Dell EqualLogic Architecture Overview (What)
Dell EqualLogic solutions deliver the benefits of consolidated networked storage in a self-managing, iSCSI storage area network that is affordable and easy to use, regardless of scale. By eliminating complex tasks and enabling fast and flexible storage provisioning, Dell EqualLogic solutions dramatically reduce the costs of storage acquisition and ongoing operations.
Patented page-based volume management enables automatic movement of data while it is in use. This technology provides the foundation for online expansion, automatic configuration and load balancing, performance optimisation, and advanced software functionalities - all with continuous access to data. That means no downtime for increasing capacity, moving data between storage tiers, or load balancing storage, and most management tasks are handled by the array, not the administrator. As a result, EqualLogic PS Series makes enterprise-class shared-block storage practical for all servers and applications.
- Unique Peer Storage Architecture. With the patented Peer Storage Architecture - where "peer" means collaboration and equal partnership in a single, simple architecture - components and arrays work together to share resources, distribute loads, and collaborate for maximum performance, total data protection, and seamless scaling. This architecture enables the array to perform numerous functions that eliminate complexity. These include:
- Peer deployment, which enables PS Series arrays to be fully functioning within 60 minutes after opening the box.
- Peer control, which enables the array to continuously monitor resources and automatically manage configuration, load-balancing, capacity expansion, storage pools and tiers, volume snapshots, and replication.
- Peer provisioning, for online, on-demand capacity expansion without disruption, including dynamic allocation of disk space, connectivity, security, and performance for every application.
- Peer protection, which delivers comprehensive system monitoring, proactive disk drive scanning, group event notifications, multi-pathing, instant recovery, and disaster protection.
- Peer integration, which provides a comprehensive toolkit to facilitate the deployment, ongoing management, and protection of PS Series SANs in Microsoft Windows OS environments.
- Modular Design and Enterprise Reliability. With the modular design of the EqualLogic PS series, you can buy only the amount of storage you need today and seamlessly scale in the future without disrupting business operations. Enterprise reliability features include fault tolerance; fully redundant, hot-swappable components (including disks, controllers, network interfaces, power supplies, and cooling fans); self-tuning, battery-backed, mirrored controller caches; hot sparing; support for RAID 5/10/50; and 99.999% availability.
- Standards-Based Design Means Savings and Full Compatibility. Dell EqualLogic solutions leverage both the cost advantages and management simplicity of Ethernet technology. PS Series arrays use industry-standard protocols, disk drives, and network interfaces to provide low connection costs and high performance access to data. In addition, EqualLogic solutions support all leading operating systems and host applications, eliminating application incompatibility problems.
With its unique peer storage architecture, the PS Series delivers high performance and availability in a flexible environment with low cost of ownership. Whether you are seeking to consolidate storage, migrate from DAS or NAS, streamline data protection, or expand capacity, the PS Series of proven, self-managing storage arrays will meet the demanding requirements of your business-critical environment.
Dell EqualLogic Software Architecture (What)
Dell EqualLogic PS Series iSCSI SANs represent an unprecedented advancement in storage economics, from purchase and setup to operations and upgrades. Unlike traditional storage arrays, the PS Series comes complete with all of the available software features that are needed to create and run a storage area network (SAN). There is no additional software to install and no additional service costs to initiate any of the data management and protection features that you would expect from an enterprise-class SAN. This unique storage system packaging model, combined with the ease of use and automated intelligence of the PS Series, enables Dell to deliver to its customers the greatest return on investment of any storage vendor in the industry.
The PS Series' portfolio of all-inclusive software features includes advanced functionality such as enhanced SQL Server data protection and quick restore, and advanced thin provisioning. The EqualLogic Auto-Snap Manager provides a full-featured clean snapshot and quick recovery management toolkit for SQL Server databases and Windows File Systems. Advanced thin provisioning is a storage resource management breakthrough that takes storage asset utilisation and IT administrator efficiency to new levels, significantly reducing storage expenditures. These software features are only a portion of the continuously evolving suite of enterprise capabilities built into every PS Series array.
- Like all of the built-in features, these new software capabilities were designed for the unique peer storage architecture, in which components and arrays collaborate as peers - sharing resources, evenly distributing loads, and optimising performance and protection. As each PS Series array is added, not only is additional storage capacity added, but performance is increased linearly. This virtualisation of EqualLogic PS Series storage brings to IT administrators a flexible and powerful scale-out solution that enables a true "pay as you grow" business model.
- Peer Deployment: Rapid Installation. All Dell EqualLogic PS Series arrays can be fully deployed within 60 minutes of power-on. Intelligent software with sensing technology automatically configures the storage array, eliminating complex and cumbersome manual set-up tasks found in traditional products. By eliminating burdensome installation processes, the PS Series allows administrators to focus on deploying applications for their users.
- Peer Control: Enterprise Data Services without Additional Cost. EqualLogic PS Series arrays have built-in storage features once found only in top-tier data centers, enabling storage management best practices for organisations of all sizes. Enterprise software features such as automatic load balancing, automatic snapshot management, automatic replication, volume cloning, volume management, storage virtualisation, SAN boot capability, and multi-path input/output (MPIO) are all standard.
- Peer Provisioning: Self-Managing Storage with Seamless Scaling. The intelligence of peer provisioning combined with the modular design of the PS Series gives customers the flexibility to quickly and easily adapt to ever-changing data center environments. EqualLogic peer provisioning features automate all of the key functions needed to configure, manage, and transparently scale-out storage with no downtime or disruption to applications while eliminating the complexities of storage administration. Central to these capabilities are innovative features such as complete SAN virtualisation, automatic load balancing, automatic storage tiering, and thin provisioning.
- Peer Protection: Built-in Foundation of Data Availability and Security. The PS Series' system monitoring capabilities provide administrators with a comprehensive view of the health and status of their SANs. Unique to EqualLogic is the Auto-Stat Disk Monitoring System (ADMS) which proactively scans disk drives in the background to eliminate any developing disk drive degradation issues. Additional advanced data-availability features include automatic disk drive sparing, E-mail home, multi-path I/O (MPIO), automatic snapshot management, and EqualLogic Auto-Replication, which replicates data from a local PS Series group to a remote group over a standard IP network across any distance.
- Peer Integration: Comprehensive Toolkit for Windows Environments. Dell provides a comprehensive software toolkit to facilitate the deployment, ongoing management, and protection of PS Series SANs in your Microsoft Windows environments. As a Microsoft Simple SAN designated solution, the PS Series is proven, interoperable, and easy to setup and manage for Windows platforms. The EqualLogic PS Series Auto-Snapshot Manager provides a feature-rich tool for protecting and recovering data for Windows applications. In the event that recovery of a NTFS file system or SQL database is necessary, Auto-Snapshot Manager provides several quick restore options to maximise the availability of critical data and applications. Collectively, these tools make it easier to bring shared storage to your Windows applications and helps eliminate the worries of time-consuming storage management - freeing up time for administrators to manage business applications instead.
With its comprehensive suite of all-inclusive, data-center-class software features, the EqualLogic PS Series is the clear choice for those seeking a full-featured, affordable, easy-to-manage storage solution. Whether you want to build a virtualised server environment, consolidate storage, migrate from DAS or NAS, streamline data protection, implement a disaster recovery infrastructure, or expand capacity, the PS Series of proven, self-managing storage arrays will meet the demanding requirements of your business-critical environment.