HPE Cray Storage Systems C500

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP has announced the Cray Storage Systems C500, a cost-effective storage solution designed to bring leadership-class technology to entry-level and mid-range HPC/AI compute clusters.

Since its 2019 launch, the Cray ClusterStor E1000 Storage System has become the de-facto external parallel file system standard for exascale, pre-exascale, and national AI supercomputers as it allows those leadership supercomputing sites with Cray EX supercomputers to:

• Take control of their HPC/AI storage spending
• Remove I/O bottlenecks holding their HPC/AI initiatives back
• Enjoy unified support from the HPE Services team
• Feel secure because data sits in a file system owned by a vibrant community

But not everyone needs leadership-class systems built on Cray EX architecture. As the #1 HPC server vendor globally, HPE also serves many customers running modeling and simulation (MOD/SIM) or converged MOD/SIM and AI/ML workloads on entry-level or mid-range compute clusters built from Cray XD systems.

These customers still need and want the proven leadership-class storage technologies of Cray ClusterStor E1000 Storage Systems. But they need it at a significantly lower entry price point that fits the size of their compute clusters that are running converged MOD/SIM and AI/ML workloads.

In a recent survey, the independent research firm Intersect360 research found that 89% of MOD/SIM users are running AI/ML on their HPC clusters or a planning to do so within the next 12 months.

In response, HPE is announcing Cray Storage Systems C500 which provide those storage technologies at a fraction of the entry-price point and with increased ease of use.

Discover Leadership-Class Storage at a Fraction of the Price
Cray Storage Systems C500 runs the same software as high-end Cray
ClusterStor E1000 Storage Systems and leverages the same 2U24 storage controllers and 5U84 HDD enclosures.

They just do it in a converged and more cost-effective design.

Here’s the difference:

• Where the E1000 uses a 2U24 storage controller for the System Management Unit (SMU) the C500 uses a more cost-effective HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen11 serverhttps://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a50004297enw.html?ver=13
• Where the E1000 uses a 2U24 storage controller with 24 NVMe SSD as Metadata Unit (MDU) and one 2U24 storage controller with 24 NVMe SSD as Scalable Storage Unit Flash (SSU-F), the C500 converges both into just one 2U24 converged MDU/SSU-F with 24 NVMe SSD
• Where the E1000 only supports fully populated storage enclosures, the C500 supports also half-populated storage enclosures in specific configurations.

The following image shows the entry configuration of Cray Storage Systems C500 which provides between 22TB and 513TB usable capacity from 24 NVMe SSDs and can drive up to 80GB/s aggregate read performance and up to 60GB/s write performance to the compute nodes.

Additional 2U24 NVMe units or 5U84 HDD enclosures can be added to expand the usable capacity of the file system to 2.6PB all flash capacity or to 4PB hybrid (SSD/HDD) capacity. Beyond those capacity requirements, Cray ClusterStor E1000 Storage Systems are the best way to deploy open source, parallel file systems with enterprise-grade support from the HPE Services Team.

In addition, HPE is rolling out software improvements and new functionalities that make the storage systems easier to deploy and easier to manage. For details, please refer to the HPE QuickSpecs.

Cray Storage Systems C500 bring the value proposition of Cray ClusterStor E1000 Storage Systems to entry-level and mid-range HPC/AI compute clusters built on HPE Cray XD systems.

With HPE Cray Storage Systems C500 you can:

• Take control of your HPC/AI storage spending, enabled by the embedded open-source Lustre file system without capacity-based licensing and a cost-effective hybrid architecture.
• Remove I/O bottlenecks holding your HPC/AI initiatives back, enabled by the very strong read and write performance of the file system.
• Enjoy unified support from the HPE Services team for your whole HPC/AI infrastructure stack and sidestep the “finger pointing” characteristic of 3rd-party storage vendors during complex support cases.
• Feel secure in the fact that your valuable data sits in a file system that is owned by a vibrant community and not by a single company.

The Cray Storage Systems C500 answers the call for fast and cost-effective parallel storage for entry-level or midrange compute clusters running MOD/SIM or converged MOD/SIM and AI/ML workloads.

Learn more at the HPC/AI storage webpage or request a briefing via your HPE account manager.