Emc Symmetrix Dmx Series Disk Arrays

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DPRO-112960 April Adams Product Report 17 September 2003 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays Summary EMC announced several enhancements to its Symmetrix DMX Series in July 2003, including a new highend model, a new entry-point to the series, iSCSI support, FICON support and more replication capabilities. Table of Contents Overview Analysis Pricing Competitors Strengths Limitations Recommended Gartner Research Insight List Of Tables Table 1: Features and Functions: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Table 2: Competitive Analysis: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Table 3: Competitive Analysis: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series (Continued) List Of Figures Figure 1: Direct Matrix Architecture Gartner © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays Corporate Headquarters EMC Corporation 35 Parkwood Avenue Hopkinton, MA 01748, U.S.A. Tel: +1 508 435 1000 Internet: www.emc.com Overview EMC’s Symmetrix DMX Series is the company’s high-end storage system line, based on what EMC calls its “Direct Matrix” (DMX) architecture. The series was first introduced on 3 February 2003, with new models announced on 30 July 2003 and scheduled to become generally available in September 2003. There are now six models in the Symmetrix DMX Series: • Symmetrix DMX800—The DMX800, which now has a new entry point, is positioned at the low end of the Symmetrix Series. It is designed to be an entry point into Symmetrix’ Direct Matrix functionality (as the next step up from EMC’s CLARiiON CX600 model for customers who require increased levels of functionality) and is targeted at the more cost-conscious customer with lower capacity requirements. With the September 2003 enhancements, the DMX800 will support FICON connectivity to the host, making it usable in both open systems and mainframe environments. However, it still does not support ESCON. Therefore, while the DMX800 is rapidly replacing the Symmetrix 8000 models for a large percentage of customers, the Symmetrix 8000 is still the only low-end solution for customers who require ESCON connectivity. • Symmetrix DMX1000—The DMX1000 is the second of four base models in the DMX Series, offering more scalability than the DMX800 but less than the other base models. It is designed for use in either open systems or mainframe environments and is targeted at customers doing storage consolidation for a high number of servers or for heavy transaction-processing loads. • Symmetrix DMX2000—The third DMX base model configuration, the DMX2000 is also designed for use in either open systems or mainframe environments and is targeted toward customers doing storage consolidation for a high number of servers or for heavy transaction-processing loads. The DMX2000 supports more cache, more capacity and more connectivity than the DMX1000. • Symmetrix DMX3000—The newest addition to the Symmetrix DMX Series, the DMX3000, was announced in July 2003 and is expected to become generally available in September 2003. It is the fourth base model DMX product and is designed for use in open systems or mainframe environments where there are demanding, high-scalability and moderate to high-performance requirements, such as with large-scale dynamic workloads. • Symmetrix DMX1000-P—The first of what EMC calls the “ultra performance” models in the line, the DMX1000-P is designed for the small percentage of customers that have even higher performance requirements than can be satisfied with the base models—uses such as decision support applications and data warehousing. The cache and capacity numbers on the performance models are the same as the corresponding base models, but the back-end connectivity is doubled, and the number of drives per Fibre Channel loop is reduced. © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 2 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays • Symmetrix DMX2000-P—The second “performance” model in the line, the DMX2000-P is an enhanced version of the DMX2000, with more front- and back-end connections and is intended for customers with both high-performance and expanded capacity requirements. Symmetrix DMX800 The DMX800 is a full fibre, modular, rackmount storage system that supports up to 17.5TB of raw disk capacity in a fully configured, standard 19” National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) rack supplied by EMC. The controller unit is called the Storage Processor Enclosure (SPE) and is six rack units (6U) high. (Note: A “U” is equal to 1.75 inches.) The Disk Array Enclosures (DAEs) are 3U high and hold up to fifteen 2Gb Fibre Channel disk drives each. A total of eight DAEs are supported in a DMX800 system, for a maximum of 120 drives (15 per Fibre Channel loop). Both 73GB and 146GB drives are supported. The DMX800 comes with two cache directors (which can be divided into eight individual regions and will therefore support eight concurrent inputs/outputs [I/Os]) and supports from 4GB to 32GB of global cache. It supports up to sixteen 2Gb Fibre Channel host ports and, with the September 2003 enhancements, up to four 2Gb FICON or SCSI Over IP (iSCSI) host ports. When using the 2Gb FICON or iSCSI, only eight Fibre Channel host ports are supported. On the back end, the DMX800 supports two disk directors and up to sixteen 2Gb Fibre Channel interfaces to disk. As part of the July 2003 announcement, EMC plans to release a smaller entry configuration for the DMX800, which will also be available in September 2003. This new configuration (still called the DMX800) has two fewer Fibre Channel directors and backend boards than the original DMX800, and supports a minimum of eight disk drives (the previous entry point had a minimum of 16 drives). It scales up to 60 disk drives, or 8.75TB of raw capacity. The lower entry-point configuration can be scaled up to the original DMX800 configuration by adding a second backend director board so that it supports the full 120 drive capacity. According to EMC, the DMX800 can be installed outside of the data center, since it has no raised floor or special cooling requirements. Symmetrix DMX1000 The DMX1000 comes configured in a single-bay cabinet with the controller unit installed in the bottom and with the disk cages installed on top. It scales up to 21TB of raw capacity using 144 drives located in four 36-drive cages. (Note that these building blocks are different than what it used on the DMX800. The drives themselves are the same—and the same as used with EMC’s CLARiiON systems—but the DMX1000’s disk cages hold 36 drives, while the DMX800’s DAEs hold 15.) There are 18 drives per Fibre Channel loop. The DMX1000 supports up to forty-eight 2Gb Fibre Channel ports or ESCON channels and, with the newly announced enhancements, up to twenty-four 2Gb