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Direct from
Development
PowerEdge Product Group
PowerEdge MX-Series Storage Options and
Use Cases
Technical Note by:
Brad Lawrence
Eric Kuzmack
Todd Mottershead
SUMMARY
Storage technologies have been
evolving at an accelerated rate
driven primarily by changes in
workloads. Solutions like
virtualization, big data and in-
memory databases utilize storage
in very different ways. This
evolution results in customers
needing flexibility in their server
infrastructure to meet these
diverse needs.
The PowerEdge MX-Series has
been designed specifically to
reduce this complexity while at the
same time, deliver the robust,
flexible storage architecture that
customers need to optimize for all
of these environments.
Background
In many cases, workloads are now optimized for specific storage solutions.
Virtualization environments benefit from the low latency, high capacity capabilities
of Software Defined Storage (SDS). Scale-up In-memory Databases benefit from
locally attached SSD’s for faster Database loading and Scale-out In-memory
Databases require low latency shared storage solutions like SAN for shared
access to data and fast database loading.
Adding to this complexity is wealth of options available for connection to storage
environments. Traditional storage attach would include Fibre Channel (FC) or
iSCSI and in recent years, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). Conversely,
newer technologies, like SDS, benefit from large pools of locally attached SAS
storage using internal drive and/or JBOD enclosures.
MX storage connectivity options
To meet these diverse needs, the MX-Series has been designed to deliver a
wealth of storage connectivity options. Traditional SAN connections are available
through a pair of redundant Brocade 32Gb FC switches. In environments where
SAS is required, the FC switches can be replaced with a pair of redundant SAS
switches that connect to the optional MX5016s drive sled, with future support for
external SAS JBOD enclosures. Traditional iSCSI, FCoE, and FC NPIV support is
built into the integrated network switches and customers have the option to also
use these devices to connect directly to a Dell EMC or 3
rd
party SAN.
FC direct connect allows a Fibre Channel storage array to connect directly to the
MX9116n Fabric Switching Engine (FSE) without the use of external FC switches.
In this mode, SAN access becomes available to all servers in the connected
chassis as well as all servers installed in the chassis that are connected to the MX
Scalable Fabric.
FC Direct Connect /
FCoE / iSCSI
FC Direct Connect /
FCoE / iSCSI
FC or SAS