DapuStor Roealsen6 R6060 E1.L 245.76TB SSD Review - Massive Capacity with Fast Retrieval

TweakTown Rating: 96%

Our Verdict

DapuStor's Roealsen6 R6060 E1.L 245.76TB SSD is compact where it matters and huge where it matters - overall, amazing.

Pros

• Capacity and form factor
• Cool operating temperatures
• Sequential read performance
• Random read performance

Cons

• Random write performance

Should you buy it?

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Introduction and Drive Details

Massive capacity is all the rage for many read-intensive applications. First, we got 61.44TB PCIe Gen4 QLC SSDs, then 122.88TB PCIe Gen4 QLC SSDs, and now 245.76TB PCIe Gen5 QLC SSDs are the newest cutting-edge standard. Think of it, it takes only four SSDs for a full petabyte of storage - amazing. The efficiency at this level of capacity is unparalleled, with a single 2U storage server capable of supporting a mind-bending 10 petabytes of storage.

With the rise of the 245.76TB SSD, comes an order of magnitude greater efficiency than ever before possible. Physical footprint and watts per petabyte are the primary drivers of TCO, especially as related to read-intensive applications in the modern data center, and 245.76TB SSDs have just doubled the efficiency in this regard.

As we've seen, going back to when 61.44TB was the cutting-edge capacity point, these ultra-high capacity QLC arrayed offerings are heavy on the read performance and light on the write performance, especially random writes. This is due mostly to the fact that there is only so much DRAM that can be fitted to a PCB, not only because of real estate and power requirements, but also cost.

Currently these ultra-high-capacity SSDs are employing 16GB of onboard DRAM giving the 64TB drives an IU (Indirection Unit) of 16K, the 128TB drives an IU of 32K and the 256TB drives, like the subject of today's review an IU of 64K. As the IU climbs with capacity, write performance and endurance both significantly decrease; however, read performance is unaffected. This is why these ultra-high-capacity QLC SSDs are intended primarily for fast retrieval or read-intensive applications where write performance is of little consideration.

With that said, let's focus on our test subject, DapuStor's Roealsen6 R6060 E1.L 245.76TB SSD. The E1.L form factor exists to maximize density in the server rack. This form factor exists within constraints that make cooling the drive more difficult than most other form factors, and as such, write performance is throttled back a bit more than, say, U.2 or E3. In general, the E1 formfactor tends to run hotter than others.

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Pictured above are several instances of temperatures taken nearing the end of 2-loops of 128K sequential write preconditioning, where we feel temperatures are likely their highest. Using only air cooling, we consistently received temperature readings that peaked at a relatively cool 51 °C. Impressive, especially for the E1.L form factor. This indicates to us that cooling this SSD doesn't present a difficult challenge whatsoever.

DapuStor describes its R6060 Series enterprise SSDs as follows: "DapuStor R6060 QLC Series is powered by PCIe Gen5 DP800 controller and 3D eQLC NAND, supporting NVMe 2.0 and advanced FDP features. Built on a high-bandwidth PCIe 5.0 architecture, R6060 delivers ultra-high capacity, high read performance, and low power consumption. It enables higher storage density and optimized TCO for AI, cloud, and data center applications."

The company further states: "The R6060 leverages NVMe 2.0 and FDP technology to maximize eQLC potential. It empowers the host with precise data placement control, drastically reducing Write Amplification (WA) to enhance both speed and endurance - offering the ideal balance of performance and cost for QLC scenarios."

Okay, now that we are familiar with some of the main features and thermal characteristics DapuStor's Roealsen6 R6060 E1.L 245.76TB SSD brings to the table, let's see what kind of performance it can deliver via our Xeon powered enterprise test bench.

Specs/Comparison Products

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DapuStor Roealsen6 R6060 E1.L 245.76TB PCIe Gen5 x4 SSD

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The drive we have in hand is a 0.6-DWPD design, E1.L form factor, 245.76TB in capacity, eQLC arrayed, and 16-channel controlled. This configuration is rated for up to 2.1 million IOPS and up to 14 GB/s sequential throughput. DapuStor Roealsen6 R6060 Series SSDs are compatible with major operating systems such as RHEL, SLES, CentOS, Ubuntu, Windows Server, and VMware ESXi.

