HP StorageWorks 4400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA4400) performance white paper
Introduction..... 2 Sizing up performance numbers... 2 End-to-end performance numbers... 3 Cache performance numbers.... 3 EVA4400 performance summary.... 3 EVA4400 and EVA4100 differentiation... 4 Experimental setup description.... 4 Measurement criteria.... 4 Measurement results.... 5 Conclusion..... 9 For more information.... 10

Introduction

The HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) product family offers midsize to enterprise size customers leading performance, high capacity, and high-availability storage solutions for reducing IT costs and complexity. The EVA provides virtualized storage enabling capacity pooling, simplified management, automatic performance load balancing, dynamic configuration, and re-configuration. Continuing to build on this success is the HP StorageWorks 4400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA4400). Engineering advancements have enabled substantial real-world performance improvements over the HP StorageWorks 4100 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA4100). The EVA4400s increased levels of sequential performance provide customers with improved data transfer rates for applications such as data warehousing, streaming video, high-performance technical computing, and backups and restores. In random workloads, the EVA4400 performance scales up to the maximum number of disk drives supported. Customers will have the predictability they need to choose configurations that best match actual business conditions. Increased random workload performance translates into better throughputs and response times for applications such as files systems, transaction-orientated databases, and email. This white paper provides a high-level overview of the: Importance and differences related to cache and end-to-end performance numbers Performance summary associated with the EVA4400
Sizing up performance numbers
The HP StorageWorks research and development (R&D) philosophy embodies two important tenets: Create products that deliver value and quality to the customer. (This tenet guides HP decisionmaking for deploying cutting-edge technology.) Build trust by using testing procedures that, within normal engineering constraints, customers can verify and repeat at their place of business. (Many HP customers refer to HP as their trusted advisor, and have bet their business on HP technology. HP enables customers to substantiate any claims by using test procedures that customers can repeat and verify at their site.) When reporting performance numbers for an array, HP has found that the most useful numbers for customers are those associated with workload configuration and other characteristics that reflect actual business conditions. For the purposes of this paper, HP refers to the performance numbers that exercise both the normal data path and the normal code path as end-to-end performance numbers. A normal data path includes the arrays Fibre Channel connections to servers, cache, internal buses, and disk drives. The normal code path includes software or firmware that moves user data between its disk drives and the servers that connect to the array. Cache performance numbers are those obtained from 100% cache-only accesses.
End-to-end performance numbers
End-to-end performance numbers reflect typical data and code paths used in a customer situation. These numbers are an excellent choice for capacity planning when obtained under two additional engineering constraints. First, when evaluating performance under random workloads, HP recommends using uniform probability to access most, if not all, usable array capacity. This measurement is more accurate than short-stroking (destroking), a configuration that allows the disk to access only a small fraction of the drives capacity, thus enhancing performance numbers. Measuring performance by accessing all of an arrays capacity leads to sizing estimates that will not become obsolete over time as the customer consumes more of the arrays capacity. The second constraint applies to the recognition from HP that response times are very important to customers and their business applications. HP publishes end-to-end throughputs at average response times of 30 milliseconds or less. Because cache numbers are not useful in this context, HP does not apply this constraint to cache-only measurements. HP best practices recommend using end-to-end performance numbers for capacity planning because they are: Measurements that can be used for sizing in a real-life business condition Easy to verify at the customer site using a reasonable black box approach by eliminating bottlenecks outside the array and balancing the load across an arrays controllers and host ports End-to-end performance numbers provide customers with the best data to determine which array configuration makes the best business, technical, and financial sense.

