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General
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- Fully Supported
- Limitation
- Not Supported
- Information Only
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Pros
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- + Extensive platform support
- + Extensive data protection capabilities
- + Flexible deployment options
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- + Built for simplicity
- + Policy-based management
- + Cost-effectiveness
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- + Flexible architecture
- + Broad range of hardware support
- + Built for performance
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Cons
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- - No native data integrity verification
- - Dedup/compr not performance optimized
- - Disk/node failure protection not capacity optimized
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- - Single hypervisor support
- - No stretched clustering
- - No native file services
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- - Limited data protection capabilities
- - No stretched clustering
- - No dedup capabilities
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Content |
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WhatMatrix
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WhatMatrix
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WhatMatrix
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Assessment |
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Name: SANsymphony
Type: Software-only (SDS)
Development Start: 1998
First Product Release: 1999
NEW
DataCore was founded in 1998 and began to ship its first software-defined storage (SDS) platform, SANsymphony (SSY), in 1999. DataCore launched a separate entry-level storage virtualization solution, SANmelody (v1.4), in 2004. This platform was also the foundation for DataCores HCI solution. In 2014 DataCore formally announced Hyperconverged Virtual SAN as a separate product. In May 2018 integral changes to the software licensing model enabled consolidation because the core software is the same and since then cumulatively called DataCore SANsymphony.
One year later, in 2019, DataCore expanded its software-defined storage portfolio with a solution especially for the need of file virtualization. The additional SDS offering is called DataCore vFilO and operates as scale-out global file system across distributed sites spanning on-premises and cloud-based NFS and SMB shares.
Recently, at the beginning of 2021, DataCore acquired Caringo and integrated its know how and software-defined object storage offerings into the DataCore portfolio. The newest member of the DataCore SDS portfolio is called DataCore Swarm and together with its complementary offering SwarmFS and DataCore FileFly it enables customers to build on-premises object storage solutions that radically simplify the ability to manage, store, and protect data while allowing multi-protocol (S3/HTTP, API, NFS/SMB) access to any application, device, or end-user.
DataCore Software specializes in the high-tech fields of software solutions for block, file, and object storage. DataCore has by far the longest track-record when it comes to software-defined storage, when comparing to the other SDS/HCI vendors on the WhatMatrix.
In April 2021 the company had an install base of more than 10,000 customers worldwide and there were about 250 employees working for DataCore.
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Name: Hyperconvergence (HC3)
Type: Hardware+Software (HCI)
Development Start: 2011
First Product Release: 2012
Scale Computing was founded in 2007 and began to ship its first SAN/NAS scale-out storage product, in 2009. Mid 2011 development started on the Hyperconvergence (HC3) platform, which was to combine the 3 foundation layers, being compute, storage and virtualization, into a single hardware appliance. HC3 was built to provide ultra simple ease-of-use and initially targeted at the SMB market. The first HC3 models were released in August 2012.
In Januari 2019 the company had an install base of more than 3,500 customers worldwide. In January 2019 there were 130+ employees working for Scale Computing.
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Name: PowerFlex
Type: Software-only (SDS)
Development Start: Early 2011
First Product Release: dec 2012
NEW
ScaleIO was founded early 2011 and began to ship its first Software Defined Storage (SDS) solution, Elastic Converged Storage (ECS), late 2012. In June 2013, ScaleIO was acquired by EMC. Early 2016 EMC ScaleIO introduced its first Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCIS) solution, ScaleIO Node, with the ECS platform at its core. In september 2016 ScaleIO Node was re-branded to ScaleIO Ready Node when the server hardware changed from Quantum to Dell. In march 2018 the ScaleIO product family was re-branded to VxFlex OS and VxFlex Ready Node respectively. In june 2020 the VxFlex OS product family was re-branded to PowerFlex.
Customer install base and number of employees are unknown at this time.
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GA Release Dates:
SSY 10.0 PSP12: jan 2021
SSY 10.0 PSP11: aug 2020
SSY 10.0 PSP10: dec 2019
SSY 10.0 PSP9: jul 2019
SSY 10.0 PSP8: sep 2018
SSY 10.0 PSP7: dec 2017
SSY 10.0 PSP6 U5: aug 2017
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SSY 10.0: jun 2014
SSY 9.0: jul 2012
SSY 8.1: aug 2011
SSY 8.0: dec 2010
SSY 7.0: apr 2009
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SSY 3.0: 1999
NEW
10th Generation software. DataCore currently has the most experience when it comes to SDS/HCI technology, when comparing SANsymphony to other SDS/HCI platforms.
SANsymphony (SSY) version 3 was the first public release that hit the market back in 1999. The product has evolved ever since and the current major release is version 10. The list includes only the milestone releases.
PSP = Product Support Package
U = Update
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GA Release Dates:
HCOS 8.6.5: mar 2020
HCOS 8.5.3: oct 2019
HCOS 8.3.3: jul 2019
HCOS 8.1.3: mar 2019
HCOS 7.4.22: may 2018
HCOS 7.2.24: sep 2017
HCOS 7.1.11: dec 2016
HCOS 6.4.2: apr 2016
HCOS 6.0: feb 2015
HCOS 5.0: oct 2014
ICOS 4.0: aug 2012
ICOS 3.0: may 2012
ICOS 2.0: feb 2010
ICOS 1.0: feb 2009
NEW
8th Generation Scale Computing software on proven Lenovo and SuperMicro server hardware.
Scale Computing HC3s maturity has been steadily increasing ever since the first iteration by expanding its feature set with both foundational and advanced capabilities. Due to its primary focus on small- and midsized organizations, the feature set does not (yet) incorporate some of the larger enterprise capabilities.
HCOS = HyperCore Operating System
ICOS = Intelligent Clustered Operating System
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GA Release Dates:
PowerFlex 3.5: jun 2020
VxFlex OS 3.0.1.1: jan 2020
VxFlex OS 3.0.1: sep 2019
VxFlex OS 3.0: mar 2019
VxFlex OS 2.6.1.1: jan 2019
VxFlex OS 2.6.1: oct 2018
VxFlex OS 2.6: may 2018
VxFlex OS 2.5: feb 2018
VxFlex OS 2.0.1.4: oct 2017
VxFlex OS 2.0.1.3: mar 2017
VxFlex OS 2.0: mar 2016
VxFlex OS 1.32: may 2015
VxFlex OS 1.31: dec 2014
VxFlex OS 1.30: sep 2014
VxFlex OS 1.20: oct 2013
VxFlex OS 1.10: dec 2012
NEW
6th Generation software. PowerFlexs feature set is getting richer, but the platform still lacks some advanced functionality that competing SDS/HCI offerings provide.
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Pricing |
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Hardware Pricing Model
Details
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N/A
SANsymphony is sold by DataCore as a software-only solution. Server hardware must be acquired separately.
The entry point for all hardware and software compatibility statements is: https://www.datacore.com/products/sansymphony/tech/compatibility/
On this page links can be found to: Storage Devices, Servers, SANs, Operating Systems (Hosts), Networks, Hypervisors, Desktops.
Minimum server hardware requirements can be found at: https://www.datacore.com/products/sansymphony/tech/prerequisites/
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Per Node
Each Scale Computing HC3 appliance purchased consists of hardware (server+storage), software (all-inclusive) and 1 year of premium support. Optionally end-users can also request for TOR-switches as part of the solution and deployment.
In june 2018 Scale Computing introduced an Managed Service Providers (MSP) Program that offers these organizations a price-per node, per-month, OpEx subscription license.
TOR = Top-of-Rack
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N/A
For the PowerFlex software-only solution, server hardware must be acquired separately.
Dell EMC does not maintain a Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) with supported hardware for PowerFlex implementations.
For guidance on proper hardware configurations, Dell EMC provides hardware requirements and reference architectures (SPEX).
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Software Pricing Model
Details
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Capacity based (per TB)
NEW
DataCore SANsymphony is licensed in three different editions: Enterprise, Standard, and Business.
All editions are licensed per capacity (in 1 TB steps). Except for the Business edition which has a fixed price per TB, the more capacity that is used by an end-user in each class, the lower the price per TB.
Each edition includes a defined feature set.
Enterprise (EN) includes all available features plus expanded Parallel I/O.
Standard (ST) includes all Enterprise (EN) features, except FC connections, Encryption, Inline Deduplication & Compression and Shared Multi-Port Array (SMPA) support with regular Parallel I/O.
Business (BZ) as entry-offering includes all essential Enterprise (EN) features, except Asynchronous Replication & Site Recovery, Encryption, Deduplication & Compression, Random Write Accelerator (RWA) and Continuous Data Protection (CDP) with limited Parallel I/O.
Customers can choose between a perpetual licensing model or a term-based licensing model. Any initial license purchase for perpetual licensing includes Premier Support for either 1, 3 or 5 years. Alternatively, term-based licensing is available for either 1, 3 or 5 years, always including Premier Support as well, plus enhanced DataCore Insight Services (predictive analytics with actionable insights). In most regions, BZ is available as term license only.
Capacity can be expanded in 1 TB steps. There exists a 10 TB minimum per installation for Business (BZ). Moreover, BZ is limited to 2 instances and a total capacity of 38 TB per installation, but one customer can have multiple BZ installations.
Cost neutral upgrades are available when upgrading from Business/Standard (BZ/ST) to Enterprise (EN).
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Per Node (all-inclusive)
There is no separate software licensing. Each node comes equiped with an all-inclusive feature set. This means that without exception all Scale Computing HC3 software capabilities are available for use.
In june 2018 Scale Computing introduced an Managed Service Providers (MSP) Program that offers these organizations a price-per node, per-month, OpEx subscription license.
HC3 Cloud Unity DRaaS requires a monthly subscription that is in part based on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) resource usage (compute, storage, network). The HC3 Cloud Unity DRaaS subscription includes:
- 6 days of Active Mode testing
- Runbook outlining DR procedures
- 1 Runbook failover test and 1 separate Declaration
- Network egress equal to 12.5% of Storage
- ScaleCare Support
In addition end-users and first-time service providers can purchase a DR Planning Service (one-time fee) for onboarding.
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Per TB
Editions:
Basic
Enterprise (add-on)
The PowerFlex Basic license includes: High Availability, Self-Healing, Scale-out architecture, Support for 1,000s of nodes, Elasticity, Hyper Convergence, Automated performance tuning, Any Drive support (SSD/PCIe/HDD), Automatic Cluster Growth, Asymmetric nodes support – heterogeneous support of different server brands / OSes. Advanced Management – includes vSphere plugin, REST API, OpenStack Support.
The PowerFlex Enterprise license includes: QoS, Data Obfuscation, Snapshots, Auto tiering (Flash caching) – use XtremCache with PowerFlex, RAM caching, Fault Sets, Thin provisioning, Fine Granularity (FG) storage pools.
EMC uses a tiered pricing structure per physical device capacity TB for both the Basic and Enterprise licenses. The more capacity that is purchased, the cheaper the price per TB.
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Support Pricing Model
Details
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Capacity based (per TB)
Support is always provided on a premium (24x7) basis, including free updates.
More information about DataCores support policy can be found here:
http://datacore.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1270/~/what-is-datacores-support-policy-for-its-products
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Per Node
Each appliance comes with 1 year ScaleCare Premium Support that consists of:
- 24x7x365 by telephone (US and Europe)
- 2 hour response time for critical issues
- Live chat, email support, and general phone on Mo-Fr 8AM-8PM EDST.
- Next Business Day (NBD) delivery of hardware replacement parts
ScaleCare Premium Support also provides remote installation services on the initial deployment of ScaleComputing HC3 clusters.
In june 2018 Scale Computing introduced an Managed Service Providers (MSP) Program that offers these organizations a price-per node, per-month, OpEx subscription license.
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Per TB
Subscriptions: Basic, Enhanced, Premium
Basic: Response based on severity level within 9-5 basis plus 24x7 remote support.
Enhanced: Basic support plus next business day onsite.
Premium: Options include four-hour onsite responses as well as post-warranty maintenance.
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Design & Deploy
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Design |
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Consolidation Scope
Details
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Storage
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
DataCore is storage-oriented.
SANsymphony Software-Defined Storage Services are focused on variable deployment models. The range covers classical Storage Virtualization over Converged and Hybrid-Converged to Hyperconverged including a seamless migration between them.
DataCore aims to provide all key components within a storage ecosystem including enhanced data protection and automation & orchestration.
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Hypervisor
Compute
Storage
Networking (optional)
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
Scale Computing is stack-oriented.
With the HC3 platform Scale Computing aims to provide all functionality required in a Private Cloud ecosystem.
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Compute
Storage
Dell EMC is stack-oriented, whereas the PowerFlex platform itself is heavily storage-focused.
With the PowerFlex platform Dell EMC aims to provide key generic components within a Private Cloud ecosystem.
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1, 10, 25, 40, 100 GbE (iSCSI)
8, 16, 32, 64 Gbps (FC)
The bandwidth required depends entirely on the specifc workload needs.
SANsymphony 10 PSP11 introduced support for Emulex Gen 7 64 Gbps Fibre Channel HBAs.
SANsymphony 10 PSP8 introduced support for Gen6 16/32 Gbps ATTO Fibre Channel HBAs.
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1, 10 GbE
Scale Computing hardware models include redundant ethernet connectivity in an active/passive setup.
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1, 10, 25, 40, 100 GbE
PowerFlex supports ethernet connectivity using SFP+ or Base-T. Dell EMC recommends at least 10GbE to avoid the network becoming a performance bottleneck.
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Overall Design Complexity
Details
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Medium
DataCore SANsymphony is able to meet many different use-cases because of its flexible technical architecture, however this also means there are a lot of design choices that need to be made. DataCore SANsymphony seeks to provide important capabilities either natively or tightly integrated, and this keeps the design process relatively simple. However, because many features in SANsymphony are optional and thus can be turned on/off, in effect each one needs to be taken into consideration when preparing a detailed design.
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Low
Scale Computing HC3 was developed with simplicity in mind, both from a design and a deployment perspective. The HC3 platform architecture is meant to be applicable to general virtual server infrastructure (VSI) use-cases and seeks to provide important capabilities natively. There are only a few storage building blocks to choose from, and many advanced capabilities like deduplication are always turned on. This minimizes the amount of design choices as well as the number of deployment steps.
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High
PowerFlex is able to meet many different use-cases because of its flexible technical architecture, however this also means there are a lot of design choices that need to be made. In addition PowerFlex does not encompass many native data protection capabilities and data services. A complete solution design therefore requires the presence of multiple technology platforms.
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External Performance Validation
Details
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SPC (Jun 2016)
ESG Lab (Jan 2016)
SPC (Jun 2016)
Title: 'Dual Node, Fibre Channel SAN'
Workloads: SPC-1
Benchmark Tools: SPC-1 Workload Generator
Hardware: All-Flash Lenovo x3650, 2-node cluster, FC-connected, SSY 10.0, 4x All-Flash Dell MD1220 SAS Storage Arrays
SPC (Jun 2016)
Title: 'Dual Node, High Availability, Hyper-converged'
Workloads: SPC-1
Benchmark Tools: SPC-1 Workload Generator
Hardware: All-Flash Lenovo x3650, 2-node cluster, FC-interconnect, SSY 10.0
ESG Lab (Jan 2016)
Title: 'DataCore Application-adaptive Data Infrastructure Software'
Workloads: OLTP
Benchmark Tools: IOmeter
Hardware: Hybrid (Tiered) Dell PowerEdge R720, 2-node cluster, SSY 10.0
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N/A
No Scale Computing HC3 validated test reports have been published in 2016/2017/2018/2019.
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ESG Lab (oct 2016)
ESG Lab (Oct 2016)
Title: 'Optimize Hyper-converged Infrastructure with Dell EMC ScaleIO Software-defined Storage'
Workloads: Generic, Oracle OLTP
Benchmark Tools: FIO, SLOB
Hardware: Hybrid Intel servers, 4-8 node cluster, ScaleIO 2.0.0
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Evaluation Methods
Details
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Free Trial (30-days)
Proof-of-Concept (PoC; up to 12 months)
SANsymphony is freely downloadble after registering online and offers full platform support (complete Enterprise feature set) but is scale (4 nodes), capacity (16TB) and time (30 days) restricted, what all can be expanded upon request. The free trial version of SANsymphony can be installed on all commodity hardware platforms that meet the hardware requirements.
For more information please go here: https://www.datacore.com/try-it-now/
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Public Facing Clusters
Proof-of-Concept (PoC)
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Free Download (forever)
Proof-of-Concept (PoC)
PowerFlex block storage software is available for free and for an unlimited time, without any capacity restrictions. The free version of PowerFlex is restricted to non-production usage and as such does not contain any maintenance/support.
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Deploy |
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Deployment Architecture
Details
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Single-Layer
Dual-Layer
Single-Layer = servers function as compute nodes as well as storage nodes.
