Dell EMC Unity:

Architectural Overview

Ji Hong
Product Technologist
Midrange & Entry Solutions Group
Introduction
What’s New with Dell EMC Unity
650F

550F  4 new Broadwell based All-Flash models

 New 80 drive 3U enclosure
450F
 4X file power with 256TB file system
 Compression for file
 AppSync integration, snapshots & thin
clones for iCDM
 Dynamic Pools
350F

Optimized for All-Flash Performance & Simplicity

Up to 40% more cores; 2X the memory

3 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Flexible Deployment Options

ALL-FLASH

PURPOSE-BUILT CONVERGED VIRTUAL

FOR PERFORMANCE, FOR FASTER DEPLOYMENTS FOR SOFTWARE DEFINED,
SCALE AND FLEXIBILITY AND A ONE-STOP SOLUTION REMOTE OFFICE AND TEST/DEV

4 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Unified Architecture
Taking a Look at How Dell EMC Unity Works
Building From the Bottom Up

Advanced Data Services

Dell EMC Unity Architecture

Hardware Overview

6 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Hardware Overview
Hardware Overview
Disk Processor Enclosure (DPE)

• Two storage processors (SPA and SPB), Dual-active controllers

– Both storage processors (SP) can host resources and service I/O
– In failover case, all services on one SP get moved to peer SP

SPB

SPA

8 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

System Management Connectivity
Base ports on DPE

SPB

SPA
• 2x Management and Service ports per SP (shown in red)
– Management (1Gb/s)
› Connectivity to Unisphere user interface
› Configured with IPv4 and/or IPv6 address
› One management address for both controllers
– Service (1Gb/s)
› For troubleshooting purposes if management port is not available
› Serial over LAN capability for console access

9 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Front-End Connectivity
Base ports on DPE

SPB

SPA
• 2x CNA ports per SP (shown in red)
– 8Gb / 16Gb FC (FC connectivity)
– 10GbE Optical or TwinAx (iSCSI and/or File connectivity)
– 1GbE Base-T RJ45 (iSCSI and/or File connectivity)

• 2x 10GbE Base-T RJ45 ports per SP (shown in yellow)

– iSCSI and/or File connectivity

10 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Back-End Connectivity
Base ports on DPE

SPB

SPA
• 2x 12Gb SAS ports per SP (shown in red)
– For drive enclosure connectivity
– Up to 500 drives with two SAS ports
› Additional drive counts available by adding more SAS ports

11 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Optional Additional Connectivity
Optional ports on DPE

SPB

SPA
• 2x I/O Module slots per SP (shown in red)
– Front-End Optional Connectivity Options – Back-End Optional Connectivity Options
› 16Gb FC (4-port) › 12Gb SAS (4-port)
o MM or SM
› 1GbE Base-T (4-port)
› 10GbE Base-T (4-port)
› 10GbE Optical (4-port)
› 10GbE Optical w/ iSCSI offload (2-port)
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DPE Cabling

• 6 Cables for Minimum Setup:

– 2 Power Cables (Black/Grey)
– 2 Management Cables (Green)
– 2 Front-End Cables (Blue)

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Storage Processor (SP)

Fans
Battery
M.2 SSD Backup
Unit (BBU)

DIMMs

I/O Modules
Power Supply

14 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Dell EMC Unity Drive Support
Overview
12 Drive DPE 15 Drive DAE 25 Drive DPE / DAE
12Gb DRIVE TYPE SUPPORTED CAPACITIES (3.5”) (3.5”) (2.5”)
SSDs for FAST Cache 200GB, 400GB, 800GB ✔ ✔ ✔
SSD for FAST VP 200GB, 400GB, 800GB, 1.6TB ✔ ✔ ✔
400GB, 800GB, 1.6TB, 3.2TB,
SSDs for “only” All FLASH Pool 3.84TB (AFA), 7.68TB (AFA), ✔
15.36TB (AFA)
15K RPM SAS 600GB ✔ ✔ ✔
10K RPM SAS 600GB, 1.2TB, 1.8TB ✔ ✔ ✔
7.2K RPM NL-SAS 2TB, 4TB, 6TB ✔ ✔