Cache performance numbers
Cache performance numbers register the largest throughput numbers possible with an array but do not reflect use under normal business conditions, diluting their usefulness for capacity planning. Such cache-only workloads place a lighter load on an arrays internal buses than would exist at a customer site. Exercising only a part of an arrays data and code paths does not reflect actual response times or latencies that normally occur because the cache-only data path is shorter than the normal data path. Typically, these are the paths used when 100% of all I/O requests are satisfied from the arrays cache. Cache performance numbers are unsustainable in day-to-day operations, though exceptions will occur momentarily and show up as short-lived transients. Cache serves as an intermediary between the servers and the disk drives. When viewed separately, cache performance numbers provide an artificial view of an arrays performance capabilities. What is most important about cache performance is the interaction of the cache with a disk arrays disk drives. Because disk overload is a possible consequence of using cache performance numbers for capacity planning, HP best practices do not recommend this measurement.
EVA4400 performance summary
The HP EVA4400 offers real-world performance at a higher level than the EVA4100 and is more affordable. With the EVA4400, HP engineers aimed to lower the customers total cost of ownership (TCO) while delivering more capacity and better performanceall within the context of the existing EVA enterprise-class functionality. The vast majority of customers use EVA arrays for two classes of workloads: large block sequential and small block random. The EVA4400 achieves improved sequential performance levels and at a
reduced cost and complexity. With respect to random workloads, the performance of the EVA4400 scales with the number of its disk drives, allowing customers to choose configurations that best meet their needs. The elevated levels of sequential performance provides customers improved data transfer rates for applications such as data warehousing, streaming video, high-performance technical computing, and backups and restores. Increased random workload performance translates into better throughputs and response times for applications such as filesystems, transaction-orientated databases, and email. The following two tables display the difference between the EVA4400 and its predecessor, the EVA4100. HP measured each array with the maximum number of drives supported (56 drives on the EVA4100 and 96 drives on the EVA4400). The random workload performance of the EVA4400 is approximately twice that because of the increased number of disk drives coupled with increased controller capability. The gain in internal controller bandwidth of the EVA4400 accounts for the marked improvement under the large block sequential workloads.
EVA4400 and EVA4100 differentiation

Table 1. End-to-end performance @ <= 30 ms average response time Workload Random Reads IOPs Random Writes IOPS Random Writes IOPs Sequential Reads MB/s RAID 1 Sequential Writes MB/s RAID 5 Sequential Writes MB/s VRAID level Any RAID 1 RAID 5 Any RAID 1 RAID 5 EVA4100 (56 drives) 13,800 7,300 4,EVA4400 (96 drives) 26,000 12,000 7,375 550
Table 2. Cache performance* Workload Small Reads (IOPs) Large Reads (MB/s) EVA4100 > 154,000 1,385 EVA4400 > 140,000 1550
*Cache performance numbers register the largest throughput numbers possible with an array but do not reflect use under normal business conditions, diluting their usefulness for capacity planning.
Experimental setup description
The following information provides a high-level overview of the measurement criteria, equipment, and benchmarking procedures used in the testing of the EVA4400. The equipment chosen ensured that the only potential bottleneck to performance was the EVA tested. The switches used in the test for convenience did not affect any measurements. Measurement criteria Server: HP rp8400 server Eight PA8700 750-MHz CPUs HP-UX 11.11 equipped with 32 GB of main memory Four AB378A Fibre Channel host bus adapters
Tested array: EVA4400 HSV30096, 146.5-GB disk drives Drive rotational frequency15K RPM 1 GB of main memory per controller HP StorageWorks Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch with 32 ports One-to-one mapping between the AB378A and LE HSV300 front-end ports Benchmarking procedures: RAID 116, 381818-MB Virtual Disk RAID 5 and 16, 610910-MB Virtual Disk Wrote to all of the capacity before making the measurements Load balanced across host port when using four or more I/O processes and across controls when using two processes Measurement results Figures 1 through 6 show the relationships between the average response time and the throughput delivered by the EVA4400 for several workloads and RAID levels. Customers can use these curves to consider the tradeoff between increased throughput and the resulting increased average response time. In Figures 1 through 4, the 60% read workload is what HP calls the OLTP workload. Figure 1 shows curves for random workloads directed at RAID 1 storage on the EVA4400 for three workloads: Read requests Write requests 60% reads and 40% writes (labeled as OLTP) All workloads used 4-KB request lengths. HP Server benchmark teams used the 60% read workload to predict the servers and storage performance under the TPC-C benchmark. Figure 2 is similar to Figure 1 except that all workloads used a uniform request size of 8 KB rather than 4 KB. Figures 3 and 4 are similar to Figures 1 and 2, respectively, except that RAID 5 storage replaced RAID 1 storage. Figures 5 and 6 show the relationship between average throughputs and response times for large block sequential workloads. Figure 5 uses RAID 1 storage, and Figure 6 uses RAID 5 storage. In Figures 5 and 6, the cache algorithms used by the EVA4400 results in very high data transfer rates at very low response times. This illustrates the importance of a disk arrays cache and the algorithms used for managing it. Although we are seeing the effects of cache in the measurements shown, these effects are included as part of the end-to-end performance measurements.

