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PowerFlex software-defined infrastructure enables broad consolidation across the data center, encompassing almost any type of workload and architecture. The software-defined architecture offers automation and programmability of the complete infrastructure and provides scalability, performance, and resiliency to enable effortless adherence to stringent workload SLAs.
The PowerFlex family provides a foundation that combines compute and high-performance storage resources in a managed unified fabric. PowerFlex comes in flexible deployment options (rack, appliance, or custom nodes and in the public cloud) that enables independent (two-layer), HCI (single-layer), or mixed architectures. PowerFlex is ideal for high-performance applications and databases, building an agile private/hybrid cloud, or consolidating resources in heterogeneous environments.
Software is the key differentiation in the PowerFlex offering. PowerFlex software components not only provide software-defined storage services, but also help simplify infrastructure management and orchestration. This software enables comprehensive IT Operational Management (ITOM) and Life Cycle Management (LCM) capabilities that span compute as well as storage infrastructure, from BIOS and Firmware to nodes, software, and networking.
PowerFlex is the software foundation of PowerFlex software-defined infrastructure. It is a scale-out block and file storage service that is designed to deliver flexibility, elasticity, and simplicity with predictable high performance and resiliency at scale.
PowerFlex Manager is the software component in the PowerFlex family that enables ITOM automation and LCM capabilities for PowerFlex systems. Starting with PowerFlex 4.0, the unified PowerFlex Manager brings together three separate components used in previous releases – PowerFlex Manager, the core PowerFlex UI, and the PowerFlex gateway. The new PowerFlex UI runs in Kubernetes and embraces a modern development framework.
PowerFlex File Controllers, also known as File Nodes, are physical nodes that enable PowerFlex software defined File Services. They host the NAS Servers, which in turn host the tenant namespaces and file systems, mapping PowerFlex volumes to the file systems presented by the NAS Servers. All major protocols are supported, such as NFS, SMB/CIFS, FTP, and NDMP. PowerFlex file service is supported from PowerFlex 4.0.
NVMe is a family of open specifications that defines an industry standard for both a logical interface and a communication protocol for accessing block storage across an internal PCIe fabric or through external fabrics such as TCP/IP and FC. NVMe is designed to take advantage of the internal parallelism and low latency inherent in flash-based media SSDs.
NVMe/TCP is an extension of the NVMe base specification that defines the binding of the NVMe protocol to message-based fabrics using TCP. By binding the NVMe protocol to TCP, NVMe/TCP enables the efficient end-to-end transfer of commands and data between NVMe hosts and NVMe controller devices by any standard Ethernet-based TCP/IP networks.
From PowerFlex release 4.x onwards, support for NVMe/TCP has been added for on-premises deployment with the introduction of a new Storage Data Target (SDT) component installed in the storage layer. The NVMe initiator in the operating system or hypervisor communicates with the SDT, which then communicates with the Storage Data Server (SDS). The NVMe initiator is part of the kernel of the application host operating system or hypervisor.
Figure 2. PowerFlex with NVMe/TCP
For more information, see PowerFlex with NVMe over TCP.