Upgrading Fujitsu ETERNUS DX Entry Storage Systems
In mid-May, Fujitsu introduced the first three models of the new generation of hybrid storage systems from the ETERNUS DX S4 series. The previous generation of these ETERNUS DX S3 storage systems was released in 2013–2015, now is the time to upgrade the line, which began with low-end models designed for small and medium-sized enterprises. About them today and tell.
Unlike a number of other players on the storage market, in which the product line is a combination of often incompatible systems of both its own design, products of OEM partners and absorbed companies, Fujitsu offers customers a series of systems of junior, middle and high class which is fully developed within the corporation and uses a single architecture and controls, and is licensed in a single scheme. Many of the functions of the high-end ETERNUS DX systems are supported in both mid-level and entry-level systems, which reduces the cost of maintaining the storage infrastructure and training system administrators, for example, you can easily migrate data between ETERNUS DX arrays not only of different classes, but also even different generations.
In developing the entry-level ETERNUS DX S4, storage problems that small companies face today are taken into account: the rapid growth of data and the increasing importance of business, which requires an improvement in scalability, performance, efficiency and reliability of storage systems. At the same time, in small companies, as a rule, there is no dedicated system administrator serving the storage system, so the functions used in ETERNUS DX S4 automate the operation of the disk array.
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Compared with similar ETERNUS DX S3 models, the new hybrid systems provide a double increase in maximum capacity, a three-fold increase in the maximum number of transactions processed. In addition, the number of supported virtual machines and the number of supported users increased by half. Another improvement in Fujitsu disk arrays, which is also available to ETERNUS DX S4 owners, is the new 15.36 and 7.68 TB solid-state drives. Relatively recently, Fujitsu began production of fully solid-state ETERNUS AF systems, however, according to analysts, in the coming years, the difference in storage costs on flash drives and hard drives Nearline SAS will remain, therefore, according to Fujitsu, the demand for hybrid storage systems will remain high for a long time. .
The older model ETERNUS DX200 S4, in which the controllers are based on six-core processors, according to the results of independent testing of the SPC-1 storageperformance.org, has a performance of over 300 thousand IOPS with access delays of less than 0.6 milliseconds. It is able to serve up to 2 thousand virtual machines. This system expands to ten disk shelves with 264 disks with a total capacity of 4055 TB and is equipped with 64 GB system memory. It uses deduplication and compression, significantly reducing the cost of storage when using solid-state disks. The new ETERNUS DX microcode release, which can also be used in previously released ETERNUS DX S3 systems, has an improved data compression mechanism. For example, you can choose from the options “no compression”, “compression only”, “deduplication only” or “compression + deduplication”. The compression mechanism can be disabled in cases where deduplication or compression does not reduce the amount of data, but creates an extra load on the disk array controllers (for example, when recording media files and encrypted information).
Also ETERNUS DX200 S4 supports functions:
It is worth noting that the constant reduction in the cost of solid-state drives allows using Autotiering to build a two-tier storage using Nearline SAS hard drives for cold data and SSD drives for hot data (the traditional approach used an intermediate level of SAS Enterprise hard drives of 10 thousand and 15 thousand revolutions / min, however, storage of all hot data on solid-state drives is now becoming economically feasible). If, due to budget constraints, it is possible to purchase only a few SSDs for your array, then you can use them as a cache to speed up access to data stored on hard drives.
ETERNUS DX Architecture
The DX100 S4 is about half the size of the DX200 S4 (it expands to 144 disks and 2212 TB and is equipped with 32 GB of system memory), but does not support deduplication and compression. Both ETERNUS DX S4 models can connect to storage networks and hosts over Fiber Channel 8/16 Gbps, iSCSI 1/10 Gbps, Ethernet 1/10 Gbps and SAS 3/6/12 Gbps. They support the Eternus Storage Cluster software package, with which you can build a fault-tolerant cluster with availability above six nines (99.9999%), i.e. less than one minute of downtime per year. In such a cluster based on Storage Cluster, you can combine two ETERNUS DX storage systems of different types (hybrid and / or fully solid-state). Storage Cluster software implements the mirroring of critical data between two arrays via a SAN (based on Fiber Channel or iSCSI) and, if necessary, transparent for users and applications, data recovery in automatic or manual mode ( more about this solution ).
Finally, the low-end model DX60 S4, designed for small companies with a limited budget, scales up to three shelves and 96 disks with a capacity of 480 TB and is equipped with 8 GB system memory. Unlike more expensive models, it does not support the functions of remote replication, deduplication / compression, Autotiering, and automatic QoS. It is worth noting that the new ETERNUS S4 supports the upgrade to a more powerful model by replacing the controllers and without migrating the data (data-in-place) stored on the system disks, which significantly reduces the risks of upgrading the storage infrastructure and downtime of business applications due to the lack of data access .
To manage all three models, the ETERNUS Storage Foundation (SF) v16 software package is used, which is also used to administer the ETERNUS DX of the middle and upper classes, as well as fully solid-state ETERNUS AF. The standard delivery of these storage systems includes the Storage Foundation Express package, which implements the basic storage management functionality, and the trial 90-day version of almost all possible licenses for ETERNUS.
In the near future, Fujitsu plans to introduce several more models of hybrid storage systems from the ETERNUS DX S4 series.
