6.0 HP X9320 Network Storage System Administrator Guide (AW542-96009, December 2011)

• Optional HP X9300 Network Storage System Base Rack. The rack includes the following:
Keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM)◦
◦ Optional network switch
• Pre-installed software, including the following:
Red Hat Linux operating system◦
◦ X9000 File Serving Software
◦ Integrated Lights-Out 2 (iLO 2) remote management software
Front-end connectivity can be one of the following:
• 10GbE network
• 1GbE network
• IB network
See “System component and cabling diagrams” (page 120) for system component and cabling
diagrams.
HP X9000 Software features
HP X9000 Software is a scale-out, network-attached storage solution including a parallel file system
for clusters, an integrated volume manager, high-availability features such as automatic failover
of multiple components, and a centralized management interface. X9000 Software can scale to
thousands of nodes.
Based on a Segmented File System architecture, X9000 Software integrates I/O and storage
systems into a single clustered environment that can be shared across multiple applications and
managed from a single central management console.
X9000 Software is designed to operate with high-performance computing applications that require
high I/O bandwidth, high IOPS throughput, and scalable configurations.
Some of the key features and benefits are as follows:
• Scalable configuration. You can add servers to scale performance and add storage devices
to scale capacity.
• Single namespace. All directories and files are contained in the same namespace.
• Multiple environments. Operates in both the SAN and DAS environments.
• High availability. The high-availability software protects servers.
• Tuning capability. The system can be tuned for large or small-block I/O.
• Flexible configuration. Segments can be migrated dynamically for rebalancing and data
tiering.
High availability and redundancy
The segmented architecture is the basis for fault resilience—loss of access to one or more segments
does not render the entire file system inaccessible. Individual segments can be taken offline
temporarily for maintenance operations and then returned to the file system.
To ensure continuous data access, X9000 Software provides manual and automated failover
protection at various points:
• Server. A failed node is powered down and a designated standby server assumes all of its
segment management duties.
• Segment. Ownership of each segment on a failed node is transferred to a designated standby
server.
HP X9000 Software features 11