12/24/2015

DiscoverTechnology:EMCVNX2ArchitectureOverview
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Apr7,2015

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EMCVNX2ArchitectureOverview
1.Overview

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The VNX Series unifies EMCs Filebased and Blockbased offerings into a single product that
canbemanagedwithoneeasytouseGUI.Inaddition,objectstoragesolutionsareavailablethat
makeuseoftheVNXstoragesystems.TheVNXSeriesisastoragesolutiondesignedforawide
rangeofenvironmentsthatincludemidtiertoenterprise.
The VNX unified storage platforms support the NAS protocols (CIFS for Windows and NFS for
UNIX/Linux, including pNFS), patented MultiPath File System (MPFS) as well native block
protocols(iSCSIandFiberChannel).VNXisoptimizedfor:
CoreITapplicationsliketransactionalworkloadsOracle,SAP,SQL,Exchangeor
SharePoint.

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Servervirtualizationandendusercomputing/VDI.
Applicationsthatneedtraditionalfile,orblockorunifiedstorage.

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OracleServer
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NASMeetsSANanintrotoVNXUnified
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VNX is also a good fit for partner lead configurations optimized for virtual applications with
VMwareandHyperVintegration.TheVNXwithMCx(VNX2)architectureunleashesthepowerof
Flash,takingfulladvantageofthelatestIntelmulticoretechnologywiththeintroductionofMCx.

EMCVNX2
Architecture
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1.OverviewThe
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unifiesEMCs
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offeringsintoa
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EMCVNXwithMCxrunstheMCxplatform.MCxiscomprisedoftwocentralcomponents:Multi
Core Cache and MultiCore RAID. What is VNX multicore technology and why is it essential?
VNXMCxwasspecificallydesignedtodynamicallyandevenlydistributealldataservicesacross
all CPU cores in the system. MCx allows Multicore Cache and Multicore RAID services to
scalelinearlyregardlessofthenumberofavailableCPUcores.
Flashstorage,orSolidStateDisks,hasexponentiallyhigherpotentialIOthroughputthanspinning
storage media. With Flash pushing multiple gigabytes per second of random IO through the
system,thestorageoperatingsystemmustbedesignedtokeeppace.IfthestorageOSstatically
assignsdataservicestospecificcores,Flashwillsaturateoneormorecores,whileothercores
are under utilized, this will cause the storage OS to become a bottleneckpreventing the power
of Flash from being exposed. By dynamically spreading the workload evenly across all of the
available cores, MCx empowers VNX to keep pace with this dramatic performance boost,
allowingorganizationstodeliverextremeresponsivenesstotheirperformancecriticalapplications.
This translates into more virtual machines, more transactions, and more aggregate IOPS for file
services.

DesignBest
Practices
1.Address
Pools:best
practices1.1
UUIDPools
UUID:globalID
thatisuniqueto
agivenserver
Composedof
PrefixandSuffix
Bes...

2.Architecture
The VNX modular architecture is designed to deliver a native block and file solution with
dedicatedcomponentsthatareoptimizedforthespecificusecaseandthatleveragethehardware
and core technologies across both the file and block implementations. This picture illustrates a
unified storage product with scalable Data Movers, Control Station (not shown), storage
processors,I/O(Input/Output)modules,linkcontrolcards(LCC),diskdrives,andpowersupplies.
Thefollowingslideswillcoverthesecomponentsingreaterdetail.

The Storage Processors are the core of the VNX platform. They deliver the VNX Block
componentsandservices,suchasMulticoreCache(MCC)andMulticoreRAID(MCR).Thetwo
StorageProcessors,SPAandSPB,provideBlockdataaccessviaUltraFlexI/O(Coveredlaterin
this module) technology that supports Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and FCoE protocols, providing
accessforallexternalhostsaswellastheFilehardwareoftheVNXarray.
TheVNXstorageprocessorsoperateinActive/Activemode,inthatbothcontrollersareactive/on
lineandreceivinghostI/Osimultaneouslyforthebackendstorage.

TheVNXDataMoverXbladerunstheVNXOperatingEnvironmentforFile,whichisoptimizedto
movedatabetweenthestorageandtheIPnetwork.TheDataMoversprovidehighlyavailablefile

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level access to users and applications via NFS, CIFS, and nPFS protocols. The Data Mover X
Blade stores and accesses data through the Storage Processors. A VNX Data Mover can be
configuredasastandbyDataMoverwhichservesasahotspareforuptosevenprimaryoronline
Data Movers. If a primary Data Mover should go down the standby Data Mover takes its place
withlittleornotdisruptionofservice.