• Flash drives are formatted to 520 byte sector size

• SAS and NL-SAS drives uses 4KB sector size
15 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.
Dell EMC Unity
Architecture
17
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB

© Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
Private LUN

RAID Group
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
Unified Storage Pool (Hybrid)

256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
Storage Pool

256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB 256MB
Private LUN

RAID Group

256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
256MB 256MB
Unified Architecture
All Storage Resources from the Same Pool

Consistency Group Storage Pool NAS Server

LUN LUN
VVOL VVOL VVOL

VVOL VVOL VVOL

VMware
LUN VMFS
Datastore

Storage Pool
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
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256MB
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256MB
18 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.
Dell EMC Unity Architecture Diagram
Protocol End Points

• Dual-active controllers Replication

– Data synchronized between SPs
VMDK/VHD
over CMI interconnect

Unified Svcs
Block File System VVols
• Redundant front-end paths (Thick/Thin LUNs) (64-bit)

• Unified data services for all Unified

Unified Pool
Control
storage objects Path

• Multicore optimizations Multicore Architecture

– Distribute load across cores • Cache
CMI
• FAST Cache
• RAID
• Active/active back-end
– Direct SAS connections to all drives
Back End

19 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

 Dell EMC Unity Multi-Pathing for File Protocols
LACP
SPB

SPA LACP

NAS Server

• LACP provides physical link aggregation

– Multiple physical interfaces accessed via single logical interface
– Provides redundancy in case of single path failure
– Potentially improve performance by spreading traffic across multiple ports

20 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Advanced Data
Services
Advanced Data Services

EFFICIENCY SIMPLE FLEXIBLE

/PROTECTION
NDU Upgrades Unified Snapshots
Compression (Block)*
Data-in-Place Conversions* Host I/O Limits
• Absolute and Density Based
Native Async Replication (Block • Burst Limits*
and File) CloudIQ*
CEE Support*
Native Sync Replication (Block) Native SAN Copy Import*
• VNX to Dell EMC Unity

Data at Rest Encryption

Native File Import (NFS)*
• VNX to Dell EMC Unity
CTA Support

*Introduced Q4 ‘16 in Dell EMC UnityOE 4.1 Update

22 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc. For more information, see [Link] for related documentation
Platform Updates
Hardware/Platform Updates
Four New All-Flash Models
650F
• Dell EMC Unity 350F, 450F, 550F, 650F
550F
• Utilizing same 2U chassis as existing models
– Faster CPU (Broadwell based) 450F

– More memory across comparable models

350F

ALL FLASH

24 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Hardware/Platform Updates
New All-Flash model system limits

Platform Unity 350F Unity 450F Unity 550F Unity 650F

Form Factor 2U 2U 2U 2U
Storage Processors 2 2 2 2
Intel E5-2603v4 Intel E5-2630v4 Intel E5-2660v4 Intel E5-2680v4
Processor (per SP)
6-core, 1.7GHz 10-core, 2.2GHz 14-core, 2.0GHz 14-core, 2.4GHz
48GB (3x 16GB) @ 64GB (4x 16GB) @ 128GB (4x 32GB) @ 256GB (4x 64GB) @
Memory (per SP)
1866MHz 2133MHz 2400MHz 2400MHz
Max Drive Count 150 250 500 1000
Max Capacity (PB) 2.4 4.0 8.0 16.0
Max I/O Modules 4 4 4 4

25 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Hardware/Platform Updates
80-Drive Dense DAE

• 3U size enclosure with 80x 2.5” drive slots

– Installable in EMC standard rack or customer rack
– Cable management arms (CMA) in back of the enclosure; doesn’t take up additional space

• Supported on all Dell EMC Unity physical systems

• Supports all available 2.5” drives (Flash, SAS)
• Up to 1.2PB raw capacity in 3U

26 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Expandable Dynamic Pools
Maximize performance & efficiently save space and budget