Dual-Layer = servers function only as storage nodes; compute runs on different nodes.
Single-Layer:
- SANsymphony is implemented as virtual machine (VM) or in case of Hyper-V as service layer on Hyper-V parent OS, managing internal and/or external storage devices and providing virtual disks back to the hypervisor cluster it is implemented in. DataCore calls this a hyper-converged deployment.
Dual-Layer:
- SANsymphony is implemented as bare metal nodes, managing external storage (SAN/NAS approach) and providing virtual disks to external hosts which can be either bare metal OS systems and/or hypervisors. DataCore calls this a traditional deployment.
- SANsymphony is implemented as bare metal nodes, managing internal storage devices (server-SAN approach) and providing virtual disks to external hosts which can be either bare metal OS systems and/or hypervisors. DataCore calls this a converged deployment.
Mixed:
- SANsymphony is implemented in any combination of the above 3 deployments within a single management entity (Server Group) acting as a unified storage grid. DataCore calls this a hybrid-converged deployment.
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Single-Layer
Single-Layer = servers function as compute nodes as well as storage nodes.
Dual-Layer = servers function only as storage nodes; compute runs on different nodes.
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Single-Layer
Dual-Layer
There are two main PowerFlex components to consider:
- Storage Data Server (SDS) that is used to present storage volumes
- Storage Data Client (SDC) that is used to access storage volumes that are presented
Therefore PowerFlex can be setup in two ways:
1. By installing both the SDS and the SDC component on the same server, creating a hyper-converged single-layer configuration.
2. By installing the SDS and SDC component on separate servers, creating a traditional dual-layer configuration.
The flexibility of the PowerFlex platform allows the two configurations to be mixed within the same environment.
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Deployment Method
Details
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BYOS (some automation)
BYOS = Bring-Your-Own-Server-Hardware
DataCore SANsymphony is made easy by providing a very straightforward implementation approach.
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Turnkey (very fast; highly automated)
Because of the ready-to-go Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) building blocks and the setup wizard provided by Scale Computing, customer deployments can be executed in hours instead of days.
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BYOS (some automation)
BYOS = Bring-Your-Own-Server-Hardware
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Workload Support
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Virtualization |
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Hypervisor Deployment
Details
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Virtual Storage Controller
Kernel (Optional for Hyper-V)
The SANsymphony Controller is deployed as a pre-configured Virtual Machine on top of each server that acts as a part of the SANsymphony storage solution and commits its internal storage and/or externally connected storage to the shared resource pool. The Virtual Storage Controller (VSC) can be configured direct access to the physical disks, so the hypervisor is not impeding the I/O flow.
In Microsoft Hyper-V environments the SANsymphony software can also be installed in the Windows Server Root Partition. DataCore does not recommend installing SANsymphony in a Hyper-V guest VM as it introduces virtualization layer overhead and obstructs DataCore Software from directly accessing CPU, RAM and storage. This means that installing SANsymphony in the Windows Server Root Partition is the preferred deployment option. More information about the Windows Server Root Partition can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/performance-tuning/role/hyper-v-server/architecture
The DataCore software can be installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2019 or lower (all versions down to Microsoft Windows Server 2012/R2).
Kernel Integrated, Virtual Controller and VIB are each distributed architectures, having one active component per virtualization host that work together as a group. All three architectures are capable of delivering a complete set of storage services and good performance. Kernel Integrated solutions reside within the protected lower layer, VIBs reside just above the protected kernel layer, and Virtual Controller solutions reside in the upper user layer. This makes Virtual Controller solutions somewhat more prone to external actions (eg. most VSCs do not like snapshots). On the other hand Kernel Integrated solutions are less flexible because a new version requires the upgrade of the entire hypervisor platform. VIBs have the middle-ground, as they provide more flexibility than kernel integrated solutions and remain relatively shielded from the user level.
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KVM User Space
SCRIBE runs in KVM user space. Scale Computing made a conscious decision not to make SCRIBE kernel integrated in order to avoid the risk that storage problems would cause a system panic meaning that an entire node could go down as a result.
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vSphere: Virtual Storage Controller + kernel module
Hyper-V/KVM: OS Drivers and packages
VMware vSphere: The PowerFlex Virtual Machine (SVM) is deployed as a pre-configured Virtual Machine on top of each server that acts as a part of the PowerFlex storage solution and commits its internal storage to the shared resource pool. The Virtual Storage Controller (VSC) has direct access to the physical disks, so the hypervisor is not impeding the I/O flow.
Hyper-V/KVM: The PowerFlex components can be installed and configured on multiple nodes from one central server via a web client by using PowerFlex Installation Manager (IM). IM has a REST API that enables install, extend, and uninstall functionalities.
Kernel Integrated, Virtual Controller and VIB are each distributed architectures, having one active component per virtualization host that work together as a group. All three architectures are capable of delivering a complete set of storage services and good performance. Kernel Integrated solutions reside within the protected lower layer, VIBs reside just above the protected kernel layer, and Virtual Controller solutions reside in the upper user layer. This makes Virtual Controller solutions somewhat more prone to external actions (eg. most VSCs do not like snapshots). On the other hand Kernel Integrated solutions are less flexible because a new version requires the upgrade of the entire hypervisor platform. VIBs have the middle-ground, as they provide more flexibility than kernel integrated solutions and remain relatively shielded from the user level.
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Hypervisor Compatibility
Details
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VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5-7.0U1
Microsoft Hyper-V 2012R2/2016/2019
Linux KVM
Citrix Hypervisor 7.1.2/7.6/8.0 (XenServer)
'Not qualified' means there is no generic support qualification due to limited market footprint of the product. However, a customer can always individually qualify the system with a specific SANsymphony version and will get full support after passing the self-qualification process.
Only products explicitly labeled 'Not Supported' have failed qualification or have shown incompatibility.
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Linux KVM-based
NEW
ScaleComputing HC3 uses its own proprietary HyperCore operating system and KVM-based hypervisor.
SCRIBE is an integral part of the Linux KVM platform to enable it to own the full software stack. As VMware and Microsoft dont allow such a tight integration, SCRIBE cannot be used with any other hypervisor platform.
Scale Computing HC3 supports a single hypervisor in contrast to other SDS/HCI products that support multiple hypervisors.
The Scale Computing HC3 hypervisor fully supports the following Guest operating systems:
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows 10
Windows 8.1
CentOS Enterprise Linux
RHEL Enterprise Linux
Ubuntu Server
FreeBSD
SUSE Linux Enterprise
Fedora
Versions supported are versions currently supported by the operating system manufacturer.
SCRIBE = Scale Computing Reliable Independent Block Engine
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VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5-6.7U3*
Microsoft Hyper-V 2012R2/2016/2019**
Citrix Hypervisor 7.1.2/7.6/8.0./8.1 (XenServer)
NEW
PowerFlex supports all major hypervisor platforms.
*At this time PowerFlex 3.5 only supports VMware vSphere 7 in dual-layer configurations (SDC core component). Support for VMware vSphere 7 (SDS core component) is planned in a 2H 2020 release of PowerFlex Manager.
**PowerFlex only supports Microsoft Windows Server + Hyper-V dual-layer configurations (SDC core component). Single-layer deployments (SDS core component) are not supported.
SDC =Storage Data Client
SDS =Storage Data Server
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Hypervisor Interconnect
Details
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iSCSI
FC
The SANsymphony software-only solution supports both iSCSI and FC protocols to present storage to hypervisor environments.
DataCore SANsymphony supports:
- iSCSI (Switched and point-to-point)
- Fibre Channel (Switched and point-to-point)
- Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
- Switched, where host uses Converged Network Adapter (CNA), and switch outputs Fibre Channel
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Libscribe
In order to read/write from/to Scale Computing HC3 block devices (aka Virtual SCRIBE Devices or VSD for short) the Libscribe component needs to be installed in KVM on each physical host. Libscribe is part of the QEMU process and presents virtual block devices to the VM. Because Libscribe is a QEMU block driver, SCRIBE is a supported device type and qemu-img commands work by default.
Although a virtIO driver doesnt need to be installed perse in each VM, it is highly recommended as I/O performance benefits greatly from it. IO submission takes place via the Linux Native Asynchronous I/O (AIO) that is present in KVM.
Shared storage devices in virtual Windows Clusters are supported.
QEMU = Quick Emulator
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PowerFlex
PowerFlex uses a proprietary block storage and metadata protocol over TCP/IP. It is NOT iSCSI due to PowerFlex’s distributed nature.
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Bare Metal |
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Bare Metal Compatibility
Details
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Microsoft Windows Server 2012R2/2016/2019
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5/6.6/7.3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0SP3+4/12.0SP1
Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS
CentOS 6.5/6.6/7.3
Oracle Solaris 10.0/11.1/11.2/11.3
Any operating system currently not qualified for support can always be individually qualified with a specific SANsymphony version and will get full support after passing the self-qualification process.
SANsymphony provides virtual disks (block storage LUNs) to all of the popular host operating systems that use standard disk drives with 512 byte or 4K byte sectors. These hosts can access the SANsymphony virtual disks via SAN protocols including iSCSI, Fibre Channel (FC) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).
Mainframe operating systems such as IBM z/OS, z/TPF, z/VSE or z/VM are not supported.
SANsymphony itself runs on Microsoft Windows Server 2012/R2 or higher.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not support any non-hypervisor platforms.
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Microsoft Windows Server
Linux Distributions
IBM AIX
NEW
Supported Windows versions (SDC core component only):
Windows Server 2012R2/2016/2019
Supported Linux versions:
RHEL 6.9/6.10/7.5/7.6/7.7/7.8/8.0/8.1/8.2
CentOS 6.9/6.10/7.5/7.6/7.7/7.8/8.0/8.1/8.2
Oracle Linux 6.9/6.10/7.5/7.6/7.7
SLES 11SP4/12SP4/12SP5/15/15SP1
Ubuntu 16.04.6/18.04.2/18.04.3
Supported AIX versions (SDC core component only):
AIX 7.2 TL3
SDC =Storage Data Client
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Bare Metal Interconnect
Details
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iSCSI
FC
FCoE
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not support any non-hypervisor platforms.
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Block Device Driver
The PowerFlex Data Client (SDC) component is installed on application servers that are going to consume storage.
The PowerFlex Data Server (SDS) component is installed on storage servers that are used to contribute local storage to the shared resource pool.
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Containers |
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Container Integration Type
Details
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Built-in (native)
DataCore provides its own Volume Plugin for natively providing Docker container support, available on Docker Hub.
DataCore also has a native CSI integration with Kubernetes, available on Github.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not officially support any container platforms.
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Built-in (native)
Dell EMC provides its own software plugins for container support (both Docker and Kubernetes).
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Container Platform Compatibility
Details
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Docker CE/EE 18.03+
Docker EE = Docker Enterprise Edition
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not officially support any container platforms.
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Docker EE 1.12+
Mesos
Docker EE = Docker Enterprise Edition
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Container Platform Interconnect
Details
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Docker Volume plugin (certified)
The DataCore SDS Docker Volume plugin (DVP) enables Docker Containers to use storage persistently, in other words enables SANsymphony data volumes to persist beyond the lifetime of both a container or a container host. DataCore leverages SANsymphony iSCSI and FC to provide storage to containers. This effectively means that the hypervisor layer is bypassed.
The Docker SDS Volume plugin (DVP) is officially 'Docker Certified' and can be downloaded from the Docker Hub. The plugin is installed inside the Docker host, which can be either a VM or a Bare Metal Host connect to a SANsymphony storage cluster.
For more information please go to: https://hub.docker.com/plugins/datacore-sds-volume-plugin
The Kubernetes CSI plugin can be downloaded from GitHub. The plugin is automatically deployed as several pods within the Kubernetes system.
For more information please go to: https://github.com/DataCoreSoftware/csi-plugin
Both plugins are supported with SANsymphony 10 PSP7 U2 and later.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not officially support any container platforms.
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Docker Volume Plugin (certified)
The 'REX-Ray for PowerFlex' plugin is a block volume plugin that connects containers to persistent storage served by PowerFlex.
The 'REX-Ray for PowerFlex' plugin is officially 'Docker Certified' and can be downloaded from the online Docker Store.
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Container Host Compatibility
Details
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Virtualized container hosts on all supported hypervisors
Bare Metal container hosts
The DataCore native plug-ins are container-host centric and as such can be used across all SANsymphony-supported hypervisor platforms (VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM, XenServer, Oracle VM Server) as well as on bare metal platforms.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not officially support any container platforms.
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Virtualized container hosts on all supported hypervisors
Bare Metal container hosts
The PowerFlex native plugins are container-host centric and as such can be used across all PowerFlex-supported hypervisor platforms (VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Linux KVM and Citrix XenServer) as well as on bare metal platforms.
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Container Host OS Compatbility
Details
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Linux
All Linux versions supported by Docker CE/EE 18.03+ or higher can be used.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not officially support any container platforms.
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CentOS
CoreOS
Debian
Red Hat
Ubuntu
'REX-Ray for PowerFlex' has been qualified for the mentioned Linux operating systems.
Container hosts running the Windows OS are not (yet) supported.
Supported CoreOS versions (SDC core component only):
CoreOS 2191.5.0
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Container Orch. Compatibility
Details
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Kubernetes 1.13+
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not officially support any container platforms.
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Kubernetes 1.6+
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Container Orch. Interconnect
Details
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Kubernetes CSI plugin
The Kubernetes CSI plugin provides several plugins for integrating storage into Kubernetes for containers to consume.
DataCore SANsymphony provides native industry standard block protocol storage presented over either iSCSI or Fibre Channel. YAML files can be used to configure Kubernetes for use with DataCore SANsymphony.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not officially support any container platforms.
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PowerFlex-CSI Plugin
VxFlex OS 3.0 introduced support for the PowerFlex CSI plugin based on the Kubernetes Container Storage Interface (CSI) specification. The PowerFlex-CSI plugin is leveraged to provision and manage persistent volumes in Kubernetes v1.13 and later.
Before CSI volume plugins were “in-tree” meaning their code was part of the core Kubernetes code and shipped with the core Kubernetes binaries. Storage vendors wanting to add support for their storage system to Kubernetes (or even fix a bug in an existing volume plugin) were forced to align with the Kubernetes release process. In addition, third-party storage code caused reliability and security issues in core Kubernetes binaries and the code was often difficult (and in some cases impossible) for Kubernetes maintainers to test and maintain. CSI is 'out-of-tree' meaning that with CSI, third-party storage providers can write and deploy plugins exposing new storage systems in Kubernetes without ever having to touch the core Kubernetes code. This gives Kubernetes users more options for storage and makes the system more secure and reliable.
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VDI |
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VDI Compatibility
Details
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VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
There is no validation check being performed by SANsymphony for VMware Horizon or Citrix XenDesktop VDI platforms. This means that all versions supported by these vendors are supported by DataCore.
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Citrix XenDesktop
Parallels RAS
Leostream
Scale Computing HC3 HyperCore is a Citrix Ready platform. XenDesktop 7.6 LTSR, 7.8 and 7.9 are officially supported.
Scale Computing HC3 also actively supports the following desktop virtualization software:
- Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS);
- Leostream (=connection management).
A joint Reference Configuration white paper for Parallels RAS on Scale Computing HC3 was published in June 2019.
A joint Quick Start with Scale Computing HC3 and Leostream white paper was released in March 2019.
Since Scale Computing HC3 does not support the VMware vSphere hypervisor, VMware Horizon is not an option.
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VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
Dell EMC has not published any recent PowerFlex Reference Architecture whitepapers for both VMware Horizon and Citrix XenDesktop platforms.
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VMware: 110 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: 110 virtual desktops/node
DataCore has not published any recent VDI reference architecture whitepapers. The only VDI related paper that includes a Login VSI benchmark dates back to december 2010. There a 2-node SANsymphony cluster was able to sustain a load of 220 VMs based on the Login VSI 2.0.1 benchmark.
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Workspot: 40 virtual desktops/node
Workspot VDI 2.0: Load bearing number is based on Login VSI tests performed on hybrid HC2150 appliances using 2vCPU Windows 7 desktops and the Knowledge Worker profile.
For detailed information please view the corresponding whitepaper. Please note that this technical whitepaper is dated August 2016 and that Workspot VDI 2.0 no longer exists. Workspots current portfolio only includes cloud solutions that run in Microsoft Azure.
Scale Computing has not published any Reference Architecture whitepapers for the Citrix XenDesktop platform.
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VMware: unknown
Citrix:unknown
Dell EMC has not published any recent PowerFlex Reference Architecture whitepapers for both VMware Horizon and Citrix XenDesktop platforms.
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Server Support
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Server/Node |
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Hardware Vendor Choice
Details
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Many
SANsymphony runs on all server hardware that supports x86 - 64bit.
DataCore provides minimum requirements for hardware resources.
