Project: StorPerf - Storage Performance Benchmarking for NFVI

Description

The purpose of StorPerf is to provide a tool to measure block and object storage performance in an NFVI. When complemented with a characterization of typical VF storage performance requirements, it can provide pass/fail thresholds for test, staging, and production NFVI environments.

A key challenge to measuring disk performance is to know when the disk (or, for OpenStack, the virtual disk or volume) is performing at a consistent and repeatable level of performance.  Initial writes to a volume can perform poorly due to block allocation, and reads can appear instantaneous when reading empty blocks.  How do we know when the data reported is valid?  The Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA) has developed methods which enable manufacturers to set, and customers to compare, the performance specifications of Solid State Storage devices (Ref).  StorPerf applies this methodology to OpenStack Cinder and Glance services to provide a high level of confidence in the performance metrics in the shortest reasonable time.