Saving the biggest announcement for last, IBM announces new [XIV Generation 3 hardware] and corresponding [XIV Software Version 11.0.0].
The new hardware is officially the model 114, but since today's new
zEnterprise announced today is also "model 114", I will refer to the XIV
hardware as "Gen3" to avoid confusion.
While the hardware is all refreshed, the overall "scale-out"
architecture is unchanged. Kudos to the XIV development team for
designing a system that is based entirely on commodity hardware,
allowing new hardware generations to be introduced with minimal changes
to the vast number of field-proven software features like thin
provisioning, space-efficient read-only and writeable snapshots,
synchronous and asynchronous mirroring, and Quality of Service (QoS)
performance classes.
The new XIV Gen3 features an Infiniband interconnect, faster 8Gbps FC
ports, more iSCSI ports, faster motherboard and processors, SAS-NL 2TB
drives, 24GB cache memory per XIV module, all in a single frame IBM rack
that supports the IBM Rear Door Heat Exchanger. The results are a 2x
to 4x boost in performance for various workloads. Here are some example
performance comparisons:
Disclaimer: Performance is based on
measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a
controlled environment. The actual throughput that any user will
experience will vary depending upon considerations such as the amount of
multiprogramming in the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the
storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no
assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve throughput
improvements equivalent to the performance ratios stated here. Your
mileage may vary.
In a Statement of Direction, IBM also has designed the Gen3 modules to
be "SSD-ready" which means that you can insert up to 500GB of
Solid-State drive capacity per XIV module, up to 7.5TB in a
fully-configured 15 module frame. This SSD would act as an extension of
DRAM cache, similar to how Performance Accelerator Modules (PAM) on IBM
N series.
IBM will continue to sell XIV Gen2 systems for the next 12-18 months, as
some clients like the smaller 1TB disk drives. The new Gen3 only comes
with 2TB drives. There are some clients that love the XIV so much, that
they also use it for less stringent Tier 2 workloads. If you don't
need the blazing speed of the new Gen3, perhaps the lower cost XIV Gen2
might be a great fit!
As if I haven't said this enough times already, the IBM XIV is a Tier-1,
high-end, enterprise-class disk storage system, optimized for use with
mission critical workloads on Linux, UNIX and Windows operating systems,
and is the ideal cost-effective replacement for EMC Symmetrix VMAX, HDS
USP-V and VSP, and HP P9000 series disk systems, . Like the XIV Gen2,
the XIV Gen3 can be used with IBM System i using VIOS, and with IBM
System z mainframes running Linux, z/VM or z/VSE. If you run z/OS or
z/TPF with Count-Key-Data (CKD) volumes and FICON attachment, go with
the IBM System Storage DS8000 instead, IBM's other high-end disk system.