HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 all‑flash array

Accelerate performance to boost agility

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage is the only all-flash array in the industry that delivers the performance advantages of a purpose-built, flash-optimized architecture without compromising resiliency, efficiency, or data mobility. A flash-optimized architecture reduces the performance bottlenecks that can choke general-purpose disk arrays that have been retrofitted with solid-state disks (SSDs). However, unlike other purpose-built flash arrays, the 3PAR StoreServ 7450 doesn’t require you to introduce an entirely new architecture into your environment to achieve flash-optimized performance. As a result, you don’t have to sacrifice rich, Tier-1 data services, quad-node resiliency, advanced functionality, enterprise-class efficiency, or seamless data mobility between systems. HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage accelerates business agility by boosting application performance with over 900,000 IOPS at less than 0.7 milliseconds (ms) latency. And it does this while delivering all the enterprise-class, Tier-1 features and functionality you have come to expect from the storage platform that powers three of the world’s four largest managed service providers. It’s performance without compromise.

The last storage platform you will ever need

With HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage, the same effortless, efficient, resilient, and future-proof storage platform gives you optimized performance with both flash-based and spinning media that also scales to address the needs of the entire midrange, Tier-1 enterprises, and high-end service providers. The same common operating system, consolidated user interface, and rich set of data services are shared across the entire platform—regardless of model (figure 1). With the all-flash HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450, you can accelerate applications where milliseconds represent millions of dollars and make informed business decisions in hours or minutes instead of days or weeks. You can cut your system capacity requirements by 75 percent with HP 3PAR Thin Deduplication and Thin Clones software combined with hardware-accelerated zero-block deduplication.3 You can choose new high-density 1.92TB commercial MLCs (cMLCs) in combination with HP 3PAR compaction technologies to lower the cost of all-flash storage to below that of spinning media.4 You can get more from your flash storage with features that extend flash-based media lifespan and a standard five-year warranty on all HP 3PAR StoreServ SSDs, including new lower-cost cMLC options. You can unlock the native file and object access capabilities within your HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage array, made possible by the HP 3PAR OS and your array’s Converged Controllers with HP 3PAR File Persona Software Suite. The HP File Persona enables home directory consolidation, group/ departmental shares, corporate shares, and custom cloud applications—all from truly Converged Controllers, truly agile capacity, and truly unified management. And with the Get 6-Nines Guarantee, HP stands behind the ability of all quad-node and larger 3PAR StoreServ Storage systems, including the 7450 all-flash system, to deliver data high availability with 99.9999 percent uptime5 , giving you the peace of mind your mission critical data will be available when you need it most.

The flash‑optimized architecture behind the performance

HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage removes the bottlenecks that prevent legacy storage from taking full advantage of flash-based media. This is the driving force that allows the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 all-flash array to deliver accelerated performance that is six times greater than traditional platforms using hard disk drives (HDDs) while also delivering extremely low latency. This flashoptimized architecture relies on several new and unique HP 3PAR StoreServ innovations:

• Unique, clustered, Mesh-Active architecture: Fine-grained virtualization and system-wide striping shared by HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage delivers capacity and performance that scale automatically, even at extremely high capacity utilization levels
• Purpose-built HP 3PAR StoreServ ASIC: Supports mixed workloads and enables Thin Deduplication with extremely high performance levels to alleviate legacy storage performance concerns.
• HP 3PAR Adaptive Read and Write: Matches host I/O size reads and writes to flash media at a granular level to avoid unnecessary data reads and writes to reduce latency, enhance backend performance, and extend flash medial life span to lower storage total cost of ownership (TCO).
• Autonomic cache offload: Reduces cache bottlenecks by automatically changing the frequency at which data is offloaded from cache to flash media based on utilization rate. This helps achieve consistently high performance levels as you scale the workload to hundreds of thousands of IOPS.
• Multi-tenant I/O processing: Enables performance improvement for mixed workloads or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments by breaking large I/O into smaller chunks so that small read requests don’t get held up or stuck behind larger I/O requests, which helps ensure reduced latency
• HP 3PAR Express Writes: Write acceleration that optimizes CPU utilization and, depending on workload, delivers greater throughput, up to 30 percent more IOPS, and up to 20 percent reduced latency

Flash‑based storage you can afford

HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage helps you radically improve efficiency, making an allflash storage array more affordable for a wider range of applications than ever before. Unlike bolt-on thin storage solutions on legacy arrays, HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 all-flash arrays feature hardware-enabled thin technologies that allow systems to run in a state of consistent high capacity utilization without any performance tradeoffs. In fact, the HP Get Thin Guarantee promises new HP 3PAR StoreServ customers at least 50 percent reduction in capacity requirements by simply replacing legacy storage with HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage— guaranteed.