FICON or iSCSI connections. It also supports up to two disk directors and sixteen 2Gb Fibre Channel disk interfaces. It supports from two to four cache directors and scales up to 64GB of global cache. With four independent regions per director, there is a maximum of 16 independent cache regions in this model supporting concurrent I/O traffic. Unlike the DMX800, the DMX1000 and all the other DMX models are designed to be installed in the data center. Symmetrix DMX2000 The DMX2000 comes configured in a dual-bay cabinet with the controller and power supplies located in one and the disks located in the other. Like the DMX1000, the DMX2000’s disk cages hold 36 drives © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 3 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays each, and 18 drives are supported per Fibre Channel loop. The total number of drives supported in the second cabinet, however, is 288, which results in a total raw capacity of 42TB. The DMX2000 supports up to 128GB of global cache (four to eight cache directors), which can be divided into 32 independent cache regions (four per director)—again with each region supporting concurrent I/Os. Host connectivity can be scaled up to a maximum of ninety-six 2Gb Fibre Channel ports or ESCON channels and up to forty-eight 2Gb FICON or iSCSI connections. The DMX2000 has four disk directors and up to thirty-two 2Gb Fibre Channel ports available to disk. Symmetrix DMX3000 The DMX3000 is the third of the three Symmetrix DMX “base models.” It comes configured in a triple-bay cabinet with the controller and power supplies located in one and the disks located in the second and third cabinets, one on either side of the first. The DMX3000 supports up to 288 drives in each of the two disk cabinets for a total of 576 drives, or 84TB of raw capacity. Like the other base models, the DMX3000’s disk cages hold 36 drives each, and 18 drives are supported per Fibre Channel loop. The DMX3000 supports up to 128GB of global cache (four to eight cache directors), which can be divided into 32 independent cache regions (four per director)—again with each region supporting concurrent I/Os. Host connectivity can be scaled up to a maximum of sixty-four 2Gb Fibre Channel ports or ESCON channels and up to thirty-two 2Gb FICON or iSCSI connections. The DMX3000 has eight disk directors and up to sixty-four 2Gb Fibre Channel ports available for disk connectivity. Symmetrix DMX1000-P and Symmetrix DMX2000-P The DMX1000-P and DMX2000-P are what EMC calls the “ultra performance” models in the line. They are DMX1000 and DMX2000, respectively, but configured to maximize performance by reducing the number of host-side Fibre Channel directors while increasing the number disk Fibre Channel directors. Their cache and capacity numbers are the same as the corresponding base models, but the back-end connectivity is doubled, and the number of drives per Fibre Channel loop is reduced to nine. The DMX1000-P has four disk directors (compared to two on the DMX1000) and supports up to 32 back-end 2Gb Fibre Channel connections. The DMX2000-P has eight disk directors (vs. four on the DMX2000) and supports up to 64 back-end 2Gb Fibre Channel connections. Because of the way the back-end connectivity is increased—by re-allocating slots for back-end directors—the number of slots available for front-end directors is reduced to four and eight respectively. Host system connectivity on the performance models is therefore less than on the base models—32 Fibre Channel or ESCON ports and sixteen 2Gb FICON or iSCSI ports on the DMX1000-P (vs. 48 and 24 respectively on the base model DMX1000) and 64 Fibre Channel or ESCON ports and thirty-two 2Gb FICON or iSCSI host ports on the DMX2000-P (vs. 96 and 48 respectively on the base model DMX2000). While the DMX1000-P and DMX2000-P models are available today, EMC is positioning them only for the most extreme application environments—specifically for large decision-support environments. Features Common to All Symmetrix DMX Models Some other features common to all DMX models are: • Native iSCSI is a new feature on all the DMX Series models. It was announced in July 2003 and is scheduled to become generally available in September 2003. It is implemented through what EMC calls a Multi-Protocol Channel Director. © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 4 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays • Gigabit Ethernet, used for Symmetrix-to-Symmetrix connectivity in Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) implementations, was also announced in July 2003 for all DMX Series models. General availability is scheduled for September 2003. • All Symmetrix DMX models will support 2Gb FICON connectivity as of September 2003. • All Symmetrix DMX models support both 10K rpm 73GB and 146GB drives, and those drives can be mixed within a configuration. The 15K rpm 73GB drives were originally expected in 1H03, but have slipped, and no firm date for their release has yet been announced. • In each configuration, 12GB of the total raw capacity is reserved for internal Symmetrix File System use. • Mixed combinations of open systems and mainframe host interfaces are supported on the DMX storage systems, but only when EMC’s Enterprise Storage Platform (ESP) software is installed. ESP is an array-based software product that allows a Symmetrix system to be simultaneously shared between open systems and mainframe hosts. • All Symmetrix DMX systems are fully compatible with established Symmetrix software. That means that the same software that EMC customers use today with Symmetrix 8000 and z8000 systems are also supported on Symmetrix DMX models. Table 1: Features and Functions: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Model DMX800 DMX1000 DMX2000 DMX3000 30 July 2003 DMX1000-P DMX2000-P 3 February 3 February 2002 2002 Date 3 February 3 February 3 February Announced 2002 2002 2002 Date 3 February 3 February 3 February September 3 February 3 February Available 2002 2002 2002 2003 2002 2002 Maximum 17.5TB 21TB 42TB 84TB 21TB 42TB Maximum 15.3TB (open 18.4TB (open 36.8TB (open 73.6TB (open 18.4TB (open 36.8TB (open Usable systems); systems); systems); systems); systems); systems); Storage 15.2TB 18.2TB 36.4TB 72.9TB 18.2TB 36.4TB Capacity— (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) Maximum 8.76TB (open 10.5TB (open 21TB (open 42TB (open 10.5TB (open 21TB (open Usable systems); systems); systems); systems); systems); systems); Storage 8.67TB 10.4TB 20.8TB 41.6TB 10.4TB 20.8TB Capacity- (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) 8/120 48/144 96/288 289/576 48/144 96/288 4GB/32GB 4GB/64GB 8GB/128GB 16GB/128GB 4GB/64GB 8GB/128GB Raw Storage Capacity Using Parity 7+1 RAID Mirrored (RAID 1) Number of Drives (min./max.) Global Cache, min./max. © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 5 