Test System Specs & Enterprise Testing Methodology

Enterprise SSD Test System

A special thank you goes to Allyn Malventano, without whose help we wouldn't be where we are with our Linux-based Enterprise SSD testing platform.

Testing Methodology

TweakTown strictly adheres to industry-accepted Enterprise Solid State Storage testing procedures. Each test we perform repeats the same sequence of the following steps:

1. Secure Erase SSD
2. Write the entire capacity of SSD 2x (2 loops) with 128KB sequential write data, seamlessly transition to the next step (sequential testing skips step 3)
3. Precondition SSD by filling the drive twice with 4K or 8K random writes or IU of SSD
4. Run test-specific workload with a 30-second ramp up for 5 minutes at each measured Queue Depth, and record average result

Benchmarks - Sequential

128K Sequential Write/Read

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We precondition the drive with 100 percent sequential 128K writes at QD256 using 1-thread for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify that steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after a 1-drive fill. Average steady-state 128K sequential write performance at QD256 is approximately 3,660 MB/s.

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DapuStor specs its R6060 245.76TB E1.L SSD as capable of delivering up to 3,600 MB/s 128K sequential write throughput. We are getting up to 3,662 MB/s, so the factory spec seems to be spot on. The drive is the fastest of its type here that we've encountered to date.

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Here, the drive is factory spec'd for up to 14,000 MB/s 128K sequential read throughput. We are hitting up to 14,283 MB/s, so it is a bit better than advertised and at a place where throughput matters most for read-intensive applications. Looking at the chart, we can see a clear advantage that PCIe Gen5 brings to the table as compared with the rest of the PCIe Gen4 SSDs that populate our chart. Roughly twice the throughput potential. Impressive.

Benchmarks - Random

4K Random Write/Read

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We preconditioned the drive using 100 percent random 64K writes at QD256 for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify that steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after a 1-drive fill. Average steady-state random write performance at QD256 is approximately 17K IOPS - factory spec here is 16K IOPS, so again better than advertised.

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4K random write performance is not advertised, only 64K random write, which is what we used to precondition the drive, because at 4K preconditioning would take roughly 70 days due to the capacity of our test subject. Performance here at 4K is expected to be significantly lower than it is at 64K IU, but surprisingly, we are still very close to the quoted 16K IOPS at 64K.

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Factory spec here is up to 2,100K IOPS. We are getting up to 2098K with our configuration. Again, factory spec is spot on.

4K 7030

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This type of workload is not what this type of SSD is designed to tackle, so results here are mostly irrelevant.

4K 5050

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Again, this type of workload is not what this type of SSD is designed to tackle, so results here are mostly irrelevant.

8K Random Write/Read

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We preconditioned the drive using 100 percent random 64K writes at QD256 for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after a 1-drive fill. Average steady-state random write performance at QD256 is approximately 17K IOPS - factory spec here is 16K IOPS, so again better than advertised.

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8K random write performance is not advertised, only 64K random write, which is what we used to precondition the drive, because at 8K preconditioning would take roughly 35 days due to the capacity of our test subject. Performance here at 8K is expected to be significantly lower than it is at 64K IU, but surprisingly, we are still very close to the quoted 16K IOPS at 64K.

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Outstanding performance curve here. This is where our test subject is at its best - 8K random reads, where we find our test subject cranking out the most IOPS we've encountered coming from a QLC arrayed SSD. Outstanding.

8K 7030

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8K 7030 is representative of a common database workload. Again, this type of workload is not what this type of SSD is designed to tackle, so results here are mostly irrelevant.

8K 5050

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Again, this type of workload is not what this type of SSD is designed to tackle, so results here are mostly irrelevant.

Final Thoughts

Fast data retrieval is where much of the action in the modern datacenter is taking place, and DapuStor's ultra-high-capacity QLC SSDs make for one of the most compelling choices available today. Especially compelling is its exceptional sequential read throughput as well as its 4K and 8K random read throughput where it delivers more than any of its kind that we've ever encountered.

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It's the best of its kind that we've encountered to date. Editor's Choice.