EMC CLARiiON Disk Arrays

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1 April Adams Product Report 1 August 2003 EMC CLARiiON Disk Arrays Summary EMC enhanced its low-end CLARiiON CX200 in May 2003, when it added a new single controller model and mixed Fibre Channel and ATA drive support in the dual controller CX200. Table of Contents Overview Analysis Storage Software Pricing Competitors Strengths Limitations Recommended Gartner Research Insight List Of Tables Table 1: Features and Functions: CLARiiON Disk Arrays Table 2: Competitive Analysis: EMC CLARiiON CX600 Table 3: Competitive Analysis: EMC CLARiiON CX400 Table 4: Competitive Analysis: EMC CLARiiON CX200 Gartner Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 Corporate Headquarters EMC Corporation 35 Parkwood Avenue Hopkinton, MA , U.S.A. Tel: Internet: Overview Today s EMC CLARiiON product line consists of three products the CX600, CX400 and CX200 with the CX200 now available in two configurations. The CLARiiON FC4700, while still available, is being deemphasized in favor of the CLARiiON CX family, and the CLARiiON FC4500 product is no longer being sold. The CLARiiON CX Series is sold both by EMC s direct sales force and by EMC s reseller partners and original equipment manufacture (OEM) partners. While EMC s direct sales force can sell the CX200 when appropriate, it is primarily targeted at markets supported by the company s reseller and OEM partners. In addition, Dell is also authorized to manufacture the CX200. CLARiiON CX600 The CLARiiON CX600 was the first product to be announced in the CLARiiON CX Series. With its launch, EMC introduced a new family of midrange enterprise disk arrays representing the sixth generation of the CLARiiON line. The CLARiiON CX600 is targeted at the high end of the midrange enterprise market for use in online transaction processing (OLTP), Web server, data warehouse, graphics intensive or videostreaming environment. EMC has intentionally placed the CX600 in the same market space as the lowend Symmetrix 8000, understanding that while some customers may opt for the CLARiiON system, others may have a history with or a preference for the features of the Symmetrix systems. However, because the Symmetrix line is more scalable than the CLARiiON line, has more high-end software functionality, a larger number of ports and, except for the DMX 800, offers mainframe support, EMC believes that it will always stand apart as the higher-end offering. The introduction of the CX600 in August 2002 marked a design shift for the CLARiiON line. Previous generation products were based on 1Gb Fibre Channel, but the CLARiiON CX family uses 2Gb Fibre Channel end-to-end. The CLARiiON CX600 is also denser than previous models, with up to 15 disk drives supported in a three rack-unit (3U) drive tray (the CLARiiON FC models supported up to 10 drives in a 3.5U tray). A maximum of 16 drive trays is supported per controller unit, for a total of 240 drives, up from 120 drives on the FC4700. With the launch of 146GB drive support in December 2002, the CX600 supports 36GB, 73GB and 146GB drives and scales up to 35TB using Fibre Channel drives. Effective March 2003, however, the CLARiiON CX600 also supports 250GB Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) drives, which allows it to scale up to 58TB. This is achieved by installing 15 Fibre Channel drives in the first drive tray (the first drive tray does not support ATA drives) and adding 15 additional drive trays, each holding fifteen 250GB ATA drives. The CX600 features two controllers (called storage processors ), each of which comes with 2GB of cache, scalable to 4GB. The maximum cache per CX600 system is therefore 8GB. Mirrored write cache is supported, with the user having the flexibility to adjust the amount of cache reserved for write mirroring. 1 August

3 The CX600 features eight 2 Gb/second Fibre Channel host ports four per storage processor and four 2Gb Fibre Channel disk ports on the back-end (two per storage processor). CLARiiON CX400 The CX400, also part of the sixth-generation modular array family, is targeted directly at the midrange enterprise market. Like the CX600, the CX400 is a full fibre array, with 2Gb Fibre Channel connectivity to both host and disk. While the higher-end CX600 offers eight host connections, though, the CX400 supports four (two per storage processor). It does have the same four Fibre Channel disk ports on the back-end as the CX600 (two per storage processor). The CX400 supports up to 15 disks per drive tray and a maximum of four drive trays or 60 drives per system. That yields a total raw capacity of 8.8TB using 146GB Fibre Channel drives. However, like the CX600, the CX400 also supports 250GB ATA drives in the second, third and fourth drive trays (the first tray supports only Fibre Channel drives). Maximum capacity of a mixed configuration is therefore 13.4TB. Up to three CX400s can be installed in a cabinet, for a total of 180 drives in a single cabinet. The CX400 supports two storage processors, each with 1GB cache standard, or 2GB total cache per array. As with the CX600, that cache can be mirrored, and the user can adjust the amount of cache that is reserved for that function. CLARiiON CX200 The CLARiiON CX200 is the entry-level product in the CX family. It is intended for use as a low-cost Direct Attach Storage (DAS) system or entry-level SAN solution and is primarily sold through EMC s reseller and OEM partners. The CLARiiON CX200 offers the same basic architecture as the other CX models, but supports less overall capacity and has somewhat less functionality as appropriate for the target market. It also now comes in two configurations a single controller model and a dual controller model. The original CX200 features two storage processors, each supporting 512MB of cache for a total of 1GB cache per system. It supports up to 30 disk drives (two trays of 15 drives) for a maximum capacity of 4.4TB using 146GB Fibre Channel drives. New as of May 2003 is the ability to support ATA drives in the second drive tray of the dual storage processor CX200 configuration. When fully configured with fifteen 146GB Fibre Channel drives and fifteen 250GB ATA drives, the CX200 scales up to 5.94TB. The single controller CX200 is a new addition to the CLARiiON line as of 19 May It provides a new entry point into the CLARiiON CX Series and is targeted specifically for direct attach workgroup environments using mail/messaging, file/print serving and Web services applications. The single controller CX200 supports from three to 15 disk drives (Fibre Channel only), for a total of 2.2TB. Unlike its dual controller counterpart, the single controller CX200 does not support an expansion module and therefore does not support ATA drives. The CX200 models do not support point-in-time copy (SnapView) or remote mirroring (MirrorView) capabilities. They also offer a reduced storage management suite standard, though customers can upgrade by licensing the full Navisphere Manager Suite and PowerPath functionality if they wish. In addition, the single controller model CX200 does not support all of the same fault-tolerance and highavailability features as the dual storage processor model. Specifically, it lacks redundancy in the storage processors, fans, power supplies and power cords and does not support PowerPath (therefore no failover). Fault-Tolerance and High-Availability Features 1 August

