From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia EMC Symmetrix
EMC Symmetrix
The Symmetrix system is EMC Corporation’s flagship en- • The scalable Symmetrix VMAX system
terprise storage array. The Symmetrix development has • The single engine Symmetrix VMAX SE system.
been led by Moshe Yanai, who joined EMC in 1987, until
shortly before his leaving EMC in 2001. There have been The Symmetrix VMAX System
many generations of Symmetrix hardware, with the first The Symmetrix VMAX system is the high-end, scalable
appearing in 1990 and the latest, the Symmetrix VMAX storage array with a system bay and separate roll-up
Series, introduced in April 2009. The development of the storage bays. The system scales from a single Symmetrix
Symmetrix’s new features and huge internal software VMAX Engine system with one storage bay to a large
base, amid increasing its capacity and performance in or- eight engine system and a maximum of ten storage bays.
ders of magnitude, have been an on-going process since System upgrades are achieved by adding single or mul-
its introduction. tiple VMAX Engines or additional storage bays. Each
VMAX Engine contains two Symmetrix VMAX directors
History with extensive CPU processing power, physical memory,
front-end ports, and back-end ports. Drive capacity is in-
Symmetrix arrays, EMC’s flagship product at that time, creased by installing 4 Gb/s disk array enclosures to the
began shipping in 1990 as an IBM Mainframe Block Mul- storage bay.
tiplex Channel - (aka Bus and Tag) connected storage ar-
ray. Newer generations of Symmetrix brought addition- The Symmetrix VMAX SE System
al host connection protocols which include ESCON, SCSI,
The Symmetrix VMAX SE system is the single engine
Fibre Channel-based SANs, FICON and iSCSI. The Sym-
Symmetrix system. Symmetrix VMAX SE systems offer a
metrix product was initially popular within the airline
single cabinet configuration that contains both the sys-
industry and with companies that were willing to deviate
tem logic and drives.
from the safety of IBM’s 3390 disk subsystem and take a
risk with the unproven Symmetrix array. The Symmetrix
has been developed by a team led by Moshe Yanai. This Symmetrix DMX Series
product is the main reason for the rapid growth of EMC in
The DMX family of Symmetrix disk arrays was first in-
the 1990s, both in size and value, from a company valued
troduced in February 2003. This new line of arrays re-
hundreds of millions of dollars to a multi-billion com-
placed the old direct connect line of Symmetrix with an
pany.[1] Moshe Yanai managed the Symmetrix develop-
array whose components were all interconnected togeth-
ment from the product’s inception in the late 1980s un-
er. This release delivered the first modular Symmetrix
til shortly before leaving EMC in 2001,[2] and his Sym-
which was the DMX800 and well as the monolithic
metrix development team grew from several people to
DMX1000. Later revisions of the family were named
thousands.
DMX2, DMX3 and DMX4.
In the mid-1990s the Symmetrix expanded beyond
mainframes (Bus and Tag, ESCON) into open systems
(SCSI), and replication features such as SRDF (remote Platform Comparisons
replication) and TimeFinder (local replication) have been
added to it. Other storage interface types (e.g., Fibre Symmetrix Symmetrix Symmetrix Symmetri
channel, FICON, iSCSI) have been added upon their intro- VMAX VMAX SE DMX-4 DMX-4 95
duction in the market. Since the appearance of Storage Maximum 2400 360 2400 360
Area Networks (SANs), Fibre Channel first, and then Eth- Drives
ernet based, the Symmetrix has been a leader in this area.
Architecture Virtual Ma- Virtual Ma- Direct Ma- Direct Ma
trix Archi- trix Archi- trix Archi- trix Archi
Symmetrix VMAX Series tecture tecture tecture tecture
EMC Symmetrix VMAX systems are enterprise-class stor- Maximum 16 2 N/A N/A
age platforms intended for open systems and mainframe Integrated
computing. VMAX systems run the Enginuity operating Directors
environment for Symmetrix and are offered in two mod-
els:
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia EMC Symmetrix
Connection FC, FICON, FC, FICON, FC, FICON, FC, software
dentGigabit vendors are able to utilize Enginuity func-
Types Gigabit Eth- Gigabit Eth- ESCON, Gi- tions in their own packages.
