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Dell HPC NFS Storage Solution - High Availability (NSS5.5-HA) Configuration with Dell PowerVault
MD3460 and MD3060e Storage Arrays
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3. Dell PowerVault MD3460 and MD3060e storage arrays
As compared to previous versions of the NSS-HA solution, a major change in the current version is the
introduction of the Dell PowerVault MD3460 storage array. This array replaces the PowerVault MD3260
storage array used in previous NSS-HA solutions.
The PowerVault MD3460 storage array is similar to the MD3260 in that both are 4U, 60-drive dense
enclosures:however the MD3460 RAID controllers are more powerful than the MD3260 controllers,
having not only faster processing speed and larger memory but also the ability to alleviate storage
bottlenecks with up to 12Gbps SAS transfer rates.
The PowerVault MD3460 is an RBOD with two RAID controller modules. The PowerVault MD3060e is also
a 4U, 60 drive dense enclosure expansion box, but it is used as an EBOD (similar to the PowerVault
MD1200) to extend the capacity of the PowerVault MD3460.
NSS5.5-HA shares the same storage configurations as NSS5.0-HA. Table 2 summarizes the supported
storage configurations of the NSS5.5-HA.
Storage configurations in NSS5.5-HA Table 2.
NSS5.5-HA
Storage
configurations
180TB: 1 PowerVault MD3460.
360TB: 1 PowerVault MD3460 + 1 PowerVault MD3060e.
Disks in
storage array
3TB NL SAS.
Virtual disk
configuration
RAID-6 8+2, a virtual disk is created across all five drawers in a storage array, two
disks per drawer.
Segment size 512KiB.
Write cache mirroring enabled.
Read cache enabled.
Dynamic cache read prefetch enabled.
Storage
enclosure
cabling
Chain cabling scheme.
Logical
volume
configuration
Stripe element size: 512KiB.
Number of stripes: 6.
Number of virtual disks per logical volume:
6 for 180TB configuration
12 for 360TB configuration.