Dell PowerVault 221S (SCSI) - Manual (Page 3)

A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ SCSI SOLUTIONS VER A02
PAGE 3 11/17/2005
A Reference Guide for Optimizing Dell SCSI Solutions
1. Introduction
Enterprise storage applications involve interconnection of multiple components – including
both software and hardware aspects which would complete a storage solution. Any given
storage application may be supported by one or more storage solutions. Thus, it becomes
essential to identify an optimum storage solution, one which would be ideal for a given
application.
Selection of storage components not only impacts the effectiveness of the solution for an
application but also would impact the performance of Enterprise IT infrastructure which
relies on that storage. Key storage components which impact a storage solution can be
categorized as:
• Physical Storage Device Technology – PowerVault™ Direct Attached Storage
PV22xS family
• Interconnect Technology – Ultra160/Ultra320 SCSI
• Host System Interface Technology – non-RAID (HBA) and RAID controllers
(PERC)
• Management Capabilities – OpenManage™ Storage Management (OMSM) or
Array Manager
While selection of storage components is essential for building a storage solution, on the
other hand it is also critical to understand the requirements for a given application. In
general, effectiveness of all the applications is driven by the following key storage
attributes and the usage model for the application, which should then determine the
relative importance for each of these attributes:
• Reliability – Storage solution provides reliable access to data
• Availability – Data from storage devices readily available
• Serviceability – In case of failure of storage components, solution should allow
easy access to assemblies/components and be easy to service
• Redundancy – Solution provides redundancy for both the data storage, as well as
for hardware management capabilities
• Performance
o Bandwidth Utilization – Data Throughput/Available Bandwidth
o I/Os per second (IOPS)
• Data Protection – Data is protected against catastrophic failures on a storage or
system component
• Scalability – Storage capacity can be expanded as applications necessitate
• Cost – driven by RAID and other hardware configurations.
An optimum storage solution would be something comprised of storage components that
would address all the key attributes for a given application, keeping their relative
importance in mind. This paper presents a study of all storage components from
technological to functional, as well as behavioral differences, to help define an optimum
storage solution. In this paper, all the storage components are measured against the
attributes listed above which impact the overall effectiveness of an application.