White Paper

Samsung PM853T SSD for mail servers

Exceptional performance and cost-efficiency specifically designed for mail server use

2

Reduce mail server maintenance costs while satisfying workload demands

Keep mail servers running smoothly and TCO low with

high-performance Samsung SSDs

Typically, traditional HDDs have been used for data centers but more

recently data centers are migrating to SSDs to boost performance,

save space and reduce maintenance costs, resulting in an overall

reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO). Data centers are realizing

the benefits of SSDs in mail server applications in particular.

Mail servers are used in virtually all businesses and are responsible

for communication within and outside organizations. Communications

include mail traffic, Short Message Service (SMS) and a variety of

other messaging. Whether using laptops, mobile phones or tablets,

employees need to access company resources through the Internet

wherever they may be.

Data centers that continue to use HDDs for their mail servers are

finding poor latency rates due to the drives' spinning magnetic disks

and the mechanical action of their head arms, which create a delay

in data retrieval and ultimately slow down the speed of the entire

system. The latency rate of HDDs is measured in tens of milliseconds

to hundreds of milliseconds compared to microseconds with SSDs.

The Input/Output (I/O) bottleneck with most mail servers is caused

by high disk queuing. And, as the number of I/O workloads pending

on the device queue bottlenecks, the disk queuing increases thereby

reducing the system performance as a whole. As a result, heavy

workloads pose the biggest challenge to data center mail servers that

still use HDDs.

Storage requirements for email servers can vary depending on the

email size, number of emails, type and number of users. While small

departmental email servers may need limited storage and features,

large corporate ones require greater storage capacity and a high

level of availability, performance and scalability. Of course, the server

workload varies depending on the number of users, and the size of

the emails and their attachments. Transactions performed by the

users mainly include writing new emails (write), reading emails (read),

replying to existing ones (append) and deleting them (write). All these

transactions happen in parallel, and vary in size and volume.

Often a single mail server will provide mail server solutions to several

organizations of various sizes and process multiple transactions a

day. For example, if a mail server supports ten thousand users, the

server must be able to process ten thousand transactions a second,

placing a higher demand on HDDs. From a user experience (UX)

perspective, the user expects to be able to send, read or delete

emails within a one-second mouse click; hence the need for ten

thousand transactions per second when serving ten thousand users.

Samsung has developed the PM853T SSD specifically tailored to

meet taxing mail server volume demands while reducing TCO.

3

Compare the performance of the Samsung PM853T SSD to a typical data center HDD

Weigh the advantages of the Samsung PM853T SSD

In order to accurately test the performance of its PM853T SSD in a

real mail server scenario, Samsung tested it against an HDD that is

widely used in the data center field. To simulate real-world workloads

and actual mail server traffic, Samsung used the popular mail

server benchmarking tool Postmark™,1 widely used by various SSD

manufacturers and other Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)

vendors to benchmark their SSDs in the mail server environment.

Postmark performs operations such as read, append, create and

delete, replicating real-world scenarios.

Samsung used four threads of the Postmark tool to simulate the

assumed workloads of four organizations performing random mail

server operations simultaneously with ten thousand users sending

and receiving mail every second. Each user had two gigabytes of mail

capacity. Plus, all performance measurements were executed under

the steady state of the SSD rather than in the Fresh Out of the Box

(FOB) state, which typically has a much higher write performance

than later on.

When compared with typical data center HDDs, the Samsung

PM853T SSDs delivered higher transactions per second (TPS),

less procurement costs, lower power consumption, higher storage

capacity and a higher endurance rating.

Test Environment

System Configuration

Proccssor Used Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2690 v2 @ 3.00GHz

Motherboard HP, ProLiant DL380p Gen8

NO.of CPU 40

RAM 256 GB

OS RHEL 7.0, 3.10.0-123.6.3.el7x86_64

Host Interface Mode AHCI

SSD

Size 960GB

Model MZ-7GE960

Firmware EXT0303Q

Conneeted as Secondary Storage (ext4 File system)

HDD

Size 1 TB

Model ST91000640NS

Connected as Secondary Storage (ext4 File system)

RAID RAID 5 with 8 HDDs / SSDs

Tool Postmark v1.5

Table 1. Mail server test environment

4

Generate higher throughput regardless of the transaction volume

Maintain high TPS rates during workload fluctuations

In the TPS tests under a Postmark workload, the Samsung PM853T

SSDs produced overwhelmingly superior performance in transaction

processing capabilities compared with the HDDs.