TRADITIONAL POOL DYNAMIC POOL

+ + +
Flash drives – as needed

+ ADD SINGLE HIGHER SPACE

DRIVE TO POOL UTILIZATION

FASTER SIMPLER AND

Flash drives RAID REBUILD TIME LOWER TCO
Widths &
Spares Distributed sparing and flexible pool size

27 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

28
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB

© Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
Storage Pools

256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB 256MB
Private LUN

RAID Group
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
Storage Pool

256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
Private LUN

RAID Group

256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
256MB
Dynamic Pools - Architecture

• In a Dynamic Pool, drives are partitioned into drive extents which are grouped into RAID extents
across multiple drives
– Ensures redundancy by making sure a RAID extent does not contain two drive extents from a particular drive
– Spare space automatically configured to meet sparing requirements
› No need for hot spares of unused drives

• RAID groups within Dynamic Pools are collections of RAID extents and are partitioned up to
create the private LUNS of 256MB slices for pool allocations
Drive 1 Drive 2 Drive 3 Drive 4 Drive 5 Drive 6
D1 DE 1 D2 DE 1 D3 DE 1 D4 DE 1 D5 DE 1 D6 DE 1
D1 DE 2 D2 DE 2 D3 DE 2 D4 DE 2 D5 DE 2 D6 DE 2
D1 DE 3 D2 DE 3 D3 DE 3 D4 DE 3 D5 DE 3 D6 DE 3
D1 DE 4 D2 DE 4 D3 DE 4 D4 DE 4 D5 DE 4 D6 DE 4
D1 DE 5 D2 DE 5 D3 DE 5 D4 DE 5 D5 DE 5 D6 DE 5
D1 DE 6 D2 DE 6 D3 DE 6 D4 DE 6 D5 DE 6 D6 DE 6
… … … … … …
Spare Spare Spare Spare Spare Spare

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Dynamic Pools - Architecture
Supported RAID Levels and Minimum Drive Count

• Dynamic Pools support the following RAID levels

– RAID 5 | RAID 6 | RAID 1/0 For more information:
Dell EMC Unity All Flash:
• Different size drives can be mixed in a Dynamic Pool Flash Technology Deep
Dive
• Minimum number of drives when creating a Pool: Thur @ 1:00PM

RAID RAID Width Minimum Number How it is Calculated

Level of Drives
RAID 5 4+1 6 (4+1)+ 1 Extra Drive
RAID 6 4+2 7 (4+2)+ 1 Extra Drive
RAID 1/0 1+1 3 (1+1)+ 1 Extra Drive
30 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.
Dell EMC Unity Thin Clones

• A Thin Clone is a read-write copy of a Thin Block resource which shares

blocks with the parent object
– Includes LUNs, LUNs within Consistency Groups, and VMFS Datastores
– Supported on all Dell EMC Unity models and Dell EMC UnityVSA (Professional
and Community version)

• All data services remain available on the parent objects on creation of the
Thin Clone
– Create Thin Clone from Attached Read-Only or Unattached Snapshots

• User is be able to:

– Create, refresh, view, modify and delete a Thin Clone

31 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Dell EMC Unity Thin Clones
Benefits

• Space savings
– Space consumed by Thin Clone is only changed data
– Reduce the cost for application test and development environments
• Can apply data services to Thin Clones:
– Host Access
– Host I/O Limits (QoS)
– Manual/Scheduled Snapshots For more information:
– Replication Dell EMC Unity Data
Protection & Copy
› Creates a full LUN copy on the target side Management Options
Wed @ 12:00PM

32 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Snapshot Shipping

• Extends Asynchronous Replication to support shipping of snapshots

along with the primary storage resource
• Both user-created and scheduled snapshots can be replicated
• Supported for all primary resources that support Asynchronous
Replication:
– LUNs
– Consistency Groups
– File Systems
– VMware VMFS and NFS Datastores

33 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Snapshot Shipping
Benefits

• Destination can have a different retention policy

– Extended retention periods for compliance (i.e. IRS, HIPAA, etc.)
• Cost Efficient
– Replicated snapshots can be deleted from the source system
• Resiliency
– Provides the user the ability to store the snapshots in a different fault
domain For more information:
Dell EMC Unity Data
Protection & Copy
Management Options
Wed @ 12:00PM

34 © Copyright 2017 Dell Inc.

