The newest enhancements to the PowerMax family of Dell EMC NVMe ( Non-Volatile Memory Express) arrays raise the bar again for enterprise storage with the addition of the latest technologies to achieve unmatched levels of performance and consolidation for the high value, high demand workloads of today and tomorrow. PowerMax supports 32Gb/s FC-NVMe to deliver on the promise of end-to-end NVMe, along with Storage Class Memory Drives (SCM) powered by dual port Intel® OptaneTM drives used as persistent storage. FC-NVMe and SCM can further reduce system latencies by up to 50%. The PowerMax 2000 and 8000 arrays provide all of the features and proven data services demanded of an enterprise active-active controller array including security, protection, availability, scalability and massive consolidation, now delivered at latencies measured in microseconds, not milliseconds. PowerMax real- time machine learning optimizes storage performance using pattern recognition and automated data placement, without overhead.
The PowerMax family now supports two new exciting features—the first, end-to-end efficient encryption of data from the host to the PowerMax storage media. Efficient encryption utilizes an encryption agent on the host coupled with a hardware-based encryption option on the array that also preserves our data reduction (compression and inline dedupe) capabilities. Designed to be used in tandem with Data at Rest Encryption, this new functionality provides true end to end data security.
Secondly, Cloud Mobility for Dell EMC PowerMax extends PowerMax storage to the public (AWS, Microsoft Azure) and private cloud (Dell EMC ECS). Customers can assign policies to automatically schedule snapshots to the cloud of their choice for long term retention. The snapshots can be browsed via a catalog and recovered to the PowerMax or to Amazon block storage.
A single PowerMax Brick is architected to provide six-nines (99.9999%) of Availability in the most demanding, mission-critical environments. Utilizing the powerful family of Intel® Xeon® E5 processors, the PowerMax 2000 and 8000 support both global, inline compression and deduplication for at least a 50% gain in data efficiency over the previous generation of arrays.
The PowerMax 2000 can fit its two available Bricks in half of a standard 19” rack, while the PowerMax 8000 redefines space efficiency more than doubling compute density by housing up to four Bricks in a single cabinet, and up to eight Bricks in just two floor tiles. PowerMax arrays come fully pre-configured out of the factory to significantly shorten the time to first I/O. Depending on the model, PowerMax arrays can support Open, Mainframe, IBM i, File, and mixed environments, all on the same array.
Appliance-based packaging
PowerMax storage building blocks are defined by appliance-based entities called Bricks (or zBricks for Mainframe). Each Brick includes an engine with two PowerMax directors, packaged software, cache, and 24-slot Drive Array Enclosures. PowerMax arrays are available in two new software packages, the standard “Essentials” package and the application rich “Pro” package, which makes ordering easy.
Additional NVMe drive capacity can be added to each Brick or zBrick via Flash capacity packs for up to a total usable capacity of 1.2 PBe on the PowerMax 2000 and up to 4.5 PBe on the PowerMax 8000 (with global, inline compression and deduplication enabled).
Detailed specifications and a comparison of the PowerMax 2000 and 8000 arrays follow:
Array family |
PowerMax 2000 |
PowerMax 8000 |
Bricks/zBricks |
||
Number of Bricks or zBricks5 |
1 to 2 |
1 to 8 |
ENGINE ENCLOSURE |
4u |
4u |