4 Each CLARiiON system supports a variety of error-protection and fault-tolerance features that work together to maintain data availability. The CX600, CX400 and the dual controller model of the CX200 include all the features commonly expected in a midrange disk array, such as redundant, hot-swappable controllers, fans and power supplies, cache mirroring and automatic failover. The entry-level CX200 does not support redundant storage processors (because it only has one controller), redundant fans and power supplies (because the combination fan/power supply unit on the CLARiiON is part of the storage processor/controller unit) or mirrored cache (again, because it is a single storage processor array), nor does it support automatic failover. Other functionality offered by the CLARiiON products include: Error Correcting Code (ECC) Protected Memory All storage processor cache is hardware ECCprotected. CLARalert Remote Diagnostics Support CLARalert is EMC s name for the CLARiiON s phone-home capability. CLARalert automatically transmits a machine-initiated message to EMC via an external modem connected to the Navisphere management station whenever Navisphere detects a hardware or software problem (including when a hot spare is activated). The customer s designated people and EMC s corporate headquarters are also notified of the event via an automated escalation procedure. This enables EMC s support engineers to begin investigating the problem almost immediately by dialing into the CLARiiON system to perform diagnostics. CLARalert is standard on all CLARiiON products. End-to-End Checksum The storage processors in all CLARiiON disk arrays write a checksum to disk with each write operation. This checksum is then used to verify the accuracy of the data during read operations to ensure that no data corruption has occurred. The array software provides this operation. This is a unique, CLARiiON-patented item. SNiiFFER Technology SNiiFFER technology is an automatic verification process implemented by the CLARiiON Core Code that detects disk defects and notifies the storage administrator before a failure can occur. Supplemental Power Supplies CLARiiON systems offer full-system battery backup via supplemental power supplies that provide sufficient battery power to destage the cache to the disk vault area and perform a graceful shutdown in the event of a power failure. These supplemental power supplies are both redundant and hot swappable and will automatically recharge themselves when the power is restored. The recharging process takes under an hour. Supplemental power supplies are not available on the single processor CX200. One high-availability feature that is common to this class of product, but where the CLARiiON CX storage systems have limited functionality relative to the competition, is nondisruptive volume expansion. The CLARiiON CX systems support dynamic LUN expansion, however, only if the customer builds a RAID group with only one LUN. If the RAID group has more than one LUN, the LUN expansion capability is not supported. With a CLARiiON CX system, therefore, customers can build and expand RAID sets up to 15 drives with no problem. However, if those RAID sets are broken into volumes, the CLARiiON CX models do not support the ability to go back later and expand those volumes dynamically. Instead, storage administrators would have to start over from scratch backing up the data, getting rid of the established volumes, recreating volumes to the new desired size and then putting the data back on. Upgradability 1 August

