Dell and Nexenta: Storage Solutions

Nexenta and Dell Team Up to Deliver Massively Flexible & Scalable Storage

What is NexentaStor?

NexentaStor is a unified storage management platform that delivers enterprise-class features and runs on industry-standard hardware. With NexentaStor, customers can save 70-80% over proprietary solutions while also enjoying superior functionality and flexibility.

Why Dell? Why Nexenta?

Case Study: VMword 2011
Storage for Hands-on Lab
Nexenta, EMC, and NetApp provided storage for the labs; Nexenta hosted more than 50% of the total lab workload at performance matching EMC and NetApp.
EMC NetApp Nexenta
2x
VNX 7500		 2x
FAS3270		 All SW
and HW
$2.6M $1.4M $352K

Dell offers world-class hardware platforms and the enterprise-class support Nexenta's customers demand.

Nexenta is the industry's only storage vendor truly delivering on the message of Software-defined Storage (SdS). With more than 5,000 customers and more than 50,000 deployments to date — including four of NetApps top 10 customers, Nexenta has been named the fastest growing storage company ever. Nexenta's flagship product, NexentaStor, helps organizations implement high-perfomance yet cost-effective data storage solutions by taking advantage of features such as inline deduplication, unlimited snapshots and cloning, hardware-agnostic solutions, and high availability support.

Other Nexenta products — like NexentaStor Plug-ins to enable an NFS global Namespace or archive data to an Amazon, Google, or OpenStack cloud — and the recently released NexentaVSA for View — co-developed with VMware for simplicity and calibration of VDI deployments — are evidence of Nexenta's commitment to use its software model to address the real needs of its enterprise-class customers.

Nexenta and Dell: Storage Solutions

Currently, Nexenta and Dell jointly offer several different options for solutions, including three Certified Solutions and a Custom Solution option. More details regarding each solution option is illustrated below:

Certified Solution #1 — Entry Level, 2.5" HDDs

Simplified Bill of Materials (BOM)

Servers: 2x 1u R620, each containing...

  • CPU: 2x 6-core 2.0GHz E5-2620
  • DRAM: 96GB (12x 8GB DIMMs)
  • Boot Drives: 2x 500GB 7.2k-RPM NL-SAS 2.5"
  • PCIe Cards:
    • 1x H710 internal RAID (for boot drives)
    • 1x Intel X520 DP 10G DA/SFP+ NIC
    • 1x LSI 9207-8e PCIe3 6Gb SAS HBA

JBODs: 2x MD1220, containing...

  • HDDs: 44x (1-4)TB 7.2k-RPM NLSAS 6Gb 2.5"
  • Read Cache: 2x STEC ZeusIOPS 200GB SAS MLC
  • Write Cache: 2x STEC ZeusIOPS 200GB SAS SLC 2.5"

Software: Contact Nexenta

Theoretical Performance:**

Random-Read IOPS:

  • From HDDs: (see matrix below)
  • From SSDs: Up to 100,000 (50,000 per ZeusIOPS
  • From DRAM: 1,000,000+
  • Note: Practical IOPS will most likely be limited by available network bandwidth between the R620 and client systems

Synchronous Write IOPS:

  • To SSDs: Up to 70,000 (70,000 per pair ZeusIOPS SLC)

Pure Sequential Read or Write Throughput:

  • 2-3 GBytes/sec (limited by number of data HDDs)

Usable Capacity:

  • Pool: (see matrix below)
  • Read Cache: ~500GB (96GB DRAM + 400GB SSD)
RAID Choice # of VDEVs, Stripe Width Pool IOPS (cache not included) Capacity w/ 1TB HDDs Capacity w/ 2TB HDDs Capacity w/ 3TB HDDs Capacity w/ 4TB HDDs
Performance 22x 1+1 1760 22TB 44TB 66TB 88TB
Balanced N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Throughput* 5x 6+2 400 30TB 60TB 90TB 120TB

Certified Solution #2 — Entry Level, 3.5" HDDs

Simplified Bill of Materials (BOM)

Servers: 2x 1u R620, each containing...