CPU |
Intel Xeon E5-2650-v4 2.5 GHz 12 core4 |
Intel Xeon E5-2697-v4 2.8 GHz 18 core4 |
# CORES PER CPU/PER ENGINE/PER SYSTEM |
12/48/96 |
18/72/576 |
DYNAMIC VIRTUAL MATRIX INTERCONNECT |
Direct Connect InfiniBand 56 Gbps per port |
InfiniBand Dual Redundant Fabric: 56 Gbps per port |
CACHE |
||
CACHE-SYSTEM MIN (RAW) |
512 GB |
1,024 GB |
CACHE-SYSTEM MAX (RAW) |
4 TB (with 2,048 GB engine) |
16 TB (with 2,048 GB engine) |
CACHE-PER ENGINE OPTIONS |
512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB |
1 TB, 2 TB |
VAULT |
||
VAULT STRATEGY |
Vault to Flash |
Vault to Flash |
VAULT IMPLEMENTATION |
2 to 4 NVMe Flash SLICs / Engine |
4 to 8 NVMe Flash SLICs / Engine |
FRONT END I/O MODULES |
||
MAXIMUM FRONT-END I/O MODULES/BRICK |
8 |
87 |
FRONT-END I/O MODULES AND PROTOCOLS SUPPORTED |
4 x 32 Gbs (FC,SRDF) 4 x 32 Gbs (FC-NVMe) 4 x 16 Gbs (FC, SRDF) 10 GbE: 4 x 10 GbE (iSCSI, SRDF) 25 GbE: 4 x 25 GbE (iSCSI, SRDF) |
4 x 32 Gbs (FC, SRDF) 4 x 32 Gbs (FC-NVMe) 4 x 16 Gbs (FC, SRDF) 10 GbE: 4 x 10 GbE (iSCSI, SRDF) 25 GbE: 4 x 25 GbE (iSCSI, SRDF) 4 x 16 Gbs (FICON) |
eNAS I/O MODULES |
||
MAX eNAS I/O MODULES/ SOFTWARE DATA MOVER |
36 |
36 |
eNAS I/O MODULES SUPPORTED |
10 GbE: 2 x 10 GbE Optical 10 GbE: 2 x 10 GbE Cu1 8 Gbs: 4 x 8 Gbs FC (Tape BU) 2 |
10 GbE: 2 x 10 GbE Optical 10 GbE: 2 x 10 GbE Cu1 8 Gbs: 4 x 8 Gbs FC (Tape BU)2 |
eNAS SOFTWARE DATA MOVERS |
||
MAX SOFTWARE DATA MOVERS |
4 (3 Active + 1 Standby - 4 Data Movers requires minimum 2 Bricks) |
8 (7 Active and 1 Standby - 8 Data Movers requires minimum 4 Bricks)3 |
MAX NAS CAPACITY/ARRAY (TERABYTES USABLE) |
1158 (cache limited) |
3584 |
END-TO-END EFFICIENT ENCRYPTION MODULES |
||
REQUIRED TO SUPPORT END-TO-END EFFICIENT ENCRYPTION |
2 per Brick – Maximum 4 per Array8 |
2 per Brick – Maximum 16 per Array8 |
CLOUD MOBILITY FOR DELL EMC POWERMAX MODULES |
||
REQUIRED TO SUPPORT CLOUD MOBILITY |
10GbE: 4 x 10GbE – 1 SLiC dedicated to a single director9 |
10GbE: 4 x 10GbE – 1 SLiC dedicated to a single director9 |
1 Quantity one (1) 2 x 10 GbE Optical module is the default choice/Data Mover.
2 Used to support NDMP Tape Backup.
3 Support for 8 Data Movers on the PowerMax 8000 is available by request.
4 CPUs run continuously in Turbo Mode except at significantly elevated ambient temperatures.
5 zBricks applicable to PowerMax 8000 only.
6 Two eNAS I/O modules/Datamover standard. Three can be supported depending on configuration via RPQ.
7 When born as a multi-engine system. A system born as single engine system is limited to 6 I/O modules per engine
8 End-to-end efficient encryption requires a single efficient data encryption module on each PowerBrick director in the array, and Data at Rest Encryption (D@RE) must be enabled. Efficient data encryption modules consume a Front End SLiC slot on each director.
9 Cloud Mobility requires a single 4 x 10GbE SLiC on one director of one engine in the array.
Array family |
PowerMax 2000 |
PowerMax 8000 |
CAPACITY, DRIVES |
||
Max Capacity per Array (Open)1 |
1.2 PBe |
4.5 PBe |
Base Capacity per Brick (NAND, Open) |
13.2 TBu3 |
54.0 TBu |
Base Capacity per Brick (SCM, Open) |
21.0 TBu5 |
21.0 TBu5 |
Base Capacity per zBrick (NAND, Mainframe) |
N/A |
13.2 TBu |
Base Capacity per zBrick (SCM, Mainframe) |
N/A |
21.0 TBu5 |
Incremental Flash Capacity Packs (NAND) |
13.2 TBu3,7 |
13.2 TBu7 |
Incremental Flash Capacity Packs (SCM) |
5.25 TBu6 |
5.25 TBu |
Max Drives per Brick |
44 Usable + spare(s) |
32 Usable + spare(s) |
Max Drives per Array |
96 |
288 |
Max Drives per System Bay |
96/1922 |
144 |
Min Drive Count per Brick |
4 + 1 Spare |
8 + 1 spare |
NVMe DRIVES |
||
NVMe Drives Supported (2.5”) |