Ethernet,
ernet, iSCSI ernet, iSCSI Enginuity on Symmetrix provides multiple RAID pro-
gabit Ether- iSCSI
net, iSCSI tection levels as well as copies of data locally, on the same
array, or remotely on another remote Symmetrix array
Maximum Up to 128 Up to 16 Up to 64 Up EMC’s
withto 16 Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF). Im-
Connectivity ports de- ports de- ports de- ports de-
portantly, Enginuity can control the consistency of data
pending on pending on pending various locations allowing for multiple appli-
pending on copies at on
connection connection connection
connection cation uses as well as full security and data integrity in
type type type type
the event of a catastrophic shutdown at any client site.
Maximum 32 (FC or 4 (FC or GbE 8 (GbE SRDF Enginuity also includes capabilities like Fully Automated
8 (GbE SRDF
SRDF Ports GbE SRDF SRDF ports) ports) Storage Tiering (FAST) and Virtual Provisioning – EMC’s
ports)
ports) thin provisioning option.
Enginuity Software Symmetrix Software
Enginuity is the name of the storage operating environ- TimeFinder
ment that controls components in an EMC Symmetrix
TimeFinder is a family of EMC replication products that
storage array. This specialized operating environment is
operate in a single Symmetrix array and non-disruptive-
optimized for data storage functions. It is driven by real-
ly create and manage point-in-time copies of data vol-
time events related to the input and output of data and
umes. TimeFinder runs in Symmetrix Enginuity but is
applies self-optimizing intelligence to deliver perfor-
controlled by TimeFinder software running on an at-
mance, availability and data integrity for EMC advanced
tached host. It can be administered by the user through
storage arrays.
Solutions Enabler Command Line Interface, Symmetrix
Advancements in Enginuity are carried forward in
Management Console (SMC), EMC Control Center (ECC)
each successive EMC platform generation.
or Mainframe Enablers. TimeFinder includes the follow-
Enginuity encompasses four key concepts:
ing sets of products:
• Foundation—Preemptive multi-tasking, operational
consistency, and security. Managing multiple shared TimeFinder/Mirror
resources across Symmetrix systems, Enginuity
TimeFinder/Mirror is the original TimeFinder product
provides built-in security capabilities while
that has been in existence for about 12 years. It provides
insulating storage applications from technology
full copies of source volumes through a technique of
changes.
hardware mirroring. The target volume for a TimeFin-
• Performance—Maximizing speed. Utilizing patented
der/Mirror process is a Business Continuance Volume
intelligent adaptive algorithms to manage data flow
(BCV); a specially designated volume within the Sym-
across channels, memory, and disks, Enginuity
metrix configuration. When a BCV is fully synchronized
dynamically controls events in complex and highly
with a data device, the BCV is separated or split, and
variable environments to maximize application
made available to a host for backup or other host
performance under varying workloads.
processes.
• Availability—Always accessible data. Enginuity
manages data integrity through redundant functions TimeFinder/Clone
in hardware and software including mirrored
TimeFinder/Clone provides single or multiple point-in-
memory, redundant disk placement and
time copies of full volumes or individual datasets. Cloned
infrastructure to assure data availability and
data is available to a host immediately upon activation,
reliability. Availability and reliability includes trend
even if the copy process has not completed.
analysis and early detection as well as automatic
failover and fully automated escalation upon TimeFinder/Snap
problem detection.
TimeFinder/Snap provides pointer-only based replicas
• Open integration—Comprehensive coverage,
simultaneously on multiple target devices from a single
guaranteed interoperability, and investment
source device. With a space saving TimeFinder/Snap only
protection.
changed data is written to a pool of save devices. Data re-
EMC maintains a storage networking interoperability
construction is from the source device and the pointers
program for hardware and software. In addition, using
into the change tracking save pool. Data may be copied
openly available application programming interfaces
from a single source device to as many as 128 target vir-
(APIs) and supporting SMI industry standards, indepen-
tual devices. Because it uses pointers, the additional ca-
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia EMC Symmetrix
pacity to support the copy is minimal –typically less than dressing space of 4 billion addresses became sparse
30% of the source volume. quickly during the Internet surge and became a concern.