Unlike a number of other players on the storage market, in which the product line is a combination of often incompatible systems of both its own design, products of OEM partners and absorbed companies, Fujitsu offers customers a series of systems of junior, middle and high class which is fully developed within the corporation and uses a single architecture and controls, and is licensed in a single scheme. Many of the functions of the high-end ETERNUS DX systems are supported in both mid-level and entry-level systems, which reduces the cost of maintaining the storage infrastructure and training system administrators, for example, you can easily migrate data between ETERNUS DX arrays not only of different classes, but also even different generations.
In developing the entry-level ETERNUS DX S4, storage problems that small companies face today are taken into account: the rapid growth of data and the increasing importance of business, which requires an improvement in scalability, performance, efficiency and reliability of storage systems. At the same time, in small companies, as a rule, there is no dedicated system administrator serving the storage system, so the functions used in ETERNUS DX S4 automate the operation of the disk array.
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What's new?
Compared with similar ETERNUS DX S3 models, the new hybrid systems provide a double increase in maximum capacity, a three-fold increase in the maximum number of transactions processed. In addition, the number of supported virtual machines and the number of supported users increased by half. Another improvement in Fujitsu disk arrays, which is also available to ETERNUS DX S4 owners, is the new 15.36 and 7.68 TB solid-state drives. Relatively recently, Fujitsu began production of fully solid-state ETERNUS AF systems, however, according to analysts, in the coming years, the difference in storage costs on flash drives and hard drives Nearline SAS will remain, therefore, according to Fujitsu, the demand for hybrid storage systems will remain high for a long time. .
The older model ETERNUS DX200 S4, in which the controllers are based on six-core processors, according to the results of independent testing of the SPC-1 storageperformance.org, has a performance of over 300 thousand IOPS with access delays of less than 0.6 milliseconds. It is able to serve up to 2 thousand virtual machines. This system expands to ten disk shelves with 264 disks with a total capacity of 4055 TB and is equipped with 64 GB system memory. It uses deduplication and compression, significantly reducing the cost of storage when using solid-state disks. The new ETERNUS DX microcode release, which can also be used in previously released ETERNUS DX S3 systems, has an improved data compression mechanism. For example, you can choose from the options “no compression”, “compression only”, “deduplication only” or “compression + deduplication”. The compression mechanism can be disabled in cases where deduplication or compression does not reduce the amount of data, but creates an extra load on the disk array controllers (for example, when recording media files and encrypted information).
Also ETERNUS DX200 S4 supports functions:
- snapshots snapshots
- cloning
- synchronous and asynchronous replication
- auto-level autotiering with flash memory and hard disk storage, which significantly reduces the total cost of ownership
- Thin Provisioning Dynamic Capacity Allocation
- Automatic Quality of Service (QoS) management to provide high service priorities (for example, minimum latency) to business critical applications
It is worth noting that the constant reduction in the cost of solid-state drives allows using Autotiering to build a two-tier storage using Nearline SAS hard drives for cold data and SSD drives for hot data (the traditional approach used an intermediate level of SAS Enterprise hard drives of 10 thousand and 15 thousand revolutions / min, however, storage of all hot data on solid-state drives is now becoming economically feasible). If, due to budget constraints, it is possible to purchase only a few SSDs for your array, then you can use them as a cache to speed up access to data stored on hard drives.
ETERNUS DX Architecture
The DX100 S4 is about half the size of the DX200 S4 (it expands to 144 disks and 2212 TB and is equipped with 32 GB of system memory), but does not support deduplication and compression. Both ETERNUS DX S4 models can connect to storage networks and hosts over Fiber Channel 8/16 Gbps, iSCSI 1/10 Gbps, Ethernet 1/10 Gbps and SAS 3/6/12 Gbps. They support the Eternus Storage Cluster software package, with which you can build a fault-tolerant cluster with availability above six nines (99.9999%), i.e. less than one minute of downtime per year. In such a cluster based on Storage Cluster, you can combine two ETERNUS DX storage systems of different types (hybrid and / or fully solid-state). Storage Cluster software implements the mirroring of critical data between two arrays via a SAN (based on Fiber Channel or iSCSI) and, if necessary, transparent for users and applications, data recovery in automatic or manual mode ( more about this solution ).
Finally, the low-end model DX60 S4, designed for small companies with a limited budget, scales up to three shelves and 96 disks with a capacity of 480 TB and is equipped with 8 GB system memory. Unlike more expensive models, it does not support the functions of remote replication, deduplication / compression, Autotiering, and automatic QoS. It is worth noting that the new ETERNUS S4 supports the upgrade to a more powerful model by replacing the controllers and without migrating the data (data-in-place) stored on the system disks, which significantly reduces the risks of upgrading the storage infrastructure and downtime of business applications due to the lack of data access .
To manage all three models, the ETERNUS Storage Foundation (SF) v16 software package is used, which is also used to administer the ETERNUS DX of the middle and upper classes, as well as fully solid-state ETERNUS AF. The standard delivery of these storage systems includes the Storage Foundation Express package, which implements the basic storage management functionality, and the trial 90-day version of almost all possible licenses for ETERNUS.
In the near future, Fujitsu plans to introduce several more models of hybrid storage systems from the ETERNUS DX S4 series.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/333478/
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