Unlike mechanical HDDs, SSDs leverage flash-based storage composed of electronic media that wears down with each write. Innovations to the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage platform deliver additional media endurance that enables you to extend the life of your SSDs to get the most out of every dollar and I/O for increased storage return on investment.

The following features help maximize the efficiency of HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage to drive down the overall cost of flash performance and protect your critical investments:

• New commercial MLC (cMLC) drives: HP offers a new high-density 1.92TB cMLC drive that, when combined with HP 3PAR compaction technologies, lowers the cost of storage to below $2 per usable gigabyte. This is less than the cost of many systems using performanceoriented spinning disk drives. New 480GB cMLCs are also available that dramatically lower the entry cost of choosing all-flash array.
• HP 3PAR Thin Deduplication with Express Indexing: ASIC-assisted block-level deduplication on the array happens “inline”—upon ingest—which carries multiple benefits, including increasing capacity efficiency, protecting system performance, and extending flash media life span. Thin Deduplication is powered by the new HP 3PAR Express Indexing feature that accelerates hash signature comparison, detecting duplicate write requests and preventing duplicate data from being written.
• Standard 5-year SSD warranty: New 1.92TB and 480 cMLC SSDs as well as 480 GB and 920 GB SSDs carry a standard 5-year warranty to protect your flash storage investments
• Fine-grained allocation unit: With its 16 KB write allocation unit, the HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage platform has long been known for pioneering innovation in storage capacity efficiency. This granular allocation size enables only the right amount of flash media to be allocated, avoiding waste due to unused allocated capacity.
• System-wide striping: The HP 3PAR StoreServ Architecture stripes data across all system resources (controllers, ports, cache, and drives). This system-wide striping enables the array to simultaneously deliver uniquely high capacity utilization (no silos of any kind) and performance levels (all resources supporting each volume). This drives uniform I/O patterns across all media resources by spreading wear evenly across the entire system. Because the system automatically manages this system-wide load balancing, no extra time or complexity is required to create or maintain optimally better configured system.
• System-wide sparing: The HP 3PAR StoreServ Architecture reserves spare chunklets in all flash media. Unlike many competitive arrays that need to reserve dedicated spares which sit idle, the HP 3PAR StoreServ Architecture uses every single flash device, reserving spare chunklets in each of them. This ensures a balanced load and wearing across all flash media. Should there be a media failure, system-wide sparing also helps protect against performance degradation by enabling many-to-many rebuild, resulting in faster rebuilds
• Adaptive Sparing: HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage extends useable capacity per drive by up to 20 percent by releasing the spare chunklets present in each SSD to the drive itself, allowing SSDs to use that spare capacity as additional over-provisioned capacity. This increase in over-provisioned capacity significantly enhances SSD media endurance for HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage
• Highly virtualized storage OS: To enable performance and to help maximize the utilization of physical resources, the HP 3PAR Operating System employs a tri-level mapping methodology similar to virtual memory architectures. The first level of mapping virtualizes physical drives of any size into granular allocation units or chunklets. Complete access to every chunklet reduces large pockets of inaccessible storage. The second level of mapping associates chunklets with Logical Disks (LDs). It is at this second level that RAID characteristics are implemented. The third level of mapping associates Virtual Volumes (VVs) with all or portions of an underlying LD or of multiple LDs. The fine-grained, tri-level mapping approach to virtualization enables a single flash media device to support hundreds of volumes and up to a dozen RAID definitions at the same time, allowing the system to make the most efficient use of flash.
• Zero-block deduplication: The HP 3PAR StoreServ ASIC features an efficient, silicon-based zero-detection mechanism that gives HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage the power to remove allocated but unused space without impacting performance. On top of powering HP 3PAR Thin Technologies and Thin Deduplication, this capability also removes streams of zeroes present in write I/O prior to writing that data to flash-based media. In the world of flash-based storage, where there is a penalty for every single write (in terms of media endurance), this write elimination helps to elongate media life considerably. Not only can you reduce capacity requirements by up to 50 percent, but you also extend the life of your valuable SSD drives by avoiding unnecessary writes
• Proactive media management: The HP 3PAR Operating System constantly monitors flashbased media utilization and wear to enable proactive reporting of possible media failures for effortless management. You can stay informed on the expected life of your flash-based media by monitoring the wear levels of each flash device at any given time. Never be caught off guard by planning for future upgrades before your flash-based media is worn out.

