DELL EMC UNITY

CONCEPTS AND
FEATURES

PARTICIPANT GUIDE

PARTICIPANT GUIDE
 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features-SSP

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Table of Contents

OVERVIEW ................................................................................................ 6

Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platform ...................................................................................... 7

Dell EMC Unity XT Storage Arrays ...................................................................................... 9
Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platform Use Cases .................................................................. 10

BASIC ARCHITECTURE ......................................................................... 14

Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platform - Unified Storage Architecture..................................... 15

Unified Storage Pools ........................................................................................................ 16
Traditional Pools ................................................................................................................ 17
Dynamic Pools ................................................................................................................... 19
NAS Server ........................................................................................................................ 21
Dell EMC Unity XT Hardware and Component Redundancy .............................................. 22

SCALABILITY, PERFORMANCE, AND COMPLIANCE FEATURES ...... 24

UFS64 Enterprise File System ........................................................................................... 25

FAST Cache ...................................................................................................................... 27
Host I/O Limits ................................................................................................................... 29
File-Level Retention ........................................................................................................... 31

EFFICIENCY FEATURES ........................................................................ 34

Dell EMC Unity Data Reduction ......................................................................................... 35

Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools (FAST VP) ............................................ 37
File System Quotas............................................................................................................ 38

DATA PROTECTION FEATURES ........................................................... 39

Snapshots .......................................................................................................................... 40
Replication ......................................................................................................................... 42
MetroSync.......................................................................................................................... 44

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

MetroSync Manager (MSM) ............................................................................................... 45

Portfolio Integration - Data Protection Solutions ................................................................. 47

DATA MOBILITY FEATURES.................................................................. 49

File Import .......................................................................................................................... 50

Native Block Import ......................................................................................................... 51
SAN Copy Pull ................................................................................................................... 52
LUN Move .......................................................................................................................... 54
Local NAS Server Mobility ................................................................................................. 56
Integration with Cloud Tiering Appliance (CTA).................................................................. 57

DATA SECURITY FEATURES................................................................. 59

Data at Rest Encryption (D@RE) ....................................................................................... 60

D@RE - External Key Management Support ..................................................................... 62
Common Antivirus Agent (CAVA) ...................................................................................... 63
NDMP Backup Support ...................................................................................................... 65
IP Multi-tenancy Support .................................................................................................... 67
Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol - CHAP ..................................................... 68
Support for NFSv4.1 Datastores with Kerberos Authentication .......................................... 69
Event Publishing Support ................................................................................................... 70

NETWORKING FEATURES ..................................................................... 71

IP Packet Reflect ............................................................................................................... 72

Advanced Static Routing .................................................................................................... 73
Link Aggregation Control Protocol Support ........................................................................ 74
Fail-Safe Networking (FSN) Support .................................................................................. 75

MANAGEMENT........................................................................................ 77

Unisphere for Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platform .............................................................. 78

Proactive Assist ................................................................................................................. 80
Performance Monitor ......................................................................................................... 81
UEMCLI ............................................................................................................................. 83

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REST API .......................................................................................................................... 84

CloudIQ ............................................................................................................................. 86
Unisphere Central .............................................................................................................. 88

VIRTUALIZATION .................................................................................... 89

Dell EMC Unity XT Platform Integration with VMware ........................................................ 90

VASA Support.................................................................................................................... 91
VMware Virtual Volumes Support ...................................................................................... 92
SMI-S and Microsoft SCVMM ............................................................................................ 94
ESI for Windows ................................................................................................................ 95

DELL EMC UNITYVSA ............................................................................ 96

Dell EMC UnityVSA Overview ............................................................................................ 97

Dell EMC UnityVSA Product Offerings ............................................................................... 99
Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platforms - Physical to Virtual Comparison ............................. 101
Dell EMC Unity XT Cloud Edition ..................................................................................... 102
Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platform Documentation ......................................................... 103

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

OVERVIEW

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platform

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform is a unified block and file offering in a single
product that is managed with an easy-to-use GUI interface. Dell EMC Unity XT
storage systems are designed for a midrange environment that includes small to
midrange customers.

Benefits include:

• Support for NAS protocols: SMB (for Windows clients) and NFS (for UNIX/Linux
clients), FTP, and SFTP - the NFSv3 and NFSv4 protocols are independently
supported
• Native block protocols (iSCSI and Fibre Channel) support
• Optimized for core IT applications with transactional workloads, such as Oracle,
SAP, SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint
• Provision of traditional file, block, or unified storage for server virtualization and
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
• Available as All-Flash or Hybrid (SAS Flash drives, SAS drives and NL-SAS
drives) arrays

Dell EMC Unity XT All-Flash and Hybrid Flash arrays set new standards for
storage. Dell EMC Unity XT storage arrays deliver compelling simplicity, all-

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inclusive software, blazing speed, optimized efficiency, and multi-cloud

enablement. Dell EMC Unity XT storage systems are developed to meet the needs
of resource constrained IT professionals in large or small companies. Designed for
performance, optimized for efficiency, and built for hybrid cloud environments, Dell
EMC Unity XT storage systems are the perfect fit for supporting demanding
virtualized applications, deploying unified storage, and addressing Remote-Office-
Branch-Office requirements.

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Dell EMC Unity XT Storage Arrays

The Dell EMC Unity XT series hardware platform comes in two types of storage
configurations: All-Flash (i.e 680F) and Hybrid (i.e. 680). The system limits will
change depending on the Dell EMC Unity XT model.

System limits can be found in the Dell EMC Unity XT Simple Support Matrix on the
Dell EMC support site.

For software-defined offerings, Dell EMC Unity XT series platform offers a

virtual deployment of Unity XT called Dell EMC UnityVSA which can be installed
on applicable VMware ESXi hosts. There is also the option of a dual-SP
deployment of Dell EMC UnityVSA called Dell EMC UnityVSA HA which provides
greater resiliency against disaster. Lastly, there is a cloud-specific deployment of
Unity XT called Dell EMC Unity Cloud Edition that customers can leverage for file
synchronization and disaster recovery operations in the cloud.

Dell EMC Unity XT

Dell EMC Unity XT

880F 880
Dell EMC Unity XT
Dell EMC Unity XT

680F 680
Dell EMC Unity XT
Dell EMC Unity XT

480F 480

Dell EMC

Dell EMC Unity XT 380F Dell EMC Unity XT 380

ALL-FLASH HYBRID

Dell EMC UnityVSA

The storage system is also available as a virtual and downloadable product called Dell EMC
UnityVSA or Dell EMC Unity Virtual Storage Appliance. This product is offered in different versions
which include a cloud edition and a professional edition with high availability.

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Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platform Use Cases

To learn about the Dell EMC Unity use cases click each tab.

Exchange and SQL

The benefits of using the Dell EMC Unity platform for Microsoft Exchange and
Microsoft SQL server applications are discussed on the following table:

Application Dell EMC Unity Benefits

Microsoft Exchange Server is highly dependent on consistent

I/O throughput from the back-end storage.
• The Dell EMC Unity XT storage array performance is
optimal under a heavy Exchange workload.
• All-flash optimized performance is the best fit for Exchange
storage layout configurations.

The pressure in these dynamic Exchange environments to

eliminate backup windows and reduce recovery times is
demanding.
• Dell EMC Unity XT Snapshots help to efficiently use
storage resources and optimize protection for Microsoft
Exchange.

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Database management systems [DBMS], such as Microsoft

SQL Server require a high-performance storage solution to
support mission-critical applications.
• Dell EMC Unity XT offers an advanced All-Flash high-
performance configuration.
• This configuration meets the requirements for both low-
latency transactional I/O and high-throughput analytics
workloads.

Traditionally, the best practices for optimizing storage

performance involved manual, resource-intensive processes.
• The Dell EMC Unity XT series enables SQL administrators
to apply an easy-to-use and potentially hands-off
mechanism for optimizing the performance of the most
demanding applications.
• In hybrid environments, the automatic storage tiering
eliminates hours spent maintaining, relocating, and
migrating LUNs to the appropriate tiers.

