Welcome to VNXe Series: Introduction

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Revision Date: January 8, 2013
Revision Number: MR-NWN-ANXEINT.4949.2.4

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VNXe Series: Introduction

This course provides a high-level overview and description of the VNXe Series platform.
Focus will be placed on system components, features and the management interface.
This course is intended for all audiences.

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VNXe Series: Introduction

This module explains VNXe basic features including the platform, configuration options,
network options and high availability.

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VNXe Series: Introduction

VNXe installation and setup is straight forward and quick. Most components are
customer replaceable and upgradeable. The VNXe is an ideal storage option for a
complete application solution.
The VNXe understands applications. Application storage wizards are provided to easily
create storage, enabling storage management to occur at the application level. With
this application view in mind, the VNXe3100/3150 and VNXe3300 use best practices
when providing storage resources to specific applications. The applications include
Exchange, VMware, Hyper-V, Shared Folders and Generic iSCSI.
Storage is allocated, protected, monitored, managed and serviced with Unisphere. An
online community is available, providing the administrator a way to participate in online
chat sessions, link to training, and troubleshoot and resolve problems. The technical
advisories allows EMC to present the customer with up-to-date, real-time information
and advisories from the EMC support knowledge base.
The VNXe3100/3150 and VNXe3300 easily connects to an existing IP network. More
robust network connectivity options are available. Storage becomes available on the
network via CIFS, NFS and iSCSI.
The VNXe3300 is configured with dual Storage Processors (SP) for high availability. The
VNXe3100/3150 can be configured with either one or two SPs. To allow for scalability,
both VNXe models can be upgraded to accommodate additional storage capacity and
additional IP ports for connectivity.

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VNXe Series: Introduction

Using pre-configured EMC best practices, storage allocation occurs at the application level
without requiring specific storage knowledge. This provides a more intuitive approach for
application administrators who may not be storage savvy. Storage can be protected with
snapshots and replicated locally or remotely using VNXe Replication for NFS and CIFS data and
VNXe Replication and Application Protection (Replication Manager) for iSCSI data. This
protects data from loss, damage or disaster.
Unisphere enables the administrator to configure, manage and troubleshoot both iSCSI block
and file data from a single interface, thereby improving admin productivity.
The administrator can use Unisphere to monitor storage utilization and system performance at
the application level where it is most meaningful to the application administrator. If a problem
occurs, alerts can be sent to the admin to resolve issues quickly. EMC will also be alerted if
problems occur through Connect EMC. By monitoring the system, capacity and performance
planning can be done proactively.
The VNXe simplifies both storage management and support. Online resources are available
including: eLearning, online help, chat, technical advisories, how-to videos, FAQs and
knowledgebase. This empowers the administrators to research and resolve issues quickly.
Thin provisioning is also supported allowing storage resources to be made available, and then
actually consumed on demand. This results in improved storage efficiency and reduced cost.
Data deduplication and compression reduce redundancies in the data again, resulting in greater
storage utilization, efficiency and reduced storage cost.

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VNXe Series: Introduction

Shown are the VNXe3100/3150 and VNXe3300 Disk Processor Enclosure and Disk Array
Enclosure specifications.
All three models support SAS and Near-Line SAS drives. The VNXe3150 dual SP and the
VNXe 3300 support Enterprise Flash Drives, or EFDs. Near-Line SAS drives are the SAS
equivalent of SATA drives and spin at 7.2K RPM.
The VNXe3300 DPE and DAE may contain up to 25 drives each. The VNXe3100 DPE may
contain 12 drives each. The VNXe 3100 DAE and the 3150 DPE/DAE may contain either
12 or 25 drives each.
The maximum number of DAEs supported on the VNXe 3100/3150 is four and the VNXe
3300 is seven.
Network connectivity increases with the addition of extra Modules as seen in the
upcoming slides.

VNXe OE v2.4 introduces Data-at-rest Encryption (DA@RE) via Self Encrypting

Drives (SED Drives). Arrays with SED Drives shipped as secure arrays. A secure
array must have all Self-Encrypting Drives (in DPE and DAEs). Secure Arrays will
be shipped out with specific serial numbers (in DPE and DAEs).

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VNXe Series: Introduction

The VNXe3100/3150 disk and connectivity options are shown. According to the disk
configuration, a RAID type can also be chosen.
One additional 2-port 10-Gigabit Ethernet I/O module or a 4 port Gigabit Ethernet I/O
module is supported per SP.
SAS drives provide good performance for frequent storage read and write operations
(especially for databases and general purpose use) but offer fewer total TB of storage.
For example, SAS drives are appropriate for database applications. Spare disks are
optional. A spare disk is recommended for every 30 SAS drives.
NL SAS disks provide the optimum quantity of storage at generally lower performance.
It is appropriate for storing large amounts of data that is primarily static (such as video
files, audio files, images, and other types of data) for users and applications that do not
have strict performance requirements. For data that is accessed frequently, it has
significantly lower performance. For example, for database applications such as
Microsoft Exchange, NL SAS drives typically support fewer simultaneous users than SAS
drives.
EFD drives offer the best performance for high throughput environments. EFDs perform
better with small random workloads, compared to SAS drives.
VNXe OE v2.4 supports 900 GB and 3 TB Self Encrypting Drives (Seagate).