Another way of addressing for the Internet standards
TimeFinder Consistency Groups needed to be created. The largest concern of having lim-
TimeFinder Consistency Groups is a flow control mecha- ited addressing is the potential ease of IP duplication
nism that is employed to create copies of source volumes throughout the global environment and the additional
at an instantaneous point in time. TF/CG utilizes an Engi- threat of easier IP spoofing across networks. Because
nuity feature called ECAM (Enginuity Consistency Assist) IPv4 had limitations that resulted in reactive solutions
to momentarily halt writes to source volumes during the to extensibility issues with security, multicasting, CIDR,
creation of the copy. NAT, quality service, and mobility, the standardization
of IPv6 had more baselines to create proactive solutions
SRDF to existing addressing problems. Using CIDR (classless in-
The Symmetrix SRDF (Symmetrix Remote Data Facility) terdomain routing) and NAT (network address transla-
family of remote mirroring software offers various levels tion) allowed IPv4 administrators to carve up environ-
of Symmetrix based business continuity and disaster re- ments into smaller manageable segments and translating
covery solutions. The SRDF product family offers the ca- private addressing to global address translation became
pability to maintain multiple, host-independent, mir- more scalable. The advancement of IPv6 has eliminated
rored copies of data. The Symmetrix systems participat- the need for these management tools providing unique
ing in SRDF can be in the same room, in different buildin- node capabilities and driven more peer-to-peer applica-
gs within the same campus, or hundreds to thousands of tions like SRDF and iSCSI to utilize peer-to-peer “globally
kilometers apart. routable” addressing without the worry about adminis-
tration of NAT or subnets. The benefits of using and man-
aging IPv6 goes beyond its larger, diverse address space
capabilities. Even though EMC software cannot take ad-
vantage of the “autoconfiguration” feature in IPv6, the
ease of plugging an IPv6 device into a network environ-
ment and obtaining a global address easily is a huge ad-
vantage to mobility. This isn’t to say that other features
SRDF transparently remotely mirrors production or don’t complement the EMC software capabilities. For ex-
primary (source) site data to a secondary (target) site to ample, neighbor discovery with a routable environment
users, applications, databases, and host processors. The provides the available IPv6 links to “discover” one anoth-
local SRDF device, known as the primary (RDF1) device, er without the need to know the subnet mask or static
is configured in a partner relationship with a remote sec- route of the environment.
ondary (RDF2) device to form an SRDF pair. By maintain- SRDF and iSCSI connection requirements will be the
ing copies of data in different physical locations, SRDF same over a customer’s IPv6 network with functionality
enables the following operations with minimal impact on equivalent to IPv4. The SRDF sessions must run within an
normal business processing: IPv6 network and transfer data over IPv6 networks. They
• Disaster restart require entry of IPv6 addresses in all GUIs where an IPv4
• Disaster restart testing address can be entered. SRDF and iSCSI will use IPv6 ver-
• Recovery from planned outages sions of any IPv4 services as they are currently available.
• Remote backup These include DNS, DHCP, and others. The only excep-
• Data center migration tions are the variables that make IPv6 distinct from IPv4,
• Data replication and mobility which are that there are no subnet masks or static routes
Upon the previously described functionalities, SRDF may needed.
be implemented in several modes: IPv6 configuration requirements are as follows:
• a synchronous version called SRDF/S • GigE configurations require the EMC customer
• a consistent asynchronous version called SRDF/A engineer to configure static parameters through the
• a triangular solution called SRDF/Star Symmwin GUI onsite.
• SRDF specific configurations require the EMC
Advanced IP features customer engineer to input IP Address specifics
IPv6 through the Symmwin GUI onsite.
Historic network standard IPv4 is still supported with • Customers need to provide IP address schemas
the introduction of the advanced multiprotocol front- between sites for implementation by an EMC
end channel directors. IPv6 differs from IPv4 in that it customer engineer.
offers a much larger IP addressing scheme in the form • Autoconfiguration of IPv6 addressing is not allowed.
of 128-bit allocated blocks. The available 32-bit IPv4 ad- Some customers may use this feature that allows
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia EMC Symmetrix
devices (like a router) to generate their own globally Enginuity 5773. External encryption devices have been
routable addresses as needed. This conflicts with the qualified historically for connectivity between sites;
requirement that addressing remains static on the however, this does not provide hardware encryption end
Symmetrix (neighbor discovery). to end, as shown in Figure
• Switches and routers in the path of IPv6 traffic must IPsec typically does not impact performance or laten-
be IPv6 capable. cy. There is the initialization phase during which the first
IPSec security association is established. Subsequent sessions
The advanced multiprotocol front-end channel direc- will be seamless as connections remain during the poli-
tors for Symmetrix provide the same level of security cy allocated lifetime. Unlike some other encryption im-
as standalone encryption appliances while minimizing plementations, the encryption is not performed in soft-
management and reliability overhead associated with ex- ware, but rather in an embedded line-grade encryption
ternal appliances. They handle IPsec by using the inte- co-processor, and it does not degrade performance. With
grated Hifn 4450 processor chips. Having IPSec capabili- encryption technologies such as SSL, heavy TCP applica-
ties in the Symmetrix is desirable for customer wanting tions behave sluggish and overhead can impact round-
to secure their SRDF transactions across IP networks via trip turnaround time between the source and destina-
Gigabit Ethernet. tion.