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Oracle and SAP Applications

The benefits of using Dell EMC Unity XT platform for Oracle and SAP applications
are discussed on the following table:

Application Dell EMC Unity Benefits

On-line transaction processing [OLTP] database applications

tend to be mission-critical and usually have stringent I/O
latency requirements.
• The use of SAS Flash drive configurations address the
workload requirements of maximized IOPS and low latency.
• The Dell EMC Unity XT hybrid storage arrays automatically
and non disruptively migrates hot and cold data between
the available storage tiers, improving the effective storage
utilization.

The common business requirement in SAP environments is

reducing TCO while improving performance and service level
delivery. Frequently, responsiveness to sensitive SAP
applications has deteriorated over time due to increased data
volumes, unbalanced data stores, and changing business
requirements.
• By using the Dell EMC Unity XT system with block data,
SAP deployments can gain a significant performance boost.
• There is no need to redesign the applications, adjust the
data layouts, or reload significant amounts of data.
• With automated storage tiering and extended cache, the
system can properly balance data distribution across the
tiers that enable capacity and performance optimization.

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Virtual Environments

The Dell EMC Unity XT platform is optimized for virtualization, supporting all
leading hypervisors and simplifying desktop creation and storage configuration.
The storage system applies advanced technologies to optimize performance for the
virtual desktop environment, helping support service level agreements.
Virtualization management integration enables the VMware administrator or the
Microsoft Hyper-V administrator to extend their familiar management console for
the storage system-related activities.

The benefits of using Dell EMC Unity XT platform for virtual environments are
discussed in the following table:

Application Dell EMC Unity Benefits

• VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration [VAAI] for

both SAN and NAS connections allows the Dell EMC Unity
XT system to be fully optimized for virtualized
environments.
• Dell EMC Virtual Storage Integrator [VSI] is targeted
towards the VMware administrator. VSI supports the Dell
EMC Unity XT provisioning within vCenter, full visibility to
physical storage, and increases management efficiency.

• The array Offloaded Data Transfer [ODX] enables the

storage platform to be fully optimized for Windows virtual
environments [Microsoft Server 2012 and Hyper-V 3.0
space]. This technology offloads storage-related functions
from the server to the storage system.
• The Dell EMC Enterprise Storage Integrator [ESI] for
Windows enables the provision of block and file storage
for the Microsoft Windows or Microsoft SharePoint sites.
ESI provides integration with System Center Operations
Manager [SCOM].

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BASIC ARCHITECTURE

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Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platform - Unified Storage

Architecture

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform architecture is designed to deliver a true
unified native block and file solution with dedicated components optimized for
specific use cases. The storage system applies the hardware and core
technologies across both the block and file implementations providing optimal use
of all available resources.

Application Exchange Database

Servers Servers Virtual Servers
servers
VMware and
Client Hyper-V
SAN

LAN

10 Gb 1 Gb 1 Gb 10 Gb
iSC F F iSCS
E-net E-net
SI C C I E-net

File Storage 1 Block Storage 1 Block Storage 2 File Storage 2

Common Software Common Software

Storage Pool

RAID Group 1+1 RAID Group 6+2 RAID Group 4+1

Both storage processors provide block storage access to hosts connected via FC
or iSCSI I/O modules. A common software structure provides access to the storage
pool and configured LUN resources. LUNs are block-level storage resources that
hosts can access over the iSCSI or Fibre Channel connections.

Both storage processors provide NAS access to UNIX or Windows-based clients

and virtualized server environments via Ethernet I/O modules. Again, a common
software structure provides internal access to the file systems stored in the storage
system storage pool.

This architecture delivers unified storage functionality at the host and network
interface, providing greater utilization of resources and higher performance
capabilities for the customer.

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Unified Storage Pools

Storage Pool
NAS Server

NAS vVO vVO vVO LUN LUN

NAS
Server Server
L L L
Root Config

vVO vVO vVO

User File Snap
System File L L L LUN LUN
System

A storage pool is a collection of physical drives arranged into an aggregate group,

with some form of RAID applied to the drives. Dell EMC Unity XT storage resources
are provisioned from unified storage pools, whether traditional or dynamic.

In the Dell EMC Unity XT series platform, storage pools are dedicated to create all
the storage resource objects. File systems, LUNs, and the VMware datastores
(VMFS, NFS and vVols) can be provisioned out of the same pool. There is no need
to separate pools per resource type (block or file).

Storage pools are created using available drives in the system. Supported drive
types are SAS Flash, SAS, and NL-SAS. A pool can contain a few or hundreds of
disks. The user can use the management interfaces to modify the pool
configuration to improve efficiency and performance. A user can also monitor a
pool capacity usage, and expand or delete a pool that is no longer in use.

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Traditional Pools

All Dell EMC Unity XT Hybrid models and the Dell EMC UnityVSA only support
traditional storage pools. Traditional pools can be created on Dell EMC Unity XT All
Flash systems using UEMCLI or REST API. With traditional pools, RAID Groups
are built from drives of a certain type. Traditional pools can only be expanded by
adding RAID Groups to the pool.

Hard drives arranged in RAID Groups

HOMOGENEOUS POOL HETEROGENEOUS POOL

Hot spares: Same type of
the faulted drive
Capacity>=capacity of the
faulted drive
R R R
G

RG

R
RAID Group1[RG1] R
G2
G

Hot spares Flash drives

Flash drives SAS drives

Traditional pools can be homogeneous (made up of only one type of drive) or

heterogeneous (made up of more than one type of drive).

• Homogeneous pools are recommended for applications with limited skew, such
that their access profiles can be random across a large address range. Multiple
LUNs with similar profiles can share pool resources. These LUNs provide more
predictable performance based on the disk type employed. In a homogeneous
pool, only one disk type (SAS-Flash, SAS, or the NL-SAS drives) is selected
during pool creation.
• Heterogeneous pools consist of multiple disk types. A hybrid system supports
SAS-Flash, SAS, and NL-SAS drives in the same pool. Each tier in a
heterogeneous pool can have a different RAID configuration set. Data in a
particular LUN can reside on some or all of the different disk types. The Dell
EMC Unity XT native storage tiering feature is able to relocate slices across
different disk types in a heterogeneous pool. This process ensures that the
hottest data resides on the highest performance drives.

Traditional pools use a dedicated hot spare. The Dell EMC Unity XT Hybrid
systems reserve one spare drive per 31 drives. The system replaces a faulted drive

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in a pool with a drive of the same type, and the same or greater size as the faulted
disk.

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Dynamic Pools

Flash drives are added as needed

DYNAMIC POOL

Spare space

The features and benefits of dynamic pools are:

• Supported only on the Dell EMC Unity XT All Flash models.

− Pools are built using SAS-Flash drives only.
− All-Flash pools on the supported storage systems are dynamic pools by
default.
− It enables improved pool planning, provisioning, and delivering a better cost
per GB.
− The user can select the RAID type and spare space when creating a
dynamic pool.
• Provisioned pools are created with a specific capacity
− The user can later expand the pool by a specific capacity, even if that means
adding only a single drive.
− It supports the mix of different Flash drive sizes.
• Balanced workloads
− Pool moves data around when drives are added.

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− This automated process spreads out the user data and workloads across
more drives, thus reducing the wear per drive within the pool.
• The major benefits of dynamic pools are the time it takes to rebuild a failed
drive. Users can select up to two drives per 32 drives of spare space (labeled
Hot Spare Capacity in Unisphere) when creating a dynamic pool.

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NAS Server

Dell EMC Unity XT

SPA SPB

Client-1_NAS-Server Client-2_NAS-Server

File File
Client 1 System System Client 2

Client-3_NAS-Server Client-4_NAS-Server

File File
Client 3 System System Client 4

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform has a single-enclosure, two storage
processor architecture with no concept of designated hardware for the file services.
File data is served by using virtual file servers known as NAS Servers.

• A NAS Server must be created before creating file systems or NFS datastores.
• NAS Servers are used for NAS protocols only. NAS clients can connect to file
systems using SMB, NFS, or both simultaneously; iSCSI block storage is
provided natively and not through a NAS Server.
• Each NAS Server is a separate file server. Users have access only to the NAS
server they have permission to. Each NAS Server has a separate configuration
with independent network interfaces, sharing protocols, directory services,
NDMP backup, and security.
• File systems and NFS datastores are provisioned by selecting a storage pool
and a previously created NAS Server.