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays Table 1: Features and Functions: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Model Number of DMX800 DMX1000 DMX2000 DMX3000 DMX1000-P DMX2000-P 2 2-4 4-8 4-8 2-4 4-8 Host System 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre Interface Channel (16), Channel (48), Channel (96), Channel (64), Channel (32), Channel (64), (maximum 2Gb FICON ESCON (48), ESCON (96), ESCON (64), ESCON (32), ESCON (64), number of (4), iSCSI (4) 2Gb FICON 2Gb FICON 2Gb FICON 2Gb FICON 2Gb FICON ports (24), iSCSI (48), iSCSI (32), iSCSI (16), iSCSI (32), iSCSI supported) (24) (48) (32) (16) (32) Cache Directors RAID Levels 0, 1, Parity 0, 1, 10, 0, 1, 10, 0, 1, 10, 0, 1, 10, 0, 1, 10, Supported (3+1 and Parity (3+1 Parity (3+1 Parity (3+1 Parity (3+1 Parity (3+1 7+1) and 7+1) and 7+1) and 7+1) and 7+1) and 7+1) 2 2 4 8 4 8 Drive 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre Interface Channel (16 Channel (16 Channel (32 Channel (64 Channel (32 Channel (64 (maximum ports) ports) ports) ports) ports) ports) Disk Drive 73GB (10K 73GB (10K 73GB (10K 73GB (10K 73GB (10K 73GB (10K Capacity rpm), 146GB rpm), 146GB rpm), 146GB rpm), 146GB rpm), 146GB rpm), 146G Number of Disk Directors number of ports) (10K rpm) (10K rpm) (10K rpm) (10K rpm) (10K rpm) B(10K rpm) Standard 2 years on- 2 years on- 2 years on- 2 years on- 2 years on- 2 years on- Warranty site, 24×365, site, 24×365, site, 24×365, site, 24×365, site, 24×365, site, 24×365, 4-hour 4-hour 4-hour 4-hour 4-hour 4-hour response response response response response response Fault-Tolerance Features Supported Redundant, Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes HotSwappable Disk Drives Redundant, HotSwappable Fans Redundant, HotSwappable Power Supplies Redundant Controllers/C hannel Directors © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 6 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays Table 1: Features and Functions: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Model Dual Power DMX800 DMX1000 DMX2000 DMX3000 DMX1000-P DMX2000-P Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (global) Yes (global) Yes (global) Yes (global) Yes (global) Yes (global) Cords Remote Diagnostics Mirrored Cache Battery Backed-Up Cache (1) Full-System Battery Backup Hot Standby Spares High-Availability Features Supported Automatic Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Remote Copy Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Phone-Home Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Virtualization No No No No No No Cluster Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Failover/Failb ack Alternate Pathing (2) Environment al Monitoring Point-in-Time Copy Capability Nondisruptive Microcode Updates Nondisruptive Volume Expansion Support (1) Instead of having a separate battery backup specifically for cache, EMC Symmetrix uses redundant power supplies and full-system battery backup to maintain power to the system long enough for cache to destage to disk before gracefully shutting down the system. (2) DMX architecture provides automatic alternate internal paths. PowerPath software provides alternate pathing externally. Analysis Architecture © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 7 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays EMC’s Symmetrix DMX Series is based on an entirely new architecture. Instead of the bus architecture used on previous Symmetrix models, or the switch architecture used by some of its competitors, EMC has elected to use a direct matrix architecture in this series. As with previous Symmetrix models, the DMX models have front-end directors that provide Fibre Channel, ESCON and now FICON and iSCSI connectivity to the hosts; back-end directors that handle disk-side operations, including redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) functions; and cache boards that reside in the middle. With Symmetrix DMX, however, all of the front-end directors and all of the back-end directors are directly and simultaneously connected to all of the cache memory boards in the system, providing a fully hard-wired matrix of direct and redundant connections. This effectively eliminates the delays associated with bus arbitration and switch port gating. In addition, the backplane board where the Direct Matrix resides is a totally passive board that EMC expects will enhance reliability. The Symmetrix DMX systems have a separate and distinct messaging matrix, in addition to the above mentioned data matrix, which handles the flow of control communications between the different front- and back-end directors. A third communications layer is used for environmental/health interrogation and is linked to the Symmetrix DMX’s “phone home” support system. These direct connections reside on separate layers of the backplane and serve to allow the data matrix to focus on I/O. EMC expects that its Direct Matrix architecture will form the basis of its Symmetrix line for at least the next five years and believes that there are multiple opportunities for improving both capacity and performance. Figure 1: Direct Matrix Architecture RAID and the Symmetrix DMX Series The Symmetrix DMX models support RAID 0 (striping), RAID 1 (mirroring) and, except for the DMX800, RAID 10 (mirroring/striping), as well as what EMC refers to as Parity RAID 3+1 and 7+1. This Parity RAID groups four or eight drives (respectively) into a single RAID group, with one drive reserved for the parity information and the other three or seven drives reserved for the actual data. Data is striped across the three or seven drives. Because EMC’s parity RAID solution does not also stripe the parity data, it is not a © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 8 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays true RAID 5 (though it is intended to compete with the RAID 5 solutions offered by most of its competitors). Users can implement RAID 1 with either Parity RAID 3+1 or Parity RAID 7+1. However, Parity RAID 3+1 and Parity RAID 7+1 cannot co-exist in the same system. Triple Modular Redundancy With Majority Voting (TMR-MV) With the introduction of the Symmetrix DMX Series, EMC implemented a new method for end-to-end data integrity checking, monitoring component health and determining when a component should be replaced due to functional degradation or impending failure. In previous Symmetrix models, predictive analysis was performed on all components in the system, and when the results exceeded certain pre-set thresholds, the impacted component was taken offline and replaced. Since many of the key components in the system were redundant and hot swappable, operations were not disrupted when such a replacement was required. However, while the system could continue to operate with only a single controller and power supply, there was also the potential for performance