IPsec is the security protocol designed to encapsulate
the entirety of IP data over a network between hardware Quality of Service
endpoints. It has the capacity to combine strong authen- Two Quality of Service tools available to EMC Symmetrix
tication and complementary encryption algorithms to storage arrays are Dynamic Cache Partitioning (DCP) and
create secure associations (SAs) between local and re- Symmetrix Priority Controls (SPC). Storage resource op-
mote entities. IPsec operates at Layer 3 (network layer) timization based on workload equality is the default be-
of the OSI reference model and has been integrated into havior for Symmetrix arrays catering to homogenous ap-
IPv6 extension headers. This has reduced the dependen- plication environments. However consolidation of dis-
cy on hardware vendors from having to “hook” this pro- similar workloads on the same storage resources has be-
tocol into the IP stack for secure connectivity. This has come more desirable and this goal requires flexibility for
not, however, changed for the IPv4 standard. The entire- differential treatment between workflows. Cache memo-
ty of IPsec is made up of the Authentication Header (AH), ry and disk access are key storage resources now subject
Encapsulating Security Protocol (ESP), and Internet Key to isolation and prioritization mechanisms. The ability to
Exchange (IKE). The minimum criterion for IPsec is to use set allocation preferences for these resources facilitates
ESP and IKE with preshared keys. This implementation many storage management objectives.
is primarily what the advanced multiprotocol boards will
use with Enginuity 5773. Dynamic Cache Partitioning
IPsec uses IKE inside an Internet Security Association With Dynamic Cache Partitioning (DCP) workloads that
Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP) framework to ne- are cache friendly can be guaranteed more cache re-
gotiate protocols and algorithms based on the policies sources, increasing the aggregate cache utilization figure
set up locally on the entity. ISAKMP is the local policy and improving that workload’s performance. A working
generated to dictate the encryption and authentication set that is not cache effective can be fenced into a small
methodology in how the preshared keys will be used by cache partition, removing any cache diluting influence
the endpoint negotiation for a secure session. These poli- for other applications. The resulting increase in aggre-
cies will be set up through EMC Solutions Enabler (CLI) or gate cache utilization improves the effective use of cache
Symmetrix Management Console. However, if customers and allows maximal performance for prioritized work-
want advanced administration features such as external loads.
key manager integration or hardened key storage, they DCP allows for cache partitions of fixed size, parti-
will need to rely on appliances for site-to-site connec- tions that shrink and grow based on cache efficiency
tivity. External key management is being currently eval- measures and the scheduling of cache partition size
uated to provide a complete public-key infrastructure changes to meet the needs of changing business cycles.
(PKI) by RSA with EMC to provide “extra strength” en-
cryption using public/private key exchange. The differ- Symmetrix Priority Controls
ence between PKI and preshared keys used for IPsec is Many strategies currently exist to deliver improved per-
that a complete public key infrastructure uses a trusted formance for disk drives within storage subsystems. Disk
certificate authority that creates a public/private digital level buffering and request reordering are techniques
key pair to create an IPsec connection. Even though this that have evolved to specifically address disk optimiza-
method is more secure, it is more difficult to manage tion opportunities inherent in storage throughput op-
than preshared keys. In the meanwhile, preshared keys erations. Faster seek times, higher disk spin rates and
are the default method of session key establishment for
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia EMC Symmetrix
reduced interface overheads attempt to counterbalance Virtual Provisioning thin devices are supported for
disk capacity increases and deliver improved access per- use with all Open Systems platforms that are qualified
formance. All of these techniques function well in ho- for connectivity to EMC Symmetrix DMX and VMAX disk
mogenous environments. However, Symmetrix Priority arrays. EMC Symmetrix Fully Automated Storage Tiering
Controls (SPC) is designed to provide distinction between (FAST), automates tiered storage strategies by moving
multiple application workloads by setting preferences workloads between Symmetrix tiers as performance
for higher-tier applications, during times of disk conten- characteristics change over time. FAST performs system
tion. SPC is designed to function only when disk conten- reconfiguration, improving performance and reducing
tion is discovered. Implementing user requested priori- costs, while maintaining service levels.
