Concept Guide

8 | CPU, BIOS, Operating Systems, and Storage Dell PowerConnect W AirWave 7.2 | Sizing Guide
Storage
AWMS stores most statistical data in special statistical flat files. This is a speed improvement over writing to a
relational database. Additionally, it provides for a known, fixed amount of storage per managed device and
consumes much less space than a traditional rational database. AMP spends much more time writing to the disk
subsystem than reading from it.
 Here are some factors which influence storage requirements for your AWMS server:
 How many devices will the server manage?
 How much historical data will the server retain?
 How many wireless clients will the server monitor?
 Will this Server run VisualRF and RAPIDS?
RAID Configuration Information
200 Devices and Below
AWMS 100 and 200 models perform well on a single, fast (spindle speed) disk.
500 - 1,000 Devices
RAID configuration requires at least 4 SAS/SCSI disk drives in a RAID-10 configuration supplied via a hardware
controller with at least 256 MB of cache. All disk drives must have 15K RPM spindle speeds. Do not use software
RAID systems or SATA disk drives.
1,000 - 2,500 Devices
RAID configuration requires at least 6 SAS/SCSI disk drives in a RAID-10 configuration supplied via a hardware
controller with at least 512 MB of cache. All disk drives must have 15K RPM spindle speeds.
2,500 - 5,000 Devices Non-SSD Drives
AWMS 2,500 - 5,000 device installations require at least 16 SAS/SCSI disk drives in a RAID-10 configuration
supplied via a hardware controller with at least 1 GB of cache. All disk drives must have 15K RPM spindle speeds.
2,500 - 5,000 Devices SSD Drives
AWMS 2,500-5,000 device installations with SSDs require two distinct disk partitions. The first partition will
need 10 SSDs (Solid State Disk) drives in RAID-10 configuration supplied via a hardware controller with at least
1 GB of cache. This partition is the high throughput data storage area "/var" described in the partition table below.
The second partition will require at least two (2) SAS/SCSI drives in a high availability configuration (mirrored or
RAID), supplied via a hardware controller. Both drives must have 15K RPM spindle speeds. This partition will
contain the boot and swap described in the partition tables below.
NOTE: Please contact support.dell.com when purchasing or configuring any hardware platform servicing more than 2,500 devices.
AWMS servers servicing more than 2,500 devices require 64-bit OS and AWMS 7.1 or higher. Do not use software RAID systems or
SATA disk drives.