penalty and reduced availability. According to EMC, an analysis conducted of all the replaced Symmetrix parts showed that a statistically significant number of the anticipated failures were false alarms, causing potential customer impact when it was not really necessary. To address this issue, EMC introduced TMR-MV, a procedure whereby three polling agents check the instructions being issued by each component. In a normal situation, all three agents will see the same instruction. When there is a disagreement, two out of the three (the majority) must concur before the instruction is processed. EMC believes that this will provide more accurate data and result in fewer unnecessary repairs for users, though that remains to be seen when the new method is put into practice. Upgradability Since the Symmetrix DMX Series is based on an entirely new architecture for EMC, there is no upgrade path from previous model Symmetrix 8000s to the new DMX Series. Even the disk drives are incompatible, since the Symmetrix 8000s and z8000s use Ultra2 Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) drives, and the DMX Series uses 2Gb Fibre Channel drives. While this limits a customer’s investment protection opportunity, it is no different than what every other manufacturer goes through when introducing a new architecture. What is unusual with the Symmetrix DMX Series is the lack of easy upgradability within the new line itself: • An entry-level DMX800 cannot be upgraded to a DMX1000. The disk drives can be reused, but not the drive drawers themselves (the DMX800 uses 15-bay drawers, and the DMX1000/DMX2000 use 36-bay cages) or any other part of the DMX800 system. • A DMX1000 cannot be upgraded to a DMX2000 or DMX3000. The DMX1000 is a single-bay cabinet where the controller is installed in the bottom, and the disk drives are installed in the top. The DMX2000 and DMX3000 are dual-bay and triple-bay cabinets respectively, where the controller is located in one cabinet and the disk drives in the other(s). • Similarly, moving from a DMX2000 to a DMX3000 also requires a “forklift” upgrade, rather than just the simple addition of a third cabinet, due to wiring and drive interface concerns. • A DMX1000 or DMX2000 cannot be upgraded to a DMX1000-P or DMX2000-P, because the Fibre Channel loop layouts are different. In the base models, there are 18 drives per loop. In the “P” models, nine drives are configured per loop for increased performance. On a positive note, the Symmetrix DMX Series uses the same disk drives as EMC’s CLARiiON CX Series, providing for the first time investment protection between the midrange and high-end lines. In addition, the DMX800 uses the same 15-bay disk drive building blocks as the CLARiiON CX Series, © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 9 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays further protecting the CLARiiON user’s investment. Technically, a CLARiiON CX600 could be fully upgraded to a Symmetrix DMX800 by swapping out the controllers and reformatting the drives, but EMC doesn’t anticipate that this will be done in any volume. Much of the software is also shared between platforms. Storage Management Software EMC offers an extensive array of storage management software applications designed to manage both EMC’s own hardware solutions and other manufacturer’s equipment that may be found in a customer’s storage environment. The following is summary of some of the key storage management software applications offered for the Symmetrix DMX Series. EMC software that targets management beyond the Symmetrix is not covered in this report. EMC ControlCenter Management Package for Symmetrix The EMC ControlCenter Management Package for Symmetrix is a suite of products that provide the core management tools required to monitor, automate, provision storage and report on activities in a Symmetrix environment. It includes the common set of services used in all EMC ControlCenter branded products. ControlCenter Management Package for the Symmetrix is composed of four applications— Symmetrix Manager, SRDF/TimeFinder Manager, Symmetrix Data Mobility Manager (SDMM) and Workload Analyzer. Note that this is not specific to the Symmetrix DMX models. The older Symmetrix 8000 and Symmetrix z8000 models also use these four applications. The other applications that EMC provides, either exclusively for Symmetrix arrays or for use with non-Symmetrix arrays, are designed as independent plug-in modules that allow the user interface to be customized to a storage administrator’s specific needs as new modules are added. EMC Symmetrix Manager The EMC Symmetrix Manager does exactly what the name implies—it helps the storage administrator manage a Symmetrix environment. This application provides the ability to monitor, automate and provision storage for Symmetrix platforms from a single console using multiple windows. Alert capabilities are also in place if the performance of any component exceeds preset thresholds. EMC Symmetrix Manager provides a concise view of the current storage resources and their channel director assignments, enabling users to reallocate current or deploy new resources to the necessary servers with a drag-and-drop. How users configure the server to see the new disks depends on the operating system being used (Windows NT will require a reboot, for example). Users can make certain configuration changes in open systems environments (but not in mainframe environments) without involving EMC service personnel. These changes include: • Creating new Symmetrix logical volumes (define size, RAID protection, type). • Modify logical volume type (covert between standard, business continuance volume [BCV], Remote Data Facility [RDF] and Device Reconfiguration Volume [DRV]). • Create, modify or delete meta volumes. • Perform or automate disk reallocation. • Swap SRDF source and target volumes. • Set front-end attributes (SCSI, Fibre Channel, or iSCSI; host names of port connections). • Add or remove mirrors. © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 10 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF)/TimeFinder Manager SRDF/TimeFinder Manager provides the management function for EMC’s replication applications— SRDF, SRDF Asynchronous (SRDF/A), Snap and TimeFinder. Management can be done either locally or remotely via a command line or graphical user interface (GUI) and includes the ability to configure the SRDF or TimeFinder device groups and monitor the status of the replication process. EMC SDMM SDMM is designed to simplify the setup and shorten the time required to configure SRDF, SRDF/A or TimeFinder by automating the replication process. It is actually a component of SRDF/TimeFinder Manager that was added at the end of 2001. Workload Analyzer Workload Analyzer is the performance analysis tool that collects, archives, graphs and analyzes