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About the SC9000
The SC9000 is an enterprise-class storage system that provides performance, scalability and high 
availability.
 
Storage System Overview
The storage system described in this document consists of two storage controllers, enterprise-class 
switches, and one or more expansion enclosures.
SC9000 Hardware
The storage controllers provide the central processing capability for the Storage Center Operating 
System, application software (Dell Storage Client), and management of RAID storage.
Each storage controller includes two Intel Xeon CPUs, a cache card, an Integrated Dell Remote Access 
Controller 8 (iDRAC8), a four‐port Intel network daughter card, and up to six IO cards installed in three 
full‐height slots and three low‐profile slots. The Storage Center Operating System is installed on an 
embedded SSD within each storage controller.
The IO cards in the storage controller are designated as front-end ports or back-end ports.
• Front‐end ports: Hosts, servers, or Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliances access storage by 
connecting to the storage controller iSCSI, Fibre Channel, or FCoE IO cards through one or more 
network switches. The ports for these connections are located on the back of the storage controller, 
but are designated as front‐end ports.
• Back‐end ports: Expansion enclosures, which hold the physical disks that provide back‐end storage, 
connect directly to the SAS ports on the storage controllers. The SAS ports are designated as back‐
end ports, which are part of a private network between the storage controllers and expansion 
enclosures.
About the SC9000
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