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Lenovo (native and OEM)
SuperMicro (native)
Scale Computing leverages both Lenovo and SuperMicro server hardware as building blocks for is native HC3 appliances:
HC1200 is Supermicro server hardware
HC1250 is Supermicro server hardware
HC1250D is Lenovo server hardware
HC1250DF is Lenovo server hardware
HC5250D is Lenovo server hardware
Scale Computing has maintained a partnership with MBX Systems since 2012. MBX Systems is a hardware integrator based in the US, with headquarters both in Chicago and San Jose, that is tasked with assembling the native HC3 appliances.
In May 2018 Scale Computing and Lenovo entered in an OEM partnership to provide Scale Computing HC3 software on Lenovo ThinkSystem tower (ST250) or rack servers (SR630, SR650, SR250) with a wide variety of hardware choices (eg. CPU and RAM).
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Many
PowerFlex does not have a HCL and instead provides minimum requirements for hardware resources.
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Many
SANsymphony runs on all server hardware that supports x86 - 64bit.
DataCore provides minimum requirements for hardware resources.
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4 Native Models
NEW
There are 4 native model series to choose from:
HE100 Edge Computing/Remote offices, stores, warehouses, labs, classrooms, ships
HE500 Edge Computing/Small remote sites/DR
HC1200 SMB/Midmarket
HC5000 Enterprise/Distributed Enterprise
There are 4 Lenovo model series to choose from:
ST250 Edge, Backup
SR250 Edge
SR630 Mid-market
SR650 Mid-market, High Capacity
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Many
PowerFlex does not have a HCL and instead provides minimum requirements for hardware resources.
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1, 2 or 4 nodes per chassis
Note: Because SANsymphony is mostly hardware agnostic, customers can opt for multiple server densities.
Note: In most cases 1U or 2U building blocks are used.
Also Super Micro offers 2U chassis that can house 4 compute nodes.
Denser nodes provide a smaller datacenter footprint where space is a concern. However, keep in mind that the footprint for other datacenter resources such as power and heat and cooling is not necessarily reduced in the same way and that the concentration of nodes can potentially pose other challenges.
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1 node per chassis
NEW
Scale Computing HE100 appliances are Intel NUCs.
Scale Computing HE500 appliances are either 1U building blocks or Towers.
Scale Computing HC1200 appliances are 1U building blocks.
Scale Computing HC5000 appliances are 2U building blocks.
Lenovo HC3 Edge ST250 appliances are Towers.
Lenovo HC3 Edge SR250 appliances are 1U building blocks.
Lenovo HC3 Edge SR630 appliances are 1U building blocks.
Lenovo HC3 Edge SR650 appliances are 2U building blocks.
Denser nodes provide a smaller datacenter footprint where space is a concern. However, keep in mind that the footprint for other datacenter resources such as power and heat and cooling is not necessarily reduced in the same way and that the concentration of nodes can potentially pose other challenges.
NUC = Next Unit of Computing
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1, 2 or 4 nodes per chassis
Because PowerFlex is mostly hardware agnostic, customers can opt for multiple server densities.
Note: In most cases 1U or 2U building blocks are used.
Also Super Micro offers 2U chassis that can house 4 compute nodes.
Denser nodes provide a smaller datacenter footprint where space is a concern. However, keep in mind that the footprint for other datacenter resources such as power and heat and cooling is not necessarily reduced in the same way and that the concentration of nodes can potentially pose other challenges.
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Yes
DataCore does not explicitly recommend using different hardware platforms, but as long as the hardware specs are somehow comparable, there is no reason to insist on one or the other hardware vendor. This is proven in practice, meaning that some customers run their productive DataCore environment on comparable servers of different vendors.
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Yes
Scale Computing allows for mixing different server hardware in a single HC3 cluster, including nodes from different generations.
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Yes
PowerFlex allows for mixing different server hardware in a single solution; also PowerFlex allows different volume types (HDD-only, Hybrid, All-Flash) to exist within a single solution.
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Components |
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Flexible
Minimum hardware requirements need to be fulfilled.
For more information please go to: https://www.datacore.com/products/sansymphony/tech/compatibility/
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Flexible: up to 3 options (native); extensive (Lenovo OEM)
Scale Computing HE100-series CPU options:
HE150: 1x Intel i3-10110U (2 cores); 1x Intel i5-10210U (4 cores); 1x i7-10710U (6 cores)
Scale Computing HE500-series CPU options:
HE500: 1x Intel Xeon E-2124 (4 cores); 1x Intel Xeon E-2134 (4 cores); 1x Intel Xeon E-2136 (6 cores)
HE550: 1x Intel Xeon E-2124 (4 cores); 1x Intel Xeon E-2134 (4 cores); 1x Intel Xeon E-2136 (6 cores)
HE550F: 1x Intel Xeon E-2124 (4 cores); 1x Intel Xeon E-2134 (4 cores); 1x Intel Xeon E-2136 (6 cores)
HE500T: 1x Intel Xeon E-2124 (4 cores); 1x Intel Xeon E-2134 (4 cores); 1x Intel Xeon E-2136 (6 cores)
HE550TF: 1x Intel Xeon E-2124 (4 cores); 1x Intel Xeon E-2134 (4 cores); 1x Intel Xeon E-2136 (6 cores)
Scale Computing HC1200-series CPU options:
HC1200: 1x Intel Xeon Bronze 3204 (6 cores); 1x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
HC1250: 1x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4210 (10 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6242 (16 cores)
HC1250D: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4210 (10 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6230 (20 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6242 (16 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6244 (8 cores)
HC1250DF: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4210 (10 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6230 (20 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6242 (16 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6244 (8 cores)
Scale Computing HC5000-series CPU options:
HC5200: 1x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores); 1x Intel Xeon Silver 4210 (10 cores); 1x Intel Xeon Gold 6230 (20 cores)
HC5250D: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4210 (10 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6230 (20 cores); 2x Intel Xeon Gold 6242 (16 cores)
Scale Computing HC1200 and HC5000 series nodes ship with 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Cascade Lake) processors.
Lenovo HC3 Edge CPU options:
ST250: 1x Intel Xeon E-2100
SR250: 1x Intel Xeon E-2100
SR630: 2x 1st or 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Skylake or Cascade Lake)
SR650: 2x 1st or 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Skylake or Cascade Lake)
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Flexible
Dell EMC provides minimal hardware requirements in its PowerFlex documentation.
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Flexible
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Flexible: up to 8 options
Scale Computing HE100-series memory options:
HE150: 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
Scale Computing HE500-series memory options:
HE500: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
HE550: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
HE550F: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
HE500T: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
HE500TF: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
Scale Computing HC1200-series memory options:
HC1200: 64GB, 96GB, 128GB, 192GB, 256GB, 384GB
HC1250: 64GB, 96GB, 128GB, 192GB, 256GB, 384GB
HC1250D: 128GB, 192GB, 256GB; 384GB, 512GB, 768GB
HC1250DF: 128GB, 192GB, 256GB; 384GB, 512GB, 768GB
Scale Computing HC5000-series memory options:
HC5200: 64GB, 128GB, 192GB, 256GB; 384GB, 512GB, 768GB
HC5250D: 128GB, 192GB, 256GB; 384GB, 512GB, 768GB, 1TB, 1.5TB
Lenovo HC3 Edge series memory options:
ST250: 16GB - 64GB
SR250: 16GB - 64GB
SR630: 64GB - 768GB
SR650: 64GB - 1.5TB
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Flexible
Dell EMC provides minimal hardware requirements in its PowerFlex documentation.
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Flexible
Minimum hardware requirements need to be fulfilled.
For more information please go to: https://www.datacore.com/products/sansymphony/tech/compatibility/
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Capacity: up to 5 options (HDD, SSD)
Fixed: Number of disks
Scale Computing HE100-series storage options:
HE150: 1x 250GB/500GB/1TB/2TB M.2 NVMe
Scale Computing HE500-series storage options:
HE500: 4x 1/2/4/8TB NL-SAS [magnetic-only]
HE550: 1x 480GB/960GB SSD + 3x 1/2/4TB NL-SAS [hybrid]
HE550F: 4x 240GB/480GB/960GB SSD [all-flash]
HE500T: 4x 1/2/4/8TB NL-SAS + 8x 4/8TB NL-SAS [magnetic-only]
HE550TF: 4x 240GB/480GB/960GB SSD [all-flash]
Scale Computing HC1200-series storage options:
HC1200: 4x 1/2/4/8/12TB NL-SAS [magnetic-only]
HC1250: 1x 480GB/960GB/1.92TB/3.84TB/7.68TB SSD + 3x 1/2/4/8/12TB NL-SAS [hybrid]
HC1250D: 1x 960GB/1.92TB/3.84TB/7.68TB SSD + 3x 1/2/4/8TB NL-SAS [hybrid]
HC1250DF: 4x 960GB/1.92TB/3.84TB/7.68TB SSD [all-flash]
Scale Computing HC5000-series storage options:
HC5200: 12x 8/12TB NL-SAS [magnetic-only]
HC5250D: 3x 960GB/1.92TB/3.84TB/7.68TB SSD + 9x 4/8TB NL-SAS [hybrid]
Lenovo HC3 Edge series storage options:
ST250: 8x 1/2/4/8TB NL-SAS [magnetic only]
ST250: 4x 960GB/1.92TB/3.84TB SSD [all-flash]
SR250: 4x 1/2/4/8TB NL-SAS [magnetic only]
SR250: 1x 960GB/1.92TB/3.84TB SSD + 3x 1/2/4/8TB NL-SAS [hybrid]
SR250: 4x 960GB/1.92TB/3.84TB SSD [all-flash]
SR630: 4x 1/2/4/8TB NL-SAS [magnetic only]
SR630: 1x 480GB/960GB/1.92TB/3.84TB/7.68TB SSD + 3x 1/2/4/8TB NL-SAS [hybrid]
SR630: 4x 1.92TB/3.84TB/7.68TB SSD [all-flash]
SR650: 3x 480GB/960GB/1.92TB/3.84TB/7.68TB SSD + 9x 1/2/4/8TB NL-SAS [hybrid]
The SSDs in all mentioned nodes are normal SSDs (non-NMVe).
SATA = NL-SAS = 7.2k RPM = High-capacity low-speed drives
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Flexible
PowerFlex supports magnetic (HDD) and solid-state disks (SSD), as well as flash PCI Express (PCIe) cards.
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Flexible
Minimum hardware requirements need to be fulfilled.
For more information please go to: https://www.datacore.com/products/sansymphony/tech/compatibility/
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Fixed: HC1200/5000: 10GbE; HE150/500T: 1GbE
Flexible: HE500: 1/10GbE
Scale Computing HE100-series networking options:
HE150: 1x 1GbE
Scale Computing HE500-series networking options:
HE500: 4x 1GbE or 4x 10GbE SFP+
HE550: 4x 1GbE or 4x 10GbE SFP+
HE550F: 4x 1GbE or 4x 10GbE SFP+
HE500T: 2x 1GbE
HE550TF: 2x 1GbE
Scale Computing HC1200-series networking options:
HC1200: 4x 10GbE Base-T/SFP+ bonded active/passive
HC1250: 4x 10GbE Base-T/SFP+ bonded active/passive
HC1250D: 4x 10GbE Base-T/SFP+ bonded active/passive
HC1250DF: 4x 10GbE Base-T/SFP+ bonded active/passive
Scale Computing HC5000-series networking options:
HC5200: 4x 10GbE Base-T/SFP+ bonded active/passive
HC5250D:4x 10GbE Base-T/SFP+ bonded active/passive
Lenovo HC3 Edge series networking options:
ST250: 2x 1GbE
SR250: 4x 1GbE or 4x 10GbE SFP+
SR630: 4x 10GbE BaseT or 4x 10GbE SFP+
SR650: 4x 10GbE BaseT or 4x 10GbE SFP+
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Flexible
PowerFlex supports:
• 1,10, 25, 40, 100 gigabit networks;
• IP-over-InfiniBand networks.
The use of dual-port network interface cards is recommended.
Management and data storage traffic can be performed across the same IP network or across separate IP networks.
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NVIDIA Tesla
AMD FirePro
Intel Iris Pro
DataCore SANsymphony supports the hardware that is on the hypervisor HCL.
VMware vSphere 6.5U1 officially supports several GPUs for VMware Horizon 7 environments:
NVIDIA Tesla M6 / M10 / M60
NVIDIA Tesla P4 / P6 / P40 / P100
AMD FirePro S7100X / S7150 / S7150X2
Intel Iris Pro Graphics P580
More information on GPU support can be found in the online VMware Compatibility Guide.
Windows 2016 supports two graphics virtualization technologies available with Hyper-V to leverage GPU hardware:
- Discrete Device Assignment
- RemoteFX vGPU
More information is provided here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/rds-graphics-virtualization
The NVIDIA website contains a listing of GRID certified servers and the maximum number of GPUs supported inside a single server.
Server hardware vendor websites also contain more detailed information on the GPU brands and models supported.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 currently does not provide any GPUs options.
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NVIDIA Tesla
AMD FirePro
Intel Iris Pro
PowerFlex supports the hardware that is on the hypervisor HCL.
VMware vSphere 6.5U1 officially supports several GPUs for VMware Horizon 7 environments:
NVIDIA Tesla M6 / M10 / M60
NVIDIA Tesla P4 / P6 / P40 / P100
AMD FirePro S7100X / S7150 / S7150X2
Intel Iris Pro Graphics P580
More information on GPU support can be found in the online VMware Compatibility Guide.
Windows 2016 supports two graphics virtualization technologies available with Hyper-V to leverage GPU hardware:
- Discrete Device Assignment
- RemoteFX vGPU
More information is provided here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/rds-graphics-virtualization
The NVIDIA website contains a listing of GRID certified servers and the maximum number of GPUs supported inside a single server.
Server hardware vendor websites also contain more detailed information on the GPU brands and models supported.
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Scaling |
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CPU
Memory
Storage
GPU
The SANsymphony platform allows for expanding of all server hardware resources.
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CPU
Memory
The Scale Computing HC3 platform allows for expanding CPU and Memory hardware resources. Storage resources (the number of disks within a single node) are usually not expanded.
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CPU
Memory
Storage
GPU
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Storage+Compute
Compute-only
Storage-only
Storage+Compute: In a single-layer deployment existing SANsymphony clusters can be expanded by adding additional nodes running SANsymphony, which adds additional compute and storage resources to the shared pool. In a dual-layer deployment both the storage-only SANsymphony clusters and the compute clusters can be expanded simultaneously.
Compute-only: Because SANsymphony leverages virtual block volumes (LUNs), storage can be presented to hypervisor hosts not participating in the SANsymphony cluster. This is also beneficial to migrations, since it allows for online storage vMotions between SANsymphony and non-SANsymphony storage platforms.
Storage-only: In a dual-layer or mixed deployment both the storage-only SANsymphony clusters and the compute clusters can be expanded independent from each other.
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Storage+Compute
Storage-only
Storage+Compute: Existing Scale Computing HC3 clusters can be expanded by adding additional nodes, which adds additional compute and storage resources to the shared pool.
Compute-only: N/A; A Scale Computing HC3 node always takes active part in the hypervisor (compute) cluster as well as the storage cluster.
Storage-only: A Scale Computing HC3 node can be configured as a storage-only node by setting a flag and has to be performed by Scale Computing engineering (end-user organizations cannot set the flag themselves).
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Compute+storage
Compute-only (SDC)
Storage-only
PowerFlex supports both single-layer (hyper-converged) and dual-layer architectures, as well as a mix of both. This flexibility allows the platforms Storage Data Servers (SDSs) to present storage volumes to servers that have the Storage Data Client (SDC) component installed.
Storage+Compute: Existing PowerFlex clusters can be expanded by adding additional PowerFlex nodes that have both SDS and SDC components installed, which adds additional compute and storage resources to the shared pool.
Compute-only: Existing PowerFlex clusters can be expanded by adding additional PowerFlex nodes that only have the SDC component installed, which adds additional compute resources to the shared pool.
Storage-only: Existing PowerFlex clusters can be expanded by adding additional PowerFlex nodes that only have the SDS component installed, which adds additional storage resources to the shared pool.
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1-64 nodes in 1-node increments
There is a maximum of 64 nodes within a single cluster. Multiple clusters can be managed through a single SANsymphony management instance.
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3-8 nodes in 1-node increments
There is a maximum of 8 nodes within a single cluster. Larger clusters do exist, but must be requested and are evaluated on a per use-case basis.
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3-512 storage nodes in 1-node increments
PowerFlex can be used in two ways:
1. By installing the SDS and SDC components on the same server, creating a hyper-converged single-layer configuration.
2. By installing the SDS and SDC components on separate servers, creating a traditional 2-layer configuration.
These configurations can be mixed within the same environment.
The maximum number of SDSs per system is 512 at this time.
