Solution components

Dell EMC offers a wide range of enterprise products and solutions, including servers, storage, networking, data protection, and services. These products and solutions are designed for reliability and scalability and are engineered to handle highly demanding business applications and workloads.

PowerEdge servers

PowerEdge servers, which are built to support the work of IT departments, include features to better run applications such as databases, ERP, business intelligence (BI), high performance computing (HPC), and data warehousing. Customers running SAP landscapes have the benefit of knowing that this Ready Solution includes high-performing servers, as documented in the SAP Standard Application Benchmarks. At the time of publication of this guide, the PowerEdge servers with four 28-core Intel Xeon Platinum 8180 processors have achieved the best-of-published four-socket SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) two-tier benchmark results. 

PowerEdge R840 server

The PowerEdge R840 server delivers unprecedented performance density for in-database analytics. Exceptional reliability and integrated security ensure maximum uptime in the enterprise data center. Automated intelligence simplifies IT management so that the focus is on key business results.

The R840 server with four 28-core Intel Xeon Platinum 8180 processors achieved an SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS) total of 359,620. This result was published on April 30, 2018: Certification #2018015.

Based on these SAP SD benchmark results, for a single SAP system, the PowerEdge R840 server offers the following scalability:

• In a two-tier SAP architecture on a single server: 359,620 SAPS
• In a three-tier SAP architecture with five servers, assuming for OLTP a 4:1 ratio of application SAPS to database SAPS (four application servers and one database server): 1,798,100 SAPS

For more information about SAPS values, see SAPS overview on page 37.

The following table shows the technical specifications for R840 servers.

Table 1.           Technical specifications for PowerEdge R840 servers

1Only ESXi, SUSE, and RHEL are SAP HANA-certified operating systems

The PowerEdge R840 server’s scalable business architecture can process the most business-critical workloads. With up to 6 TB of memory and 24 NVMe front storage combined with 6 PCIe Gen3 slots, the R840 server has all the resources to maximize application performance and scale for future demands. The R840 server:

• Maximizes storage performance with up to 24 NVMe drives and ensures that application performance scales easily
• Frees up storage space using internal, boot-optimized M.2 solid-state drives (SSDs)
• Eliminates bottlenecks with up to 6 TB of memory in 48 DIMMS, 12 of which can be NVDIMMs
• Minimizes latency through direct-attached NVMe configurations
• Accelerates application performance with GPUs 

PowerEdge R740/R740xd server

The PowerEdge R740/R740xd two-socket server is a general-purpose platform with highly expandable memory (up to 3 TB) and I/O capability to match. The R740 can handle demanding workloads and applications such as data warehouse, databases,
e-commerce, and HPC.

The R740 server with two 28-core Intel Xeon Platinum 8180 processors has achieved a total of 175,230 SAPS. This result was published on July 11th, 2017: Certification #2017017.

Based on these SAP SD benchmark results, for a single SAP system, the PowerEdge R740/740xd two-socket server offers the following scalability:

• In a two-tier SAP architecture on a single server: 175,230 SAPS
• In a three-tier SAP architecture with five servers, assuming for OLTP a 4:1 ratio of application SAPS to database SAPS (four application servers and one database server): 876,150 SAPS

For more information about SAPS values, see SAPS overview on page 37.

The following table shows the technical specifications for these servers.

Table 2.           PowerEdge R740 and R740xd technical specifications

Dell EMC PowerMax storage overview

The Dell EMC PowerMax product family consists of two models: the PowerMax 2000 array and the PowerMax 8000 array. The PowerMax 2000 array provides customers with efficiency and maximum flexibility in a 20U stack height, while the PowerMax 8000 array is designed for massive scale, performance, and IOPS density within a two-floor-tile footprint. Both PowerMax models are based on the Dell EMC Dynamic Virtual Matrix architecture and a version of HYPERMAX OS that was rewritten for the NVMe platform. This HYPERMAX OS version is called PowerMaxOS.

