Network Storage in Integrated or Gateway Configurations
The newly revamped Celerra product line from EMC consists of both Unified Storage Platforms, which include disk arrays courtesy of CLARiiON, and Gateway platforms, which attach to/leverage existing CLARiiON or Symmetrix arrays via SAN connectivity. Both platforms provide for the organization both block and file level storage capabilities over multiple protocols; including NFS/CIFS, iSCSI, and (in the Unified Storage Platforms) optionally FC.
Each of the platforms is based on the vendor's dual Intel CPU X-Blades, which control the data movement to and from the disks, and themselves include the vendor's DART (Data Access in Real Time) operating system, which, among other features, supports file sharing over CIFS/NFS file protocols via a built-in locking mechanism. Each of the lower-end platforms can be loaded with 1 or 2 X-Blades; while the higher end offerings support from 2 to 8 blades (the middle offering, the NS-480, supports from 2 to 4 blades). Dual blade systems support both primary/standby (with failover, for high-availability deployments), or primary/primary mode operation for higher overall system performance. Systems supporting more than 2 X-Blades additionally support clustered N+1 blade configurations as well as the ability to designate multiple blades as hot standbys (N+M).
Management of the products is via the vendor's Web-based EMC Celerra Manager, which is available in both Basic (common configuration and management functions, statistics viewing, basic user/group quota controls) and Advanced (data migration and monitoring across multiple Celerra environments) Editions. In addition to the Web-based GUI, the Manager can also be accessed via CLI or the Microsoft Management Console.
Key current offerings in the EMC Celerra family now include:
- NX4: A Unified Storage Platform (USP) with support for single or dual X-Blades and support for up to 60 total SAS or SATA drives and capacity of up to 32 TB (16 TB max per blade). The NX4 supports 4 Copper GigE ports per blade and 8 FC ports.
- NS-120: With double the storage capacity of the NX4 (120 drives, 32 TB usable capacity per blade). Network port and blade specs are the same as the NX4. FC and SATA drives are supported.
- NS-480: Supports 2 or 4 X-Blades, with usable capacity ranging up to 192 TB (64 TB max per active X-Blade). The 4 GigE ports per blade can be all Copper, or can be split (2 Copper, 2 Optical). FC, SATA, and Flash drives are supported.
- NS-960: Supports from 2 to 8 X-Blades, with usable capacity ranging up to 760 TB (128 TB max per active X-Blade). FC, SATA, and Flash drives are supported. The NS-960 supports 6 of the vendor's "UltraFlex" I/O slots per X-Blade, with each slot offering support for a single 10 GigE port, 4 Copper, or 2 Copper/2 Optical GigE ports.
- NS40G: The first of two Gateway platforms, offering support for 1 or 2 X-Blades, each of which is populated with 4 Copper GigE ports. The NS40G supports a maximum of 64 TB of usable capacity per X-Blade.
- NS-G8: Basically a gateway version of the NS-960, (2 to 8 X-Blades, 6 UltraFlex I/O slots per blade) but with support for up to 896 TB of total usable capacity (128 TB per X-Blade).
In addition to the new model line up (which expand the overall capacity over previous generation Celerras and additionally now support Flash drives in the high-end Unified Storage Platforms), the new products will additionally boast support for the vendor's deduplication and compression technology for both file systems and end-user data in virtual (VMware and other) scenarios. The vendor states that the de-dupe technology can reduce filesystem capacity by up to 50%, while compression can be applied to all inactive files. The new models are expected to be available in March, 2009.
Contact EMC Corporation for further information.