5 EMC provides a clear upgrade path within the CLARiiON CX line. The single controller CX200 can be upgraded to a dual controller CX200 by adding a second storage processor and fan/power supply unit. The dual controller CX200 can be upgraded to a CX400 (and a CX400 to a CX600) by replacing the storage processors with link controller cards that turn the CX200 (or CX400) into the first disk array enclosure (DAE) of the new model. The benefits of this method are in the cost savings (customers avoid doing a forklift upgrade) and data protection (customers are not required to reload the data). With the introduction of the CLARiiON CX products, EMC changed the disk drives and DAEs so that the new models have a smaller form factor. This precludes users with CLARiiON FC family arrays from using those disk drives and drive enclosures in the CX product line. The CX family does, however, have an important backward compatibility feature. It offers consistent software functionality between the FC4700 and the CX400 and CX600 products (and some consistency with the CX200 as well) by allowing the use of such applications as ControlCenter Navisphere Manager Suite, SnapView, MirrorView, Access Logix, ESN Manager, PowerPath, Database Tuner for Oracle, StorageScope and Resource Availability on both the FC4700 and the new CX products. At the same time, the CX family also offers some software consistency with EMC s high-end Symmetrix line. In addition, EMC s high-end Symmetrix DMX Series uses the same disk drives, switches, racks, PowerPath software and Fibre Channel host-bus adapters as EMC s CLARiiON CX Series providing investment protection for the first time between the midrange and high-end lines. In addition, the DMX800 uses the same 15-bay disk drive building blocks as the CLARiiON CX Series, further protecting the CLARiiON user s investment. Technically, a CLARiiON CX600 could fully upgrade to a Symmetrix DMX800 by swapping out the controllers and reformatting the drives, but EMC doesn t anticipate that this will be done in any volume. Table 1: Features and Functions: CLARiiON Disk Arrays CLARiiON CX600 CLARiiON CX400 CLARiiON CX200 Dual Controller CLARiiON CX200 Single Controller Date Available August 2002 October 2002 December 2002 May 2003 Configuration Rackmount (40U or any third-party 19 rack) Rackmount (40U or any third-party 19 rack) Rackmount (39U or 40U or any thirdparty 19 rack) Rackmount (39U or 40U or any thirdparty 19 rack) Maximum Raw 35TB (with Fibre 8.8TB (with Fibre 4.4TB (with Fibre 2.2TB Storage Capacity With All Expansion Channel drives), 58TB (with ATA drives) Channel drives), 13.4TB (with ATA drives) Channel drives), 6TB (with ATA drives) Maximum Drives per Tray Maximum Drives 240 with 16 trays 60 with 4 trays 30 with 2 trays 15 (no expansion) With All Expansion Disk Controller 2 standard 2 standard 2 standard 1 standard (Storage Processor) Controller Cache Size, min./max. per Storage Processor/Controlle r(bytes) 2G/4G (8G max. per system) 1G/1G (2G max. per system) 512M/512M (1G max per system) 512M/512M (512M max per system) 1 August

6 Table 1: Features and Functions: CLARiiON Disk Arrays CLARiiON CX600 CLARiiON CX400 CLARiiON CX200 Dual Controller CLARiiON CX200 Single Controller Host System Interface Fibre Channel- Arbitrated Loop FC-AL, FC-SW (2Gb) FC-AL, FC-SW (2Gb) FC-AL, FC-SW (2Gb) (FC-AL), Fibre Channel-Switch (FC-SW) (2Gb) RAID Levels 0, 1, 1+0, 3, 5 0, 1, 1+0, 3, 5 0, 1, 1+0, 3, 5 0, 1, 1+0, 3, 5 Supported Disk Capacities Supported (bytes) 36G, 73G, 146G (Fibre Channel); 36G, 73G, 146G (Fibre Channel); 36G, 73G, 146G (Fibre Channel); 36G, 73G, 146G (Fibre Channel) 250G (ATA) 250G (ATA) 250G (ATA) Drive Interface 2Gb FC-AL, ATA 2Gb FC-AL, ATA 2Gb FC-AL, ATA 2Gb FC-AL Warranty 2 years on-site, , 4-hour 2 years on-site, , 4-hour 2 years on-site, 5 9, next-business day- 2 years on-site, 5 9, next-business day- Fault-Tolerance Features Supported Redundant, Hot- Yes Yes Yes No Swappable Storage Processors Redundant, Hot- Yes Yes Yes Yes Swappable Disks Redundant, Hot- Yes Yes Yes No Swappable Fans Redundant, Hot- Yes Yes Yes No Swappable Power Supplies Dual AC Cords Yes Yes Yes No Redundant Mirrored Yes Yes Yes No Cache Battery Backed-Up Cache No (destages to disk instead) No (destages to disk instead) No (destages to disk instead) No write cache used Full System Battery Yes (supplemental Yes (supplemental Yes (supplemental No Back-Up power supplies) power supplies) power supplies) Cache/Disk Disk only Disk only Disk only Disk only Scrubbing Hot Standby Yes Yes Yes Yes Spares High-Availability Features Supported Automatic Yes (PowerPath) Yes (PowerPath) Yes (PowerPath) No Failover/Failback Alternate Pathing Yes (PowerPath) Yes (PowerPath) No No Point-in-Time Copy Optional Optional No No 1 August

