EqualLogic

Last updated
EqualLogic, Inc.
Type Private
Industry Computer data storage
Founded2001;23 years ago (2001)
Defunct2008 (2008)
FateAcquired by Dell
Headquarters
Nashua   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
,
United States  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Products iSCSI arrays
Website www.equallogic.com   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

EqualLogic, Inc. was an American computer data storage company based in Nashua, New Hampshire, active from 2001 to 2007. In 2008, the company was merged into Dell Inc. Dell-branded EqualLogic products are iSCSI-based storage area network (SAN) systems. Dell has 3 different lines of SAN products: EqualLogic, Compellent and Dell PowerVault.

Contents

History

EqualLogic was a company based in Nashua, New Hampshire. Formed in 2001 by Peter Hayden, Paul Koning, and Paula Long, it raised $52 million from investors between 2001 and 2004. The company was considering an initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock-exchange, but accepted an offer from Dell in 2007, and was absorbed in late January 2008. [1] The all-cash take-over transaction of $1.4 billion was the highest price paid for a company financed by venture investors at the time. At the time of acquisition, the company was backed by four venture capital investors: Charles River Ventures, TD Capital Ventures, Focus Ventures and Sigma Partners. [1]


Architecture

EqualLogic systems use iSCSI via either Gigabit Ethernet or 10 Gigabit Ethernet controllers. The currently (June 2014) sold systems with 1 Gbit/s connections are the PS4100, PS6100 and PS6200 while the comparable systems with 10 Gbit/s Ethernet connections are PS4110, PS6110 and PS6210. There have been a number of previous generations, and as long as the software is updated on older systems they can work with the newer models. Within each series there are several options allowing for different types and sizes of hard disk drives or solid-state drives. EqualLogic options combine both in the same chassis and automatically migrate the most frequently accessed data to the SSDs. All PS series systems, except the PS-M4110 blade chassis system, are 19-inch rack systems in a 2 rack unit form factor or a 4 RU chassis for some of the PS61x0 models and the PS65x0 dense models.

EqualLogic Arrays can be combined with up to 16 arrays per group. Groups can mix different members, including multiple hardware generations, as well as different RAID types, in a group. By combining multiple arrays per group, very large storage groups can be created with maximum capacity in one group of over 1.5 PB. Arrays can be segmented into pools, and from pools, volumes. Volumes are exposed on a SAN network, and used by virtual machine hosts or other computers.

Controllers

EqualLogic control modules on a PS100E EqualLogic Control Module (157832705).jpg
EqualLogic control modules on a PS100E

Each array comes with two controllers, offering redundancy and load-balancing. A controller offers one or more data Ethernet interfaces for the iSCSI traffic and one management interface. A typical array has 2 or more iSCSI Ethernet interfaces and one management interface. The arrays with model PS XX00 have Gigabit Ethernet ports while the PS XX10 offer 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports for iSCSI traffic and a 10 Mbit/s / 100 Mbit/s management port. Depending on the model the interfaces can be either copper-based Gigabit Ethernet or 10GBASE-T or fiber-optic interfaces using small form-factor pluggable transceivers. Controllers can be readily identified by a combination of their "faceplate" profile and color. [2]

Controller TypeProfileColorDisk Interface / SpeedNetwork InterfaceManagementAssociated ModelsManufacturers P/NDell P/N
Type 1 SATAwideblackSATA I / 1.5 Gbit/s3 x 1Gbase-T / 1Gbit/s SFP (combo)1 (shared)PS50E, PS100E, PS200E, PS300E, PS400E, PS100X70-0001
Type 2 SATAwideblueSATA II at 3 Gbit/s3 x 1Gbase-T / 1Gbit/s SFP (combo)1 (shared)PS50E, PS100E, PS200E, PS300E, PS400E, PS100X70-0011T946J / 0T946J
Type 3 SASnarrowblueSAS or SATA II at 3 Gbit/s3 x 1 Gbit/s1 (shared)PS3000 – PS500070-0101
Type 4 SASnarrowgreySAS at 3 Gbit/s3 x 1 Gbit/s0PS3000 – PS500070-0111c
Type 5 SATAnarrowoliveSATA II at 3 Gbit/s3 x 1 Gbit/s0PS3000 – PS500070-0115
Type 6 SATAnarrowgrey with brown stripe [3] 3 x 1 Gbit/s1 (shared)PS5500 only70-0111a
Type 7 SASnarrowlight green4 x 1 Gbit/s0PS6000 – PS650070-02025PM3C, RNPR1
Type 8 SASnarrowmagenta2 x 1 Gbit/s1PS4000 only70-0120
Type 9 SASnarrowyellow2 x 1 Gbit/s1 x 10/100 Mbit/s2nd generation PS400070-0210
Type 10narroworange2 x 10 Gbit/s SFP+ [4] 1 x 10/100 Mbit/sPS6010 – PS651070-03000G9J5
Type 11Widelight green4 x 1 Gbit/s1PS6100 Only70-04007V250, HRT01
Type 12Widemagenta2 x 1 Gbase-T1PS4100 OnlyNMJ7P
Type 13M-Bladesilver1x 10Gbit KR / KR Pass-ThruPS-M41101KWXY, 01KWXY
Type 14Wideorange1x 10Gbase-T / 1x SFP+1PS6110 Only61NCV
Type 15Widedark greySAS

