The Dell PowerVault MD1200 storage array houses up to 12 large form factor (LFF) or small form factor (SFF) drives to provide 24TB of data in just a 2U chassis. For data-intensive applications, administrators can daisy-chain eight of these enclosures together for a total of 96 drives and up to 192TB of storage when using 2TB drives. Hot-swappable drives reduce system downtime and Dell’s PERC H800 allows administrators to continue to access data even after a single cable path fails. Managing the system is easy, even for novice-level system admins, using Dell’s OpenManage software application.
This array supports up to 12 hot-swappable SAS drive bays to provide a maximum storage capacity of 24TB. Both small form factor and large form factor drives are supported, but cannot be mixed within a single enclosure. However, hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), and self-encrypting drives (SEDs) can be mixed within a single enclosure to create the optimal storage environment for the anticipated workload. Dell’s PERC H800 supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60, and uses a redundant path with I/O load balancing to keep applications up and running even when one port fails. The 6Gb/s SAS connection offers double the throughput and a 35% increase in I/O operations per second compared to Dell’s previous generation storage arrays. Up to eight enclosures can be daisy-chained together with a single PERC H800, in a single path for up to 192TB of data using a total of 96 drives. Administrators can also opt to configure four enclosures in a redundant path for added reliability preventing data loss.
System management has been simplified with Dell’s OpenManage Storage Management software which uses a single interface to manage both the external array and internal server storage. The hassle of installing, configuring, and managing is further alleviated with wizard-based tools and task-guided features. Through the Configure Tab, users can create a host group, hot spares, and virtual disks. System downtime is minimized with the software’s Support Tab which allows administrators to recover from a failure and quickly gather support information.
The Dell PowerVault MD1200 storage array is the perfect solution for high-density applications, such as database or web hosting. Serviceability is made easy with the enclosure’s 12 hot-swappable drives which provide up to 24TB of data. When expanded to its full direct-attached storage (DAS) capacity, this enclosure can support up to 96 drives and 192TB of data. Throughput has been doubled from previous generation storage arrays with the 6Gb/s connection which delivers a 35% increase I/O operations per second. Dell’s OpenManage software automates the majority of common management tasks and uses straight-forward wizard-guided tools for a simplified approach to system management.