7 Table 1: Features and Functions: CLARiiON Disk Arrays CLARiiON CX600 CLARiiON CX400 CLARiiON CX200 Dual Controller CLARiiON CX200 Single Controller Remote Mirroring Environmental Monitoring Phone-Home Capability Remote Diagnostics Nondisruptive Microcode Updates Nondisruptive Volume Expansion With RAID Groups of More Than One LUN Optional (synchronous) Optional (synchronous) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (CLARalert) Yes (CLARalert) Yes (CLARalert) Yes (CLARalert) Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Cluster Support Yes Yes Yes No Analysis In general, EMC positions CLARiiON as part of a larger storage solution that uses Symmetrix products in the data center and uses CLARiiON arrays for business-critical storage outside the data center or in the data center in small and medium enterprises and distributed environments. Storage Software EMC s Automated Information Storage (AutoIS) initiative and WideSky storage management middleware are intended to assist customers in managing heterogeneous storage environments from a single console. CLARiiON products are now supported under EMC ControlCenter (that is, Navisphere Manager can be launched from a ControlCenter console) and therefore can be managed via ControlCenter in an integrated environment where a customer is using CLARiiON and Symmetrix or CLARiiON and third-party storage. However, the primary array management software for CLARiiON remains the EMC ControlCenter Navisphere Management Suite (Navisphere Agent, Navisphere Manager and Navisphere Analyzer). That is what ships with the CLARiiON products. The latest version of EMC s ControlCenter (version 5.1) is sent to any customer that purchases Navisphere Manager so CLARiiON users could conceivably take the ControlCenter software, install it on a stand-alone Windows 2000 or NT server and use it to manage a strictly CLARiiON environment. Besides Navisphere, the following ControlCenter applications support CLARiiON: ESN Manager, Database Tuner for Oracle, Resource Availability and StorageScope. ControlCenter Navisphere Management Suite The CLARiiON storage systems are managed by the ControlCenter Navisphere Management Suite. Navisphere provides simultaneous management of multiple arrays and helps to simplify performance analysis and tuning. The ControlCenter Navisphere Management Suite also permits viewing of all arrays from a single window with a Web-based user interface. This allows storage administrators to access No No 1 August

8 Navisphere securely from any remote location via the Internet and discover or manage up to 100 CLARiiON arrays remotely. Today s ControlCenter Navisphere Management Suite is made up of three components: 1. ControlCenter Navisphere Manager An optional software application that enables customers to discover, monitor and provision storage on multiple CLARiiON storage systems from a Web browser. The software required to manage the array can run on either a CX600, CX400, CX200 or FC4700 CLARiiON system storage system and can manage all of the CLARiiON arrays regardless of whether they are located at the primary site or at a satellite facility. Navisphere Manager can also be used to manage such optional software applications as Access Logix, SAN Copy, SnapView and MirrorView, the latter three being available only on the CX600 and CX400. Navisphere Manager provides the ability to integrate CLARiiON disk arrays into such higher-level management applications as CA UniCenter TNG, HP OpenView and Tivoli NetView using the Windows NT or Windows 2000 operating system. Navisphere Manager also notifies users of problems or status changes via color changes on the network map. A scaled down version called Navisphere Manager Base that can manage a single CX200 at a lower entry price point is also available. 2. ControlCenter Navisphere Agent/Command Line Interface (CLI) This optional software provides a server-based interface between CLARiiON arrays and all Navisphere graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Navisphere Agent acts as an interface for the Navisphere Command Line Interface, which runs on the management host and requests status, identifies problems and records and issues commands. It also acts as the interface for Navisphere s event-monitoring capabilities, which can be configured either to automatically launch certain applications upon detecting specific failures or to simply notify the storage administrator (via , fax, page or telephone) when any change in status occurs. 3. ControlCenter Navisphere Analyzer Continuously monitors array performance to aid in load balancing and tuning. Navisphere Analyzer runs on a Windows NT, Windows 95 or Windows 2000 workstation and requires a Navisphere Agent running on the host to communicate with the array. This application allows the storage administrator to evaluate and tune CLARiiON performance by providing access to graphs and charts that display the performance metrics it collects on disks, storage processors, logical unit numbers (LUNs), cache and EMC SnapView snapshot sessions. Navisphere Analyzer currently runs on the CLARiiON system (CX600, CX400 and CX200). SnapView One of two business continuity applications supported on the CX600 and CX400 that raise the system s capabilities above the CX200 s entry-level offering, EMC s SnapView is an optional point-in-time copy application that takes a logical snapshot of the system s data instead of a full copy. Up to eight point-intime snapshots or full Business Continuance Volumes (BCVs) (clone) images can be captured and retained independently of subsequent changes to the underlying data. SnapView is array-based and is therefore fully host independent. MirrorView Also available on the CX600 and CX400 (but not the CX200), EMC s MirrorView is a remote mirroring application that allows data to be mirrored synchronously between two CLARiiON CX600 or CX400 systems locally or at separate geographic locations using a variety of connectivity options, including extended distance options like dense-wave division multiplexer (DWDM) extenders and Fibre Channel over IP converter devices. Mirrored configurations can be made up of mixed CLARiiON systems (CX600, 1 August