1.92 TB, 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, 15.36 TB |
1.92 TB, 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, 15.36 TB |
SCM DRIVES |
||
SCM Drives Supported (2.5”) |
750 GB, 1.5 TB |
750 GB, 1.5 TB |
BE Interface |
NVMe over PCIe |
NVMe over PCIe |
RAID Options Supported |
RAID 5(7+1) (default) RAID 5(3+1) RAID 6(6+2) RAID1 |
RAID 5(7 +1) (default) RAID 6(6+2) RAID1 |
Mixed RAID Group Support |
No |
No |
Support for Mixed Drive Capacities |
Yes4 |
Yes4 |
NVMe DRIVE ARRAY ENCLOSURE |
||
24 x 2.5” Drive DAE |
Yes |
Yes |
CABINET CONFIGURATIONS |
||
Standard 19" bays |
Yes |
Yes |
Single Brick System Bay Configuration |
No - (Packaging based on Dual Bricks, but initial Brick in each System Bay supported) |
No - (Packaging based on Quad Bricks, but initial Brick in each System Bay supported) |
Dual/Quad Brick System Bay Configuration |
Dual |
Quad |
Third Party Rack Mount Option |
Yes |
Yes |
DISPERSION |
||
Standard and 3rd Party Cabinets |
N/A - single floor tile system |
Yes |
PRE-CONFIGURATION FROM FACTORY |
||
100% Thin Provisioned |
Yes |
Yes |
HOST SUPPORT |
||
Open Systems |
Yes |
Yes |
Mainframe |
No |
Yes |
Mixed Mainframe and Open |
No |
Yes |
POWER OPTIONS |
||
Input Power Options |
Single or Three Phase Delta or Wye |
Single or Three Phase Delta or Wye |
1 Max capacity per array based on over provisioning ratio of 1.0 for a NAND or Mixed SCM/NAND based array. All SCM arrays will have lower maximum capacities.
2 192 drives can be supported in a single cabinet when two systems are packaged in the same rack.
3 13.2TBu Brick and Flash capacity pack usable capacities are based on RAID 5 (7+1). 11.3TBu base capacity and Flash capacity pack increments possible with RAID 5(3+1) on PowerMax 2000.
4 Up to two consecutive drive capacities supported, e.g. 1.92TB and 3.84TB
5 Base capacities associated with the selection of an SCM only system, after which you are constrained to SCM only additional capacity. Available only with RAID 5(7+1), 1TB cache engines, and the PRO package.
6 SCM incremental capacity packs based on RAID 5(7+1). 2.25 TBu incremental is possible with RAID 5(3+1) on PowerMax 2000.
7 Incremental capacity packs under RAID1 are 15.0TBu minimum.
Array family |
PowerMax 2000 |
PowerMax 8000 |
FRONT END AND SRDF I/O PROTOCOLS SUPPORTED |
||
32 Gb/s FC/FC-NVMe Host Ports |
||
Maximum/Brick |
32 |
321 |
Maximum/Array |
64 |
2561 |
32 Gb/s FC SRDF Ports |
||
Maximum/Brick |
32 |
321 |
Maximum/Array |
64 |
2561 |
16 Gb/s FC Host Ports |
||
Maximum/Brick |
32 |
321 |
Maximum/array |
64 |
2561 |
16 Gb/s FC SRDF Ports |
||
Maximum/Brick |
32 |
321 |
Maximum/array |
64 |
2561 |
16 Gb/s FICON Host Ports |
||
Maximum/Brick |
N/A |
321 |
Maximum/array |
N/A |
2561 |
10 GbE iSCSI Ports (Optical) |
||
Maximum/Brick |
32 |
321 |
Maximum/array |
64 |
2561 |
10 GbE SRDF Ports (Optical) |
||
Maximum/Brick |
32 |
321 |
Maximum/array |
64 |
2561 |
25 GbE iSCSI Ports (Optical) |
||
Maximum/Brick |
32 |
321 |
Maximum/array |
64 |
2561 |
25 GbE SRDF Ports (Optical) |
||
Maximum/Brick |
32 |
321 |
Maximum/array |
64 |
2561 |
EMBEDDED eNAS PORTS |
||
10 GbE Optical Ports |
||
Max ports/Software Data Mover |
4 |
4 |
Maximum ports/array |
16 |
32 |
10 GbE Copper Ports |
||
Max ports/Software Data Mover |
4 |
4 |
Maximum ports/array |
16 |
32 |
8 Gb/s FC Tape Back Up Ports |
||
Max ports/Software Data Mover |
2 |
2 |
Maximum ports/array |
8 |
16 |
1 Maximum number of ports/brick and maximum ports/array based on initial system sale as multi-brick. If system originates as a single brick, port counts will be reduced to a 24 per brick maximum and a 192 per array maximum.