Additional Configurations of IBM DCS9900

The IBM System Storage DCS9900 Storage System, supporting Fibre Channel and InfiniBand host connectivity, includes new configurations and upgrades. These configurations deliver increased flexibility and provide a wider range of price/performance DCS9900 system configurations.

The addition of DCS9900 Storage System disk drive intermix support lets you intermix Serial Attach SCSI (SAS) and Serial Advanced Technology Architecture (SATA) disk drives within select configurations of attached DCS9900 3S1 SAS/SATA Storage Expansion Units. A disk drive filler blank and 6 meter cable interconnect kit are provided to help support the new configurations.

The DCS9900 Storage System is designed to help address the storage needs of highly scalable, data streaming applications served by Deep Computing systems, System p High Performance Computing (HPC) systems, Broadcast Video, and System x 1350 Linux Cluster systems.

The System Storage DCS9900 Storage System
attaches to the following host systems:

Blue Gene and Deep Computing
IBM System p High Performance Computing (HPC) systems
Broadcast Video applications
IBM System x 1350 Linux Cluster

The IBM System Storage DCS9900 Storage System offering consists of the DCS9900 Controller Model CP2 (1269-CP2), the DCS9900 3S1 SAS/SATA Storage Expansion Unit (1269-3S1), and the DCS9900 3S2 SAS Storage Expansion Unit (1269-3S2).

The DCS9900 Controller Model CP2 attaches to the DCS9900 Model 3S1 SAS/SATA Storage Expansion Units and is designed to scale up to 1,200 disks, providing up to 1,200 terabytes (TB) storage capacity in one DCS9900 controller system. Likewise, the DCS9900 Controller Model CP2 also attaches to the DCS9900 Model 3S2 SAS Storage Expansion Units and is designed to scale up to 320 disks, providing up to 144 TB storage capacity in one DCS9900 controller system.

The DCS9900 Model CP2 controller supports Fibre Channel and InfiniBand host connectivity and can attach up to 20 DCS9900 3S1 SAS/SATA Storage Expansion Units to build storage configurations that can range from 150 to 1,200 disks and scale from 21.9 to 1,200 TB physical storage capacity.

The DCS9900 Model CP2 controller can also attach up to 20 DCS9900 3S2 SAS Storage Expansion Units to build storage configurations that can range from 80 to 320 disks and scale from 11.68 to 144 TB physical storage capacity.

Also there is a DCS9900 Sleep Mode option that is designed to put ‘idle’ tiers of SATA drives into standby mode. In standby mode, the mechanical head assembly is parked within the disk, and the spindle is stopped, saving energy and helping to reduce power consumption within the data center.

DCS9900 Controller Model CP2
The DCS9900 Controller Model CP2 (1269-CP2) comes in a 4U rack-mount enclosure containing dual controllers with 5 GB cache (2.5 GB cache per controller) and eight 8 Gbps Fibre Channel host ports or eight IB 4x DDR host ports. The DCS9900 controller attaches to DCS9900 3S1 SAS/SATA Storage Expansion Units and DCS9900 3S2 SAS Storage Expansion Units using 3 Gbps SAS v1.0 disk expansion ports. The DCS9900 Model CP2 controller can support up to 1,200 disks, yielding up to 1,200 TB physical storage capacity, 64 thousand LUNs, and up to 4,096 direct host logins per DCS9900 system.

The DCS9900 controller is designed to support managed Quality of Service to provide uninterrupted data delivery, as well as source all of its performance from multiple target LUNs or a single target ‘PowerLUN,’ reducing the need for host-based striping software.

The DCS9900 controller incorporates enterprise-class data protection with on-the-fly parity checking on all read I/Os, as well as hardware enabled RAID 6, which protects data in the event of double disk failure in the same redundancy group, without adversely affecting data availability or system performance.

Additionally, the DCS9900 includes block level virtualization to virtualize storage deployment and system management, through LUN aliasing, WWN masking and filtering, or port zoning.

DCS9900 Sleep Mode feature
The DCS9900 Sleep Mode option enables Massive Array of Idle Disks (MAID) capability. The Sleep Mode feature is only applicable to DCS9900 configurations with SATA disk drives. The DCS9900 Sleep Mode option is designed to put ‘idle’ tiers of SATA drives into standby mode. In standby mode, the mechanical head assembly is parked within the disk drive, and the spindle is stopped, thus saving energy and helping to reduce power consumption within the data center.

