EMC has just announced the Symmetrix V-Max. Here are the specs, what a beast:
The first new Symmetrix model based on the Virtual Matrix Architecture is the Symmetrix V-Max storage system, the world’s largest high-end storage array, featuring:
- Up to 128 Intel Xeon processor cores
- Up to 1 TB (terabyte) of global memory
- Fibre Channel/FICON/Gigabit Ethernet/iSCSI connectivity
- Latest generation Flash/Fibre Channel/SATA drive support
- Scale to 2,400 drives
- Maximum usable, protected capacity of 2 PBs (petabytes)
Of course, as the name suggests, the Symmetrix has been optimized for Virtualized Datacenters. Here’s just one example of how the Symmetrix V-Max will make the life of storage admins a lot easier:
Re-architecting the way that Enginuity interacts with the host OS layers, especially in the virtualization space. Creating the ability to dynamically provision entire port groups, initiator groups, even topologies with less steps than it takes to create a MetaLUN in Navisphere. I’m sure that Chad Sakac will have more to say regarding this but, let’s be REALLY clear on this: putting a Symmetrix V-Max into your virtualized environment is now going to be even easier than…well, most other things out there. We’re calling this Auto-provisioning, by the way, and to put it in the words of wizened genius within the walls of EMC (Duane Olson, if I may be so bold):
What a concept. Create a group for a particular host(ESX farm as an example), and now all you do is create/assign storage to this group and magically, the host has new storage.. One command, and its done. No more create the device, assign a device to a frontend channel, and then mask the device to a host…One step, and its all done. This will significantly decrease the time needed to allocate new storage to an existing host/hosts.
And for those thinking about BC-DR:
EMC is introducing the new zero-data-loss SRDF Extended Distance Protection (EDP) feature for Symmetrix V-Max systems, which can reduce the cost of multi-site replication by up to 50 percent. SRDF is ideal for virtual server environments and has been integrated with VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and supports EMC Replication Manager for automated protection of VMware environments.
For more info check out these three blog articles:
- Chad Sakac – EMC’s VMware Storage Strategy – The 3rd Shoe Drops
- Chuck Hollis – Symmetrix V-Max: A New Paradigm For Storage Virtualization?
- Chuck Hollis – Symmetrix V-Max: Storage Architecture Redefined
- Dave Graham – Welcome to the next generation: Symmetrix V-Max is here…
- Barry Burke – Symmetrix v-max – a revolutionary evolution
- Barry Burke – Symmetrix v-max – scale up, scale out, scale away!
Me and my SAN guys have this in house now and we will begin playing with it next week. I can’t mention I work, but I’ll try to post some finding if there important or different enough… Stay tuned.
VMVic