FlashDisk HyperSAN

The FlashDisk HyperSAN products from Winchester Systems are billed by the vendor as "SAN-in-a-box" storage arrays. Their four host ports support point-to-point, FC-AL, and switched fabric connectivity, enabling them to be direct attached to hosts or deployed by connecting them to the existing SAN infrastructure. The arrays are targeted to high-performance deployments and boast an all FC architecture (4 Gb/sec SFP host ports to FC drives).

The FlashDisk HyperSAN product line currently consists of the FC-3400 series arrays; which include both single (FC-3494S) and dual/redundant, active/active (FC-3494R) controller flavors as well as 16 disk expansion shelves (SBODs) for capacity extension. Both the base unit (which also houses the controllers) and the expansion shelves house up to 16 FC drives, and now up to 13 expansion shelves (in addition to the base unit--14 units, all told) can be stacked in a single deployment. The platform can now also be loaded with FC drives up to 450 GB; meaning the total system maximums are 224 drives and just over 100 TBs of raw capacity. Both base and expansion shelves are 3U.

Management of the arrays is via an embedded management GUI (included) or the vendor's optional FlashConsole management appliance; which provides the ability to centrally manage multiple storage arrays, as well as provides remote access and E-mail notification features.

Drive-wise, the arrays can be loaded with either 10K or 15K RPM drives; both from Seagate's Cheetah line. 10K drives are offered in capacities of 73, 146, 300, or 400 GB (3.9 ms access); while the 15Ks are served in 73, 146, 300, or 450 GB capacities and list a 3.4 ms access time. The vendor states that the higher performance disks can drive total system performance in dual controller configurations to over 120,000/42,000 (read/write) IOPS, with throughput listed at 1,523/556 (read/write) MB/sec.

Other features include support for RAID levels 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 1+0, 15, 16, 30, 50, and 60; mirrored cache (2 GB per controller) and automatic failover/failback in dual controller systems; support for up to 64 hosts and 1024 configurable LUNs; and dual/redundant power supplies in both the base and expansion shelves.

FlashDisk HyperSAN is available now, pricing starts at $25,000. Contact Winchester Systems for further information.