9 CX400 or FC4700). MirrorView, like SnapView, is an array-based business continuity application and can be managed with the CLARiiON s Navisphere Management software. SAN Copy SAN Copy is optional software that enables customers to move or copy data from one CLARiiON system to another without impacting server cycles or LAN bandwidth. Data can be moved between CLARiiON and Symmetrix systems from a single management interface, regardless of the systems physical location. SAN Copy can be managed with CLARiiON s Navisphere Management software. EMC PowerPath PowerPath is a multipathing and load-balancing application which resides on the server below the application level but above the drivers and which is designed to optimize input/output (I/O) traffic between the servers and the storage systems. This software is now universal for both CLARiiON and Symmetrix. Access Logix To connect multiple hosts to any CLARiiON system, both Access Logix and Navisphere Manager must be installed. A full Fibre Channel infrastructure must also be employed in the configuration (two Fibre Channel host bus adapters per host, PowerPath software running on each host and two Fibre Channel switches for redundant pathways). EMC s Access Logix works both in environments that demand shared access and ones that require selective access. Environments can be homogenous or heterogeneous. Access Logix offers secure controls for reading and writing data, changing configurations and managing array resources so that no single host in a multihost environment monopolizes all the array resources. Access Logix is managed under the Navisphere umbrella and is a chargeable option. Caveat The CX200 comes standard with a modified version of the Navisphere Management software suite designed to meet the needs of the lower-end market without unduly burdening customers with the extra expense associated with additional functionality. Upgrades are available for those customers who wish to utilize all of the applications capabilities. For example, the Navisphere Manager application for the CX200 can manage a single CX200. If a customer wants to manage multiple CLARiiON CX products, they will have to upgrade to the full version. Likewise, the PowerPath application for the dual storage processor model CX200 provides support for failover capabilities only. Customers who wish to take advantage of PowerPath s load balancing functionality must upgrade to the full version. And of course PowerPath is not available on the single storage processor model of the CX200. The Access Logix software is the same on the CX200 as it is on the other CX products. Open Software Options EMC s ControlCenter software, which is primarily targeted at Symmetrix customers, also supports CLARiiON arrays in many of the key modules when installed on a Symmetrix platform in a mixed environment. They include: EMC ControlCenter Database Tuner Automated Resource Manager ControlCenter StorageScope EMC ControlCenter SAN Manager 1 August

10 EMC ControlCenter Replication Manager (not supported on the CX200) EMC Data Manager For more information about these applications, see Gartner s product report on EMC s Symmetrix line, referenced in the section Recommended Gartner Reading at the end of this report. Pricing Information not available from vendor. GSA Pricing No. Competitors CLARiiON CX600 The CLARiiON CX600 competes with the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) 5000, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) Thunder 9570V, IBM FAStT900 Storage Server, StorageTek D280 Disk Subsystem and Sun StorEdge All the products in our competitive lineup scale to over 30TB except the StorEdge 6960, which maxes out at 26TB. This is with 146GB or 181GB Fibre Channel disk drives. The CLARiiON CX600, however, also supports 250GB ATA disk drives that allow it to scale to 58TB, providing added flexibility for customers who wish to increase potential raw capacity and do not require the performance of Fibre Channel disk drives. Each product in our comparison is a full Fibre Channel disk array, and all except the StorEdge 6960 support 2Gb Fibre Channel end-to-end. The StorEdge 6960 comes standard with a 1Gb FC-SW host interface, which can be upgraded to a 2Gb Fibre Channel switch for an additional fee. However, the StorEdge 6960 s disk interface is limited to 1Gb Fibre Channel. And as mentioned above, the CLARiiON CX600 also supports an ATA disk interface. All of the products in the competitive lineup support two disk controllers (though the second controller is optional on the Thunder 9570V). Maximum controller cache ranges from 2GB per system on the EVA5000, FAStT900, D280 and StorEdge 6960 to 8GB per system on the CX600. The Thunder 9570V splits the difference with support for 4GB of cache per array. In previous comparisons, a main point of differentiation for these midrange competitors was the highavailability features they supported. HP s recent addition of remote copy support on the EVA5000 (April 2003) and IBM s addition of phone-home capability on the FAStT Series (March 2003) has helped to level the playing field in this segment, however. The primary differentiating feature now is nondisruptive volume expansion (assuming more than one LUN per RAID group). Neither the CLARiiON CX600 not the StorEdge 6960 support it, while all the others do. The CLARiiON CX600 comes with a two-year on-site warranty with a four-hour time. This is similar to the StorEdge 6960 (Sun quotes a same-business-day rather than four hours), but less than any of the other competitors. The EVA5000, Thunder 9570V and FAStT900 all come standard with three-year warranties on-site in the case of the EVA5000 and the FAStT900, one-year on-site and two years return-to-factory for the Thunder 9570V. Of course, most manufacturers offer warranty upgrade packages for customers who wish to have a different warranty duration, time or service type. 1 August

