The SGI Total Performance 9300 is a high-bandwidth RAID Fibre Channel storage system. This chapter gives a brief overview of the features of the TP9300 and its primary components in the following sections:
The features of the TP9300 are listed in the following sections:
The SGI TP9300 RAID storage system has the following basic features:
Outstanding performance, built on multi-channel end-to-end Fibre Channel technology.
Continuous availability, with constant monitoring and optional redundancy of all active components.
Dynamic scalability, making it easy to grow all subsystem resources without disruption.
Superior connectivity, allowing simultaneous connections to multiple servers directly or by way of storage area networks (SANs). Support for optical host connections.
Vast storage capacity with support for large numbers of drives.
Storage management facilities for installation, configuration, expansion, and monitoring.
Redundant power supplies and hot-swappable components.
Easily upgradeable to meet a variety of performance requirements.
Integrated RAID controllers.
Battery backup for cache data.
Note: JBOD is not supported.
The RAID controllers in the TP9300 have the following features:
112-drive maximum configuration
4 RAID levels (0, 1, 3, and 5)
2 Gbit/s front end (FE) and back end (BE) Fibre Channel arbitrated loop (FC-AL)
Immediate LUN availability (ILA)
Transparent disk drive rebuilds
Variable stripe size per controller (16K, 32K, and 64K)
Mirrored cache
Drive roaming during power off
Cache coherency
Transparent failover and failback
Automatic error recovery
Write through, write back, or read ahead support
Automatic detection of failed drives
Hot-swappable drives
SAN mapping server to LUN mapping
Automatic firmware flashing: In a dual controller configuration, the firmware of the replacement controller is automatically flashed to match the firmware of the surviving controller.
The TP9300 has the following availability features:
Dual power feeds with dual power supplies
Redundant cooling
Battery back-up (BBU) maintains cache in case of power failure
IRIX path failover
Dynamic hot-sparing
Non-disruptive component replacement
Enclosure services interface (ESI) for SCSI enclosure services (SES)
The TP9300 supports the following hardware and software platforms:
Software: IRIX, CXFS, FailSafe
Hardware: SGI Altix 3000, SGI Origin 200, Origin 300, Onyx 300, Origin 2000, Origin 3000 series, and Onyx 3000 series servers.
The TP9300 supports the following host bus adapters (HBAs) and switches:
| Note: The TP9300 does not support copper Fibre Channel HBAs. |
QLogic 2200 optical 33/66-MHz HBA
QLogic 2310 optical 66-MHz HBA
QLogic 2342 optical 66-MHz dual channel HBA
Brocade family SAN switches
SilkWorm 2400 8-port switch
SilkWorm 2800 16-port switch
SilkWorm 3200 2 Gbit/s 8-port switch
SilkWorm 3800 2 Gbit/s 16-port switch
IRIX release level 6.5.16 or later
This section contains pictures and brief descriptions of the components that make up the TP9300 in the following sections:
The TP9300 is comprised of storage enclosures. These enclosures provide all of the logic, power, and I/O functions of the system. Each enclosure can be operated as an independent storage system, or multiple enclosures can be cabled together to create much larger disk arrays.
There are two types of storage enclosures: controller enclosures and expansion enclosures. The only difference between the types of enclosures is that the controller enclosure contains two integrated RAID controllers. The expansion enclosures do not contain RAID controllers and must be cabled to controller enclosures. Figure 1-1 shows a front view of both a deskside tower and a rackmount controller enclosure.
| Note: Controller enclosures and expansion enclosures look identical from the front. |
Figure 1-2 shows a rear view of both a controller enclosure and an expansion enclosure.
See Chapter 2, “Storage Enclosures” for more information about the controller and expansion enclosures and their components.
The SGI TP9300 rack has the following features:
72-in. high x 22-in. wide x 36-in. deep.
38 rack units (1 rack unit = 1.75 in.).
Removable rear panel.
Heavy-duty casters for ease of movement.
Dual power distribution units (PDUs).
Optional stabilizer foot to reduce tipping.
Convenient access to power and data cables through openings in the top and bottom of the rack.
Figure 1-3 shows a TP9300 rack with controller and expansion enclosures installed in it.
Figure 1-4 shows some of the features of the rack.
For detailed specifications of the rack, see “Rack Specifications” in Appendix A.