05 Symmetrix Foundations (Compatibility Mode)

Copyright © 2009 EMC Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.
The objectives for this module are listed here. Please take a moment to review them.
Symmetrix Foundations - 1
The Symmetrix DMX series includes the Symmetrix DMX-4 950 and the Symmetrix DMX-4
models to meet a wide range of high-end requirements for scalability, performance, and cost.
DMX-4 models are ideal for high-end configurations that require performance and the scaling
capability to start as small as one Disk Adapter (DA) pair and 96 drives, and grow to a
maximum of 4 DA pairs and 2,400 disks. The incremental scalability that the Symmetrix DMX-
4 provides
id allows
ll you to
t meett your growth
th requirements
i t by
b adding
ddi Disk
Di k Adapters,
Ad t disk
di k
channels, and disk drives non-disruptively to the existing DMX frame. This enables true pay-as-
you-grow economics for high-growth storage environments. The Symmetrix DMX-4 950 is an
ideal entry point for high-end configurations requiring one DA pair and between 32 and 360
drives. The same functionality, storage interoperability, and operational efficiency is maintained
across the entire Symmetrix DMX series for the DMX user community. And, the DMX-4 950
supports both Open Systems and Mainframe connectivity.
connectivity
Key Feature - The massive scalability of Symmetrix is a key feature that enables customer to
reap the benefits of consolidation.
The Symmetrix V-Max family. It includes two options for scalability and growth. The V-Max
series scales from 48 to 2,400 disks and provide 2 Petabyte of usable protected capacity when
configuring all 1TB SATA disks. The V-Max SE scales from 48 to 360 disks and is intended for
smaller capacity needs that require Symmetrix performance, availability and functionality.
The V-Max system
y can support
pp upp to 8 high
g availability
y V-Max engines,
g , with 512GB’s of
protected, usable global memory. It provides support for Fibre Channel, iSCSI, Gigabit
Ethernet, and FICON connected hosts. Front end and back end connectivity has doubled over
the DMX-4 with up to 128 host ports and 128 disk channels. The V-Max also leverages 2.3
Gigahertz multi-core processors. The new Virtual Matrix provides the interconnect that enables
resources to be shared across all V-Max engines to enable massive scale out.
With this launch, EMC announces two variations of the Symmetrix V-Max Series with
Enginuity options: Symmetrix V-Max array, and the Symmetrix V-Max SE array.
The Symmetrix V-Max array may be configured with one to eight Engines. It contains two–16
Directors, 96-2,400 disk drives, and a maximum of 128 Fibre Channel Front End ports, 64
FICON pports,, or 64 GigE/iSCSI
g pports.
The Symmetrix V-Max SE array always consists of a single Engine with two Directors.
Depending on expansion bay configuration, the system contains 48-360 disk drives, 16 FC Front
End ports, eight FICON ports, and eight GigE/iSCSI ports.
Let’s summarize our architectural discussion by comparing the Symmetrix V-Max array with the
DMX-4 on various scalability metrics.
On the back end, while both systems can support up to 2400 drives, the Symmetrix V-Max array
offers twice the capacity more than 2 PB of usable space. This can be achieved using 2400 1-TB
SATA II drives in a RAID-6 14+2 configuration.
g The Symmetrix
y V-Max arrayy can also pprovide
better performance on the Back End, since it can be configured with twice as many Back End
ports.
Relative to the memory, the Symmetrix V-Max array can be configured with up to 472 GB of
usable cache.
Front End scalability has improved as well – for all three supported types of host interconnect,
and for remote replication connections.
This slide lists some key terms used to describe Symmetrix systems. Please take some time to
review them.
This slide shows some additional key terms used to describe Symmetrix systems. Please take
some time to review them.
As service levels for critical applications escalate exponentially over the next decade, so will
requirements for information availability and data integrity.
Symmetrix is the gold standard for mission-critical applications. It has proven itself time and
again, over twelve years, in the world’s most demanding environments, including the data
centers of the largest
g financial,, insurance and telecommunications companies.
p
Symmetrix was engineered to work flawlessly, to continue to run no matter what, and to be
serviced proactively and non-disruptively.
Symmetrix now raises the availability bar even higher with the world’s most advanced fault-
tolerant design featuring full redundancy, proactive monitoring and error detection and
correction.
The Symmetrix DMX systems feature a high-performance Direct Matrix Architecture (DMX)
supporting up to 128 point-to-point serial connections within the DMX system. Symmetrix
DMX technology is distributed across all channel directors, disk directors, and global memory
directors in Symmetrix DMX systems. The matrix mid-plane provides configuration flexibility
through the slot configuration. Each director slot port is hard-wired point-to-point to one port on
eachh global
l b l memory director
di t board.
b d TheTh elegance
l off this
thi architecture
hit t is
i simplicity,
i li it no custom t
ASICs to interface between Directors and Global Memory, Memory and Disk and Directors and
Hosts .. This translates into less potential for component failure, scalability is easy, just add more
connections and faster CPUs on Directors. No lengthy cycles producing and debugging ASICs
(Application Specific Integrated Circuits). The simplicity of Symmetrix along with support for
more hosts and operating systems makes it the right choice for customers today.