11 Table 2: Competitive Analysis: EMC CLARiiON CX600 EMC CLARiiON CX600 HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 5000 HDS Freedom Storage Thunder 9570V IBM FAStT900 Storage Server StorageTek D280 Disk Subsystem Sun StorEdge 6960 Maximum Raw Storage Capacity With All Expansion Maximum Drives With All Expansion Disk Controller Maximum Cache Host-System Interface RAID Levels Supported Drives Supported Drive Interface Standard Warranty 35TB (with Fibre Channel drives), 58TB (with ATA drives) 35TB (1) 32.7TB 32.9TB 32.7TB 26TB (1) standard 2 standard 1 standard, 2 standard 2 standard 2 for every 18 2 nd optional drives 4GB per 1GB per 2GB per 1GB per 1GB per 2GB per storage controller, controller, controller, controller, mirrored processor, 2GB per 4GB per 2GB per 2GB per partner pair 8GB per system system system system system FC-AL, FC- FC-SW (1Gb Fibre FC-AL, FC- FC-SW (2Gb) FC-SW (1Gb SW (2Gb) or 2Gb) Channel SW, (2Gb) standard, (1Gb or 2Gb) 2Gb optional) 0, 1, 1+0, 3, 5 Vraid 0, Vraid 0, 1, 0+1, 5 0, 1, 3, 5, 1+0 0, 1, 3, 5, , 5 1/0, Vraid 5 (3) (2) 36GB, 73GB, 146GB (Fibre Channel); 250GB (ATA) FC-AL (2Gb), ATA 2 years onsite , 4-hour Fault-Tolerance Features Supported (Standard or Optional) 36GB, 72GB, 146GB 36GB, 72GB, 146GB 18GB, 36GB, 73GB, 147GB 36GB, 73GB, 146B 36GB, 73GB, 181GB FC-AL (2Gb) FC-AL (2Gb) FC-AL (2Gb) FC-AL (2Gb) FC-AL (1Gb) 3 years onsite, 3 years, 1st 3 years on- 3 years on- 2 years on- 4-hour year on-site, site, nextsite, nextsite, same- 4-hour business-day business-day business-day ; 2nd and 3rd years returnto-factory Redundant, Hot- Swappable Components (4) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 1 August

12 Table 2: Competitive Analysis: EMC CLARiiON CX600 EMC CLARiiON CX600 HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 5000 HDS Freedom Storage Thunder 9570V IBM FAStT900 Storage Server StorageTek D280 Disk Subsystem Sun StorEdge 6960 Dual Power Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Cords Mirrored Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Cache Battery No (destages Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Backed-Up Cache to disk) Hot-Standby Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Spare High-Availability Features Supported (Standard or Optional) Automatic Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (5) Failover Alternate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Pathing Point-in-Time Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Copy Remote Copy Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (6) Environment Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes al Monitoring Phone-Home Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Capability Remote Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Diagnostics Nondisruptive Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microcode Updates Nondisruptive No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Volume Expansion Cluster Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Support (1) 70TB (480 drives) with special configuration. (2) Vraid is Hewlett-Packard s virtual RAID implementation. (3) The Thunder 9570V also supports RAID 3 with some restrictions. (4) Includes storage processors/controllers, disk drives, fans and power supplies. (5) Within the T3 array building blocks. (6) With host-based software. CLARiiON CX400 1 August

13 The CLARiiON CX400 primarily competes against the Hewlett-Packard StorageWorks EVA3000 and, to some degree, the IBM FAStT700 Storage Server and StorageTek D178 Disk Subsystem as well. From a positioning standpoint, CLARiiON CX400, FAStT700 and D178 Disk Subsystem all represent the middle of their respective lines. However, the FAStT700 and StorageTek D178 offer far greater storage capacity than the CX400. The CX400 was also previously compared with the HDS Thunder 9200, but the Thunder 9200 is now approaching end-of-life and is therefore not included in the current comparison. With a maximum capacity of 8.8TB, the CLARiiON CX400 slightly exceeds the EVA3000 (8.2TB) in raw capacity. This is with Fibre Channel disk drives, however. The CLARiiON CX400 also supports 250GB ATA drives, which allows it to scale up to 13.4TB in a mixed Fibre Channel/ATA configuration. For those customers that do not require the performance of Fibre Channel disks, the CLARiiON CX400 can provide additional capacity using ATA drives. As previously stated, the FAStT700 and D178 Disk Subsystem offer far greater raw capacity than the CLARiiON CX400 (over 32TB). The CLARiiON CX400, EVA3000, FAStT700 and D178 Disk Subsystem all support 2Gb Fibre Channel connectivity from end-to-end (and as previously discussed, the CLARiiON CX400 also supports ATA connectivity on the back-end). As on the CX600, the CX400 does not support nondisruptive volume expansion, while all the other competing models do. The CX400 and the StorEdge 6910 both come standard with a two-year on-site warranty. The others, however, all come with three-year on-site warranties. Again, though, most manufacturers offer warranty upgrade packages that allow customers to tailor their warranty service to their particular needs. Table 3: Competitive Analysis: EMC CLARiiON CX400 EMC CLARiiON CX400 HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 3000 IBM FAStT700 Storage Server StorageTek D178 Disk Subsystem Maximum Raw 8.8TB (with Fibre 8.2TB 32.9TB 32.7TB Storage Capacity With All Expansion Channel drives), 13.4TB (with ATA drives) Maximum Drives With All Expansion Disk Controller 2 standard 2 standard 2 standard 2 standard Maximum Cache 1GB per storage processor, 2GB per 1GB per storage processor, 2GB per 1GB per controller, 2GB per system 1GB per controller, 2GB per system system system Host-System FC-AL, FC-SW FC-SW (1Gb or FC-AL, FC-SW FC-SW (2Gb) Interface (2Gb) 2Gb) (2Gb) RAID Levels 0, 1, 1+0, 3, 5 Vraid 0, Vraid 1/0, 0, 1, 3, 5, 1+0 0, 1, 3, 5, 1+0 Supported Vraid (1) Drives Supported (bytes) 36GB, 73GB, 146GB (Fibre 36GB, 72GB, 146GB 18GB, 36GB, 73GB, 147GB 36GB, 73GB, 146GB Channel); 250GB (ATA drives) Drive Interface FC-AL (2Gb), ATA FC-AL (2Gb) FC-AL (2Gb) FC-AL (2Gb) Standard Warranty 2 years on-site, , 4-hour 3 years on-site, next-business-day 3 years on-site, next-business-day 3 years on-site, next-business-day 1 August

