Administrator Guide

Figure 4. PS Series Group
Table 5. PS Series Group
Callout Description
1 PS Series group
Storage area network (SAN) comprising one or more PS Series arrays connected to an IP network. Arrays are
high-performance (physical) block storage devices.
2 PS Series members
One or more PS Series arrays represented as individual members within a pool to which it provides storage
space to utilize.
3 PS Series storage pools
Containers for storage resources (disk space, processing power, and network bandwidth). A pool can have one
or more members assigned to it.
A group can provide both block and le access to storage data. Access to block-level storage requires direct iSCSI access to PS
Series arrays (iSCSI initiator). Access to le storage requires the FS Series NAS appliance using NFS or SMB protocols and the Dell
FluidFS scale-out le system.
With storage data management features, you can:
• Manage a group through several built-in mechanisms such as ssh, serial line, telnet, and web-based user interfaces. You do not
need an external management station or management software.
• Congure the system to alert you to management activity or problems through log les, SNMP traps, and email notication
• Add more arrays (up to 16) to a group to increase capacity and performance
• Secure data and management access with authorization and authentication mechanisms
• Protect storage data with replication and snapshots
How Groups Work
Each group member cooperates with other members to automate resource provisioning and performance optimization. The storage
system partitions the RAID-protected disk space that each member contributes to the storage pool into xed-sized chunks of data,
called pages. Pages logically separate the volume presented to the hosts from the physical resources of the storage array. Each
volume has a page map that allocates pages to the members. The system automatically load balances data by performing
transactional operations that move pages across member’s disks and across all members in a pool. When a group receives a client
server request, it identies the location of the data and transfers the request to the member or members that contain the data.
As capacity and performance requirements increase, you can expand a group. When you add an array to an existing group, more
space is immediately available. New members learn conguration and performance information from the group. You can also retire
older equipment from the group as needed. You can choose a member to remove, and it will automatically ooad its data to other
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Architecture Fundamentals