PowerMax: A Deep Dive into

the Award-Winning NVMe-based

All Flash Platform
Steve McClure Sr. Director, PowerMax OS Development
Sr. Distinguished Engineer Emeritus
Vince Westin Technical Evangelist, PowerMax
Darrel Schueneman Team Lead, Infrastructure, Plex Systems
Roadmap Information Disclaimer

• Dell Technologies, inclusive of its seven brands, makes no representation and

undertakes no obligations with regard to product planning information, anticipated
product characteristics, performance specifications, or anticipated release dates
(collectively, “Roadmap Information”).
• Roadmap Information is provided by the Dell Technologies’ brands as an
accommodation to the recipient solely for purposes of discussion and without
intending to be bound thereby.
• Roadmap information is Restricted Confidential and is provided under the terms,
conditions and restrictions defined in the Non-Disclosure Agreements in place
between your organization and the brands under the Dell Technologies family.

3 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Why choose PowerMax?

Best in class performance

– 10M IOPS, 150GB/sec
– Massive cache for thousands of workloads

Consolidate everything
– Open/zSeries/iSeries, 64k devices, 16m snaps
– Compression, deduplication, D@RE, dense packaging

World class leading quality

– Mission critical availability, real non-disruptive upgrades
– Active/active and long distance multi-array replication

4 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax driving down response time

• Future Proof via NVMe technologies

– All NVMe/PCIe backend
– Roadmap to Storage Class Memory (SCM) and NVMeoF

• Intelligent caching of I/O

• Performance oriented data reduction
– Utilizes Machine Learning for data placement
– Hardware assisted compression and dedupe

• Service level management

– Including response time floors on flash

5 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Benefit summary of NVMe

Technology Application
Benefits Benefits
Flash optimized storage protocol Low latency for random reads, heavy writes

More queues for better parallel processing More I/O density & transactions per brick

Dual ported active/active NVMe drives* More RAID granularity, RAS, IO balancing

Future proof support for Storage Class Memory (SCM)

*First enterprise storage array to incorporate standard dual ported NVMe drives
6 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.
NVMe and SCM: addressing read latency

7 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Dell EMC PowerMax systems
NVMe-based tier 0 platforms

Essentials Software PowerMax PowerMax

SnapVX
Compression
NDM & ORS
iCDM Basic
2000 8000
Deduplication and more… 1.7M IOPSRRH-8K 10M IOPSRRH-8K
Pro Software Above + 1PBe Capacity 4PBe Capacity
SRDF SRM 64 FC/iSCSI Ports 256 FC/FICON/iSCSI Ports
D@RE iCDM Advanced 2 to 4 Controllers 2 to 16 Controllers
eNAS PowerPath + VE
All in ½ Rack All in 1-2 Racks

8 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax 2000 system stack up

• Up to 20U max per system

– 10U per brick

• 2U DAEs, no slides
– 24 drives, 1GB NVMe
– 1.92TB – 7.68TB drives

DAE 4
20U • No fabric switch
Brick 2 DAEs DAE 3 – Direct internal fabric connections
Brick 2 Engine Engine 2

Brick 2 SPSs SPS 2B SPS 2A

• <5 kVA
DAE 2
Brick 1 DAEs DAE 1 • Up to 500TBe per brick
Brick 1 Engine Engine 1 – 1PBe Total system
Brick 1 SPSs SPS 1B SPS 1A

9 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax 8000 system stack up

Brick 4 SPSs SPS 4B SPS 4A

IB Switch B
SPS 4B SPS 4A
• Up to 4 bricks per rack
IB Switch A
DAE 6 DAE 6
– Maximum of 2 racks
Brick
Brick 3
3& 4 DAEs DAE 5 DAE 5
DAEs DAE 4 DAE 4 • 3 DAEs per pair of bricks
Brick 4 Engine Engine 4 Engine 8 – 24 drives, 1GB NVMe
Brick 3 SPSs SPS 3B SPS 3A SPS 3B SPS 3A – 1.92TB – 7.68TB drives
Brick 3 Engine Engine 3 Engine 7 – Middle DAE is shared
Ethernet Ethernet