Symmetrix, CLARiiON, switch and host performance data (including Windows, mainframe and selected Unix hosts). It complements the real-time reporting available with ControlCenter Symmetrix Manager by providing graphical and tabular representations of key performance variables that allow a storage or system administrator to tune, troubleshoot, report or plan storage infrastructure performance. Symmetrix Optimizer Symmetrix Optimizer is available as an added option to provide more advanced tuning for Symmetrix arrays. It resides on the Symmetrix storage system and is designed to optimize performance of disk spindles as resources and usage patterns change. Using a profile defined by the user and an algorithm from EMC, Symmetrix Optimizer gathers data on activity levels for a specified time frame; analyzes it to identify any hot spots; and then re-balances the workload, distributing highly active logical volumes across the disks to optimize performance. All this is done in a protected fashion within the storage system itself so that the server, operating system and applications are not disrupted and users have continual access. Symmetrix Optimizer also provides an approval option, rollback capability and the ability to perform up to four simultaneous swapping operations. Additionally, it includes quality of service controls for SRDF, SRDF/A, Snap, TimeFinder and Optimizer, which enable customers to select potential volumes, adjust the pace of copy settings, apply present settings and save preset settings. Symmetrix Optimizer also enables users to specify volumes for swapping and to create rules that restrict swapping within specified groups. EMC PowerPath PowerPath is a multipathing and load-balancing application that resides on the server below the application level but above the drivers. PowerPath is designed to optimize I/O traffic between the servers and Symmetrix and CLARiiON storage systems. PowerPath ensures that connections from the server to the storage are uniformly and fully utilized by directing I/O requests to free channels. It also provides automatic failover to another host bus adapter switch port, or Fibre Channel adapter, in the event of an I/O path failure. With PowerPath, a storage administrator can give certain devices priority, allowing applications within the same server to be tuned for performance. Several load-balancing policies are available to choose from, including one that optimizes the performance of the Symmetrix or CLARiiON array. If no policy is established, path selection is based on which channel has the least amount of load and overhead while providing preference to higher-importance applications. PowerPath can be used in both static and nonstatic environments. It also provides channel failover in a clustered environment. PowerPath is supported in Windows NT, Windows 2000, HP-UX, IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, Tru64 Unix, Novell NetWare and Linux environments. © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 11 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays EMC’s Data Replication Software EMC SRDF SRDF is EMC’s host-independent, mirrored data storage solution. It is a business continuance product that allows rapid duplication of data from one Symmetrix system to another and provides application restart using current data from the mirrored (disaster recovery) site, in the event of a major system disaster at the source location. SRDF uses synchronous writes to the remote mirror Symmetrix. Because the software resides on the Symmetrix storage system and does not require server cycles to operate, SRDF installations can function “bunker style” with no host at the backup site, reducing the total cost of ownership. SRDF is controlled through ControlCenter via the SRDF/TimeFinder Manager product, which adds a GUI as well as the command line interface. On OS/390 and z/OS platforms, SRDF is managed via a started task that offers both a command line and Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF) panel interface. It can now also be managed with SDMM, which runs on a Solaris workstation and has a similar GUI management interface. In its current version, SRDF runs over Fibre Channel as well as over IP, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), T1/T3 and E1/E3. In its July 2003 announcement, EMC also announced the coming availability of Gigabit Ethernet SRDF connectivity for the Symmetrix DMX models. This is scheduled to be available in September 2003. With the introduction of the Symmetrix DMX Series, SRDF can operate “intragenerationally,” that is, data can be mirrored from a Symmetrix 8000 to a Symmetrix DMX model or vice versa. One of the options with SRDF is GeoSpan. Available in two versions—EMC GeoSpan for Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) and EMC GeoSpan for VERITAS Cluster Server (VCS)—the GeoSpan applications are high-availability packages of cluster software integrated with SRDF and sold through EMC and with EMC support. EMC SRDF/A Newly announced in June 2003 and scheduled for general availability in September 2003 is EMC’s SRDF/A for Symmetrix DMX. SRDF/A provides an extended distance remote copy solution for Symmetrix. Using what EMC calls “delta sets,” SRDF/A keeps the secondary site within a minute of currency with the primary or production site. SRDF/A will not be supported on previous models of Symmetrix (8000 or z8000). EMC TimeFinder TimeFinder is a multiple mirror software product that allows mirroring of a disk, separate from any RAID protection. EMC calls this a BCV. A BCV gets a separate address so it can be split and then used or backed up independently of the other copies. Complete data protection is therefore maintained during the backup process, and backup windows are reduced. Incremental updates can be made to the BCV, or the data on the BCV can be copied back to the source disk. EMC offers the ability for a standard volume to support relationships with up to eight BCVs. The current version of TimeFinder allows two splits to be made independently, staggering them to provide two independent checkpoints. TimeFinder also has an “instant” split capability at the volume level for both mainframes on open systems. This is intended to eliminate any wait time that could potentially be encountered when splitting large numbers of volumes. TimeFinder supports a consistent split capability at the volume level for mainframe and open systems storage as well. This means that the split volumes contain a consistent, restartable image of data which can be propagated remotely using SRDF creating an asynchronous disaster restart solution, or used as input to a local backup and recovery process © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 12 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays without quiescing the application. Database management system (DBMS) support is required