Performance Evaluation of Cache Implementation at Physical Storage Layer for Virtualization Environment

Storage was the major challenge for the overall performance in virtualization environment which also define overall user experience. One solution to overcome the performance problem in storage without having to upgrade the physical storage that requires a lot of costs is to use the cache solution. Its implementation can be seen from the perspective of 3 layers. Previously, only cache solution at layer 2 and 3 that support read-and-write cache (write-back mode), while layer 1 approach was limited to read-only cache (write-through mode). The development of technology introduced new model of storage controller that equipped with write-back function for cache. The experimental tests performed within the scope of this paper try to identify the potential performance improvement of using layer 1 cache at the storage layer (write-back mode) on VMware-based virtualization environment. The test results showed that the layer 1 cache can also be relied-on, from the composition implemented within the tests using SSD media, the performance improvement was up-to 4.71 times compared with the baseline score (a condition without cache acceleration).