ties at the disk level will deliver:
• Higher I/O rates on a disk while maintaining Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST)
response time for priority work Designed to work in thick and thin provisioned envi-
• Consistent response times for priority workloads ronments, FAST automates the identification of data vol-
• Balanced disk utilization through workload peaks umes for the purposes of relocating application data
and troughs across different performance/capacity tiers within an ar-
• Greater disk utilization ray. FAST proactively monitors workloads at the volume
• More effective use of larger capacity, lower level in order to identify “busy” volumes that would ben-
performance disks efit from being moved to higher performing drives. FAST
• Simultaneous low priority work with minimal also identifies less “busy” volumes that could be relo-
contention on higher priority work cated to higher capacity drives, without existing perfor-
mance being affected. This promotion/demotion activity
Virtual Provisioning is based on policies that associate a storage group to mul-
Virtual Provisioning is EMC’s implementation of thin tiple drive technologies, or RAID protection schemes,
provisioning. Virtual Provisioning allows users to create based upon the performance requirements of the appli-
large “thin” volumes and present them to the host while cation contained within the storage group. Data move-
consuming physical storage from a shared pool only as ment executed during this activity is performed non-dis-
needed. ruptively, without affecting business continuity and data
Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning introduces a new availability.
type of host accessible device called a thin device that FAST uses three distinct algorithms when determin-
can be used in many of the same ways that regular, host ing the appropriate tier for a device. The algorithms, in
accessible Symmetrix devices have traditionally been order of probability, are:
used. Unlike regular Symmetrix devices, thin devices do • EFD promotion/demotion algorithm
not need to have physical storage completely allocated at • Capacity-based algorithm
the time the devices are created and presented to a host. • FC/SATA cross-tier algorithm
The physical storage that is used to supply drive space for The goal of the EFD promotion/demotion algorithm is to
a thin device comes from a shared thin storage pool that maximize Flash drive utilization within the array. When
has been associated with the thin device. complete, the algorithm will have listed all the devices in
A thin storage pool is composed of a new type of in- the array in order of which devices would be best served
ternal Symmetrix device called a data device that is ded- being configured on EFD. FAST will then attempt to place
icated to the purpose of providing the actual physical those devices onto Flash drives. The goal of the capacity-
storage used by thin devices. based algorithm is to enforce the FAST policy storage us-
When a write is performed to a portion of the thin age rules. A storage group is considered to be in viola-
device, the Symmetrix allocates a minimum allotment of tion when a higher percentage of devices exist on a tier
physical storage from the pool and maps that storage to than is configured in the policy for that tier. The goal of
a region of the thin device including the area targeted the FC/SATA cross-tier algorithm is to balance utilization
by the write. The storage allocation operations are per- across Fibre Channel and SATA technologies. Devices are
formed in small units of storage called “thin device ex- sorted by disk service time, and the most utilized devices
tents.” A round-robin mechanism is used to balance the will be moved to the least utilized disks. If Optimizer is
allocation of data device extents across all of the data de- also enabled on the Symmetrix, then the traditional Op-
vices in the pool that are enabled and that have remain- timizer algorithm will be used to balance load within a
ing unused capacity. The thin device extent size is twelve physical disk group.
64 KB tracks (768 KB). There are two methods by which a device will be relo-
When a read is performed on a thin device, the data cated to another tier: swap or move. A swap occurs when
being read is retrieved from the appropriate data device there is no unconfigured space in the target tier, and re-
in the storage pool to which the thin device is bound. sults in a corresponding device being moved out of the
5
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia EMC Symmetrix
target tier. In order to preserve data on both devices in- EMC for storage, system, and database administrators,
volved in the swap, a single DRV is used. A move occurs and systems engineers. It provides a specialized library of
when unconfigured space exists in the target tier. Only UNIX-formatted commands, and supports command line
one device is involved in a move, and a DRV is not re- entries and scripts to perform configuration, control, and
quired. Symmetrix metadevices are moved as a complete management operations on devices and data objects in
entity—metadevice members may not exist in different EMC storage environments. Solutions Enabler software
physical disk groups. supports both open systems and mainframe operating
Management and operation of FAST is provided by systems.
