IBM SVC Storage Engine Model DH8

IBM SAN Volume Controller, member of the IBM Storwize family, is a combined hardware and software storage virtualization system with a single point of control for storage resources.

SVC includes many functions traditionally deployed separately in disk systems and by including these in a virtualization system, SVC standardizes functions across virtualized storage for greater flexibility and potentially lower costs. It improves business application availability and delivers greater resource utilization to get the most from storage resources, and achieve a simpler, more scalable, cost-efficient IT infrastructure.

SVC Storage Engine Model DH8 and SVC SFF Expansion Enclosue Model 24F deliver increased performance, expanded connectivity, compression acceleration, and additional internal flash storage capacity.

SVC Storage Engine Model DH8, which is based on System x server technology, consists of one Xeon E5 v2 Series eight-core processor and 32GB of memory. It includes 1GbE ports standard for 1GbE iSCSI connectivity and supports up to three I/O adapter cards for 8GB FC and 10GbE iSCSI/FCoE connectivity. It also includes two integrated AC power supplies and battery units replcaing the uninterruptable power supply eature required on the previous generation storage engine models.

The DH8 storage engine offers several features for real-time compression workloads, including a second Xeon E5 v2 Series eight-core processor with 32GB of memory and up to two compression accelerator cards for hardware-assisted compression.

The 24F supports up to twenty-four 2.5-inch 12Gb SAS SSDs. Up to two expansion enclosures are supported by a DH8 node pair or I/O group delivering up to 48 flash drives and 38.4TB of internal raw capacity.

SVC Storage Engines can be clustered to help deliver greater performance, bandwidth, and scalability. An SVC clustered system can contain up to four node pairs or I/O groups. DH8 storage engines can be added into existing SVC clustered systems that include previous generation storage engine models.

All SVC functional capabilities are provided through IBM Storwize Family Software for IBM SVC.

Key prerequisites
SVC machines require Storwize Family Software for SVC version 7.3, or later, for operation. Use of the software is entitled through the acquisition of SVC software licenses.

Planned availability date

• June 6, 2014: SVC models and features except as noted below
• September 19, 2014: SVC SFF Expansion Enclosure Model 24F and features in India