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Dell EMC Unity XT Hardware and Component Redundancy

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform availability and redundancy features
include:

• Dual Storage Processors with Mirrored Write Cache: Each Storage

Processor contains both primary cached data for its LUNs and a secondary
copy of the cache for its peer Storage Processor.

• RAID Protection: Available RAID protection levels include 1/0, 5, and 6 and
can coexist in the same array simultaneously to match different protection
requirements.

This graphic represents traditional pools.

• Dual Data Ports on Each Drive: These data ports provide two separate paths
to each drive, one from each Storage Processor. If an SP fails, or any
component in the data path fails, the peer SP can still access the drive.

• Proactive Hot Sparing: Proactive hot sparing enhances system robustness

and delivers maximum reliability and availability.

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This graphic describes how proactive hot sparing works on traditional pools.

• Redundant Power Supplies: Redundant power supplies, one for each Storage
Processor, are included. If one of the power supplies fail, the other power
supply can power the entire Disk Processor Enclosure.

• Battery Backup: Each SP has a battery backup to enable an orderly shutdown

and cache destaging to a Vault SSD. If a power failure occurs, the Vault SSD
provides a destage area for data in write cache that is not yet committed to a
drive.

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SCALABILITY, PERFORMANCE, AND COMPLIANCE

FEATURES

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UFS64 Enterprise File System

UFS64 is a 64-bit file system architecture that is used in the Dell EMC Unity XT
series platform. All NAS servers, file systems and NFS datastores in a Dell EMC
Unity XT storage system use UFS64.

UFS64 Benefits

1 4 2

3 5 6

1: Scales to 256 TB usable capacity per file system.

2: Pointer based snaps with simple space reclaim and snap mobility to remote site.

3: Independent VMDK clones with up to 256 clones across multiple levels.

4: In-memory log replay for fast nondisruptive failovers

5: Reclaim free blocks and shrink file system to reflect new capacity.

6: User and Tree Quotas with ability to change on-line.

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The file system format includes support for various NAS protocols, such
as SMB [including SMB 3.1.1], NFSv3 and NFSv4, FTP and SFTP.
The file system format also supports multiprotocol access to the same file
systems.

Benefits:
• Dell EMC Unity XT 64-bit file system has a maximum size of 256 TBs.
• The ability of the Dell EMC Unity XT series platform to perform In-Memory Log
Replay quickly recovers the storage system state, in case an ungraceful
shutdown occurs.
• Compatibility with the array data services includes flexible space efficient
snapshots and support for up to 256 VMDK clones.
• Efficiency is also provided through file shrink and space reclamation
capabilities, and the use of simplified quotas.

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FAST Cache

SAS Flash 2 drives

configured in RAID 1 pairs

FAST Cache

400 GB 400 GB 400 GB

400 GB 400 GB 400 GB

FAST Cache is a large capacity secondary cache that can improve performance of
one or more pools within a Dell EMC Unity XT hybrid system.

The feature extends the storage system existing caching capacity. The FAST
Cache can scale up to a larger capacity than the maximum DRAM cache capacity.

FAST Cache consists of one or more pairs of SAS Flash 2 drives with RAID 1
protection (1+1) and provides both read and write caching.
• For reads, the FAST Cache driver copies data off the disks being accessed into
the FAST Cache.
• For writes, FAST Cache buffers the data waiting to be written to disk.

FAST Cache improves the access to data that is resident in the SAS and NL-SAS
tiers of the pool.
1. The feature helps to identify a chunk of data that is accessed frequently. The
system then copies this chunk of data temporarily to FAST Cache.

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2. The storage system services any subsequent requests for this data faster from
the FAST Cache. This process reduces the load on the disks in the LUNs that
contain the data [the underlying disks].
3. The data is flushed out of the cache when it is no longer accessed as frequently
as other data.

Subsets of the storage capacity are copied to the FAST Cache in 64 KB chunks of
granularity.

FAST Cache operations are nondisruptive to applications and users. It uses

internal memory resources and does not place any load on host resources.
Expansion and shrinking of a FAST Cache are possible by adding or removing
drives.

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Host I/O Limits

Throughput Bandwidth

Block

System-
wide Pause/Resume
control

Dell EMC Unity XT series platform Host I/O Limits is a feature that limits initiator I/O
operations to the Block storage resources: LUNs, snapshots, VMFS datastores,
thin clones, and vVol datastores (storage containers for VMware Virtual Volumes).

Host I/O Limits can be set on physical or virtual deployments of the Dell EMC Unity
platform.
• Host I/O Limit is either enabled or disabled in a Dell EMC Unity XT or Dell EMC
UnityVSA system. All Host I/O Limits are active if the feature is active.
• Host I/O Limits are active when policies are created and assigned to the storage
resources. The feature provides system-wide Pause and Resume controls.

The storage administrator can set limits by:

• Throughput in IOPS (I/O operations per second)
• Bandwidth in KBPS (Kilobytes per second) or MPBS (Megabytes per second)
• Combination of both limits *

Host I/O Limit policies are customizable for absolute I/Os, density-based I/Os, and
burst I/Os.

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Only one I/O limit policy can be applied to an individual LUN or a LUN that is a
member of a consistency group. When an I/O limit policy is associated with multiple
LUNs, it can be either shared or nonshared.

Important: * If both throughput and bandwidth thresholds are set in a

policy, the system limits the traffic according to the threshold that is
reached first.

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File-Level Retention

File-Level Retention (FLR) provides a software infrastructure in the Dell EMC Unity
XT system for files to be locked, that is, protected from deletion or modification by
users or storage administrators. The feature protects the files until a specified
retention date, providing a cost-effective solution for these files throughout their life
cycle.

FLR is available on the physical Dell EMC Unity XT series platform and Dell EMC
UnityVSA systems. The feature is available only for file systems. FLR is enabled
per file system at the creation time. It is not supported on VMware NFS datastores.

FLR allows the user to create a permanent, unalterable set of files and directories
and ensure the integrity of data. An FLR-enabled file system:
• Safeguards data by ensuring integrity and accessibility
• Simplifies the task of archiving data for administrators
• Improves storage management flexibility
• Supports Replication, Snaps, NDMP backups/restores, File migration, Data
Reduction

There are two different types of file-level retention available: Enterprise (FLR-E)
and Compliance (FLR-C).
• Enterprise (FLR-E) protects data content from changes made by users through
SMB, NFS, and FTP.
• Compliance (FLR-C) protects data content from changes made by users
through SMB, NFS, and FTP, from changes made by administrators, and also

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meets the requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange

Commission (SEC) rule 17a-4(f) for digital storage.

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EFFICIENCY FEATURES

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Dell EMC Unity Data Reduction

Dell EMC Unity XT series platform provides an Inline Data reduction feature that
lowers the cost per storage that is consumed. Data reduction also improves the
cost per IOPS through better utilization of system resources. Data reduction
consists of zero detection, deduplication, and compression.

• Data reduction logic occurs in buffer cache before destaging writes to disk. The
logic discards zeros (zero detect) and recognizes common patterns
(deduplication) based on some of the most popular workloads such as virtual
environments, and so on. Processor cycles are only used for the deduplication
and compression logic.
• Data reduction is supported on all physical Dell EMC Unity XT models. Data
reduction is not supported on Dell EMC UnityVSA.
• Data reduction is supported on thin LUNs, thin LUNs within a Consistency
Group, thin clones file systems, VMFS and NFS datastores.
• The storage resource must be provisioned from an All-Flash pool built with SAS
Flash drives.
• The feature can be enabled using the supported management interfaces and
affects all new incoming writes.
• Data Reduction includes an optional feature called Advanced Deduplication,
which expands the deduplication capabilities of the Data reduction algorithm.
With data reduction, the amount of space required to store a dataset for data
reduction enabled storage resources is reduced when savings are achieved.

• If Advanced Deduplication is enabled, and deduplication does not detect a

pattern, the data is passed through Advanced Deduplication.
• Advanced Deduplication eliminates duplicate 8 KB blocks within storage
resources.

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• Advanced Deduplication utilizes fingerprints created for each block of data to

quickly identify duplicate data within the dataset.
• If a received 8 KB block matches an existing cached fingerprint, this block is
not written and a pointer to the saved fingerprint is created.

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Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools (FAST VP)

The Dell EMC Unity XT OE features include the

Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools
(FAST VP) as a storage efficiency feature. The
feature is applicable only to hybrid models.