Like the VMAX All Flash arrays, PowerMax arrays are specifically designed to meet the storage capacity and performance requirements of an all-flash enterprise data center. PowerMax products take advantage of the higher-capacity NVMe flash drives that are used in the densest configuration possible. PowerMax technology offers enterprise customers trusted data services along with the simplicity, capacity, and performance that their highly virtualized environments demand, while still meeting the economic needs of traditional storage workloads. Furthermore, the PowerMax platform enables you to deploy applications such as real-time analytics, machine learning, and big data, which require lower storage latency and higher IOPS densities than what was attainable with previous all-flash offerings.

The following figure shows the essential features of the PowerMax 2000 and 8000 arrays.

Figure 2.         PowerMax 2000 and PowerMax 8000 system features

The main benefits that PowerMax platforms offer customers are:

• An end-to-end NVMe storage design providing industry-leading IOPS density in a system with a small footprint
• Readiness for next-generation data storage media, such as Storage Class Memory (SCM) and NVMe over Fabric (NVMe-oF) infrastructure
• Efficient workload consolidation for block, file, and mainframe workloads on a single platform
• Ultrahigh reliability, availability, and serviceability for the enterprise
• Excellent data services, including advanced data reduction using inline deduplication and compression

System specifications

The following table shows the system specifications for PowerMax 2000 and PowerMax 8000 arrays.

Table 3.           PowerMax system specifications

Expandable modular architecture

PowerMax configurations consist of modular building blocks called Bricks. The modular Brick architecture reduces complexity and enables easier system configuration and deployment. This architecture also enables the system to scale while continuing to deliver predictable high performance.

Two types of Brick blocks are available for PowerMax configurations:

• The open systems Brick block supports configurations with FC or iSCSI connectivity with fixed-block architecture (FBA) device formatting. You can also configure the Brick block for file storage by using embedded NAS.
• The mainframe zBrick block supports configurations with fiber connectivity (FICON) and count key data (CKD) device formatting.

The initial Brick block includes a single engine consisting of two directors, two system power supplies (SPS), and two 24-slot 2.5 in. NVMe Drive Array Enclosures (DAE24) preconfigured with an initial total usable capacity. The Brick 2000 block comes with an initial capacity of 11 or 13 TBu, depending on the RAID configuration. The PowerMax 8000 array model comes with an initial capacity of 53 TBu for open systems, 13 TBu for mainframe, and 66 TBu for mixed systems. Each Brick block comes preloaded with PowerMaxOS software.

The Brick concept makes it possible for the PowerMax platform to scale up and out. Customers can scale up by adding flash capacity packs, which include NVMe flash drive capacity that can be added to a PowerMax array. Each flash capacity pack for the PowerMax 8000 system has 13 TBu of usable storage. For the PowerMax 2000 model, each pack has 11 TBu or 13 TBu, depending on the RAID protection type selected. Scale out a PowerMax system by aggregating up to two Brick blocks for the PowerMax 2000 array and up to eight blocks for the PowerMax 8000 array in a single system with fully shared connectivity, processing, and capacity resources. Scaling out a PowerMax system by adding additional Brick blocks produces a predictable, linear performance improvement regardless of the workload.

The PowerMax provides multiple front-end connections that implement several protocols and speeds. The following table shows the various front-end connectivity modules that are available for a PowerMax system.

Table 4.           Connectivity modules for PowerMax systems

1 Supported on the PowerMax 8000 array only

PowerMax software options

All PowerMax arrays come preloaded with PowerMaxOS software. Software for the PowerMax system is available in different packages, each with additional optional features. For up-to-date information about these options, see the Dell EMC PowerMax Family Overview White Paper.

Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe)

PowerMax arrays provide a full NVMe flash storage backend for storing customer data.

The PowerMax NVMe architecture provides:

• I/O density with predictable performance―PowerMax arrays are designed to deliver industry-leading I/O density. They are capable of delivering over 10 million IOPS in a two-rack system (two floor tiles), regardless of workload and storage capacity utilization.
• NVMe storage density―PowerMax technology delivers industry-leading NVMe TB per floor tile. While other all-flash alternatives use a proprietary flash drive design, PowerMax systems support high-capacity, commercially available, dual-ported enterprise NVMe flash drives and can therefore leverage increases in flash drive densities, economies of scale, and reduced time-to market.
• Future-proof design―The PowerMax NVMe design is ready for Storage Class Memory (SCM) flash and future NVMe-oF SAN connectivity options, which include 32 Gb FC and high-bandwidth converged Ethernet: RoCEV2 over 25 GbE/50 GbE/100 GbE.

