HP XP7 Owner Guide (H6F56-96006)

1 Introduction
XP7 Storage overview
XP7 Storage is a high capacity, high performance disk array that offers a wide range of storage
and data services, software, logical partitioning, and simplified and unified data replication across
heterogeneous disk arrays. Its large scale, enterprise class virtualization layer combined with Smart
Tiers and Thin Provisioning software, delivers virtualization of internal and external storage into
one pool.
Using this system, you can deploy applications within a new framework, leverage and add value
to current investments, and more closely align IT with business objectives. XP7 Storage provide the
foundation for matching application requirements to different classes of storage and deliver critical
services including:
• Business continuity services
• Content management services (search, indexing)
• Non disruptive data migration
• Thin Provisioning
• Smart Tiers
• High availability
• Security services
• I/O load balancing
• Data classification
• File management services
New technological advances improve reliability, serviceability and access to disk drives and other
components when maintenance is needed. Each component contains a set of LEDs that indicate
the operational status of the component. The system includes new and upgraded software features,
including Smart Tiers, and a significantly improved, task oriented version of Remote Web Console
that is designed for ease of use and includes context sensitive online help. The system documentation
has been changed to a task oriented format that is designed to help you find information quickly
and complete tasks easily.
Hardware overview
XP7 Storage contain significant new technology that was not available in previous HP disk arrays.
The system can be configured in many ways, starting with a small (one rack) to a large (six rack)
system that includes two controller chassis, up to 2304 HDD drives which include up to 384 solid
state drives, and a total of 2048 GB cache. The system provides a highly granular upgrade path,
allowing the addition of disk drives to the drive chassis, and Processors Blades and other components
to the controller chassis in an existing system as storage needs increase. The controller chassis (or
DKU) of XP7 Storage can be combined so that what would previously have been two separate
disk arrays are now a single disk array with homogeneous logic control, cache, and front end and
back end interfaces, all mounted in custom HP 19 inch racks.
Basic XP7 Storage is a control rack (Rack- 00) that contains a controller chassis and two drive (or
media) chassis (factory designation DKU). Fully configured XP7 Storage consists of two controller
chassis and sixteen drive chassis for fully configured system. The controller chassis contains the
control logic, processors, memory, and interfaces to the drive chassis and the host servers. A drive
chassis consists of disks or SSD drives, power supplies, and the interface circuitry connecting it to
the controller chassis. The remaining racks (Rack-01, Rack-02, Rack-10 and Rack-11) contain from
one to two drive chassis.
6 Introduction