Subsidiary | |
Traded as | NYSE: EMC (1986–2016)[1] |
---|---|
Industry | Computer storage |
Founded | 1979; 40 years ago |
Founders | |
Headquarters | , United States |
Worldwide | |
Key people | Jeff Clarke (President, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell EMC) |
Products | See EMC products |
Parent | Dell Technologies |
Website | www.dellemc.com/en-us/storage/unity.htm |
Dell EMC Unity is one of Dell EMC’s mid-range storage array product lines. It was designed from the ground up as the next generation midrange unified storage array after the EMC VNX and VNXe series, which evolved out of the EMC Clariion SAN disk array.
History[edit]
Clariion’s predecessor, HADA (High Availability Disk Array) was developed in 1991 by Data General Corporation, one of the first minicomputer companies. HADA was designed to significantly improve the performance of commodity hard disk drives by running large numbers of them in parallel. It was one of the first products on the market with a cached RAID system, and featured hot-swapping and several other innovations.[2][3]
HADA was initially sold exclusively as an array with the company's Aviion line of computer systems as the HADA (High Availability Disk Array) and later the HADA II [6] before being made available for broader open systems attachment and renamed CLARiiON in 1994.[4]Fibre Channel support was added in 1997.
As CLARiiON sales grew, Data General created a separate CLARiiON division[5] and began selling the product both direct to Aviion and Data General MV customers, but also as an OEM offering to its systems competitors, including Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard and Silicon Graphics.[6] CLARiiON was considered the primary value generator in EMC Corporation’s decision to purchase Data General in 1999.[7]
Development of the CLARiiON product line continued under EMC. The company introduced IP-based storage access in 2000.[8] In 2001, Dell and EMC entered into a partnership, and the CLARiiON line began being resold by Dell.[9] In 2002, the CX200, CX400 and CX600 entry-level lines were introduced, the result of the year-long collaboration between the two companies.[10] In 2003, CLARiiON became the industry's first NEBS-certified storage system.[11]
Subsequent processor and bandwidth upgrades led to a new CX lineup (CX300, CX500, CX700) and a low-end, SATA-based CLARiiON array, the AX100 (now updated to AX150).
In May 2006, EMC introduced the third generation of CLARiiON, named CX3 UltraScale. The lineup, consisting of the CX3-20, CX3-40 and CX3-80, was the industry's only storage platform to leverage end-to-end 4 Gbit/s (4 billion bits per second) Fibre Channel and PCI-Express technologies.[12] Later in 2007, the line was expanded to include a new entry-level storage system, the CX3-10.
Development continued until 2011, when EMC introduced the new VNX series of unified storage disk arrays intended to combine and replace both CLARiiON and Celerra products. The new suite of VNX SAN/NAS arrays included three product lines: an entry-level VNXe, the VNX5000 series and the VNX7000 series. The new VNX line was marketed as the only storage system offering automated file and block sub-LUN tiering using its FAST technology.[13]
In early 2012, with development continuing on the VNX lines, both CLARiiON and Celerra were discontinued. Development efforts in 2012 and 2013 included a strong focus on supporting data warehousing applications and multicore architectures, culminating in MCx, billed by some as the second generation of VNX. The massive hyperthreading enabled by multicore architectural support led to significant improvements in caching, file IOPS and database transaction rates.[14] In 2014, MCx support was added to the VNXe line.[15]
Dell EMC Unity was introduced in 2016. The new platform virtualized the “data mover” NAS functionality originally developed for the Celerra product line and moved it into software, simplifying hardware setup and enabling file system upgrades.[16] The transition from VNX to Unity was described by one Dell EMC insider as one of replacing an entire car part-by-part in the middle of a race, without pit stops. The improvements outlined in Chad Sacak’s blog post included a 3x performance boost, reduction from a 7U to a 2U form factor, almost 50% power consumption reduction and significantly faster rack installation.[17]
Dell EMC Unity’s new transactional file system supported traditional NAS use cases while better supporting transactional file applications. It included Fibre Channel, FCoE, NFS, SMB 3.0 (CIFS), and iSCSI protocols. All flash and hybrid Dell EMC Unity models were introduced in 2016, as were a new HTML5 user interface and, later that year, inline compression with inline dedupe scheduled for later in 2017.[18]
In May 2017, Dell EMC Unity was updated to support many new features and capabilities including Dynamic Pools. This is a new Pool type introduced in Dell Unity OE version 4.2.x allowing users to flexibly add 1 or more drives at a time. This helps reduce drive rebuild times and flash wear when compared to the use of Traditional Pools. A Dynamic Pool is created by default when creating a Pool in Unisphere with Dell EMC Unity OE version 4.2.x and later. Dynamic Pools are only supported on Dell EMC Unity All Flash Systems. Additionally with the May release, support for a 256TB file system and compression for file, block archiving to the cloud, thin clones with snapshots and AppSync integration for integrated Copy Data Management (iCDM), and. EMC Investor Relations. EMC Corporation. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dell_EMC_Unity&oldid=887224454'
The EMC Unity product line is a flexible storage solution with a rich feature set and small datacentre footprint. EMC claim this product installs in 2 minutes, configures in 15 as one of its key features, in this post we’ll put that to the test and walk through the setup of an EMC Unity 300 array.