NL-SAS

SSD

2x 10GbE SFP+ / 2x 10GbaseT1 x 10/100 Mbit/sPS6210DCY2N, K7TXY
Type 17WideyellowSAS

NL-SAS

1x 10Gbase-T / 1x SFP+1PS4110 OnlyX3J14, P0GJH YN3KR,
Type 18WideMarine BlueSAS

NL-SAS

SSD

2x 10GBASE-T / 2x 10GbE SFP+1 x 10/100 Mbit/sPS6610T43HT
Type 19WideRedSAS

NL-SAS

SSD

2x 10GBASE-T / 2x 10GbE SFP+1 x 10/100 Mbit/sPS42103KKYP

[5]

Models

EqualLogic PS100E PeerStorage Array EqualLogic PS100E PeerStorage Array (157832701).jpg
EqualLogic PS100E PeerStorage Array

The flagship product of the EqualLogic line is the PS Series (formerly PeerStorage [6] [7] ). Its current primary models are the PS4100, PS6100 and PS6500 with 1Gb Ethernet and 10 Gb Ethernet model options. Within each "series" (i.e. 4100, 6100 and 6500) there are several sub models that include specific disk configurations. The last generation systems are the PS4100 and PS6100 series systems which continue to be sold.

PS41x0

The PS4100 series consists of 4 rack-models and one PS-M4110 for placement in the Dell M1000e blade enclosure. This model is described separately below.

PS4000 rack models
ModelPS4100E [8] PS4100KV3,5 [9] PS4110E [10] PS4110KV3,5 [11]
height (RU)2 RU2 RU2 RU2 RU
#HDD12121212
HDD type7200 NL-SAS15K SAS7200 NL-SAS15K SAS
capacity min
using
12 TB
12 x 1 TB
3.6 TB
6 x 600 GB
6 TB
12 x 500 GB
3.6 TB
6 x 600 GB
capacity max
using
36 TB
12 x 3 TB
7.2 TB
12 x 600 GB
36 TB
12 x 3 TB
7.2 TB
12 x 600 GB
#controllers2222
memory/ctrl (Gb)4444
iSCSI ports
per ctrl.
2 GbE2 GbE1 x 10GBaseT
1 x 10 Gbit SFP+
1 x 10GBaseT
1 x 10 Gbit SFP+
mgt ports
per ctrl.
1 x 10/100Mbit1 x 10/100Mbit1 x 100 Mbit1 x 100 Mbit
Max # volumes256256256256
Snapshots/volume128128128128
Snapshots/group2048204820482048
RAID levels5,6,10,505,6,10,505,6,10,505,6,10,50
Max arrays/groupup to 2 x PS4xxx arrays/group

PS61x0

The PS61x0 series consists of two main models: PS6100 and PS6110 for 1G or 10G iSCSI Ethernet ports on the controller. All arrays support RAID levels 6,10 and 50.