Figure 1.

Random IO Performance for RAID1 4KB Transfers
Response Time (ms) 15000 Throughput (IO/s) 30000 Reads Writes OLTP

Figure 2.

Random IO Performance for RAID1 8KB Transfers

Response Time (ms)

Reads Writes OLTP

Throughput (IO/s)

Figure 3.
Random IO Performance for RAID5 4KB Transfers

Figure 4.

Random IO Performance for RAID5 8KB Transfers

Figure 5.

Sequential IO Performance for RAID1 128KB Transfers

16 Reads Writes

800 Throughput (MB/s)

Figure 6.

Sequential IO Performance for RAID5 128KB Transfers

Reads Writes

Throughput (MB/s)

Conclusion

The EVA product family provides virtual storage that enables capacity pooling, simplified management, automated performance load balancing, dynamic configuration, and re-configuration. The new HP EVA4400 offers customers all those features in an affordable array with substantially improved performance in random and/or sequential workloads. In random workloads, the EVA4400 performance scales up to the maximum number of disk drives supported. Customers will have the predictability they need to choose configurations that best match actual business conditions. The EVA4400 achieves improves sequential performance levels at a reduced cost and complexity. By delivering twice the throughput as its predecessor (EVA4100), the EVA4400 doubles the transfer rates for a myriad of applications ranging from backups and restores to streaming video. Data scans can take half the time. HP best practices recommend that customers review the total system performance characteristics of the HP EVA4400 for the most accurate data. End-to-end performance numbers provide the most stable and accurate representation of the customers environment. Cache performance numbers register the largest throughput numbers possible with an array but do not take into account actual business conditions, diluting their usefulness for capacity planning.

For more information

HP StorageWorks 4400 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA4400)

www.hp.com/go/eva4400

EVA Product Family

www.hp.com/go/eva

EVA cache white paper
http://h71028.www7.hp.com/ERC/downloads/4AA1-7945ENW.pdf

HP StorageWorks

www.hp.com/go/storage
2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

4AA1-8473ENW, March 2008

White Paper
August 1999 0233-0999A Prepared by: ECG Technology Communications Group Compaq Computer Corporation
Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4100 Overview
Abstract: The Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4100 (RA4100) is an external storage solution incorporating Fibre Channel interconnect technology and Compaqs new Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive. This solution overcomes inherent limitations of small computer systems interface (SCSI) interconnect technology and reduces the need for multiple types of hard drives across an enterprise. Fibre Channel interconnect technology is designed to satisfy the requirements of such enterprise applications as: Databases Data marts Email GroupWare Web servers File and print for large storage capacity Scalable input/output (I/O) performance

Contents

Introduction.. 3 Hardware Technology. 4 Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4100.. 4 Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 Controller. 5 Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 Redundant Controller. 6 Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive.. 6 Adapters, Hubs, Converters, and Cables.. 12 Conclusion.. 13 Appendix A: StorageWorks RAID Array 4100 Configurations. 14
In addition to increased speeds and increased distances between components, this solution adds the advantages of the new Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives. This document provides information on the new RA4100 and the Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive.