The graph in Figure 1 depicts the total TPS for all transactions and

detailed TPS in each thread of eight Samsung PM853T SSDs and

eight data center HDDs in a Redundant Array of Independent Disk

(RAID) 5 environment for all mail server workloads. The results

demonstrate that the PM853T SSDs performed 7.6 times faster than

the HDDs in a mail server environment.

These results further demonstrated that the PM853T SSDs are able

to accept all transactions that can be generated by different kinds

of organizations. In addition, the PM853T SSDs steadily showed

much higher throughputs in spite of the increasing number of initial

emails from 50K to 500K, concluding that the PM853T SSDs are the

preferred choice for mail servers.

Figure 1. Completion time and TPS comparison between the PM853T

and the data center HDD

Data center HDD Samsung PM853T SSD

TPS Comparison in Each Thread

TPS

Number of Inltial Mails

1200

900

600

300

0

50K 100K 200K 500K

766 769896

1029

115 115 116 106

Total TPS Comparison

Tota

l TPS

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

452

3460

5

Lower TCO with less procurement costs

Process more transactions with less equipment outlays

In order for a data center to run profitably, it needs to store as much

data on a drive as possible to reduce costly device expenditures.

That's why the PM853T SSD is the ideal option for reducing

procurement costs when compared with HDDs. To put these costs

into perspective, it would take 184 HDDs to achieve ten thousand

TPS data management functions compared to only 24 PM853T

SSDs. The reason being is that HDDs can typically perform only 452

TPS. However, when PM853T SSDs were installed using a RAID 5

storage setup, performance test results were 3,460 TPS. To fulfill the

performance requirement of 10K TPS, 3* (10K TPS / 3,460 TPS) are

needed for RAID 5 storage. Since each RAID 5 storage setup consists

of 8 SSDs, a total of 24 PM853T SSDs are needed, compared

with a total of 184 HDDs necessary to fulfill the same performance

requirements.

* The exact value of 2.8 has been rounded up for practical usage purposes.

For example, in the previously discussed user scenario, with 10K

users and assuming each user has stored a large amount of the 2

GB of space on the server, the total space needed would be 20 TB.

Using the RAID 5 setup, 24 SSDs would provide nearly 20 TB, which

would satisfy the storage requirements. On the other hand, 184 HDDs

provide approximately 155 TB of space, which is considerably more

space than required to meet the needs of the 10K users. Therefore,

mail server data centers only need to procure the storage capacity

they need when choosing SSDs.

In addition, to house 184 HDDs in a RAID 5 configuration, only 25

HDDs would able to be placed in a server. The remaining HDDs

would need to be housed in seven disk enclosures, with 25 HDDs

in each enclosure. Using this setup, the data center would still need

to purchase an external RAID controller to be able to connect the

disk enclosures to the server, further increasing TCO. Since a typical

server can house up to 25 SSDs, a mail server can be configured

with just one server using SSDs.The estimated procurement costs for

setting up the below HDD and SSD mail servers are shown in Table 2.

Setup RequiredSamsung SSDs HDDs

QuantityApprox.

CostQuantity

Approx.Cost

Number of devices

24 $21,5762 184 $46,0003

Number of Servers needed

1 $6,5294 1 $6,529

Number of Enclosures needed

0 $0 7 $23,7935

External HBAs needed

0 $0 1 $7996

Total Cost - $28,105 - $77,121

Table 2. Approximate procurement costs of a mail server setup with

SSDs versus HDDs*

* Please note : These figures are merely approximations and can vary depending on the equipment usaed and the manufacturers.

24 SSDs Server

SSD Configuration

9 HDDs

25 HDDs

25 HDDs

25 HDDs

25 HDDs

25 HDDs

25 HDDs

25 HDDs Server

Disk Enclosuse

HDD Configuration

6

Reduce power consumption and maintain a high endurance rating

Save costs with the highly power-efficient PM853T SSD

Usually, HDDs consume more power than SSDs because of their

mechanical disk movements. A typical data center HDD consumes

5.21 Watts in one hour whereas the Samsung PM853T SSD

consumes just 3.25 W in an hour,7 which equates to nearly 40 percent8

less power consumption than the data center HDD. In addition, HDDs

generally generate more heat than SSDs due to their moving parts.

