User:Buzzsubash/sandbox
FAST VP on VMAX 200K
[edit]EMC Symmetrix VMAX 200K series storage arrays support FAST VP (Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools), which allows dynamic movement of data across multiple drive tiers based on usage patterns.
FAST VP enables storage optimization by promoting frequently accessed ("hot") data to higher performance tiers (e.g., SSD), and demoting less-accessed data to lower-cost, high-capacity drives (e.g., SATA/NL-SAS).
Example Tier Configuration
[edit]| Tier | Drive Type | RAID Level | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 0 | Flash (SSD) | RAID 5 | High performance / latency-sensitive apps |
| Tier 1 | SAS (10K RPM) | RAID 6 | Balanced performance and capacity |
| Tier 2 | NL-SAS / SATA | RAID 6 | Archive / infrequently accessed data |
SAN Solutions Comparison
[edit]This table provides a high-level comparison between enterprise SAN solutions: Dell EMC VMAX, HPE 3PAR/Primera, and Pure Storage FlashArray.
| Feature | Dell EMC VMAX (PowerMax) | HPE Primera (3PAR) | Pure Storage FlashArray | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Scale-out | Mesh-active | Scale-out | ||||
| Tiering | FAST VP | Adaptive Optimization | Always-on inline dedupe + compression | Protocol Support | FC, iSCSI, FCoE | FC, iSCSI | FC, iSCSI, NVMe-oF |
| Deduplication | Optional (Data Domain integration) | Yes (inline) | Always-on | ||||
| Management | Unisphere, CLI | SSMC, CLI | Pure1 (cloud-based) | ||||
| Use Case | High-performance mixed workloads | Tier-1 virtualization, OLTP | Performance + simplicity (AI ops) |
Use Case: Tiered Storage for Oracle DB
[edit]A common use case for FAST VP on VMAX is a tiered storage pool backing an Oracle RAC database.
- Control files and redo logs → Tier 0 (SSD)
- Temp + archive logs → Tier 1 (10K SAS)
- Historical data partitions → Tier 2 (NL-SAS)
This setup ensures that high-I/O operations benefit from flash while optimizing backend disk usage.