For the PS6100 series and PS6110 series there are 6 sube-models, based on the type of disks used: [12] [13]

ModelPS61x0-EPS61x0-XPS61x0-XVPS61x0-SPS61x0-XSPS61x0-XV3,5
usage/typehigh-capacitybalancedhigh-performancelow latencyautomated
SSD tiering
high performance&
high capacity
height (RU)422224
weight45,3625,425,424,524,544,45
max # disks/size24x 3,5"24x 2.5"24 x 2,5"24 x 2,5"7 x 2,5SSD
17 z 10K SAS
24 x 3,5"
disk type7200 NL-SAS10K SAS15K SAS SSD SSD/10K SAS15K SAS
min capacity
using
12 TB
500 GB HDD
7,2 TB
300 GB
3,5 TB
146 GB
9,6 TB
400 GB SSD
13 TB
7 x 400 GB SSD
17 x 600 GB HDD
7,2 TB
12 x 600GB
max capacity
using
72 TB
3 TB HDD
21,6 TB
900 GB
7,2 TB
300 GB
19,2 TB
800 GB SSD
13 TB
fixed capacity
14,4 TB
600 GB
Powerconsumption1080 W700 W700 W700 W700 W1080 W

PS-M 4110

The PS-M 4110 is a SAN array in the form-factor of a dual 1/2 height blade-server and can be installed in the Dell M1000e blade-chassis. There are 4 models of this "datacenter in a box" solution where servers, storage and networking are all combined in one blade-enclosure

The SAN communicates with the blade servers in the chassis and/or external servers via Force10 MXL switches, PowerConnect M8024-K or Brocade based PC-M8428-K in the back of the enclosure. Also possible to use 10G Passthrough modules and external switches. [14]

PS-M 4110 blade SAN
ModelPS-M4110-EPS-M4110-XPS-M4110-XVPS-M4110-XS
UsageHi-capacitybalanced perf/capacityhigh perflow latency
Controllers1 or 21 or 21 or 22 only
Typical power248,9 W261 W293,3 W230,4 W
Weight (Kg)12,4912,8712,6212,38
Disk drives14 HDD14 HDD14 HDD9 x 10K SAS
& 5 x SSD
Drive capacity500 GB
or 1 TB
600 GB
900 GB
146 GB
300 GB
600 GB HDD
400 GB SSD
Drive type7,2k NL-SAS10K SAS15K SAS10K SAS+SSD
System capacity7 - 14 TB8,4-12.5 Tbit2,5-4,2 TB7.4 Tbit

PS6500 and PS6510

The PS65x0 series consists of in total 6 models scalable SAN solutions. As with the other series the PS6500 is using Gigabit Ethernet NICs and the PS6510 offers 10 Gbit/s SFP+ interfaces. [15]

PS 65x0 SAN
ModelPS6500-E/P6510-EPS6500-ES/PS6510-ES [16] PS6500-X/PS6510-X [17]
Intended UsageHigh densityHigh PerformanceMixed Use
Height (Rack Units)444
Weight LB(Kg)up to 165(74.8)up to 165(74.8)up to 165(74.8)
Power consumption1000-1030 VA
1400 VA Peak
1000-1030 VA
1400 VA Peak

1000-1030 VA
1400 VA Peak

Heat dispensation3400 BTU max3400 BTU3400 BTU
Drive Bays487 SSD + 41 HDD48
Drive Options1TB SATA
2TB SATA
3 TB NL-SAS
7 x 400 Gb SSD
& 41 x 2 TB NL-SAS
600 GB-SAS
900 GB SAS
Drive Speed7200 RPMSSD & 7200 RPM SAS10K RPM
RAW Capacity48 TB(1TB Drives)
96 TB(2TB Drives)
144 TB(3TB Drives)
84.8 TB28.9 TB (600GB Drives
43.2 TB (900GB Drives)

FS7500 / FS7600

Dell Fluid File System is available in combination with an EQLX array for the storage. FluidFS is also delivered in combination with Compellent and PowerVault SAN systems. Both the FS7500 and FS7600 NAS using EQLX SAN offers a maximum system site of 509 TB. The FS7600 is the 2nd generation system which is also available using 10G iSCSI speeds between the FS controller and the storage backbone [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SCSI</span> Set of computer and peripheral connection standards

Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices, best known for its use with storage devices such as hard disk drives. SCSI was introduced in the 1980s and has seen widespread use on servers and high-end workstations, with new SCSI standards being published as recently as SAS-4 in 2017.