When the DCS9900 Sleep Mode is enabled for an idle tier of disk drives and the idle tier is in the standby mode, the drive logic continues to listen for new commands. When disk access commands are received by the drive logic, the idle tier of drives will be returned to active mode.

The Sleep Mode feature is designed to operate on a per tier basis, so that a tier of ten drives will either be active (spinning) or in the standby mode. In contrast to competing systems offering MAID capability that do not have all drives operational at the same time, the DCS9900 system maintains full performance capabilities, and is designed for use as both primary and secondary near-line storage.

DCS9900 Storage Expansion Units
The following configurations do not allow both SAS and SATA disk drives to be intermixed within the same set of three, set of five, or set of ten DCS9900 3S1 SAS/SATA Storage Expansion Units. Therefore, these configurations allow only one drive type to be selected and installed throughout the set of three, set of five, or set of ten DCS9900 3S1 SAS/SATA Storage Expansion Units.

The DCS9900 3S1 SAS/SATA Storage Expansion Unit comes in a 4U, rack-mounted, 60 SAS or 60 SATA disk enclosure. Internally the Model 3S1 accommodates up to 60 SAS or 60 SATA disk drives logically configured as a 1×60, or 2×30, or 4×15 connection to the DCS9900 Model CP2 controller. This is dependent upon whether the configuration will contain 3 3S1 expansion units, or 5 3S1 expansion units, or 10/20 3S1 expansion units. The Model 3S1 includes hot-swappable power supplies and hot-swappable cooling fans.

The Model 3S1 disk expansion unit integrates into either a 45U 1050 mm deep rack, rack feature, or a 42U 1050 mm deep rack, rack feature, depending upon the specify ordering features. A single DCS9900 system can consist of a configuration made up of either one or two racks. The first rack can contain either 3 3S1 expansion units, 5 3S1 expansion units, or 10 3S1 expansion units. The second rack must contain 10 3S1 expansion units for a maximum configuration of up to 20 3S1 expansion units and up to 1,200 disk drives.

An order for a configuration made up of 3 3S1 disk expansion units must be ordered with a fixed quantity of 150 disk drives. For this configuration, 30 disk drive positions are not used in one of the 3S1 expansion units. The 3 3S1 disk expansion units must contain the same disk drive type.

An order for a configuration made up of 5 3S1 disk expansion units must be ordered with a minimum of 150 disk drives (30 drives per 3S1 expansion unit), and scales in increments of 10, up to a maximum of 300 disk drives (60 drives per 3S1 expansion unit).

Each group of 5 3S1 disk expansion units ordered must contain the same number and same type of disk drives, and ordered in increments of 10 drives applied across the entire configuration. For example, each of the 5 3S1 expansion units in the rack may contain either 30, 32, 34, 36,…….54, 56, 58, up to 60 disk drives. But all 3S1 expansion units must contain the same number and type of drives.

Additionally, when field upgrading from 5 3S1 expansion units to 10 3S1 expansion units, specify feature 9231, the resulting rack of 10 3S1s expansion units must contain the same number and type of disk drives in each expansion unit.

An order for a configuration made up of 10 3S1 disk expansion units must be ordered with a minimum of 150 disk drives (15 drives per 3S1 expansion unit), and scales in increments of ten drives up to a maximum of 600 drives (60 disk drives per 3S1 enclosure).

Each group of 10 3S1 disk expansion units ordered must contain the same number and type of disk drives and ordered in increments of 10 drives applied across the entire configuration. For example, each of the 10 3S1 expansion units in the rack may contain either 15, 16, 17, 18,…….57, 58, 59, up to 60 disk drives. But all expansion units must contain the same number and type of drives.

A configuration made up of two racks of 10 3S1 expansion units attached to a DCS9900 controller can have a different disk drive feature in each rack. Therefore, disk drive features must not be intermixed within each rack of 3 3S1s, or each rack of 5 3S1s, or each rack of 10 3S1s. However, configurations made up of two racks of 10 3S1 expansion units can have a different SAS or SATA disk drive feature in each rack.