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Small-scale (ROBO)
Details
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2 Node minimum
DataCore prevents split-brain scenarios by always having an active-active configuration of SANsymphony with a primary and an alternate path.
In the case SANsymphony servers are fully operating but do not see each other, the application host will still be able to read and write data via the primary path (no switch to secondary). The mirroring is interrupted because of the lost connection and the administrator is informed accordingly. All writes are stored on the locally available storage (primary path) and all changes are tracked. As soon as the connection between the SANsymphony servers is restored, the mirror will recover automatically based on these tracked changes.
Dual updates due to misconfiguration are detected automatically and data corruption is prevented by freezing the vDisk and waiting for user input to solve the conflict. Conflict solutions could be to declare one side of the mirror to be the new active data set and discarding all tracked changes at the other side, or splitting the mirror and merge the two data sets into a 3rd vDisk manually.
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1 Node minimum
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3 Node minimum
PowerFlexs smallest deployment contains 3 nodes.
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Storage Support
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General |
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Block Storage Pool
SANsymphony only serves block devices to the supported OS platforms.
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Block Storage Pool
Scale Computing HC3 only serves block devices to the supported OS guest platforms. VMs running on HC3 have direct, block-level access to virtual SCRIBE devices (VSDs, aka virtual disks) in the clustered storage pool without the complexity or performance overhead introduced by using remote storage protocols.
A critical software component of HyperCore is the Scale Computing Reliable Independent Block Engine, known as
SCRIBE. SCRIBE is an enterprise class, clustered block storage layer, purpose built to be consumed by the HC3 embedded KVM based hypervisor directly.
SCRIBE discovers and aggregates all block storage devices across all nodes of the system into a single managed pool of storage. All data written to this pool is immediately available for read and write by any and every node in the storage system, allowing for sophisticated data redundancy, data deduplication, and load balancing schemes to be used by higher layers of the stack—such as the HyperCore
compute layer.
SCRIBE is a wide-striped storage architecture that combines all disks in the cluster into a single storage pool that is tiered between flash SSD and spinning HDD storage.
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Block Pool
PowerFlex only serves block devices as storage volumes to the supported OS platforms.
The internal PowerFlex Metadata Manager (MDM) holds cluster-wide component mapping.
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Partial
DataCores core approach is to provide storage resources to the applications without having to worry about data locality. But if data locality is explicitly requested, the solution can partially be designed that way by configuring the first instance of all data to be stored on locally available storage (primary path) and the mirrored instance to be stored on the alternate path (secondary path). Furthermore every hypervisor host can have a local preferred path, indicated by the ALUA path preference.
By default data does not automatically follow the VM when the VM is moved to another node. However, virtual disks can be relocated on the fly to other DataCore node without losing I/O access, but this relocation takes some time due to data copy operations required. This kind of relocation usually is done manually, but we allow automation of such tasks and can integrate with VM orchestration using PowerShell for example.
Whether data locality is a good or a bad thing has turned into a philosophical debate. Its true that data locality can prevent a lot of network traffic between nodes, because the data is physically located at the same node where the VM resides. However, in dynamic environments where VMs move to different hosts on a frequent basis, data locality in most cases requires a lot of data to be copied between nodes in order to maintain the physical VM-data relationship. The SDS/HCI vendors today that choose not to use data locality, advocate that the additional network latency is negligible.
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None
Scale Computing HC3 is based on a shared nothing storage architecture. Scale Computing HC3 enables every drive in every node throughout the cluster to contribute to the storage performance and capacity of every virtual disk (VDS) presented by the SCRIBE storage layer. When a VM is moved to another node, data remains in place and does not follow the VM because data is stored and available across all nodes residing in the cluster.
Whether data locality is a good or a bad thing has turned into a philosophical debate. Its true that data locality can prevent a lot of network traffic between nodes, because the data is physically located at the same node where the VM resides. However, in dynamic environments where VMs move to different hosts on a frequent basis, data locality in most cases requires a lot of data to be copied between nodes in order to maintain the physical VM-data relationship. The SDS/HCI vendors today that choose not to use data locality, advocate that the additional network latency is negligible.
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None
Whether data locality is a good or a bad thing has turned into a philosophical debate. Its true that data locality can prevent a lot of network traffic between nodes, because the data is physically located at the same node where the VM resides. However, in dynamic environments where VMs move to different hosts on a frequent basis, data locality in most cases requires a lot of data to be copied between nodes in order to maintain the physical VM-data relationship. The SDS/HCI vendors today that choose not to use data locality, advocate that the additional network latency is negligible.
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Direct-attached (Raw)
Direct-attached (VoV)
SAN or NAS
VoV = Volume-on-Volume; The Virtual Storage Controller uses virtual disks provided by the hypervisor platform.
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Direct-Attached (Raw)
Direct-attached: The software takes ownership of the unformatted physical disks available each host.
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Direct-attached (Raw, RAID, File)
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Magnetic-only
All-Flash
3D XPoint
Hybrid (3D Xpoint and/or Flash and/or Magnetic)
NEW
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Magnetic-only
Hybrid (Flash+Magnetic)
All-Flash
Scale Computing HC3 appliance models storage composition:
HC1200: Magnetic-only
HC1250: Hybrid
HC1250D: Hybrid
HC1250DF: All-flash
HC5250D: Hybrid
A Magnetic-only node is called a Non-tiered node and contains 100% HDD drives and no SSD drives.
A Hybrid node is called a Tiered node and contains 25% SSD drives and 75% HDD drives.
An All-Flash node contains 100% SSD drives and no HDD drives.
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Magnetic-Only
Hybrid
All-Flash
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Hypervisor OS Layer
Details
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SD, USB, DOM, SSD/HDD
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HDD or SSD (partition)
By default for each 1TB of data, 8MB is allocated for metadata. The data and metadata is stored on the physical storage devices (RSDs) and both are protected using mirroring (2N). Because metadata is this lightweight, all of the metadata of all of the online VSDs is cached in DRAM.
VSD = Virtual SCRIBE Device
RSD = Real SCRIBE Device
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SD, USB or DOM
VxFlex 3.0 and up cannot be deployed on the 32 GB SATADOM boot device that was sold in the
first generation of Dell EMC ScaleIO/VxRack Nodes and VxRack Flex (a hardware solution
based on Quanta servers).
DOM = Disk On Module
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Memory |
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DRAM
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DRAM
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DRAM
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Read/Write Cache
DataCore SANsymphony accelerates reads and writes by leveraging the powerful processors and large DRAM memory inside current generation x86-64bit servers on which it runs. Up to 8 Terabytes of cache memory may be configured on each DataCore node, enabling it to perform at solid state disk speeds without the expense. SANsymphony uses a common cache pool to store reads and writes in.
SANsymphony read caching essentially recognizes I/O patterns to anticipate which blocks to read next into RAM from the physical back-end disks. That way the next request can be served from memory.
When hosts write to a virtual disk, the data first goes into DRAM memory and is later destaged to disk, often grouped with other writes to minimize delays when storing the data to the persistent disk layer. Written data stays in cache for re-reads.
The cache is cleaned on a first-in-first-out (FiFo) basis. Segment overwrites are performed on the oldest data first for both read- and write cache segment requests.
SANsymphony prevents the write cache data from flooding the entire cache. In case the write data amount runs above a certain percentage watermark of the entire cache amount, then the write cache will temporarily be switched to write-through mode in order to regain balance. This is performed fully automatically and is self-adjusting, per virtual disk as well as on a global level.
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Read Cache
Metadata structures
By default for each 1TB of data, 8MB is allocated for metadata. The data and metadata is stored on the physical storage devices (RSDs) and both are protected using mirroring (2N). Because metadata is this lightweight, all of the metadata of all of the online VSDs is cached in DRAM.
VSD = Virtual SCRIBE Device
RSD = Real SCRIBE Device
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Read Cache
PowerFlex calls the use of DRAM as caching layer Read RAM Cache (rmcache). This is a tunable feature: rmcache can be enabled or disabled per volume.
Writes are only buffered in the host memory for Read after Write caching. One way to achieve Write buffering is to use Raid controllers (e.g. LSI, PMC etc.) that have battery backup for write buffering.
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Up to 8 TB
The actual size that can be configured depends on the server hardware that is used.
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4GB+
4GB of RAM is reserved per node for the entire HC3 system to function. No specific RAM is reserved for caching but the system will use any available memory as needed for caching purposes.
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Configurable
The read cache size can be set anywhere between 128MB and 300GB per SDS server.
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Flash |
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SSD, PCIe, UltraDIMM, NVMe
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SSD, NVMe
HyperCore-Direct for NVMe can be requested and is evaluated by Scale Computing on a per-customer scenario basis.
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SSD, PCIe, UltraDIMM, NVMe
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Persistent Storage
SANsymphony supports new TRIM / UNMAP capabilities for solid-state drives (SSD) in order to reduce wear on those devices and optimize performance.
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Persistent Storage
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Read Cache
Write Buffer (Flash Storage Pools)
Storage Tier
PowerFlex calls the use of Flash as caching layer Read Flash Cache (rfcache). This is a tunable feature: rfcache can be enabled or disabled. Rfcache is used to increase read performance and buffers writes to increase the performance of Read-after-Write I/Os.
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No limit, up to 1 PB per device
The definition of a device here is a raw flash device that is presented to SANsymphony as either a SCSI LUN or a SCSI disk.
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Hybrid: 1-3 SSDs per node
All-Flash: 4 SSDs per node
Flash devices are not mandatory in a Scale Computing HC3 solution.
Each HC1200 hybrid node has 1 SSD drive attached.
Each HC1250 all-flash node has 4 SSD drives attached.
Each HC5250 node has 3 SSD drives attached.
An HC1250 all-flash node can have a maximum of 15.36TB of raw SSD storage attached.
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0 - 64 devices per node
Flash devices are not mandatory in a PowerFlex solution.
PowerFlex supports a maximum of 64 devices (disks) per SDS server. This includes both HDD and Flash devices. In VMware vSphere environments the maximum is 59 devices (disks) per SDS server.
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Magnetic |
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SAS or SATA
SAS = 10k or 15k RPM = Medium-capacity medium-speed drives
SATA = NL-SAS = 7.2k RPM = High-capacity low-speed drives
In this case SATA = NL-SAS = MDL SAS
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Hybrid: SATA
SAS = 10k or 15k RPM = Medium-capacity medium-speed drives
SATA = NL-SAS = 7.2k RPM = High-capacity low-speed drives
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SAS or SATA
SAS = 10k or 15k RPM = Medium-capacity medium-speed drives
SATA = NL-SAS = 7.2k RPM = High-capacity low-speed drives
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Persistent Storage
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Persistent Storage
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Write Buffer (HDD Storage Pools)
Storage Tier
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Magnetic Capacity
Details
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No limit, up to 1 PB (per device)
The definition of a device here is a raw flash device that is presented to SANsymphony as either a SCSI LUN or a SCSI disk.
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Magnetic-only: 4 HDDs per node
Hybrid: 3 or 9 HDDs per node
Magnetic devices are not mandatory in a Scale Computing HC3 solution.
Each HC1200 magnetic-only node has 4 HDD drives attached.
Each HC1250 hybrid node has 3 HDD drives attached.
Each HC5250 hybrid node has 9 HDD drives attached.
An HC1200 magnetic-only node can have a maximum of 32TB of raw HDD storage attached.
An HC1250 hybrid node can have a maximum of 24TB of raw HDD storage attached.
An HC5250 hybrid node can have a maximum of 72TB of raw HDD storage attached.
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0 - 64 devices per node
PowerFlex supports a maximum of 64 devices (disks) per SDS server. This includes both HDD and Flash devices. In VMware vSphere environments the maximum is 59 devices (disks) per SDS server.
PowerFlex 2.6 supports devices with a capacity up to 8TB.
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Data Availability
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Reads/Writes |
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Persistent Write Buffer
Details
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DRAM (mirrored)
If caching is turned on (default=on), any write will only be acknowledged back to the host after it has been succesfully stored in DRAM memory of two separate physical SANsymphony nodes. Based on de-staging algorithms each of the nodes eventually copies the written data that is kept in DRAM to the persistent disk layer. Because DRAM outperforms both flash and spinning disks the applications experience much faster write behavior.
Per default, the limit of dirty-write-data allowed per Virtual Disk is 128MB. This limit could be adjusted, but there has never been a reason to do so in the real world. Individual Virtual Disks can be configured to act in write-through mode, which means that the dirty-write-data limit is set to 0MB so effectively the data is directly written to the persistent disk layer.
DataCore recommends that all servers running SANsymphony software are UPS protected to avoid data loss through unplanned power outages. Whenever a power loss is detected, the UPS automatically signals this to the SANsymphony node and write behavior is switched from write-back to write-through mode for all Virtual Disks. As soon as the UPS signals that power has been restored, the write behavior is switched to write-back again.
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Flash/HDD
The persisent write buffer depends on the type of the block storage pool (Flash or HDD).
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Flash/HDD
The persistent write buffer depends on the type of the storage pool (Flash or HDD).
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Disk Failure Protection
Details
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2-way and 3-way Mirroring (RAID-1) + opt. Hardware RAID
DataCore SANsymphony software primarily uses mirroring techniques (RAID-1) to protect data within the cluster. This effectively means the SANsymphony storage platform can withstand a failure of any two disks or any two nodes within the storage cluster. Optionally, hardware RAID can be implemented to enhance the robustness of individual nodes.
SANsymphony supports Dynamic Data Resilience. Data redundancy (none, 2-way or 3-way) can be added or removed on-the-fly at the vdisk level.
A 2-way mirror acts as active-active, where both copies are accessible to the host and written to. Updating of the mirror is synchronous and bi-directional.
A 3-way mirror acts as active-active-backup, where the active copies are accessible to the host and written to, and the backup copy is inaccessible to the host (paths not presented) and written to. Updating of the mirrors active copies is synchronous and bi-directional. Updating of the mirrors backup copy is synchronous and unidirectional (receive only).
In a 3-way mirror the backup copy should be independent of existing storage resources that are used for the active copies. Because of the synchronous updating all mirror copies should be equal in storage performance.
When in a 3-way mirror an active copy fails, the backup copy is promoted to active state. When the failed mirror copy is repaired, it automatically assumes a backup state. Roles can be changed manually on-the-fly by the end-user.
DataCore SANsymphony 10.0 PSP9 U1 introduced System Managed Mirroring (SMM). A multi-copy virtual disk is created from a storage source (disk pool or pass-through disk) from two or three DataCore Servers in the same server group. Data is synchronously mirrored between the servers to maintain redundancy and high availability of the data. System Managed Mirroring (SMM) addresses the complexity of managing multiple mirror paths for numerous virtual disks. This feature also addresses the 256 LUN limitation by allowing thousands of LUNs to be handled per network adapter. The software transports data in a round robin mode through available mirror ports to maximize throughput and can dynamically reroute mirror traffic in the event of lost ports or lost connections. Mirror paths are automatically and silently managed by the software.
The System Managed Mirroring (SMM) feature is disabled by default. This feature may be enabled or disabled for the server group.
With SANsymphony 10.0 PSP10 adds seamless transition when converting Mirrored Virtual Disks (MVD) to System Managed Mirroring (SMM). Seamless transition converts and replaces mirror paths on virtual disks in a manner in which there are no momentary breaks in mirror paths.
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2-way Mirroring (Network RAID-10)
Within a Scale Computing HC cluster all data is written twice to the block storage pool for redundancy (2N). It is equivalent to Network RAID-10, as the two data chunks are placed on separate physical disks of separate physical nodes within the cluster. This protects against 1 disk failure and 1 node failure at the same time, and aggregates the I/O and throughput capabilities of all the individual disks in the cluster (= wide striping).
Once an RSD fails, the system re-mirrors the data using the free space in the HC3 cluster as a hot spare. Because all physical disks contain data, rebuilds are very fast. Scale Computing HC3 is often to detect the deteriorated state of a physical storage device in advance and pro-actively copy data to other devices ahead of an actual failure.
Currently only 1 Replica (2N) can be maintained, as the setting is not configurable for end-users.
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1 Replica (2N)
+ opt. Hardware RAID
PowerFlex uses replicas to protect data within the cluster. In addition, hardware RAID can be implemented to enhance the robustness of individual nodes.
Replicas: Before any write is acknowledged to the host, it is synchronously replicated on an adjacent node. All nodes in the cluster participate in replication. This means that with 2N one instance of the data that is written is stored on one node and another instance of that data is stored on a different node in the cluster. This happens in a fully distributed manner, in other words, there is no dedicated partner node. When a disk fails, it is marked offline and data is read from another instance instead. At the same time data rebuilds of the associated replicas is initiated in order to restore the desired protection level (2N). All nodes participate in the rebuild task. When the failed disk is replaced/revived, the disk is repurposed to resume its original role.