Internet Small Computer Systems Interface or iSCSI is an Internet Protocol-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities. iSCSI provides block-level access to storage devices by carrying SCSI commands over a TCP/IP network. iSCSI facilitates data transfers over intranets and to manage storage over long distances. It can be used to transmit data over local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), or the Internet and can enable location-independent data storage and retrieval.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clariion</span> Storage array product

Clariion is a discontinued SAN disk array manufactured and sold by EMC Corporation, it occupied the entry-level and mid-range of EMC's SAN disk array products. In 2011, EMC introduced the EMC VNX Series, designed to replace both the Clariion and Celerra products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blade server</span> Server computer that uses less energy and space than a conventional server

A blade server is a stripped-down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. Blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize power consumption and other considerations, while still having all the functional components to be considered a computer. Unlike a rack-mount server, a blade server fits inside a blade enclosure, which can hold multiple blade servers, providing services such as power, cooling, networking, various interconnects and management. Together, blades and the blade enclosure form a blade system, which may itself be rack-mounted. Different blade providers have differing principles regarding what to include in the blade itself, and in the blade system as a whole.

Brocade was an American technology company specializing in storage networking products, now a subsidiary of Broadcom Inc. The company is known for its Fibre Channel storage networking products and technology. Prior to the acquisition, the company expanded into adjacent markets including a wide range of IP/Ethernet hardware and software products. Offerings included routers and network switches for data center, campus and carrier environments, IP storage network fabrics; Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) markets such as a commercial edition of the OpenDaylight Project controller; and network management software that spans physical and virtual devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PowerEdge</span> Server computer platform

The PowerEdge (PE) line is Dell's server computer product line. PowerEdge machines come configured as tower, rack-mounted, or blade servers. Dell uses a consistent chip-set across servers in the same generation regardless of packaging, allowing for a common set of drivers and system-images.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM BladeCenter</span> Blade server architecture by IBM

The IBM BladeCenter was IBM's blade server architecture, until it was replaced by Flex System in 2012. The x86 division was later sold to Lenovo in 2014.

Exanet, Ltd. was an Israeli software company that provided scalable network-attached storage software solutions to partners. Exanet software was hardware independent. Their clustered NAS software storage solution provided single-file system scalability, and was compatible with Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems. After the company went into temporary receivership, on February 19, 2010 Exanet's intellectual property was acquired by Dell.

The current portfolio of PowerConnect switches are now being offered as part of the Dell Networking brand: information on this page is an overview of all current and past PowerConnect switches as per August 2013, but any updates on current portfolio will be detailed on the Dell Networking page.

Dell Force10, was a United States company that developed and marketed 10 Gigabit and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switches for computer networking to corporate, educational, and governmental customers. It had offices in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region.

The Cisco Nexus series switches are modular and fixed port network switches designed for the data center. Cisco Systems introduced the Nexus Series of switches on January 28, 2008. The first chassis in the Nexus 7000 family is a 10-slot chassis with two supervisor engine slots and eight I/O module slots at the front, as well as five crossbar switch fabric modules at the rear. Beside the Nexus 7000 there are also other models in the Nexus range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compellent Technologies</span> Computer data storage

Compellent Technologies, Inc., was an American manufacturer of enterprise computer data storage systems that provided block-level storage resources to small and medium sized IT infrastructures. The company was founded in 2002 and headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Compellent's flagship product, Storage Center, is a storage area network (SAN) system that combines a standards-based hardware platform and a suite of virtualized storage management applications, including automated tiered storage through a proprietary process called "DataProgression", thin provisioning and replication. The company developed software and products aimed at mid-size enterprises and sold through a channel network of independent providers and resellers. Dell acquired the company in February 2011, after which it was briefly a subsidiary known as Dell Compellent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LIO (SCSI target)</span> Open-source version of SCSI target

In computing, Linux-IO (LIO) Target is an open-source implementation of the SCSI target that has become the standard one included in the Linux kernel. Internally, LIO does not initiate sessions, but instead provides one or more Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs), waits for SCSI commands from a SCSI initiator, and performs required input/output data transfers. LIO supports common storage fabrics, including FCoE, Fibre Channel, IEEE 1394, iSCSI, iSCSI Extensions for RDMA (iSER), SCSI RDMA Protocol (SRP) and USB. It is included in most Linux distributions; native support for LIO in QEMU/KVM, libvirt, and OpenStack makes LIO also a storage option for cloud deployments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelsio Communications</span>