Smart RAID

PowerMax uses a new active/active RAID group accessing scheme called smart RAID. Smart RAID allows the sharing of RAID groups across directors, giving each director active access to all drives on the Brick or zBrick block. Both directors on an engine can drive I/O to all the flash drives, creating balanced configurations in the system whatever the number of RAID groups and providing performance benefits.

Smart RAID also offers increased flexibility and efficiency. Customers can order PowerMax systems with a single RAID group, allowing for at least nine drives per engine with RAID 5 (7+1) or RAID 6 (6+2 and 1 spare) and as few as five drives per system for a PowerMax 2000 with RAID 5 (3+1 and 1 spare). These configurations leave more drive slots available for capacity upgrades in the future. When the system is scaled up, customers have more flexibility because flash capacity pack increments can be a single RAID group.

Remote replication with SRDF

The Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) is considered a gold standard for remote replication in the enterprise data center. Up to 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies use SRDF to replicate their critical data to geographically dispersed data centers throughout the world. SRDF offers customers the ability to replicate tens of thousands of volumes, with each volume being replicated to a maximum of four different locations globally.

SRDF is available in three types:

• SRDF Synchronous (SRDF/S)―SRDF/S delivers zero data loss remote mirroring between data centers separated by up to 60 miles (100 km).
• SRDF Asynchronous (SRDF/A)―SRDF/A delivers asynchronous remote data replication between data centers up to 8,000 miles (12,875 km) apart. SRDF/S and SRDF/A can be used together to support three or four site topologies as required by the  most mission-critical applications.
• SRDF/Metro―SRDF/Metro delivers active-active high availability for non-stop data access and workload mobility within a data center, or between data centers separated by up to 60 miles (100 km). 

Local replication with TimeFinder SnapVX

Every PowerMax array includes the local replication data service TimeFinder SnapVX, which creates low-impact snapshots. Local replication with SnapVX starts by creating a snapshot, a pointer-based structure that preserves a point-in-time (PIT) view of a source volume. Snapshots do not require target volumes. Instead, they share back-end allocations with the source volume and other snapshots of the source volume, and only consume additional space when the source volume is changed. A single source volume can have up to 256 snapshots.

You can access a PIT snapshot from a host by linking it to a host-accessible volume called a target. Target volumes are standard thin volumes. Up to 1,024 target volumes can be linked to the snapshots of a single source volume. By default, targets are linked in a no-copy mode. This functionality significantly reduces the number of writes to the back-end flash drives.  It eliminates the need to perform a full-volume copy of the source volume during the unlink operation to continue using the target volume for host I/O.

Advanced data reduction using inline compression and deduplication

PowerMax arrays use the Adaptive Compression Engine (ACE) for inline hardware compression. The ACE data-reduction method provides a negligible performance impact with the highest space-saving capability. PowerMax technology uses inline hardware-based data deduplication.  This method identifies repeated data patterns on the array and stores those that are repeated once only, thus preventing the consumption of critical PowerMax system core resources and limiting performance impact.

Embedded NAS

The embedded NAS (eNAS) data service extends the value of PowerMax to file storage. eNas enables customers to use vital enterprise features such as flash-level performance for both block and file storage, as well as to simplify management and reduce deployment costs.

eNAS uses the hypervisor in PowerMaxOS to create and run a set of virtual machines (VMs) within the PowerMax array. These VMs host two major elements of eNAS software: data movers and control stations. The embedded data movers and control stations have access to shared system resource pools so that they can evenly consume PowerMax resources for both performance and capacity.

With the eNAS data service, PowerMax becomes a unified block-and-file platform that uses a multicontroller, transactional NAS solution.

For more detailed information about the PowerMax product family, see the Dell EMC PowerMax Family Overview White Paper.

