Administrator Guide

Solution Architecture
9 Dell EMC Ready Solution for HPC PixStor Storage | Document ID
Stores the file system data (MD4084) or metadata (ME4024). ME4084s are part of the Data Module and
ME4024s are part of the optional High Demand Metadata Module inError! Reference source not found..
Expansion Storage
Part of the optional Capacity Expansions (inside dotted orange square in Figure 1). ME484s connected
behind ME4084s via SAS cables to expand the capacity of a Storage Module. For PixStor solutions each
ME4084 can only use one ME484 expansion, for performance and reliability (even that ME4084 supports up
to 3).
Management Servers
PowerEdge R440 servers provide GUI and CLI access for management and monitoring of the PixStor
solution, as well as performing the advanced search capabilities compiling some metadata in a database to
speed up searches and avoid loading Metadata NSDs.
NVMe Nodes
Part of the optional NVMe Tier Modules (inside dotted green square in Figure 1). Pairs of PowerEdge R640
servers in HA (failover domains) provide a very high-performance flash-based tier for the PixStor solution.
Performance and capacity for this NVMe tier can be scaled out by additional pair of NVMe nodes. Increased
capacity is provided by selecting the appropriate NVMe devices supported in the PowerEdge R640. Each
R640 has eight NVMe devices split in eight slices (think partitions). Then, slices from all drives in both servers
are combined into eight RAID10 devices, for very high throughput. These NVMe nodes use NVMesh as the
NVMe over Fabric (NVMeoF) means to have each mirror copy from the RAID10 on a different server and
provide block devices to the file system to use as NSDs.
Native Client Software
Software installed on the clients to allow access to data on the file system. The file system appears as a
single namespace that can be mounted for access.
Gateway Nodes
The optional Gateway Nodes (inside dotted red square in Figure 1) are PowerEdge R740 servers (same
hardware as Ngenea nodes but different software) in a Samba’s Clustered Trivial Data Base (CTDB) cluster
providing NFS or SMB access to clients that do not have or cannot have the native client software installed,
but instead use NFS or SMB protocols to access information.
Ngenea Nodes
The optional Ngenea Nodes (inside dotted red square in Figure 1) are PowerEdge R740 servers (same
hardware as Gateway nodes but different software) that use Arcastream software to access to external
storage devices that could be used as another tier (e.g. Tape libraries, Object Storage, Cloud storage, etc.)
using enterprise protocols, including cloud protocols.
Management Switch
PowerConnect S3048-ON gigabit ethernet switch used to connect the different servers and storage arrays. It
is used for administration of the solution interconnecting all the components.
High Performance Switch