Compare - The Direct Matrix Architecture is a key differentiator for Symmetrix. CLARiiON is
uses dual-controllers and the UltraScale architecture, providing customers with choices with
regard to performance, scalability, and reliability.
Symmetrix DMX-4 is based on the proven Direct Matrix architecture, but with substantial
increases to communication line speeds and component counts. With point-point connections as
you can see in this diagram, we have eliminated potential bottlenecks, growth concerns and
performance by directly connecting the key components of the DMX including: Cache Memory,
Front-End Channel Directors and Back-End Disk Directors. The DMX architecture is easy to
scale
l by
b adding
ddi more physical
h i l connections
ti as opposedd to
t time-consuming
ti i ASICs
ASIC (A(Application
li ti
Specific Integrated Circuits) that require more time to design and debug.
The connections between the Channel Directors (CDs) and cache, and the Disk Directors (DDs)
and cache run at 1 GB/sec, up by a factor of 2 over the previous Symmetrix model family
(DMX-3). The number of processors per director has also been doubled; there are now 8
processors per director. In addition to increasing the number of processors, the processors speeds
have been increased to 1.3GHz, a bump of 30%. With each new Symmetrix, EMC’s
performance and capacity rise to new levels.
There are still four slices to each Channel Director and Disk Director, and each slice
incorporates two processors. The number of memory cards remains at 8, but the capacity of each
card has increased to 64GB of DDR memory, yielding 512 GB total memory.
Symmetrix V-Max Series with Enginuity is the first implementation of the Virtual Matrix architecture.
The Symmetrix V-Max system is built around a scalable interconnect based on redundant RapidIO®
fabrics. The current implementation uses two fabrics.
Engines represent the basic building blocks of a Symmetrix V-Max array. Each Engine contains a pair of
y
Symmetrix V-Max Directors. Each Director connects to both RapidIO®
p fabrics via Virtual Matrix
Interface ports.
This ensures that there is no single point of failure in the virtual interconnect.
A Symmetrix V-Max system may scale from one to eight engines. This provides a high degree of
flexibility and scalability. Shown is a logical view of a system that grows to the current maximum of eight
engines and 16 directors.
The design eliminates the need for separate interconnects for data, control, messaging, environmental and
system test. The dual highly-available interconnect suffices for all communications between the Directors,
thus reducing complexity.
RapidIO® is an industry-standard, packet-switched fabric architecture. It has been adopted in a variety of
applications including computer storage, automotive, digital signal processing and telecommunications. It
is important to note that the use of industry-standard RapidIO® fabrics represents just one instantiation of
part of the logical Virtual Matrix Architecture – i.e.
i e the communication mechanism for the Directors.
Directors By
itself, the Virtual Matrix Architecture can support any number of redundant fabrics, and any number of
switching elements per fabric. The use of two RapidIO® fabrics is a design choice that applies to the
current Symmetrix V-Max only – these are not restrictions imposed by the architecture.
This block diagram illustrates the interconnects between the various components within a
Symmetrix V-Max system. Also shown is the raw bandwidth limit for the current generation of
each interconnect. Of particular interest given the new distributed memory architecture is the
achievable aggregate bandwidth of the Virtual Matrix interconnect.
Data arrives on the left Front end I/O modules then is sent byy the two CPU to the SIB module
which transfers in serial mode to the Virtual matrix for storage.
Symmetrix V-Max array combines front end, back end and memory into a single director, reducing
cost and increasing performance.
As with all Symmetrix systems, the Global Memory is truly global in nature. In the Virtual Matrix
architecture, Global Memory is distributed across all directors. The Virtual Matrix allows access to
all Global Memoryy from all directors. Each director contributes a pportion of the total Global
Memory space. Memory on each director stores the Global Memory data structures including:
Common area, track tables and cache entries.
A distributed Global Memory means that from the viewpoint of a director, some Global Memory is
local and some resides with other directors. The Virtual Matrix Architecture allows direct access to
local parts of Global Memory. Access to Global Memory on other directors is by way of highly
available low-latency
available, low latency, high
high-speed
speed RapidIO® interconnect.
interconnect This Interconnect enables a director to
communicate with every other director. The Virtual Matrix Interconnect is a core logical construct of
the architecture, requiring some form of fabric-based, redundant mesh design in contrast to copper
etch on a single backplane. This form of interconnect ensures that the system can scale to large
numbers of directors. It also allows for directors to be dispersed geographically as the system grows
(in the future).
The Symmetrix V-Max system uses engine-based packaging containing front end, back end and
memory components. The Symmetrix V-Max system implements a virtual matrix interconnect,
enabled by a new version of Enginuity.
As the table shows, the new architecture enables significant increases in scalability. Scalability
has improved
p in all aspects:
p front end connectivity,
y, gglobal memory,
y, back end connectivityy and
usable capacity.
The Symmetrix DMX-4 System Bay has:

y Up to 12 channel directors
y Up to eight disk directors (combined total of directors is 16)
y Up to 512 GB global memory
y A 1µ Service Processor with KVM (keyboard,
(keyboard video
video, and mouse) and dedicated UPS
y Up to eight power supplies, each of which has:
− A dedicated 2.2-kilowatt standby power supply (SPS)
− Three cooling-fan assemblies, each containing three fans
− Two power zones with independent power cables, each zone capable of powering the
fully-configured system bay
The Symmetrix V-Max SE Series System Bay consists of a single V-Max Engine and eight drive
enclosures. The system bay for the Symmetrix V-Max array consists of one to eight V-Max Engines
(starting with Engine 4) and does not contain any drive enclosures. Both System Bays contain three
Standby Power Supply (SPS) trays, one Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS), a Matrix Interface
Board Enclosure (MIBE), and a Server (Service Processor) with Keyboard-Video-Mouse (KVM)
assembly.
assembly
DMX-4 configurations deliver scalable capacity and performance to consolidate systems,

applications, and/or hosts while maintaining high service levels. Base configurations are
composed of a system bay and independent storage.
The DMX-4 Storage Bay is configured for capacities of 120 or 240 disk drives. Each Symmetrix
drive bayy has redundant ppower supplies
pp with batteryy backups
p to provide
p standbyy power
p to
components and two power zones with independent power cables. Each zone is capable of
powering the fully-configured drive bay and can be populated with any combination of
available drives. Speaking of drives, always consult PowerLink or Channel Express to
determine the latest drive offerings from EMC.
The Channel Express Configuration provides the proper number of storage bays, based on drive
and RAID selections.
selections
The Symmetrix V-Max array Storage Bay is similar to the Storage Bay of the DMX-3 and DMX-4
systems. It consists of eight to sixteen Drive Enclosures, 48 to 240 drives, eight SPS modules, and
unique cabling when compared with the DMX Series. The Symmetrix V-Max array Storage Bay is
configured with capacities of up to 120 disk drives for a half populated bay or 240 disk drives for a
fully populated bay. Drives, LCCs, power supplies, and blower modules are fully redundant and hot
swappable.
swappable
There are two dimensions to DMX-4 scalability: adding capacity by increasing the length of
existing drive loops or adding more DA pairs to scale capacity and performance.
Each disk director pair has eight redundant FC drive loops –supporting up to 480 drives. For
example, if a system were to be configured with 30 drive loops in quadrants 1 and 2, capacity
could be increased byy addingg one or two storage
g Bays,
y , 3A and 4A,, and increasing
g the loop
p
lengths to 45 or 60 drives per loop.
The only exception to this is the single DA pair where the maximum number of drives is 240. If
the starting system was a three DA pair configuration, DAs 6 and 11 could be added, increasing
back-end processing power and enabling an additional 8 drive loops in quadrant 4.
The Symmetrix DMX-4 series offers the ultimate in flexible scaling to allow independent
growth of performance and capacity to meet workload requirements.
As an example, a two-DA pair system with 240 drives could grow to 360 drives simply with the
addition of another drive bay. Or, if there are high workloads on the initial 240 drives, the most
appropriate way to build out the system might be to add one or more additional DA pairs to
support additional workloads, scaling performance upward as capacity increases.
A fully loaded system – either Symmetrix V-Max system or DMX-4 – can accommodate up to
2400 disk drives, requiring 10 storage bays and one system bay.
The Symmetrix V-Max system with up to twice as many Back End ports requires shorter daisy
chains on the Back End.
With the
th doubling
d bli in i the
th number
b off Director-pairs
Di t i relative
l ti to
t earlier
li models
d l – 8 instead
i t d off 4 –
we now have the notion of octants. The drive enclosures behind a given Director-pair constitute
one octant. This is conceptually similar to drive quadrants in a DMX-4 system.
Unified Directors can hold different emulations depending on Mezzanine cards in use and can
be configured to support various interfaces.
The Symmetrix DMX-4 global memory director technology is one of the most crucial
components of a Symmetrix system.
The DMX-4 uses global memory directors that use industry-standard Double Data Rate
Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR SDRAM), the latest generation of DDR
SDRAM chip technology. All read and write operations transfer data to or from global memory.
Any transfers between the host processor, channel directors, and global memory directors are
achieved at much greater electronic speeds than transfers involving disks.
The DMX-4 global memory directors work in pairs. The hardware writes to the primary global
memory director first, and then automatically writes data to the secondary global memory
director. All reads are from the primary memory director. Upon a primary or secondary global
memory director failure, all directors drop the failed global memory director and switch to a
non-dual
d l write
it mode.
d Striping
St i i between
b t global
l b l memory directors
di t is i default.
d f lt
Each Symmetrix DMX-4 global memory director accommodates four separately addressable,
simultaneously accessible memory regions, which greatly reduces the probability of contention
for global memory access.
Each global memory director has 16 ports with point-to-point serial connections between the
global memory director and channel or disk directors (16 directors) through the direct matrix.
Each memory director port consists of a pair of full-duplex serial links—two serial links out
(TX) and two serial links in (RX).
Each of the eight director ports on the 16 directors connect to one of the 16 memory ports on
each of the eight global memory directors.
These 128 individual point-to-point connections facilitate up to 128 concurrent cache
operations in the system.
The Symmetrix
Th S t i DMX systemt can supportt up tot eight
i ht slots
l t in
i the
th mid-plane
id l dedicated
d di t d to
t global
l b l
memory and 512 GB of global memory (256 GB effective) global memory. Individual global
memory directors are available in 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB sizes.
When configuring global memory for the Symmetrix DMX systems follow these guidelines:
• Very large eight disk director configurations may be limited or restricted by currently available
Symmetrix DMX-4 maximum memory. memory
• Global memory directors can be added to the DMX-4 not to exceed the maximum designed for
the system’s configuration.
• Global memory directors must be configured in pairs of the same capacity.
Let’s take a closer look inside a Symmetrix V-Max Engine, and make some comparisons with DMX-4.
A Symmetrix Engine combines the front end, back end, and memory directors of a Symmetrix DMX system
into a single component. A single engine combines host ports, memory, and disk channels. It is configured to
provide highly available access to drives, as each Director is the primary initiator to ½ the connected disks,
and the alternate for the other ½.
In addition, the new Symmetrix provides twice as many host ports with up to 128 per system and is capable of
supporting thousands of physical and virtual server connections combining Fibre Channel, iSCSI, FICON, and
ESCON support.
The system also supports twice as many back end connections with up to 128 Point to Point Fibre Channel
ports. Twenty-four hundred disks are supported at general availability, and Enterprise Flash Drives, Fibre
Channel and SATA disks can be configured with a total usable protected capacity of over 2 PB in a single
system.
The new Directors introduce support for Multi-core processors that provide a significant increase in processing
power within a smaller footprint that can deliver up to 2X more system performance.
Because 5GB of local memory is reserved by each Director for control store & buffers, the total amount of
Global Cache is up to 944 GB of Global Memory, or 472 GB mirrored, protected memory. Global cache and
CPU complexes are redundant across each Director and allows resources to be dynamically accessed and
shared.
The new Virtual Matrix interface connects resources within and across Engines to share system resources. At
general availability, up to eight engines can be combined to provide massive scalability in a single system.
This illustrates the layer levels of Enginuity and their functionality:

At the top of the layers is the Host communication point to the Symmetrix, at the bottom is the
actual Symmetrix hardware components, such as memory and directors.
EMC’s solution enabler APIs are the storage management programming interfaces that provide
an access mechanism
h i for f managingi the
th SSymmetrix,
t i thi
third-party
d t storage,
t switches,
it h andd host
h t
storage resources. They enable the creation of storage management applications that don’t have
to understand the management details of each piece within the total storage environment.
Symmetrix systems support platform software applications for data migration, replication,
integration and more.
At the core of all Symmetrix DMX systems is EMC Enginuity, the industry's most proven,
innovative storage operating environment. It enables consistency across generations of
hardware, and leverages new technologies. An operating environment tied to a time-proven
architecture is an operating environment that has captured, retained, and built on an existing and
proven code base.
Enginuity is the software component which enables all of the advanced storage capabilities that
Symmetrix provides, including performance optimization, quality-of-service management, and
cache striping.
The maturity of Enginuity, along with the innovative use of new technology, allows it to support
a wide range of connectivity on both Mainframe and Open Systems.
Enginuity is built for speed. It includes a number of intelligent algorithms to manage interface,
cache, and drive usage, providing Symmetrix with its industry-leading performance.
Even thought it is built for speed, Enginuity certainly is not lacking when it comes to the safety
of your data. It provides a plethora of features geared toward ensuring the integrity, availability,
and securityy of yyour data.
The numbers that define an Enginuity level have specific meaning. In this example, the 58
represents the V-MAX hardware, 75 is the microcode family, 121 is the field release level to the
microcode, and 102 is the field release to the service processor code.
Non-disruptive microcode upgrade and load capabilities are currently available for the
Symmetrix.
y
The objectives for this lesson are shown here. Please take a moment to read them.
In a Read hit operation, the requested data resides in global memory. The channel director
transfers the requested data through the channel interface to the host and updates the global
memory directory. Since the data is in global memory, there are no mechanical delays due to
seek and latency.
In a read miss operation,
p , the requested
q data is not in global
g memoryy and must be retrieved from
a disk device. While the channel director creates space in the global memory, the disk director
reads the data from the disk device. The disk director stores the data in global memory and
updates the directory table. The channel director then reconnects with the host and transfers the
data. Because the data is not in global memory, the Symmetrix system must search for data on
the disk and then transfer it to the channel adding seek and latency times to the operation.
A fast write occurs when the percentage of modified data in global memory is less than the fast
write threshold. On a host write command, the channel director places the incoming block(s)
directly into global memory. For fast write operations, the channel director stores the data in
global memory and sends a “channel end” and “device end” to the host computer. The disk
director then asynchronously de-stages the data from global memory to the disk device.
A delayed fast write occurs only when the fast write threshold has been exceeded. That is, the
percentage of global memory containing modified data is higher than the fast write threshold. If
this situation occurs, the Symmetrix system disconnects the channel directors from the channels.
When sufficient global memory space is available, the channel directors reconnect to their
channels and process the host I/O request as a fast write.
As cache size, disk size, and power requirements continue to increase, the time required to de-
stage data also increases.
Power Vault was designed to limit the time necessary to de-stage data and power off the
Symmetrix system while on battery power.
Power vault
P lt de-stages
d t Global
Gl b l Memory
M to
t specific
ifi Vault
V lt Devices
D i on power down.
d Then
Th on
power up, it restores the image to Global Memory.
Five GB on each of the first four drives on every drive loop is reserved for memory vaulting.
The total capacity of all vault hypervolumes must be sufficient to keep two logical copies of the
persistent part of global memory.
When configuring the Symmetrix there are different types of Hyper devices that can be
configured. For example:
y Standard devices (STD) are configured for normal production operations

