Unified Storage

• Unification of SAN and NAS storage technologiesA unified storage system that includes SAN and NAS storage technologies can support both structured and unstructured data storage.
• Unification of storage protocolsSupports mainstream storage network protocols such as iSCSI, FC, NFS, CIFS, HTTP and FTP.
• The host can access any LUN or file system through the front-end port of any controller.

high performance

The OceanStor V5 series storage system is equipped with performance acceleration technology, which can gradually improve storage performance and meet the storage performance requirements of various applications. Performance acceleration includes:

1. High-spec hardware accelerationThe OceanStor storage system is equipped with a 64-bit multi-core processor, high-speed large-capacity cache, and a variety of high-speed data host interface modules, which can provide more excellent storage performance compared to traditional storage systems.
2. SSD accelerationThe OceanStor V5 series storage system uses an all-flash operating system for SSD disks. By utilizing the high performance of SSD disks, the storage system performance will be maximized.

High scalability

The OceanStor V5 series storage system has excellent scalability and supports a variety of interface modules. The supported hard disk types and interface module types include:

• Hard disk type:SSD.

The OceanStor V5 series storage system also supports Scale-out technology, which enables storage system performance to improve as the number of controllers increases.

High reliability

The OceanStor V5 series storage system has protection measures against component failure and device power outages. It also uses advanced technologies to reduce the risk of hard disk failure and data loss, ensuring the high reliability of the system.

• Component failure protectionThe storage system components adopt dual-redundancy design and A/A working mode (Active-Active Mode). Under normal circumstances, two components work simultaneously to process storage services. When one component fails or goes offline, the other component will take over its work in time without affecting the existing tasks.
• RAID2.0+ underlying virtualizationThe storage system uses innovative RAID2.0+ underlying virtualization technology to achieve automatic hard disk load balancing. When a hard disk in the storage system fails, all normal hard disks in the hard disk domain participate in data reconstruction, and only business data is reconstructed. The data reconstruction speed is 20 times faster than traditional RAID, greatly reducing the probability of multiple disk failures.
• Data protection after controller failure
  • The storage system provides a built-in backup power module, which can continuously supply power to the controller in the event of a power failure or sudden power outage, ensuring that the storage system writes data in the cache to the controller’s built-in hard disk to avoid data loss.
  • When a software failure occurs, the storage system attempts to reset. During the reset process, the data is saved in the cache. If the reset fails, the data in the cache will be written to the controller’s built-in hard disk to avoid data loss.
  • In case of controller hardware failure, the storage system uses mirrored memory technology. If one controller fails, the other controller takes over the business to ensure data consistency.
• Hard disk bad sector repairThe most common failure in storage systems is hard disk bad sectors. The hard disk bad sector repair technology can automatically repair hard disk bad sectors, reduce the hard disk failure rate by 50%, and extend the service life of the hard disk.
• Hard disk data pre-copyThe storage system uses hard disk pre-copy technology. By routinely checking the hardware status, once a hard disk with a risk of failure is found, its data is actively migrated, effectively reducing the risk of data loss.
• IP DriftThe storage system uses IP drift technology. Once the physical host port carrying the NAS protocol is damaged, the IP address of the port will be automatically drifted to another port with normal functions. With the correct networking method, seamless business switching can be achieved to ensure that the business is not affected by the port damage.
• Hard disk online diagnosisWhen a hard disk failure occurs in the storage system, the system will take the hard disk offline. The hard disk online diagnostic module will read the hard disk’s SMART information, perform a series of analysis, testing, and recovery measures on the failed disk, and reconnect the hard disk that has recovered to normal back to the RAID, thus extending the hard disk’s service life.
• Data safe diskThe first four disks in the controller enclosure of the storage system and one hard disk built into each controller together form a data safe disk, which contains three types of data: cache data that needs power-off protection, OceanStor OS system data, and system configuration information and logs, increasing system reliability.

