SAN Volume controller

SVC node models:

SVC node models

Type-model Cache [GB] FC speed [Gb/s] iSCSI Speed [Gb/s] Based upon Announced
2145-4F2 4 2 n/a x335 2 June 2003
2145-8F2 8 2 1 x336 25 October 2005
2145-8F4 8 4 1 x336 23 May 2006
2145-8G4 8 4 1 x3550 22 May 2007
2145-8A4 8 4 1 x3250M2 28 October 2008
2145-CF8 24 8 1 x3550M2 20 October 2009
2145-CG8 24 8 1 (10 Gbit/s optional) x3550M3 9 May 2011
2145-DH8 32 8 & 16 1 (10 Gbit/s optional) x3650M4 6 May 2014
2145-SV1 64...256 16 10 Gbit/s Xeon E5 v4 23 August 2016
2147-SV1 64...256 16 10 Gbit/s Xeon E5 v4 23 August 2016

Configuration limits for SAN Volume Controller:

Property Minimum Maximum Comments
Nodes per system 2 8
(cluster)
I/O groups per 1 4 Each containing
system two nodes
Inter-cluster 1 3 A system may be
partnerships per (maximum 1 IP partnered with up to
three remote systems.
system partnership is No more than four
supported) systems may be in the
same connected set
Managed disks 4096 The maximum number
(MDisks) per of logical units which
can be managed by a
system cluster.

This number includes

external MDisks which
have not been
configured into storage
pools (managed disk
groups)
Managed disks per 1 128
storage pool
(managed disk
group)
 SAN Volume controller

Property Minimum Maximum Comments

Managed disk 16MB 8192MB
extent size
Capacity for an 1PB
individual internal
managed disk
(array)
Capacity for an 1PB
individual external
managed disk
Total storage 64TB 32PB
capacity
manageable per
system
Volumes (VDisks) 8192 Maximum requires
per system an 8-node cluster
Volumes per I/O 2048
group
(volumes per
caching I/O group)
Volumes accessible 8192
per I/O group
Thin-provisioned 8192 No limit is imposed
(space-efficient) here beyond the
volume copies per volume copies per
system system limit.
Fully-allocated 256 TB Maximum size for
volume capacit an individual fully-
allocated volume.
Thin-provisioned 256 TB Maximum size for
(space-efficient) an individual thin-
volume capacity provisioned volume
Compressed 96 TB Maximum size fr an
volume capacity individual
compressed
volume

Property Minimum Maximum Comments

 SAN Volume controller

Mirrored Volume (Virtual Disk) Properties

Copies per volume 2
Volume copies per 8192 The maximum number
system of volumes cannot all
have the maximum
number of copies
Total mirrored 1024 TB
volume capacity
per I/O group
Generic Host Properties
Host objects (IDs) 2145-8G4 1024 A host object may
per system 2145-8A4 contain both Fibre
Channel ports and
iSCSI names
Host objects (IDs) 2145-CF8 2048 A host object may
per system 2145-CG8 contain both Fibre
2145-DH8 Channel ports and
iSCSI names
Host objects (IDs) 2145-8G4 256
per I/O group 2145-8A4
Host objects (IDs) 2145-CF8 512
per I/O group 2145-CG8
2145-DH8
Volume mappings per 2145-8G4 512
host object 2145-8A4
Volume mappings per 2145-CF8 2048* * This limit is 512 for
host object 2145-CG8 Solaris OS
2145-DH8
Total Fibre Channel 8192
ports and iSCSI names
per system
Total Fibre Channel 2048
ports and iSCSI names
per I/O group
Total Fibre Channel 512
ports and iSCSI names
per host object
Property Minimum Maximum Comments
Fibre Channel Host Properties (including hosts attached using FCoE)
Fibre Channel 2048
hosts per system
 SAN Volume controller

Fibre Channel host 8192

ports per system
Fibre Channel 512
hosts per I/O group
Fibre Channel host 2048
ports per I/O group
Fibre Channel 512
hosts ports per
host object (ID)
iSCSI Host Properties
SCSI hosts per 1024
system
iSCSI hosts per I/O 256
group
iSCSI names per 256
host object
iSCSI names per 256
I/O group
Copy Services Properties
Remote Copy 8192 This can be any mix of
(Metro Mirror and Metro Mirror and Global
Mirror relationships.
Global Maximum requires an
Mirror) 8-node cluster
relationships per (volumes per I/O group
system limit applies)

