Customer Case Study
BlueArc tests the real-world scalability of their storage platforms using the SwiftTest 3000
BlueArc, a leading provider of high performance unified network storage systems for enterprise and data-intensive
markets, found scalability testing of their Titan and Mercury platforms a challenge. After a competitive
analysis, BueArc selected SwiftTest and immediately reduced test times from days to minutes.
About BlueArc
BlueArc is a leading provider of high performance, unified network storage systems to enterprise and
data intensive markets such as electronic discovery, entertainment, federal government, higher education,
Internet services, oil and gas, and life sciences. BlueArc products support both NAS and SAN services
on a converged network storage platform. BlueArc’s Titan and Mercury product families offer scalable,
high-performing network storage systems that offer the benefit of improved productivity and efficiency
derived from high data throughput, storage consolidation, and the reduction of costs through simplified
management. One of the unique benefits of the BlueArc hardware platforms is the scalability of the hardware.
Much of BlueArc’s speed and capacity advantage is realized in the ability to add connections —
BlueArc’s systems eliminate the need to add multiple servers, thanks to their support of thousands
of connections.
BlueArc Test Environment
Testing at BlueArc is managed by Nigel Stolting, US QA Manager for the company. Nigel’s lab includes
the full range of BlueArc servers, various switches and storage components. A mix of 1U servers and custom-made
clients to host VMs make for several hundred clients that QA uses during testing. The majority of the
lab’s test tools are developed internally.
Testing Scalability
Due to the scalability of the BlueArc products, the challenge for Nigel was to perform realistic TCP
connection-rate tests. He needed to create 30,000 connections for his Titan platform and failing to reach
this number was not an option since BlueArc customers commonly run tens of thousands of connections.
Using an application written in-house, Nigel could run simultaneous tests, but on the QA server farm
he was immediately faced with memory limitations. Each client was constrained to only 750 connections,
so to run one simple test, Nigel had to try to get 40 clients all started at once to produce 30,000 connections.
It would take Nigel the better part of a day to run a single test using this method. And for the BlueArc
Mercury platform, the problem was compounded. The Mercury platform supports twice as many connections
as the Titan. So to test scalability, Nigel needed to double his efforts, literally. For the Mercury,
he’d try to create 60,000 simultaneous connections, using maybe 60 clients. With finite resources
and an ever-increasing test matrix, executing large-scale connection tests significantly limited the
number of tests possible.
"Choosing the SwiftTest 3000 came down to depth and breadth of the tools—granular configurability
and great protocol support. And I like that SwiftTest is very NAS focused. The box does just what I want,
and does it well."
- Nigel Stolting, US QA Manager
Enter SwiftTest
Nigel was in the market for something that would improve his processes, and did a competitive evaluation
before selecting the SwiftTest 3000. The elements of the SwiftTest products that tipped the scales included
the focus of the company and the product on NAS testing. He was impressed by the lack of clutter in the
UI, and the intuitive tools with drag and drop configurability.
About the SwiftTest 3000
The SwiftTest 3000 is a high-performance load-generating system designed for comprehensive storage network
testing. More than a simple load generator, the system provides protocol-level control and semantic definition
that enables the broadest possible range of test cases. The SwiftTest 3000 features 8 singly configurable
1GE ports and an additional 1GE management port. It supports multiple authentication types and originates
NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI traffic, simulating a great number of clients and scenarios at once. It easily handles
multiple scenarios with varying lists of commands within each of 6 protocols (CIFS v1, v2, and NFS v2,
v3, v4 and iSCSI)—all running at the same time.
The SwiftTest 3000 is the clear choice for companies in the storage industry, because SwiftTest knows
storage better than any other test tool vendor. It is the industry’s elite testing tool due to
the SwiftTest focus on storage-specific features; high-volume traffic handling, customer-centric graphic
interface, and prebuilt tests and wizards.
Test Development Environment
The SwiftTest 3000 includes a graphical application, the SwiftTest Test Development Environment, that
provides flexible, granular configuration options and test results analysis.
Testers can now find problems, modify parameters, and quickly see results using the SwiftTest interface.
Problem isolation is fast and accurate, leading to much-appreciated efficiency in working with development
engineers.
The Results: All About Scalability
For BlueArc, the SwiftTest 3000 enables real-world scalability testing that they simply couldn’t
do before. The SwiftTest 3000 has reduced what used to take a day down to minutes. Nigel Stolting can
set up a test with 30,000 connections, run it in 10 minutes, and repeat again and again. This is a huge
change from previous methods.
Along with the simple time savings in running tests, the Test Development Environment is game changing.
Nigel says that with the protocol support it’s easy to build complex tests. And with its drop-down
toolbox, everything in the interface is laid out — uncluttered and intuitive. He can drag in a
command and configure it right there. And for his remote teams, Nigel can easily zip up configurations
and test results to quickly share his work.
Now that the SwiftTest 3000 has transformed TCP connection-rate testing, Nigel plans to utilize it to
load test the BlueArc filesystem itself. The SwiftTest 3000 easily performs high-performance load testing
while maintaining the connection level required by BlueArc’s highly-scalable platforms.
"Having SwiftTest has improved my job tenfold. I’m now free to do things way more important
to BlueArc and more technically challenging than running around trying to start a bunch of clients simultaneously."
- Nigel Stolting, US QA Manager
Why Buy the SwiftTest 3000
- Time savings in executing multiple test suites. Single-screen, graphical control of test tools enables
fast, repeatable testing.
- Ease of test case creation and control at the protocol level. Granular configuration and results are
available for individual components.
- Consistent, repeatable results. Tests start with the press of a button and deliver repeatable results.
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