Notice

The information in this publication is confidential and proprietary to Compaq and is protected by the terms of an end-user license agreement. The information in this publication is subject to change without notice and is provided AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS INFORMATION REMAINS WITH RECIPIENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPAQ BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR OTHER DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION), EVEN IF COMPAQ HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. The limited warranties for Compaq products are exclusively set forth in the documentation accompanying such products. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting a further or additional warranty. This publication does not constitute an endorsement of the product or products that were tested. The configuration or configurations tested or described may or may not be the only available solution. This test is not a determination of product quality or correctness, nor does it enable compliance with any federal state or local requirements. Compaq, Deskpro, Fastart, Compaq Insight Manager, Systempro, Systempro/LT, ProLiant, ROMPaq, QVision, SmartStart, NetFlex, QuickFind, PaqFax, and Prosignia are registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Netelligent, Systempro/XL, SoftPaq, QuickBlank, and QuickLock are trademarks and/or service marks of Compaq Computer Corporation. Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT, and BackOffice are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright 1999 Compaq Computer Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4100 Overview White Paper prepared by ECG Technology Communications Group First Edition (August 1999) Document Number 0233-0999A

0233-0999A

Introduction
Note: This paper includes the terms fibre and fiber. Fibre is the international spelling that refers to the Fibre Channel Standards that include optical and copper media. Fiber refers to the optical media used to implement Fibre Channel. Applications central to enterprise operations demand remarkable storage capacity and scalable performance. Data marts, for example, may grow by as much as 400 percent per year. Email data and Lotus Notes data typically double each year. Databases and consolidated print and file applications also demand increasing storage capacity. With its inherent input/output (I/O) and physical limitations, small computer systems interface (SCSI) technology cannot support the scalability of storage capacity and I/O performance required by such applications. The expanding need for enterprise storage capacity and performance demands new storage solutions. After extensively studying possible alternatives, Compaq has determined that Fibre Channel is the best interconnect technology to propel growth of enterprise storage. As a result, Compaq actively participates in industry standardization efforts for Fibre Channel interconnect technology and is continuing to develop products incorporating that technology. The Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4100 (RA4100) with hot-plug Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive support is a primary storage solution incorporating Fibre Channel technology. The Fibre Channel architecture of this solution enables administrators to scale the storage capacity supported by a single, 8 PCI-slot server from gigabytes to more than 2.4 TB1, while simultaneously scaling the cache, processing power, and throughput of the storage subsystem. Determining the current and future needs of an enterprise in a real-world environment is a considerable undertaking. Compaqs efforts to incorporate Fibre Channel technology with universal hardware have laid the foundation for future growth. The RA4100 storage solution is a significant building block for the creation and integration of a storage area network within a growing enterprise. Compaqs new Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive provides an unequaled level of investment protection and simplification. With Ultra2 Universal compatibility across the enterprise, users are free to deploy and redeploy these universal hard drives anywhere storage capacity is needed. Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives are the first high-performance, hot-plug hard drives sharing compatibility across Compaq ProLiant servers, AlphaServers, and Ultra2 external storage solutions. With increasing storage needs and investments, administrators are demanding easy-to-manage storage solutions that simplify deployment and management and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO). The universal hard drive support on the RA4100 provides these benefits by enabling hot-swapping and migration of hard drives between external storage enclosures, ProLiant servers, and Alpha servers. From departmental servers to the data center, enterprises can buy one type of hard drive and avoid the confusion of disk and drive tray incompatibilities.

Eleven RA4100s populated with 18.2 GB Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives.

