About MASSIVE night light Pure Storage and happy PR man

Hello! Below you will find a story about how to buy a lamp turned into the arrival of one of the most long-awaited innovations in the field of storage systems - the Pure Storage array. Caution, a lot of photos!

This story began with the fact that our sweet PR manager Galya ordered a nightlight for AliExpress. Well, you know, such a small lamp, designed to create a feeling of comfort at night.

A month later, she was delivered this box:
')


Galya could not even lift her - I had to call us with a cart:



Having opened the box, we were surprised a lot - this is the first in Russia demo storage system Pure Storage FlashArray, model // m20 with 38 TB Flash (why read here )!

As they say, jokes aside, let's consider the received apparatus. The array consists of two controllers in one 3U chassis. SSD modules are installed in the controller chassis with packs of 10 modules. Additional disk shelves also consist of two packs. m20 expands to 40 SSD-modules, below we will describe in detail about them.

With an SSD module of 7 TB and with deduplication enabled with compression, you can get on an almost basic model more than 250 TB of effective capacity. Not bad.

Pure Storage m20 array without front panel:



Specifically, one capacity pack of 10 SSD modules of 3.8 TB each is installed in our array. This gives slightly less than 21 TB of space for unique data, or 63–100 TB, taking into account deduplication and compression technologies.

The box was slightly crushed during transportation, it did not affect the performance of the array. Russian Post with AliExpress - what to do. It's good that they didn't put them in the mailbox :)



And then, finally, we started the "showdown". The array is packed efficiently, the photo shows the detailed installation instructions.



In the middle is a box with a front panel, on the right - with power cables and KVM.



We unpack the boxes, get the front panel and mounting rails:



“ Well, the lamp! - Galya wonders. - Where am I going to put this? "



m20 R2 is packed in polyethylene, for additional protection the front part of the array is protected by cardboard.



Tefal Pure Storage: we care about you:



On the front side, in addition to SSD modules, NVRAM modules are located. Two NVRAMs of 8 GB each are installed in m20 R2. NVRAM and SSD are tightened with torx-slotted screws, which prevents accidental removal of the wrong module.



The guys even put a screwdriver for this purpose!



Retractable tag with serial number - a convenient solution. Unfortunately, it is not found on every server or storage system.



We unscrew the screws and get the NVRAM and SSD-modules.



NVRAM module separately. As you can see, it does not take up much space in the controller chassis.



Promised SSD-module with a volume of 3.8 TB near. In fact, it consists of two Samsung PM863a SSDs, each with a volume of 1.92 TB. The discs are made using V-NAND technology.



The manufacturer of Pure Storage announced the release of new storage models with NVMe disks. After the release of new models, you can upgrade the existing m20 R2 to NVMe without losing data. Pure EverGreen technology is responsible for such an upgrade, which allows upgrading any controller to an older model “on the go”.

And this is how the array looks from behind:



Two power supplies are visible on the left, the remaining space is occupied by two m20 R2 controllers.

Let's take a closer look at the ports in the array:



To connect the disk shelves, Mini SAS HD ports operating at 12 Gb / s are used.

To control the array, the ports are 1 Gbps Ethernet ETH0. The 1Gbps Ethernet ETH1 port can be used for both management and replication.

Ports ETH2 and ETH3 (10 Gbit Ethernet optical) - only for replication. Asynchronous replication is available in Pure Storage arrays, as well as building disaster recovery storage — ActiveCluster. ActiveCluster implements synchronous replication of logical volumes of arrays in Active / Active mode, that is, read / write operations can be performed on the replicated logical volumes of both arrays simultaneously.

FC ports operate at a maximum speed of 16 Gbps. For Ethernet (iSCSI) ports, 40 Gbps is available — so I / O ports will no longer be an array bottleneck.

Meanwhile, Galya is trying to figure out how to turn on the damn lamp:



We get the controller from the chassis:



The m20 R2 controller without a cap looks like this:



Each controller has two Intel Xeon CPUs installed. Not every All-Flash array (especially younger models) boasts two processors per controller.

On the right, the back-end ports for connecting the controller to the common bus are visible, the cooling system is installed nearby (occupies the entire width of the controller), on the left - the I / O port cards. Next we look at all this in more detail.

Processor and RAM controller close-up:



We remove the card with I / O ports 10 Gb Ethernet. Components are mounted / dismantled conveniently, nothing interferes.

Seat I / O card and its connection connector:



But the I / O card itself with 10 Gb Ethernet ports:



Please note that the FC 16 Gbps card has its own cooling system:



Back-end controller ports with cooling system:



Install the controller on the workplace:



1200 W power supplies are combined with fans. Short, a lot of useful space in the controller chassis do not occupy.



Power supply closeup:



A console (KVM) cable has many ports for connecting:



We proceed directly to the installation. Pure Storage uses original handles to carry the array. In the process of installation, they come unfastened (the main thing is not to lose them later).



Mounting rail mounting performed in an innovative way:



Mounting rails entirely:



The most convenient latches on the mounting rails, the entire installation will not take more than 2 minutes.



Install the array in a rack cabinet together, everything is strictly according to the instructions :)



Pure m20 R2 in a rack without front panel ...



... install the front panel - the array is ready for inclusion!



Russia's first Pure Storage array is included!



The design and lighting of the front panel are bright, stand out in the row of cabinets. You can immediately see that you are the owner of Pure Storage.

With closed doors it looks even better:



“ Noisy nightlight. But shines well! ";)



It seems Galya is pleased!



Storage Systems Specialists, Jet Infosystems

UPD. Colleagues, the system is now undergoing functional and load testing. The next article will be with technical results, graphs and numbers.