IBM Storwize family

IBM Storwize systems are virtualizing RAID computer data storage systems with raw storage capacities up to 4PB.^[1] Storwize is based on the same software as IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC).

Models

The Storwize family offers eight members:^[2]

• IBM Storwise V7000 Gen2 - Capacity up to 4PB and the capability to virtualize external storage
• IBM Storwize V7000 – Capacity up to 1.92PB and the capability to virtualize external storage
• IBM Storwize V7000 Unified – adds file connectivity
• IBM SAN Volume Controller – virtualizes multiple storage arrays
• IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node – designed for integration with IBM PureSystems (Support withdrawn at SVC v7.3.0)
• IBM Storwize V5000 - capacity up to 960TB
• IBM Storwize V3700 – capacity up to 480TB
• IBM Storwize V3500 – capacity up to 48TB (available in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan only)

Each of the above family members run software that is based on a common source codebase, although each has a type specific downloadable package.

Architecture

Storwize V7000 provides a very similar architecture to SVC, using the RAID code from the DS8000 to provide internal managed disks and SSD code from the DS8000 for tiered storage.^[3]

Features and software

All Storwize systems offer the following features:^[4]

• Easy to use GUI
• Space Efficient Volumes also known as Thin Provisioning
• RAID levels 0,1,5,6,10
• FlashCopy
• Data Migration: data can be moved between all virtualized storage (both internal and external) with no disruption

In addition, the Storwize V7000 offers the following features:^[5]

• Peer to Peer Remote Copy
• Metro Mirror (sync copy)
• Global Mirror (async copy)
• Global Mirror with Change Volumes (low bandwidth async copy using flashcopies)
• External Storage Virtualization
• Virtual Disk Mirroring
• Real-time Compression

In addition, the Storwize V7000 Unified offers the following feature:^[6]

• File level storage (NAS)
• Policy based file placement Active Cloud Engine
• Global Namespace
• Async replication on File level

Hardware

The Storwize family hardware consists of control enclosures and expansion enclosures, connected with wide SAS cables (Four lanes of 6Gbit/s or 12Gbit/s). Each enclosure houses 2.5" or 3.5" drives. The control enclosure contains two independent control units (nodes) based on SAN Volume Controller technology, which are clustered via an internal network. Each enclosure also includes two power supply units (PSUs).

Storwize V7000 Gen 2

The IBM Storwize V7000 SFF Control Enclosure Model 524, announced 6th May 2014, features two node canisters and up to 128 GB cache (system total) in a 2U, 19-inch rack mount enclosure. 1 Gb iSCSI connectivity is standard, with options for 8 Gb FC and 10 Gb iSCSI/FCoE connectivity. It holds up to twenty-four 2.5-inch SAS drives and supports the attachment of up to 20 Storwize V7000 expansion enclosures.

IBM Storwize V7000 next-generation models offer increased performance and connectivity, integrated compression acceleration, and additional scalability with the following features:

• Two node canisters, each with an eight-core processor and integrated hardware-assisted compression acceleration
• 64 GB cache (per I/O group) standard, with optional 128 GB cache per I/O group (node pair) for Real-time Compression workloads
• 8 Gb Fibre Channel (FC), 10 Gb iSCSI / Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and 1 Gb iSCSI connectivity options
• 12 Gb SAS expansion enclosures supporting twelve 3.5-inch large form factor (LFF) or twenty-four 2.5-inch small form factor (SFF) drives
• Scaling for up to 504 drives per I/O group with the attachment of 20 Storwize V7000 expansion enclosures and up to 1,056 drives in a four-way clustered configuration
• The ability to be added into existing clustered systems with previous generation Storwize V7000 systems
• Compatibility with IBM Storwize V7000 Unified File Modules for unified storage capability
• All models are delivered in a 2U, 19-inch rack mount enclosure and include a three-year warranty with customer replaceable unit (CRU) and on-site service. Optional warranty service upgrades are available for enhanced levels of warranty service.

