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Archived Report
Dell EMC
VNX Storage Family
Copyright 2018, Faulkner Information Services. All Rights Reserved.
Docid: 00018836
Publication Date: 1809
Report Type: PRODUCT
Preview
Dell EMC’s VNX series was created out of the company’s former CLARiiON and Celerra
NAS lines. The VNX series – which includes hardware and software under the VNX,
VNXe, VNX-VSS, vVNX, and VNX Series Gateway – offers
high-performance, unified storage for virtual environments in a clear attempt
to better compete with NetApp’s All-Flash FAS Storage Systems.
Report Contents:
- Description
- Related Faulkner Reports
- Vendor
- Applications
- Environment
- Support
- Pricing
- Competitors
- Web Links
Description
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Dell EMC’s VNX series was formed out of the remnants of the CLARiiON and Celerra
NAS family of products and offers high-performance, unified storage for virtual
environments. In 2011, EMC introduced the VNX product series.
The VNX series was created for a range of environments that include mid-tier
through enterprise. The VNX offerings include file only, block only, and block
and file implementations. Management is conducted through Unisphere, a user
interface.
Related Faulkner Reports |
Dell EMC Company |
The VNX family includes:
- VNX Series – High-performance, unified storage with features for
protection, compliance, and management. - VNXe Series – Unified storage platform with automated,
application-ready storage, management, and provisioning features. - VNX Series Gateways – High-performance NAS with file-system
performance. VNX Series Gateways add scalable file access to existing
Symmetrix or VNX storage platforms. - VNX-VSS Series – Storage for video surveillance environments.
- vVNX – Software-defined storage platform for testing and
development or other non-production environments.
Vendor |
Name: Dell EMC Headquarters 176 South Street Hopkinton, MA 01748 (508) 435-1000 (Web: https://www.dellemc.com/ Type of Vendor: Computer Storage Devices Founded: 1979 Service Areas: Worldwide Stock Symbol: Dell EMC is privately held |
History
VNX is based on the discontinued Celerra NAS device family of products, which
were available as an integrated unit – or NAS header – that could be added to an
independent Dell EMC storage array such as CLARiiON or Symmetrix. It supported CIFS,
NFS, FTP,
NDMP, TFTP
and MPFS
protocols, and used CLARiiON as its storage layer for iSCSI
and FC block-level storage.
In 2011, EMC introduced the new VNX series of unified storage disk arrays
to replace its CLARiiON and Celerra branded products. These brands were
eventually phased out in early 2012. After Dell merged with EMC, the VNX
product suite became known as the Dell EMC VNX series.
VNX
Family
The members of Dell EMC’s VNX family are compared in Table 1.
VNX Series | VNXe Series | VNX-VSS Series |
vVNX Software |
VNX Series Gateways | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Min/Max Drives | up to 1500 disk drives |
up to 150 disk drives |
up to 200 drives (or 400TB) | N/A |
1.8PB usable |
Automated Tiering with FAST |
Yes |
Yes | No | Yes |
Yes |
Block Protocols |
iSCSI, FC, FCoE |
iSCSI, FC |
iSCI, FC | iSCI |
N/A |
File Protocols |
CIFS, NFS, pNFS |
CIFS, NFS, SMB3 |
N/A | NFS, CIFS | CIFS, NFS, pNFS, MPFS |
Features |
|
|
|
|
|
Applications
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Potential applications for VNX products are listed in Table 2.
Product | Applications |
---|---|
VNX Series |
Medium-sized to enterprise businesses. |
VNXe Series |
Small and medium-sized business environments. |
VNX Series Gateways |
Medium-sized to enterprise businesses with an existing SAN. |
VNX-VSS Series |
Distributed sites and usage for city surveillance, government, and transportation security. |
vVNX Software |
For those looking to test and develop environments without having dedicated storage platforms. |
Environment
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Dell EMC asks that potential customers contact its sales staff regarding OS,
application software, and management software support for VNX by calling (800)
782-4362.
Physical server requirements for vVNX Software are as follows:
- Quad/Dual Core CPU 64-bit x86 Intel 2GHz+
- Required (RAID Card with 512 MB Cache recommended)
- Agnostic drives
- 2 x 1GbE/2 x 10GbE embedded I/O ports
Support
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Dell EMC VNX platforms come standard with a three-year Enhanced support warranty,
which provides next business day onsite coverage and 24×7 remote support. The
VNXe platform consists of a three-year Basic warranty with next business day
parts replacement and 9×5 remote support.
Customers can upgrade to Premium support with 24×7 same-day onsite support. Dell
EMC
also provides an array of services for VNX including expert planning, design,
implementation, consulting, migration, and education.
Pricing
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Dell EMC asks that interested, potential customers contact its sales staff
directly for pricing information by calling (866) 438-3622 or by filling out a sales
contact form.
Competitors
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VNX’s top competitors include:
- NetApp’s All Flash FAS
- HDS All-Flash Storage
- IBM Flash Storage Systems and Spectrum NAS
Web Links
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- Dell EMC: https://www.dellemc.com/
- Hitachi Data Systems: https://www.hds.com/
- IBM: https://www.ibm.com/
- NetApp: https://www.netapp.com/
About
the Author
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Karen M. Spring is a staff editor for Faulkner
Information Services, tracking high-tech industries including network security,
data breaches and cybercrime, CRM, public safety, business continuity and
resilience, and software tools. She writes regularly on high-tech topics for
publications in the k-12 and higher education industry. Previously, Ms. Spring
was a marketing specialist for two computer distributors, working closely with
such clients as 3Com, IBM, Okidata, Unisys, and Acer.
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