• Add fabric with 2nd brick

Service Tray

Brick 2 Engine Engine 2 Engine 6

Brick 2 SPSs SPS 2B SPS 2A SPS 2B SPS 2A

• <10kVA per rack

Brick 1 Engine Engine 1 Engine 5

DAE 3 DAE 3
• Up to 500TBe per brick
Brick 1
1 DAEs
& 2 DAEs DAE 2 DAE 2
Brick DAE 1 DAE 1 – 2PBe per rack
Brick 1 SPSs SPS 1B SPS 1A SPS 1B SPS 1A
– 4PBe Total system

10 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax refresh example

KPIs Metric

TB Usable
VMAX 100K
118 TB Usable
PowerMax 2000
121 TBe
TECH REFRESH (No Data Reduction) @ 3:1 Reduction

Cooling 8.8 kBTU/Hour 5.3 kBTU/Hour

$ Power 2.6 kW 1.5 kW

$3K 40% 40%

ANNUAL LESS LESS Footprint 17 Rack U 10 Rack U
POWER CARBON RACK
& COOLING FOOTPRINT SPACE
Response Time 2.2 ms < 0.8 ms

IOPS 38,000* 233,000*

2/3 6X 3:1
LESS MORE DATA Capacity-Based Essentials or Pro
LATENCY IOPS REDUCTION Software
License Packages

*Sizer maximum sustained IOPS for typical workload

11 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.
Architected for solid-state performance
Bricks optimized for multi-core CPUs

Front-end (FA) ports

Massive per-port 4 5 6 7 8 26 27 28 29 30 31

performance

Front-end Core Pool

Balanced performance Infrastructure Enterprise Data
across CPU resources Management Services

Back-end Core Pool

Optimized for flash

IOPS and throughput 0 1 N-1 N

Back-end (DN) ports

12 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Virtual Matrix enables global memory
Data cache and metadata striped across all directors

Global Memory
Global Memory Global Memory

Only direct PCIe attach between directors for single brick systems

13 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax director board architecture
Director board (each engine has 2)

DIMM
DIMM Broadwell CPU Broadwell CPU DIMM
DIMM
DIMM
DIMM DIMM
DIMM
DIMM
DIMM DIMM
DIMM

Frontend PCIe System IB Virtual

Hosts PCIe
Interface Matrix
I/O Modules PCIe PCIe
IB fabrics
PCIe Switching Board
To
Backend PCIe
PCIe other
DAEs
I/O Modules PCIe
director

Ethernet, Data
USB, Management Vault SLIC Reduction
Vault SLIC
etc. Module Vault SLIC
Vault Modules Module

14 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax NVMe backend architecture
DIMM
DIMM Broadwell CPU Broadwell CPU DIMM
DIMM
DIMM
DIMM DIMM
DIMM
DIMM
DIMM DIMM
DIMM

Director
PCIe Switching

Backend Backend
I/O Module I/O Module

PCIe Switching PCIe Switching

DAE

15 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 PowerMax Foundations

16 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax online code updates: true NDU
Unique in the industry

• <10 second array OS upgrade

• No component downtime
– No rolling outage upgrade
– No failover/failback processes involved
– No switching LUN ownership/trespass required

• Ports never drop light

– Servers never see logout/login (no fabric RSCN)

• Online downgrades work the same way

• Historical feature going back many generations

17 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 PowerMax data at rest encryption (D@RE)
Secure data at rest to provide regulatory compliance

a F • Encrypts all user data on the array

module gfgsflg
vegetation gjridenvfn • Including vault drives
want to protect my kdkfm,fkdfk
the small dog jumped over the qmd nvfnjvfjkl • All data services supported
technology allows for future dhwuidgbfthyelso • No compromises
plants are able to retain more lfidemmfkfklfifmfm
long-term planning for major dfnfndjdnjeismdw9459 • Advanced Encryption Standard
indefinite retention terms may 03445hjgfnfks8djd7a
spider bites may cause variousjgjguuirnfnfuie8jfkif • AES 256
swimming under those conditionsklfkkfirjwemdfdkidei • Secure key management
larger capacity flash drives kfjgfeuiendfjdjshyeyu
security directive vnfjdejcj j • Embedded or external
information nvjdjkjk
personal fmvfn • FIPS 140-2 validation
to k
• Submitted

