{ "slug": "sata-sas-nvme-measured-throughput", "title": "At 128K, one three-node vSAN cluster read 10,366 MB/s on NVMe, 4,566 MB/s on SAS, and 2,776 MB/s on SATA", "kind": "benchmark", "summary": "At 128K and 100 percent sequential read, one three-node VMware vSAN cluster reached 10,366 MB/s on KIOXIA CD6 NVMe, 4,566 MB/s on 12 Gbps SAS, and 2,776 MB/s on 6 Gbps SATA. Principled Technologies reported those cluster totals at each configuration's own 100 percent Vdbench IOrate. Hands-on testing ended 21 May 2021, the configurations were finalized on 14 April 2021 or earlier, and the KIOXIA-commissioned report is dated September 2021. The same rows show latency of 13.88 ms on NVMe and 3.51 ms on SATA, so the higher throughput is not a lower-latency result. The 6 Gbps and 12 Gbps figures are the printed link rates and are not converted to MB/s.", "license": "Small derived table of figures printed in Principled Technologies' September 2021 Vdbench report and science PDF, and in KIOXIA's April 2021 PCIe 4.0 NVMe FAQ (Rev. 2.5). The infographic states Copyright 2021 Principled Technologies, Inc. The science PDF says the project was commissioned by KIOXIA and disclaims warranties on accuracy, completeness, and quality. Neither disclaimer grants an open-data license. KIOXIA copyright 2021 applies to the FAQ ratings. This file cites those cells and does not mirror the PDFs.", "licenseUrl": "https://www.principledtechnologies.com/KIOXIA/RM5-Series-value-SAS-and-CD6-NVMe-mainstream-vs-SATA-Vdbench-science-0921.pdf", "sourceUrl": "https://www.principledtechnologies.com/KIOXIA/RM5-Series-value-SAS-and-CD6-NVMe-mainstream-vs-SATA-Vdbench-science-0921.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-11", "rowCount": 11, "columns": [ { "name": "figure_kind", "type": "string", "description": "measured_cluster, vendor_drive_rating, or interface_line_rate. These are different populations and are not interchangeable." }, { "name": "block_size_as_printed", "type": "string", "description": "Block size as the source prints it: 32K, 64K, 128K, or 128 KB. Not converted to bytes." }, { "name": "interface", "type": "string", "description": "SATA, SAS, NVMe, or PCIe." }, { "name": "cluster_throughput_mb_s", "type": "number", "description": "Three-node vSAN cluster throughput in MB/s as Principled Technologies printed it at 100 percent Vdbench IOrate. Blank when the row is not that measurement. The PDF does not define MB." }, { "name": "cluster_iops", "type": "number", "description": "Cluster input/output operations per second at the same 100 percent IOrate point. Blank when the row is not that measurement." }, { "name": "latency_ms", "type": "number", "description": "Latency in milliseconds at the same 100 percent IOrate point. Blank when the row is not that measurement." }, { "name": "link_rate_gbps", "type": "number", "description": "Link rate in Gbps as science PDF Table 4 prints it: 6 for SATA or 12 for SAS. Not converted to MB/s. Blank when the source does not print a Gbps figure." }, { "name": "vendor_sequential_read_mb_s", "type": "number", "description": "Single-drive sequential read in MB/s. KIOXIA defines 1 MB as 1,000,000 bytes. A vendor claim, not the vSAN cluster. Blank on cluster rows." }, { "name": "pcie_transfer_rate_gt_s", "type": "number", "description": "PCIe transfer rate in gigatransfers per second from KIOXIA FAQ Table 1. An interface rate, not a drive measurement." }, { "name": "pcie_x1_payload_gb_s", "type": "number", "description": "PCIe x1 payload throughput in GB/s from KIOXIA FAQ Table 1. Not a Vdbench result." }, { "name": "pcie_x4_payload_gb_s", "type": "number", "description": "PCIe x4 payload throughput in GB/s from KIOXIA FAQ Table 1. Not evidence that the tested server used four lanes." }, { "name": "drive_as_printed", "type": "string", "description": "Capacity-drive model from science PDF Table 4, or the FAQ series name on the vendor row. Blank on the interface-rate row." }, { "name": "link_as_printed", "type": "string", "description": "Interface label copied from the source, including words the numeric columns do not encode." }, { "name": "population", "type": "string", "description": "What the row counts: one three-node cluster, one vendor drive rating, or a reprinted interface rate." }, { "name": "result_date", "type": "string", "description": "2021-05-21 is the day Principled Technologies concluded hands-on testing. 