By combining leading performance architecture with automated quality of service management, Fujitsu Storage's ETERNUS DX series aligns storage resources with business priorities, enabling higher system utilization and delivering greater system consolidation capabilities and faster return on investment. Unified scalable entry-level and mid-range systems, a seamless family concept that enables system upgrades and ETERNUS SF, the unified management suite across the entire product line, reduce operational and migration costs. ETERNUS SF provides enterprise-class functionalities in the entry and mid-range class and enables flexible disaster recovery and business continuity concepts for different model sizes, reducing investment costs.
Scalable entry and mid-range models with improved performance architecture provide unified locks and file access. All models of the same generation use the same types of drives, drive shelves, racks, cables and other components. Only the controller module is unique for each model. This familiar concept allows for an easy upgrade from a smaller to a larger model by simply changing the controller module. All other components can still be used.
ETERNUS DX – Scalable Input Models
The scalable entry models (ETERNUS DX60, ETERNUS DX100 and ETERNUS DX200) are designed in a compact style to ensure an optimized footprint. They comprise the following hardware:
Controller Cabinet (CE): The CE contains the controller modules (CM) and power supply units (PSU) in the back, as well as the disk drives installed in the front . The controller housing can be equipped with one controller module (single controller model) or two modules (dual controller model). A single controller model can be easily upgraded to a dual controller model by simply installing an additional controller.
Drive Enclosures (DE): contain disk drives installed on the front, as well as power supplies and expanders on the back. The SAS expander is a unit that controls the connection to the controller modules. Disk enclosures can be equipped with one or two expanders, depending on the number of controller modules. The different types of disk drives are described in detail in the following sections.
Its basic architecture is shown in the following figure:
The Controller Module (CM) runs the operating system firmware-based and contains host interface ports, drive interface ports, cache memory, a System Capacitor Unit (SCU), RAID control processors, RAID control firmware, and Ethernet ports. Channel adapters (CAs), which provide connections to the host, are installed on each controller module and drive-side interfaces are installed on board. The 2 CMs are interconnected via PCI Express. The SAS interfaces between the CMs are cross-connected to provide a redundant path to the disks installed on the CEs. A drive enclosure (DE) also has two independent interface ports that are directly connected to two CMs for path redundancy.
ETERNUS DX - Mid-range models
The models ETERNUS DX mid-range models (ETERNUS DX500 and ETERNUS DX600) are designed to provide capacity, performance and reliability. They contain the following hardware:
Controller Cabinet (CE): The CE contains the controller modules (CM), channel adapters (CA), PCI Express flash modules (PFM), battery backup unit ( BBU) and power supply units (PSU). Unlike entry-level models, the controller enclosure does not contain disk drives.
Drive Enclosures (DE): Minimum configuration consists of a DE in addition to the CE. Expansion cabinets can be added based on required capacity. The same drive cages can be used in any ETERNUS DX model, ensuring a hassle-free upgrade and full investment protection. Drive cages supporting 2.5" and 3.5" drives are available.
The basic architecture is shown below:
The basic architecture of the system consists of two interconnected CMs (via PCI Express), each with two channel adapters (CA) and two drive-side interfaces installed. It also supports high-speed Express Flash Modules (PFM) as Extreme Cache (EXC), which provides higher performance with fewer disk drives, optimizing costs and power consumption. The EXC supports hot-swapping. The system can accommodate up to four modules providing up to 5.6TB cache capacity for read operations. Unlike many implementations, PFM modules are mounted on controllers, not drive enclosures, which provides some benefits, such as:
- Latency short due to direct PCI Express connection to the CPU
- Better use of drive enclosures as there are no dedicated DE slots for EXC
- I/O performance S of the drive enclosures are not affected
ETERNUS DX - Enterprise Model
This architecture deviates slightly from the other models. While most of the basic functional blocks are the same, the connection between controller modules is done in a different way. The schematic architecture of the ETERNUS DX8900 business model is shown below:
To increase system availability, an additional component is implemented, the front-end cabinet consisting of four front-end routers. Each controller module is connected to all other controller modules through the four front routers. Therefore, the interconnection of controller modules was quadrupled, which is called Quad Star architecture. With this architecture, enterprise systems can scale performance and capacity over a wide range. ETERNUS DX8900 scales up to 24 controller modules, offering nearly 141PB of capacity.
To ensure reliable operation and high availability, all ETERNUS AF/DX storage systems They have a fully redundant configuration and hot maintenance capability. The interconnection of the CMs is duplicated in the entry and mid-range models and is duplicated through the FRTs in the enterprise models. A drive enclosure (DE) also has two independent interface ports that are directly connected to two CMs for path redundancy.
The use of redundant components and multiple drive connections controller to unit ensures exceptional reliability. Hardware components that support hot-swap and hot-expansion functions not only allow firmware updates during system operation, but also provide capacity expansion along with LUN expansion function where DE or HDD are added as needed.