Dell Storage Center

Fundamentals
Objectives
Tier 1

RAID 10 RAID 5

Tier 2

RAID 5

Tier 3

RAID 6

Free Space
Primary Remote

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The Storage CenterTM
 Technology Independence

 Flexible Growth

 Configurable Performance

 Enterprise Level Features

 Online Migration

 Core Software

 Powerful Options

 Robust Interface

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The Storage System Components
• Controllers
• Enclosures
• Switches
• Host Bus Adapters

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Storage Center v6.7 Features
New Hardware

SC9000 Support for the SC4020 controller includes

V6.7
• Data Compression for all-flash arrays
SC400 V6.6
• Maximum 192 drives
12Gb • SC280 enclosure
• Flex Ports
SC420 • Data Compression
• Live Volume

• Live Volume Automatic Failover

• Import Volumes from PS Series arrays
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• User Interface updates
PS Series (EqualLogic) Data Migration
Easy data migration to SC Series array
Full data protection during transfer
Simple import wizard
Host I/O continues to both  Auto-discovers source PS
target and source volumes Series volumes
until transfer is complete*  Creates destination volume
on SC array (target any tier)
 Use existing PS Series QoS
PS array “Thin Import” definitions (or create new)
SC array
 Supported on ALL SC
products with 6.7**
* Online and offline options available.
** Professional Services-assisted online migration also available for select arrays from
other vendors. Contact your Dell representative for details.

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Importing PS Volumes to SC Arrays
Network Requirements:
PS Series Array • iSCSI
• Low-latency, high
bandwidth

PS Series Requirements: SC Series Array

• Firmware v6.0.11 or higher
• Limit volume access by Storage
Center IP or iSCSI initiator name
• Enable Allow simultaneous
connections from initiators with
different IQNs in volume advance
SC Series Requirements:
settings
• SC v6.7 or higher
• Stop all IO from the server to the
volume

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Storage Center Software Overview

Unified
Management
Core
Software + Licensed
Applications + Hardware

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Dell Storage Center - Core
Fluid Data Architecture Disk Virtualization
Tier 1
SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD SSD

Tier 2
15K 15K 15K 15K 15K 15K

LUN 7K 7K 7K 7K 7K 7K
Tier 3

7K 7K 7K 7K 7K 7K

7K 7K 7K 7K 7K 7K

Boot from SAN Cache Free Space

Data

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Dell Storage Center – Core (cont.)
Dynamic Capacity Data Instant Replay
Dynamic Controllers
LUN

2TB 2TB 2TB

Virtual Ports or
LUN
Legacy Ports

Datapage Size Enterprise Manager

LUN
512KB 2MB

4MB

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Dell Storage Center – Core (cont.) AD/LDAP Enhancements

Thin Import Compression

Domain

Group Group

Tier 1
Domain

Legacy Tier 2 Domain Domain

LUN Group

Domain
Group Group

Domain
Group

Savings

Tier 3
LUN
Multi-VLAN Tagging
Before After

Copy, Mirror, Migrate VLAN 1

SupportAssist VLAN 1, 2,3,4

Copy VLAN2

Mirror VLAN 3 VLAN 1,2,3,4

VLAN 4

Migrate

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Dell Storage Center - Applications
Data Progression Live Volume
Tier 1

RAID 10 RAID 5

Tier 2 Live Volume

RAID 5

Tier 3
Primary Secondary
RAID 6

FastTrack Remote Instant Replay

Primary Remote

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Dell Storage Center – Applications (cont.)
Replay Manager

Self-Encrypting Drives

Replays

SQL DB1 SQL DB1

SQL DB2 SQL DB2

SQL DB3 SQL DB3

SQL Logs SQL Logs

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SC Series Software Comparison
SC9000 SC8000 SC4020 SCv2000
Data Performance, Efficiency, Protection
Dynamic Capacity (Thin Provisioning) Included Included Included Included
Virtual Ports (HA) Included Included Included Included
Dynamic Controller (HA failover) Included Included Included Included
Multi-VLAN Tagging for iSCSI Included Included Included Included
Virtual Ports (HA) Included Included* Included Included
Compression – Now available on SSDs! Included Included Included NA
Data Instant Replay (Snapshots) Included Included Included Optional (Local DP)
Remote Instant Replay (Asynchronous) Optional (SP bundle) Optional Optional (DP bundle) Optional (Remote DP)
Remote Instant Replay (Synchronous) Optional (SP bundle) Optional Optional (DP bundle) NA
Data Progression Optional (SO bundle) Optional Optional (Perf. bundle) NA
Live Volume – Now with auto-failover! Optional (SP bundle) Optional Optional ( DP bundle) NA
Fast Track Optional (SO bundle) Optional Optional (Perf. bundle) NA
SED support – Now with SSD+HDD options! Optional (TF Bundle) Optional Optional NA
Fluid Cache for SAN Optional Optional NA NA
Management
EM Foundation/Reporter Included Included Included Included
Application Protection Manager Suite** Optional (TF Bundle) Optional Optional Optional
Enterprise Manager Chargeback Optional (TF Bundle) Optional Optional NA
Services
CoPilot Included Included Included NA
Dell SupportAssist (PhoneHome) Included Included Included Included