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VNXe Series: Introduction

Shown are the VNXe3300 disk and connectivity options. Spare disks are optional. A
spare disk is recommended for every 30 SAS drives.
Two additional IO Modules are allowed per SP. Options include another 4 port Gigabit
Ethernet I/O Module, a 2 port 10-Gigabit Ethernet I/O Module, or a 2 port 10-Gigabit
Optical I/O Module.
VNXe OE v2.4 supports 900 GB and 3 TB Self Encrypting Drives (Seagate).

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VNXe Series: Introduction

VNXe protocols and software that are included in the base software and those that are
optional are listed.

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VNXe Series: Introduction

The VNXe Storage Processor, or SP, is a physical processing component that provides
the resources required for managing and controlling the flow of data between the VNXe
network interfaces and the devices storage disk modules.
The Dual-SP VNXe3100/3150 contains 2 SPs; SPA and SPB. Each Storage Processor on
a VNXe3100 contains an Intel 1.74GHz Dual Core CPU and 4 GB of memory. Each SP on
a VNXe 3150 contains a Quad Core CPU and 4 GB of memory. Two 1 Gigabit Ethernet
ports are available per SP for host connectivity. There is one Gigabit Ethernet port is
for management. An optional IO Module can be added for additional connectivity.
One 6 Gbps SAS port is used for connection to an optional DAE.
The single-SP VNXe3100/3150 model, which is not pictured here, contains 1 Storage
Processor; SPA. The unit contains a Cache Memory Mirror Module in the left side (B)
slot. The purpose of this module is to act as a cache mirror for SPA.
Each VNXe3300 contains two SPs, SP-A and SP-B. The SPs provide the physical
locations from which iSCSI and Shared Folder servers run. A maximum of 12 storage
server instances can reside on each Storage Processor; either iSCSI or Shared Folder.
Each Storage Processor contains an Intel Westmere 2.13GHz quad-core CPU and 12 GB
of memory. Four 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports are included per SP for host connectivity.
There is also one onboard 1 Gigabit Ethernet Management Port. One 6GB SAS port is
used to connect an optional DAE.

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VNXe Series: Introduction

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The VNXe offers several built-in high availability features. The high availability is
provided through redundant components. In the unlikely event that one component
fails, another is there to back it up. The redundant components include storage
processors, cooling fans, AC power cords, power supplies, I/O modules, and link control
cards. Network high availability is provided through link aggregation.

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Dual SP configurations provide a backup in the case of an SP failure.

If a network link fails, link aggregation provides an alternate path. An addition switch,
which is not in this picture, should be included to provide redundancy in the case of a
switch failure.
Dual paths are provided to all disks.
The data on the disks is protected with either RAID 5, RAID 6, or RAID 10. With RAID 5,
data will continue to be available should a single physical drive fail. With RAID 6, data
will continue to be available should two physical drives fail. RAID 10 uses mirroring for
availability and striping for performance. If a disk in the mirrored pair fails, the mirror
provides continued access to data.

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This module describes VNXe Series application integration, networking, important

features and data protection.

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VNXe Series: Introduction

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The VNXe provides application focused storage allocation wizard for Exchange, Shared
Folders, VMware, Hyper-V and Generic iSCSI. When provisioning storage for these
applications, the administrator accesses Unisphere and answers a few simple questions
about the application. For example, when provisioning storage for Exchange, the
administrator is asked for the number of users and the mailbox average size. The VNXe
uses that information, along with application best practices, and protection level
desired, to configure the storage to meet the needs of the business. The administrator
does not need to understand storage terminology to provision storage on the VNXe.
Next, two demonstrations show how easily Exchange Storage and Shared Folder storage
are created on the VNXe through Unisphere.

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This demonstration shows the process of creating Microsoft Exchange Server storage
on the VNXe.

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This demonstration shows the process of creating Shared Folder storage on the VNXe.

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Storage available via a network connection can be accessed in several ways. The VNXe
offers CIFS and NFS access to Shared Folders and iSCSI access to Exchange servers,
Hyper-V servers, VMware servers and generic iSCSI servers. NFS access is also an
option for VMware.
The VNXe3300 SP includes 4 onboard Gigabit Ethernet ports, and one Gigabit Ethernet
management port. Optionally, four Gigabit Ethernet, or two 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports
can be added.
The VNXe3100/3150 SP includes 2 onboard Gigabit Ethernet ports, and one Gigabit
Ethernet management port. Optionally, 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports can be added.
More advanced network capabilities include link aggregation, VLAN and jumbo frame
support.