Hardware Details:

• The Storwize V7000 SFF Control Enclosure Model 2076-524 features:
  • Two node canisters, each with an eight-core processor and 32 GB cache for a system total of 64 GB cache
  • 1 Gb Ethernet ports standard for 1 Gb iSCSI connectivity
  • Up to two I/O adapter features for 8 Gb FC and 10 Gb iSCSI/FCoE connectivity
  • Supports up to twenty-four 2.5-inch drives
  • 2U, 19-inch rack mount enclosure
  • Storwize V7000 offers both LFF(2076-12F) and SFF(2076-24F) 12 Gb SAS expansion enclosure models.

Software Details:

• First supported on the Storwize V7000 7.3.0 software.
• The 7.4.0 software adds support for protection (SCSI T10 standard data integrity field (DIF)), encryption at rest and 4kB block drives.

Storwize V7000

Storwize V7000 consists of one to four control enclosures and up to 36 expansion enclosures, for a maximum of 40 enclosures altogether. It can scale up to 960 disks and 1.44PB raw internal capacity.^[7]

Hardware details:

• 2U rack-mountable chassis
• Six available enclosure models:
  • Type 2076-112 = Control enclosure – up to 12 3.5" drives
  • Type 2076-124 = Control enclosure – up to 24 2.5" drives
  • Type 2076-212 = Expansion enclosure – up to 12 3.5" drives
  • Type 2076-224 = Expansion enclosure – up to 24 2.5" drives
  • Type 2076-312 = Control enclosure – up to 12 3.5" drives + 10Gb iSCSI
  • Type 2076-324 = Control enclosure – up to 24 2.5" drives + 10Gb iSCSI
• Up to 48 TB of physical storage per enclosure using 4 TB near-line SAS disk drives, or up to 28.8 TB physical storage per enclosure using 1.2 TB SAS 10K disk drives
• Redundant dual-active intelligent controllers
• 16 GB cache memory per control enclosure (8 GB per internal controller) as a base feature
• For each control enclosure: Eight 8 Gbit/s Fibre Channel ports (four 8 Gbit/s FC ports per controller), four 1 Gbit/s iSCSI and optionally four 10 Gbit/s iSCSI/FCoE host ports (two 1 Gbit/s iSCSI and optionally two 10 Gbit/s iSCSI/FCoE ports per controller)
• Control enclosures support attachment of up to nine expansion enclosures with configurations up to 360 TB physical internal storage capacities (for Storwize V7000, up to 1.44 PB in clustered systems)
• Dual power supplies and cooling components, the control enclosure PSUs each house a battery pack which retains cached data in the event of a power failure.
• File module - V7000 Unified - provides attachment to 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s network-attached storage (NAS) environments

Storwize V5000

Storwize V5000 consists of one to two control enclosures and up to 12 expansion enclosures, for a maximum of 18 enclosures altogether. It can scale up to 480 disks and 960TB raw internal capacity.^[8]

Hardware details:

• 2U rack-mountable chassis
• Six available enclosure models:
  • Type 2078-12C = Control enclosure – up to 12 3.5" drives
  • Type 2078-24C = Control enclosure – up to 24 2.5" drives
  • Type 2078-212 = Expansion enclosure – up to 12 3.5" drives
  • Type 2078-224 = Expansion enclosure – up to 24 2.5" drives
  • Type 2078-12C = Control enclosure – up to 12 3.5" drives + 10Gb iSCSI
  • Type 2078-24C = Control enclosure – up to 24 2.5" drives + 10Gb iSCSI
• Up to 48 TB of physical storage per enclosure using 4 TB near-line SAS disk drives, or up to 28.8 TB physical storage per enclosure using 1.2 TB SAS 10K SAS disk drives
• Redundant dual-active intelligent controllers
• 16 GB cache memory per control enclosure (8 GB per internal controller) as a base feature
• For each control enclosure: Eight 8 Gbit/s Fibre Channel ports (four 8 Gbit/s FC ports per controller), four 1 Gbit/s iSCSI and optionally four 10 Gbit/s iSCSI/FCoE host ports (two 1 Gbit/s iSCSI and optionally two 10 Gbit/s iSCSI/FCoE ports per controller)
• Control enclosures support attachment of up to six expansion enclosures
• Dual power supplies and cooling components

