The Dell EMC VMAX³ continues the evolution of Dell EMC’s high-end enterprise storage system originally known as Symmetrix with architectural changes and additional capabilities compared to the prior VMAX system. Major advances include the embedded operating environment called HYPERMAX, use of InfiniBand for interconnect technology, ProtectPoint for direct backup of volumes, and file access support with eNAS data services based on VNX NAS.
The Virtual Matrix architecture continues the evolution with the ability to dynamically allocate resources for workloads. Three models of the VMAX³ are available with differences in the number of engines, DRAM cache, connectivity, and capacity scaling. As with earlier versions, VMAX³ supports IBM mainframe environments, open systems, and IBM System i. The models range from the single enclosure VMAX³ 100K up to the VMAX³ 400K with up to 5,760 2.5” devices.
The foundation of the VMAX³ is the Virtual Matrix Architecture utilizing the VMAX³ Engine as the core element. The engines are comprised of multi-core processors, cache, front-end and back-end connectivity allowing the Virtual Matrix to scale from the entry-level configuration with one engine to an aggregate up to eight engines in the largest model. Each VMAX³ engine contains two directors, cross-director communication path linking them and redundant interfaces to the Virtual Matrix Interconnect. Each director consolidates front-end, global memory, and back-end functions, enabling direct memory access to data.
HYPERMAX, the embedded operating environment for VMAX³, is a storage hypervisor providing internal virtual machines for running functional elements such as block storage, management, data protection, and other future advanced capabilities.
All VMAX³ models support virtualization of third party storage and other Dell EMC storage with a feature called FAST.X. Other VMAX³ features are available for volumes on the attached external storage. An additional integrity check, VMAX³ add an additional integrity check called T10DIF to external volumes called eDisks created by VMAX³ on the external systems.
VMAX³ enables direct backup of data with the optional software feature ProtectPoint. With ProtectPoint, agents on application servers allow application administrators to direct the VMAX³ system to backup volumes directly to a Data Domain system. The VMAX³ uses changed block tracking to send only changed blocks (from the last full backup) to the Data Domain system. The Data Domain system will create a full backup from the changed data. Application administrators can direct the VMAX³ to restore a volume or a specific object in a volume and VMAX³ will communicate directly with the Data Domain system to perform the restore.
A hypervisor is included with the HYPERMAX OS to allow data services functions to execute internal to VMAX³. File access support is a data service that is adapted from the VNX file access support where data movers and control stations can execute as containers in virtual machines. Service Level Objective settings are incorporated into the virtual provisioning and storage tiering (FAST) capabilities.
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