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Solid State Disks | RamSan-120 | RamSan-325 | RamSan-330 | Support & Warranty
RamSan-330
Applications
While solid state disks are designed to have "hot" data actively placed on them by administrators for acceleration, the RamSan-330 RAID cache dynamically and automatically accelerates large capacities of storage according to use.
A solid state RAID cache is most appropriate when:
- Data needing acceleration constantly changes.
- Large amounts of data needs acceleration.
- Terabyte solid state disks are not an option due to cost.
- Existing storage infrastructures need an "invisible" performance boost.
- A storage area network (SAN) needs overall performance improvements.
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Product Highlights
Performance
The RamSan-330 turbo charges storage by caching the most popular data and distributing it at maximum rates of 3 GB/s bandwidth and 250,000 I/Os a second. End users can use the RamSan-330 to overcome the costly bottlenecks associated with slow read/write performance across a large segment of data. While some intensive applications need a terabyte of solid state disk to fully perform, many others could simply benefit from a large cache such as the RamSan-330 to make terabytes of RAIDs behave like solid state disk.
The state-of-the-art caching algorithms and firmware built in to the RamSan-330 support three widely used caching methods:
- Write through caching: the server is not notified that a write is committed until it is written to disk.
- Write-back caching: all writes are to the RamSan-330. In the background, the system uses available bandwidth to flush writes to the external storage.
- Read-ahead caching: Optimizes reads by pre-fetching blocks from disk in anticipation of system storage requests.
These methods are configurable per system or per segment.
Reliability
The RamSan-330 offers an ideal mix of speed and data persistence. To ensure non-volatility, the RamSan-330 provides redundant cache destaging and internal battery support. In the event of external power loss, internal redundant batteries will keep the unit powered for 25 minutes-- long enough to copy all data to internal redundant hard disks and (if available) to an external storage device. This ensures the resumption of normal operation as quickly as possible after power failure.
The unit also features redundant hot swappable power supplies, redundant hot swappable disks for cache destaging, active:passive failover for Fibre Channel ports, ECC memory error protection, and redundant cooling fan banks (front/back airflow) to ensure the highest levels of reliability.
Manageability
The RamSan-330 includes a comprehensive array of features that far exceeds the standard and provides maximum application flexibility. Any computer can access the RamSan-330's management capabilities over Ethernet. From either a telnet or browser interface (all password protected) the administrator can monitor the RamSan's various sensors and status alerts and fully configure the system. Basic functions are also available from the front panel.
From these interfaces, the administrator can
- Configure from 1 to 64 cache LUNs of variable capacity. The LUNs can be assigned to cache any one or several storage devices attached to the unit.
- Manage LUN masking lists for each Fibre Channel interface port. The LUN masking lists can be used to grant universal access or limited access to specific worldwide port names.
- Configure Fibre Channel controller settings.
- View all SNMP alerts, system temperature and the status for every major component.
- Configure Fibre Channel failover capabilities
- Specify independent cache settings for each LUN.
- Specify the IP address for the RamSan.
- Specify the location for any external backup/destaging storage.
The RamSan-330 is fully SNMP compatible.
Scalability
While 16 GB of RAID cache was once an expensive luxury to datacenters, the RamSan-330's 16-64 GB of fast RAID cache makes it available to any IT storage environment. While far larger than most integrated cache systems in terms of capacity, the RamSan packs it all into a mere 3U of rack space and provides far more scalability in terms of capacity, performance, and connectivity options.
A minimal RamSan-330 comes with 16 GB of cache and four Fibre Channel ports. Additional Fibre Channel ports can be added (up to 8 total) to either increase the number of connections available or to maximize performance from cache. By increasing capacity, real world performance is increased as the likelihood of getting data from cache instead of disk increases.
Connectivity
The RamSan-330's four to eight 2Gbit Fibre Channel ports can be flexibly allocated to servers, switches or storage products. This means that a single RamSan-330 can simultaneously serve as a cache for multiple Fibre Channel RAID, JBOD or other storage devices.
The RamSan-330 is transparent to the operating system. It automatically caches writes and frequently accessed blocks in its high-performance memory subsystem, improving read and write performance.
Technical Specifications
| I/Os Per Second |
250,000
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| Capacity |
16-64 GB
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| Bandwidth |
1500 MB per second
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| Latency |
Less than 20 microseconds
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Caching
Supports three distinct caching methods, configurable per system or per LUN: |
- Write-through caching: the server is not notified that a write is committed until it is written to disk
- Write-back caching: all writes are to the RamSan-330. In the background, the system uses available bandwidth to flush writes to the external storage.
- Read-ahead caching: optimizes reads by pre-fetching blocks from disk in anticipation of system storage requests.
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| Fibre Channel Connection |
- 2-Gigabit Fibre Channel (1-Gigabit capable)
- 2 ports standard; up to 8 ports available
- Supports point-to-point, arbitrated loop, and switched fabric topologies
- Invisible link for up to 64 RAID LUNs
- Full fabric support and connectivity to Fibre Channel Storage, servers, and switches
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| Cache Destaging |
- Non-volatile, fully destaging cache
- Redundant internal batteries power the system for 25 minutes after power loss
- Automatically backs up data to disk at 90 MB/sec
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| Management |
- Browser-enabled system monitoring, management, and configuration
- SNMP supported
- Telnet management capability
- Front panel displays system status and provides basic management functionality
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| LUN Support |
- 1 to 64 LUNs with variable capacity per LUN
- Flexible assignment of LUNs to ports
- Hardware LUN masking
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| Reliability and Availability |
- ECC memory error protection
- Internal redundancies
- Power supplies and fans
- Backup battery power (n+1)
- Backup hard disk drives (RAID3)
- Hot-swappable components
- Three backup hard drives (front access)
- Power supplies
- Active:Passive Fibre Channel failover (optional)
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| Size |
5.25" (3U) X 25"
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| Power Consumption (peak) |
350 Watts
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| Weight (maximum) |
80 lbs
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Support & Warranty |
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