EMC VNX Series

EMC VNX Series High-performing unified storage with unsurpassed simplicity and efficiency, optimised for virtual applications. With the VNX Series, you’ll achieve new levels of performance, protection, compliance, and ease of management. EMC VNX Series Comparison VNX5200 – 5600 VNX SERIES VNX5200 VNX5400 VNX5600 Min/Max Drives 4/125 4/250 4/500 Drive Types SAS, NL-SAS, Flash SAS, NL-SAS, Flash SAS, NL-SAS, Flash X-Blades 1 or 2 1 or 2 1 or 2 CP...
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EMC Data Domain Initial Setup

EMC Data Domain Initial Setup The following is a quick guide for the initial setup of a Data Domain 2500 appliance.  These appliances are great for deduplication and great for a backup repository such as Veeam.  Details of the appliance can be found here. If you have a EMC account download the install guide here To do the initial setup you need to use a serial cable to give it an IP address, from there you can use a internet browser.  The serial cable is provided in the box with the...
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EMC Isilon Simulator – Installation and Configuration

 EMC Isilon Simulator – Installation and Configuration New times and new requirements for storage space used by the company have brought new solutions. One of these solutions is EMC Isilon. In a huge simplification, we can say that it is the simple NAS. But it is not just disk array, the heart of it all is OneFS. The architecture is based on a clustered solution (minimum starting number of units is three nodes), OneFS provides full automation of configuration (cluster initialization takes a few...
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EMC RecoverPoint – Introduction

EMC RecoverPoint – Introduction In todays post I would like to write few words about EMC RecoverPoint product. I will start with talking a little bit about data protection and data availability in general. Why is so? Let’s refresh it to better understand when RecoverPoint might be a useful tool in your environment. Data Protection and Availability I’m sure I don’t have to explain why Data Protection and Availability is important topic. Just imagine what would happen if you have data loss in y...
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EMC RecoverPoint – Architecture

EMC RecoverPoint – Architecture RecoverPoint architecture consists of components such as RecoverPoint software, Appliance, write splitters etc. In this post I would like to give you a quick introduction to those components. To understand how RecoverPoint actually works first you have to understand all the small building-blocks of the RecoverPoint System. RecoverPoint Appliance (RPA) EMC RecoverPoint is appliance-based – which makes this solution highly scalable. RPA can be a physical applia...
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EMC RecoverPoint – Repository and Journal Volumes

EMC RecoverPoint – Repository and Journal Volumes Last week I have created a post describing EMC RecoverPoint Architecture – mostly from hardware point of view.  This time I would like to go a little bit into software. As you already known, an RPA (RecovePoint Appliance) manages all aspects of data protection for a storage group, such as maintining the images in the Journal Volumes. But what are Journal Volumes? What is the Repository Volume? Let me answer those in this short post Repository...
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EMC RecoverPoint – Snapshots and Bookmarks

EMC RecoverPoint – Snapshots and Bookmarks In my last post I have explained a little bit Journal and Repository Volumes. If you know what those volumes as used for, you are aware that Journal Volumes hold poin-in-time history of the data. And in this short entry I would go a little bit into those point-in-time history. Snapshot – as you can image, it’s a point-in-time snap, marked by the RecoverPoint system for recovery purposes. Within the EMC RecoverPoint a snapshot include only the data...
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EMC RecoverPoint – Consistency Groups and Replication sets

EMC RecoverPoint – Consistency Groups and Replication sets As I dive deeper into RecoverPoint, I decided to write few words about Consistency Groups (which were mentioned already in Journal Volume explanation) and Replication sets. Basically those two have to be explained to understand RecoverPoint protection concept. Consistency Groups If you want to protect data (represented by volumes) in RecoverPoint you have to use Consistency Groups. Consistency Group ensures that all writes to the pr...
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EMC VNX – How to use Unisphere

EMC VNX – How to use Unisphere Unisphere is web-enabled software for remote management of storage environment. It has all the extras, like widgets and sortable tables, wizards etc. Unisphere Management Server runs on the Storage Processor (SP) and the Control Station. (Update 08-01-2015: Check out Overview with few screenshots: EMC VNX – Unisphere – Quick overview) How to launch? To launch a Unisphere you can fire up an Internet browser and type the IP address of either one of the SPs or t...
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EMC VNX – System Notification Methods

EMC VNX – System Notification Methods EMC VNX – System Notification Methods: Let’s talk a little about VNX for File and monitoring features provided by Unisphere. I will explain where to find event logs, how to create an e-mail notifications, how to set up notifications for various Severity levels. Let’s first have a quick glympse of Unisphere monitoring features. Unisphere System Monitoring features There are several areas within the Unisphere System monitoring page, where the system can be ...
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