Seagate IronWolf Pro 22TB HDD Capsule Review

Seagate’s IronWolf Professional lineup of onerous drives for network-attached storage models has persistently supplied good worth for cash, significantly on the highest capability factors. I bought two 22TB IronWolf Professional drives for manufacturing deployment late final 12 months. As a part of the burn-in testing previous to precise deployment, they had been put by our analysis routine for direct-attached storage drives in each inner and exterior (Thunderbolt 3 DAS) modes. This capsule overview presents an summary of the efficiency you possibly can count on from the drive in standalone, RAID 0, and RAID 1 modes.

Introduction and Product Specs

Knowledge storage necessities have saved rising over the past a number of years. SSDs have taken over the function of the first drive in most computing programs. Nonetheless, on the subject of sheer bulk storage, onerous drives (HDDs) proceed to be the storage media of alternative in areas coping with massive quantities of comparatively chilly information. The Seagate IronWolf Professional NAS onerous drive household targets NAS models as much as 24 bays and is supposed for artistic professionals, SOHO, and small-to-medium enterprises. These CMR SATA drives have a workload score of 550 TB/yr, unrecoverable learn error price (URE) of 1 in 10E15, MTBF of 1.2M hours, and a rated load/unload cycle of 600K for the heads. The household carries a 5-year guarantee. The 22TB model comprises ten platters with an areal density of 1260 Gb/in². It has a 512MB DRAM cache. Acoustics vary from 20 dBA to 34 dBA relying upon the working mode.

We put two IronWolf Professional 22TB NAS HDDs to check in three distinct configurations:

All programs had been up to date to the most recent model of Home windows 11 22H2. It have to be famous that for the final a number of years Home windows has been interfering with the efficiency of detachable storage drives linked by way of Thunderbolt / PCIe by disabling the write caching fully. Due to this fact, the RAID0 and RAID1 configurations had been evaluated in two modes every – one with write caching off (default / ‘Fast elimination’ below Disk Properties > Coverage), and one other with the write caching on (‘Higher efficiency’ mode below Disk Properties > Coverage).

The S.M.A.R.T readout for the completely different configurations are offered beneath.

S.M.A.R.T Passthrough – CrystalDiskInfo
Seagate IronWolf Professional 22TBx2 – RAID 1 – Defaultx2 – RAID 0 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 1 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 0 – Default	x2 – RAID 1 – Defaultx2 – RAID 0 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 1 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 0 – DefaultSeagate IronWolf Professional 22TB

Artificial Benchmarks – ATTO and CrystalDiskMark

Benchmarks resembling ATTO and CrystalDiskMark assist present a fast have a look at the efficiency of the storage units. Seagate claims speeds of as much as 285 MBps. That is simply hit at larger queue depths within the CrystalDiskMark sequential workloads. ATTO numbers attain as much as 270 MBps for sequential workloads with switch sizes as small as 8KB.

ATTO Benchmarks
TOP: Seagate IronWolf Professional 22TBx2 – RAID 1 – Defaultx2 – RAID 0 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 1 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 0 – Default	BOTTOM: x2 – RAID 1 – Defaultx2 – RAID 0 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 1 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 0 – DefaultSeagate IronWolf Professional 22TB

CrystalDiskMark makes use of 4 completely different entry traces for reads and writes over a configurable area measurement. Two of the traces are sequential accesses, whereas two are 4K random accesses. Internally, CrystalDiskMark makes use of the Microsoft DiskSpd storage testing instrument. The ‘Seq128K Q32T1’ sequential traces use 128K block measurement with a queue depth of 32 from a single thread, whereas the ‘4K Q32T16’ one does random 4K accesses with the identical queue configuration, however from a number of threads. The ‘Seq1M’ traces use a 1MiB block measurement. The plain ‘Rnd4K’ one makes use of solely a single queue and single thread .

CrystalDiskMark Benchmarks
TOP: Seagate IronWolf Professional 22TBx2 – RAID 1 – Defaultx2 – RAID 0 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 1 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 0 – Default	BOTTOM: x2 – RAID 1 – Defaultx2 – RAID 0 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 1 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 0 – DefaultSeagate IronWolf Professional 22TB

Actual-World Benchmarking – File Switch Workloads

Many of the NAS disk exercise in dwelling client and SOHO use-cases is expounded to file transfers. This may increasingly contain massive quantities of multimedia content material and/or paperwork. Efficiency analysis for this use-case includes 5 completely different workloads:

• AV: Multimedia content material with audio and video recordsdata totalling 24.03 GB over 1263 recordsdata in 109 sub-folders
• Dwelling: Photographs and doc recordsdata totalling 18.86 GB over 7627 recordsdata in 382 sub-folders
• BR: Blu-ray folder construction totalling 23.09 GB over 111 recordsdata in 10 sub-folders
• ISOs: OS set up recordsdata (ISOs) totalling 28.61 GB over 4 recordsdata in a single folder
• Disk-to-Disk: Addition of 223.32 GB unfold over 171 recordsdata in 29 sub-folders to the above 4 workloads (whole of 317.91 GB over 9176 recordsdata in 535 sub-folders)