2021-04 is the KIOXIA FAQ issue month, not a test day." }, { "name": "note", "type": "string", "description": "What the row is not, tied to a sentence in the cited file." }, { "name": "citation_id", "type": "string", "description": "Id of the opened source in the citations list." } ], "downloadPath": "/data/datasets/sata-sas-nvme-measured-throughput.csv", "limits": [ "Population: one three-node VMware vSAN cluster per interface, not a sample of clusters. Each node is an HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus with one disk group, two 3.84 TB capacity SSDs, and the same 800 GB KIOXIA KCM6XVUL800G NVMe cache, including the SATA configuration. Hands-on testing ended 21 May 2021. Configurations were finalized on 14 April 2021 or earlier. The report is dated September 2021 and was commissioned by KIOXIA. There is no confidence interval.", "Not measured: random I/O, writes, mixed read/write, block sizes other than 32K, 64K, and 128K, 24G SAS, per-drive throughput, and a comparison held to one shared latency. The MB/s cells are each configuration's own 100 percent point on a 10-to-120 percent Vdbench IOrate curve. The other curve points are not in this table.", "The report says vSAN services write I/O from the cache tier and read I/O from the capacity tier. It does not print a cache-hit counter. vSAN failures-to-tolerate and the RAID policy are not stated. The published parameter file repeats /dev/sdg on sd7 and sd9 and /dev/sdh on sd8 and sd10, while the prose says 24 VMs with ten 10 GB data disks, so the file does not show ten distinct LUNs.", "Link rate and measured throughput stay in the units the sources print. 6 Gbps and 12 Gbps are not converted to MB/s. The PCIe 4.0 row is KIOXIA's April 2021 reprint of PCI-SIG rates. Science PDF Table 4 does not state the tested NVMe drive's lane count.", "The 6,200 MB/s row is a KIOXIA vendor claim for one CD6-R drive at 3,840 GB, 128 KB, queue depth 32, with 1 MB defined as 1,000,000 bytes. The FAQ does not print part number KCD6XLUL3T84. The science PDF does not define the Vdbench MB, so the cluster MB/s cells are not divided by 6,200 here.", "Science PDF Table 2 prints hardware cost and IOPS per dollar. Those figures are not rows in this file." ], "citations": [ { "id": "pt-science-0921", "title": "The science behind the report: Process more read-heavy I/O with HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus servers configured with KIOXIA value SAS and NVMe mainstream SSDs (Principled Technologies, September 2021)", "url": "https://www.principledtechnologies.com/KIOXIA/RM5-Series-value-SAS-and-CD6-NVMe-mainstream-vs-SATA-Vdbench-science-0921.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-11" }, { "id": "pt-report-0921", "title": "Process more read-heavy I/O with HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus servers configured with KIOXIA value SAS and NVMe mainstream SSDs (Principled Technologies, September 2021)", "url": "https://www.principledtechnologies.com/KIOXIA/RM5-Series-value-SAS-and-CD6-NVMe-mainstream-vs-SATA-Vdbench-0921.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-11" }, { "id": "kioxia-faq-2021", "title": "What You Need To Know About PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, KIOXIA FAQ, April 2021, Rev. 2.5", "url": "https://www.kioxia.com/content/dam/kioxia/shared/business/ssd/asset/KIOXIA_What_You_Need_To_Know_About_PCIe_4_NVMe_SSDs_FAQ.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-11" }, { "id": "pt-infographic-0921", "title": "Principled Technologies Vdbench infographic, September 2021", "url": "https://www.principledtechnologies.com/KIOXIA/RM5-Series-value-SAS-and-CD6-NVMe-mainstream-vs-SATA-Vdbench-infographic-0921.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-11" } ] }