Testing Disk Performance

Introduction

In some cases Venio Support Representatives may ask you to run a test of hard disk read/write speed.

CrystalDiskMark is an open-source MIT copyright licensed utility for measuring disk performance.

https://app.zapaportal.com/org/f29b04c4-edb5-4094-bb56-264bc952ac4e/vault/a927d412-638d-41b9-a9d6-f91d09a8879b/folder/d914fb7d-8afc-486a-9170-83bf82616799

Solution

Read the following instructions on using CrystalDiskMark to measure read/write speed of hard disk:

1. Download CrystalDiskMark https://app.zapaportal.com/org/f29b04c4-edb5-4094-bb56-264bc952ac4e/vault/a927d412-638d-41b9-a9d6-f91d09a8879b/folder/d914fb7d-8afc-486a-9170-83bf82616799 and install it;
2. Run the application:

   

3. Select the the following settings:
   • In the left drop-down list select number of runs: 1;
   • In second column select size to test: 1 GiB;
   • In the third drop-down list select the shared network folder or disk whose speed you want to check;
   • In the 4th Drop-down list select "IOPS":

   

4. Press All to start the test:

   

5. When the test ends, create a screenshot of the results and send the screenshot to Venio Support.
   Ideally, on the drive your SQL server is storing project databases to, your READ IOPS and WRITE IOPS should be at least as fast as the following: 
   
6. If the drives your SQL server databases are stored on are not close to the previous results, then it is likely your SQL server needs faster drives.
7. To test network shares, place the folder path such as \\servername\shared\folder as shown below:
   
   When you supply the path to the share and click OK, the window will still look like the following, do not worry, while it is displaying 'Select Folder' it will actually run tests on the folder path you provided.
   
   You can verify by clicking 'Select Folder' again and you will see the path to the network location in the folder tree-view
   
8. Click 'OK' then Press All to start the test: 
   
9. When the test ends, create a screenshot of the results and send the screenshot to Venio Support.
   

   The preferred IOPS (input/output operations per second) for a network share used by an application like Venio for e-discovery can vary based on several factors, including the size and complexity of the case data being managed and the number of users and services accessing the data simultaneously.

   That being said, Venio recommends a minimum of 2,000 IOPS for the SQL Server storage used to store the Venio SQL database. In addition, it is recommended that the network share used to store case data provide at least 300 IOPS per service. So, for example, if you expect 4 Distributed Services, 1 OCR service, and 2 TIFF services to be processing the data simultaneously, the network share should provide at least 2,100 IOPS. 

   It is important to note that these are minimum recommendations, and higher IOPS can improve the performance and responsiveness of the application. Therefore, if possible, it is recommended to use storage with higher IOPS to ensure optimal performance for the application. For example, in an environment with hundreds of cases and dozens of users making high frequency SQL database changes typically requires a storage device that can achieve at least 5,000 to 10,000 IOPS or more to ensure optimal performance.
   
   

10. This tool is recommended to be used on all servers in order to properly diagnose bottlenecks. For example, running the tests from each distributed service server can help identify if there are network issues negatively impacting 1 or more of the distributed servers from accessing the shared repository folder properly. You can also run this utility on the distributed servers local drives to ensure the distributed service temp storage is sufficiently fast. If you are encountering issues in your OnDemand environment, this tool can test the speed from the server hosting the Venio Web Export Service to the server hosting the case file repository.