Hardware Technology

The RA4100 is comprised of the following hardware components that can be interconnected to form a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) in a single server or clustered server topology: Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4100 Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 Controller Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 Redundant Controller2 Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel Host Adapter/E (EISA) Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel Host Adapter/P (PCI) Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel Storage Hub 7 Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel Storage Hub 12 Short wave gigabit interface converters Long wave gigabit interface converters Multi-Mode Fibre Channel Cables Single-Mode Fibre Channel Cables
Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4100
The new RA4100 consists of an external Fibre Channel storage enclosure with an RA4000 Controller. The RA4100 is a high-performance external storage system using various Fibre Channel devices and the Fibre Channel I/O standard to connect servers to external storage systems.
The optional redundant controller is an RA4000 Controller with redundancy support firmware.
The base RA4100 solution includes one RA4000 Controller. The RA4100 supports an optional RA4000 Redundant Controller to deliver higher levels of availability. The RA4000 Controller and RA4000 Redundant Controller are compatible with both the new RA4100 and the older RA4000 and Fibre Channel Storage System.
Figure 1: Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4100
An RA4100 external enclosure contains: Support for up to twelve 1-inch Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives A high-performance RA4000 Controller An optional RA4000 Redundant Controller A hot-pluggable fan assembly Two hot-pluggable power supplies
Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 Controller
The RA4000 Controller is an intelligent Fibre Channel-to-SCSI array3 controller integrated into the RA4100 solution. The controller is based on the Compaq SMART-2 architecture and has two Wide-Ultra SCSI-3 channels. Each channel can transfer data at 40 megabytes per second (MB/s) for a total of 80 MB/s possible internal bandwidth. The array controller-to-host interface is Fibre Channel for high-speed connection to the server. The Fibre Channel interface can transfer data to the server at burst rates of 100 MB/s. The RA4000 Controller: Supports RAID4 0, 0+1, 1, 4, and 5. Supports multiple logical drives and online capacity expansion within the array. Features sixth-generation Compaq RAID technology and components. Can have a total of 64 MB of usable cache (16 MB read and 48 MB user-selectable read/write). The cache is scalable up to 5.1 GB in an 8-slot, single server environment.

An array is a set of hard drives that are physically grouped together and can be subdivided into logical drives consisting of one or more disks in the set. 4 Redundant Array of Independent Disks. RAID levels are methods that improve array performance and protect the data on disks.
Investment Protection and Lower Total Cost of Ownership
A common architecture between array controller solutions ensures that customers legacy array controller investments are protected as they move toward adopting the new RA4100 Array solution. For example, an enterprise can use an existing Fibre Channel storage solution, the RA4000, and the new RA4100 in one installation or application. Deployment, configuration, and management of this storage solution uses the same tools used in other storage solutions, such as Compaq Insight Manager, Array Configuration Utility, and so on. In addition, these same tools are used to configure Compaq's Smart Array Family of Storage Controller solutions used by the internal server storage.
Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 Redundant Controller
The RA4000 Redundant Controller is the same controller found in the RA4000 with redundancy support firmware embedded that increases availability. The RA4000 Redundant Controller fully supports Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives, Compaq Insight Manager, the Pre-Failure Warranty, and Fibre Channel Host Adapter failover. The RA4000 Redundant Controller is based on Compaqs industry-leading, sixth generation SMART array controller technology. When two array controllers are installed in an RA4100 (active/standby), enterprise systems are protected by an extra level of high availability. If the active controller fails or for some reason becomes non-operational, the standby controller will take over, notify the system administrator through the Compaq Insight Manager that a fault has occurred, and maintain operation of the storage subsystem.
Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive
In recent years, new high-speed storage interconnect technology has spurred the development of a variety of high-performance hard drives for network server systems. In the race for the performance benchmark, the value of integration and interoperability has often been overlooked. In a heterogeneous network environment with multiple platforms, operating systems, and devices, a lack of interoperability threatens not only the performance of network storage systems, but the entire network as well. As a major step toward the integration of a broad enterprise product line, Compaq is introducing Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives, which address issues of hardware and firmware interoperability and compatibility by providing storage commonality across the enterprise. Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives offer an unparalleled level of simplicity and investment protection, allowing customers to deploy and redeploy these hot-pluggable SCSI hard drives across Compaq Ultra2 ProLiant Servers, Ultra2 AlphaServers, and Ultra2 external storage solutions.

