EMC VPLEX
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EMC VPLEX is a virtual
computer data storage Computer data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and Data storage, recording media that are used to retain digital data (computing), data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers. The central pro ...
product introduced by EMC Corporation in May 2010. VPLEX implements a distributed "virtualization" layer within and across geographically disparate
Fibre Channel Fibre Channel (FC) is a high-speed data transfer protocol providing in-order, lossless delivery of raw block data. Fibre Channel is primarily used to connect computer data storage to servers in storage area networks (SAN) in commercial data cen ...
storage area networks A storage area network (SAN) or storage network is a computer network which provides access to consolidated, block device, block-level data storage. SANs are primarily used to access data storage devices, such as disk arrays and Tape library ...
and
data center A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunic ...
s.


History

A previous virtual storage product from EMC Corporation called Invista was announced in 2005. It supported selected storage area network (SAN) switches from
Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...
and Brocade Communications Systems that used
Fibre Channel Fibre Channel (FC) is a high-speed data transfer protocol providing in-order, lossless delivery of raw block data. Fibre Channel is primarily used to connect computer data storage to servers in storage area networks (SAN) in commercial data cen ...
connections. Five months after the announcement, Invista had not shipped, and was expected to not have much impact until 2007. A version 2.0 of Invista was released in December 2007, although a year later the product was called "under-delivered". By 2009, some analysts suggested the Invista product might best be shut down, and it was quietly withdrawn. Another EMC storage product called the
Symmetrix Remote Data Facility The Symmetrix system was an EMC's enterprise storage array. It combined dozens of hard drives into a single virtual device that was then shared on a local area network. It was the flagship product of EMC in the 1990s and 2000s. History Symm ...
(SRDF) also was marketed when VPLEX was announced in May 2010, and a competing product was the
IBM SAN Volume Controller The IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) is a block storage virtualization appliance that belongs to the IBM System Storage product family. SVC implements an indirection, or "virtualization", layer in a Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN). Arch ...
. The first two products in 2010 were for deployments that were local and "metro" (up to 5 milliseconds delay), with others supporting longer delays promised for the future. A "geo" version was announced in 2011 for replication over wider distances. In 2013, a product marketed with the phrase software-defined storage called
EMC ViPR ViPR Controller is a software-defined storage offering from EMC Corporation announced on May 6, 2013, at EMC World. ViPR abstracts storage from disparate arrays into a single pool of storage capacity that "makes it easier to manage and automate its ...
was announced, which could use VPLEX for its data movement.


Architecture

Each VPLEX engine in a cluster consists of two redundant IO directors and one IO annex, each being a single
rack unit A rack unit (abbreviated U or RU) is a unit of measure defined as . It is most frequently used as a measurement of the overall height of 19-inch and 23-inch rack frames, as well as the height of equipment that mounts in these frames, whereby th ...
(1U) physical device. Each engine has 32
Fibre Channel Fibre Channel (FC) is a high-speed data transfer protocol providing in-order, lossless delivery of raw block data. Fibre Channel is primarily used to connect computer data storage to servers in storage area networks (SAN) in commercial data cen ...
ports (the VS1 model 16 front-end ports and 16 back-end ports) or 16 Fibre Channel ports (the VS2 model has 8 front-end ports and 8 back-end ports) and is protected by two redundant stand-by power supplies. Each VPLEX director is a bladed multi-core multi-processor
x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...
virtualization processing unit containing 4 hot-swappable IO modules. The 1U IO annex is used for intra-cluster director communication. Each director runs a
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
kernel and a specialized storage virtualization environment called GeoSynchrony, that provides proprietary clustering capability. Each cluster has a service management station which provides all alerting and software management capabilities. VPLEX is based on standard EMC building block hardware architecture components such as those used in its
Symmetrix The Symmetrix system was an EMC's enterprise storage array. It combined dozens of hard drives into a single virtual device that was then shared on a local area network. It was the flagship product of EMC in the 1990s and 2000s. History Symm ...
product line. VPLEX uses an in-band architecture which means that data flowing between a host and a storage controller flows through one or more directors. On the front end, VPLEX presents an interface to a host which looks like a standard storage controller
SCSI target In computer data storage, a SCSI initiator is the endpoint that initiates a SCSI session, that is, sends a SCSI command. The initiator usually does not provide any Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs). On the other hand, a SCSI target is the endpoint that ...
. On the VPLEX back end, the VPLEX provides an interface to a physical storage controller that act like a host, essentially like a
SCSI initiator In computer data storage, a SCSI initiator is the endpoint that initiates a SCSI session, that is, sends a SCSI command. The initiator usually does not provide any Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs). On the other hand, a SCSI target is the endpoint that ...
. A VPLEX cluster consists of one or more pairs of directors (up to 4 pairs). Any director from any engine can failover to any other director in the cluster in the case of hardware or path failure.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:VPLEX Dell EMC Storage virtualization