14 Table 3: Competitive Analysis: EMC CLARiiON CX400 EMC CLARiiON CX400 HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 3000 IBM FAStT700 Storage Server StorageTek D178 Disk Subsystem Fault-Tolerance Features Supported (Standard or Optional) Redundant, Hot- Swappable Components (2) Yes Yes Yes Yes Dual Power Cords Yes Yes Yes Yes Mirrored Cache Yes Yes Yes Yes Battery Backed-Up Cache No (destages to disk) Yes Yes Yes Hot-Standby Spare Yes Yes Yes Yes High-Availability Features Supported (Standard or Optional) Automatic Failover Yes Yes Yes Yes Alternate Pathing Yes Yes Yes Yes Point-in-Time Copy Yes Yes Yes Yes Remote Copy Yes Yes Yes Yes Environmental Monitoring Phone-Home Capability Remote Diagnostics Nondisruptive Microcode Updates Nondisruptive Volume Expansion Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Cluster Support Yes Yes Yes Yes (1) Vraid is Hewlett-Packard s virtual RAID implementation. (2) Includes storage processors/controllers, disk drives, fans and power supplies. CLARiiON CX200 The CLARiiON CX200 dual controller model competes with the Hewlett-Packard StorageWorks Modular Storage Array (MSA) 1000, Hewlett-Packard StorageWorks EVA3000, IBM FAStT600 Storage Server and the Sun StorEdge As with the CLARiiON CX400, this model was also previously compared with the HDS Thunder 9200 Deskside 20. However, since the Thunder 9200 is approaching end-of-life, it is not included in this comparison. The CX200 offers the least overall capacity in the competitive lineup when using Fibre Channel drives. Its 4.4TB maximum capacity is exceeded by the StorEdge 3510 s 5.3TB, the MSA1000 and FAStT600 s 6.1TB and the EVA3000 s 8.2TB. When configured with ATA drives, however, the CX200 scales up to 6TB surpassing the StorEdge 3510 and essentially matching the MSA1000 and FAStT600. For those customers who are more interested in overall capacity than performance, the CLARiiON CX200 with a mixed Fibre Channel/ATA drive configuration provides another option. 1 August

15 All the products in our competitive mix support two disk controllers, though the second controller is optional on some models. Controller cache ranges from a low of 128MB per controller on the FAStT600 to 1GB per controller on the StorEdge The CLARiiON CX200 ranks second on this metric with the second largest controller cache (512MB per controller). All of the competitors support 2Gb Fibre Channel host connections, and all but the MSA1000 carry that 2Gb Fibre Channel connectivity through to the back-end. The MSA1000 has an Ultra3 SCSI interface to disk. The CLARiiON CX200 also has the added flexibility of supporting ATA disks. Three of the five competing products have three-year warranties, while the other two offer two years of coverage standard. Within those coverage periods, though, there are differences in the kind of service provided. The EVA3000 and FAStT600, for example, offer a full three years of on-site service with nextbusiness-day. The MSA1000 has a three-year warranty, but only the first year is on-site. The StorEdge 3510 comes standard with a two-year warranty, one-year on-site and the other parts exchange. The CLARiiON CX200 comes standard with a two-year 5x9 on-site warranty with next-business-day. As noted in the other competitive comparisons, however, most manufacturers offer warranty upgrades for an additional fee. Table 4: Competitive Analysis: EMC CLARiiON CX200 EMC CLARiiON CX200 (Dual Controller ) HP StorageWorks MSA1000 HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 3000 IBM FAStT600 Storage Server Sun StorEdge 3510 Maximum Raw 4.4TB (with 6.1TB 8.2TB 6.1TB 5.3TB Storage Capacity With All Expansion Fibre Channel drives), 6TB (with ATA drives) Maximum Drives With All Expansion Disk Controller 2 standard 1 standard, 2nd optional 2 standard 2 standard 1 or 2 (model dependent) Maximum Cache (bytes) 512M per storage processor, 1G 256M per controller, 512M per system 1GB per storage processor, 2GB 128MB per controller, 256MB per 1GB per controller, 2GB per system per system per system system Host-System Interface FC-AL, FC-SW (2Gb) Fibre Channel, FC-SW (1Gb or FC-SW (1Gb or 2Gb) FC-SW, (2Gb) FC-AL, FC-SW (2Gb) 2Gb) RAID Levels Supported 0, 1, 1+0, 3, 5 0, 1, 1+0, 5 Vraid 0, Vraid 1/0, Vraid (1) 0, 1, 3, 5, 1+0 0, 1, 0+1, 3, 5, 3+0, 5+0 Drives Supported 36GB, 73GB, 146GB (Fibre 18GB, 36GB, 72GB, 146GB 36GB, 72GB, 146GB 36GB, 73GB, 147GB 36GB, 73GB, 146GB Channel); 250GB (ATA) Drive Interface FC-AL (2Gb), ATA Ultra3 SCSI FC-AL (2Gb) FC-AL (2Gb) Fibre Channel (2Gb) 1 August

