Chapter 1: Overview
The Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F700 is a versatile modular, rack-mountable all-ash
array storage system equipped with drive boxes, supporting ash module drives, scaled
for various storage capacity congurations. To deliver consistent low latency host
response times and highest IOP performance across all host connection ports,
conventional hard-disk drives are not supported in an all-ash conguration.
The storage systems provide high performance operations by using dual controllers with
high-speed processors, dual in-line cache memory modules (DIMMs), cache ash
memory (CFM), battery, fans and ports to connect iSCSI and Fibre Channel I/O modules.
Each controller has an Ethernet connection for out-of-band management. If the data
path through one controller fails, all data drives remain available to hosts using a
redundant data path through the other controller.
For reliability, essential hardware components are implemented with a redundant
conguration so that the storage system can remain operational if a component fails.
Adding and replacing components, along with rmware upgrades, can be conducted
while the storage system is active and without interruption of data availability to the
hosts. A hot spare drive can be congured to replace a failed data drive automatically,
securing the fault-tolerant integrity of the logical drives. Self-contained, hardware-based
RAID logical drives provide maximum performance in compact external enclosures.
Block configuration
A storage system congured for block-level storage provides the ability to access and
provision raw storage volumes using protocols such as Fibre Channel and iSCSI.
A block conguration consists of the following:
■
Two controllers
■
One or more drive trays
■
Optional service processor (SVP)
Features
All storage systems are highly reliable, versatile, and able to scale its performance by
adding more drive chassis and data drives. Depending on the system conguration, the
drive chassis oerings support SAS-interface solid-state and ash module drives.
Chapter 1: Overview
Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F700 Hardware Reference Guide 12