HP IO manual Trim support, Introduction to Trim, Trim platforms, Using Trim

Page 57

Trim support

Introduction to Trim

Trim is used to address a unique property of solid state drives. The issue occurs when a user deletes a file, and then the drive that contains the file does not recognize that it can reclaim that space. Instead, the drive reads the data as valid until the system informs the drive it can overwrite that data. With a typical hard drive you can continually write to the same sector of the drive without significant degradation. However, a solid state drive writes to different flash memory areas when the same logical sector is written to.

Because of the way flash memory handles writes, having a full SSD can cause significant reduction in write throughput. Currently available storage stacks and file systems were not designed with this caveat in mind. The SSD software must assume that all sectors contain valid data, and therefore treat the drive as full. In reality, a file system does not normally contain a full drive of data.

Trim is an enhancement to existing file systems that informs the SSD software of logical sectors that do not contain valid user data. Trim retrieves this information from a file system when a file has been deleted, and it informs the drive that it can reclaim the space held by that file. This feature enables the wear-leveling software to reclaim that space as reserve to handle future write operations.

For Trim to perform this task, it continually runs in the background and monitors the file systems being used on IO Accelerator devices. The process is meant to run in the background so as not to noticeably impact the performance of the computer.

Trim platforms

The Trim feature is available on IO Accelerators for Windows® operating systems starting with Windows® XP and Windows Server® 2003.

NOTE: Starting with Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2, Trim capabilities are built into the operating system. IO Accelerators support Windows® 7 Trim, which means that IO Accelerator Trim is unnecessary under Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2, and it will not run when either of these is present. No system changes are needed. The IO Accelerator Trim service automatically shuts off if it is attempting to run on a Windows® 7 or Windows Server® 2008 R2 or later operating system.

Using Trim

Trim runs quietly in the background as a Windows® Service a few minutes after the computer is started, so as not to slow down the boot process. However, you can also fine-tune Trim by using the configurable settings.

Trim support 57

Page 56 Page 58
Image 57
Page 56 Page 58
Contents HP IO Accelerator Version 3.2.3 Windows User Guide Page Contents Maintenance Resources About this guide Contents summaryIntroduction OverviewProduct naming IO Accelerator capacity 320GB 640GB Models AJ878B BK836A Performance attributesRequired operating environment Supported firmware revisionsSupported hardware Page Introduction Installation overview Uninstalling a previously-installed driverWindows Server environments Installing software on a Windows operating system Using the Setup Wizard Windows Server environments Windows Server environments Windows Server environments Windows Server environments Upgrading device firmware from VSL 1.x.x or 2.x.x to Fio-bugreport Upgrading procedureFio-update-iodrive iodriveversion.fff Manual installation on Windows ServerManually installing on Windows Server Manually installing on Windows Server 2008 Upgrading the device firmware using WindowsPerforming the upgrade Viewing the firmware versionFio-detach /dev/fct0 Upgrading driver software using WindowsWindows Server environments Silent install option DefragmentationOutdated firmware check IO Accelerator naming Enabling PCIe powerWindows Server environments Setting up Snmp for Windows operating systems Creating a RAID configurationFio-config -p Fiopreallocatememory 1072,4997,6710,10345 Snmp details for Windows operating systemsVia garbage collection Using test mode registry valuesSnmp test registry entry Description Snmp MIB fields supporting Windows ServerWindows Server environments Using installation logs Windows Installer logging optionsMsiexec /i C\MyPackage\Example.msi /L*V C\log\example.log Creating an installation log Creating an uninstall logCreating a patch install log Troubleshooting event log messages Automated logging with the Windows Installer Logging PolicyError ioDrivex Maintenance tools MaintenanceCommon maintenance tasks Uninstalling the IO Accelerator driver packageEnabling PCIe power override Unmanaged shutdown issuesEnabling Autoattach Enabling the override parameter Fio-config /dev/fct2 -p PCIeGLOBALSLOTPOWERLIMIT Fio-config /dev/fctx -p PCIeGLOBALSLOTPOWERLIMITUtilities Utilities referenceFio-attach Fio-bugreport Fio-beaconFio-attach device options Fio-beacon device optionsFio-config Fio-config device optionsCompressing Fioexternalpoweroverride Fio-config optionsFio-detach device options Fio-detachFio-format device options device Fio-formatFio-status Fio-pci-checkFio-pci-check options Options Fio-status device optionsFfield Geometry and capacity information not available. appears Fio-sure-erase options device Fio-sure-eraseFio-trim-config Fio-update-iodrive Fio-trim-config options OptionsFio-update-iodrive iodriveversion.fff options Format domainbusslot.func Nand flash and component failure Monitoring IO Accelerator healthHealth metrics Health monitoring techniquesSoftware RAID and health monitoring Flashback substitution eventsMonitoring IO Accelerator health Trim support Using TrimIntroduction to Trim Trim platformsStarting and stopping Trim Enabling TrimControlling Trim aggressiveness Trim configurations Configuring IO Accelerator paging support Using Windows page files with the IO AcceleratorIntroduction to Windows page files RAM consumptionFio-config -p Fiopreallocatememory Fio-config -p Fiopreallocatememory 1234,17834Fio-config -g Fiopreallocatememory Non-paged memory poolWindows page file management Setting up page filesGuaranteeing minimum committable memory System drive paging file configurationVirtual Memory performance Verifying page file operationDir c /ah Introduction to performance and tuning Performance and tuningDisabling Dvfs Limiting Apci C-statesSetting the interrupt handler affinity Setting Numa affinityFio-config -p Fioaffinity 4,n1,0xf5,n07,g19,g2,0xff0 Numa configurationIntroduction to Numa architecture Fioaffinity parameterAdvanced configuration example Fio-config -p Fioaffinity 5,g0,0xf6,0xf Checking the log for errorsSubscription service ResourcesFor more information Before you contact HP Support and other resourcesHP contact information Customer Self RepairRéparation par le client CSR Riparazione da parte del cliente Reparaciones del propio cliente Reparo feito pelo cliente Support and other resources Support and other resources Support and other resources Safety and regulatory compliance Warranty informationRegulatory information Numa Acronyms and abbreviationsSMI-S Documentation feedback Index Using the IO Accelerator as a swap
Top Page Image Contents