y Business Continuance (BCV) devices are configured for TimeFinder/Mirror replication
y Virtual Devices (VDEV) are configured for TimeFinder/SNAP local pointer-based
replication
y Dynamic Reallocation Volumes (DRV) devices are configured Symmetrix Optimizer hyper
re-location
y Thin devices are virtual cache-only devices that can grow in capacity
y Save Devices are configured for TimeFinder/SNAP and/or Thin devices
y R1 and R2 for Remote replication
Symmetrix physical drives are split into logical hyper volumes. Hyper volumes are then defined
as Symmetrix Logical Volumes and internally labeled with hexadecimal identifiers. A
Symmetrix logical volume is the drive entity presented to a host via a Symmetrix channel
director port. As far as the host is concerned, the Symmetrix Logical volume is a physical drive.
Do not confuse Symmetrix
y Logical
g Volumes with host-based logical
g volumes. Symmetrix
y
Logical Volumes are defined by the Symmetrix Configuration while Host-based logical are
configured by customers through Logical Volume Manager software. A hyper volume could be
used as an unprotected Symmetrix logical volume, a mirror of another hyper volume, a member
of a Symmetrix Meta LUN, a Business Continuance Volume (BCV), a member for Parity RAID,
a remote mirror using SRDF, a Drive Reallocation Volume (DRV), and more.
Symmetrix arrays support open systems, main frame, and iSeries logical volume types. Each
system type uses a different size block. Open systems use the Fixed Block Architecture (FBA),
which is a 512 byte block. Mainframes require Count Key Data (CKD) format, which uses a
57KB track size. iSeries systems store data using a 520 byte block size.
Symmetrix
y DMX-4 arrays y store FBA,, CKD,, and iSeries data in cache usingg their native block
size. When destaging data to drives, DMX-4 uses 512 byte blocks for FBA and CKD data, and
520 byte blocks for iSeries data.
With V-Max, each 512-byte data block (520-byte for iSeries systems) is now digitally signed
with an 8-byte data-integrity field using an algorithm based on the T10-DIF standard proposal.
These additional bytes are appended to each 512-byte block on writes as the data enters the
array and verified on every read – in fact
array, fact, it is verified every time the data is moved within the
system!. The bytes include not only a strong CRC, but also referential information that specifies
the LBA and generation of the data block. Enginuity uses this info to validate that the content of
the block hasn't changed, and that it is indeed the block of data from the requested LBA (just in
case the drive returned the wrong block of data). And in addition to this, Enginuity also keeps
separate check bits on track tables, which are stored separately from the data and the block
CRC,, as a belt-and-suspenders
p approach
pp to ensuringg data integrity.
g y
The best possible performance is only achieved if all the resources within the system are being
equally utilized. Through careful planning the best performance can be achieved. Planning
starts with understanding the host and application requirements.
Within the Symmetrix bin file, the emulation type, size in cylinders, count, number of mirrors,
and special
p flags
g (like
( BCV,, DRV,, Dynamic
y Spare)
p ) are defined. Each Symmetrix
y logical
g volume
is assigned a hexadecimal identifier. The bin file also tells the Channel director which volumes
are presented on which port, and the address used to access it.
From the Host’s perspective, when a device discovery process occurs, the information provided
back to the Operating System appears to be referencing a series of drives. The host is unaware of
the bin file, RAID protection, remote mirroring, BCV mirrors, dynamic sparing, etc. In other
words the host “thinks
words, thinks it
it’ss getting”
getting an entire physical drive.
drive
RAID 6 is an ideal protection option for high-capacity drives, such as the low-cost Fibre
Channel drives, where, due to the performance and capacity of these drives, the RAID rebuild
times can become elongated. RAID 6 minimizes the data-loss exposure in the event of a dual-
drive failure in the same RAID group. Only EMC offers support for both RAID 6 and low-cost
Fibre Channel drives in the same system, which ensures a low-cost, but high-availability
enterprise
t i offering.
ff i
RAID 6 provides an option with higher resiliency that can sustain two simultaneous drive
failures within the same RAID group without downtime or data loss. RAID 6 support adds a
second, independent, distributed-parity scheme. Data and parity are striped on a block level
across multiple drives, similar to striped RAID 5 technology. RAID 6 is supported in 6+2 and
14+2 configurations. RAID 6 (6+2) has the same useable capacity as RAID 5 (3+1), and RAID 6
(14+2) has the same useable capacity as RAID 5 (7+1).
Symmetrix systems have Dynamic Sparing data protection that reserves volumes as standby
spares. These volumes are not user-addressable.
The Dynamic Sparing function determines when a logical volume is about to fail, and copies the
contents of the disk device on which that volume resides to an available spare without any
interruption
p in processing.
p g The Symmetrix
y system
y notifies the EMC Customer Support
pp Center of
this event with an Environmental-Data Present error, and then uses the spare until the device can
be replaced.
Within the Symmetrix, each logical volume is represented by four mirror positions – M1, M2,
M3, and M4. These Mirror Positions are actually data structures that point to a physical location
of a data mirror and the status of each track of data. Each position either represents a mirror or is
unused. For example, an unprotected volume will only use the M1 position to point to the only
data copy. ON a DMX system, a RAID-1 protected volume will use the M1 and M2 positions.
If thi
this volume
l was also
l protected
t t d with
ith SRDF
SRDF, three
th mirror
i positions
iti wouldld be
b used,
d andd if we
add a BCV to this SRDF protected RAID-1 volume, all four mirror positions would be used.
RAID Virtual Architecture implemented with Enginuity 5874 is the new method for handling device
mirror position usage and is based on the RAID 6 architecture introduced in the previous release.
First, lets take a look at how mirror position usage is handled in a pre-5874 Symmetrix array. One
fairly typical configuration is a mirrored device that is also SRDF protected. This configuration
g In
leaves one mirror position available for operations such as TimeFinder Mirror, or hot sparing.
cases where Concurrent SRDF is implemented, for example against a mirrored device, you are left
with no available mirror positions. With this configuration you cannot use TimeFinder mirror or hot
sparing. The RAID virtual architecture in Enginuity 5874 expands on the mirror positioning
handling implemented with RAID 6. Now, a mirror position holds a logical representation of a
RAID group rather than a device resulting in additional free mirror positions. Our initial example of
a mirrored device with SRDF no longer has two data devices consuming two mirror positions.
Insteadd the
h RAID 1 group occupies i one mirror
i position
i i withi h the
h SRDF protection
i occupyingi a
second position. This frees two mirror positions for other operations. Let’s take a look at how this
new architecture changes our concurrent SRDF example. Again, the two data devices are replaced
by the RAID group representation with each RDF device occupying additional mirror positions.
This frees up one mirror position giving the customer more flexibility. Virtualizing the RAID
Architecture is an enabling technology for Symmetrix to implement other features, such as VLUN
migration
migration.
Keep in mind that RVA does not introduce new RAID protection levels. Also, be aware that the
optimizer swap process and definition of RAID groups are under RVA architecture and the historical
flags for Maintain RAID Groups, and Maintain Mirrors, are no longer required.
To support the new distributed Global Memory implementation, Symmetrix V-Max systems use a
store-and-forward (S&F) architecture. In this version of the microcode, all I/O is completed from the
local S&F buffer, and then is moved to the relevant Global Memory space. Note that since Global
Memory is distributed, the relevant Global Memory space may reside either on the Director that
received the I/O, or on a different Director.
With this in mind, let us consider the various possible data flow scenarios when a host performs an
I/O request to a Symmetrix Logical Volume in this version of Enginuity. In our simplified
representation of a Director in these diagrams, we view the shared memory space as consisting of
three main sections: Global Memory, Store-and-Forward (S&F) Buffer, and Control Store. Control
Store is private memory reserved for control purposes such as hosting the microcode.
Our first example here is very simple: We get a read cache hit, and the relevant cache slot is on the
same Director. The read request from the host experiences a cache hit in a local Global Memory
slot; the CPU moves data from Global Memory to the Store and Forward buffer; and the I/O device
moves data from the Store and Forward buffer to the host.
In this simplest of cases, there is no traffic generated on the RapidIO® fabrics since all activity is
local to one Director.
In our second example, let’s again consider a read cache hit.

