Professional Documents
Culture Documents
001
February 2021
Topics:
• Revision history
• Product description
• New features
• Changed features
• Known issues
• Limitations
• Environment and system requirements
• Installation and upgrade considerations
• Where to get help
Revision history
This section provides a description of document changes.
Product description
This section provides a description of PowerMax, VMAX All Flash, and PowerMaxOS.
PowerMax
PowerMax 2000 and 8000 deliver the following features:
● A high-performance NVMe backend delivering increased IOPS and lower latency
NVMe is a high-performance protocol that is designed for modern media. It was architected to take advantage of the
parallelism of modern CPUs and SSDs (and other next generation media) to overcome the limitations of storage protocols
designed for hard disk drives.
● Inline deduplication with increased compression
PowerMax platforms exhibit significantly improved data efficiency by using deduplication to reduce the number of duplicate
copies of identical data.
● Higher rack density
● Support for next-generation technologies such as storage class memory (SCM) and NVMe over Fabric (NVMe-oF)
1
PowerMax 2000 supports Open Systems and IBM i and provides:
● 2.7 M IOPS 1
● 1 PBe capacity
● 64 Fibre Channel/iSCSI ports
● 1–2 Bricks
PowerMax 8000 supports Open Systems, IBM i, mainframe, and mixed open and mainframe systems and provides:
● 15 M IOPS 2
● 4 PBe capacity
● 256 Fibre Channel/FICON/iSCSI/FC-NVMe ports
● 1–8 Bricks
NOTE: VMAX All Flash does not support deduplication or NVMe flash drives.
PowerMaxOS
PowerMaxOS is the software operating environment for PowerMax or VMAX All Flash arrays that are born on PowerMaxOS
5978.711.711 or are upgraded to PowerMaxOS 5978.711.711.
New features
This section provides information about new features in PowerMaxOS 5978.711.711.
Array management
Table 2. Array management
Functional area Feature description Summary of benefits
Reducible data and DRR PowerMaxOS 5978.711.711 includes The new DRR functionality enables users to identify which
changes to how the Data Reduction applications might not be getting a satisfactory DRR and to
Ratio (DRR) is reported. DRR on compare DRR values across applications and systems.
reducible data is displayed in the
following locations:
● a tool tip on the Efficiency
section on the Capacity
dashboard for a specific storage
system
1 Based on Dell EMC internal analysis of Random Read Hits Max IOs Per Second (within a single array) for the PowerMax
2000, July 2019.
2 Based on Dell EMC internal analysis of Random Read Hits Max IOs Per Second (within a single array on two floor tiles) for
the PowerMax 8000, July 2019.
2
Table 2. Array management (continued)
Functional area Feature description Summary of benefits
● Storage Group Demand Report
● Volumes tab of the Storage
Groups list
Pattern detection has been added to
the Reducible DRR report.
Array capacity display PowerMaxOS 5978.711.711 includes This feature provides clarity for users, planners, and buyers
changes to how array capacity is when comparing ordering and fulfillment with deployment.
displayed. It is given in base 2
(binary) and base 10 (digital) format
on the home dashboard of Unisphere
for PowerMax. The information is
displayed on a tool tip on the
Capacity graphic, on the Capacity
view of the home dashboard.
Expose FA port light Front end (FA) port light levels are This feature makes FA port transmit and receive light levels, in
levels exposed through REST API. mW, available to the user.
Changed features
This section provides information about updated features and lifted limitations.
Updated features
The following features have been updated in PowerMaxOS 5978.711.711:
Array management
Table 3. Array management
Functional area Feature update description Summary of benefits
Embedded VASA Embedded VASA Provider (VP) is The HA functionality enables users to seamlessly recover from
Provider High available for existing PowerMax VP failures. VASA Provider 3.0 supports SRDF/A replication
Availability 2000 and PowerMax 8000 arrays for VMware Virtual Volumes between two PowerMax arrays.
running PowerMaxOS 5978.711.711,
eliminating the need for a user
to manage it on a host. VP high
availability (HA) is offered as part of
embedded VP with two copies of VP
required on each array.
Until now, it was available only on
new PowerMax arrays.
Data services
Table 4. Data services
Functional area Feature update description Summary of benefits
Cloud Mobility for Cloud Mobility for PowerMax now This functionality enables users to use Dell EMC PowerScale
PowerMax supports the user of PowerScale as cloud object storage.
systems.