Crack disketch disc label software. EMC also offer a software defined version of the Unity technology in the form of a virtual storage appliance, read more about it at Deploying EMC Unity VSA.
Architecture
The EMC Unity hybrid and all flash storage range implements an integrated architecture for block, file, and VMware VVOLs powered by the Intel E5-2600 processors. The Disk Processor Enclosure (DPE) leverages dual storage processors and full 12-Gb SAS back-end connectivity to deliver high levels of performance and efficiency. Disk Array Enclosures (DAE) are added to scale out capacity up to 3 PB top end. There is concurrent support for native NAS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel protocols whilst the unit itself takes up less rack space than it’s competitors. Unity arrays can be managed from the HTML5 web client, or through the CloudIQ service, and offer a full range of enterprise storage features. For more information see the Unity platform white paper.
Some considerations when creating storage pools; typically we want to configure less storage pools to reduce complexity and increase flexibility. However configuring multiple storage pools may be required if you want to separate workloads for different I/O profiles or use FAST Cache. When sizing a storage pool remember that all data written to LUNs, file systems, and datastores is stored in the pool, as well as configuration information, change tracking, and snapshots. Storage pools must maintain free capacity to operate, EMC recommend at least 10%.
You will need to make design decisions based on your environment around storage pool capacities and configured RAID protection. The Unity range offers RAID 1/0, RAID 5, or RAID 6 configured at storage pool level. EMC generally recommends smaller RAID widths as providing the best performance and availability, at the cost of slightly less usable capacity, e.g. for RAID 6 use 4+2 or 6+2 instead of 10+2 or 14+2. Unity automatically reserves 1 out of every 30 drives of the same type for use as a hot spare, you can reduce the number of hot spare drives by decreasing the number of individual drive types.
Unity arrays use the first 4 drives to store configuration information and critical system data, these are known as the system drives and run from DPE Disk 0 through to DPE Disk 3. The system drives cannot be used as hot spares but can be added to storage pools in smaller configurations, if no other disks are available. The usable capacity of system drives is reduced by around 100 GB, therefore storage pools utilising system drives should use a smaller RAID width. For larger configurations with high drive counts EMC does not recommend using the system drives as heavy client workload may slow down management operations. This restriction does not apply to all-flash.
Requirements
In addition to the boxed system components you will need:
- Cabinet vertical space of 2U for the DPE, 2U for each optional 25-drive DAE, or 3U for each 15-drive DAE.
- Cat 5 or better and Gigabit Ethernet switch ports x 2 for management connections.
- Cables and ports for your chosen connectivity: 4 x Converged Network Adapter (CNA) ports which can be set at 10GbE, or 4, 8, or 16Gbps Fibre Channel. Once set they cannot be changed. 4 x 10GbE for file/iSCSI.
- Slotted or Phillips screwdriver for installation.
- A Windows based computer to run the initialisation and setup.
- If you are unable to connect the Windows computer to the same subnet as the EMC Unity then you will need a USB drive to configure the array with a management IP address.
- References –EMC Unity Best Practises Guide, EMC Unity Installation Guide, EMC Unity Unisphere Overview.
Unboxing
The Unity 300 base comes with the following:
- Disk Processor Enclosure (DPE) 2U component.
- Front bezel for DPE.
- Rail kit consisting of 2 rails and 6 screws.
- Accessory kit consisting of an anti-static wrist strap, cable ties, stickers, etc.
- Power cords.
Any additional disk shelves contain:
- Disk Array Enclosure (DAE) 2U component (each).
- Front bezel for DAE.
- 2 snap in rails, 3 screws per rail.
- Power cords.