for this usage, however. Like SRDF, TimeFinder can be controlled through a Command Line Interface or with the EMC ControlCenter SRDF/TimeFinder Manager graphical user interface. It can also be controlled by SDMM. EMC Snap EMC Snap provides a way to make point-in-time copies on Symmetrix DMX systems without setting aside as much capacity in advance. Because it stores only the changed data blocks, users only have to allocate a fraction of the capacity of the volume being copied, providing an alternative to TimeFinder’s full volume copies. EMC Snap works in both mainframe and open systems environments, but is limited to Symmetrix DMX systems only (Symmetrix 8000/z8000 systems do not support it). EMC Snap was also announced in June 2003 but became available immediately on all Symmetrix DMX systems. EMC ControlCenter Replication Manager EMC’s ControlCenter Replication Manager application facilitates the management of disk-based replications. This host-based software automates many of the procedures necessary to complete a replication and makes the disk replication process more efficient. The initial release of the product in the fourth quarter of 2001 supported Oracle database replication with TimeFinder in the Symmetrix environment. In September 2002, support was expanded to include IBM UDB, Microsoft SQL Server and Exchange databases. Replication product and array support was expanded to include CLARiiON SnapView and HP StorageWorks MA8000 and EMA 12000 SANworks Enterprise Volume Manager cloning software. Pricing Information not available from vendor. GSA Pricing Information not available from vendor. Competitors The Symmetrix DMX Series products compete with other high-end disk arrays from such manufacturers as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), IBM and Sun Microsystems. The key specifications of the competing systems are listed in the charts below; however, the primary difference between these systems is really the architecture. The EMC Symmetrix DMX Series models use its Direct Matrix architecture, while IBM uses a clustered processor design on its Enterprise Storage Server, and the HP StorageWorks XP Series, HDS Lightning 9970V/9980V and Sun StorEdge 9970/9980 use a nonblocking cross-bar switch architecture. (Readers should note that both HP and Sun have partnership agreements with Hitachi Ltd./Hitachi Data Systems to offer the Lightning Series products. HP has an original equipment manufacturer [OEM] agreement, while Sun has a distributor agreement. From a pure hardware specification perspective, the three product sets—HP StorageWorks xp128/xp1024, HDS Lightning 9970V/9980V and Sun StorEdge 9970/9980—are essentially equivalent.) HDS HDS currently offers two products in the enterprise disk array category—the Lightning 9970V and the Lightning 9980V. The Lightning 9970V is a single frame cabinet that scales up to 18.7TB, and the Lightning 9980V is a multiframe cabinet array that scales up to 149.5TB. Both Lightning arrays are based on Hitachi’s Hierarchical Star Network (Hi-Star) architecture—a nonblocking crossbar switch architecture that supports simultaneous data traffic on multiple point-to-point data paths. The Lightning 9900 V models © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 13 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays use these crossbar switches to move data from disk to cache memory to client servers. Although the switch-based design was originally chosen for performance reasons, it also provides greater system resiliency because it allows for multiple paths between system elements. The failure of a single path will have only a small effect on availability or performance. The Lightning 9900 V products have a global cache design where data cache and control cache are maintained separately. They also support what HDS calls “virtualization assist features”—port-level virtualization that works with HDS’s SANtinel software to create a virtual private storage pool for each operating system, enabling the storage systems to support multiple heterogeneous open systems platforms and have LUN 0 on a single port. The Lightning 9900 V Series supports 2Gb Fibre Channel, ESCON and 2Gb FICON host connectivity (1Gb FC-AL to disk) and is designed for use in heterogeneous open systems or mainframe environments. Hewlett-Packard Hewlett-Packard has an OEM agreement with Hitachi that allows it to take the Hitachi core architecture and add its own firmware modifications and host-based software to create the StorageWorks XP Series disk arrays. From a hardware perspective, the StorageWorks xp128 and StorageWorks xp1024 are equivalent to the HDS Lightning 9970V and 9980V arrays. As such, they also use a nonblocking crossbar switch architecture, split data cache and control cache design, and port-level virtualization. The StorageWorks XP Series supports 2Gb Fibre Channel, ESCON and 2Gb FICON connectivity to the host, and 1Gb FC-AL connectivity to disk. They are enterprise storage systems designed for use in large heterogeneous data centers in direct and network storage (SAN and NAS) environments. HP differentiates its XP Series products from the HDS Lightning Series via the software offerings that are enabled on the StorageWorks XP Series, the solutions that incorporate the arrays and its storage services. IBM IBM’s entry into the enterprise storage market is the Enterprise Storage Server (ESS) 800 (aka Shark). The ESS 800 differs from its competitors in architectural design in that it uses a two-node cluster design with PCI bus adapter cards that connect each node to its servers and back-end disks. The cluster design allows write data to be cached in both the local node’s cache (volatile) and the other cluster’s nonvolatile storage (NVS) cache (nonvolatile) until the write is completed to disk. This process allows writes to occur at cache speed while still guaranteeing that two copies of the data are available. Host connectivity is available via 2Gb Fibre Channel, ESCON, 2Gb FICON or Ultra SCSI. Disk drive connectivity is via Serial Storage Architecture (SSA) interface. The ESS 800 also has an optional Turbo feature that enables customers to go from four-way symmetric multiprocessors (SMPs) to six-way SMPs in the disk controller module. No other product in the competitive lineup provides that option. Sun Microsystems Like HP, Sun also has a partnership agreement with Hitachi/HDS; however, Sun’s is a global distributor agreement rather than an OEM agreement. This allows Sun to co-brand and resell the Lightning 9970V and Lightning 9980V as the Sun StorEdge 9970 and StorEdge 9980 respectively. The StorEdge arrays therefore feature the same nonblocking crossbar architecture, global cache design, port-level virtualization and support for 2Gb Fibre Channel, ESCON and 2Gb FICON host connectivity as the Lightning models. Disk connectivity is via 1Gb FC-AL