But this time, the relevant cache slot is on a different Director from the one which provides Front
End connectivity to the host.
As before, the process starts with: a read request from the host experiences a cache hit in the remote
Global Memory slot (within Director 2 in our picture);
Next, the CPU moves data across one of the RapidIO® fabrics from remote Global Memory in
Director 2, to the local Store and Forward buffer in Director 1; and finally, the I/O device moves data
from the Store and Forward buffer to the host.
Our third example considers the general case of a read cache miss, with three Directors involved:
Director 1 where the host is connected; Director 2 which hosts the cache slot in Global Memory for
the I/O block involved in the read request; and Director 3 which services the disks requiring I/O
activity due to this cache miss.
The sequence begins with the host issuing the read request,
request and experiencing a Read Miss on
Director 1. The cache slot happens to be allocated on Director 2 in this case – note that any Director
may be selected for this purpose. Data is read from disk on Director 3 into the Store and Forward
buffer on Director 3; moved over the RapidIO® fabric to the allocated cache slot on Director 2;
moved over the RapidIO® fabric to the Store and Forward buffer on Director 1; and finally
moved to the host which is connected to Director 1.
Our final example deals with the general case of a write I/O request to a Symmetrix Logical Volume.
Up to four Directors may be involved in the processing of this request.
In our example, Director 1 provides the front-end connection to the host, Directors 2 and 3 host the
mirrored cache slots for the particular I/O block of interest, and Director 4 provides the back-end
g from cache.
connection to the disk drives to which data must be destaged
Now let’s look at the data flow for a write in this general case.
The write request is sent from the host to Director 1, and the data is placed in the Store and Forward
buffer on Director 1.
In this particular case, the cache slots happen to be allocated on Directors 2 and 3.
Next, data
d gets movedd across theh RapidIO®
id fabric
f b i to the
h allocated
ll d cache
h slot
l on Director
i 2; movedd
across the RapidIO® fabric to the allocated cache slot on Director 3; read across the fabric into the
Store and Forward buffer on Director 4; and finally, destaged to disks on Director 4.
The objectives for this lesson are shown here. Please take a moment to review them.
ControlCenter is a complete set of storage management tools. The ControlCenter family delivers
storage resource management (SRM) that simplifies and automates such tasks as reporting,
planning, and provisioning for the large, complex information infrastructures including SAN,
NAS, DAS, and CAS.
As new Agents
g are integrated
g or enhanced,, theyy are seamlessly
y integrated
g into the existing
g
environment. The storage environment can be managed from end to end with one tool. This is
the base functionality of ControlCenter.
Due to the interoperability of the architecture and the centralized storage of configuration
information, ControlCenter allows IT organizations to manage the service they provide, not just
the infrastructure they have.
Symmetrix Manager provides:

y A consolidated view of Symmetrix platforms
y Real-time performance reporting
y Extensive windowing capabilities for display of multiple systems
y Automated discovery,
discovery monitoring,
monitoring configuration
configuration, and provisioning
y Alert management for Symmetrix systems down to the component level
SYMCLI resides on a host system to monitor and perform control operations on Symmetrix
arrays. SYMCLI commands are invoked from the host operating system command line (shell).
The SYMCLI commands are built on top of SYMAPI library functions, which use system calls
that generate low-level I/O SCSI commands to the storage arrays.
T reduce
To d the
th number
b off inquiries
i i i from
f the
th host
h t to
t the
th storage
t arrays, configuration
fi ti andd status
t t
information is maintained in a Symmetrix host database file (called the Symmetrix configuration
database; symapi_db.bin by default).
The target storage environments are typically Symmetrix®-based though some features are
supported for CLARiiON® arrays as well.
For users of the Symmetrix—the most widely deployed high-end storage system—Symmetrix
Management Console provides intuitive, browser-based device management. EMC Symmetrix
Management Console (SMC) is an intuitive, browser-based graphical interface for managing
EMC Symmetrix systems. SMC is a key component of the EMC storage system management
software portfolio which also includes EMC ControlCenter and EMC z/OS Storage Manager.
Symmetrix Management Console:
y Provides full management control of individual Symmetrix systems for those environments
that do not need advanced Storage Resource Management capabilities, or for those that
simply need a lightweight graphical interface to complement their SRM infrastructure.
y Reduces the complexities associated with a command-line interface for system management,
enabling to manage the Symmetrix system more efficiently and effectively.
effectively This will help to
improve staff productivity and maximize utilization of the system resources, while reducing
access time to the critical business information.
Starting with Enginuity 5874, Symmetrix Management Console can be accessed directly via the
service processor of a Symmetrix V-Max system. By joining the service processor to the
corporate network, storage administrators will have immediate access to SMC from anywhere
in the enterprise. Communication to the service processor must occur over a secure HTTPS
connection. This support for out of band management reduces TCO by eliminating the need for
th customer
the t tto purchase
h an additional
dditi l server to
t manage the
th Symmetrix
S t i with
ith SMC and/or
d/ SMI-
SMI
S Providers. Note, however, that a traditional implementation via installing SMC provider on a
dedicated host continues to be supported.
With this new implementation, there are two ways to login to SMC:
• As a customer, with the default SMC username/password (this may be changed from the
default at the customer
customer'ss discretion); or
• As EMC/Partner Customer Service Engineer, with RSA credentials.
Symmetrix Optimizer automatically tunes—monitors, analyzes, and migrates—logical volumes

to maintain optimal performance, with no disruptions to applications or users.
Symmetrix Optimizer’s load-balancing automation technology analyzes volume activity to
identify hot and cold logical volumes for swaps, then automates the time-consuming tasks of
back-end load-balancingg and drive pperformance-tuning.
g
Symmetrix Performance Manager is a performance monitoring software tool. No other