• FAST VP enables the system to retain the most

frequently accessed or important data on fast,
high-performance disks. The feature also moves
the less frequently accessed and to lower-
performance, cost-effective disks.
• FAST VP tracks data in a traditional pool at a
granularity of 256 MB (a slice). The feature then
ranks slices according to their level of activity and how recently that activity took
place.

Slices that are heavily and frequently accessed are moved to the highest tier of
storage, typically SAS Flash drives. The least accessed data is moved to lower
performing, however higher capacity storage, typically the NL-SAS drives. The
ranking process is automatic and requires no user intervention. Relocation of slices
occurs according to a schedule that is user-configurable. Users can also manually
start the process.

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File System Quotas

Quota Management

Soft Limit
(20 GB)

FS

Quota usage Hard Limit

(25 GB)

Dell EMC Unity XT series platform supports file system quotas. File system quotas
enable storage administrators to track or limit the usage of space that can be
consumed by a user of a file system or directory to regulate storage consumption.
The quotas are supported on SMB, NFS, and multiprotocol file systems. Quota
capacity tracking is useful for tracking and reporting usage.

• Quota limits can be designated for a user or a directory tree. Limits are stored in
quota records for each user and quota tree. Limits are also stored for users
within a quota tree.
• The usage is controlled by file size (which is the default) or blocks.
• The file size quota policy calculates the disk usage based on logical file
sizes in 1 KB increments.
• The block quota policy calculates the disk usage in file system blocks at 8
KB file system blocks.
• Hard and soft limits set on the amount of disk space are allowed to be used.
• Both UNIX UIDs and Windows usernames, along with Windows SIDs, can be
displayed in quota reports. These names are stored on the array in a database
that is refreshed automatically every 24 hours and can be manually refreshed
anytime.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

DATA PROTECTION FEATURES

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Snapshots

The Dell EMC Unity XT Snapshots feature provides point-in-time copies of data.

Snapshots are provided for both block and file resources. Snap images are used
for local data protection to restore the data to a known point-in-time.

Snapshots can be created manually or through a schedule. Dell EMC Unity XT also
supports the creation of hierarchical snapshots (snapshots of snapshots) up to 10
levels deep.

Autodelete and expiration can be configured so that snapshots are automatically

deleted at a specified time or based on defined storage consumption thresholds.

Restoration of data from a Dell EMC Unity XT snapshot is instant, and it does not
require extra pool storage.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Snapshots are also the foundation for native asynchronous replication in the Dell
EMC Unity XT platform.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Replication

The Dell EMC Unity XT Replication is a feature that protects storage resources to
create synchronized redundant data. Replicas are created within the same system
or on a remote system.

Use Cases:
• Replication is one method that enables data centers to avoid disruptions in
operations. In a disaster recovery scenario, if the source site becomes
unavailable, the replicated data is still available for access from the remote site.
• Replication is also beneficial for keeping data available during planned
downtime scenarios. If a production site is brought down for maintenance or
testing, the replica data can be made available for access from the remote site.
In a planned downtime situation, the remote data is synchronized with the
source before being made available and there is no data loss.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

There are two replication types available: Synchronous and Asynchronous.

• Synchronous replication is only available to replicate data to a remote system.
The replication ensures zero data loss between the local source and remote
replica in disaster conditions. The feature has a distance limitation that is based
on latency between the systems. This limitation is generally 60 miles or 100
kilometers between sites. This replication type is only available for physical Dell
EMC Unity XT systems.
• Asynchronous replication supports the replication of data over long distances.
Replication traffic can be throttled to reduce the rate at which data is copied.
The feature also replicates storage resources between pools within the same
system. Asynchronous replication uses RPO*. The RPO for asynchronous
replication is configurable. The remote data is consistent with the configured
RPO value. The replication type is available for all physical Dell EMC Unity XT
systems and the Dell EMC UnityVSA.

* Recovery Point Objective or RPO is measured in units of time to perform

automatic data synchronization between the source and remote systems. The RPO
value represents the acceptable amount of data that may be lost in a disaster
situation.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

MetroSync

MetroSync is a native file synchronous replication for the Dell EMC Unity XT
platform. The data protection feature enables the mirroring of a site to disaster
recovery (DR) locations within metro distances (up to 100 km or 60 miles).

This zero RPO DR solution for file resources (NAS Servers and all associated
objects) also provides advanced features:
• Extension and shrink operations on the source file resource are automatically
reflected on the destination.
• Snapshots of file resources and snapshot schedules are also mirrored to DR
site.
• Ability to simultaneously fail over all sync NAS Servers and associated file
systems in a single operation in the event of a disaster. The cabinet level
failover capability speeds up recovery times and minimizes data unavailability.
• Ability to configure a third site for async replication meaning a sync session and
an async session can be configured from the same resource. The benefits are
extra data protection and backup for disaster cases. The command avoids the
need for full sync by using common base snapshots.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

MetroSync Manager (MSM)

Double-click the image to zoom the view.

MetroSync Manager (MSM) is a Windows application that monitors the statuses of

two Dell EMC Unity XT systems (on the source and destination sites) participating
in file synchronous replication.
• MSM is installed on a 64-bit Windows host ideally physically located at a
different datacenter than the source and destination sites.
• The Windows server can be a Virtual Machine configured in an ESXi host
located at a third site.

MSM can monitor one system on a one-way configuration or it can monitor both
systems in a bi-directional configuration.
• In one-way configurations, one site replicates exclusively to another site.
• In bi-directional configurations, some source objects replicate in one direction
and other source objects replicate in the opposite direction.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

MetroSync Manager also provides failover automation in the event of a critical

failure such as a power or network outage at either site.
• MSM will trigger the automatic failover based on NAS Server, file system, and
IP unavailability that would cause the client to lose access to data.
• In the event of a critical failure and failure conditions are met, MSM initiates a
cabinet level unplanned failover (system level) command to the destination site
to bring up resources as production.

The overall benefit of this is the reduction of overall downtime in the event of a
disaster to ensure production resources can continue accessing data without issue
from the destination site.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Portfolio Integration - Data Protection Solutions

Other Data Protection solutions the Dell EMC Unity XT series platform supports
are:

• Dell EMC RecoverPoint

• Dell EMC RecoverPoint for VMs
• Dell EMC AppSync

Dell EMC RecoverPoint Continuous Data Protection capabilities provide block

replication functionality across all RecoverPoint supported platforms. An
administrator can use the product for Dell EMC VNX1 and the Dell EMC VNX2
migrations or the replication to the Dell EMC Unity XT systems.

Dell EMC RecoverPoint for VMs provides VM-granular protection of the user virtual
machines and associated data. The product is compatible with the Dell EMC Unity
platform and other Dell EMC products.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Dell EMC AppSync is a policy driven and self-service software for managing copies
of various applications/databases running on various Dell EMC arrays. Dell EMC
Unity XT supports Integrated Copy Data Management (iCDM) and uses AppSync
to enable application consistent copies of data without impacting production.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

DATA MOBILITY FEATURES

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

File Import

File Import is a Dell EMC Unity XT series platform native file migration feature
that supports the migration of SMB, NFS, or multiprotocol VDMs and their file
systems from VNX systems.

Use cases for this feature are:

• Replacing the Dell EMC VNX1 and VNX2 systems with the Dell EMC Unity XT
systems.
• Supporting the migration of a Dell EMC VNX VDM to a Dell EMC Unity XT NAS
Server.

NFSv3 VDM NAS Server

Native File
FS01 FS02 Migration FS01 FS02 Dell EMC Unity XT

Dell EMC VNX1/VNX2

File Import is supported on all physical Dell EMC Unity XT models and the Dell
EMC UnityVSA.

The File Import feature is fully managed from Unisphere, UEMCLI commands, and
REST API calls. Some preparatory work must be completed on the Dell EMC VNX
system. However, the Dell EMC Unity XT series platform manages the creation,
monitoring, and cutover using the available management interfaces.

The operation is transparent to host I/O with little or no disruption to client access of
data.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Native Block Import

Dell EMC Unity Native Block Import is a feature that migrates block storage
resources. These resources are LUNs and Consistency Groups from a Dell EMC
VNX1 and VNX2 system to a Dell EMC Unity XT system.