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Thin provisioning is the ability to present a server with more capacity than is physically
allocated within the storage array. It enables cost reduction by increasing capacity
utilization. All VNXe applications support thin provisioning. Thin provisioning is
enabled, via a check box, in the storage allocation wizard. The system determines what
the initial allocation is. The initial allocation is dependent on the application and will be
either 1GB or 10GB. With Shared Folders and NFS VMware Datastores, thin provisioning
can be enabled or disabled after the storage resource has been created. As network
users or hosts use the storage, the VNXe incrementally allocates more storage
resources on an as-needed basis; up to the total storage size.
Oversubscription occurs when a user of thin provisioning allocates more storage than is
physically present. Oversubscription is implemented at the pool level. When one pool
runs out of storage, storage will not automatically be drawn from another pool. Alerts
will notify the administrator when a pre-defined threshold is reached regarding pool
capacity.

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Data deduplication increases file storage efficiency by eliminating redundant data from
the files stored on the file system, thereby saving storage space and money.
Deduplication operates on whole files. For example if there are 10 unique files in a file
system that is being deduplicated, 10 unique files will still exist but the data will be
compressed, yielding a space savings of up to 50%. If there are 10 identical copies of a
file, 10 files will still exist but they will share the same file data. The one instance of the
shared file will also be compressed, providing further space savings.

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During deduplication, each deduplication enabled file system is scanned for files that
match a specific criteria such as last access time and a modification time older than a
certain date. Once a file is found that matches the criteria, the file data is deduplicated
and compressed if appropriate. Different instances of the file can have different names,
security attributes, and timestamps. The metadata is not affected by deduplication.
NAS clients are unaware when they are reading deduplicated data.
Read operations decompress the requested portion of the data in memory. The file
will not be decompressed on disk. When a user tries to write to a deduplicated file,
only the portion of the file modified will be recalled.

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File Level Retention allows you to set file-based permissions on a CIFS or NFS Shared
Folder to limit write access for a specified retention date. File Level Retention is enabled
at creation time. When a new Shared Folder is created and enabled for file-level
retention, it is always marked as a File Level Retention-enabled Shared Folder. After a
Shared Folder is created and enabled with File Level Retention, protection is applied on
a per-file basis.
A file in an File Level Retention-enabled Shared Folder is always in one of four possible
states - not locked, locked, append or expired.
A file that is not locked is treated exactly as a file in a Shared Folder that is not enabled
for File Level Retention; it can be renamed, modified, or deleted.
Files in the locked state are managed by setting retention dates that, until the dates
have passed, prevent the files from being modified or deleted.
Appended files cannot be deleted or renamed. Existing data cannot be modified, but
new data can be added.
Expired files cannot be renamed, modified, or appended to, but can be deleted or
relocked.

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The VNXe Series provides integrated asynchronous replication capability over an IP

network. Shared Folders and VMware NFS Datastores can be replicated to the same
VNXe, to a remote VNXe or to a VNX Series system or Celerra. Replication is initiated
and managed with Unisphere.
Currently, only one-to-one replication is supported.
The execution of a replication failover in not an automatic occurrenceit requires
manual execution. Following a failover, the administrator can execute a failback to
restore the source as the read/write production application and to resume the
replication session. Snapshots are created and managed with Unisphere.

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VNXe Series: Introduction

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Replicas for VMware iSCSI VMFS datastores, Generic iSCSI Virtual Disks, Hyper-V Virtual
Disks, and Exchange Storage Groups are created and managed with VNXe Replicator
and Replication Manager. Replication Manager is software that runs on a separate
Windows server. Replication Manager is used to create application consistent replicas.
Data can be replicated to the same VNXe, to a remote VNXe, or to a remote VNX or
Celerra.
Unisphere can be used to monitor and delete replication sessions.
Snapshots are created and managed with Unisphere or with Replication Manager for
application consistency. Exchange only supports snapshots created with Replication
Manager.
Next, two demonstrations will be presented that show the process of creating
snapshots and configuring remote replication.

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This demonstration shows the process of creating Shared Folder snapshots on the
VNXe.

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VNXe Series: Introduction

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This demonstration shows the process of replicating a VNXe VMware NFS Datastore
from one VNXe to another VNXe.

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VNXe Series: Introduction

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This module demonstrates monitoring and support features of the VNXe Series.
Two demonstrations will be presented next.

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This demonstration shows the monitoring capabilities of the VNXe Series.

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This demonstration shows the support features of the VNXe Series available with
Unisphere and the Online Portal.

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This concludes the instruction. Please proceed to the course assessment.

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