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|
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Node Failure Protection
Details
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2-way and 3-way Mirroring (RAID-1)
DataCore SANsymphony software primarily uses mirroring techniques (RAID-1) to protect data within the cluster. This effectively means the SANsymphony storage platform can withstand a failure of any two disks or any two nodes within the storage cluster. Optionally, hardware RAID can be implemented to enhance the robustness of individual nodes.
SANsymphony supports Dynamic Data Resilience. Data redundancy (none, 2-way or 3-way) can be added or removed on-the-fly at the vdisk level.
A 2-way mirror acts as active-active, where both copies are accessible to the host and written to. Updating of the mirror is synchronous and bi-directional.
A 3-way mirror acts as active-active-backup, where the active copies are accessible to the host and written to, and the backup copy is inaccessible to the host (paths not presented) and written to. Updating of the mirrors active copies is synchronous and bi-directional. Updating of the mirrors backup copy is synchronous and unidirectional (receive only).
In a 3-way mirror the backup copy should be independent of existing storage resources that are used for the active copies. Because of the synchronous updating all mirror copies should be equal in storage performance.
When in a 3-way mirror an active copy fails, the backup copy is promoted to active state. When the failed mirror copy is repaired, it automatically assumes a backup state. Roles can be changed manually on-the-fly by the end-user.
DataCore SANsymphony 10.0 PSP9 U1 introduced System Managed Mirroring (SMM). A multi-copy virtual disk is created from a storage source (disk pool or pass-through disk) from two or three DataCore Servers in the same server group. Data is synchronously mirrored between the servers to maintain redundancy and high availability of the data. System Managed Mirroring (SMM) addresses the complexity of managing multiple mirror paths for numerous virtual disks. This feature also addresses the 256 LUN limitation by allowing thousands of LUNs to be handled per network adapter. The software transports data in a round robin mode through available mirror ports to maximize throughput and can dynamically reroute mirror traffic in the event of lost ports or lost connections. Mirror paths are automatically and silently managed by the software.
The System Managed Mirroring (SMM) feature is disabled by default. This feature may be enabled or disabled for the server group.
With SANsymphony 10.0 PSP10 adds seamless transition when converting Mirrored Virtual Disks (MVD) to System Managed Mirroring (SMM). Seamless transition converts and replaces mirror paths on virtual disks in a manner in which there are no momentary breaks in mirror paths.
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2-way Mirroring (Network RAID-10)
Within a Scale Computing HC cluster all data is written twice to the block storage pool for redundancy (2N). It is equivalent to Network RAID-10, as the two data chunks are placed on separate physical disks of separate physical nodes within the cluster. This protects against 1 disk failure and 1 node failure at the same time, and aggregates the I/O and throughput capabilities of all the individual disks in the cluster (= wide striping).
Once an RSD fails, the system re-mirrors the data using the free space in the HC3 cluster as a hot spare. Because all physical disks contain data, rebuilds are very fast. Scale Computing HC3 is often to detect the deteriorated state of a physical storage device in advance and pro-actively copy data to other devices ahead of an actual failure.
Currently only 1 Replica (2N) can be maintained, as the setting is not configurable for end-users.
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1 Replica (2N)
+ opt. Hardware RAID
PowerFlex uses replicas to protect data within the cluster. In addition, hardware RAID can be implemented to enhance the robustness of individual nodes.
Replicas: Before any write is acknowledged to the host, it is synchronously replicated on an adjacent node. All nodes in the cluster participate in replication. This means that with 2N one instance of the data that is written is stored on one node and another instance of that data is stored on a different node in the cluster. This happens in a fully distributed manner, in other words, there is no dedicated partner node. When a disk fails, it is marked offline and data is read from another instance instead. At the same time data rebuilds of the associated replicas is initiated in order to restore the desired protection level (2N). All nodes participate in the rebuild task. When the failed disk is replaced/revived, the disk is repurposed to resume its original role.
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Block Failure Protection
Details
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Not relevant (usually 1-node appliances)
Manual configuration (optional)
Manual designation per Virtual Disk is required to accomplish this. The end-user is able to define which node is paired to which node for that particular Virtual Disk. However, block failure protection is in most cases irrelevant as 1-node appliances are used as building blocks.
SANsymphony works on an N+1 redundancy design allowing any node to acquire any other node as a redundancy peer per virtual device. Peers are replacable/interchangable on a per Virtual Disk level.
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Not relevant (1U/2U appliances)
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Fault Sets
Block failure protection can be achieved by assigning nodes in the same appliance to different Fault Sets.
Fault Sets: When using Fault Sets, one instance of the data is kept within the local Fault Set and another instance of the data is kept within another Fault Set. By applying Fault Sets, rack failure protection can be achieved as well.
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Rack Failure Protection
Details
|
Manual configuration
Manual designation per Virtual Disk is required to accomplish this. The end-user is able to define which node is paired to which node for that particular Virtual Disk.
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N/A
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Fault Sets
Block failure protection can be achieved by assigning nodes in the same appliance to different Fault Sets.
Fault Sets: When using Fault Sets, one instance of the data is kept within the local Fault Set and another instance of the data is kept within another Fault Set. By applying Fault Sets, rack failure protection can be achieved as well.
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Protection Capacity Overhead
Details
|
Mirroring (2N) (primary): 100%
Mirroring (3N) (primary): 200%
+ Hardware RAID5/6 overhead (optional)
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Mirroring (2N) (primary): 100%
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Replica (2N): 100% + Hardware RAID overhead (optional)
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Data Corruption Detection
Details
|
N/A (hardware dependent)
SANsymphony fully relies on the hardware layer to protect data integrity. This means that the SANsymphony software itself does not perform Read integrity checks and/or Disk scrubbing to verify and maintain data integrity.
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Read integrity checks (software)
Disk scrubbing (software)
The HC3 system performs continuous read integrity checks on data blocks to detect corruption errors. As blocks are written to disk, replica blocks are written to other disks within the storage pool for redundancy. Disk are continuously scrubbed in the background for errors and any corruption found is repaired from the replica data blocks.
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Disk scrubbing (software)
In-flight integrity checks
Persistent integrity checks
NEW
The Background Device Scanner constantly searches for, and fixes, device errors before they can affect the system, thus providing additional data reliability. The scanner runs in the background, not interrupting other Storage Pool activities (such as adding and removing volumes). When scanning is enabled for a Storage Pool, the scanner seeks out corrupted sectors in the devices in that pool. The scanner also provides SNMP reporting about errors found.
In-flight checksum protection is provided for data reads and writes. This feature addresses errors that change the payload during the transit through the PowerFlex system. PowerFlex protects data in-flight by calculating and validating the checksum value for the payload at both ends. The checksum protection mode can be applied per Storage Pool.
Persistent checksum protection is provided for all data that is stored in Fine Granularity (FG) storage pools by default. This cannot be changed. Fine Granularity (FG) layout saves checksum data before and after processing to guarantee data integrity (compressed or not). There are also system checksums for metadata.
PowerFlex 3.5 adds enhancements to:
- Fine Granularity (FG) data layout: metadata cache for higher FG performance,
- Medium Granularity (MG) data layout: checksum,
- Sub-device error handling for improved resiliency.
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Points-in-Time |
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Built-in (native)
|
Built-in (native)
HyperCore snapshots use a space efficient allocate-on-write methodology where no additional storage is used at the time the snapshot is taken, but as blocks are changed the original content blocks are preserved, and new content written to freshly allocated space on the cluster.
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Built-in (native)
NEW
PowerFlex has native snapshot capabilities. These snapshot capabilities include the support of Consistency Groups. This assures that snapshots of different volumes within the same group that are taken together at exactly the same time.
VxFlex OS 3.0 introduced FIne Granularity (FG) storage pools. Fine Granularity (FG) snapshots are Redirect on Write (RoW) instead of Copy on Write (CoW) that is used in Medium Granularity (MG) storage pools.
PowerFlex 3.5 introduces Secure Snapshots. These storage snapshots cannot be deleted and thus enable compliance with the financial and healthcare industry.
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Local + Remote
SANsymphony snapshots are always created on one side only. However, SANsymphony allows you to create a snapshot for the data on each side by configuring two snapshot schedules, one for the local volume and one for the remote volume. Both snapshot entities are independent and can be deleted independently allowing different retention times if needed.
There is also the capability to pair the snapshot feature along with asynchronous replication which provides you with the ability to have a third site long distance remote copy in place with its own retention time.
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Local (+ Remote)
Manual snapshots are always created on the source HC3 cluster only and are never deleted by the system.
Without remote replication active on a VM, snapshots created using snapshot schedules are also created on the source HC3 cluster only.
With remote replication active, a snapshot schedule repeatedly creates a VM snapshot on the source cluster and then copies that snapshot to the target cluster, where it is retained for a specified number of minutes/hours/days/weeks/months. The default remote replication frequency of 5 minutes, combined with the default retention of 25 minutes, means that by default 5 snapshots are maintained on the target HC3 cluster at any given time.
A VM can only have one snapshot schedule assigned at a time. However, a schedule can contain multiple recurrence rules. Each recurrence rule consists of a replication snapshot frequency (x minutes/hours/days/weeks/months), an execution time (eg. 12:00AM), and a retention (y minutes/hours/days/weeks).
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Local
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Snapshot Frequency
Details
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1 Minute
The snapshot lifecycle can be automatically configured using the integrated Automation Scheduler.
|
5 minutes
A snapshot schedule allows a minimum frequency of 5 minutes. However, ScaleCare Support recommends no less than every 15 minutes as a general best practice.
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1 minute
VxFlex OS 3.0 introduced snapshot policy management.
Snapshots can be created every x minutes/hours/days.
Snapshot retention is based on the number of existing snapshots (retain last x snapshots).
The PowerFlex multi-level snapshot structure can have consist of up to six retention levels, where the 1st level having the most frequent snapshots.
Every Volume Tree (V-Tree) can have up to 127 snapshots next to the root volume. Policy-managed snapshots can create up to 60 snapshots per root volume.
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Snapshot Granularity
Details
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Per VM (Vvols) or Volume
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
Although DataCore SANsymphony uses block-storage, the platform is capable of attaining per VM-granularity if desired.
In Microsoft Hyper-V environments, when a VM with vdisks is created through SCVMM, DataCore can be instructed to automatically carve out a Virtual Disk (=storage volume) for every individual vdisk. This way there is a 1-to-1 alignment from end-to-end and snapshots can be created on the VM-level. The per-VM functionality is realized by installing the DataCore Storage Management Provider in SCVMM.
Because of the per-host storage limitations in VMware vSphere environments, VVols is leveraged to provide per VM-granularity. DataCore SANsymphony Provider v2.01 is certified for VMware ESXi 6.5 U2/U3, ESXi 6.7 GA/U1/U2/U3 and ESXi 7.0 GA/U1.
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Per VM
|
Per VM (Vvols) or Volume
NEW
Although Dell EMC PowerFlex uses block-storage, the platform is capable of attaining per VM-granularity by leveraging VMware Virtual Volumes (Vvols).
VxFlex OS 3.0.1 introduced VVols certification for VMware ESXi 6.0-7.0U1 through the Dell Storage VASA 2.0 Provider.
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Built-in (native)
DataCore SANsymphony incorporates Continuous Data Protection (CDP) and leverages this as an advanced backup mechanism. As the term implies, CDP continuously logs and timestamps I/Os to designated virtual disks, allowing end-users to restore the environment to an arbitrary point-in-time within that log.
Similar to snapshot requests, one can generate a CDP Rollback Marker by scripting a call to a PowerShell cmdlet when an application has been quiesced and the caches have been flushed to storage. Several of these markers may be present throughout the 14-day rolling log. When rolling back a virtual disk image, one simply selects an application-consistent or crash-consistent restore point from just before the incident occurred.
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Built-in (native)
By combining Scale Computing HC3s native snapshot feature with its native remote replication mechanism, backup copies can be created on remote HC3 clusters.
A snapshot is not a backup:
1. For a data copy to be considered a backup, it must at the very least reside on a different physical platform (=controller+disks) to avoid dependencies. If the source fails or gets corrupted, a backup copy should still be accessible for recovery purposes.
2. To avoid further dependencies, a backup copy should reside in a different physical datacenter - away from the source. If the primary datacenter becomes unavailable for whatever reason, a backup copy should still be accessible for recovery purposes.
When considering the above prerequisites, a backup copy can be created by combining snapshot functionality with remote replication functionality to create independent point-in-time data copies on other SDS/HCI clusters or within the public cloud. In ideal situations, the retention policies can be set independently for local and remote point-in-time data copies, so an organization can differentiate between how long the separate backup copies need to be retained.
Apart from the native features, Scale Computing HC3 supports any in-guest 3rd party backup agents that are designed to run on Intel-based virtual machines on our supported OS platforms.
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External
PowerFlex does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
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Local or Remote
All available storage within the SANsymphony group can be configured as targets for back-up jobs.
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Locally
To remote sites
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
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Continuously
As Continuous Data Protection (CDP) is being leveraged, I/Os are logged and timestamped in a continous fashion, so end-users can restore to virtually any-point-in-time.
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5 minutes (Asynchronous)
VM snapshots are created automatically by the replication process as quickly as every 5 minutes (as long as the previous snapshot’s change blocks have been fully replicated to the target HC3 cluster). The remote replication default schedule will take a snapshot every 5 minutes and keep snapshots for 25 minutes.
|
N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
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Backup Consistency
Details
|
Crash Consistent
File System Consistent (Windows)
Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
By default CDP creates crash consistent restore points. Similar to snapshot requests, one can generate a CDP Rollback Marker by scripting a call to a PowerShell cmdlet when an application has been quiesced and the caches have been flushed to storage.
Several CDP Rollback Markers may be present throughout the 14-day rolling log. When rolling back a virtual disk image, one simply selects an application-consistent, filesystem-consistent or crash-consistent restore point from (just) before the incident occurred.
In a VMware vSphere environment, the DataCore VMware vCenter plug-in can be used to create snapshot schedules for datastores and select the VMs that you want to enable VSS filesystem/application consistency for.
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Crash Consistent
File System Consistent (Windows)
Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
For Windows VMs that require it, VSS snapshot integration is provided in the VIRTIO driver package.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
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Restore Granularity
Details
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Entire VM or Volume
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
Although DataCore SANsymphony uses block-storage, the platform is capable of attaining per VM-granularity if desired.
In Microsoft Hyper-V environments, when a VM with vdisks is created through SCVMM, DataCore can be instructed to automatically carve out a Virtual Disk (=storage volume) for every individual vdisk. This way there is a 1-to-1 alignment from end-to-end and snapshots can be created on the VM-level. The per-VM functionality is realized by installing the DataCore Storage Management Provider in SCVMM.
Because of the per-host storage limitations in VMware vSphere environments, VVols is leveraged to provide per VM-granularity. DataCore SANsymphony Provider v2.01 is VMware certified for ESXi 6.5 U2/U3, ESXi 6.7 GA/U1/U2/U3 and ESXi 7.0 GA/U1.
When configuring the virtual environment as described above, effectively VM-restores are possible.
For file-level restores a Virtual Disk snapshot needs to be mounted so the file can be read from the mount. Many simultaneous rollback points for the same Virtual Disk can coexist at the same time, allowing end-users to compare data states. Mounting and changing rollback points does not alter the original Virtual Disk.
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Entire VM
Although Scale Computing HC3 uses block-storage, the platform is capable of attaining per VM-granularity.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
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Restore Ease-of-use
Details
|
Entire VM or Volume: GUI
Single File: Multi-step
Restoring VMs or single files from volume-based storage snapshots requires a multi-step approach.
For file-level restores a Virtual Disk snapshot needs to be mounted so the file can be read from the mount. Many simultaneous rollback points for the same Virtual Disk can coexist at the same time, allowing end-users to compare data states. Mounting and changing rollback points does not alter the original Virtual Disk.
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Entire VM: Multi-step
Single File: Multi-step
Restoring VMs or single files from HC3 storage snapshots requires a multi-step approach.
For file-level restores a VM snapshot needs to be cloned and mounted so the file can be read from the mount. Cloning and mounting does not alter the original VM snapshot.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
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Disaster Recovery |
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Remote Replication Type
Details
|
Built-in (native)
DataCore SANsymphonys remote replication function, Asynchronous Replication, is called upon when secondary copies will be housed beyond the reach of Synchronous Mirroring, as in distant Disaster Recovery (DR) sites. It relies on a basic IP connection between locations and works in both directions. That is, each site can act as the disaster recovery facility for the other. The software operates near-synchronously, meaning that it does not hold up the application waiting on confirmation from the remote end that the update has been stored remotely.
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Built-in (native)
All HC3 source and target clusters that will be participating in remote replication must run the same HCOS version. It is possible to replicate between a tiered and non-tiered HC3 cluster.
HC3 remote replication uses network compression by default.
