IBM i Series, Handbook

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2105 Enterprise and Versatile Storage Servers
2105 Enterprise and Versatile Storage Servers
2105 Enterprise Storage Server
The Enterprise Storage Server (ESS) (commonly referred to as Shark) is a leading IBM
Storage Area Network (SAN) storage solution. ESS supports critical requirements for
strategic business initiatives, such as e-business, enterprise resource planning, business
intelligence, service consolidation, and other mission-critical applications. The ESS deploys
the IBM Seascape principles as a powerful storage server with snap-in building blocks and
with universal data access.
ESS builds on the rich legacy of IBM storage system solutions across the major operating
system platforms. Heterogeneous attachment is provided to all major server platforms,
including the iSeries and AS/400e servers, S/390, Windows NT, and many varieties of Unix.
The Enterprise Storage Server incorporates the capabilities of the Versatile Storage Server
(VSS), such as:
• Supports a wide variety of Unix and Windows NT servers, as well as iSeries, AS/400e,
and Novell NetWare
• Secure intranet connection for remote disk, configuration, performance, asset, and
capacity management incorporating StorWatch usability and ESS Expert
At V5R1, the ESS supports fiber-channel attachment. Capacity ranges from 400 GB to over
11 TB to provide excellent scalability. Sixteen standard configurations are offered to meet
your capacity and performance needs. Performance can be optimized to meet heterogeneous
environment needs, such as the bandwidth required by advanced transaction processing
capabilities for both online and batch applications. Resource contention is reduced and
performance is improved by the parallel access of volumes and I/O priority queuing.
The ESS architecture supports high availability requirements with redundant components.
Data replication services extend access to data, while using a concurrent copy of data. Rapid
data duplication provides extensive capabilities to exploit, manage, and protect your
information in a 7-by-24 (7x24) environment. Availability is maximized through redundancy
and non-disruptive service with a design to virtually eliminate single points-of-failure or repair.
ESS is the storage of choice for users that are planning for comprehensive enterprise disk
storage consolidation and data sharing on multiple, heterogeneous servers, where combined
platform storage requirements exceed 400 GB. It provides high-performance RAID-5, read
and write cache, or the flexibility of common storage for multiple servers with differing
channel attachments.