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StoreOnce and StoreAll get ProLiant push

Gen 8 server/controllers propel them faster

HP has pumped up the power of its StoreOnce deduping backup to disk array and StoreAll store-everything-as-objects array with Gen 8 ProLiant servers.

The StoreOnce 6500 slots in to the StoreOnce range, above the 4500, 4700 and 4900 Series (and VSA of course). It replaces the previous top-end B6200 system. HP’s information pages for 6500 can be found here.

HP says the 6500 “replaces the B6200 with up to 2240 TB capacity, almost 3x more scalability. 4TB disks offer over 200 per cent greater storage density.”

HP storage boss David Scott positions this 6500 - the B prefix falls away - as a second generation of a dedupe-to-disk backup array, relegating EMC’s entire Data Domain line to generation one. He says the 6500 is 10 times faster than the Data Domain DD990 for data recovery. Looking at pretty extreme cases, he says a 600TB recovery would take 80 hours, about half of the system's ingress dedupe speed, while the 6500 would do the job in eight hours.

Using the Gartner business time-is-money valuations, he says this saving of 72 hours could save customers $24m. Um, your mileage may vary.

Backup, at 139TB/hour, is said to be 40 per cent faster and there is 237 per cent more usable capacity, the box scaling from 72TB to 1,728TB usable capacity (2,240TB raw), using 4TB SAS disk drives. The ingest rate is 139TB/hour using StoreOnce Catalyst, HP’s Data Domain Boost-like functionality. This works with HP Data Protector, Symantec NetBackup and Backup Exec software through OST, Oracle RMAN and BridgeHead software, used in the medical and health area.

Looking at the backup speed, an obvious comparison is with Sepaton’s Virtuoso, which ingests data at up to 31.6TB/hour with 4 nodes and is planned to reach 126TB/hour with 16 nodes. The 6500 beats that, although the Sepaton scales capacity higher, up to 3.3PB with 16PB planned – it's a work in progress.

It seems pretty clear to El Reg that the Sepaton reselling deal with HP is going to wind down.

6500 is fairly high-end, supporting 96 source appliances, 96 virtual tape libraries, and emulating 1,572,864 tape cartridges. Data-at-rest encryption is supported.

HP says the 6500 has autonomic restart – as did the B6200 – which can recover from a hardware failure. The company says the StoreOnce “6500, VSA, and HP Data Protector offer federated deduplication that lets you move deduplicated data around your organisation for efficient, low-cost, remote- and branch-office protection and disaster recovery.”

StoreAll

We also have a new StoreAll system, HP's object storage technology based on Ibrix technology, the 8800, and this replaces the previous 9320 and 9730 systems. There are three flavours of 8800:

  • All enterprise SAS drives (active archive)
  • Hybrid, mixed enterprise SAS and mid-line SAS (Hybrid)
  • Deep archive version that uses all-mid-line SAS

The 8800, like the 9000-series StoreAll products, scales out to 16PB capacity and 1,024 nodes. While the 8800 uses Gen 8 ProLiant-based controllers the 9370 and 9730 used Gen 7 ProLiants so they were slower.

HP says the 8800 is an ultra-dense appliance, supporting up to 560 3.5-in SAS disk drives or 2098 2.5-in SAS disk drives. These include:

  • 4TB, 3TB and 2TB 7.2K 3.5-inch drives
  • 900GB and 450GB 10K 2.5-inch drives

Scott says the 8800 has twice the bandwidth of previous StoreAll systems and scales up to 1.5PB/rack.

It has:

  • Express Query enabling meaning to be added to data via custom metadata attributes and value to be extracted with ultra-fast search
  • SMB 2.1, Alternate Data Streams (ADS), and DFS Namespace target support provides tighter Windows IT integration
  • Feature setup and configuration wizards simplify management
  • Platform health monitoring and firmware version verification increase supportability
  • Installation wizard for StoreAll 9730 Storage and storage provisioning tool for StoreAll 9320 Storage to speed deployment and
  • Ultra-dense 5U 6Gb SAS 70 Large form factor disk drive enclosure for the 9730 Storage with end-to-end 6Gbit/s architecture for better performance

There is an accompanying 8200 Gateway Storage product which uses StoreServ 3PAR arrays for file and object storage. The 8800 and 8200 Storage Gateway can be clustered with existing 9320 and 9730 StoreAll systems if they run StoreAll OS v6.5.

HP says the 8800 supports "NFS, CIFS and SMB, NDMP, HTTP and HTTPS, WebDAV, FTP and FTPS, StoreAll REST API File Compatibility Mode and Object Mode." Native OPenStack Swift and Keystone are now supported by StoreAll.

Scott said the 8800 has very fast search. Asking a NetApp array to find out what has changed in half-a-billion files could take 40 hours. StoreAll will provide an answer in 1.4 seconds. Wonder how NetApp's object-based StorageGRID would do?

We looked on HP's site for more detailed 8800 specs and didn't find any. No doubt they are coming.

The ProLiant Gen 8 StoreAll controllers can be retrofitted to existing StoreAll products, which is a nice move.

HP’s StoreOnce 6500 Storage systems are now available starting at $375,000, and the StoreOnce Security Pack is available now. The StoreAll 8800 Storage will be available in the first 2014 quarter from $0.97/GB of capacity with three years, 9x5 support and all-inclusive software features. StoreAll 8200 Gateway Storage will be available in the same period, costing $34,650 with three years of 9-to-5 support and all-inclusive software features. StoreAll OS v6.5 also comes in the first 2014 quarter. ®

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