Cloud Storage Server
Introduction
In 2014, IDC predicted that each person on the earth will produce 1.7MB of data per minute. The overall data output is expected to continue to increase at an annual growth rate of 40%. Before 2020, there will be 44 zettabytes (1 trillion GB) data volume output. Enterprises are continuing to accumulate and analyze data to understand customer needs to help decision-making. This has opened a cycle of exponential growth of data and mass data. Cloud storage servers have become the core equipment of the system for building mass data databases.
Cloud storage servers need storage controllers to comply with rigorous RAID data protection specifications to build a server storage system with reasonable ROI. The main functions required are as follows:
- Enables the server to boot directly from the RAID array, eliminating the need for specialized boot drives and protecting information
- Allows IT managers to standardize on a single platform-agnostic controller that supports large, highly scalable drive pools to simplify storage expansion and management
- Supports a wide range of RAID levels including RAID 6, RAID 50 and RAID 60 to accommodate growing business needs for data protection
- Supports caching acceleration options for higher levels of RAID data protection to optimize performance.
- Supports the use of solid state drives (SSDs) to cache and accelerate frequently accessed data, combining the benefits of high-performance SSDs and high-capacity HDDs.
Standard
The SAS communication protocol is developed and maintained by the T10 committee of INCITS (International Committee for Information Technology Standards), and promoted by SCSITA (SCSI Trade Association).
NVM Express (NVMe), or Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCIS), is a logical device interface specification. It is a bus transmission protocol specification based on the device logic interface similar to AHCI (equivalent to the application layer in the communication protocol), used to access non-volatile memory media attached through the PCI Express bus (for example, using flash Solid state drive with memory).
Universal Backplane Management (UBM) is used to standardize the design of backplane signal transmission in the server (SFF-TA-1005)
-
SAS-1/SAS-2/SAS-3/SAS-4
-
NVMe 1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4
-
SFF-TA-1005
- SGPIO (SFF-8485) functionality
- 2-Wire SES
- 2-Wire PCA usage
- Lane width detection enabling x1 and x2 NVMe usage
- Describing clocking requirements – REFCLK vs. SRIS vs. SRNS
- Enabling usage for power disable control
Application
Direct Attached Storage (DAS)
Network Attached Storage (NAS)
Storage Area Networks (SANs)
Networks Flash based Storage
Architecture