performance-analysis tool on the market allows users to analyze Symmetrix, CLARiiON,
Celerra, and HDS performance with the ease offered by Performance Manager. Its unique
architecture gives users complete control over data collection and flexibility in data analysis.
With Performance Manager,
g , it is ppossible to:
y Boost productivity with the software’s extensive automation capability
y Exceed service levels by pinpointing issues and needs in performance, implementation, and
capacity planning
y Plan performance growth based on analysis of key performance variables
y Use the output to optimize SAN, Symmetrix, and CLARiiON performance—and to manage
changes
h i configuration
in fi ti
StorageScope manages the tiered storage in the context of the business. With this product, users
can view usage and asset configuration automatically, making it easier to identify opportunities
to reclaim and reallocate storage capacity. ControlCenter StorageScope also gives access to
automated trending analysis and forecasting graphs.
The pproactive management
g of StorageScope
g p File Level Reporter
p allows you
y to reclaim storage
g
capacity stage data to less expensive disk, and compress data files.
This slide contains the objectives for this lesson. Please take a moment to read them.
By utilizing role-based access control (RBAC), and verifying identity for remote users, the SE
software supports accountability, which in turn contributes to compliance monitoring and
auditing. The principle of “least privilege” states that any person (or process or system) should
only be given the privileges to perform the actions needed to do their job, and no more.
Solutions Enabler/Symmetrix
y Management
g Console defines the followingg roles.
y Monitor — Able to perform read-only (passive) operations on a Symmetrix array excluding
the ability to read the audit log or Access Control definitions.
y StorageAdmin — Able to perform all management (active, or control,) operations on a
Symmetrix array and modify GNS group definitions in addition to all Monitor operations.
y Admin — Able to perform all operations on a Symmetrix array, including security
operations in addition to all Monitor operations
operations.
y SecurityAdmin — Able to perform security operations on a Symmetrix array in addition to
all Monitor operations.
y Auditor — Grants the ability to view, but not modify, security settings for a Symmetrix array
(including reading the audit log, symacl list, and symauth) in addition to all Monitor
operations. This is the minimum role required to view the Symmetrix audit log.
The Symmetrix Management Console utility leverage the new capabilities provided by Solution
Enabler. Additionally, the Management Console also offers management of the Symmetrix
Access Control facility. All communication between the client and the Symmetrix is protected
by SSL encryption.
Symacl provides host-based (not user-based) access control. Hosts are authenticated; when
enabled, symacl can restrict access by unauthorized hosts. Note that when initialized, all
permissions are granted to all hosts; this allows gradual implementation of an Access Control
Policy by permitting older hosts and applications to continue as before.
Symacl
y restricts Symmetrix
y control functions,, not the data path
p between hosts and storage
g
nodes. Permissions may be specified for all or a subset of Symmetrix devices.
What can you do with symacl?
•List Access Control entries, access pools, access groups
•Show state of the Access Control environment
•Verify contents of command files for correct syntax
•Check command files for appropriateness of the requested Access Control entry against the
current state
•Commit commands to the Access Control database
•Back-upp the Access Control database
•Restore the contents of the Access Control database
The combination of the symacl and symauth facilities permit access control to the Symmetrix by
host identity or by user identity. Either, both, or none of these capabilities can be enabled.
Symacl allows hosts to be assigned to a access group. Devices on a given Symmetrix are
assigned to device groups. Particular access permissions can be established for a particular
access ggroupp and a given
g device group.
g p
The default state for symacl is to allow all commands from all hosts.
The Symmetrix storage device restricts access to data via two mechanisms. First is LUN
masking: the Symmetrix creates a mapping between various hosts (based on WWNs) and the
LUNs that are visible on that devices FA. Not all hosts are able to see all LUNs; if the mapping
is not present, the I/O request is refused.
Secondly,
y, S_ID lockdown pprevents a server from accessingg an arrayy from a different fabric
switch port than what the server originally connected to the fabric. When this capability is
enabled, the Symmetrix creates a mapping in the Volume Configuration Management Database
(VCMDB) that records the host WWN and the Fibre-Channel ID (FCID) for that device. Any
frame that subsequently arrives at the storage array must contain that same WWN/FCID pair;
otherwise, the frame is dropped.
These mechanisms provide enhanced access control based on WWN above and beyond what is
available solely in the switch fabric, as well as preventing unauthorized access based on WWN
spoofing.
Certified Data Erasure is a Symmetrix service to securely erase a given drive prior to taking that
drive out of service. The procedure to erase the data meets the requirements of DoD
specification 5220.22-M (1995). This specification indicates how many times data on the drive
must be overwritten, and with which kinds of data. Data from drives that have been subject to
this procedure is deemed to be unrecoverable.
This procedure supports data confidentiality, since the data cannot be retrieved following this
procedure.
Symmetrix Security Credentials, powered by RSA, provides a highly secure method of

accessing the storage device. Service credentials apply to both console login and to remote
access via the EMC Secure Remote Support (ESRS) gateway.
The combination of user ID, role, device ID, and time window of operation provides a “short-
lived” credential that cannot be reused to ggain management
g control of the device at some future
time. This capability supports accountability. Because actions are also recorded in the tamper-
proof audit log, the combination of capabilities means that we have high assurance that not only
are activities being performed correctly but also provide proof of compliance.
The Symmetrix Secure Audit Log is newly available in Enginuity 5772 code release. The log
records host-initiated actions, physical component changes, actions on the service processor, and
attempts blocked by security controls. As a security measure, event log contents cannot be
altered, and only authorized users (users in the auditor role) can retrieve log contents. Note that
the log file rewrites itself after 40MB capacity limit is reached, so data must be captured
externally
t ll if one wishes
i h to t recordd data
d t beyond
b d the
th 40MB limit.
li it
The EMC Multi-protocol and GigE IPv4/6 Channel Directors provide support for the latest
network protocol standards by integrating IPSec and IPv6. IPSec is a security protocol that
encapsulates the entire IP packet over a network between two hardware endpoints. IPsec is
integrated into the IPv6 protocol, and is an additional protocol with IPv4. It provides a standard
means of authenticating and encrypting data sent over IP network connections, and reduces the
security
it risks
i k associated
i t d with
ith transmitting
t itti data
d t over IP networks,
t k since
i it can provide
id access
control, connectionless integrity, data origin authentication, detection and rejection of replays,
confidentiality (via encryption), and limited traffic flow confidentiality.
An embedded line-grade encryption co-processor provides strong security without degrading

performance. Session-based encryption keys simplify management while maintaining security
for data in transit.
IPSec can be used with Symmetrix arrays connected via RDF over GigE. This feature is
supported
pp both on IPv4 and IPv6 networks. Support
pp for IPv6 alongside
g IPv4 allows customers to
integrate Symmetrix DMX-4 arrays into their next generation networks when they are deployed.
Customers can effectively manage Symmetrix communication and encryption with Symmetrix
Management Console (SMC) or SYMCLI. Either SMC and SYMCLI can be used to manage
IPv6 settings for front end GigE directors
These are the key points covered in this module. Please take a moment to review them.

05 Symmetrix Foundations (Compatibility Mode)

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The Symmetrix DMX-4 System Bay has:

DMX-4 configurations deliver scalable capacity and performance to consolidate systems,

This illustrates the layer levels of Enginuity and their functionality:

y Standard devices (STD) are configured for normal production operations

In our second example, let’s again consider a read cache hit.

Symmetrix Manager provides:

Symmetrix Optimizer automatically tunes—monitors, analyzes, and migrates—logical volumes

Symmetrix Performance Manager is a performance monitoring software tool. No other

Symmetrix Security Credentials, powered by RSA, provides a highly secure method of

An embedded line-grade encryption co-processor provides strong security without degrading

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