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Built-in (native)
NEW
PowerFlex 3.5 introduces native asynchronous replication for dual layer configurations where the PowerFlex hosts serve a storage-only role. Native asynchronous replication is not supported on single-layer (compute+storage) deployments.
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Remote Replication Scope
Details
|
To remote sites
To MS Azure Cloud
On-premises deployments of DataCore SANsymphony can use Microsoft Azure cloud as an added replication location to safeguard highly available systems. For example, on-premises stretched clusters can replicate a third copy of the data to MS Azure to protect against data loss in the event of a major regional disaster. Critical data is continuously replicated asynchronously within the hybrid cloud configuration.
To allow quick and easy deployment a ready-to-go DataCore Cloud Replication instance can be acquired through the Azure Marketplace.
MS Azure can serve only as a data repository. This means that VMs cannot be restored and run in an Azure environment in case of a disaster recovery scenario.
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To remote sites
To Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Network latency between the source and HC3 target clusters should be below 2,000ms (2 seconds).
Scale Computing HC3 Cloud Unity DRaaS: This disaster recovery as a service offering provides an HC3 DR target running securely in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Workloads can be replicated to the Google cloud for failover or recovery on a per VM basis. HC3 Cloud Unity DRaaS uses L2 networking to provide seamless connectivity between on-prem and remote hosted VMs in the event of failover. HC3 Cloud Unity DRaaS includes ScaleCare support at every stage to assist in setup, testing, failover, and recovery. The service also comes with a runbook to assist with both planning and execution. When needed, all protected VMs can be failed over and running in the cloud and then failed back once the on-prem resources are restored. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is 4 hours for recovery of the first VM on GCP.
HC3 Cloud Unity DRaaS requires a monthly subscription that is in part based on GCP resource usage (compute, storage, network).
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To remote sites
NEW
Replication occurs between two PowerFlex systems, connected by WAN, and designated as peer systems. Storage Data Replicators (SDR) are responsible for processing all I/Os of replication volumes. The SDR includes a journal.
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Remote Replication Cloud Function
Details
|
Data repository
All public clouds can only serve as data repository when hosting a DataCore instance. This means that VMs cannot be restored and run in the public cloud environment in case of a disaster recovery scenario.
In the Microsoft Azure Marketplace there is a pre-installed DataCore instance (BYOL) available named DataCore Cloude Replication.
BYOL = Bring Your Own License
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DR-site (GCP)
All protected VMs can be failed over and running in the cloud and then failed back once the on-prem resources are restored.
Scale Computing HC3 Cloud Unity DRaaS leverages Google Cloud Platform (GCP) as a DR-site. All traffic between the on-premises HC3 environment and GCP utilizes an encrypted connection, authenticated via pre-shared key. Only changed blocks are transmitted. Replicated data remains solely in the zone chosen to run the HC3 Cloud instance in.
Current HC3 Cloud Unity/Google Datacenter Locations:
- United States: Iowa, South Carolina, Oregon
- Canada: Montreal
- Europe: Belgium, London, Frankfurt
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Remote Replication Topologies
Details
|
Single-site and multi-site
Single Site DR = 1-to-1
Multiple Site DR = 1-to many, many-to 1
|
Single-site and multi-site
Single Site DR = 1-to-1
Multiple Site DR = 1-to many, many-to 1
Scale Computing HC3 supports 1-to-1 replication as well as many-to-1 replication. 1-to-1 replication includes support for cross-replication between two systems, meaning source-to-target and target-to-source. 1-to-many replication means that different VMs from one system can be replicated to different remote systems; with HC3 the same VM cannot be replicated to different remote systems. Many-to-1 means that multiple source systems can replicate VMs to the same target system. A maximum of 25 HC3 source systems can replicate to a single HC3 target system.
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Single-site
NEW
Single Site DR = 1-to-1
Multiple Site DR = 1-to many, many-to 1
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Remote Replication Frequency
Details
|
Continuous (near-synchronous)
SANsymphony Asynchronous Replication is not checkpoint-based but instead replicates continuously. This way data loss is kept to a minimum (seconds to minutes). End-users can inject custom consistency checkpoints based on CDP technology which has no minimum time slot/frequency.
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5 minutes
VM snapshots are created automatically by the replication process as quickly as every 5 minutes (as long as the previous snapshot’s change blocks have been fully replicated to the target HC3 cluster). The remote replication default schedule will take a snapshot every 5 minutes and keep snapshots for 25 minutes.
ScaleCare Support recommends a snapshot frequency of 15 minutes as a general best practice.
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30 seconds (Asynchronous)
NEW
PowerFlex 3.5 leverages journal-based replication to achieve very low Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and ensure minimal data loss. PowerFlex 3.5 supports a replication frequency of 30 seconds (minimum) up to 1 hour (maximum).
To ensure RPO compliance, PowerFlex replicates at least twice for every RPO period. For example, setting RPO to one minute means that PowerFlex can immediately return to operation at the target system with only one minute’s worth of data loss. In order to achieve an RPO of one minute, replication takes place at least every 30 seconds. RPO compliance is calculated according to when the application data arrives at the target journal. Achieving RPO is the most important consideration in replication management. The user-defined RPO is the goal of replication. Even so, RPO compliance is not guaranteed. The system reports RPO compliance for each Replication Consistency Group (RCG).
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Remote Replication Granularity
Details
|
VM or Volume
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
Although DataCore SANsymphony uses block-storage, the platform is capable of attaining per VM-granularity if desired.
In Microsoft Hyper-V environments, when a VM with vdisks is created through SCVMM, DataCore can be instructed to automatically carve out a Virtual Disk (=storage volume) for every individual vdisk. This way there is a 1-to-1 alignment from end-to-end and snapshots can be created on the VM-level. The per-VM functionality is realized by installing the DataCore Storage Management Provider in SCVMM.
Because of the per-host storage limitations in VMware vSphere environments, VVols is leveraged to provide per VM-granularity. DataCore SANsymphony Provider v2.01 is VMware certified for ESXi 6.5 U2/U3, ESXi 6.7 GA/U1/U2/U3 and ESXi 7.0 GA/U1.
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VM
Excluding virtual disks from VM is a feature that is still in testing and must currently be done by engaging Support and discussing the options and considerations required.
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VM (Vvols) or Volume
NEW
PowerFlex replicates volume pairs. A volume pair consists of one volume at the source system and one volume at the target system. Replicated volumes at the target are limited to read-only access.
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Consistency Groups
Details
|
Yes
SANsymphony provides the option to use Virtual Disk Grouping to enable end-users to restore multiple Virtual Disks to the exact same point-in-time.
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
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No
|
Yes
NEW
The Replication Consistency Group (RCG) is a logical container for volumes whose application data need to be replicated consistency to each other.
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VMware SRM (certified)
DataCore provides a certified Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) for VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM). DataCore SRA 2.0 (SANsymphony 10.0 FC/iSCSI) shows official support for SRM 6.5 only. It does not support SRM 8.2 or 8.1.
There is no integration with Microsoft Azure Site Recovery (ASR). However, SANsymphony can be used with the control and automation options provided by Microsoft System Center (e.g. Operations Manager combined with Virtual Machine Manager and Orchestrator) to build a DR orchestration solution.
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HC3 Cloud Unity (native)
HC3 Cloud Unity DRaaS is a complete cloud service that provides a Disaster Recovery (DR) runbook outlining DR procedures.
DR testing involves cloning a replicated VM snapshot on a remote cluster and booting the clone.
Cloud Unity DRaaS is available in the following Google Regions:
United States: Iowa, South Carolina, Oregon
Canada: Montreal
Europe: Brussels, London, Frankfurt
HyperCore 8.5.1 introduced a bulk action allowing the cloning of Replication Target VMs.
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N/A
NEW
PowerFlex does not provide a Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) for VMware SRM implementations at this time.
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Stretched Cluster (SC)
Details
|
VMware vSphere: Yes (certified)
DataCore SANsymphony is certified by VMware as a VMware Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) solution. For more information, please view https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2149740.
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N/A
At this time Scale Computing does not support HC3 clusters that are stretched across data centers.
|
N/A
Dell EMC formally does not support PowerFlex clusters that are stretched across data centers.
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2+sites = two or more active sites, 0/1 or more tie-breakers
Theoretically up to 64 sites are supported.
SANsymphony does not require a quorum or tie-breaker in stretched cluster configurations, but can be used as an optional component. The Virtual Disk Witness can provide a tie-breaker role if for instance redundant inter site paths are not implemented. The tie-breaker node (server or device) must be other than the two nodes presenting a virtual disk. Access to the Virtual Disk Witness is leading for storage node behavior.
There are 3 ways to configure the stretched cluster without any tie-breakers:
1. Default: in a split-brain scenario both sides stay active allowing upper infrastructure layers (OS/database/application) to make a decision (eg. clustering principles). In any case SANsymphony prevents a merge when there is a risk to data integrity, and the end-user has to make the choice on how to proceed next (which side is true)
2. Select one side to go inaccessible
3. Select both sides to go inaccessible.
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N/A
At this time Scale Computing does not support HC3 clusters that are stretched across data centers.
|
N/A
Dell EMC formally does not support PowerFlex clusters that are stretched across data centers.
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<=5ms RTT (targeted, not required)
RTT = Round Trip Time
In truth the user/app with the least tolerated write latency defines the acceptable RTT or distance. In practice
|
N/A
At this time Scale Computing does not support HC3 clusters that are stretched across data centers.
|
N/A
Dell EMC formally does not support PowerFlex clusters that are stretched across data centers.
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<=32 hosts at each active site (per cluster)
The maximum is per cluster. The SANsymphony solution can consist of multiple stretched clusters with a maximum of 64 nodes each.
|
N/A
At this time Scale Computing does not support HC3 clusters that are stretched across data centers.
|
N/A
Dell EMC formally does not support PowerFlex clusters that are stretched across data centers.
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SC Data Redundancy
Details
|
Replicas: 1N-2N at each active site
DataCore SANsymphony provides enhanced stretched cluster availability by offering local fault protection with In Pool Mirroring. With In Pool Mirroring you can choose to mirror the data inside the local Disk Pool as well as mirror the data across sites to a remote Disk Pool. In the remote Disk Pool data is then also mirrored. All mirroring happens synchronously.
1N-2N: With SANsymphony Stretched Clustering, there can be either 1 instance of the data at each site (no In Pool Mirroring) or 2 instances of the data a each site (In Pool RAID-1 Mirroring).
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N/A
At this time Scale Computing does not support HC3 clusters that are stretched across data centers.
|
N/A
Dell EMC formally does not support PowerFlex clusters that are stretched across data centers.
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Data Services
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Efficiency |
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Dedup/Compr. Engine
Details
|
Software (integration)
NEW
SANsymphony provides integrated and individually selectable inline deduplication and compression. In addition, SANsymphony is able to leverage post-processing deduplication and compression options available in Windows 2016/2019 as an alternative approach.
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Software
Scale Computing HC3 is able to leverage native background data deduplication to reduce the physical space occupied by virtual disks.
The storage details available in the HC3 Web interface provide information on efficiency gains resulting from deduplication.
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Software (Limited)
VxFlex OS 3.0 introduced data efficiency capabilities by adding inline compression when using the new Fine Granularity (FG) data layout that uses storage allocation units of 4KB instead of the already existing Medium Granularity (MG) that uses storage allocation units of 1MB.
Fine Granularity (FG) Storage Pools require nodes with NVDIMMs and SSD or NVMe storage media. The current release is currently supported on Linux-based systems only.
VxFlex OS 3.0 does not have deduplication capabilities.
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Dedup/Compr. Function
Details
|
Efficiency (space savings)
Deduplication and compression can provide two main advantages:
1. Efficiency (space savings)
2. Performance (speed)
Most of the time deduplication/compression is primarily focussed on efficiency.
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Efficiency (space savings)
Deduplication and compression can provide two main advantages:
1. Efficiency (space savings)
2. Performance (speed)
Most of the time deduplication/compression is primarily focussed on efficiency.
|
Efficiency
VxFlex OS 3.0 introduced data efficiency capabilities by adding inline compression when using the new Fine Granularity (FG) data layout that uses storage allocation units of 4KB instead of the already existing Medium Granularity (MG) that uses storage allocation units of 1MB.
VxFlex OS 3.0 compression allows better efficiency in thin-provisioned volumes and snapshots.
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Dedup/Compr. Process
Details
|
Deduplication: Inline (post-ack)
Compression: Inline (post-ack)
Deduplication/Compression: Post-Processing (post process)
NEW
Deduplication can be performed in 4 ways:
1. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and before the write is ackowledged back to the originator of the write (pre-ack).
2. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and in parallel to the write being acknowledged back to the originator of the write (on-ack).
3. A short time after the write is processed (inline) so after the write is acknowleged back to the originator of the write - eg. when flushing the write buffer to persistent storage (post-ack)
4. After the write has been committed to the persistent storage layer (post-process).
The first and second methods, when properly integrated into the solution, are most likely to offer both performance and capacity benefits. The third and fourth methods are primarily used for capacity benefits only.
DataCore SANSymphony 10 PSP12 and above leverage both inline deduplication and compression, as well as post process deduplication and compression techniques.
With inline deduplication incoming writes first hit the memory cache of the primary host and are replicated to the cache of a secondary host in an un-deduplicated state. After the blocks have been written to both memory caches, the primary host acknowledges the writes back to the originator. Each host then destages the written blocks to the persistent storage layer. During destaging, written blocks are deduplicates and/or compressed.
Windows Server 2019 deduplication is performed outside of IO path (post-processing) and is multi-threaded to speed up processing and keep performance impact minimal.
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Post-Processing
Deduplication can be performed in 4 ways:
1. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and before the write is ackowledged back to the originator of the write (pre-ack).
2. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and in parallel to the write being acknowledged back to the originator of the write (on-ack).
3. A short time after the write is processed (inline) so after the write is acknowleged back to the originator of the write - eg. when flushing the write buffer to persistent storage (post-ack)
4. After the write has been committed to the persistent storage layer (post-process).
The first and second methods, when properly integrated into the solution, are most likely to offer both performance and capacity benefits. The third and fourth methods are primarily used for capacity benefits only.
The Scale Computing HC3 data deduplication feature is considered a post-process implementation that works with existing background processes to identify duplicate 1 MiB blocks of data on a given physical disk. The process leverages the SCRIBE metadata reference count mechanism by finding independently written blocks that are the same. This duplicate review is for each physical disk on a given node to ensure as little a footprint as possible while providing all of the benefits of full deduplication.
The deduplication process is broken into two steps. The first step reviews VM data blocks by creating a hash index of each block and storing the hash in the nodes RAM. The hashing algorithm will be able to scan the system data for deduplication candidates at roughly 1 MiB/s of data on HDDs and 4 MiB/s of data on SSDs, both of these estimates per node. The second process occurs during low system utilization. The system will work through the queue of hashed blocks in RAM. It will search for matching hashes until the background disk scan regenerates them. When the process finds two blocks with a matching hash it will verify the underlying blocks are in fact duplicates before incrementing the reference count in metadata on the block it is planning to free. Updating the metadata count for the block essentially releases the space of the duplicate block. The block then returns to the system’s free storage pool. This secondary process can progress much faster than 1 MiB/s; the speed is dependent on the current system load.
The SCRIBE metadata reference count mechanism is the same architecture utilized by snapshots and clones in SCRIBE to allow quick, efficient, low-impact thin-provisioning on the HC3 system. Shared blocks are referenced and a count to the block stored in the metadata.
SCRIBE = Scale Computing Reliable Independent Block Engine
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Deduplication: N/A
Compression: inline (post-ack)
Deduplication and Compression can be performed in 4 ways:
1. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and before the write is ackowledged back to the originator of the write (pre-ack).
2. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and in parallel to the write being acknowledged back to the originator of the write (on-ack).
3. A short time after the write is processed (inline) so after the write is acknowleged back to the originator of the write - eg. when flushing the write buffer to persistent storage (post-ack)
4. After the write has been committed to the persistent storage layer (post-process).
The first and second methods, when properly integrated into the solution, are most likely to offer both performance and capacity benefits. The third and fourth methods are primarily used for capacity benefits only.
VxFlex OS 3.0 inline compression has been designed to provide capacity benefits and happens post-ack.
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Dedup/Compr. Type
Details
|
Optional
NEW
By default, deduplication and compression are turned off. For both inline and post-process, deduplication and compression can be enabled.
For inline deduplication and compression the feature can be turned on per node. The entire node represents a global deduplication domain. Deduplication and compression work across pools and across vDisks. Individual pools can be selected to participate in capacity optimization. Either deduplication or compression or both can be selected per individual vDisk. Pools can host both capacity optimized and non-capacity optimized vDisks at the same time. The optional capacity optimization settings can be added/changed/removed during operation for each vDisk.
