IBM in MAID
The DCS9550 offers sleep mode option for $33,600.
By Jean Jacques Maleval | July 17, 2008 at 3:49 pm
The IBM Storage System DCS9550 offers DirectOS 4.0 no-charge firmware upgrade and DCS9550 Sleep Mode option.
Sleep Mode feature
DCS9550 Sleep Mode option enables Massive Array of Idle Disks (MAID) capability. This feature is designed to put "idle" tiers of SATA disk drives into standby mode to reduce power consumption and save energy.
Overview
The IBM System Storage DCS9550 offerings for Deep Computing systems, IBM System p High Performance Computing (HPC) systems, and IBM System x e1350 Linux Cluster systems are expanded to include enhancements to the base functionality of the DCS9550 Model CP1 controller.
Firmware upgrade for the DCS9550 Model CP1 controller
DirectOS 4.0 is a new firmware upgrade that is now available for the DCS9550 Storage System. This firmware version is also a prerequisite for the DCS9550 Sleep Mode feature.
The DCS9550 Sleep Mode feature is available for DCS9550 Storage Systems that have been upgraded with DirectOS 4.0 firmware. The Sleep Mode feature is only applicable to the SATA disk drive tiers configured in the DCS9550 2S1 Storage Expansion Unit (1269-2S1) and DCS9550 2S2 Storage Expansion Unit (1269-2S2).
DCS9550 Sleep Mode feature
After a DCS9550 is upgraded with DirectOS 4.0 firmware, customers may optionally purchase the DCS9550 Sleep Mode option, which enables Massive Array of Idle Disks (MAID) capability. The DCS9550 Sleep Mode option is designed to put ‘idle’ tiers of SATA drives into standby mode. In standby mode, the mechanical head assembly is parked within the disk drive, and the spindle is stopped, thus saving energy and helping to reduce power consumption within the datacenter.
When the DCS9550 Sleep Mode is enabled for an idle tier of disk drives and the idle tier is in the standby mode, the drive logic continues to listen for new commands. When disk access commands are received by the drive logic, the idle tier of drives will be returned to active mode.
The Sleep Mode feature is designed to operate on a per tier basis, so that a tier of 10 drives will either be active (spinning) or in the standby mode. In contrast to competing systems offering MAID capability that do not have all drives operational at the same time, the DCS9550 system maintains full performance capabilities, and is designed for use as both primary and secondary near-line storage.
Price of DCS9550 Sleep Mode: $33,600
Planned availability date
July 25, 2008
Comments
The arrival of storage giant IBM in MAID validates this technology pioneered by COPAN Systems, a start-up born in 2002. Nexsan is also supporting strongly this method to lower disk power consumption with a different approach. Others vendors in this field include Digital Storage (for Macintosh), Fujitsu (Eternus), HDS and NEC (AMS). EMC intends to arrive. Nothing from HP and NetApp, up to now.
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