Datasheet

The DS4800 is designed to help con-
solidate direct-attached storage into a
centrally managed, shared or storage
area network (SAN) environment.
With built-in support for eight Fibre
Channel-attached servers, the need for
additional switches is reduced or elimi-
nated, helping to make server clustering
more cost-effective.
4 Gbps expansion unit supported on
DS4800
The DS4000 EXP810 is a 4 Gbps
switched disk expansion unit support-
ing 16 Fibre Channel disk drives inside
the enclosure, and has an ESM-
embedded Fibre Channel “loop switch.”
The loop switch is designed to essen-
tially create point-to-point Fibre Channel
communication, allowing the ESMs and
drives to operate as though they were
on a private Fibre Channel arbitrated
loop, but with the performance and
diagnostic advantages of Fibre Channel
fabric. A great advantage of the
DS4000 EXP810 is a significant reduc-
tion in the number of Fibre Channel
nodes on the drive loops. Improved
storage density with 16 disk drives sup-
ported inside the expansion unit pro-
vides more storage capacity than the
14 bay DS4000 EXP710. The DS4000
EXP810 supports 2 Gbps and 4 Gbps
disk drive modules. Note: When config-
ured with 2 Gbps drives, the 4 Gbps
disk drive module will run at 2 Gbps
speed.
Part of the DS4000 series
The DS4800 is part of the DS4000
series, which uses common storage
management software and expansion
enclosures. The DS4800 can be used
with the DS4000 EXP710 and EXP810
Expansion Units utilizing Fibre Channel
technology.
The DS4800 models can also be used
with the DS4000 EXP100 Serial ATA
disk drive storage unit. This helps
address the requirements of various
fixed content and data reference appli-
cations, which require large amounts of
storage capacity but do not have the
high utilization and access characteris-
tics satisfied by DS4000 EXP710
and EXP810 Fibre Channel disk drive
storage.
Scalability throughout the series
Because the DS4800 is highly
scalable—up to 224 Fibre Channel or
224 Serial ATA disk drives—it can be
upgraded from a workgroup SAN to
an enterprise network storage system,
thereby helping provide flexibility to
grow with your business. In addition,
by using the IBM TotalStorage DS4000
Storage Manager software, multiple
DS4800s can be combined to help
address additional performance and
capacity requirements—further
enhancing your scalability options.
Another scalability feature of the
DS4800 is Dynamic Capacity
Expansion (DCE), which is designed
to provide the ability to add DS4000
EXP810, DS4000 EXP710 or DS4000
EXP100 enclosures to an existing
DS4800 without stopping operations.
By adding these enclosures, the
DS4800 can help bring unused
storage online for a new host group or
an existing volume to provide additional
capacity on demand.
It is designed to allow upgrades to
higher performing DS4000 series
systems while keeping data intact,
helping to minimize disruptions during
upgrades. The DS4800 also supports
online controller firmware upgrades to
help provide better performance and
functionality. Events such as upgrades
to support the latest version of DS4000
Storage Manager or to add services
such as DS4000 Service Alert or the
new DS4000 Alert Manager can often
be executed without stopping
operations.