- Mini-SAS HD cables (1 metre connect DAEs together, 2 metre connects to DPE).
Racking
EMC recommend installing the DPE at the bottom of the cabinet and installing any additional DAE’s above.
The rails clip into the rack using spring clips at the front and rear. Start with the rear and secure with 1 x M5 screw on each side once the rails are in place. The array then slides in and is secured with 2 x M5 screws per rail at the front. Do not tighten the screws until they are all in place. Once the array is racked clip on the front bezel, a key is also enclosed.
If you require further assistance racking the devices see page 19 of the EMC Unity Installation Guide.
Cabling
First connect the 2 management ports to the switch, management ports have a white border around them, service ports yellow. Next plug in the cables for your chosen front end connectivity, i.e. Fibre Channel or Ethernet. Front end ports need to be connected and configured symmetrically across both storage processors to facilitate high availability. Furthermore you should use all front-end ports that are installed in the system, so that workload is spread across as many resources as possible.
When configuring switch ports for iSCSI and NAS configure Jumbo frames (MTU 9000) for optimum performance. NAS ports should also be configured with LACP grouped per storage processor, to provide path redundancy and performance improvements.
If you have purchased additional DAEs then these need to be connected using the included SAS cables. There are 2 on-board 12Gb SAS ports in each storage processor in the DPE. An additional 4-port 12 Gb SAS I/O module can be provisioned with the higher end Unity products but in general this is only required for extremely high bandwidth.
When cabling DAEs to the DPE, balance them as evenly as possible across all available buses. The drives in the DPE are serviced by SAS Bus 0; therefore, the first DAE should be cabled to SAS Bus 1. Daisy chain additional DAEs in a continuation of the following oder:
- DAE 1 connects to SAS Bus 1 (on-board port 1)
- DAE 2 connects to SAS Bus 0 (on-board port 0)
- DAE 3 connects to SAS Bus 1 (on-board port 1)
If you are attaching a large number of DAE’s see page 33 of the EMC Unity Installation Guide for further cabling examples and a guide to the stickers included.
The power cables included with the array are colour coded with an intended use of: grey for Power Distribution Unit (PDU) A, black for PDU B. Once the array has power it will take approximately 10 – 15 minutes to power up.
Setup
To access the web UI for setup we have a couple of options for automatic or manual IP addressing.
Automatic – if the array has access to network DHCP and DNS servers (with dynamic DNS enabled) then it will automatically be assigned an IP address. After power up if the SP Fault LED is solid blue then a management address has been assigned. This IP is dynamically added to DNS in the format of serialnumber.dnszone. If the SP Fault LED alternates between solid blue and flashing amber then a management address has not been assigned as the DHCP or DNS server could not be reached.
Manual – download and install the EMC Connection Utility. The Connection Utility gives you two options; automatically detect unconfigured storage systems in the same subnet as your Windows client, or manually configure an IP in a configuration file for use with a USB flash drive which the array automatically reads.
Depending on how IP addressing has been assigned open a browser and enter the IP address manually configured, or the DNS entry (serialnumber.dnszone). Log in to Unisphere using the default credentials admin Password123#.
The Initial Configuration Wizard launches the first time you login. This self explanatory wizard guides you through the basic setup of the array, any settings you skip here can be configured later through the appropriate menus.
For a more in depth look at the configuration settings and Unisphere interface see the EMC Unity Configuration Guide, otherwise continue with the configuration wizard as outlined below.
Accept the license agreement and click Next.
Configure the admin and service passwords and click Next.
Install the license file provided by your EMC vendor and click Next.
Configure DNS settings and click Next.
Configure NTP server settings and click Next.
Create the storage pools required for your environment, see the notes on storage pools above under the Architecture heading. Click Next.
Configure the email alert settings for your system and click Next.
If applicable configure the iSCSI interfaces for use with the Unity system and click Next.
If you intend on creating File level storage resources on the Unity system then configure at least one NAS server for each storage processor. NAS Servers require a separate IP to be configured for network access.
The configuration wizard is now complete, click Close.
It is good practise to update the Unity Operating Environment (OE) upon install of the new system. Arrays shipped with v4.0.1.8404134 will include a letter advising the administrator upgrades the software due to an issue with this version of the OE. See Upgrading EMC Unity OE for further assistance.