PowerMax and SAP HANA TDI

SAP has certified Dell EMC PowerMax storage arrays as meeting all performance and functional requirements for SAP HANA TDI deployments. Therefore, customers can use PowerMax arrays for SAP HANA TDI deployments in a fully supported environment using their existing data center infrastructures.

Dell EMC Engineering performed tests on a PowerMax 2000 single engine using the SAP hwcct tool for HANA-HWC-ES 1.1 certification. Based on the test results, the following table provides scalability guidelines for the maximum possible number of SAP HANA production hosts that can be connected to a given PowerMax array:

Table 5.           PowerMAX All Flash scalability

For more information, see the Storage Configuration Best Practices for SAP HANA TDI on Dell EMC PowerMax Arrays Validation Guide.

Dell EMC Connectrix SAN switches

The following Connectrix Fibre Channel (FC) SAN switches provide cross-sectional bandwidth:

• Connectrix DS-6610B―A switch with a base configuration of eight ports with 16 GB SFP+ (upgradable to 32 GB by replacing the SFP+). You can expand the configuration up to 24 ports by applying two Ports On Demand (POD) upgrade licenses of eight ports each. The Connectrix DS-6610B is an entry-level, highly cost-effective FC SAN switch to configure with SAP landscapes.
• Connectrix DS-6620B―A 32 GB-capable enterprise switch with 24 ports at 32 GB in the base. You can expand it to 48 ports by applying two POD upgrade licenses of 12 ports each. This switch can include two 128 GB ports that can also be mapped to 16 x 32 GB ports using breakout quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP).

For enterprise-scale FC SAN solutions, the Connectrix ED-DCX6 directors are available in both four-slot and eight-slot chassis models, providing the foundation for FC SANs that scale to 9,000 ports.

The Connectrix B Series products provide features for validation, monitoring, and alerting as well as remediation of the storage network infrastructure. These features are collectively referred to as Fabric Vision. Fabric Vision technology combines built-in capabilities in Connectrix Gen 5 and Gen 6 platforms, Fabric OS, and Connectrix Manager features.

For information about how to configure Fabric Vision for your SAP landscape deployment, see the Dell EMC Ready Bundle for SAP Deployment Guide.

Dell EMC Networking SAN switch

The Dell EMC Networking S4148U-A switch utilizing OS10 Enterprise Edition with 48 ports provides FC/ISCI connectivity at a top-of-rack (ToR) scale:

• 24 SFP+ ports of 10 Gb Ethernet connectivity
• 24 SFP+/SFP28 unified ports providing 10 GB Ethernet or FC8/FC16 connectivity
• 2 QSFP+ ports of 40 Gb connectivity
• 4 QSFP28 unified ports providing 10 Gb, 25 Gb, 40 Gb, 50 Gb, 100 Gb or FC8, FC16, or FC32 connectivity

Dell EMC data protection appliances and software

Dell EMC data protection purpose-built appliances (PBBAs, our Data Domain series) and software solutions can be used separately or together to provide data protection and storage protection for large enterprise workloads. Using the protection appliance system and software together enables you to more effectively consolidate your backup, archive, and disaster recovery operations. With the protection appliance system, you can protect more data faster to meet aggressive SLAs and reduce the risk of data loss. With the data protection software and its built-in integration with SAP, you can enable DBA self-service via SAP BR*Tools and make cost savings from the implementation of direct data paths to Data Domain.

The Data Domain 9300 data protection storage system works seamlessly with a range of backup, archive, and enterprise applications. The system is configurable for high availability―you can add a standby or a second controller as needed.

Key benefits of the Data Domain 9300 system include:

• Throughput of 20 TB per hour increasing up to 41 TB per hour using Dell EMC DD Boost software, which means the 9300 system can back up 328 TB in under 8 hours.
• Support for 810 concurrent backup streams.
• Up to 36 PB local logical capacity. This capacity expands to 108 PB with optional Data Domain Cloud Tier software, supporting long-term data retention.

For more information, see the following documents:

• Dell EMC Data Domain Deduplication Storage Systems Spec Sheet
• Dell EMC Data Domain Boost for Enterprise Applications and ProtectPoint Application Agent Installation and Administration Guide