High Availability

Daily maintenance

The OceanStor V5 series storage system uses TurboModule technology, online capacity expansion technology, and hard disk roaming technology to prevent daily maintenance operations from interrupting business operations. The features of TurboModule technology, online capacity expansion technology, and hard disk roaming technology include:

• TurboModule technology makes the controller, power supply, interface module, and hard disk module hot-swappable, allowing online operation.
• Online capacity expansion technology allows hard disks to be added online, making it easy to expand the capacity of the hard disk domain.
• Hard disk roaming technology enables the storage system to automatically identify hard disks that have been relocated and automatically restore their original services.

Data Protection

The OceanStor V5 series storage system provides a variety of advanced data protection technologies to ensure data security even in the event of a devastating disaster, thereby ensuring normal and continuous business operations. The advanced data protection technologies provided include snapshots, LUN copies, remote replication, cloning, volume mirroring, and active-active:

• Snapshots can quickly generate snapshots of multiple source LUNs (Logical Unit Numbers) or source file systems to quickly restore data when needed.
• LUN copy can back up data between different devices and implement data protection between heterogeneous storage.
• Remote replication can copy data to a different location to achieve off-site data backup and disaster recovery protection.
• Cloning can build a physical backup of the source LUN or source file system in real time to ensure the security of local data.
• Volume mirroring backs up data in real time and can automatically switch to the data copy when a data source fails, ensuring data security and business continuity.
• Active-active can perform real-time data synchronization replication between storage systems, business operation status monitoring and fault switching, ensuring online cross-data center business switching and business load sharing.

It also supports data backup and recovery through the NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol).

Resource Management

The OceanStor V5 series storage system provides a variety of resource application technologies and flexible resource management methods to ensure the benefits of user storage investment. The resource application technologies provided include SmartVirtualization, SmartMigration and multi-tenancy:

• SmartVirtualization enables the local storage system to centrally manage the storage resources in the third-party storage system, effectively reducing the difficulty of managing heterogeneous storage systems and lowering maintenance costs.
• SmartMigration can perform LUN or file system business migration within a storage system or between different storage systems, and realize resource adjustment and allocation as business develops.
• Multi-tenancy enables the storage system to provide storage services to different tenants, and isolate business access and management between tenants while sharing storage resources, thereby achieving efficient resource utilization.

High system security

Storage Network Security

• Management channel securityAll physical interfaces that can perform management operations on the storage system use an access authentication mechanism to ensure that only authorized users can perform management operations on the storage system.
• Protocol and interface attack preventionAll external communication connections of the storage system are necessary for the normal operation and maintenance of the storage system. All communication ports used are described in the product’s “Communication Matrix” document. Dynamic listening ports are limited to a certain and reasonable range, and there are no undisclosed interfaces.
• Business interfaces and management interfaces are isolated from each otherThe ACL mechanism is used to isolate the Ethernet port from the internal heartbeat network port, management network port, and maintenance network port to ensure that the service interface and management interface are isolated from each other.

Storage service security

• Operating system securityThe storage system uses a dedicated operating system, which has been security-hardened (including the latest security vulnerability patches), and vulnerability patches are released regularly.
• Data DestructionWhen clearing unnecessary data, the specified LUN is erased and written multiple times to prevent the data stored in it from being recovered, thus preventing the leakage of critical data.
• File AntivirusWhen the storage system runs file services and shares the file system with clients through CIFS sharing, use third-party antivirus software to trigger virus scanning and clean up virus-infected files in a timely manner to improve the security of the storage system.

Storage Management Security

• Manage and maintain securityIt supports user disabling and restoring, and in addition, all management operation instructions have complete log records.
• Data security and tamper preventionSupports WORM feature. Critical data can be set to read-only status to prevent unauthorized changes and deletions within a specified period of time.

In addition, during the storage system startup process, trusted verification is enabled, and “BIOS > Grub > Euler Linux Kernel > Euler Linux > Storage Application Software” is measured and verified step by step to prove the integrity of the loaded software at each level and prevent the software from being tampered with. Verify each link of the storage system power-on to ensure that the system has not been tampered with.