Considering that 70 percent of actual power consumed by both SSDs

and HDDs is needed for cooling purposes,9 clearly a large amount of

energy is devoted to cooling an HDD alone.

Table 3. TCO comparison of PM853T and data center HDD

Sustain write performance with high endurance rates

Normally, the endurance rate of an SSD is determined in terms of

Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD). DWPD for a PM853T SSD with a mail

server workload is 1.2. This clearly conveys that the maximum of

1.1 TB(1.2x960GB) per day can be written to a PM853T SSD for a

5-year warranty period. According to statistical research performed

by a well-known firm, the average number of emails sent and received

by a user per day in a corporate organization is 12110 with the average

mail size considered to be 256 KB.

Taking these statistics into consideration, the total amount of data

bytes written to an SSD in the mail server environment with 10K

users is approximately 295 GB of data written to 24 SSDs in the mail

server setup per day. Factoring in that the write endurance limit of

the PM853T is 1.1 TB a day per SSD in an email server, the actual

data written is close to 295 GB per day, which is much less than the

maximum limit. These calculations conclude that the PM853T SSD

has high endurance and is able to sustain the writes needed in a mail

server scenario.

Leverage performance and efficiency in an SSD that lowers

TCO

In summation, when compared with a traditional HDD, the Samsung

PM853T SSD provides higher random I/O throughput with less

response time at a lower cost. In addition, the PM853T SSD is

physically denser, costs less per gigabyte in the long term and

consumes less energy. The PM853T also supports a significantly

higher transaction rate than HDDs, which improved overall throughput

and the user experience (UX).

Along with the impressive comparisons, the PM853T boasts

innovative features such as an advanced Error-Correcting Code (ECC)

engine, enhanced end-to-end data security, power-loss protection, a

host of SMART features, thermal throttling and full support for robust

storage architecture.

The Samsung PM853T SSD is engineered to meet the high

performance demands of mail servers, while simultaneously reducing

power and cooling costs, resulting in effectively reducing TCO.

Factoring in all these benefits, it is clear why the Samsung PM853T

SSD is the smart choice for mail server applications.

All data and test results aforementioned in this brochure were

determined within a Samsung data lab and are subject to change

based on varying conditions and their specific circumstances.

ParametersData Center

HDDSamsung

PM853T SSD

Number of Devices Needed

184 24

Procurement Cost (Devices, Servers, Enclosures)

$77,121 $28,105

Power Consumption Cost on Devices (5 Years)

$5,038.61 $409.97

Cooling Power Consumption Cost on Devices (5 Years)

$3,527.03 $286.98

TCO $85,686.64 $28,801.95

7

Technical Specification

Samsung PM853T

Capacity 240 GB, 480 GB, 960 GB is available

Application Mixed and read-centric usages are recommended

Weight 63 g (2.22 oz)

Dimensions (L x W x H)

100.2 ± 0.25 x 69.85 ± 0.25 x 6.8 ± 0.2 mm (3.94 ± 0.01 x 2.75 ± 0.01 x 0.27 ± 0.01 in.)

For the thickness size, drive label thickness was included

Interface Serial ATA 6 Gbps (Compatible with SATA 3 Gbps and STAT 1.5 Gbps)

Form factor 2.5 inch

NAND flash memory Samsung 19nm toggle 3-bit MLC NAND

Performance

Host transfer : 600 MB/s

Sequential read : Up to 530 MB/s

Sequential write : Up to 410 MB/s (480 GB, 960 GB)

Up to 270 MB/s (240 GB)

Random read : Max. 87,000 IOPS (4 KB, QD 32)

Random write : Max. 15,000 IOPS (960 GB)

Max. 13,000 IOPS (480 GB)

Max. 12,000 IOPS (240 GB)

Quality of service(99.9%)

4 KB, QD = 1 Read : 0.2 ms / Write : 4 ms

4 KB, QD = 32 Read : 0.6 ms / Write : 7 ms

LatencyRead (4 KB) 115 us (240 GB. 480 GB), 110 us (960 GB)