That’s it, the initial configuration is complete and is incredibly quick and easy providing all the pre-prep is done beforehand. You can now begin the process of adding hosts and presenting LUNs. Any configuration of additional features is done through the HTML5 Unisphere web client, for more information see the EMC Unity Configuration Guide. Once storage resources are created you can configure replication between Unity systems by following the Configuring EMC Unity Replication guide.
See also Configuring VVOLs with EMC Unity.
Posted by5 years ago
Archived
I have a rear view mirror which is a camera writing to a render texture. The main camera is on layer -1, the rear view camera is on layer 1. It writes the data from the rear camera to the texture for the road and other cars but the skybox and terrain are missing from the view. In fact the sky is totally transparent and shows the view ahead instead.
HERE is a screenshot illustrating the problem - everything above the road is transparent and doesn't show the terrain in the rear view mirror, nor the rear view of the skybox.
I have attached a skybox material to the rear view camera, but this makes no difference. I can vaguely see a very faint ghost image of the terrain contours in the rear view mirror but it's not actually showing.
Does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong? Thanks.
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Following on from the EMC Unity Setup Guide this post will walk through the configuration of an EMC Unity array with iSCSI connectivity using the management web interface. Before beginning, ensure your Unity device is up to date by following the EMC Unity Update Guide. The EMC Unity is also available as a Virtual Storage Appliance.
Architecture
The EMC Unity hybrid and all flash storage range implements an integrated architecture for block, file, and VMware VVOLs powered by the Intel E5-2600 processors. The Disk Processor Enclosure (DPE) leverages dual storage processors and full 12-Gb SAS back-end connectivity to deliver high levels of performance and efficiency. Disk Array Enclosures (DAE) are added to scale out capacity up to 3 PB top end. There is concurrent support for native NAS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel protocols whilst the unit itself takes up less rack space than it’s competitors. Unity arrays can be managed from the HTML5 web client, or through the CloudIQ service, and offer a full range of enterprise storage features. For more information see the Unity platform white paper.
Some considerations when creating storage pools; typically we want to configure less storage pools to reduce complexity and increase flexibility. However configuring multiple storage pools may be required if you want to separate workloads for different I/O profiles or use FAST Cache. When sizing a storage pool remember that all data written to LUNs, file systems, and datastores is stored in the pool, as well as configuration information, change tracking, and snapshots. Storage pools must maintain free capacity to operate, EMC recommend at least 10%.
You will need to make design decisions based on your environment around storage pool capacities and configured RAID protection. The Unity range offers RAID 1/0, RAID 5, or RAID 6 configured at storage pool level. EMC generally recommends smaller RAID widths as providing the best performance and availability, at the cost of slightly less useable capacity, e.g. for RAID 6 use 4+2 or 6+2 instead of 10+2 or 14+2. Unity automatically reserves 1 out of every 30 drives of the same type for use as a hot spare, you can reduce the number of hot spare drives by decreasing the number of individual drive types.
Unity arrays use the first 4 drives to store configuration information and critical system data, these are known as the system drives and run from DPE Disk 0 through to DPE Disk 3. The system drives cannot be used as hot spares but can be added to storage pools in smaller configurations, if no other disks are available. The usable capacity of system drives is reduced by around 100 GB, therefore storage pools utilising system drives should use a smaller RAID width. For larger configurations with high drive counts EMC does not recommend using the system drives as heavy client workload may slow down management operations. This restriction does not apply to all-flash.
Configuration Settings
Browse to the management IP address of the Unity array configured during installation. If you have not changed the admin password the default login is admin Password123#.
The welcome dashboard gives an overview of health and capacity. Note the icons in the top right hand corner. The first symbol shows the overall system state, if there are no issues this will be a green tick. The second icon lists active jobs and the third any active alarms. Next is the settings menu, logged in user menu, and help.
Let’s start by opening the settings menu using the gear icon. The Software and Licenses page lists the licensed enabled features. To install a license click Install License and upload the .lic file provided by EMC. You can also view system limits, install language packs, software updates, and disk firmware.
The Users and Groups page can be used to add local users or an LDAP identity source.
Use the Management page to configure NTP servers and DNS. The host name and management address can also be changed here if required as well as optional services such as Unisphere Central (centralised management), remote logging, and encryption.
The Storage Configuration page allows for configuration of FAST cache; FAST cache extends existing cache using enterprise flash drives to provide instant access to frequently used data. You can also view the spare disks in the system, but it’s best to come back to this after we’ve configured our storage pool.
Configure auto-support on the Support Configuration page by entering the support credentials and contact details. Make sure you use the EMC support account where the support contract is associated.
