EMC Readies Tweaks to Symmetrix DMX-3 Arrays

Published: February 9, 2006

by Alex Woodie

EMC last month announced several pending enhancements for its new high-end Symmetrix DMX-3 storage array, which started shipping last August. Next month will bring several new configurations to the Symmetrix DMX-3, including qualification of Symmetrix DMX-3 system configurations scaling up to 1 petabyte (or 1,024 terabytes), which EMC claims is the first time this has been done with a single array. The DMX-3 can scale up to 1 PB with 2,400 disk drives of the new 500 GB Low-Cost Fibre Channel (LC-FC) variety. If these parameters exceed your current data storage requirements, you may be interested in the new entry-level DMX-3 that starts at just 96 disk drives, delivering a scant 7 TB of storage.

Other enhancements due next month include native Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) support for host and remote replication on Symmetrix DMX-3 systems, which EMC says eliminates the added expense of external channel converters and gateways when replicating large amounts of data over basic Ethernet networks. Support for GigE will be fully backward compatible with prior generation Symmetrix DMX arrays and the Symmetrix 8000 series, the company says.

In March, EMC expects to deliver support for the iSeries and its OS/400 and i5/OS operating system. EMC also made two mainframe related announcements, including support in the DMX-3 for the Transaction Processing Facility (TPF) operating system, commonly used in reservation systems, and the delivery of EMC z/OS Storage Manager software, which will provide mainframe-native management for all Symmetrix storage systems.