Dell Fluid Cache for SAN

Learn More - Videos Deployment

Check out this new Tech Shorts video and blog featuring Dell Fluid Cache for SAN, with Kishore Gagrani, product director for Fluid Cache. Hear about this amazing software product that accelerates your Data I/O which can help to make significant reductions in storage latency. 

Introducing Dell Fluid Cache for SAN for Scale-Out Environments (blog)

Dell Fluid Cache for SAN is a fully integrated server and SAN compute layer caching application acceleration solution which allows multiple servers to leverage an ultra-high speed caching pool and access data from a Dell Compellent SAN. The end-to-end solution can delivers fast application response time while producing stable, unprecedented I/O performance for heavy to power read/write workloads such as OLTP, databases, and VDI.

This complete scale-out caching solution can be deployed with little to no disruption to existing IT environments and will require Fluid Cache software; a minimum of three compatible Dell PowerEdge Servers supporting PCI Express Flash SSDs or Micron P420m cards; connection to a 10/40 GbE low latency private network; and connection to a Dell Compellent SC 8000 controller and Compellent Expansion storage. 

Delivering stability and ease of use that Dell customers have come to expect, this highly available
write-back caching solution can dramatically reduce latency in a SAN environment  by migrating active data up and passive data down through multiple tiers of storage, and will feature unified management and snapshots. 

Dell Fluid Cache for SAN enables scaling of the cache pool to help you meet computational demand. Combining eligible cache from Cache Contributor servers to create the cache pool, this is the computational amount of cache available for all servers. Cache can be increased by either adding more cache to existing Cache Contributor servers; or by adding additional Cache Contributor servers into an existing cache pool. For each cache pool, a minimum of three licenses will be required for Dell Fluid Cache for SAN. One additional license will be needed for each server added to the cache pool.

Performance: Utilizing Dell Express Flash PCIe SSDs and Dell Compellent storage technologies, Dell Fluid Cache for SAN brings the most frequently accessed data closer to compute resources minimizing data travel from storage through the network, improving response time and accelerating both reads  and write  performance.

Flexibility: Adaptive, the solution offers database and virtualization performance which can be scaled on the fly. Interoperability options can allow compatible server inclusion in the cache pool, revitalizing your existing servers and running virtually any application.

Stability: Maintain confidence that cache pool data is highly available and safeguarded by unique write-back caching technology with full coherency to Compellent storage and no single point of failure from server to SAN.

Catching up on the latest from Dell Fluid Cache for SAN

Did you know Dell Fluid Cache for SAN now supports Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 6.5 and VMware vSphere® ESXi™5.5 U2*? With the announcement of support for these two additions plus the ability to use a variety of Dell PowerEdge 12th and new 13th generation Dell servers as Cache Contributor servers, customers have even more deployment options to turbocharge OLTP and heavy to power use VDI workloads.

Big data analytics are growing in demand across enterprise organizations with the need to sort and analyze vast amounts of data in order to guide business decisions. Companies using ERP solutions which require large amounts of I/O to process multiple transactions could benefit from extraordinary I/O performance increases by adding Dell Fluid Cache for SAN.

Using Dell Fluid Cache for SAN software inside Dell PowerEdge servers which contain in-server flash, this group of servers uses the total flash from contributor servers to form a cache pool to accelerate application performance on those servers and also can accelerate applications on other servers that are not even contributing flash to the cache pool. All servers – both those contributing flash and those that are not, each also contain a Mellanox 10/40Gb Connect-X Ethernet Network Interface Card (NIC) and are connected to a Dell Network 10 or 40 GbE switch for the private cache network. And all of the servers then connect to a Dell Compellent SAN - which provides storage and management for this end-to-end solution.

To find out more watch this newly recorded Dell Fluid Cache for SAN webinar from Dell and Mellanox about the Dell Fluid Cache for SAN solution and take a deeper dive into the benefits that this solution can provide.

*Supported on VMware with iSCSI SAN connectivity for cache enabled LUNs on the SAN. Dell Fluid Cache for SAN VMware support requires SR-IOV in vSphere

Deployment

The Dell Fluid Cache for SAN solution has a variety of flexible options when it comes to deployment. You may decide to set it up in a minimum configuration of 3 Dell PowerEdge servers with 1 or 2 PCIe SSDs per server; or based on your workload needs you might deploy with the maximum amount of servers, 8, and configure each with the maximum amount of cache per server.

You can read more about deployment configuration with these minimum and maximum design guidance documents.

Videos

Dell Fluid Cache SAN
(Please visit the site to view this video)

Tech Shorts video with Kishore Gagrani

Dell Fluid Cache for SAN Lab Test Video

Highlights from the Dell World 2013 opening keynote including a demonstration of the Dell Fluid Cache for SAN solution achieving over 5 million IOPS!

Learn more about the possibilities that the Dell Fluid Cache for SAN solution can enable from an interview with Kishore Gagrani, Global Product Director for Fluid Cache at Dell.