Figure 2: Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive and drive carrier
With Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives, enterprises can deploy the same hard drive on any Compaq Ultra2 platform or Ultra2 external storage solution without concern for firmware compatibility. Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives also eliminate the hassle of deciding which hard drives can be deployed in which servers, and the expense of costly spare parts inventories. Compaq revealed its vision for the future of storage when it announced the Enterprise Network Storage Architecture (ENSA). Now Compaq is working rapidly to deliver that vision to its customers. A key concept of the ENSA vision is the idea that storage should be simple, reliable, and nonintrusivemuch like todays phone service or electric utilities, which have become so reliable that they are often taken for granted. Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives are an important step toward realizing this vision. Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives provide the component commonality necessary to deploy or redeploy primary storage as needed. In addition, by setting these new standards across the enterprise, Compaq is removing risks associated with incompatibility and uncertainty.
Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives will become a common building block for future Compaq products, delivering its benefits to a broad base of customers.
Figure 3: Ultra2 Universal Drive deployment options
By providing the flexibility to configure your storage solution without shutting down the system, and by bringing a greater commonality to primary storage across the enterprise, Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives represent an important milestone in the realization of Compaqs ENSA vision. For more information on ENSA, refer to the Compaq website at: www.compaq.com/products/storageworks/menu_vision.html Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives are packaged in a new Compaq designed hot-pluggable drive carrier. This new hot-pluggable drive carrier features several enhancements including: Compact design for maximum storage density Greater component commonality throughout the enterprise Direct-connect design for increased signal integrity Improved hard drive cooling Better vibration damping

Why an Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive?
Compaq recognizes the investment made in primary storage and the importance of component commonality. Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives are the first hard drives to allow one hard drive type to be deployed throughout the enterprise. This disk storage commonality offers many benefits to the enterprise customer, including simplified storage management, reduced number of spare parts, and flexible storage deployment.
Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives deliver commonality in the new hard drive carrier design as well as the new firmware and hardware design. Additional features of the new Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives include: A direct SCA connection for high signal integrity A compact carrier design for increased storage density Improved hard drive cooling Improved damping to reduce rotational vibration
The primary difference between Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives and their non-universal, hot-plug Ultra2 counterparts is that non-universal hard drives are generally only supported on a subset of platforms.
Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive Benefits
Reduced cost of ownership and investment protectionMaintaining a stockpile of spare hard drives in a multiple-platform network environment can be costly, requiring the purchase of several hard drive models for each subsystem. Because Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives can be deployed across all Ultra2 Compaq platforms and Ultra2 external storage solutions, the cost of carrying multiple types of spare hard drives is reduced. Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives decrease the time spent ordering, deploying, and tracking devices, as well as the number of personnel to manage these devices. Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives cost no more than non-universal hard drives. Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives allow an enterprise to deploy and redeploy Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives wherever they are needed, such as swapping hard drives between Compaq Ultra2 ProLiant and Ultra2 AlphaServers, and other Ultra2 external storage solutions. Because the carrier has been designed to support future SCSI hard drive interfaces, the enterprises investment is protected. The carrier is designed to migrate to future SCSI interface technologies while protecting investments in Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives. Compaq continuously monitors the hard drive market so it can offer superior price and performance features. With superior quality, guaranteed compatibility, superior service, and a Pre-Failure Warranty, Compaq provides primary storage solutions with the lowest TCO. Compaq prides itself in the ability to continually provide technology migration paths and forward compatibility to sustain this investment protection. Reduced riskSimilar to some computer viruses, firmware incompatibilities can lay dormant until activated by the right set of circumstances. These firmware incompatibilities can cause data loss or bring the system to a halt. Compaq spent several months investigating the firmware issues that exist between the various types of Compaq hard drives and operating systems, to develop a common firmware code that satisfies Compaq Ultra2 firmware requirements. This research has resulted in the development of a common and reliable firmware that enables hard drive compatibility across multiple platforms.

