Equallogic

If you are already a part of the EqualLogic fan base, hopefully you downloaded a free copy of SAN HQ 1.0 off the support site.  Less than a year after introducing an already great product (free to customers on support I might add), Dell EqualLogic is getting ready to debut the second version, likely before the end of the year.  

SAN HQ 2.0's interface is still as snappy, informative and intuitive as the previous generation, with some added capabilities:

Packaged Reports --

• "Top 10" reports such as Top 10 Busy Volumes, Top 10 Hosts by Connection, and more. 
• Performance Report
• Host Connections Report
• Group Configuration Report with Alerts
• Capacity Utilization and Trending Report
• Thin Volume Status Report
• Replication Status Report
• Alerts Report for All Groups
• Hardware Summary Report

Enhanced Analytics: calculation and display of maximum theoretical IOPS; degraded performance limits; estimated percentage-busy IOPS for groups, pools, and members; IOPS vs. latency; and volume queue depths

Broader Data Collection: additional metrics on iSCSI sessions, outbound replication, volume collections, network ports and controllers, including temperature charts

New Alerts: including those for unreachable member ports, port status, member disk mirroring issues, and disk alternate signatures

Better Communication: finer-grained control over e-mail notification and group e-mail settings

Improved Usability: single sign-on, new wizards, simpler navigation, and chart enhancements

Since a picture is worth a 1000 words, I'll save my usual marathon-length blog and throw up some screen captures from our two groups in the DellTechCenter monitored by SAN HQ 2.0:

Figure 1: Main page of one of our groups.

Figure 2: New with 2.0 SAN HQ Report Wizard

Figure 3: Page from "Top 10" report generated

Figure 4: Expanded Network port and controller information available in 2.0

It has been a while since my last post; but there’s been good reasons for the delay. I’ve been working with Dell partners- Microsoft, VMware and Veeam on performance and usability related studies and Scalent to understand how they integrate into Dell’s solution stacks.

Areas encompassed include Microsoft Windows 2008 Server running Hyper-V R2 feature, running Microsoft Exchange and SAP VMs in a VMware vSphere environment, backup using Veeam’s Backup product, and dynamic infrastructure management using Scalent.  All of this is built upon Dell 11G servers and Dell | EqualLogic PS series storage arrays. So continue to check the Dell TechCenter blog and the Dell TechCenter site for sneak peeks into study results and demo announcements.

You might think that after two full days of keynotes, breakout sessions, events and meetings at Oracle OpenWorld it would be hard to excite a convention hall full of business and IT leaders, but Michael Dell had just the right formula with:

• A compelling vision - Redirect IT dollars from management and maintenance to innovation and improving the business by building an Efficient Enterprise;
• Big commitments for quantifiable results like working to take $200 billion of inefficiency out of the $1.2 trillion IT infrastructure industry spend and driving $200 million in savings for Dell's own IT;
• Impressive statistics, something almost all of us in the IT industry get into, of the power of the Dell and Oracle partnership and Dell's leadership and track record in providing solutions;
• Cool products, including:
  • Dell's 11th generation of PowerEdge servers were onstage and Michael highlighted the enhancements in these new servers to simplify deployment, enhance performance, reduce complexity and lower power and cooling requirements;
  • He also discussed more innovation to come next year with new PowerEdge servers based on Intel Nehalem EX architecture; and,
  • Talked about continued enhancements to the EqualLogic storage products, like SSD (launched this year) and 10Gbps Ethernet (coming soon) that will drive efficiency and performance for storage.
• A blueprint to make this vision a reality including:
  • Standardization on open standard solutions built on x86-based servers;
  • Simplification by starting with the applications and taking the complexity out of the way they are supported and managed, and by using Virtualization and Storage Consolidation;
  • Automation by streamlining Services delivery and enabling self-service IT models where critical business services can be deployed through the cloud.
• Dell's own plan - Robin Johnson, CIO of Dell, shared how he is driving inefficiency out of the Dell IT machine
• Having fun - Everyone was excited by Larry Ellison's surprise appearance and from the return of the Tech Force alliance!

Hopefully you are as excited as we are about building the Efficient Enterprise, and if you’re here this week, be sure to come see us in the booth. 

You can follow us on Twitter @dellatORACLEwld and check out my earlier post on Direct2Dell with details of all our activities.

Last week Dell EqualLogic debuted 4.2.1 firmware for the PS Series arrays, which you can download from the support site.  Take a look at the release notes and you'll find there's some pretty amazing additions --and you didn't even have to buy a new array to take advantage of them.  Well, unless you want to pick up a PS6500X or two (which I talked about here.)

Here's a few highlights of what's new in the 4.2.1 release:

• Preemptive drive replacement
• Support for new PS6500X
• Support for 16-member groups

Take note: ALL GENERATIONS of EqualLogic arrays are eligible for the latest firmware upgrade.  They too benefit from the expansion of up to 16 members/arrays in a single group.  One of the best selling points, beyond the widely accepted ridiculous ease of use, is the investment protection through backwards compatibility that Dell EqualLogic continues to deliver.

Growing the group size by 33% (from 12 to 16 members) provides several benefits.  It allows a storage admin to manage more arrays in a single pool. It load balances data more efficiently across more arrays and more drives. The larger spindle count and group capacity also reduces sprawl of applications.  You can manage more of those applications in a single group.

Upgrading is a cinch, especially if you are at a 4.1.3 or later versions of the firmware.  Here's a short video of me upgrading one of our arrays through the GUI to 4.2.1:

I recommend you read the "Updating Storage Array Firmware" document found on the support site before giving it a go.

Starting today, there's a little known, new Dell EqualLogic offering:  The PS6500X.  Note I didn't say PS6500E.  For those of you new to EqualLogic model naming conventions, the X=SAS, the E=SATA.  This means now you can get a single array with 48 x 600GB 10K SAS drives!  28.8 TB in 4U, with the ability to scale to 460.8 TB (16 member groups available now with 4.2 Firmware - more on this later.)

Three times more SAS capacity in the EqualLogic groups is cool. I think another important point is the impact on space, power and cooling.   The largest single array SAS 10K offering from Dell EqualLogic, up until now, was a PS6000X, which has a 16 drive capacity.  (There is a 15K SAS option as well in the 16 drive offering.) I took a look at some of the power/heat dissipation numbers, and it makes for a nice green story. 

Comparing the new PS6500X's capacity to the PS6000X, you'd need 3 PS6000X arrays to measure up.  These 3 arrays would take up 9U (3U each), whereas the PS6500X only occupies 4U.  The new array consumes 26% less power at peak and 35% fewer BTU's than the combined PS6000X's.   That's a nice reduction in power consumption and heat dissipation on a per drive basis, and some leftover rack space to boot. 

In the coming weeks I'll have more in-depth information on some of the new features of the 4.2 firmware and an upcoming update to an already great (and free) piece of software -- SAN Headquarters.