Midrange Storage Performance Planning: Performance Essential Guidelines Flashcards
What type of processors do Unity XT use?
Intel
What are the rules for storage performance?
Maximize flash drive capacity (Unity XT)
Distribute workloads
Simplify configuration
Design for resilience
Maintain the System OE updated to latest release
What is the maximum core count on Unity XT procs?
16
What type of flash is supported on Unity XT?
TLC
Why should you maximize flash capacity in hybrid Unitys?
the best way to harness flash is to ensure as much dataset as possible resides on the SSDs
What is the recommended flash drive capacity on Unity HFA?
minimum of 10% of pool capacity
What is necessary to achieve data reduction on a Unity HFA?
flash capacity must be equal to or exceed 10% of total
What size drives should you use for the flash pool in a Unity HFA?
always use the largest flash drives possible
What is the maximum flash drive capacity?
15.36TBs
Why should you use the largest flash drives possible when building a storage solution?
decreases total number of drives - cost
less drives typically means less performance
What is a drawback of higher flash capacity drives in a Unity HFA?
drive endurance is lower in terms of “writes per day” (WPD)
(use the drive size that balances capacity and IOPS)
What are the two shelves that come with Dell storage solutions?
DPE (Disk Processor Enclosure)
DAE (Disk Array Enclosure)
What are the restrictions on SAS-Flash 2 Drives?
supported for FAST Cache, multi-tiered or All-Flash pools
What are the restrictions on SAS-Flash 3 Drives?
supported for multi-tiered or All-Flash pools - can’t be used in FAST Cache implementations
What are the restrictions on SAS-Flash 4 Drives?
can only be used in All-Flash pools - cannot best used in FAST Cache implementations
in hybrid models only 7.68TB SAS-Flash 4 is supported
can be mixed w/ other SAS Flash drive types in a pool
can be used in the system drive slots
What isn’t supported by the AFA Unity?
FAST Cache
FAST VP
What is the rule for front end connectivity in configuring storage?
use all available front end ports symmetrically across storage processors
optimizes host-storage access
What is included on the Unity XT 380F DPE?
2 onboard Ethernet ports
2 CNA ports for FC/iSCSI on each SP
What is included on the Unity XT 480F and higher DPE?
4 port mezz-card on each SP
What do all Unity models have for front end connectivity?
2 slots per SP for option IO Modules
What is included on the Powerstore 500T DPE?
4 port Mezz-Card (Mezz 0) and 2 port-card (Mezz 1) per node
What is included on the Powerstore 1200T and higher DPE?
4 Port mezz card on each node
What doe all Powerstore models have for front end connectivity?
2 slots per node for option IO Modules
What is the rule when configuring back-end connectivity?
spread all the flash drives across the available back-end buses and DAES
What do all Unity models have for back end connectivity?
2 integrated -back end bus connections
What is included on the Unity XT 480F and higher back-end connectivity?
additional 4 port SAS expansion IO module
How do you expand a Powerstore system?
NVMe SSD expansion shelves
What is included on the Powerstore 500T back-end connectivity?
4 port 25GbE mezz card w/ support for NVMe connectivity
What is included on the Powerstore 1200T and higher back-end connectivity?
embedded module v2 and 100GbE 2 port card on Mezz 1
both cards connect to the ENS24 expansion enclosure that supports NVMe SSDs
What are the rules for Unity XT workload building?
build storage pools with many drives to service the IO workload
distribute LUNs and NAS servers symmetrically across storage processors
Why do you want to build storage pools with many drives to service the IO workload in Unity XT systems?
results in more spindles working concurrently to boost HFA performance
What does Powerstore use to manage the drives?
Dynamic Resiliency Engine
What is the benefit of Dynamic Resiliency Engine?
storage admin does not need to perform any manual drive configuration
all drives automatically used to provide capacity w/ improved resource utilization
What does the dynamic node affinity do on Powerstore?
automatically rebalance block storage resources between nodes
defines appliance node to be used as active/optimized path for host IO
How does the NAS server consume resources on Powerstore?
uses compute resources from one node on the Powerstore
What happens if one node is busier than the other in Powerstore when NAS server is implemented?
must manually move NAS servers to the peer node to balance the workloads
What are the recommendations to simplify Unity configurations?
fewer storage pools
standardize on single capacity drive
Why are fewer storage pools recommended to simplify Unity configurations?
more drives can be devoted to any single workload to improve performance
Why should you standardize on a single drive for Unity configurations?
reduce spare space reservation to build larger pools
greater flexibility for future reconfiguration
What are the recommendations to simplify Powerstore configurations?
all drives be the same size to maximize usable capacity
What are the minimum drive counts for Powerstore systems?
10 drives for single drive-failure
19 drives for double-drive failure
What do both Unity and Powerstore come with to ensure resiliency?
redundant power supplies
redundant front/back end ports
redundant SPs
How are storage pools configured in Unity?
RAID
What does the RAID level determine in Unity XT?
performance characteristics and protection
What does the strip width determine in Unity XT?
pool fault characteristics
How do you replace a faulted drive in Unity XT?
dynamic pools (spare space reservation)
traditional pools (hot spares)
How does DRE ensure resiliency on Powerstore?
groups the drives into resiliency sets to protect against drive failure
How does DRE work?
spare space for rebuilds automatically distributed across all drives within each resiliency set
What is the benefit of DRE?
enables faster rebuilds after drive failure
What should you do before upgrading a Unity XT OS?
verify that the software update file is valid and not corrupt using SHA256 checksum
upgrade to latest drive firmware available
How are Powerstore OS upgrades performed?
nondisruptive process
during parts of the upgrade process half of system hardware resources are unavailable
What are the recommendations for Powerstore OS upgrades?
do it during planned maintenance windows
perform when its less busy to minimize the impact to clients
preupgrade health check should be run