18 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax thin data protection (no leakage)

• Thin devices (TDEVs) store tracks

• Tracks can move between pools or be deleted
• Changes in data reduction or performance
• Allocate on write then snap release
• Freed tracks are left in their pools
• Unwritten (new) tracks are allocated on write
• Partial track writes are padded with zeros
• No tools to read ‘unassigned’ free tracks

19 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax cache management

• Advanced algorithms
– Adaptive to real-time workload

• Recently used data remains in cache

– Sequential reads not retained
– Systems average 54% read hits
– Read misses <0.5ms from NVMe

• Writes acknowledged in mirrored cache

– Later destage to flash
– Write folding (30-50% overwrites)
– Write coalescing (2-5x less sequential writes)

20 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 Session
PowerMax service levels
Providing a storage service catalog with all flash storage

• Performance floors
– Lower priority workloads see elongated response times

• Operational consistency

21 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 Session
PowerMax machine learning
Workload observations Learning and optimizing
Ranking

Observation
Algorithms Sharing

Workload characteristics / Reduced or not?

Feature depiction NAND or SCM?

Forecasting Activating

22 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 Session
PowerMax data reduction applies machine learning

3:1 *
Performance Optimized
• Activity-based data reduction
Average
• Write caching
Inline
• No capacity overhead
Data
Reduction • Hardware acceleration (compression & hashing)
• Maintains performance even for large block I/O

Works with Everything

• Snaps & remote replication
• Block & NAS
• D@RE
* Data reduction rates vary depending on customer applications and environments.
3:1 reduction ratio is expected for typical OLTP workloads.
Some data may reduce at 5:1 or higher.

23 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax adaptive data reduction comparison
PowerMax focus on performance first shines through
DSS128K benchmark

24 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 PowerMax Data Services

25 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Reliable data protection
Within the Within the Within and across
array data center data centers

PowerMax

Data Domain
Primary Secondary

SnapVX StorageDirect SRDF

✓ No impact ✓ 20x faster backups ✓ Active/Active and Async
✓ Consistent performance ✓ Reduce backup storage ✓ Any distance
✓ Nearly unlimited ✓ Eliminate impact ✓ Multi-site consistency

26 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 Session
Local replication with performance at scale
SnapVX

• Create thousands of copies

– Test/dev, backup, etc.
– Up to 256 snapshots and 1024 linked targets

• Simple to manage
– Snapshots at the storage group level
– Supports naming & expiration dates Production Linked
Volume Target
• High performance
• Secure snaps
– Protect against accidental or malicious deletion

27 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

StorageDirect integrated data protection
Dramatically faster backup and recovery (formerly ProtectPoint)

Faster backup &

20x recovery
Faster backup

Eliminate impact
on application

10x Reduce cost and

Faster recovery
complexity

28 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Open Replicator (ORS)
Online migrations from non-VMAX arrays to PowerMax

• Background data movement Example ORS Configuration

• Non-disruptive**
• Scales to 1024 concurrent LUNs
• Simple to manage via Unisphere
• Included with PowerMaxOS
• Broad Support Matrix:
– http://elabnavigator.emc.com

** No outage needed if PowerPath is installed

29 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.
Non-Disruptive Migration (NDM) overview
Capability to migrate data while keeping applications online

Application Host
(Standalone or Cluster)

Application level migration for open systems devices

Multipathing

Streamlined user experience

Path Management Management via Unisphere, CLI and REST API
Distributed LUN

Device Identity Management

SRDF
SRDFTechnology
technology Broad support matrix for OS, MP and Cluster software

Sync Distances
Source Array Target Array Native to array software – no licensing

30 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 Session
Remote replication gold standard – SRDF
Synchronous Metro Asynchronous

Witness

1 1
2 3
4 2
3

Up to 100km Up to 100km Unlimited distance

Zero data loss Active/active Extended distance

High performance Automated failover/back Multi-cycle mode
Scalable consistency Non-disruptive migrations Remote link resiliency

2-site, 3-site, and 4-site replication

Simple: <2 minutes to configure
31 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.
 Session
SRDF availability features

• Enhanced RAID
– SRDF is a remote mirror (above and beyond local RAID)
– Validated by IDC testing (page 29)
▪ https://www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/vmax-all-flash-idc-lab-validation.pdf

• Multi-array asynchronous consistency (SRDF/A MSC)

– Multiple arrays, source and target (up to 64 x 64 arrays)
– Any operating system, mix open and mainframe, etc.

