This post provides an overview of EMC VMAX3 Family of arrays with HYPERMAX OS 5977. We will talk about the VMAX3 architecture, compare the three models and list the key features.
The VMAX3 Family with HYPERMAX OS 5977 release delivers a number of revolutionary changes.The HYPERMAX Operating System provides the first Enterprise Data Platform with a data services hypervisor running natively. The density optimized hardware and Dynamic Virtual Matrix delivers dramatic improvements in throughput, performance, scale, and physical density per floor tile.
The VMAX3 Family with HYPERMAX OS 5977 comes with three new array models: VMAX 100K, VMAX 200K and VMAX 400K
The VMAX 100K for Enterprise and commercial data centers, the VMAX 200K for most Enterprise data centers, and the VMAX 400K for large-environment Enterprise data centers. For high-demand storage environments, where extremely low latency and high IOPS are required, all the VMAX3 Family arrays can be configured with all flash.
VMAX3 arrays are pre-configured with array-based software and hardware configurations based on prepackaged Service Level Objectives (SLOs).
In previous versions of the VMAX Family, the operating system was called Enginuity. Starting with VMAX3, the array operating system is called HYPERMAX OS. Just like the VMAX 10K arrays, the VMAX3 family arrays will be 100% virtually provisioned and pre-configured in the factory. With the VMAX3 Family of arrays, storage can be rapidly provisioned with a desired Service Level Objective (SLO). EMC Solutions Enabler (SE) version 8.0 and Unisphere for VMAX version 8.0 provide array management and control.
VMAX3 Architecture
VMAX3 Family arrays can be either in Single Engine Bay configuration or Dual Engine Bay configuration.
In a single engine bay configuration, as the name suggests, there is one engine per bay supported by the power subsystem, and up to six (6) DAEs. Two of the DAEs are direct-attach to the engine, and each of them can have up to two additional daisy-chained DAEs.
The dual engine bay configuration contains up to two engines per bay, a supporting power subsystem, and up to four (4) DAEs. All four DAEs in the bay are direct-attach, two to each engine; there is no daisy-chaining in the dual engine bay.
In both single and dual engine systems, there are unique components only present in System Bay 1 which include the KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse), a pair of Ethernet switches for internal communications, and dual Infiniband switches (a.k.a., Fabric or MIBE) used for the fabric interconnect between engines. The dual Infiniband switches are present in multi-engine systems only. In system bays 2 through 8 a work tray is located in place of the KVM and Ethernet switches, and provides remote access to scripts, diagrams, and other service processor functionality.
VMAX3 features the Dynamic Virtual Matrix – It enables hundreds of CPU cores to be pooled and allocated on-demand to meet the performance requirements for dynamic mixed workloads and is architected for agility and efficiency at scale. Resources are dynamically apportioned to host applications, data services, and storage pools to meet application service levels. This enables the system to automatically respond to changing workloads and optimize itself to deliver the best performance available from the current hardware.
The Dynamic Virtual Matrix provides:
Fully redundant architecture along with fully shared resources within a dual controller node and across multiple controllers. The Dynamic Virtual Matrix is essentially the bios of the VMAX operating software, and provides a truly scalable multi-controller architecture that scales and manages from two fully redundant storage controllers up to sixteen fully redundant storage controllers all sharing common I/O, processing and cache resources.
VMAX3 Features
| Feature | Description |
| Maximum Drives Per Engine |
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| Drive Options |
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| DAE Mixing |
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| Power Options |
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| Dispersion |
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| Vault |
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| Racking Options |
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| Service Access |
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The VMAX 100K is configured with one to two engines. With the maximum two-engine configuration, the VMAX 100K supports up to (1440) 2.5” drives, or up to (720) 3.5” drives, providing up to 0.5 Petabytes of usable capacity. When fully configured, the 100K provides up to 64 front-end ports for host connectivity. The internal fabric interconnect uses dual Infiniband 12- port switches for redundancy and availability.
The VMAX 200K is configured with one-to-four engines. With the maximum four-engine configuration, the VMAX 200K supports up to (2880) 2.5” drives, or up to (1440) 3.5” drives, providing up to 2.1 Petabytes of usable capacity. When fully configured, the 200K provides up to 128 front-end ports for host connectivity. The internal fabric interconnect uses dual Infiniband 12-port switches for redundancy and availability.
The VMAX 400K is configured with one to eight engines. With the maximum eight-engine configuration, the VMAX 400K supports up to (5760) 2.5” drives, or up to (2880) 3.5” drives, providing up to 4 Petabytes of usable capacity. When fully configured, the 400K provides up to 256 front-end ports for host connectivity. The internal fabric interconnect uses dual Infiniband 18-port switches for redundancy and availability.
Want More Information on VMAX3 Architecture & Features?
We discussed the VMAX3 architecture and features here.
If you want more information on VMAX3, I would suggest you enroll in a course on VMAX3 Configuration and Management. It will also help you in preparing for EMC VMAX3 Solution Specialist exam for storage administrators (E20-507). If you have any questions, do let me know in the comment section below.