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The following table provides definitions for some of the terms that are used in this document:
Table 3. Terminology
Term |
Definition |
Automated Data Placement (ADP) |
ADP is the system’s ability to intelligently manage data placement between two different drive technologies in the same array. |
DAE24 |
DAE24 refers to the drive array enclosure that is used to store up to 24 NVMe drives in PowerMax arrays. |
PowerMax 2000 |
PowerMax 2000 is the entry NVMe scale-out array sold with the Essentials and Pro software packages. |
PowerMax 8000 |
PowerMax 8000 is the flagship NVMe scale-out array sold with the Essentials and Pro software packages. |
Disk group |
A disk group is a collection of hard drives sharing the same technology, size, and performance characteristics. |
Drive Array Enclosure (DAE) |
DAE refers to the drive array enclosure used to store flash drives and SCM drives in PowerMax. |
Essentials |
The Essentials package is the default PowerMax software package. |
Flash capacity pack |
A flash capacity pack includes NVMe flash drive capacity (TBu) that can be added to a PowerMax array. |
Inline compression |
Inline compression refers to the intelligent compression technology used with PowerMax arrays. |
Inline deduplication (dedupe) |
Inline deduplication refers to the deduplication technology used with PowerMax arrays. |
Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) |
NVMe is a command set and its associated storage-interface standards that specify efficient access to data storage devices and systems based on Non-Volatile Memory (NVM). |
NVMe flash drives/NAND |
NVMe/PCIe-connected flash drives are the latest flash devices used to store capacity in PowerMax arrays. |
NVMe over Fabric (NVMe-oF) |
NVMe-oF defines a common architecture that supports a range of storage networking fabrics for NVMe block storage protocol |
NVMe over Fibre Channel (FC-NVMe) |
FC-NVMe extends the NVMe block storage protocol and its benefits over data-center fabrics using high-speed Fibre Channel as the fabric transport. |
PowerMax Brick |
A Brick is the building block for a PowerMax array. It includes an engine, two DAEs, and a fixed TBu of capacity. |
PowerMax zBrick |
zBrick is the PowerMax mainframe building block consisting of an engine, two DAEs, and fixed TBu of capacity. |
PowerMaxOS/ |
PowerMaxOS is the PowerMax storage operating system. The PowerMaxOS 5978 release supports PowerMax NVMe arrays, dedupe, and other software enhancements. It can also be installed on legacy VMAX All Flash arrays. |
Pro |
The Pro package is a comprehensive software offering sold as a PowerMax appliance. |
RAID group |
A RAID group is the minimum quantity of hard drives that comprise a specific RAID protection scheme. |
Scale out |
Scale out refers to adding Bricks to grow performance and expansion on PowerMax systems. |
Scale up |
Scale up refers to adding flash capacity packs to a PowerMax array. |
Service level |
Service levels identify a specific performance tier in PowerMax arrays. |
Smart RAID |
Smart RAID provides active/active shared RAID support for PowerMax arrays. |
Storage Memory Class (SCM) |
SCM is a new hybrid storage/memory tier that has read and write performance characteristics which are significantly faster than traditional flash drives |
Storage Resource Pool (SRP) |
An SRP is a collection of hard drives which constitute a specific usable capacity for customer application data. Most PowerMax arrays consist of a single SRP. An SRP's usable capacity can consist of both NAND Flash and SCM disks. Automated Data Placement across the SCM and NAND Flash drives within the SRP is managed by the internal PowerMax machine learning engine. Each SRP is protected by a single RAID protection scheme and can provide capacity for FBA, file, and mainframe. |
TBe |
TBe is effective capacity in terabytes. It includes the benefits of thin provisioning, inline compression, deduplication, and space-efficient copies. |
TBu |
TBu is usable capacity in terabytes. It refers to the amount of hard drive capacity available in the array, taking into account the RAID efficiency of the RAID type in use. |
Unisphere |
Unisphere for PowerMax is a user interface that enables management and monitoring of PowerMax arrays along with legacy VMAX All Flash, VMAX3, and VMAX 1 or 2 arrays. Unisphere for PowerMax also provides REST API interface for managing and controlling Dell EMC arrays. |
zEssentials |
The zEssentials package is the software package sold as a PowerMax appliance for mainframe. |
zFlash |
A zFlash capacity pack includes NVMe flash drive capacity (TBu) that can be added to a PowerMax array for mainframe. |
zPro |
The zPro package is the comprehensive software offering sold as a PowerMax appliance for mainframe. |