Intuitive, powerful, the advanced PowerVault™ MD Storage Manager software simplifies the process of configuring, managing and troubleshooting MD3 arrays. Ease of use begins at installation. Administrators can use the installation wizards to guide them through the process of installing and configuring the array.
All the information needed to monitor and manage multiple arrays is available through a single window in Storage Manager. Additionally, Storage Manager provides a flexible user interface that allows administrators to determine how they want to monitor and manage arrays. Administrators can choose from a traditional top-down logical view or an interactive physical view that allows them to select components from a graphical representation of the array to view or manage details.
Storage Manager automatically monitors the health of your arrays, alerts your administrators to any problems it detects, and launches an automatic Recovery Guru to help them troubleshoot and resolve the problem. It’s simple. The expertise is built into the software.
Premium Optional Features
Enhance MD Storage Manager with premium optional plug-ins for data backup, management, and protection.
Virtual Disk Snapshot provides data protection through point-in-time images (snapshots). A snapshot is created instantaneously to minimize application down time, and can be mapped to a different backup server to handle backup processing, freeing the application server for processing applications. Additionally, snapshots reduce restore time, especially as compared to traditional tape media backups.
Creating several snapshots daily enables your organization to recover the most recent data possible. Snapshots are also useful for analyzing data or testing new applications on a separate backup disk instead of using the production one.
Virtual Disk Copy creates a full, physical copy of a source virtual disk. This disk-based backup provides a high-throughput backup solution that enables your organization to recover data almost instantly by mapping the backup virtual disk in place of the original production virtual disk. Virtual Disk Copy is useful for optimizing performance by moving a data set from one set physical disks to another (virtual disk relocation). It’s also effective for decision support systems and application development in which analysis and testing must be performed on a full copy of the data without touching the production data.
Remote Replication creates a copy of source data at a remote site as part of a site protection plan or for data migration. Remote replication supports Asynchronous Replication on both the Fibre Channel and iSCSI array series.
Key Benefits
- All the software features required to install, manage, and troubleshoot one or more MD3 Series arrays is available at no additional cost.
- Monitor and manage multiple arrays through a single window in Storage Manager.
- Automatically monitors and helps to diagnose problems it detects.
- Integrates with VMware vCenter/vSphere (4.1 and 5) and Site Recovery Manager to enable you to manage, monitor, and protect arrays in a VMware environment.
- Integrates with Microsoft® System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) and System Center Essentials (SCE) to enable you to manage and monitor arrays in a Microsoft SCOM or SCE environment.
Standard features on the MD3 Array series
Dynamic Disk Pools (DDP) Help to simplify storage management by distributing data and spare capacity across an entire pool. This can eliminate the need for RAID management and in the event of a drive failure can get the system back to an optimal state faster than previous RAID 6 configurations.
VMware VAAI Support Virtualization is streamlined with the integration of VMware VAAI, which provides infrastructure-related performance enhancements that enable vSphere to perform key operations faster and consume less CPU, memory and storage bandwidth.
Asymmetrical Logical Unit Access (ACLUA) This multi-pathing technology automates and optimizes data path redundancy beyond legacy approaches. It helps to simplify set-up by reducing volume-ownership “thrashing,” completes IO to non-owning controller through shipping, and automatically optimizes ownership based on IO patterns.
Thin Provisioning Allocate and consume physical storage capacity as needed in disk pools.
Try and Buy 90 day trial software license of specific software to determine what premium features suit your environment .
vCenter Plugin Provides integrated management of Dell MD Storage Arrays within VMware vCenter Server, allowing use of Sight Recover Manager (SRA) and vStorage API for Storage Awareness (VASA).
Optional features on the MD3 Array series
High Performance Tier (HPT) Provides an incremental boost to performance with increased IOPS for random workloads and increased bandwidth for sequential or random workloads.
SSD Cache Increases execution speed of applications by caching previously read data (available with HPT only).
