HPE Nimble Storage Reference Architecture for Citrix XenDesktopSearch

Unified Flash Fabric

The HPE Nimble Storage unified flash fabric is a single consolidated architecture that enables flash for all enterprise applications. In the past, enterprises have been forced to choose between hybrid flash and all-flash arrays. That is no longer the case with the HPE Nimble Storage unified flash fabric. The unified flash fabric enables flash for all enterprise applications by unifying HPE Nimble Storage all-flash and adaptive flash arrays into a single consolidated architecture with common data services.

HPE Nimble Storage unified flash fabric
The unified flash fabric provides many significant benefits:
  • Thin provisioning and efficient capacity utilization. With CASL, capacity is consumed only as data is written. CASL efficiently reclaims free space on an ongoing basis, preserving write performance with higher levels of capacity utilization. This strategy avoids the fragmentation issues that hamper other architectures.
  • Accelerated write performance. After writes are placed in NVDIMM (made persistent and mirrored to the passive partner controller), they are acknowledged back to the host and sent to solid-state disk (SSD) at a later time (generally when there is a full stripe to be written). As a result, writes to an HPE Nimble Storage array are acknowledged at memory speeds.
  • Maximized flash write cycles. By sequencing random write data, HPE NimbleOS sends full stripes of data to SSD. Compressing and deduplicating the data inline minimizes the data footprint on the disk. In addition, because the data sent to disk is of variable block size, HPE NimbleOS does not have to break it into smaller, fixed-sized chunks to be placed on SSD. Therefore, it is sent to SSD efficiently. This efficiency enables HPE Nimble Storage arrays to maximize the deployable life of a flash drive by minimizing write wear on the flash cells.
  • Read performance. Because all reads come from SSD, HPE NimbleOS and HPE Nimble Storage all-flash arrays deliver submillisecond read latency and high throughput across a wide variety of demanding enterprise applications.
  • All-flash arrays. HPE Nimble Storage all-flash arrays use only SSDs to store data. As a result, all read operations come directly from the SSDs themselves, delivering extremely fast read operations. All writes are also sent to SSD, but because of the HPE NimbleOS architecture and the use of NVDIMMs to store and organize write operations, all writes are acknowledged at memory speeds (just as with the HPE Nimble Storage adaptive flash arrays).

    HPE Nimble Storage all-flash arrays use triple-level cell (TLC) SSDs, which enable maximum flash storage density. Traditional SSD problems with write wear, write amplification, and so on are not an issue for the variable block HPE NimbleOS architecture, which minimizes write amplification through its intelligent data layout and management in the file system.

  • Efficient, fully integrated data protection. All-inclusive snapshot-based data protection is built into the adaptive flash platform. Snapshots and production data reside on the same array, eliminating the inherent inefficiencies of running primary and backup storage silos. With its intuitive dashboards and proactive notifications about potential issues, HPE InfoSight ensures that customers’ data protection strategies work as expected.
  • Inline compression. CASL uses fast, inline compression for variable-application block sizes to decrease the footprint of inbound write data by as much as 75%. When enough variable-sized blocks are accumulated to form a full write stripe, CASL writes the data to disk. If the data being written is active, it is also copied to SSD cache for faster reads. Written data is protected by triple-parity RAID.
  • Inline deduplication. HPE Nimble Storage all-flash arrays include inline data deduplication in addition to inline compression. The combination of inline deduplication and inline compression delivers a comprehensive data reduction capability that allows HPE NimbleOS to minimize the data footprint on SSD, maximize usable space, and greatly minimize write amplification.
  • Thin, redirect-on-write snapshots with SmartSnap. HPE Nimble Storage snapshots are point-in-time copies that capture just-changed data, making it easy to store three months of frequent snapshots on a single array. Data can be restored instantly because snapshots reside on the same array as the primary data.
  • Efficient replication with SmartReplicate. SmartReplicate sends only compressed, changed data blocks over the network for simple and WAN-efficient disaster recovery.
  • Zero-copy clones. HPE Nimble Storage snapshots enable the quick creation of fully functioning copies, or clones, of volumes. Instant clones deliver the same performance and functionality as the source volume, which is an advantage for virtualization, VDI, and test or development workloads.
  • Application-consistent snapshots. The HPE Nimble Storage VDI solution uses the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) framework and VMware integration to create instant application-consistent and VM-consistent backups, using application templates with pretuned storage parameters.
  • Flexible data encryption with SmartSecure. HPE NimbleOS enables individual volume-level encryption with little or no performance impact. Encrypted volumes can be replicated to another HPE Nimble Storage target, and data can be securely shredded at the volume level of granularity.
Parent topic: HPE NimbleOS Architecture