Administrator Guide

Solution Architecture
8 Dell EMC Ready Solution for HPC PixStor Storage | Document ID
Figure 1 Reference Architecture
The main components of the PixStor solution are:
Network Shared Disks (NSDs)
Back end block devices (i.e. RAID LUNs from ME4 arrays, RAID 10 NVMeoF devices) that store information,
data and metadata. In the PixStor solution file system data and metadata are stored in different NSDs, data
NSDs normally use spinning media (NLS SAS3 HDDs), while metadata NSDs use SAS3 SSDs (Metadata
include directories, filenames, permissions, time stamps and the location of data).
NVMeoF based NSDs are currently used only for data, but there are plans to use them also for data +
metadata or even for metadata only.
Storage Server (SS)
Part of the Storage Module, pairs of PowerEdge R740 servers in HA (failover domains) connected to
ME4084s arrays via SAS cables, manages the data NSDs and provides access to the backend data. For the
standard configuration these servers have the dual role of Metadata Servers and also manage metadata
NSDs (on SSDs that replace spare HDDs).
High Demand Metadata Server (HDMDS)
Part the optional High Demand Metadata Module (inside dotted yellow square in Figure 1). Pairs of
PowerEdge R740 servers in HA (failover domains) connected to ME4024s arrays via SAS cables, manages
the metadata NSDs and provides access to the backend data.
Backend Storage