* No charge, must be ordered ** Includes new Application Protection Manager (APM) and previous Replay Manager
14 functionality. APM available on SC8000 and SC4020 beginning Q3FY16.
Flash Optimized Solution
Flash optimized solutions are made possible by:
• Introduction of read intensive (RI) MLC SSDs
• Flash optimized Storage Center 6.4 enhancements
 Automatic tiering across multiple SSD types
 Write intensive (WI) SLC SSDs and read intensive (RI) MLC SSDs

SC220 2U 24 drive Flash Enclosure

12 available slots for 6 pack of:

6 pack 1.6TB
6 pack 400GB • 400GB write intensive SSDs
read intensive
write intensive SSD • 1.6TB read intensive SSDs
SSD
• 1TB 7.2K RPM HDDs

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Typical SAN RAID

Physical Disks Configured as RAID 5

LUN
(RAID 5 Only)

Physical Disks Configured as RAID These disks are

10 never used by
this LUN

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Dell Storage Center RAID
Physical Disks

RAID 5 Page 1 RAID 5 Page 1 RAID 5 Page 1 RAID 5 Page 1 RAID 5 Page 1 RAID 5 Page 2

RAID 10 RAID 10
RAID 5 Page 3
Page 3 Page 3

RAID 10 RAID 10
LUN
RAID 5 Page 2 RAID 5 Page 2 RAID 5 Page 2 RAID 5 Page 2
Page 1 Page 1

Pages Pages

Pages are striped

RAID 10 RAID 10
RAID 5 Page 3 RAID 5 Page 3 RAID 5 Page 3 RAID 5 Page 3
Page 2 Page 2

using both RAID 5

and RAID 10
Dell SC Storage supports RAID 10, RAID 10 Dual Mirror, RAID 5-5, RAID 5-9,
RAID 6-6, RAID 6-10 and RAID 0 (not enabled by default).
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Dual Redundancy
RAID 10 Dual
• Additional mirror of data/parity increases Mirror
availability
• Protects against 2 drive failures in the same
stripe set Data Mirror Mirror
Data Mirror Mirror
RAID 6-6
Data Mirror Mirror

Data Data Data Data Parity Parity

Data Mirror Mirror

RAID 6-10

Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Parity Parity

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Core: Fluid Data Architecture
 Creation, access and modification Key attributes
recorded at write
time FC10K
 Frequency of access RAID10
 Type and Tier of disk drive 12:05:09

 RAID level Metadata

 Corresponding volume
 Replay Time Stamp
 Active (RW) or Frozen (Read Only)

Data virtualized and

managed at page level

More efficient management of data at disk level

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Core: Disk Virtualization Dell Storage Center

Conventional Storage

• Manage all disks as a single pool Free

• Mix and match any capacity, speed
or interface Space
• Non-disruptive changes
• Optimize performance
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Core: Dynamic Capacity
6TB Dynamic Capacity Presented

2TB 2TB 2TB

Capacity presented to
servers can be
3TB Physical Storage
significantly larger than
600GB 600GB 600GB 600GB 600GB the physically available
storage

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Dynamic Capacity Management

Virtual LUN
Actual Physical
Space

• Over provisioned LUNs presented to users could be written to and could potentially fill up
the array’s physical capacity
• Keep LUN size reasonable; it can always be expanded
• For VMware, best practice is to use array thin provisioning
• Monitor Storage Center capacity and alerts
• When presenting a LUN consider its requirements, does it need to use tier 1 or should it
be using tier 3 exclusively

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User Interfaces
Dell Storage Center User Interfaces

Enterprise
Manager

Command
Line
Interface

Web GUI

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Section Review

Core
Software + Licensed
Applications + Hardware

Hard Drives
0 1 2 3
4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11

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Review Questions
1. Fluid Data Architecture – what types of information does Dell track for each page of data?
Creation, access and modification time
Frequency of access
Type and Tier of disk drive
RAID Level
Corresponding volume
Replay Time Stamp
Active (Read/Write) or Frozen (Read Only)

2. Which Dell Storage Center core function manages all disks as a single pool of resources from
which the administrator can select and assign volumes to a server/host?
Disk Virtualization

3. Which core function provides for the ability to allocate space only when data is physically
stored?
Dynamic Capacity

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Review Questions
4. Which RAID types does the Dell SC storage system support?
RAID 5-5, RAID 5-9, RAID 10, RAID 6-6, RAID 6-10, RAID 10 Dual Mirror and
RAID 0 (not enabled by default).

5. The Dell SC storage system manages data at which level, block, page or file?
The Dell SC storage system manages data at the Page level.

6. True or False: On the Dell SC storage system, a physical disk can contain both RAID 5 stripes
and RAID 10 stripes at the same time?
True

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