The Access page lists the iSCSI (Ethernet) and FC ports. Double click the port to view further details, all ports should be connected and green.
For Ethernet ports it is good practise to create link aggregation where more than one port is used for the same traffic, e.g. iSCSI data, or replication. Aggregating ports together pools the resources to create a highly available configuration, iSCSI or other services then use the port aggregation group to distribute I/O and provide redundancy. Select the first port for the group and click Link Aggregation, Create Link Aggregation. You can add or remove additional ports by selecting the port and clicking Link Aggregation, and Add to Link Aggregation or Remove from Link Aggregation.
Configure email alerts, and SNMP traps if required, using the Alerts page.
Next we’ll go through the menu options in the left hand navigation pane.
System
The System View page lists basic system information such as the model, serial number, and software version. If any hardware issues are detected they will be listed here.
The Performance page shows IOPS and bandwidth , you can also create I/O limits.
The Service page shows a number of service related tasks and logs, as well as any technical advisories issued by EMC. Auto-support functionality should already be enabled as we configured it earlier using the Support Configuration page of the Settings menu. The support contract will auto-populate once refreshed providing the correct support settings have been entered.
Access
The Hosts page allows for configuration of network hosts, such as Windows or Linux machines, for storage access. An individual host can be added, or a subnet or netgroup; to allow access to multiple hosts or network segments. The VMware page provides a single workflow for adding vCenter servers and ESXi host discovery. Virtual machine and VMDK information can also be imported.
Unity 300 Rear View Camera
For block storage resources you must register initiators using the Initiators tab. Initiators are servers initiating Fibre Channel or iSCSI sessions, and are identified by a unique World Wide Name (WWN) or iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN). The link between the initiator and the port on the storage system is called the initiator path; an initiator can be associated with multiple initiator paths. At this point for iSCSI paths to show up iSCSI interfaces must be configured on the Block page, see the Storage Go to settings to activate windows reddit. section above for further details. For FC paths the appropriate zoning on the FC switch must be complete for the initiator paths to be seen by the storage system.
Data Protection
The Data Protection section gives you two ways of protecting data on the array. The first is Snapshots; snapshots are used to create point in time copies of your data. There are 3 built in snapshot policies with different retention periods, or you can create your own by clicking the add symbol.
The second option is Replication, replication allows data to be copied to a different Unity array or Virtual Storage Appliance, on or off-site. To facilitate replication you must first create an interface by clicking the Interfaces tab and the add symbol. Chose an Ethernet interface, or link aggregation group, to use and configure the network settings. Next click the Connections tab and the add symbol. Enter the details of the remote Unity system to be a replication target and the connection mode; asynchronous replication, which takes an initial copy and then only updates with incremental (changed) data (recommended for most use cases) or synchronous replication, which takes full copies of the data at each replication interval. Finally configure replication on the storage resource you wish to replicate, as outlined under the Storage section below.
To configure replication see the Configuring EMC Unity Replication post.
Storage
Before using any disks in the system they must be allocated to a storage pool. When creating storage pools take into consideration the notes in the Architecture section above. To create a storage pool click Pools and the add symbol. Assign disks to the storage pool and select a RAID configuration, a storage pool can be made up of 2 performance tiers (types of disks) with different RAID types.
The Unity array is able to provide both block level and file level storage. For block level resources click Block and iSCSI Interfaces. Use the add button to add iSCSI interfaces for use with block level storage, chose the interface(s), storage pool, and configure the networking settings. LUNs can be created and mapped to a host, subnet, or netgroup using the LUNs tab.
For file level resources click File and NAS Servers, click the add symbol to create a NAS server, chose the interface(s), storage pool, configure the networking settings, and select the sharing protocols to use. It is good practise to create at least one NAS server each on SPA and SPB, and distribute resources evenly. Once your NAS servers are ready you can create File Systems, and then SMB shares or NFS Shares using the appropriate tabs.
During the creating of storage objects such as LUNs or file systems, you have the option to configure snapshots and replication. These features can also be configured at a later date by selecting the storage object and clicking the edit icon. Snapshots can be configured using one of the built in policies or creating your own under the Data Protection section above. When creating replication sessions you need to specify a replication schedule and target.
The VMware page can be used to configure VVOLs, read more about this at Configuring VVOLs with EMC Unity.
Events and Support
The Events page lists all alerts from information to critical, as well as a record of all jobs that have been initiated on the device. The Support page provides links to documentation, training, and support.