Remote Copy - - No limit is imposed

relationships per beyond the Remote
consistency group Copy relationships
per system limit
Remote Copy 256
consistency
groups per system
Total Metro Mirror 1024 TB This limit is the
and Global Mirror total capacity for
volume capacity all master and
per I/O group auxiliary volumes
in the I/O group.
Total number of 256
Global Mirror with
Change Volumes
 SAN Volume controller

relationships per
system
FlashCopy 4096
mappings per
system
FlashCopy targets 256
per source
FlashCopy 512
mappings
per consistency
group
FlashCopy 127 SAN Volume
consistency groups Controller versions
per system up to and including
[Link]
FlashCopy 255 SAN Volume
consistency groups Controller version
per system [Link] and higher
External Storage System Properties
Storage system 1024
WWNNs per system
(cluster)
Storage system 1024
WWPNs per system
(cluster)
WWNNs per 16
storage system
WWPNs per WWNN 16
LUNs (managed No limit is imposed
disks) per storage beyond the managed
system disks per system
(cluster) limit
Property Minimum Maximum Comments
System and User Management Properties
User accounts per 400 Includes the
system default user
accounts
User groups per 256 Includes the
system default user groups
 SAN Volume controller

Authentication 1
servers per system
NTP servers per 1
system
iSNS servers per 1
system

Concurrent open 10
SSH sessions per
system
Event Notification Properties
SNMP servers per 6
system
Syslog servers per 6
system
Email (SMTP) 6 Email servers are
servers per system used in turn until
the email is
successfully sent
Email users 12
(recipients) per
system
LDAP servers per 6
system
2145-DH8 Options
Fibre channel cards 3
per node
Compression 3
accelerator cards
per node
10GE Ethernet 1
cards per node
10Gbps Ethernet 4
ports per node
1Gbps Ethernet 3
ports per node

Extents
 SAN Volume controller

The following table compares the maximum volume, mdisk and system capacity
for each extent size.
Extent size Maximum non Maximum thin- Maximum Maximum Total storage
(MB) thin-provisioned provisioned Compressed MDisk capacity
volume capacity volume capacity Volume Size** capacity in GB manageable per
in GB in GB system*
16 2048 (2 TB) 2000 2048 (2 TB) 64 TB
32 4096 (4 TB) 4000 4096 (4 TB) 128 TB
64 8192 (8 TB) 8000 8192 (8 TB) 256 TB
128 16,384 (16 TB) 16,000 16,384 (16 TB) 512 TB
256 32,768 (32 TB) 32,000 32,768 (32 TB) 1 PB
512 65,536 (64 TB) 65,000 65,536 (64 TB) 2 PB
1024 131,072 (128 TB) 130,000 96TB ** 131,072 (128 4 PB
TB)
2048 262,144 (256 TB) 260,000 96TB ** 262,144 (256 8 PB
TB)
4096 262,144 (256 TB) 262,144 96TB ** 524,288 (512 16 PB
TB)
8192 262,144 (256 TB) 262,144 96TB ** 1,048,576 (1024 32 PB
TB)

Highlights of SV1

IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) Storage Engine Model SV1 is a hardware component of the SVC
storage virtualization system. This model offers increased performance and additional internal flash
storage capacity with the following features:
 Two eight-core processor with 64 GB memory standard, with options to increase memory up to
256 GB
 16 Gb Fibre Channel (FC) and 10 Gb iSCSI/Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity
options
 Hardware-assisted compression acceleration for Real-time Compression workloads
 12 Gb SAS expansion enclosures supporting twelve 3.5-inch large form factor (LFF), twenty-
 SAN Volume controller

four 2.5-inch small form factor (SFF), or, ninety-two 3.5-inch large form factor (LFF) drives
 Scaling for up to 736 drives per node pair
 The ability to be added into existing clustered systems with previous generation SVC storage
engine models
All models are delivered in a 2U or 5U 19-inch rack mount enclosure with IBM installation and a one-
year warranty with on-site service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Note: A minimum quantity of one four-port 16 Gb FC card or one four-port 10 Gb Ethernet card is
required.