The CLARiiON storage system is based on a modular architecture. The concept is “buy and build as you go”. The first building block of the architecture is the Disk Processor Enclosure, or DPE. The DPE houses the storage Processor(s) and the first Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) disks. Some older CX series arrays use the DPE2 which includes, in addition to the storage Processors, up to 15 2Gb dual-ported FC drives. Newer CX series, namely the CX300, CX500, and CX 700 can use a DAE2P, which provide for better fault isolation and reliability on the back end (BE) loops. The FC series DPE contains up to 10 1Gb dual-ported FC drives. In order to expand the capacity of the storage system, Disk Array Enclosures (DAEs) are interconnected using Link Control Cards (LCCs).The module architecture allows the customer to add drives as needed to meet capacity requirements.When more capacity is required, additional disk array enclosures (DAE or DAE2) containing disk modules can be easily added. LCC or Link Control Cards are used to connect shelves of disks. In addition, the LCC monitors the FRUs within the shelf and reports status information to the storage processor. The LCC contains bypass circuitry that allows continued operation of the loop in the event of port failure.
Newer CLARiiON arrays have two processors per Storage Processor, and do not use a DPE. Instead, it utilizes an SPE or Storage Processor Enclosure. The SPE does not contain any disk modules, so it must have at least one DAE2 and a maximum of 16 DAE2s. CLARiiON Architecture is based on intelligent Storage Processors that manage physical drives on the back end and service host requests on the front end, be it Fibre Channel or iSCSI protocols. Depending on the module, each Storage processor includes either one or two CPUs. Storage Processors communicate to each other over the CLARiiON Messaging Interface (CMI). Both the front-end connection to the host and the back-end connection to the physical storage is 2Gb Fibre channel.
No comments:
Post a Comment