  • CPU: 2x 6-core 2.0GHz E5-2620
  • DRAM: 96GB (12x 8GB DIMMs)
  • Boot Drives: 2x 500GB 7.2k-RPM NL-SAS 2.5"
  • PCIe Cards:
    • 1x H710 internal RAID (for boot drives)
    • 1x Intel X520 DP 10G DA/SFP+ NIC
    • 1x LSI 9207-8e PCIe3 6Gb SAS HBA

JBODs: 2x MD1200, containing...

  • HDDs: 22x (1-4)TB 7.2k-RPM NLSAS 6Gb 3.5"
  • Read Cache: 1x STEC ZeusIOPS 400GB SAS MLC
  • Write Cache: 1x STEC ZeusRAM

Software: Contact Nexenta

Theoretical Performance:**

Random-Read IOPS:

  • From HDDs: (see matrix below)
  • From SSDs: Up to 50,000 (from ZeusIOPS)
  • From DRAM: 1,000,000+
  • Note: Practical IOPS will most likely be limited by available network bandwidth between the R620 and client systems

Synchronous Write IOPS:

  • To SSDs: Up to 100,000 (from ZeusRAM)

Pure Sequential Read or Write Throughput:

  • 2-3 GBytes/sec (limited bynumber of data HDDs)

Usable Capacity:

  • Pool: (see matrix below)
  • Read Cache: ~500GB (96GB DRAM + 400GB SSD)
RAID Choice # of VDEVs, Stripe Width Pool IOPS (cache not included) Capacity w/ 1TB HDDs Capacity w/ 2TB HDDs Capacity w/ 3TB HDDs Capacity w/ 4TB HDDs
Performance 11x 1+1 880 11TB 22TB 33TB 44TB
Balanced N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Throughput* 3x 6+2 240 18TB 36TB 54TB 72TB

Certified Solution #3 — Mid-Range

Simplified Bill of Materials (BOM)

Servers: 2x 2u R720, each containing...

  • CPU: 2x 4-core 3.3GHz E5-2643
  • DRAM: 192GB (12x 16GB DIMMs)
  • Boot Drives: 2x 500GB 7.2k-RPM NL-SAS 2.5"
  • PCIe Cards:
    • 1x H710 internal RAID (for boot drives)
    • 2x Intel X520 DP 10G DA/SFP+ NIC
    • 3x LSI 9207-8e PCIe3 6Gb SAS HBA

JBODs: 6x MD1200, containing...

  • HDDs: 65x (1-4)TB 7.2k-RPM NLSAS 6Gb 3.5"
  • Read Cache: 2-5x STEC ZeusIOPS 200GB SAS MLC
  • Write Cache: 2x STEC ZeusRAM

Software: Contact Nexenta

Theoretical Performance:**

Random-Read IOPS:

  • From HDDs: (see matrix below)
  • From SSDs: Up to 250,000 (50,000 per ZeusIOPS)
  • From DRAM: 1,000,000+
  • Note: Practical IOPS will most likely be limited by available network bandwidth between the R720 and client systems

Synchronous Write IOPS:

  • To SSDs: Up to 100,000 (100,000 per pair of ZeusRAMs)

Pure Sequential Read or Write Throughput:

  • 3-4 GBytes/sec (limited by server capability and/or network connectivity to client systems)

Usable Capacity:

  • Pool: (see matrix below)
  • Read Cache: ~1.2TB (190GB in DRAM + 1.0TB SSD)
RAID Choice # of VDEVs, Stripe Width Pool IOPS (cache not included) Capacity w/ 1TB HDDs Capacity w/ 2TB HDDs Capacity w/ 3TB HDDs Capacity w/ 4TB HDDs
Performance 32x 1+1 2560 32TB 64TB 96TB 128TB
Balanced 8x 6+2 640 48TB 96TB 144TB 192TB
Throughput* N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

Certified Solution #4 — Small Archive

Simplified Bill of Materials (BOM)

Servers: 2x 2u R720, each containing...

