Business continuity - High performance and high-reliability for non-stop operation

Performance improvements

The enhanced ETERNUS4000 and ETERNUS8000 models (*Note 1) provide about 130% of the I/O processing performance of previous models by use of 2.83 GHz quad-core processors (*Note 2).
The latest fibre channel interfaces deliver up to 8Gbps transfer speeds on the paths between servers and storage to underpin faster data request and update turnaround..
The extended capabilities also ensure effective growth and large-scale storage consolidation.

High-reliability technology heritage

The latest ETERNUS4000 and ETERNUS8000 models of course also contain the industry leading high-reliability and advanced performance technologies proven in previous models.

High-reliability / high-speed fibre channel switches

Use of fibre channel switches as controllers and for multi-disk connections means the effect of disk failures can be isolated. This minimizes their scope and results in much higher levels of reliability, compared with standard loop connections. Dynamic reductions in transfer delays and higher I/O performance are also achieved by this approach.

Component redundancy means no operational stops even in the event of failure

Redundantly configured controllers, cache memory, disk drives, power, and fans ensure continuous operation even if one component fails. All failed components are also hot-swappable for fast and secure maintenance.

Cache guard protects data in cache

A built-in battery safely moves cache data to disk drives ensuring data protection regardless of retention length in event of a power failure.

Redundant copy guarantees data redundancy

Each storage system continuously monitors disk drive operational status to provide full-time failure prediction. When preventive replacement is judged to be needed, data on the particular disk drive is automatically copied to a hot spare disk. RAID redundancy is also maintained. This process also assures stable application operation.

RAID6 to handle double disk failures

RAID6 (double parity) support means all data is protected even if two disk drives in the same RAID group fail simultaneously.