Virtual, intelligent, efficient

The OceanStor V5 series storage system integrates the advanced design concept of “virtualization, intelligence, and efficiency” and conforms to the most advanced storage design ideas. Compared with traditional storage, the OceanStor V5 series storage system has higher storage space utilization, faster data reconstruction speed, more intelligent performance allocation technology, and more sophisticated service quality control. The technologies used include:

• RAID2.0+ underlying virtualizationRAID2.0+ underlying virtualization technology divides the physical hard disk space into multiple small-granularity data blocks, builds RAID groups based on data blocks and implements resource management, making resource management more refined. RAID2.0+ underlying virtualization technology can achieve automatic hard disk load balancing, improve storage performance, increase storage space utilization and data reconstruction speed, and finely manage storage space, which is the basis for many advanced storage technologies.
• SmartQoSSmartQoS technology can classify business data according to a series of characteristics (each classification represents an application), and can set priorities and performance targets for each classification, so as to provide appropriate resources to the appropriate business and achieve the purpose of ensuring key business performance.
• Thin Provisioning (SmartThin)SmartThin technology enables storage space to be automatically expanded as needed, without having to allocate all the storage space at once as in the traditional way. Therefore, only a small number of hard drives are needed to carry out business, and additional hard drives can be added later based on storage space usage, thereby reducing initial purchase costs and TCO.
• Connect to TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) for fast document archiving and backupWhen the storage system is connected to TSM backup software for file archiving and backup, the snapdiff feature quickly obtains differential file information through the snapshot mechanism to identify changed files, thereby reducing the time consumption caused by full scanning and greatly shortening the backup time. Backup performance is no longer affected by the number of files, greatly improving backup efficiency.

Economical and easy to use

The OceanStor V5 series storage system uses intelligent fan speed regulation technology, deduplication and compression technology to ensure economical use. It also provides a variety of management and maintenance tools to improve the ease of use and maintenance.

• Economical
  • Intelligent fan speed control technologyIntelligent fan speed regulation technology can intelligently adjust the fan speed according to the system temperature, reduce fan power consumption and noise, and save operating costs.
  • Data deduplication and compression technologyThe duplicate data in the hard disk is checked and processed through the data deduplication technology, and the space occupied by the data is greatly reduced through the data compression feature, effectively improving the hard disk utilization.
• Ease of use
  • DeviceManager management toolDeviceManager is a storage system management tool based on HTML5 and is a GUI. It implements efficient management through a wizard-style operation interface and batch operations.
  • Multiple integrated managementIt supports VMware’s vCenter plugin and Hyper-V’s System Center management integration, as well as VASA (vSphere API for Storage Awareness), VAAI (vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration) and VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) Provider, making management more convenient.
  • Tablet ManagementSupports storage system management via tablet computer, with flexible management methods.
  • Multiple alarm notification methodsIt supports multiple alarm notification methods such as sound, light, mobile phone text messages and emails to ensure that key information is conveyed in a timely manner.
  • One-click upgrade toolOne-click online controller upgrade is easy to operate and does not require business interruption.

Intelligent Operation and Maintenance

Through the eService cloud intelligent management system (eService for short), customers’ operation and maintenance capabilities are comprehensively improved and potential risks are converted into planned maintenance actions.

With customer authorization, eService monitors customer device alarms 24/7. When an alarm is generated, eService automatically reports it to Huawei’s technical support center and creates a corresponding service request. Huawei service engineers will promptly assist customers in resolving the issue.

• eService provides a self-service intelligent operation and maintenance system to provide customers with precise and personal information services.
• The eService cloud system uses Huawei Cloud to drive IT operation and maintenance activities through big data analysis and AI technology, identify faults in advance, reduce operation and maintenance difficulties, and comprehensively improve operation and maintenance efficiency.
• Data transmission is encrypted to ensure secure information transmission and eService can access the customer system only after customer authorization.
• Automatic order creation, providing 7*24 hours uninterrupted service, proactive operation and maintenance, safe and reliable.
• Customers can access eService and view device information using any PC at any time and place.

The eService system consists of a front-end system and a cloud system working together:

• Front-end system: Deployed on the customer side. It can collect customer equipment alarms and other information, and send them to Huawei’s cloud system in a timely manner to implement remote maintenance functions, such as remote inspection and remote log collection.
• Cloud system: Deployed in Huawei’s technical support center. It can receive equipment alarms and other information sent back by the customer’s front-end system around the clock, and automatically notify Huawei technical service personnel for timely processing. At the same time, it can initiate automatic inspections and log collection of customer-side equipment.