Native Block
Migration CG Dell EMC Unity
CG LUN
LUN

Block Resource Block Resource

Dell EMC VNX1/VNX2

Use case for this feature is:

• Replacement of the Dell EMC VNX legacy systems with the Dell EMC Unity XT
systems.

Dell EMC Unity Native Block Import automates VNX SAN Copy incremental push
and needs to be licensed on the VNX system, not Unity. The SANCopy enabler is
contained in the Dell EMC VNX Installation Toolbox on the Dell EMC Support site if
needed.

The import of block data is configured and controlled from the Dell EMC Unity XT
system using the SANCopy engine running on the Dell EMC VNX system. Then the
data is migrated to the Dell EMC Unity XT systems using a SANCopy push from
the Dell EMC VNX system.

The Dell EMC Unity Native Block Import feature is managed from Unisphere, the
UEMCLI commands, and REST API calls.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

SAN Copy Pull

The SAN Copy Pull feature is used to migrate block resources from third-party
storage systems to the Dell EMC Unity XT family of storage arrays.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

The block storage resource can be stand-alone LUNs/Volumes or VMFS

Datastores. The operation is performed as cold data1 migration. The operation
should be planned because host I/O to the source third-party block storage system
must be stopped. Stopping I/O ensures that no changes can be applied to the
source during the migration operation. After the migration is complete, the
application hosts are reconfigured and I/O restarts on the Dell EMC Unity XT.

Use cases for this feature are:

• Upgrading from a third-party storage system to a Dell EMC Unity XT system.
• Migrating from any supported block storage resource to a Dell EMC Unity XT
system.

1Cold data storage refers to the storage of inactive data that is rarely used or
accessed. Typically, cold data must be retained for business or compliance
purposes on a long-term basis, if not indefinitely. Cold data storage is generally
much more economical than high-performance primary storage used to support
more active data.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

LUN Move

LUN Move is a native Dell EMC Unity XT series platform feature that moves
the block storage resources within a single physical system or virtual storage
appliance. The feature moves the block storage resources between different pools
within the system, or within the same pool of a single system. The supported block
storage resources are LUNs, Consistency Group LUNs, and VMware VMFS LUNs.
Thin Clones or storage resources that have been derived from Thin Clones cannot
be moved.

Pool 1 Pool 2

LUN LUN LUN LUN

LUN Move
LUN LUN LUN LUN

The move operation is transparent to the host and has a minimal performance
impact on data access.

Use cases for this feature are:

• Load balancing between the pools.
• Storage administrators can take advantage of newly purchased spindles or use
pools with faster drives.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

• Enabling Data Reduction on an existing LUN.

• Storage administrators can also convert an existing thick resource to a thin
resource or vice-versa.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Local NAS Server Mobility

In the Dell EMC Unity XT series platform, a NAS Server can be locally moved to
another Storage Processor on the same storage system. This operation is
accomplished by changing the NAS Server’s Storage Processor ownership. All
existing configurations and features on the NAS server continue to work after the
NAS Server changes SPs. The SP Ethernet port that is associated with the NAS
server is modified to reflect the change to the NAS server.

NAS Server 3

SPB SPA

NAS Server 1 NAS Server 2 NAS Server 3

Use cases for this feature are:

• Reducing the load on an overloaded SP.
• A NAS server changes SPs if a network port has an issue.

This operation can be performed using any of the supported management

interfaces.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Integration with Cloud Tiering Appliance (CTA)

The Dell EMC Cloud Tiering Appliance (CTA) enables the automatic move of data
from Dell EMC Unity XT systems to and from the cloud based on user-configured
policies.

The CTA file tiering feature allows the movement of Dell EMC Unity XT file data to
the cloud.
• CTA integration with Dell EMC Unity XT OE supports archiving/stubbing
operations.
• Dell EMC Unity XT Operating Environment (OE) supports the Distributed
Hierarchical Storage Management (DHSM) functionality.
− All VDM file imports of SMB-only, NFS only, and Multiprotocol VDM imports
are stub-aware.
• Encryption and compression are supported for the tiering operations.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

The CTA block archiving feature allows the movement of block data to the cloud.
• CTA leverages the native snapshot differentials API to take backups of the
block data to the cloud.
• Users can archive a full copy of a LUN, Consistency Group or Thin Clone to the
cloud as well as all subsequent snapshots.

Important: CTA 11 and newer releases support the Dell EMC Unity XT
family of storage systems as source file servers. Tiering from the Dell
EMC Unity XT systems to other Dell EMC storage or SMB/NFS shares
is not supported. Refer to the latest CTA Interoperability Matrix for a full
list of supported cloud repositories.
Only CTA 12.1 and newer releases support block archiving of Dell EMC
Unity XT block storage resources.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

DATA SECURITY FEATURES

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Data at Rest Encryption (D@RE)

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform with multi-core optimization offers
controller-based Data At Rest Encryption (D@RE).

• Controller based D@RE uses hardware embedded in the SAS I/O controller
chip in all SAS I/O modules and embedded in the Storage Processor.

FC and iSCSI hosts

SAN
FC/iSCSI

Dell EMC Unity XT Storage Processors

An internal key manager generates and manages encryption keys.

• Controller based D@RE method is simpler, lower cost, and more maintainable
than self-encrypting drives.
• With the encryption hardware embedded in the array, drive vendor and drive
type are agnostic.
• The encryption hardware can use any disk drive type thus eliminating drive-
specific vendor overhead.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

The I/O modules encrypt data as it is sent to the disks. Since the
encryption/decryption functions occur in the SAS controller, it has minimal impact
on data services, such as replication and deduplication.

The feature provides protection against data being read from a lost, stolen, or failed
disk drive.
• Data is encrypted using 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
encryption algorithms.
• Encryption standard is based on Federal Information Processing Standard
(FIPS) 140-2 Level 1 validation.
• Compliance is within industry or government data security regulations that
require or suggest encryption including HIPAA (healthcare), PCI DSS (credit
cards), and GLBA (finance).

Securely decommissioning arrays is easily accomplished by deleting pools. This

process, in turn, deletes all drive encryption keys and most often eliminates the
necessity to shred disk drives. Encryption is a licensed feature and is not displayed
in the license's page if the license is not active. No data-in-place upgrades are
supported and changing the encryption state requires a destructive reinitialization.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

D@RE - External Key Management Support

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform also support the use of External Key
Management to provide extra security when using the D@RE feature. These
products use a single management station for data center keys.

The interest in external key management comes from a high-level security concern
about unauthorized access or theft of a drive or array. This technology is required
for Financial and Payment Card Industry, the Military, and Federal compliance.
Data is protected from access if the storage system is stolen, or while a planned
relocation to a different site is happening.

D@RE External Key Manager product support;

• Dell EMC CloudLink

• Thales Vormetric
• Unbound Key control
• Gemalto/Safenet
• IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager
• Thales CipherTrust Manager

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Common Antivirus Agent (CAVA)

Dell EMC Common Antivirus Agent provides an antivirus solution to clients using a
Dell EMC Unity XT system. It uses an industry-standard SMB protocol in a
Microsoft Windows Server environment.

CAVA uses third-party antivirus engines to identify and eliminate known viruses
before they infect files on the storage system. The antivirus agent supports
Antivirus/AntiMalware software from Computer Associates, McAfee, Kaspersky,
Symantec, etc.

User

Virus-checking client
running on the Virtual
NAS Server

Virus-
checking
server with
CAVA

The functions of CAVA are listed below:

• Alerts third-party applications
• Notifies antivirus servers of potentially virulent client files
• Third-party applications test files and acts when needed

There are three key components to this solution:

• A Microsoft Windows server running a third-party antivirus engine

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

• Dell EMC’s CAVA

• The Virus Checking client running on the virtual NAS server

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

NDMP Backup Support

Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) support enables the backup of a Dell
EMC Unity XT system file data to a tape library unit (TLU), such as the Dell EMC
ML3 device. The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform supports both 3-way (remote
NDMP), and 2-way (Direct attach) configurations. The configurations can be seen
on the graphic below.

The maximum concurrent NDMP sessions per SP depends on the chosen Dell
EMC Unity XT model. Dell EMC UnityVSA supports a maximum of two concurrent
NDMP backup sessions, while physical models support a maximum of 8 or 20
sessions.