Aside from the ‘Disk-to-Disk’ workload, every information set is first positioned in a 29GB RAM drive, and a robocopy command is situation to switch it to the storage unit formatted in NTFS.

robocopy /NP /MIR /NFL /J /NDL /MT:8 $SRC_PATH $DEST_PATH

Upon completion of the switch (write check), the contents from the unit are learn again into the RAM drive (learn check) after a ten second idling interval. This course of is repeated thrice for every workload. Learn and write speeds, in addition to the time taken to finish every go are recorded. Each time potential, the temperature of the exterior storage system is recorded throughout the idling intervals. Bandwidth for every information set is computed as the typical of all three passes.

The ‘Disk-to-Disk’ workload includes an identical course of, however with one iteration solely. The information is copied to the exterior unit from the CPU-attached NVMe drive, after which copied again to the interior drive. It does embody extra quantity of steady information switch in a single route, as information that does not match within the RAM drive can also be a part of the workload set.

Audio and Video LearnAudio and Video WriteBlu-ray Folder LearnBlu-ray Folder WriteDisk-to-Disk LearnDisk-to-Disk WriteISOs LearnISOs WritePhotographs and Paperwork LearnPhotographs and Paperwork WriteBroaden All

Efficiency throughout all of the workloads is as per expectations, and is basically depending on file sizes. For big-sized recordsdata, the numbers method the marketed specs. RAID0 clearly has a bonus for these sequential workloads, and there’s vital gulf for write workloads between the ‘write caching on’ and ‘off’ settings.

Along with monitoring the instantaneous learn and write speeds of the drive when processing the above workloads, the temperature of the drive was additionally recorded. The graphs beneath current the recorded information. For small recordsdata, the write speeds (as learn periodically from the Home windows counters) must be smoothened, however the common time for every element has already been recorded within the graphs above.

File Switch Workloads – Efficiency Consistency
TOP: Seagate IronWolf Professional 22TBx2 – RAID 1 – Defaultx2 – RAID 0 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 1 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 0 – Default	BOTTOM: x2 – RAID 1 – Defaultx2 – RAID 0 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 1 – Write Cache Onx2 – RAID 0 – DefaultSeagate IronWolf Professional 22TB

Actual-World Benchmarking – Utility Traces utilizing PCMark 10 Storage Bench

There are a variety of storage benchmarks that may topic a tool to synthetic entry traces by various the combination of reads and writes, the entry block sizes, and the queue depth / variety of excellent information requests. We noticed outcomes from two standard ones – ATTO, and CrystalDiskMark – in a earlier part. Extra severe benchmarks, nevertheless, truly replicate entry traces from real-world workloads to find out the suitability of a selected system for a selected workload. Actual-world entry traces could also be used for simulating the habits of computing actions which are restricted by storage efficiency. Examples embody booting an working system or loading a selected sport from the disk.

PCMark 10’s storage bench (launched in v2.1.2153) contains 4 storage benchmarks that use related real-world traces from standard purposes and customary duties to completely check the efficiency of the most recent fashionable drives:

• The Full System Drive Benchmark makes use of a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from standard purposes and customary duties to completely check the efficiency of the quickest fashionable drives. It includes a complete of 204 GB of write visitors.
• The Fast System Drive Benchmark is a shorter check with a smaller set of much less demanding real-world traces. It topics the system to 23 GB of writes.
• The Knowledge Drive Benchmark is designed to check drives which are used for storing recordsdata fairly than purposes. These sometimes embody NAS drives, USB sticks, reminiscence playing cards, and different exterior storage units. The system is subjected to fifteen GB of writes.
• The Drive Efficiency Consistency Check is a long-running and very demanding check with a heavy, steady load for skilled customers. In-depth reporting reveals how the efficiency of the drive varies below completely different situations. This writes greater than 23 TB of information to the drive.

The Full System Drive Benchmark contains of 23 completely different traces. For the aim of presenting outcomes, we classify them below 5 completely different classes:

• Boot: Replay of storage entry hint recorded whereas booting Home windows 10
• Inventive: Replay of storage entry traces recorded throughout the begin up and utilization of Adobe purposes resembling Acrobat, After Results, Illustrator, Premiere Professional, Lightroom, and Photoshop.
• Workplace: Replay of storage entry traces recorded throughout the utilization of Microsoft Workplace purposes resembling Excel and Powerpoint.
• Gaming: Replay of storage entry traces recorded throughout the begin up of video games resembling Battlefield V, Name of Responsibility Black Ops 4, and Overwatch.
• File Transfers: Replay of storage entry traces (Write-Solely, Learn-Write, and Learn-Solely) recorded throughout the switch of information resembling ISOs and pictures.

