Installation guide

9
lowest latency speeds for single-server applications. Fibre Channel SAN attach with either blade or
rackmount servers allows multiple servers to operate on the same shared data, with practically
unlimited amounts of solid state storage.
The VMA3210 Memory Array is a 3U appliance that provides solid state storage to servers. The
VMA-series Memory Array eliminates the seek-bound limitations of rotating disk storage and delivers
significant application performance benefits over traditional storage systems that utilize hundreds of
hard disk drives (HDDs). VMA-series Memory Arrays have practically unlimited scalability – the very
large capacities that can be created with VMA-series arrays enable users to place entire databases
into solid state memory without needing to architect their solution around limited capacity solid state
drives.
Using a massively parallel architecture with distributed garbage collection implemented in hardware,
each VMA-series Memory Array with Single Layer Cell (SLC) NAND Flash delivers sustained DRAM-
like performance that is an order of magnitude faster than a similar size HDD array:
 1.4 GB/s bandwidth
 350K Random Read IOPS
 Delivers up to 240K Sustained Random Write IOPS (4K block with RAID)
 Up to 10TB raw capacity and 6TB Usable flash storage (if configured for best performance)
 Low latency Flash 4 + 1 parity RAID
– Reads: 80 micro seconds
– Writes: 25 micro seconds
– Non-blocking Erases ensures consistent low-latency Reads
 Significant application performance
 90% reduction in cost, power, and cooling for similar performance
 Power-safe writes without batteries
The configuration used to achieve highest performance consists of attaching the VMA directly to the
PCIe slots in the back of the DL980 server using VMA Direct Attach PCIe x8 pass thru cards. This is
the configuration used in the three solutions described in this paper. VMA can also be configured via
Fibre Channel via a 2U HP VMA SAN Gateway that provides LUN management functions. A
maximum of two VMA memory arrays are supported behind one VMA SAN Gateway for Fibre
Channel SAN attach. However, latency will be higher than that achieved with direct attach pass thru
cards. If an active-active highly available solution is required using Oracle Real Application Clusters
(RAC) then you could use a combination of the HP VMA SAN Gateway with the VMAs to provide a
shared storage configuration.
Table 9. DL980 G7 and VMA Storage Performance and Capacity
Attribute
VMA Configuration 1
VMA Configuration 2
VMA Configuration 3
Number of arrays
2
4
8
Potential IOPS
600,000
1,200,000
2,400,000
Bandwidth (GB/s)
2.8
5.6
11.2
Capacity (RAW)
20TB
40TB
80TB
Capacity (Useable)
12TB
24TB
48TB