EMC Symmetrix Management Console (SMC), as well as Example Solutions Enabler operations;
the EMC Solutions Enabler Command Line Interface • Set array-wide metrics.
(SYMCLI). • Control operations on array devices and ports.
• Device creation, device provisioning (for host
Virtual LUN allocation), and creation of device pools for thin
Symmetrix Virtual LUN Technology enables tiered stor- provisioning.
age strategies by allowing manual “re-tiering” of data as • Fully automated storage tiering (FAST).
its value changes over time. Symmetrix Virtual LUN as- • Optimize array performance.
sists with system reconfiguration, performance improve- • Manage QOS (Quality of Service) metrics.
ment and consolidation efforts while maintaining service • Perform virtual LUN migration tasks.
levels. Virtual LUN technology, enhanced with Enginuity Solutions Enabler software is accompanied with every
5874 for the Symmetrix VMAX Series, enables transpar- EMC storage array (Symmetrix/CLARiiON) that is sold.
ent, nondisruptive data mobility among storage tiers This is a critical piece of software and fully compatible
within the same array and between RAID protection with either Symmetrix Enginuity or CLARiiON Flare. Eng-
schemes. inuity and Flare are the intelligent underlying software
Virtual LUN technology offers two types of data that drives the storage array operating platform.
movement: migration to unconfigured space and migra-
tion to configured space. In each case, the migration pro- Symmetrix Management Console
vides users the ability to move data between high-per- Symmetrix Management Console (SMC) is a browser-
formance drives and high-capacity drives, or to populate based user interface designed for configuring and man-
newly added drives, with full inter-RAID flexibility. aging Symmetrix arrays. It was developed to concurrent-
Virtual LUN technology is supported for both open ly support all the features of Enginuity Version 5671 and
system and mainframe devices, and includes support for later.
metavolumes. Virtual LUN technology is fully interoper- SMC presents the functionality of the Solutions En-
able with all other Symmetrix replication technologies abler SYMCLI (command line interface) in a browser in-
– SRDF, TimeFinder/Clone, TimeFinder/Snap, and Open terface. SMC is used to perform the following functions;
Replicator. Virtual LUN migrations can be managed via • Manage Symmetrix access controls, user accounts,
the Symmetrix Management Console (SMC) graphical in- and permission roles
terface, or the Solutions Enabler Command Line Interface • Discover Symmetrix arrays
(SYMCLI). • Perform configuration operations (create devices,
map and mask devices, set Symmetrix attributes, set
Management Software device attributes, set port flags, create SAVE device
pools)
EMC provides host packages that to assist in the manage- • Manage devices (change device configuration, set
ment of the Symmetrix array. These host packages per- device status, reserve devices, duplicate devices,
form functions today that used to be the exclusive do- create/dissolve metadevices)
main of EMC Customer Engineers many years ago. The • Manage Fully Automate Storage Tiering (FAST),
following sections list the host software that provide virtual provisioning, and Auto-provisioning Groups
management controls over the Symmetrix: • Perform and monitor replication operations
(TimeFinder/Mirror, TimeFinder/Snap, TimeFinder/
Solutions Enabler Clone, SRDF, Open Replicator)
EMC Solutions Enabler is software that provides a host • Monitor alerts
with SYMAPI (Symmetrix Application Programming In- • Monitor an application’s performance
terface), CLARAPI (CLARiiON Application Programming Symmetrix Management Console can manage storage re-
Interface) and STORAPI (Storage Application Program- lated operations from device creation and provisioning
ming Interface) shared libraries for use by Solutions En- to features such as, FAST, replication configuration and
abler applications. Solutions Enabler was developed by monitoring. SMC manages physical and virtual storage.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia EMC Symmetrix
SMC operates on Symmetrix arrays in Mainframe, Open FlashCopy Support
Systems and iSeries environments. SMC manages up to
Symmetrix arrays running Enginuity 5772 and earlier
ten Symmetrix DMX and/or VMAX units, and up to
support FlashCopy channel commands through use of
80,000 storage volumes.
z/OS host emulation package that runs as a started task.