• Application migrations with SRDF/Metro

– Move LUN/storage group between arrays online
– Supports application mobility between any pair of arrays

32 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

5978 PowerPath integration benefits

• Advanced host and array information sharing

– Hostname, OS version, cluster details, VM map
– Automatic ESX licensing from Pro entitlements
– Host IO-Limits and service levels known to PowerPath

• Automated host information mapping

– HBA to hostname for simplified management
– LUN to application for workload-based management

33 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax with eNAS
Block and file access with enterprise data services

• Embedded file services

– Reduces TCO by up to 30%
• High-end block & file consolidation
– Reduces footprint and power by 33%
• Supports advanced data services FC, iSCSI,
– Replication NFS, CIFS,
SMB3
– Compression & deduplication
– File retention & pNFS support

34 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 Summit
PowerMax for mainframe

Built to be Advanced
the best! Data services & functionality
Mirror Optimizer
SuperPAV support
zDP: 5 minute & Secure Snaps
Dynamic Volume Expansion
Performance w/ replication active
Features Best for meeting mainframe SLAs!
TCO All CKD or mixed FBA/CKD
Smaller, 13TBu starting PowerBrick
UP ~50% ✓ Open systems Improved I/O and replication
TO
more IOPS* ✓ Mainframe response times
same overall TCO ✓ IBM iSeries
✓ Mixed
* Comparisons are against VMAX 850F
35 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.
PowerMax / VMAX Management Interfaces

Unisphere GUI
Unisphere + Solutions Enabler
Embedded or External

{ REST }

REST API

SYMCLI
36 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.
Dell EMC PowerMax systems
NVMe-based tier 0 platforms

Essentials Software PowerMax PowerMax

SnapVX
Compression
NDM & ORS
iCDM Basic
2000 8000
Deduplication and more… 1.7M IOPSRRH-8K 10M IOPSRRH-8K
Pro Software Above + 1PBe Capacity 4PBe Capacity
SRDF SRM 64 FC/iSCSI Ports 256 FC/FICON/iSCSI Ports
D@RE iCDM Advanced 2 to 4 Controllers 2 to 16 Controllers
eNAS PowerPath + VE
All in ½ Rack All in 1-2 Racks

37 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

PowerMax driving down response time

• Future Proof via NVMe technologies

– All NVMe/PCIe backend
– Roadmap to Storage Class Memory (SCM) and NVMeoF

• Intelligent caching of I/O

• Performance oriented data reduction
– Utilizes Machine Learning for data placement
– Hardware assisted compression and dedupe

• Service level management

– Including response time floors on flash

38 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Plex Systems &
PowerMax
Darrel Schueneman
Team Lead, Infrastructure

39 | Plex Systems, Inc. Privileged and Confidential Information. Copyright ©2019 Plex Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Plex Systems Highlights

612 2307
customers facilities

22 97%+
countries renewal rate

0 99.998%
upgrades up-time

40 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

What brought us to PowerMax?

• Ease of management
• Compression & deduplication
• Solid track record with VMAX
• Inclusion in the VxBlock 1000

41 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Improved response times!
• Read & Write response times have improved
• We are seeing overall response times less than .5ms
• This is more than a 50% improvement on our previous platform

PowerMax0001

PowerMax0001

42 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Data reduction!
• Purchased 1/3 of the raw capacity (planning for 3:1)
• Currently getting a 6.2:1 DRR
– About 134 TB RAW capacity required for our environment
– Sized at a much more conservative DRR, the array is outperforming expectations
– This will reduce the number of and size of our storage expansions

43 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Faster DB Restore Times!

• Full database restores complete in ~30 min vs 5+ hours

• Increases our confidence in our ability to quickly restore an environment as needed
• Decreases the amount of time needed to build out new environments

What our DBA’s thought would take all day we can see by looking at
consumed bandwidth took only a fraction of that time!
44 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.
CloudIQ Integration!
All of our arrays in one place

• PowerMax supported along with our other 18 different EMC arrays

– All connected to CloudIQ or in process

• See all array alerting in one place

• Receive push notifications via the mobile app

45 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

 Questions?