Write (4 KB) 65 us (240 GB), 55 us (480 GB), 50 us (960 GB)

Reliability 1,500,000 hours Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

Terabytes written (Best / Worst)

240 GB : 695 TB / 165 TB 480 GB : 1,390 TB / 330 TB 960 GB : 2,780 TB / 665 TB

Power consumptionActive read / write : 2.6 Watt / 3.4 Watt

Idle : 1.1 Watt

TemperatureOperating : 0°C to 70°C (32°F to 158°F)

Non-operating : -55°C to 95°C (-67°F to 203°F)

Humidity 5% to 95%, non-condensing

Vibration 7 ~ 800 Hz, 3.08 Grms, 30 min / axis (X,Y,Z)

Shock 1,500 G, duration 0.5 m sec, Half Shin Wave

Certification BSMI, KCC, VCCI, C-Tick, FCC, IC, UL, TUV, and CV

8

Postmark is a trademark of Wildbit, LLC.

1. Postmark Tool, http://www.filesystems.org/docs/auto-pilot/Postmark.

html ; Postmark Tool Instructions, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~davidg/

postmark_instructions.html

2. SSD Cost http://www.samsung.com/us/business/computing/solid-

state-drives/MZ-7GE960EW

3. HDD Cost, http://www.seagate.com/products/enterprise-

servers-storage/nearline-storage/enterprise-capacity-2-5-

hdd/?sku=ST91000640NS

4. Server Cost, http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/

WFS/WW-USSMBPublicStore-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewProductDetail-Star

t;pgid=jDJwlVlq2W9SR0Yk2kO1Yuen0000Zj4hdWXm;sid=tc2lsVXpL8um

sQHf1Gi5OI3mZ8OdwJCItms=?ProductUUID=aqIQ7EN5WfgAAAFGMVk

TA48g&CatalogCategoryID=.o8Q7hacfswAAAE1A3ITSTR8

5. HP D2700 Disk Enclosure Cost, http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/

INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/WW-USSMBPublicStore-Site/en_US/-/USD/

ViewProductDetail-Start?ProductUUID=aVcQ7EN5m9EAAAEtBhJVIOI9&

CatalogCategoryID=jPEQ7habWNcAAAEyqIE8nozl&JumpTo=OfferList

6. External HBA Controller Cost, http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/

INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/WW-USSMBPublicStore-Site/en_US/-/USD/

ViewProductDetail-Start?ProductUUID=zS0Q7EN5DC0AAAEy6yFLuIs_&

CatalogCategoryID=

7. HDD Power Management, Data Sheet Design Small and Deliver BIG—

2.5-Inch, Eco-Friendly Nearline Drive http://www.seagate.com/www-

content/product-content/constellation-fam/constellation/constellation-2/

en-us/docs/constellation2-fips-ds1719-4-1207us.pdf

8. SSD Power Management, SAMSUNG SSD 845DC EVO

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY SPECIFICALLY

ENGINEERED FOR DATA CENTER USE, in Specifications Page-6 http://

www.samsung.com/us/system/consumer/product/mz/7g/e9

9. SynJet: Low-Power “Green” Cooling in Data Center Cooling costs

Page-2 http://www.nuventix.com/files/uploaded_files/Low%20

Power%20Cooling.pdf

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. inspires the world and shapes the

future with transformative ideas and technologies, redefining the

worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, cameras,

digital appliances, printers, medical equipment, network systems and

semiconductors. We are also leading in the Internet of Things space

through, among others, our Digital Health and Smart Home initiatives.

We employ 307,000 people across 84 countries. To discover more,

please visit our official website at www.samsung.com and our official

blog at global.samsungtomorrow.com.

For more information

For more information about Samsung SSD PM853T for mail servers,

visit www.samsung.com/business/ssd or www.samsungssd.com

Copyright © 2015 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Specifications and designs are subject to change without notice. Nonmetric weights and measurements are approximate. All data were deemed correct at time of creation. Samsung is not liable for errors or omissions. All brand, product, service names and logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized and acknowledged.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

416, Maetan 3-dong,

Yeongtong-gu

Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do 443-772,

Korea

www.samsung.com

2015-07

Legal and additional information