. Additionally, extensive VMware integration has been added to the IOmark suite, enabling rapid storage provisioning, test setup and reconfiguration. By automating the creation of VMware datastores, and disks for virtual machines, configuration changes can be made quickly.

IOmark-VM Application Workload

The new IOmark-VM tool uses virtual machines to support a wide variety of application workloads. Similar to VMmark the application workload includes a mix of 8 applications covering:

—    DVD Store DB, plus DVD web app servers 

—    Olio DB, plus web app servers 

—    Exchange DB application, plus standby Windows VM 

—    Includes VMware vCenter operations – Vmotion, clone & deploy

IOmark-VDI

Evaluator Group announces the new IOmark-VDI 3.3 release, adding the ability to generate and test with Linked Clones, which drastically improves efficiency. Other new features include the ability to test with compression and deduplication.

The workload applications tested by IOmark-VDI include: Windows 7 OS, Microsoft Office and other common desktop operations. Each application profile consists of replaying I/O traces that were captured during an actual VM, thus generating an identical I/O pattern as seen by the storage system under test.

Licensing and Pricing 

Evaluator Group is the developer of IOmark which is available for $2,500 to end users or free to Evaluator Group IT end user premium subscribers.
Vendors, performance testing labs and channel partners may purchase the
tool for use in their lab. Results must be audited prior to external
publishing results. An evaluation license for either IOmark-VM or
IOmark-VDI may be obtained free of charge for 30 days.

About IOmark

IOmark is dedicated to helping IT professionals and Vendors
effectively measure and compare storage system performance while running real application workloads. IOmark-VDI was released in 2011 followed by IOmark-VM for VMware ESX server measurement in 2013.

More information is available at http://www.iomark.org | @IOmarkSuite.

About Evaluator Group

Evaluator Group Inc. is a technology research and advisory company covering Information Management, Storage and Systems. Executives and IT Managers use us daily to make informed decisions to architect and purchase systems supporting their digital data. We get beyond the technology landscape by defining requirements and knowing the products in-depth along with the intricacies that dictate long-term successful strategies.http://www.evaluatorgroup.com 

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