3-way NDMP Backup configuration

Primary Storage NDMP Server/Client

NDMP backup device

Control Path LAN
Metadata

Data Path LAN

Dell EMC Unity XT
Tape Library Unit

2-way NDMP Backup configuration

Data Management
Application (DMA)
Primary Storage NDMP backup device

Control Path LAN

Metadata

Dell EMC Unity XT Tape Library Unit

The backup module formats the data on tape in different ways based on the type of
file system on which the backup is performed. The backup of a UFS64 file system
content writes the data to the tape in format N.

The restore module recognizes the backup data in format N-1 (the backup of a
UFS32 file system) from legacy Dell EMC storage systems. The module restores

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

them to a UFS64 file system on the Dell EMC Unity family of storage arrays. When
the backup data in format N-1 is restored to a UFS64 file system on a Dell EMC
Unity system, all the new attributes are set with the default values specified by the
file system.

When data is restored to a UFS32 file system on a legacy Dell EMC storage
system, all the new attributes are discarded as they are only applicable to UFS64.
Backup data in Format N cannot be restored to the legacy Dell EMC storage
systems (VNX, Celerra, VNXe, VNX2e).

Caution: Deduped files in legacy backup cannot be restored to the

UFS64 file system.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

IP Multi-tenancy Support

The Dell EMC Unity XT Operating Environment enables network isolation for File-
based tenants with IP Multi-tenancy for NAS Servers.

Namespace 3
Namespace 2
NAS Server
Namespace 1
NAS Server
FS_1 FS_2
NAS Server
FS_1 FS_2
FS_1 FS_2

Tenants

The feature ensures that tenant visibility and management are restricted to the
assigned resources only. IP Multi-tenancy enables the assignment of isolated, file-
based storage partitions to the NAS Servers on a Storage Processor. Each tenant
has its own network namespace: net interfaces, VLAN domain, routing table, IP
firewall, DNS, and so on. The network traffic is isolated at the kernel level on the
SP.

For example, IP Multi-tenancy enables Service Providers, with multiple customers

on a single system, to isolate storage resources for tenants.

Configuration and management of these resources are accomplished via

Unisphere GUI, REST API and UEMCLI.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol - CHAP

iSCSI host

Login
Request/Response

Challenge/authorize or fail
iSCSI interface
configured with
CHAP
authentication

LUNs

Challenge Handshake Process

On a Dell EMC Unity XT system, an administrator can require that all hosts use
CHAP authentication to access the iSCSI storage on one or more Unity iSCSI
interfaces.

The CHAP is a security protocol that defines a method for authenticating iSCSI
hosts and interfaces. With CHAP enabled, an iSCSI interface “challenges” a host
that attempts to establish a connection with it. If the host does not provide a
response based on the CHAP secret, the iSCSI interface refuses the connection.

The possible CHAP configurations include:

• Global CHAP
• Mutual CHAP

A Global CHAP secret may be set that all initiators can use to access the storage
system. An initiator can use either this CHAP secret or the individual CHAP secret
to log in the array.

Mutual CHAP authentication occurs when the hosts on a network verify the identity
of the iSCSI interface by verifying the iSCSI interface's mutual CHAP secret. Any
iSCSI initiator can be used to specify the "reverse" CHAP secret to authenticate
Unity. When Mutual CHAP secret is configured for the storage system, all iSCSI
interfaces that run on the system use the specified Mutual CHAP secret.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Support for NFSv4.1 Datastores with Kerberos Authentication

The Dell EMC Unity Operating Environment supports the creation of NFSv4.1
datastores in Unisphere. NFSv4.1 adds support to the Kerberos version 5
authentication protocol. The Kerberos authentication protocol provides a
mechanism for authentication—and mutual authentication—between a client and a
server, or between one server and another server.

The vSphere implementation of Kerberos for NFSv4.1 supports only identity

verification for the client and server, however, it does not provide data integrity or
confidentiality services. The Kerberos authentication service enables NFSv4.1
client installed on ESXi to prove its identity to an NFS server before mounting an
NFS share.

The implementation of NFSv4.1 datastores with the Kerberos authentication can be

accomplished via Unisphere GUI, UEMCLI, and REST API.

Kerberos Server
(AS + TGS)

NAS Server
vSphere ESXi 6.0
NFSv4.1
datastore

Kerberos Client Dell EMC Unity XT

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Event Publishing Support

The Dell EMC Unity XT Event Publishing feature enables a NAS server to send
notifications to the Common Event Publishing Agent (CEPA) facility. CEPA is a
mechanism that enables applications to receive file event notifications and context
from information sources, such as the Dell EMC Unity XT systems.

CEPA
Server

NAS Server
HTTP Port 1228 SMB/NFS

FS_1 FS_2
3rd party RPC
application

Host (User)

CEPA provides event notifications and contexts to auditing and quota applications
that monitor the file system activity on the Dell EMC Unity XT system. The event
publishing agent delivers to the application both event notification and the
associated context in one message.

The Dell EMC Common Event Enabler (CEE) framework server installed on the
Windows or Linux servers runs the CEPA facility (CEPA server). These servers can
sometimes also run third party consumer software.

The feature is enabled via Unisphere GUI, REST API and UEMCLI. SMB and NFS
file system activity is monitored from the third party application interface.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

NETWORKING FEATURES

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

IP Packet Reflect

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform supports a feature that is called IP Packet
Reflect. The incorporation of this feature for NAS server interfaces ensures that
outbound packets always exit through the same interface that inbound packets
entered. Reply packets are sent through the same interface the request packets
use.

Inbound [request] packets

Outbound [reply] packets

NAS Server

FS1 FS

The feature enables the NAS Server to bypass routing and ARP table lookups
when replying to a packet, so no routing configuration is necessary.

The feature can be enabled on a NAS server using the Unisphere interface or
when creating a NAS server using UEMCLI.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Advanced Static Routing

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform include the capability of creating route
configurations for NAS Servers. By default, if a NAS server interface is configured
with a default gateway, a default route is created automatically. If the NAS server
has multiple interfaces, one of them can be selected as the preferred interface.

The Advanced Static Routing feature provides the capability of configuring

extra static routes by enabling each NAS Server interface to have its own
routing table. The feature enables NAS Servers to be accessible from different
isolated IP networks.

The routing tables are necessary to tell the system where to route the packets to
and in environments that have multiple gateways. Each gateway is used to access
different subnets.

The Advanced Static Routing feature enables the manual creation of routes in
addition to the automatically created basic routes.

You can manually create the following types of routes:

• Default: Establish a default route using a specific gateway.
• Host: Establish a static route to a specific host.
• Network: Establish a static route to a particular subnet.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Link Aggregation Control Protocol Support

Clie

Network

SPB
LAC LAC
SPA

LACP LAC

Dell EMC Unity XT series platform provides network high availability or redundancy
with the use of link aggregation. The switch the Dell EMC Unity system is
connected to must be configured to use the Link Aggregation Control Protocol
(LACP).

Link Aggregation combines multiple network connections into logical links. With link
aggregation, there can be two to four Ethernet ports combined in one logical link.
Link aggregation provides the following benefits:

• Increased throughput/distributed traffic

• Load balancing and connection redundancy

The loss of a network connection does not start a failover to the peer SP. If the
path to one port fails, the switch automatically moves traffic to the remaining ports
in the link aggregation. And when the connection is restored, the switch adds the
port back to the link aggregation group and resumes use of the port.

Ports that are combined on a link aggregation group can be of different SP I/O
modules or onboard ports.

Link aggregation can only be used for NAS Servers, the File replication, and the
File import interfaces. Ethernet ports that are used for the iSCSI interfaces cannot
be used.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Fail-Safe Networking (FSN) Support

Client

Networ

SPB
FS
SPA

FSN

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform supports Fail-Safe Network (FSN). FSN
provides high-availability and extends that protection from a port/link failure into the
network stack by providing switch-level redundancy support. FSN provides high-
availability if a port on the Unity, a port on a switch, the physical connection
between the two, or an entire switch fails.

The FSN can be configured as a set of physical Ethernet ports, link aggregations,
or any combination of the two.

