StorGate^TM for Enterprise Storage and Enterprise Storage with Disaster Recovery

for VOS Continuum to EMC

SCSI Model

Product Brief

DRA's Storgate^TM for enterprise storage and enterprise storage with disaster recovery is a drop-in solution that provides VOS V Series hosts with seamless access to and disaster recovery for VOS data on EMC storage arrays.

StorGate leverages Stratus users' existing enterprise storage and disaster recovery resources and provides superior performance, reliability, and unsurpassed compatibility.

StorGate meets all requirements for a certified host. Stratus VOS V Series users can store and retrieve VOS data on their existing storage arrays while maintaining full support for their equipment.  In addition, StorGate can provide site-to-site disaster recovery, leveraging your enterprise disaster recovery solution without any negative impact on the Stratus.

 Key Features

• Provides drop-in fully supported VOS-to-EMC connectivity for Symmetrix, Symmetrix DMX, Symmetrix VMAX, and CLARiiON storage

• Stores data instantaneously at a remote site where it is immediately ready to be mounted to a disaster recovery Stratus module.  Data on the remote Stratus module is ready for immediate fail-back as soon as the primary site is ready

• Requires no changes to the application

• Allows VOS to see EMC storage as common VOS disk types (D706, D711, D712)

• Stores VOS data directly in VOS file format (Note: VOS does not support data sharing between hosts)

• Supports PowerPath which provides dual fiber pathways from StorGate to EMC

• Meets or exceeds native VOS disk performance in most applications (using EMC mirroring with metavolumes)

StorGate provides a connection between a VOS Continuum BIO (K450/K460) port and EMC host adapter port. StorGate "on-the-fly" disk emulation and data translation capabilities allow VOS Continuum users to store and retrieve data on an EMC just as if the data were stored on standard Stratus disks.

Each StorGate unit provides access to up to 12 virtual VOS disk volumes on the EMC. Each of these virtual disks may be a VOS D706, D711, or a D712 disk type. Multiple StorGate units may be attached to multiple BIO ports on a single VOS Continuum host to provide access to as much EMC storage capacity as desired, up to the maximum allowed by VOS. Multiple StorGate units may also be used to allow multiple VOS Continuum hosts to access one or more EMC storage arrays. (Although StorGate allows multiple VOS hosts to store data on a single EMC, VOS limitations prevent sharing that data between hosts.)

StorGate supports all VOS disk-related commands and functions.  It uses standard RAID hypers and metavolumes to store VOS data on an EMC storage array. This allows the DMX to manage VOS virtual disks as standard RAID storage volumes. Both mirrored and Raid-S volume types are supported.

The VOS Continuum host connects to StorGate through a Continuum BIO (K450/K460) SCSI port. An EMC connects to StorGate through a Fibre Channel port on an EMC Fibre Channel host adapter. (Refer to the StorGate Technical Specifications for connection details.)

Laboratory tests indicate that for many applications StorGate provides throughput which equals or exceeds that of equivalent Stratus disks. In these laboratory tests the best performance was achieved when the virtual disks on the target were configured as target-specific mirrored metavolumes. Performance in other environments may vary, and depends upon a variety of factors. These factors include application data access patterns, overall EMC configuration, and I/O activity by other hosts attached to the target storage array.

The optional StorGate PowerPath Facility allows Stratus users to take advantage of EMC’s PowerPath, a host-based software that works with the storage system to intelligently manage I/O paths.

PowerPath supports multiple paths to a logical device, enabling the facility to provide automatic failover in the event of a hardware failure. PowerPath automatically detects path failure and redirects I/O to another path.

PowerPath also provides dynamic multi-path load balancing for many storage platforms.  It distributes I/O requests to a logical device across all available paths, thus improving I/O performance and reducing management time and downtime by eliminating the need to configure paths statically across logical devices.  Check with your EMC representative for support of load balancing on your storage platform.

PowerPath Facility runs automatically and without administration required.  PowerPath is enabled through a dual port fiber card as opposed to the single port fiber card that comes standard with StorGate.

DRA products purchased through Stratus are supported jointly by DRA and Stratus. DRA products purchased directly from DRA are supported through the Co-active Maintenance Service (CMS). CMS is a total support agreement which is available "around the clock, around the world" to participating DRA customers. Product maintenance, product updates, documentation and training are available through CMS support. CMS is provided free of charge for 90 days following product installation, and may be extended by contract thereafter.

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Copyright © 2010 Data Research & Applications, Inc.
Last modified: October 20, 2010