Huawei OceanStor Midrange – 5000 & 6000 Systems – Product Brief

Overview

Huawei OceanStor mid-range storage systems are comprised of multiple models, including hybrid systems and all flash systems.  The hybrid systems are the 5300, 5500, 5600, 5800 and 6800 V5 systems.  The all-flash systems are the OceanStor Dorado models.  These are mid-range systems with extensive features and capabilities supporting both block and file access.  Huawei has delivered a succession of storage systems in the high-end, mid-range and entry levels.  These systems represent a succession to their previous V3 models of these same products.

All systems support a scale-out architecture with up to 4 controller pairs, (8 controllers) connected via 100 Gb Ethernet.  Storage devices in enclosures are connected with 12 Gb/s SAS.  SSDs and HDDs are supported in any combination.

Connectivity for block access is through Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and FCoE.  File access is over Ethernet using CIFS and NFS protocols.  Block and file support is an integral capability, not requiring an additional controller function.

Third party storage can be virtualized behind the OceanStor system allowing centralized management of storage resources and migration of volumes for load balancing, retiring external storage systems, and conversion from thickly provisioned volumes to thin.

Advanced features of the OceanStor system include compression and deduplication, cache partitioning, quality of service controls, secure erase, dynamic tiering, and caching with SSDs.  Snapshots, asynchronous and synchronous remote replication, LUN copies, and consistency groups are also included.

Usage

Huawei OceanStor 5000 and 6000 V5 systems are general purpose storage designed for use in multi-tenant environments and for environment with multiple workloads running on the same storage system.  Support for block and file access gives customers flexibility in deployment of applications.  Capacity and performance scaling capabilities widen the usage to many environments.  The availability and resiliency designed into the system plus the advanced features for data protection and business continuity allow customers to place the OceanStor system in demanding environments.

For a system targeted at the mid-range market, features such as multi-tenancy, quality of service, and end-to-end data integrity checking are unique in their combination.

• Characteristics
  • Both block and file access support.
  • Performance – Performance features added include hardware acceleration, scaling of nodes, and use of caching and solid state technology.
  • Availability – Multiple controllers provide non-disruptive HA. The scale-out architecture allows for redistribution of workload when a failure occurs.
  • Replication for BC/DR – Both asynchronous and synchronous remote replication is available as is the ability to make local and remote LUN copies.
  • Data reduction using deduplication and compression with user controls.
• Applications
  • OceanStor systems are targeted at applications that use block or file I/O.
  • The OceanStor systems include thin provisioning, snapshots and replication at no additional cost.
  • Additional cost software licenses are available and support the entire suite of software.
• System environments
  • The Huawei OceanStor systems provide block storage accessed using Fibre Channel (FCP), FCoE or iSCSI with standard drivers on host systems. File access is supported using CIFS/SMB or NFS.
• Deployment and Administration
  • The installation of OceanStor is designed for IT users familiar with storage systems. For customers without the required knowledge, reseller or Huawei service specialists can be used.
  • Management is provided through a management console for multiple nodes, a Replication Director to manage disaster recovery software, and multi-pathing software called UltraPath.
  • Remote Management and Call Home support is also available and is enabled through a Cloud Service.

Evaluator Group EvaluScale™: Huawei OceanStor Midrange 5000/6000 – SAN Storage

Evaluator Group product review methodology “EvaluScale” assesses each product within a specific technology area.  The definitions of the criteria and explanations of how products are reviewed can be found in the  Evaluator Series Evaluation Guide. Download the product brief now to view the Evaluscale for this product.

Evaluator Group Opinion: Differentiating elements for Huawei OceanStor Midrange

Huawei OceanStor midrange 5000/6000 V5 systems are a unified SAN and NAS system where the file serving function is integral to the system.  All of these system support scale-out configurations up to 8 controllers. A full suite of advanced features is also available including storage virtualization of externally attached systems.  The system does not support tiering of LUNs to clouds/object storage or file-based tiering.  The features of the NAS implementation are not up to the level of native NAS systems and the explanations of the capabilities are somewhat unclear.

The Huawei systems suffers from lack of distribution in North America, which would expand opportunities and help with maturity from competitive demands.  Currently, there is no encryption, which has become a checkbox item.  Evaluator Group would like to see more customer use cases and experience with the system for a better understanding of maturity of the system and its features.  Little information is available from Huawei marketing personnel.

Huawei OceanStor Midrange – 5000 & 6000 Systems Product Brief Includes:

Highlights
Overview
Usage
EvaluScale Product Review Methodology
Evaluator Group Commentary

Download the full Product Brief now!