16 Table 4: Competitive Analysis: EMC CLARiiON CX200 EMC CLARiiON HP HP IBM FAStT600 Sun StorEdge CX200 (Dual StorageWorks StorageWorks Storage Server 3510 Controller MSA1000 Enterprise ) Virtual Array 3000 Standard Warranty 2 years on-site, 5x9, nextbusiness-day 3 years, 1 st year on-site nextbusiness-day, 2 nd and 3 rd years, parts exchange 3 years on-site, next-businessday Fault-Tolerance Features Supported (Standard or Optional) 3 years on-site, next-businessday 2 years, 1st year on-site secondbusiness-day, 2 nd - year 15-day parts exchange Redundant, Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Hot-Swappable Controllers/Stor age Processors (2) Dual Power Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Cords Mirrored Cache Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Battery Backed- No (destages to Yes Yes Yes Yes Up Cache disk) Hot-Standby Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Spare High-Availability Features Supported (Standard or Optional) Automatic Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Failover Alternate No Yes Yes Yes Yes Pathing Point-in-Time No Yes Yes No No Copy Remote Copy No Yes Yes No No Environmental Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Monitoring Phone-Home Yes No Yes Yes No Capability Remote Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Diagnostics Nondisruptive Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microcode Updates Nondisruptive Volume Expansion No Yes Yes Yes Yes 1 August

17 Table 4: Competitive Analysis: EMC CLARiiON CX200 EMC CLARiiON CX200 (Dual Controller ) HP StorageWorks MSA1000 HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 3000 IBM FAStT600 Storage Server Sun StorEdge 3510 Cluster Support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (1) Vraid is Hewlett-Packard s virtual RAID implementation. (2) Includes storage processors/controllers, disk drives, fans and power supplies. Strengths Software Family EMC s CLARiiON CX family shares a common software structure with EMC s highend Symmetrix line, allowing some software applications that were previously available only on Symmetrix to be used on CLARiiON CX products as well. This is an advantage over some of the other competitors who have separate software tools for each class of system. The CLARiiON CX Series also shares disk drives, drive trays and Fibre Channel host-bus adapters in common with the Symmetrix line. New Lower-End Entry The single controller model of the CX200 provides a new entry-point into the CLARiiON line. Market Reputation EMC s strength in the worldwide storage and storage management software markets lend credibility to the vendor. In addition, the CLARiiON line has a long history of its own in midrange open environments. Limitations Architectural Shift Affects Upgrade Path Within CLARiiON Line EMC s CLARiiON CX line uses different disk drives and different cabinets than the previous CLARiiON FC models. Therefore the CLARiiON line no longer has a full upgrade path. While previous generations of CLARiiON products could be upgraded by simply replacing controller boards, the FC models cannot be upgraded to CX models in this fashion. While this poses an investment protection issue for customers, it is an issue that affects most manufacturers at some point when they have exhausted the scalability of their established architecture and must make the shift to a new one to continue scaling. EMC s established CLARiiON software does work on the new CX family, however, and models within the CX family can be upgraded as needed. CLARiiON Array Not Configurable by ControlCenter CLARiiON products are now manageable from a ControlCenter console as well as from their own Navisphere Manager Suite, but that can only be accomplished if the CLARiiON customer purchases a supported EMC application and obtains a copy of EMC ControlCenter free along with the software purchase. Today s CLARiiON user can perform some tasks through EMC s ControlCenter, though not all. The supported tasks include creating RAID groups, creating LUNs, creating and populating storage groups and creating SnapView snapshots. Nondisruptive Volume Expansion The CLARiiON CX Series products do not support nondisruptive volume expansion in RAID groups with more than one LUN, something that most other products in this class do. Recommended Gartner Research Disk Array Storage: Comparison Columns, DPRO August

18 EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Information Storage Systems, DPRO EMC Symmetrix DMX Series Disk Arrays, DPRO Insight With the introduction of the CX Series, EMC expanded its CLARiiON line both downward into the entrylevel (with the CX200) and upward toward the high end of the midrange (with the CX600). In many cases, potential customers will find that the line between CLARiiON and EMC s high-end Symmetrix line has blurred and that they can now obtain certain functionality that was previously reserved for the Symmetrix line in a lower cost, software-compatible CLARiiON product. Users should keep this in mind and carefully compare their individual needs to the specifications of each product line before deciding which one to consider. Now, with the introduction of the single controller CX200, EMC has continued to increase the breadth of the line by providing a product targeted specifically at the volume space with even smaller configurations. Furthermore, with the introduction of mixed ATA and Fibre Channel drive support, users can now select their drive capacities based on price points that are consistent with the value of their data and then blend the combination of drives in a single storage system. 1 August