Hitachi 9900 Series, 9960 Hitachi Data Systems, Open Systems High-AvailabilityMiddleware Support

Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi is the only major supplier of enterprise class storage systems with a 100% availability guarantee.

•Dual data paths and dual control paths connecting every component.

•Mirrored cache for all write data instead of single image cache.3

•GDPS support.

•Hitachi TrueCopy combined with ShadowImage™ for disaster recovery.

•Hitachi NanoCopy™ to provide Point-in-Time copies without requiring quiescence of databases or applications.

•High-availability, custom designed disk drives.

•“Phone home” capability to notify the Hitachi support center quickly of any incident that may affect availability.

Figure 21 - The Lightning 9900™ offers a far more complete range of availability protection than competitive products.

The recovery process without high-availability middleware involves time-consuming and error-prone manual operations.

Open Systems High-Availability Middleware Support

Open systems server vendors and third-party software vendors such as VERITAS® software have developed a class of software known as “high-availability middleware” to help reduce downtime by automatically detecting faults and recovering data services on a redundant set of hardware. Without high-availability middleware, time is lost while a fault goes undetected. Once the fault is detected, a diagnose/repair/replace action must take place before data-service recovery can begin. High-availability middleware can begin an automated recovery process immediately on the redundant hardware. The recovery process without high-availability middleware involves time-consuming and error-prone manual operations, which may include resetting the SCSI bus, restarting drivers, reassigning IP addresses, recovering and restarting applications and transactions, and even rebooting.

3Some competitive products do not have dual cache like the Hitachi Lightning 9900™. If there is an unrecoverable error in cache, there is no duplicate backup copy. With these products there is an increased risk of lost data, especially if the loss occurs in the hardware status area. The Lightning 9900™, of course, can never have this problem since all status areas and write data are duplexed.

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