The Control Station is included in all VNX Unified and VNX File storage arrays to provide
managementandmonitoringfunctions.TheControlStationrunsacustomizedLinuxkernel.An
optional,secondControlStationmaybepresentinsomemodelsforredundancy.
TheControlStationcanbesecuredbyimplementingsecureuserauthentication,aswellasbeing
isolatedonasecure,privatenetwork.
TheControlStationsoftwareisusedtoinstallandconfigurethesystem,monitorthehealthofthe
PrimaryDataMoversandinitiatefailovertotheStandbyDataMoversasrequired.Itisalsoused
tomonitorthesystemsenvironmentalconditionsandperformanceofallcomponents.TheControl
Stationwillalsofacilitatethecallhomeanddialinsupportfeatures.TheControlStationisnotin
thedatapathofanyFileorBlockoperations.

ThepowersuppliesprovidetheinformationnecessaryforUnispheretomonitoranddisplaythe
ambienttemperatureandpowerconsumptionofthepowersupply.Thepowersuppliesarefield
replacebleunits(FRUs).EachpowersupplyincludestwopowerLEDsandastatusLED.The
powersuppliesprovideadaptivecooling,inwhichanarrayadjuststhepowersupplyfanspeedsto
spinonlyasfastasneededtoensuresufficientcooling.ThePowerSuppliesarehotswappable
andredundant.
TheStandbyPowerSupplyprovidesbatterypowertoDPEandpowertotheDAEandSPEon
someVNXmodels.TheVNXxusesaDPEwhichhastheSPSbuiltwithintheVNXSP(Battery
OnBoard)exceptfortheVNX8000(SPEbased)whichusesindependentSPSs.
TheVNXseriesplatformcansupportuptotwostandbypowersuppliesordualSPSs.DCpower
suppliesareavailableformodelsVNX5200,VNX5400,andVNX5600.Thisallowsforthe
nstallationofthesemodelsinnetworktelecommunicationfacilitiesorcentraloffices.DCtoAC
invertersareavailableforusewithVNXControlStations.ThismakesthesemodelsNEBS
(NetworkEquipmentBuildingSystem)compliant.

VNXSeriesusesI/OModulesinvariouscombinationsforfrontandbackendconnectivity.Each
I/Omoduleisprotocolindependentandhotswappable.OptionsforblockI/OincludeFibre
Channel,FibreChanneloverEthernet(FCoE)andiSCSI.OptionsforfileI/Oincludeboth1Gb/s
and10Gb/sEthernetwitheithercopperoropticalconnections.

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VNXusesenclosurestoholdmajorandsupportingcomponents,suchaspowersupplies,ofVNX,
andtoprovidehotpluggableconnectivityintothesystem.Thepossibleenclosuresarethe
StorageProcessorEnclosure(SPE),DiskProcessorEnclosure(DPE),DiskArrayEnclosure
(DAE),andDataMoverEnclosure(DME).
TheenclosurespresentinthesystemdependontheVNXconfigurationtype:Unified,Block,or
File.TheexampleshownillustratesaVNXUnifiedconfiguration.Dependingonthemodel,disks
may,ormaynot,beenclosedwiththeSPs.WhennodisksareenclosedwiththeSPs,anSPEis
used.IfdisksareenclosedwiththeSPs,aDPEisused.DAEsdonotcontainanySPs,rather
theyholddisks,andtheirsupportinghardware,only.DifferentsizeDAEsareuseddependingon
thediskformfactorandquantity.InUnifiedandFileconfigurationsDMEsareusedtocontainthe
DataMoverXBladesalongwiththeirsupportingcomponents.

3.FeaturesandCapabolities
VNXwithMCxarchitectureEMChasintroducedthefirstphaseofanactive/activeaccessmodel.
Symmetric Active/Active allows clients to access a Classic LUN (not supported on pool LUNs)
simultaneously through both SPs for improved reliability, easeof management and improved
performance.Sinceallpathsareactive,thereisnoneedforthestorageprocessorto"trespass"
to gain access to the LUN owned by the other storage processor on a path failure, eliminating
applicationtimeouts.ThesameistrueforanSPfailure,astheSPmerelypicksupalloftheI/Os
from the host through the alternate optimized path. This capability enables additional LUN
performance,asthereismorebackendbandwidththatcanbeservedbyasingleSPorFEport.