Ease of integrationMany of the issues surrounding the deployment of non-Compaq hard drives have to do with simple integration problems. All Compaq hard drives ship with the correct mounting hardware, SCSI ID settings, termination schemes, and documentation for Compaq systems. When buying hard drives from another supplier, there is no guarantee that the hardware has been set correctly. With Compaq hard drives, the hard drive has been pretested to ensure immediate, easy, and flawless integration into the Compaq server or Ultra2 external storage solution. FlexibilityCompaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives redefine flexibility in storage systems. An enterprise simply orders hard drives at the desired capacity and speed and then deploys or redeploys the drives anywhere in the Compaq Ultra2 server or Ultra2 external storage solution. Ease of doing businessIn todays distributed network environment, planning, designing, and implementing a storage system can be a daunting process, particularly for large enterprises with multiple platforms, operating systems, applications, and devices. With Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives deployed, all IT administrators need to know is how much (capacity) and how fast (spindle speed) the drive is. Reduced spare parts inventoryPurchasing and tracking an inventory of spare hard drives for different platforms, applications, and storage subsystems can be costly and time-consuming. Ultra-2 Universal Hard Drives help to reduce hard drive inventory by allowing the enterprise to deploy a common hard drive across Ultra2 platforms.
Compaq Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive Features
Hardware technologyIn enterprise networks with multiple Compaq server platforms and multiple operating systems, Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives simplify the deployment of storage. Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives provide the added benefits of 80 MB/s data transfers using Low Voltage Differential (LVD) signals. A single RA4100 accommodates twelve 1-inch Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives. A single, fully populated RA4100 can provide a total capacity of up to 218.4 GB5. With the use of a Storage Hub 7 or a Storage Hub 12 and an 8-PCI-slot server, storage scales as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. RAID Array 4100 Storage Capacities
Capacity 9.1 GB 18.2 GB 36.4 GB
Single RAID Array 4100 109.2 GB 218.4 GB 436.8 GB
Storage Hub 7 5.2 TB 10.5 TB 21.0 TB

Storage Hub 12 9.6 TB 19.2 TB 38.4 TB
This total capacity refers to the 18.2 GB Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive. A total capacity of 436.8 GB will be possible in the near future with the 36.4 GB Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive. 6 36.4 GB Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive will be available in the near future.
In addition to Ultra2 technology, Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives feature: 7,200 rpm and 10,000 rpm spindle speeds Universal compatibility for future hot-plug Ultra2 servers and storage enclosures SMART system compliance Support of a Compaq warranty (up to 3 years) and Pre-Failure Warranty Compaq certification for reliability, compatibility, and interoperability An improved, award-wining Compaq hot-pluggable drive carrier Product labeling that identifies of the hard drive while it is deployed Upgradability for most existing hot-pluggable Ultra2 hard drives to universal
Increased spindle speedsCompaq 10,000 rpm hard drives provide the highest level of performance available in an enterprise class hard drive. The increased spindle speed reduces seek and latency times and provides up to a 40 percent increase in hard drive performance over standard 7,200 rpm hard drives. Compaq 10,000 rpm hard drives are ideal for transaction-intensive or performance-critical applications and are rapidly becoming the new standard for hard drive performance. Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive compatibilityUltra2 Universal Hard Drives are compatible with all Compaq Ultra2 systems, including ProLiant servers, AlphaServers, and Ultra2 external storage solutions. For more information on specific products and storage solutions, refer to the Compaq website at: www.compaq.com SMART system complianceWhen used in conjunction with a Compaq SMART Array Controller and Compaq Insight Manager, the SMART-capable firmware of Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives enables extensive fault prediction capabilities. If potential problems develop in one of the hard drives, Compaq Insight Manager notifies IT personnel in advance so the hard drive can be replaced before it fails, under the Compaq Pre-Failure Warranty. Compaq Warranty and Pre-Failure WarrantyCompaq Insight Manager continuously monitors more than 20 hard drive parameters. When an Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive performs outside an accepted parameter, an alert is generated. Under Compaqs exclusive Pre-Failure Warranty, the hard drive can then be replaced. This allows systems administrators to proactively schedule replacement maintenance without interrupting critical business operations. The faulty hard drive typically can be replaced without any system downtime.
Compaq Certification for reliability, compatibility, and interoperabilityCompaq hard drives are not the same as their OEM equivalent. Compaq has set up a qualification process, with engineering teams dedicated to testing hard drives in real-life and worst-case environments. Hard drives are tested in supported configurations to ensure optimum compatibility and interoperability. Compaq demands the highest level of robustness in the design of the hard drives selected for qualification. Compaq ensures the quality of every hard drive design by rigorously testing for: Data and signal integrity Physical defects Mechanical design integrity Error recovery Hard drive performance Feature and functionality support Reliability of firmware design

