Micron 9400 Pro 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review – A new level of performance

Introduction and Drive Details

Today Micron is unveiling the very best-performing PCIe Gen4 SSD we have ever come throughout. Micron’s 9400 sequence of enterprise SSDs are designed to handle essentially the most demanding knowledge middle workloads, together with synthetic intelligence, machine studying, and excessive-performance computing functions. The 9400 sequence, like its rapid predecessor, the 7450 series, comes arrayed with Micron’s extremely prolific 176-Layer B47R 3-bit flash.

This stuff is tremendous-quick, as we noticed with the 7450 Pro, which we reviewed again in November. Micron’s B47R by way of the 7450 Pro delivered the very best performance we have ever obtained from a flash-based mostly SSD.

Even although it is arrayed with the identical B47R flash, the 9400 Pro is a really completely different animal from the mainstream 7450 Pro. The 9400 sequence is way more highly effective, succesful of delivering an unprecedented 1.6 million IOPS over PCIe Gen4 and sequential write throughput of as much as 7,000 MB/s. In addition to delivering as much as 60% extra IOPS than the 7450 sequence, the 9400 sequence doubles the footprint effectivity, with capability factors of as much as 30.72 TB.

By doubling capability per SSD, Micron is enabling enterprises to retailer the identical quantity of knowledge in half as many servers. As we see it, the 9400 sequence is essentially the most environment friendly knowledge middle SSD in existence.

Unlike the 7450 sequence, which is on the market in a number of type elements, the 9400 sequence is U.2/U.3 solely and solely 15mm at that. This is smart as 15mm U.3 provides the very best capability potential in addition to performance potential. This is essentially the most environment friendly configuration in phrases of TCO per IOP generated. The 9400 sequence permits a variety of knowledge middle workloads and does so with the appropriate mix of performance, capability, and endurance.

Micron’s 9400 Pro Series is being launched alongside a write-intensive model designated because the 9400 MAX. The extra closely overprovisioned MAX model is rated for 3 drive writes per day, whereas the Pro is rated for one drive write per day. Read performance for each variations is equivalent, however regular-state write performance for the MAX model is double that of the Pro, providing as much as 600,000 IOPS.

Specs/Comparison Products

VIEW GALLERY – 30 IMAGES

Micron 9400 Pro 7.68 TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 x4 U.3 SSD

The prime of the drive’s aluminum alloy enclosure is typical for a 9000 sequence SSD. The underside is a deeply finned forged aluminum piece that serves as a heatsink.

Enterprise Testing Methodology

TweakTown strictly adheres to business-accepted Enterprise Solid State Storage testing procedures. Each take a look at we carry out repeats the identical sequence of the next 4 steps:

1. Secure Erase SSD
2. Write the whole capability of SSD a minimal of 2x with 128KB sequential write knowledge, seamlessly transition to the subsequent step
3. Precondition SSD at most QD measured (QD32 for SATA, QD256 for PCIe) with the take a look at-particular workload for a adequate quantity of time to succeed in a continuing regular-state, seamlessly transition to the subsequent step
4. Run take a look at-particular workload for five-minutes at every measured Queue Depth, and report outcomes

Benchmarks – Random and Sequential Performance

4K Random Write/Read

We precondition the drive for 16,000 seconds, receiving performance knowledge each second. We plot this knowledge to watch the take a look at topic’s descent into regular-state.

Steady-state is achieved at 4,000 seconds of preconditioning. The common regular-state write performance at QD256 is roughly 350K IOPS. The extraordinarily tight sample with nearly no outliers signifies excessive QoS.

We are hitting a max of 371,000 4K random write IOPS which is 71K higher than the said sustained 4K random write spec. By far the very best random write potential we have seen from any equally overprovisioned flash-based mostly SSD we have examined thus far. Impressive.

Random learn performance is the place performance issues most, most of the time, for almost all of use-case eventualities. Micron specs its 7.68TB 9400 Pro as succesful of delivering as much as 1.6 million IOPS right here.

We get shut at 1.53 million IOPS, which is by far the very best we have ever obtained from a flash-based mostly PCIe Gen4 SSD. We speculate that our Datacenter 2022 OS being barely much less environment friendly than Linux is the rationale we fall simply brief.

8K Random Write/Read

We precondition the drive for 16,000 seconds, receiving performance knowledge each second. We plot this knowledge to watch the take a look at topic’s descent into regular-state.