PCMark 10 additionally generates an total rating, bandwidth, and common latency quantity for fast comparability of various drives. The sub-sections in the remainder of the web page reference the entry traces specified within the PCMark 10 Technical Information.

Booting Home windows 10

The read-write bandwidth recorded for every drive within the boo entry hint is offered beneath.

Home windows 10 BootBroaden All

Inventive Workloads

The read-write bandwidth recorded for every drive within the sacr, saft, sill, spre, slig, sps, aft, exc, ailing, ind, psh, and psl entry traces are offered beneath.

Startup – Adobe AcrobatStartup – Adobe After ResultsStartup – Adobe IllustratorStartup – Adobe LightroomStartup – Adobe PhotoshopStartup – Adobe Premiere ProfessionalUtilization – Adobe After ResultsUtilization – Adobe IllustratorUtilization – Adobe InDesignUtilization – Adobe Photoshop HeavyUtilization – Adobe Photoshop GentleBroaden All

Workplace Workloads

The read-write bandwidth recorded for every drive within the exc and pow entry traces are offered beneath.

Utilization – Microsoft ExcelUtilization – Microsoft PowerpointBroaden All

Gaming Workloads

The read-write bandwidth recorded for every drive within the bf, cod, and ow entry traces are offered beneath.

Startup – Battlefield VStartup – Name of Responsibility Black Ops 4Startup – OverwatchBroaden All

Information Switch Workloads

The read-write bandwidth recorded for every drive within the cp1, cp2, cp3, cps1, cps2, and cps3 entry traces are offered beneath.

Duplicating ISOs (Learn-Write)Duplicating Photographs (Learn-Write)Exporting ISOs (Write-Solely)Exporting Photographs (Write-Solely)Importing ISOs (Learn-Solely)Importing Photographs (Learn-Solely)Broaden All

Total Scores

PCMark 10 studies an total rating based mostly on the noticed bandwidth and entry instances for the complete workload set. The rating, bandwidth, and common entry latency for every of the drives are offered beneath.

Full System Drive Benchmark Bandwidth (MBps)Full System Drive Benchmark Latency (us)Full System Drive Benchmark RatingBroaden All

Energy Consumption

The facility consumption of each the 5V and 12V rails was tracked utilizing Quarch’s HD Programmable Energy Module with the disk linked to the legacy SATA HDD testbed. The graph beneath presents the recorded numbers whereas processing the CrystalDiskMark workload and following it up with 5 minutes of idling.

The HDD specs do permit for peak currents of as a lot as 2A on the 12V rail, and we see that taking place. Nonetheless, for the overwhelming majority of the motion, the drive energy is round 7W, with the quantity dropping right down to 2.8W below ‘idling’ situations. It’s potential that the drive enters an much more decrease energy state after prolonged idling.

Concluding Remarks

Whereas enterprise information storage necessities have skyrocketed within the final decade or so, the height capability improve in HDDs has surpassed the necessities in client and SOHO eventualities. When 4TB and 6TB HDDs had been the norm, I used to run 8-bay NAS models (nonetheless have a few these in use) with drives configured in RAID5. Rebuilds weren’t significantly nice. Since then, HDD capacities have elevated, however peak speeds haven’t scaled up (they aren’t even on the SATA 6 Gbps restrict but). Performing RAID5 / RAID6 rebuilds with 10TB+ HDDs, whereas praying fervently for one more disk within the array to not fail, is finest prevented. Fortunately, elevated HDD capacities have made it possible to function drive arrays in RAID10. For a 4-bay array, RAID5 operation with 10TB HDDs would have yielded 30TB of usable storage with help for a single disk failure (and hoping that one does not have to rebuild). With 22TB HDDs, RAID10 operation gives 44TB of usable area with help for twin disk failure (so long as they aren’t from the identical mirrored set). Rebuilds contain copying over information from the opposite drive within the mirrored set, and don’t stress the remainder of the drives within the array. It’s a completely different matter that 6+ bays are nonetheless helpful in dwelling and SOHO eventualities for SSD caching and working different purposes (resembling VMs) from the SSD volumes.

At the moment, the 22TB drives appear to supply one of the best $/TB metric at larger capacities, significantly after the launch of the 24TB drives (which command a premium, as anticipated). I had bought them for $400 every, however the value continues to fluctuate round that mark. Having seen a number of studies on varied boards about some IronWolf Professional 22TB HDDs being dead-on-arrival and needing to be RMA-ed, I used to be a bit apprehensive at first. Luckily, the drives I bought managed to finish their burn-in course of with none hiccups. Efficiency is nothing to write down dwelling about, however I might be configuring them in RAID1 (for now), with plans to shift to RAID10 later.