Dell EMC Unity Compression for File
Dell EMC Unity Compression

• Dell EMC UnityOE 4.2 adds support for compression on the following storage resources:
– Thin File Systems
– Thin VMware NFS Datastores

• Compression enabled on Thin File Systems and Thin VMware NFS Datastores created while
running the Dell EMC UnityOE 4.2

No Additional
Inline Space
License
Savings
Required

Lower TCO of Your Writes Logged and Held Compression is Included

Storage Solution in Cache with Base System License
for Dell EMC Unity OE 4.1
Improve Utilization of Data Written to Flash Only and up
Flash Capacity Once
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Dell EMC Services Booth #347
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Related Sessions for SC and Dell EMC Unity Series
Session Title Day/Time
Dell EMC Unity & SC Series: Midrange Storage Portfolio Overview Mon @ 12:00 PM + Wed @ 01:30 PM
CloudIQ: Cloud-Based Storage Analytics for Dell EMC Unity and SC Series Mon @ 04:30 PM + Wed @ 08:30 AM
Dell EMC Unity All-Flash: What’s New Tue @ 03:00 PM + Wed @ 01:30 PM
Dell EMC Unity: Architectural Overview Mon @ 01:30 PM + Thu @ 08:30 AM
Dell EMC Unity: Best Practices For Best Performance Wed @ 08:30 AM + Thu @ 10:00 AM
Dell EMC Unity: Performance Analysis Deep Dive Wed @ 03:00 PM + Thu @ 01:00 PM
Dell EMC Unity: Next Generation NAS & File Capabilities Mon @ 03:00 PM + Thu @ 11:30 AM
Dell EMC Unity: Data Protection & Copy Management Options Mon @ 08:30 AM + Wed @ 12:00 PM
Dell EMC Unity: Virtualization & Cloud Integration Mon @ 12:00 PM
Dell EMC Unity: Migration From VNX Tue @ 08:30 AM
Dell EMC Unity: Using Dell EMC UnityVSA In Converged Environments Mon @ 08:30 AM
Dell EMC Unity All Flash: Flash Technology Deep Dive Mon @ 08:30 AM + Thu @ 01:00 PM
SC Series: What's New Mon @ 04:30 PM + Tue @ 03:00 PM
SC Series: Architectural Overview Mon @ 01:30 PM + Tue @ 03:00 PM
SC Series: Performance Best Practices Mon @ 04:30 PM + Thu. @ 01:00 PM
SC Series: Affordable Data Mobility & Business Continuity With Multi-Array Federation Mon @ 08:30 AM + Thu @ 01:00 PM
SC Series: Virtualization & Ecosystem Integrations Wed @ 03:00 PM + Thu @ 08:30 AM

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Hands on Labs for SC and Dell EMC Unity Series
Self-Paced Day/Time

Dell EMC Unity CloudIQ – Event Correlation & Analytics

Dell EMC Unity – Simplified Storage Management & Monday: 8:30AM – 9:00PM
Administration
Tuesday: 7:00AM – 5:30PM
Dell EMC Unity – VMware vSphere Integration
Wednesday: 7:00AM – 5:00PM
Dell EMC Unity – Configuring Snapshots & Replication Thursday: 7:00AM – 2:00PM

SC Series: Introduction to SC Series and Dell Storage Manager

Guided Day/Time

Dell EMC Unity CloudIQ – Event Correlation & Analytics Tuesday: 1:30PM – 2:30PM
(Registration required and limited availability) Thursday: 8:30AM – 9:30AM

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Thank You for Attending

PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO

• Visit the Storage & Data Protection Booth
• Tweet: @DellEMCStorage Talk with us in the booth about the:
Modern Infrastructure
A STAR IS BORN Assessment &
• Shoot an in-room 10 second reference video
(where applicable) Storage Efficiency
Guarantee
SITES TO BE SEEN
• Efficiency Guarantee: [Link]/4to1guarantee
• CloudIQ: [Link]/cloudiq
• All-Flash Storage: [Link]/all-flash

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