Steady-state is achieved at 4,000 seconds of preconditioning. The common regular-state write performance at QD256 is roughly 200K IOPS. The extraordinarily tight sample with nearly no outliers signifies excessive QoS.

We count on 8K random to trace precisely the identical as 4K random, simply at a decrease fee. The 9400 Pro 7.68TB performs as anticipated, which is the very best we have ever seen from a equally overprovisioned flash-based mostly SSD.

The 9400 Pro does what the 7450 Pro could not by delivering a performance curve superior to that of the D7-P5520. Impressive.

128K Sequential Write/Read

We precondition the drive for six,500 seconds, receiving performance knowledge each second. Steady-state for this take a look at kicks in at 0 seconds. The common regular-state sequential write performance at QD256 is roughly 7,050 MB/s.

Unprecedented sequential programming throughput at queue depths of 4 or increased. For some perspective, that is 60% higher than its most important competitor, the D7-P5520.

Better than marketed sequential throughput right here and, extra impressively, the second-finest performance curve we have recorded for this take a look at.

Benchmarks – Server Workloads

Email Server

An Email Server workload is a demanding 8K take a look at with a 50 p.c R/W distribution. This software provides a very good indication of how properly a drive will carry out in a write-heavy workload setting.

We precondition the drive for 16,000 seconds, receiving performance knowledge each second. We plot this knowledge to watch the take a look at topic’s descent into regular-state.

Steady-State is achieved at roughly 8,000 seconds of preconditioning. The common regular-state workload performance at QD256 is roughly 305K IOPS. Our knowledge sample signifies extraordinarily good QoS, among the many finest we have seen for a flash-based mostly SSD.

This is performance that issues. Workloads are the place the rubber meets the street, and that is the place we start to see that Micron’s claims of its 9400 sequence SSD being the very best performing of its type are properly based. This is unbelievable as a result of we have now a 1 DWPD SSD (9400 Pro) beating a 3 DWPD SSD (CM6-V) in a workload with a 50% R/W distribution.

OLTP/Database Server

An On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) / Database workload is a demanding 8K take a look at with a 66/33 p.c R/W distribution. OLTP is on-line processing of monetary transactions and excessive-frequency buying and selling.

We precondition the drive for 16,000 seconds, receiving performance knowledge each second. We plot this knowledge to watch the take a look at topic’s descent into regular-state.

Steady-state is achieved at 6,000 seconds of preconditioning. The common regular-state workload performance at QD256 is roughly 390K IOPS. Again, the information sample signifies distinctive QoS.

Another lab report for a flash-based mostly SSD. Here once more, we’re getting unprecedented performance from our take a look at topic in {that a} equally interfaced 1 DWPD SSD isn’t anticipated to outperform a 3 DWPD SSD when writing knowledge is an effective chunk of the combo. Stunning actually.

Web Server

A Web Server workload is a pure random learn take a look at with a variety of file sizes, starting from 512B to 512KB at various share charges per file measurement.

We precondition the drive for 16,000 seconds, receiving performance knowledge each second. We plot this knowledge to watch the take a look at topic’s descent into regular-state.

We precondition for this take a look at with an inverted (all-write) workload, so no related data could be gleaned from this preconditioning.

It could possibly be stated that this take a look at, particularly, is essentially the most demanding we run. For instance, simply take a look at what it does to the CM6-V. We have been extremely impressed by the 7450’s performance right here, because it produced the very best outcomes for a flash-based mostly SSD we might ever seen.

We assumed the 7450 demonstrated the height of what B47R is succesful of delivering. Wrong. Our take a look at topic demonstrates that B47R can ship way over we imagined potential.

At a staggering 442K IOPS, our take a look at topic is cranking out 43% extra performance than something in its class. This is actual performance, performance that issues, and we must say the only most spectacular end result we have ever obtained from a flash-based mostly SSD.

Final Thoughts

After testing its rapid predecessor, the 7450 Pro, we got here to the conclusion that in an enterprise setting, B47R total delivers higher than something we have come throughout thus far. So, once we caught wind of the B47R arrayed Micron 9400, we knew it could be a superior performer, possibly a bit quicker and or increased capability than the 7450. What we did not anticipate was the 9400 sequence taking B47R to a complete different level and doing so the place beneficial properties are the toughest to return by.

Micron’s 9400 Pro is by far the very best-performing flash-based mostly SSD of its type we have ever examined. Additionally, with capacities as much as 30.72TB, it is simply essentially the most environment friendly in phrases of TCO, which is outlined as footprint, IOPS per watt, and per machine density.

A new level of performance. Editor’s Choice.