3PAR Utility Storage

The 3PAR Utility Storage platform is a combination of hardware and software that provides consolidated disk-based storage capabilities to enterprises. A single 3PAR InServ Storage Server can scale from 16-1,280 disk drives.

The base platform consists of two primary components: the InServ Storage Server, and its embedded InForm Operating System software. Onto this platform, individual software modules can be loaded providing additional (optional) features including virtual "snapshot" copy capabilities and remote IP-based data copy.

At the heart of the 3PAR platform is the InServ Storage Server, which itself consists of three primary components.

The Controller Nodes manage the data movement of the platform and connect via Fibre Channel to both the Disk Drive Chassis and the hosts (iSCSI host connections are optional). Each Controller scales from 2 to 16 4 Gb/sec Fibre Channel ports and up to four optional iSCSI ports (1 Gb/sec; FC and iSCSI can be mixed in a server). Controller nodes can be dynamically added into the storage cabinet to form an active/active cluster; with each controller housing its own copy of the InForm O/S (more below) and serviced by redundant power supplies and battery backed cache.

Three server cabinet models are currently offered. The new T400 and T800 class cabinets (supplanting the previously available S400 and S800) support the loading of up to 4 and 8 controller nodes, respectively; while the smaller E200 cabinet can be populated with 2 Controller nodes (the E200 Controller nodes support from 2 - 6 4 Gb/sec FC ports per Controller node and dual 1 Gb/sec iSCSI ports). Separate, dedicated 3PAR ASICs and Intel CPUs handle the data movement/cache and metadata/control cache processing (respectively) within each Controller node.

The T-Class servers, in particular, are based on the new 3PAR Gen3 ASIC, which the vendor states doubles the performance of the previous S-Class servers and additionally features built-in (silicon-based) "fat-to-thin" algorithms which are able to detect allocated but unused capacity enabling the conversion of "fat" volumes to "thin" volumes. Such conversions occur directly in specialized silicon, so controller CPU and memory are not taxed. The InForm OS does not now support this fat-to-thin capability, however; the vendor states that the next version of the InForm OS will support it.

Connecting controller nodes is the cabinet's backplane, which provides interconnections such that the Gen3 ASIC in each controller enjoys a dedicated 1.6 GB/s link to every other ASIC in the cabinet. Node clusters can therefore communicate with one another using these high-speed links, working together to provide a single virtual storage view to hosts. (I.E., the controllers of the cabinet operate as a single cluster, providing a unified storage pool for provisioning and access).

The final key hardware component of the storage server is the Disk Chassis. In the T400/T800 cabinets, each Chassis is 4U and holds up to 40 disk drives populated via up to ten 4 disk Drive Magazines. The Disk Chassis features redundant, hot swappable components (including power supplies) and connects via 4 FC (4 Gb/sec) ports. RAID 0, 10 and 50 data control is supported, and a single T800 Storage Server can scale up to 32 Drive Chassis, or from 16 to 1,280 drives. In the E200, the Drive Chassis are 3U and hold up to 16 drives each; a maximum of 8 Drive Chassis per E200 are supported.

Each controller node houses an independent copy of the InForm Operating System software, which allows the nodes to operate both in cooperation and as individual backups should any controller go down. InForm provides mapping capabilities allowing for the virtual representation of the collected storage pool to the hosts. InForm first maps individual physical drives into 256MB "chunklets;" then maps chunklets into logical disk drives; and finally logical disk drives (or portions thereof) are mapped into the virtual volumes that are exposed to the hosts.

InForm is managed via CLI or GUI; the GUI has been dubbed the InForm Management Console. Key features of the console as noted by the vendor include filtering of data, wizards, consolidated control of 3PAR Virtual Domains, enhanced charting functions, and support for data export in CSV or HTML file formats. Telnet and SSH access to the CLI are also possible; and an SMI-S provider offers an API accessible via SMI-S compatible management tools.

Some of the additional--and optional--software modules for the 3PAR platform include:

- 3PAR Virtual Copy: Copy-on-write "snapshot" capabilities, allowing for the storage of data copies based only on what data has been changed.

- 3PAR Remote Copy: Data distribution via native IP support, w/synchronous and asynchronous periodic modes supported.

- 3PAR Multipath I/O for Microsoft Windows / AIX: Multipathing for Windows / IBM AIX hosts featuring multiple active/active paths, load balancing, and automatic failover and recovery.

- Thin Provisioning, or the ability to provision storage capacity virtually to a logical volume while still allowing the volume to draw from the available storage pool dynamically as necessary.

The 3PAR Utility Storage platform is available now. Base pricing starts at $75,000 (E200 with 2.3 TB of capacity plus a 3 year hardware warranty and software support); while entry level pricing for the T-Class gear is $130,000 (2 controllers and 2.3 TB).

Visit the 3PAR Web site for further information.

product submission by EITPlanet Staff

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