Ordering intermix-capable disk drive configurations
The following configurations allow for one type of SAS drive and one type of SATA drive to be intermixed within the same set of 10, or set of 20 DCS9900 3S1 SAS/SATA Storage Expansion Units.

The DCS9900 3S1 SAS/SATA Storage Expansion Unit comes in a 4U, rack-mounted, 60 SAS and SATA disk enclosure. Internally, the Model 3S1 accommodates up to 60 SAS and SATA disk drives logically configured as a 1×60 connection to the DCS9900 Model CP2 controller. The Model 3S1 includes hot-swappable power supplies and hot-swappable cooling fans.

For intermix-capable configurations, the Model 3S1 disk expansion unit integrates into the 45U 1050 mm deep rack, rack feature. The first and second racks each contain 10 3S1 expansion units, for a maximum configuration of up to 20 3S1 expansion units with up to 1,200 disk drives. Intermix-capable configurations may include one type of SAS drive and one type of SATA drive within each of the 3S1 expansion units. For initial plant order of intermix-capable configurations, all Model 3S1 Expansion Unit empty drive positions will be filled with a Drive Filler Blank. This will ensure proper airflow within the disk expansion enclosure.

An intermix-capable configuration made up of 10 3S1 disk expansion units must be ordered with a minimum of 150 disk drives (15 drives per 3S1 expansion unit), and scales in increments of ten drives up to a maximum of 600 drives (60 disk drives per 3S1 enclosure). The first 15 drives selected within each 3S1 must consist of at least six SAS drives and six SATA drives, thereafter either SAS or SATA may be selected until making the selection of the last twelve drives within each 3S1. When populating the last twelve drives, these may be either ‘all SAS,’ or ‘all SATA,’ or ‘6 SAS and 6 SATA.’

Intermix capable configurations made up of two racks of 10 3S1 expansion units can have different SAS and SATA disk drive features in each rack.

The following are the available SAS and SATA disk drive features for the Model 3S1:

500 GB SATA disk drive
750 GB SATA disk drive
1000 GB SATA disk drive
146 GB/15K SAS disk drive
300 GB/15K SAS disk drive
450 GB/15K SAS disk drive

Every DCS9900 system location, which has a DCS9900 system configuration that uses the 45U 1050mm deep Rack Unit, must have access to one Service Ladder. The Service Ladder is mandatory for installation, service, and maintenance of components within the upper drawers of the 45U 1050mm deep Rack Unit. Failure to have at least one Service Ladder available in a required location could result in delayed or prolonged maintenance times.

DCS9900 3S2 SAS Storage Expansion Unit (1269-3S2)
The DCS9900 3S2 SAS Storage Expansion Unit comes in a 3U, rack-mounted, 16-slot SAS disk enclosure. This model includes hot-swappable power supplies and hot-swappable cooling fans. The Model 3S2 disk expansion unit integrates into a 42U 1050-mm deep rack, rack feature.

The Model 3S2 disk expansion unit must be ordered with a minimum of 8 and scales up to a maximum of 16 SAS disk drives. A single DCS9900 system can consist of a configuration made up of either 1 or 2 racks, with each rack containing 10 3S2 expansion units, for a maximum configuration of up to 20 3S2 expansion units and up to 320 disk drives. Each group of 10 3S2 disk expansion units in a rack must be ordered with a minimum of 80, and scales in increments of 10 drives, up to a maximum of 160 disk drives.

Additionally, each of the 10 disk expansion units housed in the same rack must contain the same number and type of disk drives. For example, each of the 10 disk expansion units in the rack may contain either 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, or 16 disk drives; but all 10 expansion units must contain the same number and type of drives.

A configuration made up of two racks attached to a single DCS9900 controller, with each rack containing 10 3S2 expansion units, can have a different disk drive feature in each of the two racks. Therefore, disk drive features must not be intermixed within each set of 10 3S2 expansion units, however, each rack of 10 3S2s attached to a single DCS9900 controller can have a different disk drive feature.

The following are the available SAS disk drive features for the Model 3S2. Only one disk drive feature may be selected and used throughout each rack of 10 3S2 expansions units attached to a DCS9900 controller.

146 GB/15K SAS disk drive
300 GB/15K SAS disk drive
450 GB/15K SAS disk drive