For post-processing the feature can be enabled per pool. All vDisks in that pool would be deduplicated and compressed. Each pool is an independent deduplication domain. This means only data in the pool is capacity optimized, but not across pools. Additionally, for post-processing capacity optimization can be scheduled so admins can decide when deduplication should run.
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
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Always-on
By default Scale Computing HC3 data deduplication is turned on. The platform has been designed to prioritize running workloads over the deduplication tasks to prevent any negative performance impact. As such, the process piggybacks on pre-existing background structures - such as the background disk scrubber - for the hashing process.
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Optional
Inline compression is turned off by default on Fine Granularity (FG) Pools, and can be enabled by checking the Enable Compression check-box.
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Dedup/Compr. Scope
Details
|
Persistent data layer
|
Persistent data layer
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Persistent Storage
VxFlex inline compression is applied to the persistent storage layer, including storage-based snapshots.
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Dedup/Compr. Radius
Details
|
Pool (post-processing deduplication domain)
Node (inline deduplication domain)
NEW
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
For inline deduplication and compression raw physical disks are added to a capacity optimization pool. The entire node represents a global deduplication domain. Deduplication and compression work across pools and across vDisks. Individual pools can be selected to participate in capacity optimization.
The post-processing capability provided through Windows Server 2016/2019 is highly scalable and can be used with volumes up to 64 TB and files up to 1 TB in size. Data deduplication identifies repeated patterns across files on that volume.
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Per Node
Scale Computing HC3 data deduplication works on a per node basis. All blocks that are directly written or replicated from another node are deduplicated by the indiviual node independent from other nodes within the same cluster. This way data integrity is ensured for every single node.
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Volume
Inline compression is enabled on the V-Tree level. A V-Tree (short for volume tree) is the structure comprised of a volume and the snapshots resulting from that volume.
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Dedup/Compr. Granularity
Details
|
4-128 KB variable block size (inline)
32-128 KB variable block size (post-processing)
NEW
With inline deduplication and compression, the data is organized in 128 KB segments. Depending on the optimization setting, a write into such a segment first gets compressed (when compression is selected) and then a hash is generated. If the hash is unique, the 128 KB segment is written back and the hash is added to the deduplication hash-table. If the hash is not unique, the segment is referenced in the deduplication hash table and discarded. The smallest chunk in the segment can be 4 KB.
For post-processing the system leverages deduplication in Windows Server 2016/2019, files within a deduplication-enabled volume are segmented into small variable-sized chunks (32–128 KB), duplicate chunks are identified, and only a single copy of each chunk is physically stored.
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1 MiB
Scale Computing HC3 post-process data deduplication uses 1 MiB fixed block segments.
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4 KB fixed block size
PowerFlex inline compression uses 4K fixed block segments.
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Dedup/Compr. Guarantee
Details
|
N/A
Microsoft provides the Deduplication Evaluation Tool (DDPEVAL) to assess the data in a particular volume and predict the dedup ratio.
|
N/A
|
N/A
At this time Dell EMC does no guarantee a minimum savings. Compression gains will vary per workload and use case. Dell EMC states up to 10x more storage capacity can be gained by leveraging PowerFlex inline compression.
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Full (optional)
Data rebalancing needs to be initiated manually by the end-user. It depends on the specific use case and end-user environment if this makes sense. When end-users want to isolate new workloads and corresponding data on new nodes, data rebalancing is not used.
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Full (optional)
Data rebalancing needs to be initiated manually by the end-user. It depends on the specific use case and end-user environment if this makes sense.
|
Full
Data is automatically redistributed evenly across all disks in the cluster when a disk is either added or removed.
Data migrations are performed in a many-to-many fashion.
There is no user-intervention required for any the redistribution activities.
Data Rebalancing can be throttled by changing the priority policy. The default policy for rebalance: Favor Application I/O. Alternative policies are: No Limit, Limit Concurrent I/O, Dynamic Bandwidth Throttling.
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Yes
DataCore SANsymphonys Auto-Tiering is a real-time intelligent mechanism that continuously positions data on the appropriate class of storage based on how frequently the data is accessed. Auto-Tiering leverages any combination of Flash and traditional disk technologies, whether it is internal or array based, with up to 15 different storage tiers that can be defined.
As more advanced storage technologies become available, existing tiers can be modified as necessary and additional tiers can be added to further diversify the tiering architecture.
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Yes
Scale Computing HC3s HyperCore Enhanced Automated Tiering (HEAT) is an extension of the SCRIBE storage layer that is available to HC3 hybrid clusters with 3 nodes or more.
HEAT allows virtual disk level, priority data placement for allocated data (actual consumed capacity on a VM virtual disk). This is accomplished through a real-time heat map of virtual disk I/O in order to “tier” the data. Data blocks that are “hot” (=accessed regularly by the virtual disk) are stored at the SSD level while “colder” data blocks are stored at the HDD level.
There are 4 basic HEAT principles:
1. All VMs have access to SSDs, no matter what node the VM may actually be running on.
2. SSDs are additional capacity for VM disks (subvirtual tiering), not a cache for system data.
3. Administrators have granular control of SSD access at the VM virtual disk level.
4. Administrators are able to mix and match Tiered HC3 nodes with standard HC3 nodes and Storage Only nodes without any extra work or requirements.
The HC3 web interface provides an easy-to-use slide bar on the property page of an individual virtual disk in order to set the flash priority level of a VM’s virtual disk data:
0 Off
1 Minimum
2 Very Low
3 Low
4 Normal (default)
5 High
6 Very High
7 Extreme
8 Absurd
9 Hyperspeed
10 Ludicrous Speed
11 These go to 11
When the flash priority level is set to 0, no data on the virtual disk ever gets promoted to the SSD layer. When the flash priority level is set to 11, all data on the virtual disk is promoted to the SSD layer.
Altering HEAT priority will effect all VM virtual disks within the HC3 cluster. Each increase in flash priority access will dedicate roughly twice as much flash capacity for the VM virtual disk, and consequently reduce the flash capacity available for other VM virtual disks on the system.
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N/A
Although PowerFlexs storage architecture can host multiple persistent storage tiers (pool with magnetic devices next to a pool with flash devices) within a single solution, it does not provide any intelligent and automatic means to distribute data across these pools of storage bases on certain criteria.
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Performance |
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vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
Hyper-V: Microsoft ODX; Space Reclamation (T10 SCSI UNMAP)
DataCore SANsymphony iSCSI and FC are fully qualified for all VMware vSphere VAAI-Block capabilities that include: Thin Provisioning, HW Assisted Locking, Full Copy, Block Zero
Note: DataCore SANsymphony does not support Thick LUNs.
DataCore SANsymphony is also fully qualified for Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 and 2016/2019 ODX and UNMAP/TRIM.
Note: ODX is not used for files smaller than 256KB.
VAAI = VMware vSphere APIs for Array Integration
ODX = Offloaded Data Transfers
UNMAP/TRIM support allows the Windows operating system to communicate the inactive block IDs to the storage system. The storage system can wipe these unused blocks internally.
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KVM: IOVirt
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vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (partial)
The VxFlex OS 2.6 supported VAAI features are: Atomic Test & Set (ATS), Zero Blocks/Write Same, Thin Provisioning in ESXi 5.x and later hosts, Block Delete in ESXi 5.x and later hosts
ScaleIO 1.32 and later were not listed anymore in the VMware Compatibility Matrix because of the proprietary nature of the storage protocol/SDC (non-iSCSI).
VAAI = VMware APIs for Array Integration
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IOPs and/or MBps Limits
QoS is a means to ensure specific performance levels for applications and workloads. There are two ways to accomplish this:
1. Ability to set limitations to avoid unwanted behavior from non-critical clients/hosts.
2. Ability to set guarantees to ensure service levels for mission-critical clients/hosts.
SANsymphony currently supports only the first method. Although SANsymphony does not provide support for the second method, the platform does offer some options for optimizing performance for selected workloads.
For streaming applications which burst data, it’s best to regulate the data transfer rate (MBps) to minimize their impact. For transaction-oriented applications (OLTP), limiting the IOPs makes most sense. Both parameters may be used simultaneously.
DataCore SANsymphony ensures that high-priority workloads competing for access to storage can meet their service level agreements (SLAs) with predictable I/O performance. QoS Controls regulate the resources consumed by workloads of lower priority. Without QoS Controls, I/O traffic generated by less important applications could monopolize I/O ports and bandwidth, adversely affecting the response and throughput experienced by more critical applications. To minimize contention in multi-tenant environments, the data transfer rate (MBps) and IOPs for less important applications are capped to limits set by the system administrator. QoS Controls enable IT organizations to efficiently manage their shared storage infrastructure using a private cloud model.
More information can be found here: https://docs.datacore.com/SSV-WebHelp/quality_of_service.htm
In order to achieve consistent performance for a workload, a separate Pool can be created where selected vDisks are placed. Alternatively 'Performance Classes' can be assigned to differentiate between data placement of multiple workloads.
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N/A
Quality-of-Service (QoS) is a means to ensure specific performance levels for applications and workloads. There are two ways to accomplish this:
1. Ability to set limitations to avoid unwanted behavior from non-critical VMs.
2. Ability to set guarantees to ensure service levels for mission-critical VMs.
Scale Computing HC3 currently does not offer any QoS mechanisms.
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IOPs and/or MBps Limits (maximums)
QoS is a means to ensure specific performance levels for applications and workloads. There are two ways to accomplish this:
1. Ability to set limitations to avoid unwanted behavior from non-critical clients/hosts.
2. Ability to set guarantees to ensure service levels for mission-critical clients/hosts.
PowerFlex currently supports only the first method.
PowerFlex Limiter: Users can adjust the amount of IOPs and/or bandwidth (MBps) that one SDC can generate for a volume. These parameters are configured using the PowerFlex CLI (Command Line Interface), and the REST interface, on a per client/per volume basis.
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Virtual Disk Groups and/or Host Groups
SANsymphony QoS parameters can be set for individual hosts or groups of hosts as well as for groups of Virtual Disks for fine grained control.
In a VMware VVols (=Virtual Volumes) environment a vDisk corresponds 1-to-1 to a virtual disk (.vmdk). Thus virtual disks can be placed in a Disk Group and a QoS Limit can then be assigned it. DataCore SANsymphony Provider v2.01 has VVols certification for VMware ESXi 6.5 U2/U3, ESXi 6.7 GA/U1/U2/U3 and ESXi 7.0 GA/U1.
In Microsoft Hyper-V environments, when a VM with vdisks is created through SCVMM, DataCore can be instructed to automatically carve out a Virtual Disk (=storage volume) for every individual vdisk. This way there is a 1-to-1 alignment from end-to-end and QoS Limits can be applied on the virtual disk level. The 1-to-1 allignment is realized by installing the DataCore Storage Management Provider in SCVMM.
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N/A
Quality-of-Service (QoS) is a means to ensure specific performance levels for applications and workloads. There are two ways to accomplish this:
1. Ability to set limitations to avoid unwanted behavior from non-critical VMs.
2. Ability to set guarantees to ensure service levels for mission-critical VMs.
Scale Computing HC3 currently does not offer any QoS mechanisms.
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Per client and volume
QoS parameters are configured on a per client/per volume basis.
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Per VM/Virtual Disk/Volume
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
In SANsymphony 'Flash Pinning' can be achieved using one of the following methods:
Method #1: Create a flash-only pool and migrate the individual vDisks that require flash pinning to the flash-only pool. When using a VVOL configuration in a VMware environment, each vDisk represents a virtual disk (.vmdk). This method guarantees all application data will be stored in flash.
Method #2: Create auto-tiering pools with at least 1 flash tier. Assign the Performance Class “Critical” to the vDisks that require flash pinning and place them in the auto-tiering pool. This will effectively and intelligently put as much of the data that resides in the vDisk in the flash tier as long that the flash tier has enough space available. Therefore this method is on a best-effort basis and dependent on correct sizing of the flash tier(s).
Methods #1 and #2 can be uses side-by-side in the same DataCore environment.
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Per virtual disk
Scale Computing HC3s native HEAT feature allows for data of an individual virtual disk to reside completely in flash storage. This can be administered on-the-fly by setting the Flash priority in the virtual disks properties to 11. The new HEAT priority setting will be immediately activated on the VMs virtual disk.
For more information on HEAT please view the information provided with the 'Data Tiering' capability.
HEAT = HyperCore Enhanced Automated Tiering
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Per Volume
When creating a volume select a flash storage pool. Data that are placed on the volume exist in Flash only.
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Security |
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Data Encryption Type
Details
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Built-in (native)
SANsymphony 10.0 PSP9 introduced native encryption when running on Windows Server 2016/2019.
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N/A
Although the design of the SCRIBE storage management layer provides some general protection for data stored on a
single hard drive, it is not the same as data encryption. If data encryption is required it is recommended to use in-guest encryption tools to ensure data protection.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not have native data encryption capabilities. Adding data encryption capabilities requires either 1st party or 3rd party security software.
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Data Encryption Options
Details
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Hardware: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
Software: SANsymphony Encryption
Hardware: In SANsymphony deployments the encryption data service capabilities can be offloaded to hardware-based SED offerings available in server- and storage solutions.
Software: SANsymphony provides software-based data-at-rest encryption that is XTS-AES 256bit compliant.
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Hardware: N/A
Software: HyTrust KeyControl + Client (validated); WinMagic SecureDoc CloudVM (validated)
Hardware: N/A
Software: Scale Computing partners with HyTrust to encrypt the drives of Windows and Linux VMs running on a HC3 system. The HyTrust client software that is installed on all VMs that require encryption, can encrypt both boot drives and data drives. Scale Computing has also validated the interoperability of WinMagic SecureDoc CloudVM for encryption of drives of Windows VMs with its HC3 platform.
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Hardware: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
Software: Dell EMC CloudLink
NEW
Hardware: In PowerFlex deployments the encryption data service capabilities can be offloaded to hardware-based SED offerings available in server- and storage solutions.
Software: Dell EMC CloudLink uses dm-crypt, a native Linux encryption package, to secure SDS devices. A proven high-performance volume encryption solution, dm-crypt is widely implemented for Linux machines.
The CloudLink Agent can be deployed on physical and
virtual Linux PowerFlex Storage Data Servers (SDSs) and supports fully converged, two-layer, and mixed configurations. In VMware vSphere deployments the CloudLink Agent software is installed in the PowerFlex Storage Virtual Machine (SVM) that runs on each ESXi host that contributes storage.
PowerFlex 3.5 supports CloudLink 6.9 and 7.0.
Dell EMC has not yet published interoperability test reports validating the use of one or more third-party software-based encryption solutions with its PowerFlex platform.
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Data Encryption Scope
Details
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Hardware: Data-at-rest
Software: Data-at-rest
Hardware: SEDs provide encryption for data-at-rest; SEDs do not provide encryption for data-in-transit.
Software: SANsymphony provides encryption for data-at-rest; it does not provide encryption for data-in-transit. Encryption can be enabled per individual virtual disk.
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Hardware: N/A
Software: Data-at-rest
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Hardware: Data-at-rest
Software: Data-at-rest
Hardware: SEDs provide encryption for data-at-rest; SEDs do not provide encryption for data-in-transit.
Software: Dell EMC CloudLink provides encryption for data-at-rest; Dell EMC CloudLink does not provide encryption for data-in-transit.
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Data Encryption Compliance
Details
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Hardware: FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (SEDs)
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (SANsymphony)
FIPS = Federal Information Processing Standard
FIPS 140-2 defines four levels of security:
Level 1 > Basic security requirements are specified for a cryptographic module (eg. at least one Approved algorithm or Approved security function shall be used).
Level 2 > Also has features that show evidence of tampering.
Level 3 > Also prevents the intruder from gaining access to critical security parameters (CSPs) held within the cryptographic module.
Level 4 > Provides a complete envelope of protection around the cryptographic module with the intent of detecting and responding to all unauthorized attempts at physical access.
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Hardware: N/A
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (HyTrust; WinMagic)
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Hardware: FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (SEDs)
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (Dell EMC CloudLink)
FIPS = Federal Information Processing Standard
FIPS 140-2 defines four levels of security:
Level 1 > Basic security requirements are specified for a cryptographic module (eg. at least one Approved algorithm or Approved security function shall be used).
Level 2 > Also has features that show evidence of tampering.
Level 3 > Also prevents the intruder from gaining access to critical security parameters (CSPs) held within the cryptographic module.
Level 4 > Provides a complete envelope of protection around the cryptographic module with the intent of detecting and responding to all unauthorized attempts at physical access.
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Data Encryption Efficiency Impact
Details
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Hardware: No
Software: No
Hardware: Because data encryption is performed at the end of the write path, storage efficiency mechanisms are not impaired.
Software: Because data encryption is performed at the end of the write path, storage efficiency mechanisms are not impaired.
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Hardware: N/A
Software: Yes (HyTrust; WinMagic)
FIPS = Federal Information Processing Standard
FIPS 140-2 defines four levels of security:
Level 1 > Basic security requirements are specified for a cryptographic module (eg. at least one Approved algorithm or Approved security function shall be used).