interface. © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 14 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays Though Sun does offer some storage management software applications of its own, the company also resells all of HDS’s storage management software applications that go with the Lightning products. The StorEdge 9900 Series is designed for use in heterogeneous open systems or mainframe environments. Table 2: Competitive Analysis: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Model EMC EMC EMC EMC Hewlett- Hewlett- Symmetrix Symmetrix Symmetrix Symmetrix Packard Packard DMX800 DMX1000 DMX2000 DMX3000 StorageWorks StorageWorks xp128 Date February February February Available 2003 2003 2003 Architecture Direct Matrix Direct Matrix Direct Matrix Configuration Direct Matrix May 2002 May 2002 Crossbar Crossbar Switch Switch Single-bay Dual-bay Triple-bay Single Multiframe Cabinet Cabinet Cabinet Cabinet Cabinet 17.5TB 21TB 42TB 84TB 18.7TB 149.5TB Maximum 15.3TB (open 18.4TB (open 36.8TB (open 73.6TB (open 15TB (open 127.8TB Usable RAID systems); systems), systems), systems), systems); (open 5 or Parity 15.2TB 18.2TB 36.4TB 72.9TB 14.1TB systems); RAID (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) 119TB Capacity (1) (1) (1) (1) Maximum 120 144 288 576 128 1024 32GB 64GB 128GB 128GB 32GB (Also 64GB (Also Cache per supports up supports up System to 3GB to 3GB control control cache) cache) Maximum Rackmount July 2003 xp1024 Raw Storage Capacity With All Expansion (mainframe) Number of Drives With All Expansion Maximum Host System 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre Interface Channel, Channel, Channel, Channel, Channel, Channel, 2Gb FICON, ESCON, 2Gb ESCON, 2Gb ESCON, 2Gb ESCON (2), ESCON (2), iSCSI FICON, FICON, FICON, 2Gb FICON 2Gb FICON 1+, 5 1+, 5 1Gb FC-AL iSCSI iSCSI iSCSI RAID Levels 0, 1, Parity 0, 1, 10, 0, 1, 10, 0, 1, 10, Supported (3+1 and Parity (3+1 Parity (3+1 Parity (3+1 7+1) and 7+1) and 7+1) and 7+1) Drive 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 1Gb Fibre Interface Channel Channel Channel Channel ChannelArbitrated Loop (FC-AL) © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 15 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays Table 2: Competitive Analysis: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Model EMC EMC EMC EMC Hewlett- Hewlett- Symmetrix Symmetrix Symmetrix Symmetrix Packard Packard DMX800 DMX1000 DMX2000 DMX3000 StorageWorks StorageWorks xp128 xp1024 Drive 73GB, 73GB, 73GB, 73GB, 36GB, 73GB, 36GB, 73GB, Capacities 146GB 146GB 146GB 146GB 146GB 146GB 2 years on- 2 years on- 2 years on- 2 years on- 2 years on- 3 years on- site, 24×365, site, 24×365, site, 24×365, site, 24×365, site, site, 4-hour 4-hour 4-hour 4-hour 7×24×365, 4- 7×24×365, 4- response response response response hour hour response (3) response (3) Supported Warranty Fault-Tolerance Features Supported (standard or optional) Redundant, Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No (5) No (5) No (5) No (5) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes HotSwappable Components (4) Dual Power Cords Mirrored Cache Battery Backed-Up Cache Full-System Battery Backup Hot Standby Spares High-Availability Features Supported (standard or optional) Automatic Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Remote Copy Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Phone-Home Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Failover/Failb ack Alternate Pathing Environment al Monitoring Point-in-Time Copy Capability © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 16 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays Table 2: Competitive Analysis: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Model Nondisruptive EMC EMC EMC EMC Hewlett- Hewlett- Symmetrix Symmetrix Symmetrix Symmetrix Packard Packard DMX800 DMX1000 DMX2000 DMX3000 StorageWorks StorageWorks xp128 xp1024 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microcode Updates Cluster Support (1) Achieved using EMC’s Parity RAID 7+1 solution. (2) ESCON connectivity is provided through an ESCON-compatible Extended Serial Adapter. (3) May vary slightly by country. (4) Includes controllers/channel directors, disks, fans and power supplies. (5) Instead of having a separate battery backup specifically for cache in the event of a power failure, the Symmetrix models use redundant power supplies and full-system battery backup to maintain system power long enough for cache to destage to disk before gracefully shutting down. Table 3: Competitive Analysis: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series (Continued) Model Hitachi Data Hitachi Data IBM Enterprise Sun StorEdge Sun StorEdge Systems Systems Storage Server 9970 9980 Freedom Freedom 800 Storage Storage Lightning 9970V Lightning 9980V Date Available May 2002 May 2002 July 2002 May 2002 May 2002 Architecture Crossbar Crossbar Clustered Crossbar Crossbar Switch Switch Processor Switch Switch Single Cabinet Configuration Multiframe Multiframe Cabinet Cabinet 18.7TB 149.5TB 55.9TB 18.7TB 149.5TB Maximum 15TB (open 127.8TB (open 44.8TB (open 15TB (open 127.8TB (open Usable RAID 5 systems); systems); systems and systems); systems); or Parity RAID 14.1TB 119TB mainframe) 14.1TB 119TB Capacity (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) (mainframe) Maximum 128 1024 384 128 1024 Maximum 32GB (Also 64GB (Also 64GB 32GB (Also 64GB (Also Cache per supports up to supports up to supports up to supports up to System 3GB control 3GB control 3GB control 3GB control cache) cache) cache) cache) Maximum Raw Single Cabinet Multiframe Cabinet Storage Capacity With All Expansion Number of Drives With All Expansion © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 17 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays Table 3: Competitive Analysis: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series (Continued) Model Hitachi Data Hitachi Data IBM Enterprise Sun StorEdge Sun StorEdge Systems Systems Storage Server 9970 9980 Freedom Freedom 800 Storage Storage Lightning 9970V Lightning 9980V Host System 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre 2Gb Fibre Interface Channel, Channel, Channel (2), Channel, Channel, ESCON (1), ESCON (1), Ultra SCSI, ESCON (1), ESCON (1), 2Gb FICON 2Gb FICON ESCON, 2Gb 2Gb FICON 2Gb FICON 1+, 5 FICON RAID Levels 1+, 5 1+, 5 5, 10 1+, 5 Drive Interface 1Gb FC-AL 1Gb FC-AL SSA 1Gb FC-AL 1Gb FC-AL Drive 36GB, 73GB, 36GB, 73GB, 18GB, 36GB, 36G, 73G, 36G, 73G, Capacities 146GB 146GB 72.8GB, 146GB 146GB Supported Supported Warranty 146.5GB 3 years on-site, 3 years on-site, 3 years on-site 3 years on-site, 3 years on-site, 7×24×365, 4- 7×24×365, 4- 7×24, same-day 7×24, 4-hour 7×24, 4-hour hour response hour response response response response Fault-Tolerance Features Supported (standard or optional) Redundant, Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Mirrored