Introduction; Ps Series Arrays And Groups - Dell EqualLogic PS Series Installation And Setup

1 Introduction

This chapter provides an introduction to PS Series storage arrays and groups and
describes the steps for getting started.

PS Series Arrays and Groups

PS Series storage arrays deliver the benefits of consolidated storage in a storage
area network (SAN) that is affordable and easy to use—regardless of its size. With
intelligent, automated management and fast, flexible scalability, PS Series arrays
greatly reduce storage acquisition and management costs.
By grouping together one or more PS Series arrays connected to an IP network,
you can create a PS Series group—a highly-scalable iSCSI SAN with a shared
pool of storage space. Integrated virtualization software makes a group easy to
manage and provides automatic RAID configuration, data provisioning, and load
balancing.
To ensure high reliability, PS Series arrays include RAID-protected disks,
automatic disk sparing, redundant fans and power supplies, and dual
high-performance control modules, each with multiple Gigabit Ethernet
interfaces and a battery-backed cache.
You can quickly configure the PS Series software and initialize an array. Then,
you can create a group with the array as the first member or add the array to an
existing group. When you expand a group, capacity and performance increase
automatically, with no disruption to users. The new member's storage space is
added to the group storage pool, where it is immediately ready for use.
To manage a group, you use the Group Manager graphical user interface or
command line user interface. Allocate group storage pool space to users and
applications by creating volumes. To each volume, you assign a size, access
controls, and other attributes. A volume can be spread across multiple disks and
group members and is seen on the network as an iSCSI target. Data and network
I/O to volumes are automatically load balanced across the disks and network
interfaces—with no impact on data availability. See Figure 1-1.
1-1