transtec PROVIGO 600 Performance RAID

These high-performance storage systems are leading the small and medium-sized business segment. You will not find more performance and innovation for your medium-sized data centre, research institute or public institute anywhere else. The choice of products available is also unique and ranges from local SATA RAID to mid-range Fibre SAN. You can manage all models from a central location via the SANWatch Management Software.

• Performance par excellence:
  
  • Infortrend ASIC400 Controller with PowerPC RISC Processors
  • High performance even for RAID-6 and active rebuild
  • Streaming rates up to 1 GByte/s
  • Transaction rates up to 112,000 IO/s (seq)
• 
  More on performance >>

• Management á la carte:
  
  • Central SANWatch management solution
  • Embedded Web GUI (HTML) and Command Line Utility
  • Snapshots with VSS provider as an option
  • Multipathing agent for Windows, Linux and Solaris at no extra cost
  • VMware ESX & Citrix XenServer certified
• 
  More on management >>

• TechTalk:
  
  • Highlighted firmware features (data integrity, MAID, AV firmware)
  • transtec vs Infortrend firmware
• 
  More on TechTalk >>

transtec PROVIGO 600 Performance RAID

Performance from the 3rd generation

A close look at the architecture of the Infortrend ASIC400 Controller shows the reasons for the excellent RAID performance which reaches up to 1 GByte per second.

		Powerful standard architecture IBM PowerPC 750 Processors: These SPARC CPUs have more power reserves than Intel IOPS 34x based RAID controllers. I/O bus architecture: Three PCI-X 64-bit/133 MHz buses per controller offer bidirectional 1200 MBps bandwidth where others work with just one or two channels. Dedicated cache synchronisation channels: 18 GBit/s for dual-controller models guarantee the performance in redundant operation - including active/active loadsharing. Adaptive caching: The DDR400 cache with up to 2 GBytes are optimised with adaptive read-ahead and burst write policies.
		Reliable performance even under load RAID 6: Take advantage of real hardware RAID-6 (Reed-Solomon, P+Q) practically without a drop in performance to RAID-5. Rebuild performance: With just a 10 percent drop in performance during a rebuild, your applications can run reliably. No-drop frame: Special A/V firmware settings guarantee reliable IP recording and videostreaming without dropping frames.
		Benchmarks - performance in benchmark test IOmeter benchmark report: Our technical IOmeter reports assess real hard drive accesses, no cached hits. transtec benchmark centre: Test our storage solutions with individual or application-specific benchmarks. Try & Buy: Test your storage systems direct in your environment.

transtec PROVIGO 600 Performance RAID

Management á la carte

The SANWatch Management Software combines all central multi-site management features, optional data services such as snapshots and EonPath multipathing solution. For the decentralised administration of individual storage systems, SANWatch is extended to include the Embedded RAIDWatch Storage Manager GUI (HTML) as well as the fast firmware-embedded command line utility commonly employed in real-world use.

		SANWatch Management Software Infortrend SANWatch is a Java-based management solution which delivers high-availability features such as snapshots and multipathing. SANWatch supports in-band and out-of-band management. A central administration across locations can be integrated by installing local SANWatch agents. The most important functions: Central management console Snapshot Support (option) Storage Manager EonPath Multipathing Configuration Manager Notification Manager Disk Performance Monitor
		RAIDWatch Web GUI Infortrend RAIDWatch is a HTML-based Web GUI for the decentralised administration of individual storage systems. Out-of-band access via the Fast Ethernet management port of the RAID controller. With the Embedded Web GUI, you can configure your RAID and organise your email messages. The range of features is the same as with the SANWatch Storage Manager module.
		Firmware-embedded Command Line Utility The Command Line Utility is the fastest configuration tool for experts. Standard access via the serial port or per Telnet session. Installing RAID sets, logical drives and partitions, LUN mapping, all cache and firmware settings, firmware updates - everything is fast per scroll-down menu.

transtec PROVIGO 600 Performance RAID

TechTalk

Intelligent firmware (IOSmart, DrvSmart, SysSmart)
A closer look at the RAID subsystems reveals certain differences between them. We would like to draw your attention to four highlights from the PROVIGO 600 firmware features:

• S.M.A.R.T. policies: In the PROVIGO 600 series, you can read SMART parameters as well as define individual SMART policies. Hard drives which exceed limits for head cycles, operating hours or defective blocks are replaced proactively with a spare drive clone. The Google study "Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population" shows that up to 40 percent of all hard drive breakdowns can be intercepted beforehand.



• High data integrity: Scheduled media scans check the hard drives. Verify-on-write prevents bit errors on write access - always (performance!) or during rebuild. RAID parity update&tracking prevents write holes. The hard drive cache can be deactivated and, with critical events auto protection switches the RAID cache automatically to write through or can initiate an auto shutdown.



• MAID support: TheMAID (Massive Array of Idle Disks) Ttechnology involves switching the hard drives without active I/O accesses to idle mode after a certain time to save on energy. MAID is suitable for SATA hard drive archives or backup-to-disk. In the firmware, all SATA & SAS models can configure a MAID drive spindown.



• No-drop frame A/V performance: For video applications, it can be a problem if a delayed read of 10-30 seconds occurs with an unresponsive SATA hard drive. The A/V mode in the PROVIGO 600 firmware guarantees a stable performance. Unresponsive data are presented without interruption via XOR calculation.

Special features of transtec firmware
transtec is Infortrend's integration partner in Europe. As an OEM partner, we install our own firmware (PV series) alongside original Infortrend firmware (PX series, PV as an option). Besides vendor string and model ID, what are the other differences?

• Engineering: Models with OEM firmware were put through their paces by in-house engineering over numerous months.
• SAN masking: transtec firmware always has LUN Masking in FC and IP-SANs. Infortrend does not offer this feature with some SATA models.
• LUN filter entries: Infortrend firmware supports up to 1024 entries, however this value drops considerably in real application when using LUN aliases. transtec firmware guarantees at least 128 LUN filter entries.
• Stability: transtec firmware has deviating SATA drive configuration default parameters and general host settings which deliver maximum security and cost a maximum of 5 percent performance.
• Bug fixes: Are often in transtec firmware before they are integrated in general Infortrend releases. The latest examples include deactivating useless BBU timer alerts, SSH issue fixes, fast fan firmwares to prevent thermal problems and numerous SANWatch detail improvements.
• SANWatch: The Infortrend SANWatch software available in our download section recognises OEM and Infortrend firmware. This is helpful if you want to centrally administer Infortrend models from different sources.

transtec PROVIGO 600 Performance RAID

Further information

• Presentations, white papers:



• Präsentation: "SANWatch Snapshots - Overview & Technical Background" [pps, 3.5 MB]
  
  
• White paper: "How safe is RAID? Dual parity and RAID-6 technologies at a glance" [pdf, 476 KB]
  
  


• Multimedial contents:



• SANWatch Video - Overview [Flash, 2.5 MB]
  
  
• SANWatch Video - Operation [Flash, 9.6 MB]
  
  


• References/user reports:



• Gesellschaft für Simulatorschulung - simulator training association (GfS/KSG): transtec storage secures data from the world's largest centre for power station simulation [pdf, 324 KB]
  
  
• J. Eberspächer GmbH & Co KG: transtec virtualises SAN from the world's leading manufacturer of exhaust emission technology and auxiliary heating for vehicles [pdf, 162 KB]
  
  
• blueCarat Software&Consulting: Set up software prototypes for all subsidiaries via the Internet [pdf, 131 KB]
  
  


• Other Links:



• Infortrend Technology