Dell tells us that it has rebuilt its PowerStore from the ground up with better technology and expertise to address the challenges of the data era.
It uses end to end NVMe architecture, provides support for dual-ported Intel Optane SSDs, and up to 32Gb FC or 25Gb Ethernet support.
Dell EMC uses the popular 2U form factor with dual controllers. Each array has 25 2.5” bays (up to 23 usable for storage depending on model), supporting drive capacities ranging from 375GB to 750GB in Optane SSDs and 1.92TB to 15.36TB NVMe SSDs. While not available at launch, NVMe-oF support will come in a future release.
Each PowerStore appliance can grow to over 2.8 PB effective capacity, and multiple appliances can be clustered for greater performance. PowerStore supports up to four appliances in a cluster, or eight nodes. If there’s a need to scale just storage, Dell EMC supports that via SAS-based expansion enclosures filled with 1.92TB to 7.6TB SSDs.
Dell EMC PowerStore Physical Specifications
| PER APPLIANCE | 1000 | 3000 | 5000 | 7000 | 9000 |
| Max Drives | 96 | 96 | 96 | 96 | 96 |
| NVRAM per Appliance | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Base Enclosure | A 2U, 2 node enclosure with twenty-five 2.5” NVMe drive slots | ||||
| Expansion Enclosure | A 2U enclosure attached to a PowerStore base enclosure with twenty-five 2.5” SAS drives slots (3 max per appliance) | ||||
| Power Supplies | PowerStore appliances are powered by 2 redundant power supplies (PS) per enclosure. | ||||
| RAID Options | RAID 5 (4+1/8+1) | ||||
| CPUs per Appliance | 4 x Intel CPUs, 32 cores, 1.8GHz | 4 x Intel CPUs, 48 cores, 2.1GHz | 4 x Intel CPUs, 64 cores, 2.1GHz | 4 x Intel CPUs, 80 cores, 2.4GHz | 4 x Intel CPUs, 112 cores, 2.1GHz |
| Memory per Appliance | 384GB | 768GB | 1,152GB | 1,536GB | 2,560GB |
| Max Mezzanine cards per Appliance | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Max IO Modules per Appliance | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Embedded SAS IO Ports per Appliance | 4 x 4 lane 12Gb/s SAS ports for back end connection | ||||
| Max front end Ports per Appliance (all types) | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Max 16/32Gb FC Ports per Appliance | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Max 10 Gbase-T/iSCSI Ports per Appliance | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Max 10/25 GbE/iSCSI Ports per Appliance | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Max Raw Capacity | 898.56TB | 898.56TB | 898.56TB | 898.56TB | 898.56TB |
Dell's Dan Inbar, president and general manager, storage said that the Dell EMC PowerStore blends automation, next generation technology, and a novel software architecture to deliver infrastructure that helps organisations address these needs.