SMC deploys a client/server model where it can be
Symmetrix arrays running Enginuity 5773 and later have
installed in local or remote locations. In a local installa-
support in Enginuity itself. In other words, a FlashCopy
tion, the SMC software is installed on the same system
channel command is sent to the array where the com-
as the SYMAPI (Symmetrix Application Programming In-
mand is executed by Enginuity.
terface) server. In a remote installation, the SMC soft-
ware is installed on a system that is connected to the
SYMAPI server. The ‘SYMAPI server’ and ‘base’ license
ESCON support
keys are required as part of the installation for use with Enterprise Systems Connection (ESCON) is a fiber-optic
SMC, and a Java runtime environment must be enabled connection technology that interconnects mainframe
on the client browser. SMC is also available as a virtual computers, workstations and network-attached storage
appliance for the ESX v3.5 (and later) in the VMware in- devices across a single channel, and supports half duplex
frastructure. data transfers. ESCON may also be used for handling Sym-
metrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) remote links.
Symmetrix Performance Analyzer
EMC Symmetrix Performance Analyzer (SPA) is a
FICON support
browser-based tool used to perform historical trending Fiber Connection (FICON) is a fiber-optic channel tech-
and analysis of Symmetrix array performance data. SPA nology that extends the capabilities of its previous fiber
was developed to work with the Symmetrix Management optic channel standard, ESCON. Unlike ESCON, FICON
Console (SMC). The SPA interface can open in its own web supports full duplex data transfers and enables greater
window from the SMC menu, or on its own. SPA adds an throughput rates over longer distances. FICON uses a
optional layer of data collection, analysis, and presenta- mapping layer based on technology developed for Fibre
tion tools to the SMC implementation. Channel and multiplexing technology, which allows
small data transfers to be transmitted at the same time as
larger ones. With Enginuity release level 5670 and later,
Symmetrix Features for Main- Symmetrix storage systems support FICON ports. With
frame the Enginuity service release 5874.207, VMAX supports 8
Gb FICON connectivity (FICON Express8).
Symmetrix provides specific features that provide com-
patibility with mainframe storage arrays provided by Fibre Channel support
IBM. These features are listed below:
Fibre Channel is a supported option with z/VM and
z/Linux.
Parallel Access Volume (PAV)
Parallel Access Volumes are implemented within z/OS al- Extended Address Volume
lowing one I/O to take place for each base unit control
The ability to utilize volumes that are greater than 65,000
block (UCB), and one for each statically or dynamically
cylinders was provided in z/OS 1.10. EMC Symmetrix
assigned alias UCB. These alias UCBs allow parallel I/O ac-
VMAX arrays utilizing Enginuity 5874.207 support EAVs.
cess for volumes. Current Enginuity releases provide sup-
port for static, dynamic, and hyperPAVs. HyperPAVs al-
zHPF support
low fewer aliases to be defined within a logical control
unit. With hyperPAVs, aliases are applied to the base System z10 High Performance FICON (zHPF) represents
UCBs (devices) when the need arises. the latest enhancement to the FICON interface architec-
ture aimed at offering an improvement in the perfor-
Multiple Allegiance (MA) mance of online transaction processing (OLTP) work-
loads. Mainframe systems that are presently channel-
While PAVs facilitate multiple parallel accesses to the
constrained running heavy workloads using a 4K page
same device from a single LPAR, Multiple Allegiance (MA)
size will reap the greatest benefit from this feature.
allows multiple parallel nonconflicting accesses to the
same device from multiple LPARs. Multiple Allegiance
I/O executes concurrently with PAV I/O. The Symmetrix References
storage system treats them equally and guarantees data [1] EMC Company Web site, July 19, 2000 "EMC Reports
integrity by serializing writes where extent conflicts ex- 43% Growth in Storage Revenue, First $2 Billion
ist. Quarter" Retrieved October 24, 2010.
7
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia EMC Symmetrix
[2] EMC Company Web site, November 29, 2001 "EMC • EMC.com
Strengthens Operational Alignment" Retrieved • EMC Symmetrix V-Max and the Virtual Data Center
October 24, 2010; see paragraph about Moshe • Learn EMC Storage Product
Yanai. • Utilities to create EMC Symmetrix/Vmax
Configuration Scripts
External links
• SAN vs DAS: A Cost Analysis of Storage in the
Enterprise
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=EMC_Symmetrix&oldid=473840125"
Categories:
• EMC storage devices
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