Chelsio Communications is a privately held technology company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with a design center in Bangalore, India. Early venture capital funding came from Horizons Ventures, Invesco, Investor Growth Capital, NTT Finance, Vendanta Capital, Abacus Capital Group, Pacesetter Capital Group, and New Enterprise Associates. A third round of funding raised $25 million in late 2004. LSI Corporation was added as investor in 2006 in the series D round. By January 2008, a $25M financing round was announced as series E. In 2009, an additional $17M was raised from previous investors plus Mobile Internet Capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dell M1000e</span> Server computer

The Dell blade server products are built around their M1000e enclosure that can hold their server blades, an embedded EqualLogic iSCSI storage area network and I/O modules including Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand switches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Converged network adapter</span> Computer input/output device

A converged network adapter (CNA), also called a converged network interface controller (C-NIC), is a computer input/output device that combines the functionality of a host bus adapter (HBA) with a network interface controller (NIC). In other words, it "converges" access to, respectively, a storage area network and a general-purpose computer network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dell Fluid File System</span> Filesystem by Dell

Dell Fluid File System, or FluidFS, is a shared-disk filesystem made by Dell that provides distributed file systems to clients. Customers buy an appliance: a combination of purpose-built network-attached storage (NAS) controllers with integrated primary and backup power supplies attached to block level storage via the iSCSI or Fiber Channel protocol. A single Dell FluidFS appliance consists of two controllers operating in concert connecting to the back-end storage area network (SAN). Depending on the storage capacity requirements and user preference, FluidFS version 4 NAS appliances can be used with Compellent or EqualLogic SAN arrays. The EqualLogic FS7600 and FS7610 connect to the client network and to Dell's EqualLogic arrays with either 1 Gbit/s (FS7600) or 10 Gbit/s (FS7610) iSCSI protocol. For Compellent, FluidFS is available with either 1 Gbit/s or 10 Gbit/s iSCSI connectivity to the client network and connection to the backend Compellent SAN can be either 8 Gbit/s Fibre Channel or 10 Gbit/s iSCSI.

Dell Networking is the name for the networking portfolio of Dell. In the first half of 2013, Dell started to rebrand their different existing networking product brands to Dell Networking. Dell Networking is the name for the networking equipment that was known as Dell PowerConnect, as well as the Force10 portfolio.

Dell PowerEdge VRTX is a computer hardware product line from Dell. It is a mini-blade chassis with built-in storage system. The VRTX comes in two models: a 19" rack version that is 5 rack units high or as a stand-alone tower system.

SwitchBlade is the registered name of a family of layer 2 and layer 3 chassis switches developed by Allied Telesis. Current models include the SwitchBlade x908 GEN2 and the SwitchBlade x8100 layer 3 chassis switches. The first model was the SwitchBlade 4000-layer 3 core chassis, which ran the earlier AlliedWare operating system.

References

  1. 1 2 XConomy Boston, Dell to buy EQLX for $ 1.4 billion, 5 November 2007. Visited: 1 March 2013
  2. "Used Dell EqualLogic Controllers iSCSI SAN Storage Systems". www.expresscomputersystems.com. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  3. Systems, Express Computer. "Used Dell EqualLogic Price List Reference Guide and Tech Specs". www.expresscomputersystems.com. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
  4. "Difference between controller modules". 29 November 2012.
  5. "Dell PS Series Configuration Guide" (PDF). Dell Storage Engineering. January 31, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 1, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
  6. Apicella, Mario (November 7, 2003). "EqualLogic delivers an array of impressive IP storage features". InfoWorld. San Francisco: IDG. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  7. "EqualLogic PeerStorage Array Achieves Designed for Windows Logo Qualification" (Press release). Nashua, N.H.: EqualLogic. BusinessWire. November 19, 2003. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  8. Technical specs PS4100E, visited 29 April 2013
  9. Technical specs PS4100KV3,5, visited 2 March 2013
  10. Technical specs PS4110E, visited 2 March 2013
  11. Technical specs PS4110KV3,5, visited 2 March 2013
  12. PS6100 series model overview, visited 2 March 2013
  13. PS6110 series model overview, visited 2 March 2013
  14. Dell datasheet on EQLX PS-M4110, downloaded: 2 March 2013
  15. Dell website on PS-65x0 series, visited 2 March 2013
  16. PS6500-ES/PS6510-ES specifications, visited 2 March 2013
  17. Technical specification 65x0-X, visited 2 March 2013
  18. Dell EQLX website on FS7600 NAS systems