EMCVNXFailSafeNetworkorFSNprovideshighavailabilityintheeventofanEthernetswitch
failurebyconnectingthetwocomponentsoftheFSNtoseparateswitches.UnlikeEtherChannel
andLACP,FSNcanmaintainfullbandwidthwhenfailedover,giventhesamebandwidthonboth
the active and passive configurations. They do not require any special switch configuration.
FailSafe Networks are configured as sets of ports, FastEtherChannels, Link Aggregations, or
combinationsofthese.
OnlyoneconnectioninanFSNisactiveatatime.IftheFailSafedevicedetectsthattheactive
connection has failed, the Data Mover automatically switches to the surviving partner with the
sameidentityasthefailedconnection

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VNX Virtual Provisioning improves storage capacity utilization by only allocating storage as
needed. File systems as well as LUNs can be logically sized to required capacities, and
physicallyprovisionedwithlesscapacity.Thismeansstorageneednotsitidleinafilesystemor
LUNuntilitisused.
VNXVirtualProvisioningsafeguardsallowuserstokeepatrackofthinlyprovisionedfilesystems
and LUNs. By reporting on actual physical usage, total logical size, and available capacity,
administratorscanbothpredictandsetalertstoavoidrunningoutofphysicalcapacity

VNXwithMCxarchitectureplatforms,supportBlockleveldeduplication.
Deduplicationofdatahappensatan8KBblockgranularityandrequiresan8KBmapping.Itcan
besetatthepoolLUNlevelandThin,ThickandDeduplicatedLUNscanbestoredinasingle
Pool.Thededuplicationdomainisthepoolitselfdeduplicationdoesnottakeplaceacrosspools.
DeduplicationoccursoutofbandandisthrottledtominimizehostI/Oimpact.TheBlock
CompressionfeatureprovidesafurtherreductionofcapacitysavingsinitiallyprovidedbyVirtual
Provisioning(compressionrequiresThinLUNs).
TheBlockCompressionfeatureusesstandarddatacompressionalgorithmstoreducespace
allocatedtoLUNs.BlockcompressionmaybeappliedtoClassicLUNsorPoolLUNs.Block
Compressionoperatesinthebackground,whiletheLUNsareavailableforhostaccess.All
compressionanddecompressionprocessesarehandledbyVNX,sonoservercyclesare
consumedintheprocess,andnoadditionalserversoftwareisrequired.Whensufficientnewdata
iswrittentoacompressedLUN,thesystemwillautomaticallyattempttocompressthe
uncompresseddatainthebackground.

VNXalsosupportsfileleveldeduplicationandcompression.VNXforFileperformsall
deduplicationprocessingasabackground,asynchronousoperationthatactsonfiledataafterit
hasbeenwrittenintothefilesystem.Itdoesnotprocessactivedataordataasitiswritteninto
thefilesystem.
DeduplicationactivitycanbethrottledtoavoidimpactonprocessesservingclientI/Os.Once
candidatefileshavebeenidentifiedfordeduplication,twoactivitiestakeplace:
Compression:Compressionisaccomplishedbyusingcomponentssimilartothose
usedinVNXforblockLUNcompression
Deduplication:Fileleveldeduplicationorsingleinstancingisaccomplishedbyusing
componentsofanotherEMCproductcalledAvamarwhichduplicatesfileidentification
algorithms(fileidentificationforsingleinstanceisaccomplishedusingahashing
algorithmfromAvamar).

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VNX storage systems support an optional FAST Cache consisting of a storage pool of Flash
disks configured to function as FAST Cache. This cache provides low latency and high I/O
performance without requiring a large number of Flash disks. It is also expandable while I/O to
andfromthestoragesystemisoccurring.TheFASTCacheisbasedonthelocalityofreference
ofthedataset.BypromotingthedatasettotheFASTCache,thestoragesystemservicesany
subsequentrequestsforthisdatafasterfromtheFlashdisksthatmakeuptheFASTCache
thus, reducing the load on the disks in the LUNs that contain the data (the underlying disks).
FASTCacheconsistsofoneormorepairsofmirroreddisks(RAID1)andprovidesbothreadand
write caching. For reads, the FAST Cache driver copies data off the disks being accessed into
the FAST Cache. For writes, FAST Cache effectively buffers the data waiting to be written to
disk.Inbothcases,theworkloadisoffloadedfromslowrotatingdiskstothefasterFlashdisksin
FASTCache.TheperformanceboostprovidedbyFASTCachevarieswiththeworkloadandthe
cachesize.

VNXFASTVPtracksdatainaPoolatagranularityof256MBasliceandranksslices
accordingtotheirlevelofactivityandhowrecentthatactivitytookplace.Slicesthatareheavily
andfrequentlyaccessedaremovedtothehighesttierofstorage,typicallyFlashdrives,whilethe
datathatisaccessedleastaremovedtolowerperforming,buthighercapacitystoragetypically
NLSASdrives.ThissubLUNgranularitymakestheprocessmoreefficient,andenhancesthe
benefitachievedfromtheadditionofFlashdrives.
Therankingprocessisautomatic,andrequiresnouserintervention.Relocationofslicesoccurs
accordingtoaschedulewhichisuserconfigurable,butwhichdefaultstoadailyrelocation.Users
canalsostartamanualrelocationifdesired.

