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he Dell PowerVault MD3000 storage array is designed
to provide flexible, high-performance, highly scal-
able RAID storage without compromising data integ
-
rity. Its integration of two high-performance RAID controllers,
Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager software, and automatic
event monitoring helps reduce total cost of ownership and
maximize data protection.
The PowerVault MD3000 external RAID array can sup-
port up to forty-five 3.0 Gbps Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
disks and includes redundant power supplies and fans.
Connectivity between host servers and the storage is pro-
vided by two Dell SAS 5/E host bus adapters (HBAs).
The PowerVault MD3000 is designed primarily for high-
performance two-node clusters; however, its dual-port
RAID controllers can also provide shared nonredundant
storage for up to four servers. Other key features include
the following:
• Mirrored data cache of up to 512 MB on each RAID
controller
• In-band and out-of-band management using Dell Modular
Disk Storage Manager
• Redundant, hot-swappable components and virtual disk
failover
• Transparent failover for clustered operating systems to
help maximize data protection
• Virtual disk snapshot and virtual disk copy creation
• RAID level migration, capacity expansion, consistency
checks, and Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting
Technology (SMART)
Figure 1 compares PowerVault MD3000 features with
those of the PowerVault MD1000.
Configuration options for the Dell PowerVault MD3000
Administrators can configure the PowerVault MD3000 as
part of a nonredundant configuration or a redundant clus-
ter configuration. Nonredundant configurations are recom-
mended only for noncritical data storage; this type of
configuration provides only a single data path, meaning a
failed or removed cable, HBA, or RAID controller could
cause the storage path to fail.
Redundant cluster configurations, in contrast, provide high
availability for critical data and depend primarily on physical
connectivity and the host multipath software. If a component
fails or an error occurs on the data path to the primary RAID
controller, the multipath driver—Microsoft
®
Multipath I/O
(MPIO) on Microsoft Windows
®
operating systems and
Multipath Proxy (MPP) on Linux
®
operating systems—fails over
virtual disk ownership to the secondary RAID controller for I/O
processing, helping ensure host data access.
The PowerVault MD3000 supports two redundant cluster
configurations:
• Single port: Administrators can use this mode with a
single storage path and single-port RAID controllers (see
Related Categories:
Backup, recovery, and
archiving (BURA)
Dell PowerVault storage
Direct attach storage (DAS)
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
Storage
Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions
for the complete category index.
Exploring the Dell
PowerVault MD
Storage System
The Dell
™
PowerVault
™
MD3000 external RAID enclosure allows
multiple servers to access a shared pool of expandable storage,
helping enterprises avoid the costs and complexities of internal
storage. This article outlines the hardware, configuration, and
management features of this storage system.
BY MANJUSHA GOPAKUMAR
VISHAL KADAM
PAUL WINSTON
Reprinted from
Dell Power Solutions,
May . Copyright © Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Rev. .
STORAGE
DELL POWER SOLUTIONS
|
May 2007
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