Hitachi Data Systems has added three new models to its Adaptable Modular Storage (AMS) range, introducing support for SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) disks and a new dynamic load-balancing system with two active controllers.
The inclusion of symmetrical active-active controllers in the new models means enterprises can save on a whole range of software costs, said Michel Alliel, products and solutions manager at Hitachi Data Systems.
There’s now no need to buy software to manage paths between controllers and disks, or to perform load-balancing to even out traffic demands between two controllers, he said, as the AMS2000 series handles that automatically.
A task such as reconfiguring a system after adding a new disk tray can now be done in seconds, rather than hours, he said.
That dynamic balancing and automatic creation of paths holds good even when it comes to putting one controller out of action for a firmware update.
“There’s finer granularity of the elements that you can shut down to update them,” Alliel said.
The support for SAS disks offers a number of advantages over older Fibre Channel systems, according to Alliel.
For one thing, it makes life simpler, as it’s now possible to mix SATA and SAS disks in the same tray. Enterprises might want a mix of disk types in the same system, as SAS is better suited to high-performance, non-stop storage, whereas SATA might be more appropriate for high volumes of data that must be kept online but are needed less often.
It’s also possible to address SAS disks individually over a point-to-point communications channel, whereas Fibre Channel disks would be linked together, with up to 60 of them on the same loop.