Cache Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Battery Backed- Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Hot-Swappable Components (3) Dual Power Cords Up Cache Full-System Battery Backup Hot Standby Spares High-Availability Features Supported (standard or optional) Automatic Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Remote Copy Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Phone Home Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Failover/Failbac k Alternate Pathing Environmental Monitoring Point-in-Time Copy Capability © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 18 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays Table 3: Competitive Analysis: EMC Symmetrix DMX Series (Continued) Model Nondisruptive Hitachi Data Hitachi Data IBM Enterprise Sun StorEdge Sun StorEdge Systems Systems Storage Server 9970 9980 Freedom Freedom 800 Storage Storage Lightning 9970V Lightning 9980V Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microcode Updates Cluster Support (1) ESCON connectivity is provided through an ESCON-compatible Extended Serial Adapter. (2) The ESS 800 model supports native Fibre Channel for Windows NT/2000, IBM AIX, HP-UX, HP Tru64, Sun Solaris, Novell NetWare, OS/400 and NUMA-Q. (3) Includes controllers/channel directors, disks, fans and power supplies. Strengths • Symmetrix DMX Architecture—EMC introduced a brand-new architectural scheme to the storage market with its Direct Matrix architecture. By hard-wiring the interconnects between all of the frontend (host) directors and each of the cache boards, as well as between all of the back-end (disk) directors and each of the cache boards, EMC effectively eliminated all of the data bottlenecks inside the system. With no need for bus arbitration or gating on the switch ports, data can flow (and failover) as necessary without any added latency. In addition, the DMX backplane is essentially passive. • Full Family—EMC’s full family of Symmetrix DMX products is being extended to meet an even wider array of potential customer needs. The DMX800, positioned as the entry-point into DMX technology, will now have an even smaller entry-point configuration. The DMX1000 and DMX2000 meet the needs of high-end enterprise environments with higher capacities, more cache, more host and disk ports, and mainframe connectivity. The new DMX3000 extends the line’s scalability even further. Finally, the DMX1000-P and DMX2000-P models offer all the same capacity and cache specifications as their corresponding base models, but with enhanced disk performance for those customers who require even greater performance. • Nearly 100 percent Software Compatibility—The Symmetrix DMX Series is fully compatible with all of the software applications released by EMC for previous Symmetrix environments. In fact, EMC expects customers to see a significant performance enhancement when using SRDF or TimeFinder, since the system’s separate messaging matrix will handle much of the background activity that used to create performance issues. In addition, SRDF can be used intra-generationally—from a Symmetrix 8000 to a Symmetrix DMX or vice versa. Potential customers should note, however, that the new software announced in July 2003 (SRDF/A and Snap) is for Symmetrix DMX products only. Limitations • No RAID 5 Solution—While EMC does offer two Parity RAID solutions (3+1 and 7+1) for the Symmetrix DMX models (which, in reality, is improved RAID 4), it still does not offer a true RAID 5 solution with striped parity as the other competitors do. • Limited Upgrade Paths—When a storage manufacturer releases a next-generation product with an entirely new architecture, it is expected that the previous generation models will not be upgradable to the new design. Such is the case with the Symmetrix 8000/z8000 Series and the new Symmetrix © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 19 EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays DMX models. Customers do, however, expect that there will be an easy upgrade path within the new family. Unfortunately, in the Symmetrix DMX line, any upgrade from one model to another requires a “forklift” upgrade. Though the disk drives themselves can be reused between systems, there are no in-cabinet upgrades in the DMX line. This includes the performance models. Neither the DMX1000 nor the DMX2000 base models can be upgraded to their corresponding performance “P” versions incabinet. • Lower Drive Count Than the Competition—Even with the new DMX3000 model, EMC’s Symmetrix DMX Series scales to a maximum of only 576 drives, while three of its primary competitors (HDS Lightning 9980V, HP StorageWorks xp1024 and Sun StorEdge 9980) all scale up to 1,024 drives. As new, larger disk drives are released, this will dramatically affect EMC’s ability to compete on persystem capacity. EMC will argue that users don’t require 1000+ drive systems and that it can achieve the same overall capacities using multiple DMX systems at a competitive price. However, with no way to verify the cost argument and with today’s customers focusing more and more on consolidation (even EMC targets the DMX1000, DMX2000 and DMX3000 for storage consolidation), the low drive count remains a potential limitation. Recommended Gartner Research Vendor Rating: EMC’s Renewed Offerings Rate “Positive,” VDR-20-5855 EMC’s DMX Goes for High-End Performance Leadership, P-19-2808 EMC’s New Direct Matrix Technology: A Big Leap Ahead, T-19-3010 EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Information Storage Systems, DPRO-89810 EMC CLARiiON Disk Arrays, DPRO-90079 Hitachi Data Systems Freedom Storage Lightning 9900 V Series Storage Servers, DPRO-100002 Hewlett-Packard StorageWorks XP Series Disk Arrays, DPRO-103890 IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server, DPRO-96727 RAID Technology Overview, DPRO-95056 Disk Array Subsystems (RAID): Comparison Columns, DPRO-90825 Insight The advantage of the DMX Series lies in its Direct Matrix architecture, which provides a unique way to manage intrasystem communications and which is reported to effectively eliminate data bottlenecks within the system. EMC continues to enhance the DMX product line with improved data replication solutions, a new higher-capacity model and a lower entry point into the DMX architecture. The latter, when combined with the facts that (1) mainframe connectivity is now available on the DMX800 (though only via FICON for now) and (2) the new software enhancements will not be supported on the older Symmetrix 8000/z8000 systems, makes it clear that the DMX models will soon be usurping the Symmetrix 8000/z8000 models altogether. Potential customers should keep this in mind when evaluating the EMC Symmetrix 8000/z8000 family. © 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. DPRO-112960 17 September 2003 20