Darrel Schueneman
[email protected]

46 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Other PowerMax sessions Resource center: www.dellemc.com/powermax
Session Focus Time & Location
Mainframe (Summit – Separate Track) Mon-Wed, Palazzo hotel, suite 3720
PowerMax Ask the Experts (BoF) Tues 12-1, Palazzo B (only happens once)
Autonomous Storage (Cache Optimization) Mon 3-4 Thu 11.5-12.5
Compression and Deduplication Mon 1.5-2.5 Thu 8.5-9.5
Copy Management (SnapVX) Mon 3-4 Wed 1.5-2.5
Management Automation (REST, Ansible, …) Tue 1.5-2.5, Palazzo D Thu 1-2, San Polo 3405
Multi-Site Applications (SRDF) Mon 8.5-9.5 Wed 8.5-9.5
Next-Gen Analytics Tue 1.5-2.5 Wed 3-4
Non-Disruptive Migration (NDM) Tue 3-4, Lando 4205 Thu 10-11, Delfino 4003
Optimize Your Virtual Environment (VMware) Mon 12-1 Thu 11.5-12.5
Performance Tue 8.5-9.5, Zeno 4702 Thu 10-11
PowerMax and Oracle Mon 4.5-5.5 Wed 1.5-2.5
Service Levels & Machine Learning Wed 12-1, Lido 3005 Thu 1-2, Lido 3005
Unisphere & CloudIQ Mon 3-4, Delfino 4005 Wed 8.5-9.5, Marco P. 704

47 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Hands on Labs

• PowerMax – Provisioning, Data Reduction, MON 9AM – 6PM

& Role Based Access Control – Getting
Started TUES 8AM – 5PM

• PowerMax – Replication & Metro Based WED 8AM – 5PM

Non-Disruptive Migration
THURS 8AM – 1PM
• PowerMax – Performance Reporting &
Database Storage Analyzer
• PowerMax – Managing Your PowerMax
Array via REST API
• PowerPath – PowerMaxOS Integration
Features – Getting Started

48 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Services for PowerMax

The ultimate end-to-end experience

Accelerate deployment Efficiently move to production Increase productivity

ProDeploy Data Migration Residency ProSupport

Plus Services Services Plus

Onsite Migrate data Experts optimize Proactive and

deployment for efficiently and configurations, predictive support
critical systems securely share knowledge for critical systems
Additional time in Proven methodology Improved technology Up to 48% faster
4 or 8 hour segments and expertise performance by 53%1 resolution of Sev 1 issues2

1©2018 IDC Research; Based on IDC InfoBrief sponsored by Dell Technologies, Accelerating Digital Transformation with Resident Engineers.
2Based on a September 2018 internal analysis of service requests from August 2017 to August 2018 for Dell EMC Storage and Data Protection products

49 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.

Residency Services 98% of customers are
satisfied with their
Hands-on expertise helps optimize your transition Resident Experts*

Trusted technologists with validated

PowerMax expertise, skills and insights
• Shares best practices and use cases relevant to your needs
• Helps deepen your knowledge and expertise
• Cultivate learning of new product features
• Free IT staff from the tactical to give them time to innovate

Improved adoption & Improved technology Lowered IT service Increased staff

technology utilization by performance by delivery costs by efficiency by

56%* 53%* * 49%*

46%
* Source: © 2018 IDC Research
50 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.
What is the Future-Proof Loyalty Program?
The Future-Proof Program
is a customer-focused series of offers and assurances delivered around
Dell EMC’s Storage, Data Protection, and Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI) solutions.

Protecting Investments Safeguarding your

Elevating Satisfaction
IT Future
➢ 3-Year product satisfaction ➢ Hardware investment ➢ Never-worry data
protection migration
➢ Storage data reduction
➢ Clear price support ➢ Cloud-enabled feature set
➢ Up to 55:1 data protection
deduplication ➢ All-inclusive software

➢ Cloud consumption

For more information visit: DellEMC.com/future-proof

51 © Copyright 2019 Dell Inc.