3
Table 4. Data services (continued)
Functional area Feature update description Summary of benefits
Cloud Mobility for The Cloud Mobility for Dell EMC This functionality enables users to download a new vApp from
PowerMax Storage vApp is now available in the the VMware Marketplace and deploy it in on a local VMware
VMware Marketplace. instance, to access cloud snapshots.
Lifted limitations
The following limitations have been lifted in PowerMaxOS 5978.711.711:
Known issues
There are no known issues in this release.
Limitations
This section provides a list of limitations in PowerMaxOS 5978.711.711.
4
PowerProtect Storage Direct
Data services
5
Table 14. SRDF/Metro limitations (continued)
Functional area Limitation Affected platform
SRDF/Metro The only valid SRDF mode is active, this mode cannot PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
be changed once the device pairs are in an SRDF/Metro
configuration.
SRDF/Metro The SRDF Consistency state cannot be changed once it is PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
enabled for all SRDF devices.
SRDF/Metro Controlling devices in an SRDF group that contain a mixture of PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
source (R1) and target (R2) devices is not supported.
SRDF/Metro The SRDF pair bias device in an SRDF/Metro configuration PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
can only be changed when the SRDF pair state is Active-
Active or Active-Bias.
SRDF/Metro Consistency Group (CG) SRDF control and set operations are PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
allowed on one SRDF group at a time.
SRDF/Metro The symrecover command is not available with SRDF/ PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
Metro.
SRDF/Metro SRDF/Metro does not support FCoE front-end capabilities. PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
SRDF/Metro SRDF/Metro has limited iSCSI support. See the support matrix PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
at E-Lab Navigator for more details on support hosts and
clusters.
SRDF/Metro SRDF/Metro does not support: PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
● Mainframe CKD
● CloudArray
● Mobility Safe ID with ALUA in non-Solaris/MPxIO
environments
SRDF/Metro Microsoft Cluster with Native MPIO is not supported with PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
nonuniform connection (without cross-connects).
6
Table 15. Open Replicator limitations (continued)
Functional area Limitation Affected platform
Open Replicator Interoperability with LREP and/or VAAI on the R1 devices PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
while ORS is in play is blocked.
Open Replicator SRDF restore, update R1, or failback is not allowed when the PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
ORS session exists on SRDF R1 devices.
7
Serviceability
Cloud Mobility
RecoverPoint
PowerPath
8
Table 25. PowerPath limitations (continued)
Functional area Limitation Affected Platform
● easier masking
● host performance reporting to the array
● various other extended data items supported for FC
connectivity
Encryption
9
OpenStack
Legacy limitations
Script support There is a system limitation of two concurrent upgrade PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
procedures (Configuration Manager in Solutions Enabler
enables customers to run a maximum of two concurrent
upgrade procedures).
FA statistics management_time, and link_port_time are always reported as PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
zero.
Device allocation The device-per-pool allocated capacity may revert to zero for PowerMax and VMAX All Flash
inactive devices.
Support deprecation
Solutions Enabler TimeFinder/Mirror, TimeFinder VP Snap, TimeFinder/Snap are planned to be discontinued in the next
major release following Solutions Enabler V9.2.
Unisphere for Database Storage Analyzer (DSA) is planned to be discontinued in the next major release of Unisphere for
PowerMax PowerMax following 9.2.
Unisphere 360 Unisphere 360 is planned to be discontinued in the next major release of PowerMax following 9.2.
10
Virtual Appliance Virtual Appliance (vApp) Manager is planned to be discontinued in the next major release of PowerMax
Manager following 9.2.
Mainframe Virtual device (VDEV) support is planned to be discontinued in the next major release following Mainframe
Enablers Enablers 8.5.
TimeFinder/Mirror and VP Snap support is planned to be discontinued in the next major release following
Mainframe Enablers 8.5.
SRDF/AR support is planned to be discontinued in the next major release following Mainframe Enablers
8.5.
Support for IBM Global Mirror is discontinued in Mainframe Enablers 8.5.
11
Manifest
This section provides a list of manifest information for PowerMaxOS 5978.711.711.
12
Where to get help
Dell Technologies maintains support pages for all products at www.dell.com/support.
The product support pages provide important information about the products. This information includes product and user
documentation, knowledge base articles, drivers and other software installation packages downloads, advisories, knowledge base
articles, and more.
A valid support contract and registration may be required to access all the information available on the product support sites.
13
Notes, cautions, and warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the
problem.
WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.
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