4.Management
EMC Unisphere for VNX provides a flexible, integrated experience for managing VNX storage
systems. Unispheres wizards help the user to provision and manage the storage while
automaticallyimplementingbestpracticesfortheconfiguration.
Unisphere is completely webenabled for remote management of the storage environment.
Unisphere Management Server runs on the SPs and the Control Station. Administrative users
must authenticate to the VNX when using Unisphere. The VNX provides flexible options for
administrative user accounts. For deployments where the VNX will be administered by multiple
people, the VNX offers the ability for creating multiple unique administrative accounts. Different
administrative roles can be defined for the user accounts to distribute different administrative
tasksfortheusers

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AdministrationoftheVNXsystemcanbeperformedwithtwoCommandLineInterfaces(CLIs).
AdministrativeusersmustauthenticatetotheVNXwhenusingCLIinterfaces.Blockenabled
systemshaveahostbasedSecureCLIsoftwareoptioncalledNavisphereSecureCLI.
Navisphere
SecureCLIisaclientapplicationthatallowssimpleoperationsontheEMCVNXSeriesplatform
and
someotherlegacystoragesystems.TheCLIcanbeusedtoautomatemanagementfunctions
throughshellscriptsandbatchfiles.
FileenabledVNXsystemsuseacommandlineinterfacetotheControlStationforfile
administrativetasks.IfVNXforFileorUnifiedispresent,thenitcanbeconnectedtoitviaserial
or
SSHtotroubleshootmanyVNXforFilehardwarecomponents

UnisphereCentralisanetworkapplicationthatenablesadministratorstoremotelymonitor
multipleVNXsystemswhethertheyresideinadatacenteroraredeployedinremoteandbranch
offices.Itprovidesadministratorstheabilitytomonitorthehealth,trendsandalertsoflarge
numbersofVNXsystemsfromacentralconsole.UnisphereCentralisavirtualappliancethat
runsinaVMwarevirtualenvironment.
UserscontinuetoleveragetheUnisphereelementmanagerforprovisioningandmanagementof
theirVNXsystems,whereasUnisphereCentralprovidesaquickandeasywaytomonitoralltheir
deployedVNXsystems.

UnisphereAnalyzeristheVNXperformanceanalysistool.UnisphereAnalyzerisanapplicationto
helpidentifybottlenecksandhotspotsinVNXstoragesystems,andenableuserstoevaluateand
finetunetheperformanceoftheirVNXsystem.
Datamaybecollectedbythestoragesystem,orbyaWindowshost,runningtheappropriate
oftware,intheenvironment.Differentperformancemetricsarecollectedfromdisks,Storage
Processors,LUNs,cache,andSnapViewsnapshotsessions.Datamaybedisplayedinrealtime,
orforlateranalysis,savedasa.nar(UnisphereArchive)file.
ForFilebaseddetailedmonitoring,usershaveaccesstothenativemonitoringcapabilityof
UnisphereforFileandadditionalmonitoringisavailablefortheVNXforFilecomponentsinthe
separatelylicensedDataProtectionAdvisorforFileServerofferingthatprovidesdetailed
reportingnotonlyonreplicationconfigurationsbutVNXforFileingeneral

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UnisphereQualityofServiceManager(UQM)measures,monitors,andcontrolsapplication
performanceontheVNXstoragesystem.UQMcanbeapowerfultoolforevaluatingthe
storagesystemtodeterminethecurrentservicelevelsandtoprovideguidanceonwhat
servicelevelsarepossible,giventhespecificenvironment.
UQMmaybemanagedbyUnisphereGUI,SecureCLI,orUnisphereClient.
BecauseUQMisarrayresident,thereisnohostcomponenttoload,andnoperformance
impactonthehost.
UQMcontrolsarrayperformancebyallocatingresourcestouserdefinedclassesofI/O.This
resourceallocationallowsthespecifiedI/Oclassestomeetpredefinedperformancegoals

VNXMonitoringandReportingisacosteffectivesoftwaresolution.Accessiblefromaweb
portalithasatreeviewformatthatdrillsdownintoseveralsummaryorfilteredviews.VNX
MonitoringandReportingisalimitedversionofWatch4NetforVNX.Itprovidesbasic
monitoringandreportingcapabilitiesforVNXadministrators.VNXMonitoringandReporting
automaticallycollectsblockandfilestoragestatisticsalongwithconfigurationdata,andstores
themintoadatabasethatcanbeviewedfromdashboardsandreports.Watch4Netoffersa
customreportdevelopmentframeworkextendingthepreconfiguredVNXreportsandcreates
newreportstomeetspecificreportingneeds.Itprovidesrealtime,historicalandprojected
visibilityintonetwork,datacenter,storageandcloudinfrastructureperformance.Userswho
havemorecomplexenvironments,ormorecomplexneeds,canuseWatch4netorupgrade
VNXMonitoringandReportingtothefullversionofWatch4net.

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