Dell PowerVault ME4024 Storage Array

Description

The ME storage array series is the latest iteration in the PowerVault lineup, improving on the features offered by the MD PowerVault line. Offering a 2U form factor, The Dell PowerVault ME4024 storage array supports up to 24x front mounted storage devices in a short length chassis. Drives are shared with other host servers in the network and between other PowerVault systems. The unit itself has four main components, the chassis, up front storage bays, one or two controllers, and dual redundant 580W PSUs. The controllers are flexible and provide the I/O and management for the system. Options for the controllers include 10Gb iSCSI 8-port dual controller, 12Gb SAS 8-port dual controller, 16Gb Fiber Channel (FC) 8-port dual controller, plus a combination of 16Gb FC 8-port and 10GB iSCUS SFP+ 4-port dual controller. Two controllers are used for redundancy and SAS HDD and SSD drives are used in all configurations, also for redundancy, by provide dual port connections compared to using a SATA drive format, which only supports a single port connection. Various expansion enclosures are also available and include the ME412, ME424, and the ME484, which feature I/O modules instead of the controller units. A controller unit can be used as an expansion unit simply by replacing the controller modules with I/O modules.

Other ME StorageVault Controller Units

Dell PowerVault ME4012
2U, 12x 3.5-inch storage bays

Dell PowerVault ME4084
5U, 84x 2.5-inch storage bays

Other ME StorageVault Expansion Units

Dell PowerVault ME412
2U, 12x 3.5-inch storage bays

Dell PowerVault ME424
2U, 24x 2.5-inch storage bays

Dell PowerVault ME484
5U, 84x 2.5-inch storage bays

Storage

Each of the three units in the ME StorageVault line up have different storage capabilities with the 2U ME12 offering 12x 3.5-inch drives, the 5U ME4084 providing up to 84x 2.5-inch storage devices and the 2U Dell PowerVault ME24 storage array outfitted with up to 24x 2.5-inch storage bays. The expansion units provide the same break down of storage capabilities but feature I/O modules instead of the controller units. There are also some constraints on expansion units. The ME412 and ME424 can only be used with the ME4012 and ME4024 respectively, but the ME484 can be used with any of the ME base array enclosures. All offer 12Gb/s SAS backend connectivity. Drives can also be used in a distributed RAID for improved data protection that also offers faster rebuilds. This system also offers snapshots to help recover data, plus thin provisioning, replication, volume copy, an SSD read cache, and 3-level auto-tiering. ME PowerVault also offers virtualization integration with hypervisors, including VMware vShere and vCenter SRM plus Microsoft Hyper-V.

Management

Management of the StorageVault system is through the control module. The ME4024 can operate with one control module or two for redundancy and data resilience. The control units are hot-swappable and use the ME Storage Manager through a standard HTML 5 interface to access the system remotely. ME Storage Manager helps administrators configure the host port mode to support switched and direct attached servers. Connecting to the storage array through a host server is accomplished through optional PowerEdge RAID Controller cards (PERC), like the H840 PERC, present in the host server.

Summary

Dell says it takes about 15 minutes to install and another 15 minutes to configure, enabling businesses to rapidly scale data storage without adding complexity. Once set up, you can easily add more expansion units to the mix for added storage capacity. The Dell PowerVault ME4024 storage array is a starter base array unit that can scale to support several petabytes of data and is designed for small to medium-sized businesses.