  • CPU: 2x 4-core 3.3GHz E5-2643
  • DRAM: 256GB (16x 16GB DIMMs)
  • Boot Drives: 2x 500GB 7.2k-RPM NL-SAS 2.5"
  • PCIe Cards:
    • 1x H710 internal RAID (for boot drives)
    • 2x Intel X520 DP 10G DA/SFP+ NIC
    • 2x LSI 9207-8e PCIe3 6Gb SAS HBA

JBODs: 2x MD3060e, containing...

  • HDDs: 120x (1-4)TB 7.2k-RPM NLSAS 6Gb 3.5"
  • Read Cache: None
  • Write Cache: None

Software: Contact Nexenta

Theoretical Performance:**

Random-Read IOPS:

  • From HDDs: (see matrix below)
  • From SSDs: None
  • From DRAM: 1,000,000+
  • Note: Practical IOPS will most likely be limited by available network bandwidth between the R720 and client systems

Synchronous Write IOPS:

  • To SSDs: None

Pure Sequential Read or Write Throughput:

  • 3-4 GBytes/sec (limited by server capability and/or network connectivity to client systems)

Usable Capacity:

  • Pool: (see matrix below)
  • Read Cache: ~250GB (in DRAM)
RAID Choice # of VDEVs, Stripe Width Pool IOPS (cache not included) Capacity w/ 1TB HDDs Capacity w/ 2TB HDDs Capacity w/ 3TB HDDs Capacity w/ 4TB HDDs
Performance 60x 1+1 4800 60TB 120TB 180TB 240TB
Balanced 15x 6+2 1200 90TB 180TB 270TB 360TB
Throughput* 8x 12+3 640 96TB 192TB 288TB 384TB

Certified Solution #5 — Large Capacity & Performance

Simplified Bill of Materials (BOM)

Servers: 2x 2u R720, each containing...

  • CPU: 2x 4-core 3.3GHz E5-2643
  • DRAM: 384GB (24x 16GB DIMMs)
  • Boot Drives: 2x 500GB 7.2k-RPM NL-SAS 2.5"
  • PCIe Cards:
    • 1x H710 internal RAID (for boot drives)
    • 2x Intel X520 DP 10G DA/SFP+ NIC
    • 3x LSI 9207-8e PCIe3 6Gb SAS HBA

JBODs: 4x MD3060e, containing...

  • HDDs: 230x (1-4)TB 7.2k-RPM NLSAS 6Gb 3.5"
  • Read Cache: 4-6x STEC ZeusIOPS 400GB SAS MLC
  • Write Cache: 4x STEC ZeusRAM

Software: Contact Nexenta

Theoretical Performance:**

Random-Read IOPS:

  • From HDDs: (see matrix below)
  • From SSDs: Up to 300,000 (50,000 per ZeusIOPS)
  • From DRAM: 1,000,000+
  • Note: Practical IOPS will most likely be limited by available network bandwidth between the R720 and client systems

Synchronous Write IOPS:

  • To SSDs: Up to 200,000 (100,000 per pair of ZeusRAMs)

Pure Sequential Read or Write Throughput:

  • 3-4 GBytes/sec (limited by server capability and/or network connectivity to client systems)

Usable Capacity:

  • Pool: (see matrix below)
  • Read Cache: ~2.6TB (250GB in DRAM + 2.4TB SSD)
RAID Choice # of VDEVs, Stripe Width Pool IOPS (cache not included) Capacity w/ 1TB HDDs Capacity w/ 2TB HDDs Capacity w/ 3TB HDDs Capacity w/ 4TB HDDs
Performance 114x 1+1 9120 114TB 228TB 342TB 456TB
Balanced 28x 6+2 2240 168TB 336TB 504TB 672TB
Throughput* 15x 12+3 1200 180TB 360TB 540TB 720TB

**Application performance tests are happening now at the Dell Solution Center in Round Rock!