An FSN is displayed as a virtual single link with a single MAC address and
potentially multiple IP addresses. While each port of link aggregation is considered
a single connection, only one connection in an FSN is active at a time. So if the
system detects a failure of the active connection, it automatically switches to the
standby connection in the FSN.

Combining two I/O module ports from different switches into an FSN works in the
following way:
• If a port, connection, or switch fails, FSN fails over to the path of the second
switch.
• After the port, connection, or switch is back online, FSN fails back to primary
connection.

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

MANAGEMENT

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 Dell EMC Unity Concepts and Features

Unisphere for Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platform

Double-click the image to zoom the view.

Unisphere for the Dell EMC Unity XT series platform provides a flexible and
integrated experience for managing Unity storage systems. It is HTML5 based so
JAVA is not needed thereby eliminating security concerns relating to browser plug-
ins. It is a flat user interface, enabling all functions to be accomplished on the first
screen in a category.

The Unisphere wizards help the user to provision and manage the storage while
automatically implementing best practices for the configuration.

The interface supports a wide range of browsers including:

• Google Chrome v57 or later
• Microsoft Internet Explorer v11 or later
• Microsoft Edge v41 or later
• Mozilla Firefox v52 or later
• Apple Safari v0 or later

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Unisphere contains a complete system ecosystem, the highlight of which is

Proactive Assist with CallHome and Cloud-based management.

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Proactive Assist

Support Self-service portal (double-click the System monitoring (double-click the image to
image to zoom the view) zoom the view)

Proactive Assist is a self-service portal with a robust on-line set of:

• Community activities such as live chats, videos, documentation, and more
• Direct parts ordering
• System views
• Dial home assistance

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Performance Monitor

In Unisphere, the user can analyze system performance by viewing and interacting
with line charts that display historical and real-time performance metrics. Metrics
collection on the storage system is enabled by default.

Double-click the image to zoom the view.

Historical metrics display data collected within a preset or customized time range.
Real-time metrics display data collected during the current session, over a
maximum time range of 15 minutes.

With these metrics, it is possible to:

• Compare changes in performance across multiple metrics, such as network
traffic, bandwidth, and throughput.
• Analyze data at the aggregated levels using line charts, to quickly determine
whether there are any performance issues.

The time range for all the charts displayed in the performance dashboard is
configured using the period drop-down list (displayed here with a red rectangle).
The list offers pre-defined periods and a custom range to set.

It is also possible to add new charts to the Dashboard or create your own
dashboard and add the desired charts.

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The available performance charts are the System cache, System I/O, system
resources, LUN, file system, vVol datastore, the Fibre Channel port, the iSCSI
interface, Ethernet ports, Management port, drive, and tenant. These options differ
depending on the chart type selection (historical or real-time).

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UEMCLI

Double-click the image to zoom the view.

Unisphere CLI (UEMCLI) is a management tool, which provides a way for users to
manage a system through prompts from a Microsoft Windows or UNIX/LINUX
platform.

UEMCLI is intended for advanced users who want to use commands in scripts for
automating routine tasks.

UEMCLI supports various kinds of tasks against both Block and File storage.
Supported tasks include:
• Configuring and monitoring the system
• Managing users
• Provisioning storage
• Protecting data
• Controlling host access to storage

The interface can also be used for other data exchange protocols, such as SNMP,
which is supported by the Dell EMC Unity XT when integrating with other products.
For example, the third party who decides to develop a centralized monitor collects
alerts and other information from a set of systems including the Dell EMC Unity XT.

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REST API

SIMPLE HTTP COMMANDS

GET | POST | DELETE

ACCESS ANYWHERE
WEB BROWSER | COMMAND LINE SCRIPT |
APPLICATION

UNIVERSAL INTERFACE
ANY STORAGE | ANY PROTOCOL ANY
STORAGE SUB-SYSTEM

Representational State Transfer (REST) is a popular web Application Programming

Interface (API) design model that uses simple HTTP calls to create, read, update,
and delete information about a server.

REST defines a data format, such as JSON and XML for information exchange.
Communications are stateless, meaning all information necessary to complete a
request is contained within the request.

REST is a set of resources, operations, and attributes that lets you manage the
array through web browsers and command-line HTTP tools. The interface also
includes programming languages, such as C++ and Java, and scripting languages,
such as Perl and Python.

REST is common within the IT industry and enables programs to easily integrate
with the storage system. REST API is more programmer-friendly than UEMCLI and
does not require a separate client.

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The REST API enables interaction with the Unisphere management functionality,
including:
• System settings and monitoring
• Host and remote system connections
• Network settings
• Storage management
• Data protection, including snapshots and replication

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CloudIQ

Double-click the image to zoom the view.

CloudIQ is a Software-as-a-Service cloud-based management system that

provides intelligent performance, processor, and configuration analytics for health-
based reporting and resolution.

The application operational monitoring capabilities enable access to key

information in the form of aggregated dashboards and health scores. Predictive
analytics ensures more proactive management of the storage system and helps to
resolve problems fast.

Once users are signed up to the CloudIQ ecosystem, they can:

• Let Dell EMC support troubleshoot and resolve issues remotely
• Setup email alerts when something looks wrong
• Log in the self service portal to troubleshoot the system
• Live chat with a Dell EMC support representative and ask questions
• Order replacement parts directly from the system

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CloudIQ requires the Dell EMC Unity XT is configured with the Secure Remote
Services, with a valid support account to work.

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Unisphere Central

Double-click the image to zoom the view.

The Unisphere Central management tool can also be used for federated
management of multiple Dell EMC Unity XT or Dell EMC UnityVSA systems.
Unisphere Central is a network application that remotely monitors the status,
activity, and resources of multiple supported Dell EMC storage systems from a
central location.

The Unisphere Central server is deployed as a virtual appliance in a VMware

environment.

Administrators can look at their storage environment from a single interface and
rapidly access the systems that need attention or maintenance.

Unisphere Central server obtains aggregated status, alerts, and host details from
the monitored systems.

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VIRTUALIZATION

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Dell EMC Unity XT Platform Integration with VMware

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform is optimized for virtualized environments,
not only in its storage capabilities but also in its close integration with VMware. The
storage system supports the Dell EMC tools, which enhance its integration with
VMware. And the system works closely with existing VMware storage management
and integration features.

Dell EMC Tools Description

Dell EMC Storage Analytics (ESA) The ESA for the Dell EMC Unity XT series
platform systems provides automated
operations management using patented
analytics. ESA provides an integrated
approach to performance, capacity, and
configuration management.

Dell EMC Unity Block Storage The SRA extends the disaster-restart
Replication Adapter (SRA) management functionality of VMware Site
Recovery Manager (SRM) to the Dell EMC
Unity XT storage environment.

Dell EMC Virtual Storage The VSI is a plug-in for the VMware vSphere
Integrator for VMware vSphere environment. The plug-in enables the VMware
(VSI) administrator to provision, monitor, manage,
and protect datastores on the storage system
directly from the vCenter Server on the
vSphere environment.

Key VMware tools with which the Dell EMC Unity XT seamlessly integrates with
are:
• VMware vSphere Storage APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA)
• VMware vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) for SAN and NAS
• VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

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VASA Support

vStorage API for Storage Awareness (VASA) is a VMware-defined and vendor

neutral API that enables vSphere to determine the capabilities of a storage
system. The API requests basic storage information from a Unity system, which is
used for monitoring and reporting storage details to a Storage or VMware
administrator. VASA provides a common way for VMware to integrate with storage
vendors. The API is implemented using an out-of-band, Simple Object Access
Protocol (SOAP) over HTTPS.

The Dell EMC Unity XT series platform supports the latest VASA protocols. VASA
gathers information about the storage system, focusing on LUN and file system
properties and data services, and displays this information in VMware vCenter.
Features also include reporting of granular I/O statistics, and active management of
virtual volumes and their related entities. In general, a VASA session is created
when a vCenter connects to the VASA Provider using the VASA protocol. The
protocol enables [and enforces] only one session per vCenter.

Sessions are created with information about the client’s context (FC/iSCSI
initiators, NFS mounts, and so on) for use in filtering results. Sessions are
maintained in memory only; they are not persisted across restarts. vCenter detects
a failed session and automatically starts a new one.

