Dell manual Configuration options for the Dell PowerVault MD3000, Storage, Related Categories

Storage

By Manjusha Gopakumar

Vishal Kadam

Paul Winston

Exploring the Dell

PowerVault MD3000

Storage System

The Dell™ PowerVault™ MD3000 external RAID enclosure allows multiple servers to access a shared pool of expandable storage, helping enterprises avoid the costs and complexities of internal storage. This article outlines the hardware, configuration, and management features of this storage system.

Related Categories:

Backup, recovery, and archiving (BURA)

Dell PowerVault storage

Direct attach storage (DAS)

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)

Storage

Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions for the complete category index.

The Dell PowerVault MD3000 storage array is designed to provide flexible, high-performance, highly scal- able RAID storage without compromising data integ-

rity. Its integration of two high-performance RAID controllers, Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager software, and automatic event monitoring helps reduce total cost of ownership and maximize data protection.

The PowerVault MD3000 external RAID array can sup- port up to forty-five 3.0 Gbps Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) disks and includes redundant power supplies and fans. Connectivity between host servers and the storage is pro- vided by two Dell SAS 5/E host bus adapters (HBAs). The PowerVault MD3000 is designed primarily for high- performance two-node clusters; however, its dual-port RAID controllers can also provide shared nonredundant storage for up to four servers. Other key features include the following:

•Mirrored data cache of up to 512 MB on each RAID controller

•In-band and out-of-band management using Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager

•Redundant, hot-swappable components and virtual disk failover

•Transparent failover for clustered operating systems to help maximize data protection

•Virtual disk snapshot and virtual disk copy creation

•RAID level migration, capacity expansion, consistency

checks, and Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART)

Figure 1 compares PowerVault MD3000 features with those of the PowerVault MD1000.

Configuration options for the Dell PowerVault MD3000

Administrators can configure the PowerVault MD3000 as part of a nonredundant configuration or a redundant clus- ter configuration. Nonredundant configurations are recom- mended only for noncritical data storage; this type of configuration provides only a single data path, meaning a failed or removed cable, HBA, or RAID controller could cause the storage path to fail.

Redundant cluster configurations, in contrast, provide high availability for critical data and depend primarily on physical connectivity and the host multipath software. If a component fails or an error occurs on the data path to the primary RAID controller, the multipath driver—Microsoft®Multipath I/O (MPIO) on Microsoft Windows® operating systems and Multipath Proxy (MPP) on Linux® operating systems—fails over virtual disk ownership to the secondary RAID controller for I/O processing, helping ensure host data access.

The PowerVault MD3000 supports two redundant cluster configurations:

•Single port: Administrators can use this mode with a single storage path and single-port RAID controllers (see

	DELL POWER SOLUTIONS	May 2007	Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, May 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Rev. 2.
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