Tier-1 resiliency for mission-critical workloads

A unique suite of persistent technologies power HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage in delivering high availability and Tier-1 resiliency to performance-critical applications:

• HP 3PAR Persistent Cache: Preserves service levels, so they are not impacted by unplanned component failures—a key requirement for the virtual data center.
• HP 3PAR Persistent Ports: Allows non-disruptive upgrades to HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage systems without relying on multipathing software and without initiating failover.
• HP 3PAR Peer Persistence: Software delivers effortless resilience that comes with VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) certification and support for Microsoft Windows Servers and Microsoft Windows Hyper-V environments. With Peer Persistence, you’ll also be able to federate storage across data centers without being constrained by physical boundaries. Automated failover and failback between two sites or data centers is transparent to hosts, which keeps your virtualized deployments seamlessly running even in the event of a disaster.
• HP 3PAR StoreServ Data-at-Rest Encryption: Protects your data from both internal and external security breaches. If your application or environment requires protection from unauthorized access of the data, then consider the HP 3PAR StoreServ Data at Rest Encryption solution. HP 3PAR StoreServ models are fully FIPS 140-2 compliant, support intelligent key management, and available with self-encrypting drives (SEDs), where data is encrypted as it is written to the drive. You get the peace of mind in knowing that all user data contained on these drives is protected against unauthorized access, regardless of hardware theft, drive failure, or drive retirement. HP 3PAR Data at Rest Encryption supports all of the advanced data services on 3PAR StoreServ Storage.
• Flash-based media failure reconstruction: In order to protect flash performance, media failure reconstruction with HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage is different from reconstruction of spinning media. In the case of a flash-based media failure, instead of doing large sequential reads/writes as is done with HDDs, the HP 3PAR StoreServ performs 32 KB read/write I/O for flash media. This enables the system to provide consistent performance levels even under situations of flash media failure, since large sequential writes can typically cause flash media performance to degrade.

Affordable, flexible disaster recovery

In order to meet service level demands for performance-critical applications, uncompromising data protection is a must-have. With HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage, you can decrease downtime while dramatically reducing the cost of remote data replication and disaster recovery (DR) with highly efficient, multi-mode replication across all HP 3PAR StoreServ models. HP 3PAR Remote Copy software allows you to achieve low recovery time objectives (RTOs) and zerodata-loss recovery point objectives (RPOs) with complete distance flexibility. And since HP 3PAR Remote Copy configuration is autonomic, set-up only requires one step so you can protect your data from the start. Refer to the HP 3PAR Replication Software Suite data sheet for additional details on Remote Copy and related functionality

Hassle-free data movement to balance performance and cost

For your business to consistently deliver high levels of application performance at an affordable cost, your storage architecture must allow easy data movement to keep up with the pace of change. For example, at times of peak demand on certain applications, you want the associated data placed on your fastest storage technology. You also need the flexibility to meet different service levels without having to manage multiple storage islands with incompatible management interfaces and data service technologies. Meet the needs of today’s dynamic applications with the ability to move data and workloads not just between tiers but between arrays—without impact to applications, users, or services. With HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage, you can simply and non-disruptively shift data between the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 all-flash array and any other HP 3PAR StoreServ array without additional management layers or appliances. Map workloads to the right resources and establish tiers of storage across the data center for different service level agreements (SLAs). Lower costs and manage capacity at a data center level by thinly provisioning volumes with the freedom to move data between systems. Refresh technology effortlessly by streamlining the movement of volumes from older systems and non-disruptively update storage without application impact.

Converged Data Protection with HP StoreOnce

If you are looking for virtually instant application-consistent backups for your VMware environment, look no further than rapid and granular backup and recovery with HP StoreOnce Backup and HP StoreOnce Recovery Manager Central for fast, efficient, reliable, and simple backup and recovery with your HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage system. This solution transforms traditional approaches to backup and recovery, giving you application-aware, storage integrated data protection that bypasses traditional backup server-based processes. By connecting HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage directly to HP StoreOnce Backup, you can maintain business productivity by expediting the backup and recovery process and eliminating application performance impact. This streamlined backup process also reduces total cost of ownership for storage by leveraging HP StoreOnce Backup systems for cost-effective backup retention. The native movement of snapshots from HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage to HP StoreOnce Backup assures that any online storage threats are quickly mitigated with always-available, single-click data recovery. This is all made possible by HP StoreOnce Recovery Manager Central, which allows VMware owners to seamlessly manage snapshots, backup, and recovery directly from within VMware vCenter