SAN Volume Controller

An entry-level SAN Volume Controller configuration contains a single I/O group, can scale out to support four I/O groups and can scale up to support 4,096 host servers, up to 8,192 volumes and up to 32 PB of virtualized storage capacity.^[9] For the full article, see IBM SAN Volume Controller.

Hardware details (per node - an I/O group consists of TWO nodes):

• Based on IBM System x® 3650 M4 server
• Processor: one (optionally, two) Intel Xeon E5-2650v2 2.6 GHz eight core processor
• Optional compression accelerator cards (up to two)
• 32 GB (optionally, 64 GB) of system memory
• Four (optionally, eight or 12) 8 Gbit/s Fibre Channel ports
• Three 1 Gbit/s and optionally four 10 Gbit/s iSCSI/FCoE ports
• Supports up to two SSD expansion enclosures (up to 48 SSDs per I/O group)
• Two power supplies and integrated battery units
• 19-inch rack-mounted enclosure

Storwize V3700

Storwize V3700 consists of one control enclosure and up to 4 expansion enclosures. It can scale up to 240 2.5-inch disk drives or 120 3.5-inch disk drives and 480TB raw internal capacity.^[10]

Hardware details:

• 2U rack-mountable chassis
• Four available enclosure models:
  • 2072-12C - Dual Control Enclosure – up to 12 3.5" drives
  • 2072-12E - Expansion Enclosure – up to 12 3.5" drives
  • 2072-24C - Dual Control Enclosure – up to 24 2.5" drives
  • 2072-24E - Expansion Enclosure up to 24 2.5" drives
• Control enclosure networking: 4 x 1 Gb iSCSI and 6 x 6 Gbit/s SAS host interfaces with optional 8 Gbit/s Fibre Channel, further 6Gbit/s SAS or 10 Gb iSCSI/Fibre Channel over Ethernet host ports
• Dual-port, hot-swappable 6 Gb SAS disk drives
• 8 GB cache memory per control enclosure (4 GB per internal controller) as a base feature, upgradeable to 16 GB cache (8 GB per internal controller)
• Redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and fans
• AC power (110 – 240 V)

Flex System V7000 Storage Node

Flex System V7000 can scale up to 240 (2.5" disks) per control enclosure; 960 (2.5" disks) per clustered system. This is not supported at v7.3.0.

Hardware details:

• Redundant dual-active intelligent controllers
• 16 GB cache memory per control enclosure (8 GB per internal controller) as a base feature
• SAN-attached 8 Gbit/s Fibre Channel, 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) FCoE and iSCSI host connectivity
• Control enclosures support attachment of up to nine expansion enclosures (internal and external mix) with configurations up to 960 drives.

External links

• IBM Virtualization Products

References

1. "IBM Storwize family". IBM. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
2. "We are family ! – Meet the IBM Storwize Family". Storage CH Blog. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
3. "IBM’s New Midrange with Easy Tier & External Virtualization". The Storage Buddhist. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
4. "Storwize V3700 overview". IBM Storwize V3700 Version 6.4.1. IBM. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
5. "Storwize V7000 overview". IBM Storwize V7000 Version 6.4.1. IBM. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
6. "Storwize V7000 Unified overview". IBM Storwize V7000 Unified Version 1.4. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
7. "IBM Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified Disk Systems". IBM. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
8. "IBM Storwize V5000". IBM. Retrieved 16 Aug 2014.
9. "IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller". IBM. Retrieved 16 Aug 2014.
10. "IBM Storwize V3700". IBM. Retrieved 16 Aug 2014.