Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.

Symmetrix VMAX - 1

Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.

The Symmetrix VMAX system is an innovative platform built around a scalable Virtual Matrix
design and solely built for virtual environment . The Symmetrix VMAX series includes the
Symmetrix VMAX and the Symmetrix VMAX SE models, and meets a wide range of high-end
requirements for scalability, performance, and cost.
The Symmetrix VMAX is ideal for high-end configurations that require performance and the
scaling capability to start as small as one engine pair and 96 drives, and grow to a maximum of
eight engines and 2,400 drives. Symmetrix VMAXs incremental scalability allows to meet your
growth requirements by adding VMAX engines and disk drives non-disruptively to the existing
frame. It provides support for Fibre Channel, iSCSI, Gigabit Ethernet, and FICON connected
hosts. Front-end and back-end connectivity supports up to 128 host ports and 128 disk channels.
The VMAX also leverages 2.3 Gigahertz multi-core processors. The new Virtual Matrix
provides the interconnect that enables resources to be shared across all V-Max engines to enable
massive scale out.

Enginuity is the operating environment for Symmetrix VMAX and provide simplified storage
management and provisioning, as well as additional replication, migration and volume
configuration option. Symmetrix VMAX provide local replication and remote replication
through EMC TimeFinder and EMC SRDF (Symmetrix Remote Data Facility).

Symmetrix VMAX - 2

Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.

The Symmetrix VMAX system bay houses all the system components which include:
VMAX Engines Provide up to eight VMAX Engines within a system bay on standard
configuration.
Matrix Interface Board Enclosure Contains a Virtual matrix interface board that connects the
VMAX engines and also contains two power supply/cooling modules.
Standby power supply (SPS) module Two SPS modules for each VMAX Engine provide
backup power in the event of an power interruption.
Service Processor Provides local, remote or optional modem connection to the Symmetrix
system, as well a keyboard, video and mouse interface. Service Processor components download
the Symmetrix system configuration to the directors in the VMAX Engines and also provide
diagnostic and maintenance utilities for the Symmetrix system.
A Storage Bay consists of either eight or sixteen Drive Enclosures, and eight SPS modules.
Symmetrix V-Max arrays are configured with capacities of up to 120 disk drives for a half
populated bay or 240 disk drives for a full populated bay. Each Drive Enclosure includes the
following components: redundant power and cooling modules for disk drives, two Link Control
Cards, and 5 to 15 disk drives.

Symmetrix VMAX - 3

Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.

Each VMAX Engine includes four quad-core Intel Xeon processors, 64-128 GB of Global
Memory, 8-16 ports for front-end host access or Symmetrix Remote Data Facility channels
using Fibre Channel, FICON, or Gigabit Ethernet. It also has 16 back-end ports connecting to up
to 360 storage devices using 4Gb Fibre Channel, SATA, or Enterprise Flash Drives. Each
VMAX Engine has its own redundant power supplies, cooling fans, SPS Modules, and
Environmental Modules. Each VMAX engine includes two redundant director modules
providing parallel access and replicated copies of all critical data. Symmetrix VMAX array
combines Front End, Back End, and Memory into a single Director, reducing cost and increasing
performance.

Symmetrix VMAX - 4

Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.

The Virtual Matrix Architecture replaces individual, function-specific directors with Symmetrix
VMAX Engines, each containing a portion of Global Memory and two directors capable of
managing Front End, Back End, and remote connections simultaneously. The slide reviews the
Virtual Matrix architecture in more detail. The system starts with a VMAX Engine as a highavailability base configuration. The VMAX Engine is connected to the Virtual Matrix and
allows all system resources including CPU, memory, drives, and host ports to be
dynamically accessed and shared by any application. Additional VMAX engines are added
nondisruptively to efficiently scale system resources. The Virtual Matrix supports a total of eight
VMAX engines in a single system. As shown, the new architecture enables significant increases
in scalability. Scalability has improved in all aspects: Front End connectivity, Global Memory,
Back End connectivity, and usable capacity. The Virtual Matrix is redundant and dual active and
supports all Global Memory references, all messaging, and all management operations including
internal discovery and initialization, path management, load balancing, fail over, and fault
isolation within the array.

Symmetrix VMAX - 5

Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.

A disk is sliced into Hyper or disk slices and protection schemes are then incorporated, creating
the Symmetrix volume. Symmetrix logical volumes are defined by using the service processor
and SymmWin interface. Configuration changes can be performed online using the EMC
ControlCenter Configuration Manager and Solutions Enabler Command Line Interface.

Symmetrix VMAX - 6

Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.

A host views a Symmetrix Logical Volume in the same manner as it sees any other disk device.
The host is unaware of how the volume is configured in the Symmetrix, its protection scheme,
or any other special attributes. Hosts assign disk device logical device names that vary
depending on the operating system.

Symmetrix VMAX - 7

Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.

Symmetrix Management Console is used by Symmetrix for device management for both the
Symmetrix VMAX and Symmetrix DMX products. There are several key features introduced to
simplify storage management in virtual data centers and cluster environments. As data centers
continue to embrace virtualization, management tools are required to tier, consolidate, and scale
physical resources.
Symmetrix Management Console manages the following features:
Auto-provisioning GroupsMap and mask Initiator Groups, Storage Ports, and Storage
Groups
Virtual ProvisioningAlso known as thin provisioning
Enhanced Virtual LUN technologyData mobility within the array and movement between
tiers
FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering)

Symmetrix Optimizer automatically tunes, monitors, analyzes, and migrates logical volumes to
maintain optimal performance, with no disruptions to applications or users. Symmetrix
Optimizers load-balancing automation technology analyzes volume activity to identify hot and
cold logical volumes for swaps; this automates the time consuming task of balancing the load on
the Symmetrix back end. The tedious task of disk-performance tuning is completely automated.

Symmetrix VMAX - 8