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VMware Virtual Volumes Support

VMware Virtual Volumes (vVols) is a VMware framework based on the VASA

protocol and requires at a minimum, vSphere 6.0 to run. vVols are storage
objects that are provisioned automatically by the system for storing VM data.

vVols are stored in storage containers, which the storage administrator creates in
the storage system. Storage Containers have a 1:1 mapping with the vVol
datastores. The Dell EMC Unity XT supports the provisioning of both vVols [Block]
and vVols [File] datastores [Storage Containers].

When a VMware administrator uses storage profiles for VM provisioning, the

available datastores are categorized into compatible and incompatible. This
method ensures VMs are deployed and remain on storage that has the appropriate
characteristics for performance and availability. Using policies makes the VMware
and storage administrator’s job easier because they can be confident the datastore
has the appropriate configuration for a VM.

Traditionally, LUNs or file systems are used to store VM data. Data services, such
as snapshots, are applied at a LUN or file system level, which means all VMs on
that datastore are snapped. VVols enable applying data services at a VM-level
granularity so individual VMs can be snapped. Also, these operations are offloaded
to the Dell EMC Unity XT system to improve efficiency and decrease compute node
resource utilization.

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vVO

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SMI-S and Microsoft SCVMM

Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) is a standard that is

developed by the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA). This standard is
intended to facilitate the management of storage devices from multiple vendors in
Storage Area Networks (SANs).

Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and its System Center Virtual Machine Manager
(SCVMM) uses the SMI-S API to manage external storage. The Dell EMC Unity
platform is designed to integrate with the Microsoft Windows Server and SCVMM.
The system provides APIs to support the storage health monitoring feature.

Health monitoring requires storage vendors to deliver life cycle indication of alerts
on specific storage objects. These objects include array, LUN/disk, LUN/pool
capacity, file system, file share, file system capacity, fan/power supply, and
LUN/LUN group replication. These objects are defined in the SMI-S indication and
health profiles.

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ESI for Windows

Dell EMC Unity XT series platform offers great free tools for Microsoft-centric
management.

In a typical environment:

• A storage admin creates a LUN.

• A database admin creates a database.
• A SharePoint admin creates a web application on the database.

If all the admins execute their respective tasks in sequential order, it would take
about 90 minutes. In the real world, this entire process takes a lot longer as you are
waiting for one or more admins to get the order for this work. However, with the
Dell EMC Enterprise Storage Integrator (ESI), all you need is a storage pool. With
ESI, you can accomplish the same task in about 20 minutes. ESI also includes
System Center integrations, such as System Center Operations Manager (SCOM),
Microsoft System Center Orchestrator (SCO), and SCVMM.

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DELL EMC UNITYVSA

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Dell EMC UnityVSA Overview

The Dell EMC UnityVSA is a software defined storage platform that is deployed on
the VMware environment. The Virtual appliance runs on general-purpose hardware
on the VMware ESXi hypervisor, as a single SP or a Dual SP configuration. The
virtual appliance includes unified storage and data management features of the
Dell EMC Unity XT series platform.

NFS SMB iSCSI

The Dell EMC UnityVSA provides both Block (iSCSI) and the File (NFS and SMB)
and vVols in one integrated platform. Easy configuration and management of the
storage array are possible using the same HTML5 Unisphere interface as Dell
EMC Unity XT purpose-built storage arrays. A consistent feature set and data
services, such as Snapshots and Replication are available with the Dell EMC
UnityVSA.

Benefits of this approach are a low acquisition cost option for hardware
consolidation, multi-tenant storage instances, remote/branch office storage
environments, and easier to build, maintain, and destroy the environment for
staging and testing. Dell EMC UnityVSA can coexist with and provide storage to
applications running on the same server hardware, enabling customers to
implement an affordable software defined solution. Multiple VSA instances can be
deployed on a single server.

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The Dell EMC UnityVSA Licensing and deployment scheme include four options;

• Single SP offering with 2 CPUs is available as a free 4 TB capacity Community

Edition with the Dell EMC support.
• Single and Dual-SP offering with 2 CPUs and 50 TB capacity with a
Professional Edition.
• Dual-SP offering with 2 CPUs and a 350 TB capacity Professional Edition.
• Dual-SP offering with 12 CPUs and a 350 TB capacity Professional Edition.

For users who initially purchase a 10 TB or 25 TB subscription and require extra

capacity, the following capacity upgrades are supported:

• 10 TB to 50 TB upgrade
• 25 TB to 50 TB upgrade

A Dell EMC UnityVSA HA Professional edition is offered as a 2 node solution.

Dell EMC UnityVSA HA can survive through multiple different failure scenarios like
ESXi host going offline, VM shutting down, or a network switch going down. The
solution is also offered with an optional Tie Breaker Node. The Tie Breaker Node or
witness node is a lightweight 3rd member of the cluster to arbitrate in the unlikely
event all communication is lost between the 2 nodes.

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Dell EMC UnityVSA Product Offerings

This table shows a comparison of the two different license Editions offered for the
Dell EMC UnityVSA. The Community Edition is for test/dev environments, and the
Professional Edition is for production environments for the virtual systems. The
Dual-SP solution is offered only with the Professional edition license (50 TB and
350 TB capacities).

The license keys are based on the system's Universally Unique Identifier (UUID).
These keys, which are included in the license (.lic) files can be obtained through
the initial configuration wizard or the global settings window in Unisphere. The user
must provide the virtual system UUID and the license authorization code (LAC) ID
to download the license file locally.

The license file must then be transferred to a computer with access to the virtual
storage system. The user can then upload the license file from the local machine to
the storage system using the Unisphere GUI.

The following is a typical scenario for your Dell EMC UnityVSA (both Single-SP and
Dual-SP). The user purchases a license which is valid for 12 months. A month
before expiration, the user sees license expiration alerts in Unisphere. The alerts
are repeated periodically: 28 days to expire, 21 days, 14, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.
There is also a 'Get License's Link' in the Unisphere GUI that directs the users to
the Software License Central where they can renew their license. After the license

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expires, users can continue to use the Dell EMC UnityVSA, however not provision
to anything new until they renew their license.

Important: Note that Dell EMC Support is bundled with the

Professional Editions of the UnityVSA. So if the license expires, the
user's support contract expires too. They can never have the software
without support or support with an expired software license. From a
diagnosis standpoint, the support contract is your best gauge. The
license expiration date is also stored in ELMS.

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Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platforms - Physical to Virtual

Comparison

This chart shows the Dell EMC Unity XT series platform features supported by the
Dell EMC UnityVSA.

With all-inclusive software, the Dell EMC UnityVSA enables:

• Setting up of NAS or SAN storage
• Optimizing performance, and efficiency
• Simplifying storage management with FAST VP
• Protecting data locally and remotely
• Provisioning storage from within VMware vCenter

The features that rely on specific physical hardware are not supported.

Dell EMC UnityVSA does not support features, such as FAST Cache, Data at Rest
Encryption and Synchronous Replication.

Dell EMC UnityVSA is an Ethernet based implementation and does not support the
Fibre Channel connectivity. And for that reason, Synchronous Replication is not
supported.

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Dell EMC Unity XT Cloud Edition

Dell EMC Unity XT Cloud Edition provides the enterprise file capabilities of the Dell
EMC Unity XT family within a VMware Cloud SDDC. Enterprise Capabilities such
as snapshots, quotas, and tiering are delivered with a common Dell EMC Unity XT
experience. With Dell EMC Unity XT Cloud Edition, file services are consumed
within each Customer SDDC, so there is no need for an external file appliance or
file service. Existing Dell EMC Unity customers can now leverage Dell EMC Unity
XT Cloud Edition as part of their cloud strategy with the flexibility of VMware Cloud.

Dell EMC Unity XT Cloud Edition offers the following features;

• Software defined storage to run in VMware Cloud on AWS.

• File shares, iSCSI storage and home directories for virtual servers and desktops
(guest OS access).
• Natively replicate to the cloud from on premises storage.

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Dell EMC Unity XT Series Platform Documentation

Dell EMC Unity XT series platform documentation can be located and downloaded
from the Dell EMC support page at https://www.dell.com/support.

From the Support tab, type in Dell EMC Unity XT and click the Search tab. Users
can either type in the name of the document as shown in the example, or simply
type in Unity XT and select the radio button under Resources for the type of
information you are looking for.

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