The processes of Compaq suppliers are audited to ensure that proper systems are in place to maintain the highest levels of quality assurance.
Adapters, Hubs, Converters, and Cables
For more information on the following components, refer to the Compaq RAID Array 4000 Overview Technical Brief on the Compaq website at: www.compaq.com StorageWorks Fiber Channel Host Adapters StorageWorks Fiber Channel Storage Hub 7 StorageWorks Fiber Channel Storage Hub 12 Short wave gigabit interface converters (GBICs) Long wave GBICs Single-Mode and Multi-Mode cables

Conclusion

Nearly all enterprises using ProLiant servers will be transitioning to the new universal drive tray by the end of 1999. Since the RA4100 delivers universal hard drive support, the commonality of hard drives between servers and external storage provides: Significant business management benefits Significant inventory management benefits Reduction in overall TCO
Mid- to high-level departmental server environments (clustered and non-clustered) have a greater need for homogeneous platforms. The RA4100 uses current Fibre Channel components along with the Ultra2 Universal Hard Drives. This commonality of hard drives reduces inventories, which reduces the number of and man-hours and personnel required to manage the hardware. The RA4100 has been extensively tested and proven to be quickly and easily integrated into existing Compaq systems. With the Ultra2 Universal Hard Drive, The RA4100 ensures compatibility across Compaq hardware platforms, and eases manageability to drastically reduce TCO.7
As compared to non-universal hard drive systems.
Appendix A: StorageWorks RAID Array 4100 Configurations
Figure 4 through Figure 7 depict examples of some possible RA4100 solutions. For more detailed information, refer to the appropriate RA4100 manuals. In Figure 4, the Fibre Channel Host Adapter connects to a Storage Hub 7, and the Storage Hub 7 connects to the RA4100. GBICs are installed at all fiber interconnections.

Server

Storage Hub 7

Fibre Host Adapter

RA4100s
Figure 4. High capacity direct connect server storage
Additional RA4100s can be added simply by connecting them to the hub while the loop is not active. The added RA4100 can then be configured using the Array Configuration Utility. Figure 5 shows that by using redundant host adapters, Storage Hubs, and RA4000 Redundant Controllers, a highly available configuration can be deployed.

RA4100 Storage Hubs

Figure 5. High availability direct connect server storage
Figure 6 shows that the Fibre Channel Host Adapters in an RA4100 topology can be deployed in a two-node cluster that comprises a basic storage network.

Servers

Storage Hub
Figure 6. Two-node cluster storage network solution
Figure 7 shows that Fibre Channel Host Adapters in a redundant topology can be deployed in a two-node cluster that comprises a basic storage network. This configuration provides for a highly available server and storage system.

Storage Hubs

Figure 7. Two-node high availability cluster storage network solution
The Fibre Channel Host Adapter supports the Compaq ProLiant and rack-mountable ProLiant family of servers. To find out which server models are supported by the RA4100, refer to the Compaq website: www.compaq.com/products/storageworks/