Level 2 > Also has features that show evidence of tampering.
Level 3 > Also prevents the intruder from gaining access to critical security parameters (CSPs) held within the cryptographic module.
Level 4 > Provides a complete envelope of protection around the cryptographic module with the intent of detecting and responding to all unauthorized attempts at physical access.
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Hardware: No
Software: No
Hardware: Because data encryption is performed at the end of the write path, storage efficiency mechanisms are not impaired.
Software: Because data encryption is performed at the end of the write path, storage efficiency mechanisms are not impaired.
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Test/Dev |
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Yes
Support for fast VM cloning via VMware VAAI and Microsoft ODX.
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Yes
Scale Computing HC3 leverages block reference counting to avoid having to copy blocks of data when creating a clone of a virtual machine. Because block reference counting is integrated in both the storage protocol as well as the RSDs, it is very fast and eliminates a round-trip when performing copy-on-write actions.
The clone feature on a HC3 cluster will create an identical VM to the parent, but with its own unique name and description. The clone VM will be completely independent from the parent VM once it is created.
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No
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Portability |
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Hypervisor Migration
Details
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Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
VMware Converter 6.2 supports the following Guest Operating Systems for VM conversion from Hyper-V to vSphere:
- Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10
- Windows 2008/R2, 2012/R2 and 2016
- RHEL 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, 7.x
- SUSE 10.x, 11.x
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS
- CentOS 6.x, 7.0
The VMs have to be in a powered-off state in order to be migrated across hypervisor platforms.
Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) supports conversion of VMware VMs and vdisks to Hyper-V VMs and vdisks. It is also possible to convert physical machines and disks to Hyper-V VMs and vdisks.
MVMC has been offcially retired and can only be used for converting VMs up to version 6.0.
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2016 also supports conversion of VMs up to version 6.0 only.
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HC3 Move
HC3 Move is powered by Carbonite (formerly Double-Take) and allows the migration of physical or virtual Windows and Linux-based server workloads with real-time replication and zero-downtime.
HC3 Move requires the purchase of a one-time-use license per server that needs to be migrated to the Scale Computing HC3 platform.
HC3 Move does not support desktop operating systems.
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Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
VMware Converter 6.2 supports the following Guest Operating Systems for VM conversion from Hyper-V to vSphere:
- Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10
- Windows 2008/R2, 2012/R2 and 2016
- RHEL 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, 7.x
- SUSE 10.x, 11.x
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS
- CentOS 6.x, 7.0
The VMs have to be in a powered-off state in order to be migrated across hypervisor platforms.
Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) supports conversion of VMware VMs and vdisks to Hyper-V VMs and vdisks. It is also possible to convert physical machines and disks to Hyper-V VMs and vdisks.
MVMC has been offcially retired and can only be used for converting VMs up to version 6.0.
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2016 also supports conversion of VMs up to version 6.0 only.
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File Services |
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Built-in (native)
SANsymphony delivers out-of-box (OOB) file services by leveraging Windows native SMB/NFS and Scale-out File Services capabilities. SANsymphony is capable of simultaneously handling highly-available block and file level services.
Raw storage is provisioned from within the SANsymphony GUI to the Microsoft file services layer, similar to provisioning Storage Spaces Volumes to the file services layer. This means any file services configuration is performed from within the respective Windows service consoles e.g. quotas.
More information can be found under: https://www.datacore.com/products/features/high-availability-nas-cluster-file-sharing.aspx
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
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Fileserver Compatibility
Details
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Windows clients
Linux clients
Because SANsymphony leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS and Scale-out File services, most Windows and Linux clients are able to connect.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
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Fileserver Interconnect
Details
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SMB
NFS
Because SANsymphony leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS and Scale-out File services, Windows Server platform compatibility applies:
SMB versions1,2 and 3 are supported, as are NFS versions 2, 3 and 4.1.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
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Fileserver Quotas
Details
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Share Quotas, User Quotas
Because SANsymphony leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS and Scale-out File services, all Quota features available in Windows Server can be used.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
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Fileserver Analytics
Details
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Partial
Because SANsymphony leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS, Windows Server built-in auditing capabilities can be used.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
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Object Services |
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Object Storage Type
Details
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N/A
DataCore SANsymphony does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
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Object Storage Protection
Details
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N/A
DataCore SANsymphony does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
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Object Storage LT Retention
Details
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N/A
DataCore SANsymphony does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
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N/A
PowerFlex does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
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Management
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Interfaces |
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GUI Functionality
Details
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Centralized
SANsymphonys graphical user interface (GUI) is highly configurable to accommodate individual preferences and includes guided wizards and workflows to simplify administration. All actions available from the GUI may also be scripted with PowerShell Commandlets to orchestrate workflows with other tools and applications.
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Centralized
Scale Computing HC3 management, capacity monitoring, performance monitoring and efficiency reporting is performed through the HC3 HTML5 web-based user interface.
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Centralized
NEW
PowerFlex management, capacity monitoring, performance monitoring and efficiency reporting is performed through the PowerFlex HTML-5 based management web interface (GUI).
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Single-site and Multi-site
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Single-site and Multi-site
Up to 25 clusters can be manage centrally using the Scale Computing HC3 web-based user interface.
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Single-system
The PowerFlex GUI enables viewing the entire system, and then drilling down to various elements.
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GUI Perf. Monitoring
Details
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Advanced
SANsymphony has visibility into the performance of all connected devices including front-end channels, back-end channels, cache, physical disks, and virtual disks. Metrics include Read/write IOPs, Read/write MBps and Read/Write Latency at all levels. These metrics can be exported to the Windows Performance Monitoring (Perfmon) utility where other server parameters are being tracked.
The frequency at which performance metrics can be captured and reported on is configurable, real-time down to 1 second intervals and long term recording at 2 minutes granularity.
When a trend analysis is required, an end-user can simply enable a recording session to capture metrics over a longer period of time.
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Basic
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Basic
In VxFlex OS 3.0.1 and up Volumes/SDCs can be queried for I/O latency metrics.
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VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
VMware vCenter plug-in for SANsymphony
SCVMM DataCore Storage Management Provider
Microsoft System Center Monitoring Pack
DataCore offers deep integration with VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V, as well as their respective systems management tools, vCenter and System Center.
SCVMM = Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager
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Not relevant (Unified interface)
Because Scale Computing HC3 controls the entire Hyperconvergence stack (hypervisor, compute, storage), the HC3 web-based user interface provides all the required management functionality.
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VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
NEW
The PowerFlex VMware vSphere plug-in enables performing basic provisioning and maintenance within a VMware environment. In addition, the plug-in provides a wizard to deploy PowerFlex in the VMware environment.
The PowerFlex 3.5 vSphere plug-in does not support VMware vSphere 7. Support for VMware vSphere 7 is planned in a H2 2020 release of PowerFlex Manager.
In dual-layer configurations vSphere 7 can be configured as the compute layer, with the storage layer being a supported operating system version for PowerFlex 3.5.
The vSphere plug-in in PowerFlex 3.5 continues to support vSphere versions 6.5 and 6.7. No further development of the vSphere plug-in is planned.
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Programmability |
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Full
Using DataCores native management console, Virtual Disk Templates can be leveraged to populate storage policies. Available configuration items: Storage profile, Virtual disk size, Sector size, Reserved space, Write-trough enabled/disabled, Storage sources, Preferred snapshot pool, Accelerator enabled/disabled, CDP enabled/disabled.
Virtual Disk Templates integrate with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), VMware Virtual Volumes (VVol) and OpenStack. Virtual Disk Templates are also fully supported by the REST-API allowing any third-party integration.
Using Virtual Volumes (VVols) defined through DataCore’s VASA provider, VMware administrators can self-provision datastores for virtual machines (VMs) directly from their familiar hypervisor interface. This is possible even for devices in the DataCore pool that don’t natively support VVols and never will, as SANsymphony can be used as a storage-virtualization layer for these devices/solutions. DataCore SANsymphony Provider v2.01 has VVols certification for VMware ESXi 6.5 U2/U3, ESXi 6.7 GA/U1/U2/U3 and ESXi 7.0 GA/U1.
Using Classifications and StoragePools defined through DataCore’s Storage Management Provider, Hyper-V administrators can self-provision virtual disks and pass-through LUNS for virtual machines (VMs) directly from their familiar SCVMM interface.
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Full
Scale Computing HC3 leverages Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM) that allows administrators to build a profile for each VM with regard to protection and for each virtual disk with regard to data tiering.
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Partial
PowerFlex has implemented VMwares vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA). PowerFlexs VASA enables control of PowerFlex storage to be handled by the vCenter administrator. PowerFlexs VASA uses Virtual Volumes (VVols) to enable VMs hosted on VMware vSphere to have their storage mapped directly to storage in PowerFlex.
PowerFlexs VASA automatically assigns VMware storage policies based on keywords
that appear in the PowerFlex Storage Pool names.
PowerFlexs VASA runs on a separate VM that needs to be deployed.
Dell EMC PowerFlex is currently not listed in the VMware Compatibility Guide for VVOL support.
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REST-APIs
PowerShell
The SANsymphony REST-APIs library includes more than 200 new representational state transfer (REST) operations, so automation can be leveraged more extensively. RESTful interfaces are used by products such as Lenovo XClarity, Cisco Embedded Resource Manager and Dell OpenManage to manage infrastructure in the enterprise.
SANsymphony provides its own Powershell cmdlets.
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REST-APIs
Apache Thrift
Python executables
Both Scale Computing end-users and ecosystem partners can programmatically manage the HC3 platform by using either REST-APIs, Apache Thrift and/or Python executables.
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REST-APIs
PowerShell
sCLI
The PowerFlex CLI (sCLI) enables performing the entire set of configure, maintain, and monitor activities in a PowerFlex system.
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OpenStack
OpenStack: The SANsymphony storage solution includes a Cinder driver, which interfaces between SANsymphony and OpenStack, and presents volumes to OpenStack as block devices which are available for block storage.
Datacore SANsymphony programmability in VMware vRealize Automation and Microsoft System Center can be achieved by leveraging PowerShell and the SANsymphony specific cmdlets.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not provide tight integration with either OpenStack or any automation/orchestration platforms.
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OpenStack
EMC ViPR Controller + ViPR vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in
OpenStack: The PowerFlex elastic storage solution includes a Cinder driver, which interfaces between PowerFlex and OpenStack, and presents volumes to OpenStack as block devices which are available for block storage. It also includes an OpenStack Nova driver, for handling compute and instance volume related operations. The PowerFlex driver executes the volume operations by communicating with the backend PowerFlex MDM through the PowerFlex REST Gateway.
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Full
The DataCore SANsymphony GUI offers delegated administration to secondary users through fine-grained Role-based Access Control (RBAC). The administrator is able to define Virtual Disk ownership as well as privileges associated with that particular ownership. Owners must have Virtual Disk privileges in an assigned role in order to perform operations on the virtual disk. Access can be very refined. For example, one owner may have the privilege to create a snapshot of a virtual disk, but not have the ability to serve or unserve the same virtual disk. Privilege sets define the operations that can be performed. For instance, in order for an owner to perform snapshot, rollback, or replication operations, they would require those privilege sets in an assigned role.
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Partial
The Scale Computing HC3 GUI offers delegated administration to secondary users through Role-based Access Control (RBAC). The user access level can be changed to “Admin” with full administrator access or customized with a variety of role options that fall in between Read-only and Admin.
The following optional functional roles that represent groupings of funtional tasks, can be assigned:
- Backup - Clone, Export, Import, Add/Pause Replication to a VM, Create/Delete snapshots, and Create/Delete/Modify snapshot schedules.
- Cluster Settings - Create/Modify all settings within Control Center, except for User Management and Control (system/cluster shutdown).
- Cluster Shutdown - Shutdown the system/cluster and any running VMs.
- VM Create/Edit - Import VMs and Create, Modify, Clone, and Add/Modify VM block (virtual disk) and network devices.
- VM Delete - Delete VMs and their associated snapshots and devices.
- VM Power Controls - Start, Shutdown/Power Off, and Live Migrate VMs.
A user can be assigned any number of these optional roles.
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N/A (not part of PowerFlex license)
PowerFlex does not provide any end-user self service capabilities of its own.
A self service portal enables end-users to access a portal where they can provision and manage VMs from templates, eliminating administrator requests or activity.
Self-Service functionality can be enabled by leveraging EMC ViPR Controller or VMware vRealize Automation (vRA). Both require a separate license.
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Maintenance |
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Unified
All storage related features and functionality are built into the DataCore SANsymphony platform. The consolidation means, that only one product needs to be installed and upgraded and minimal dependencies exist with other software.
Integration with 3rd party systems (e.g. OpenStack, vSphere, System Center) are delivered seperately but are free-of-charge.
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Unified
All storage related features and functionality are built into the Scale Computing HC3 platform. The consolidation means, that only one product needs to be installed and upgraded and minimal dependencies exist with other software.
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Partially Distributed
For a number of features and functions PowerFlex relies on other components that need to be installed and upgraded next to the core PowerFlex platform. Examples are EMC RecoverPoint and EMC ViPR Controller. As a result some dependencies exist with other software.
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SW Upgrade Execution
Details
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Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
Each SANsymphony update is packaged in an installation Wizard which contains a fully guided upgrade process. The upgrade process checks all system requirements and performs a system health before starting the upgrade process and before moving from one node to the next.
The user can also decide to upgrade a SANsymphony cluster manually and follow all steps that are outlined in the Release Notes.
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Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
Scale Computing provides one-click software and firmware upgrades of HC3 nodes that typically takes minutes to complete, while all VMs remain online during the entire upgrade procedure.
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Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
The PowerFlex Installation Manager (IM) can be used to automatically upgrade an entire Fault Set in a non-disruptive manner.
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FW Upgrade Execution
Details
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Hardware dependent
Some server hardware vendors offer rolling upgrade options with their base software or with a premium software suite. With some other server vendors, BIOS and Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) updated have to be performed manually and 1-by-1.
DataCore provides integrated firmware-control for FC-cards. This means the driver automatically loads the required firmware on demand.
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1-Click
Scale Computing provides one-click software and firmware upgrades of HC3 nodes that typically takes minutes to complete, while all VMs remain online during the entire upgrade procedure.
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Hardware dependent
Some server hardware vendors offer rolling upgrade options with their base software or with a premium software suite. With some other server vendors, BIOS and Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) updated have to be performed manually and 1-by-1.
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Support |
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Single HW/SW Support
Details
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No
With regard to DataCore SANsymphony as a software-only offering (SDS), DataCore does not offer unified support for the entire solution. This means storage software support (SANsymphony) and server hardware support are separate.
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Yes
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No
With regard to PowerFlex as a software-only offering, EMC does not offer unified support for the entire solution. This means storage software support (PowerFlex ECS) and server hardware support are separate.
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Call-Home Function
Details
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Partial (HW dependent)
With regard to DataCore SANsymphony as a software-only offering (SDS), DataCore does not offer call-home for the entire solution. This means storage software support (SANsymphony) and server hardware support are separate.
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Full
When the Scale Computing HC3 state machines detect failure modes or significant issues, they notify the Scale Computing support group (by default settings) via SNMP. Also, the state machines themselves automatically remediate the issue if possible.
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Partial (HW dependent)
With regard to PowerFlex as a software-only offering (SDS), EMC does not offer call-home for the entire solution. This means storage software support (PowerFlex ECS) and server hardware support are separate.
During PowerFlex installation, depending on the operating system, either the PowerFlex Installation Manager (IM) web client or the PowerFlex VMware Deployment Wizard can be used to configure the Call Home feature, which controls the alert severity threshold used for alert reporting.
VxFlex OS 3.0.1 introduces email alerting using a customer based smtp email server alternative to the
standard (E)SRS service.
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Predictive Analytics
Details
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Partial
Capacity Management: DataCore SANsymphony Analysis and Reporting supports depletion monitoring of the capacity, complements pool space threshold warnings by regularly evaluating the rate of capacity consumption and estimating when space will be depleted. The regularly updated projections give you a chance to add more storage to the pool before you run out of storage. It also helps you do a better job of capacity planning with fewer surprises. To help allocate costs, especially in private cloud and hosted cloud services, SANsymphony generates reports quantifying the storage resources consumed by specific hosts or groups of hosts. The reports tally several parameters.
Health Monitoring: A combination of system health checks and access to device S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) alerts help to isolate performance and disk problems before they become serious.
DataCore Insight Services (DIS) offers additional capabilites including log-analytics for predictive failure analysis and actionable insights - including hardware.
DIS also provides predictive capacity trend analysis in order to pro-actively warn about licensing limitations being reached within x days and/or disk pools running out of capacity.
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N/A
Scale Computing HC3 does not natively have predictive analytics capabilities.
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N/A
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