This video cover storage
or SAS cabling for new PowerProtect
Data Domain 9900 systems.
A standard PowerProtect DD9900 system
will have 2 to 5 DS60 storage shelves
and an FS25 shelf.
The DS60s will have some number of
8 Terabyte disk drives
organized in groups of 15.
The FS25,
which there is only one of,
has either 10 or 16
3.84 Terabyte SSDs
used to accelerate various functions within the Data Domain Operating system.
This video does not cover how this hardware is mounted in the rack.
If needed,
please refer to the installation guides for the various components.
for further information.
If you have purchased a pre-racked system,
this is what it would look like:
You can see the PowerProtect DD9900,
5 DS60’s
and the FS25.
These are positioned in the rack to make cabling as simple as possible.
Each DS60 has a cable management assemblies
or CMA located beneath it.
There are two reasons for the gap between the PowerProtect DD9900
and the 3rd DS60.
1U of that gap is to allow for the cable management arms
that are mounted to the rear of DD9900.
The remainder is to allow for the addition
of a 2nd PowerProtect DD9900
that would be used in an HA system.
You can drop DS60s
and their CMAs by 4U
if you plan to never convert your system to HA.
The reason for the gap between the top DS60 and the FS25
is to simplify support.
The DS60 is almost one Meter deep,
while, the FS25 is much shallower.
If the FS25 were mounted right on top of the top DS60,
it would be VERY difficult to reach the back
to add or remove cables
and to swap power supplies or controllers.
Here is a back view of the DS60.
There are two controllers with B on the left and A on the right.
The port identifiers that a SAS cable can plug into are on the bottom.
The red and green lines represent SAS cables.
The red lines go to the PowerProtect DD9900 controller.
On the right-hand side
the cable goes from Port A on the PCIe SAS card
to port 0 of Controller A on the bottom DS60.
On the left-hand side,
the cable goes from Port A on the PCIe SAS card
to port 0 of Controller B
on the second from the bottom DS60.
These two DS60s are said to be on the same chain.
The Green lines represent the cables that complete the chain.
On the right side it connects Port 0 on the second DS60
to Port 3 on the first.
On the left side it connects Port 2 on the second DS60
to Port 0 on the first.
In case you are wondering why there is a blank space at the bottom of the rack.
When installed in some racks,
there would be no room to get the PDU power cables
down through the middle of the rack without that space.
You can judge whether it is necessary for your system.
For the next chain,
the yellow lines represent the cables going from the SAS card port C on the right
to the 3rd DS60
and from the SAS card Port C on the left
to the 4th DS60.
The Green lines are connected the same as the first chain.
The third chain is shown with the pink lines
which go to only 1 DS60.
This is a good example in case, for instance, you have just 3 DS60s.
The cables go from port 0 on each DS60 controller
to port b on the SAS card.
The final chain goes to the FS25.
In this case the orange lines represent the cables.
On the SAS cards
they go to the respective Port Ds
and are connected to Port A on the two controllers.
The FS25 is given its own chain for performance reasons.
The DS60s are installed from the bottom because they are so heavy.
The Dell-EMC racks that
are used in pre-racked systems are designed with an interlock
that prevents more than one DS60 from being pulled out of the rack at a time.
Any other rack MUST use an anti-tip mechanism or be bolted to the floor.
Lets take a look at a full HA configuration.
You’ll note that the 3 DS60 are in the same position.
The cables here is the same as the non-HA system
with the addition of the network cables that interconnect to the PowerProtect DD9900.
For the bottom 2 DS60s,
the purple connections have been added.
On the left,
they go from the SAS Port A to port 2
of controller B on the first DS60.
On the right,
from SAS Port A
to port 2 of controller A on the second DS60.
For the next chain,
the blue connections have been added.
On the left,
the connection goes from SAS Port C
to Port 2 of controller b on the 3rd DS60.
On the right,
from SAS Port C to port
2 of controller A of the forth DS60.
The third chain for the 5th DS60
has green connections.
On the left,
the connection goes from SAS Port B
to port 2 on controller B of the fifth DS60.
On the right,
from SAS Port B to port 2 of controller A of the fifth DS60.
Finally, a 4th chain goes to the FS25
which adds the connections on the left
from SAS Port D
to port B of Controller B
and on the right, from the SAS Port D to port B of Controller A.
There is a fair amount of flexibility when installing a PowerProtect DD9900 in a rack.
These recommendations are based on creating a consistent layout
meaning we can provide the correct cables with an order
and create a system that is accessible and serviceable.
This is not the only way to create a system.
Customers may have other requirements.
We have rules and guidelines that can be applied to new systems as well as upgrades.
These are covered in greater depth in the documentation.
For more information about setup and upgrade processes for PowerProtect DD
visit support.emc.com