Servers facilitate management of SAN-based storage.
Press Release Summary:
TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller is a storage virtualization system that incorporates highly specialized software, control engines installed in pairs for redundancy, master console, and UPSs. It combines servers into high availability designed cluster. Each server in cluster is populated with 4 GB of high-speed memory, which serves as cluster cache. Redundant UPSs help protect against data loss resulting from loss of electrical power.
Original Press Release:
IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller Storage Engines Provide Hardware for the IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller
At a Glance
The SAN Volume Controller solution is designed to help reduce both the complexity and cost of managing your SAN-based storage.
The SAN Volume Controller is designed to allow you to:
1. Simplify management and increase administrator productivity by consolidating storage management intelligence from disparate storage controllers into a single view
2. Improve disaster recovery and business continuance capabilities by applying and managing copy services across disparate disk storage devices within the storage area network
These solutions include a Common Information Model (CIM) Agent, enabling unified storage management based on open standards for units that comply with CIM Agent standards.
This announcement describes the hardware required by the SVC Storage Software.
For ordering, contact:
Your IBM representative, an IBM Business Partner, or the Americas Call Centers at 800-IBM-CALL (Reference: YE001).
Overview
The IBM TotalStorage(TM) SAN Volume Controller Storage Engines are the hardware elements of the IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller, a member of the IBM TotalStorage Virtualization Family of solutions. The SAN Volume Controller (SVC) combines servers into a high availability designed cluster. Each of the servers in the cluster is populated with 4 GB of high-speed memory which serves as the cluster cache. The redundant uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) are designed to help protect against data loss resulting from a loss of electrical power. The SVC Storage Engines are always installed in pairs for redundancy.
A separate server provides a master console. The SAN Volume Controller master console software is preloaded on the master console and provides the user interface to the SAN Volume Controller. The master console can, using VPN, provide a Remote Support interface. This can help eliminate the requirement for frequent on-site support.
Key Prerequisites
The SAN Volume Controller supports connectivity with Intel®-based servers running Windows NT®, Windows® 2000 Advanced Server, or Linux Red Hat Advanced Server, and with RISC-based servers running AIX®, HP-UX, or Sun Solaris operating systems. These servers require the Subsystem Device Driver (SDD) multipathing driver. IBM FAStT and IBM Enterprise Storage Server(TM) (ESS) SAN disk arrays are supported.
The IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller Storage Software must be ordered separately. For additional details, refer to Software Announcement 203-150, dated June 3, 2003.
Planned Availability Date
July 25, 2003
Description
The IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller is a storage virtualization system that incorporates highly specialized software, control engines (SVC Storage Engines) installed in pairs, a master console, and UPSs. The SAN Volume Controller hardware configuration consists of a cluster of IBM 2145 Model 4F2 servers, called SVC Storage Engines. Each SVC Storage Engine is a node; two nodes make up a node pair (I/O Group), and one or two I/O Groups constitute a SAN Volume Controller cluster. The cluster is scalable from one to two node pairs (I/O Groups) and supported by dual read/write cache. This design is intended to avoid single points of failure and support concurrent maintenance.
