HPE MSA (Modular Smart Array)

HP MSA (HPE Modular Smart Array) - a line of DWH of Hewlett-Packard company.

The systems of the HP MSA family characterize:

• Simplicity - the shared storage systems simple in mastering
• Availability - economic storage systems of initial level
• Speed - the tested architecture of MSA of fourth generation, fast processors and twice bigger volume a cache memory
• Prospects - a possibility of expansion and upgrade according to needs of the customer

2020: Presentation of the sixth generation of HPE MSA

On September 14, 2020 the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) company announced start of the sixth generation of a storage system of HPE Modular Smart Array (MSA). HPE MSA Gen6 is a hybrid storage system of initial level with support a flash memory which will allow the enterprises to concentrate on business challenges and will provide the level of automation and performance even in the conditions of the limited budget.

The enterprises will be able to save a part of current assets at the expense of the updated MSA which has services on data management and is constructed on a hardware platform with modern architecture.

HPE MSA is option for customers whose business requires the reliable, simple and inexpensive solution capable to cope with modern workloads and to adapt to the growing business needs. The technology of automatic mnogourovnevny storage provides necessary performance for operation of applications and is the good solution of the corporate level on the affordable price. The HPE MSA Health Check tool predicts failures before they occur that helps the companies to give more attention to business challenges, – Cumming, the product manager in Dicker Data, the IT distributor and the partner of HPE commented on Skye

Among features of the updated HPE MSA system: automatic multilevel storage for more quick access to data, the improved MSA Health Check tool for prevention of failures and integration with HPE Cloud Volumes Backup for backup in a cloud.

• Automatic multilevel storage provides the high performance and smaller delays. This solution increases performance by 2-4 times in comparison with configurations only on hard drives and allows an array to react to the changing workloads, using a small amount of SSD drives. "Hot" data automatically move to the fastest type of carriers in real time, allowing customers to use more effectively the capacity of SSD-and HDD drives and to increase their capacity depending on requirements and loading.
• The high level of data security is provided with an opportunity to create MSA Data Protection Plus RAID groups (MSA DP+) which allows to use all drives for improvement of overall effectiveness of a system and its performance. In case of failure of the disk MSA DP+, by internal estimates of HPE, accelerates recovery by 25 times, considerably reducing the period of compromised performance and time of a vulnerable status of an array.
• The improved MSA Health Check tool which allows to remove the typical causes of unplanned idle time. With its help customers can reduce quantity of calls to a support service by 76%. This cloud tool helps administrators, analyzing information on work of an array regarding observance of best practices on setup and management of an array and also on existence of faults.
• Integration with a cloud service of HPE Cloud Volumes Backup which provides to customers an easy and inexpensive way of data protection in a cloud and also allows to save on backup. Thanks to this solution of the enterprise can begin to use without problems reliable data backup on the protected external platform which is under control of professionals of HPE. Copying in a cloud is performed through the HPE Catalyst protocol with considerable data compression that allows to make backup copies more often and to save circuit bandwidth. Copying can be automated using the free HPE Recovery Manager Central tool and the third-party software supporting HPE Catalyst and does not influence work of productive tasks. Payment for use of HPE Cloud Volumes is performed in process of use of capacity in a cloud on a regular basis, and now is also available also through HPE GreenLake. Data output from a cloud and data movement between geographical regions in Cloud Volumes is not rated.

2016

MSA 2040

In August, 2016 the HPE company announced release of the upgraded array of DWH of MSA 2040.

The device is created on the innovation architecture of controllers with the upgraded processor, has four a host connector and a cache memory with a capacity of 4 Gbytes on the controller. Short response time of the applications working with DWH is provided to these, the disks SSD, many times faster, than traditional hard drives are used. The maximum capacity of arrays 768 Tbyte, in them it is possible to place up to 199 small-size disks and up to 96 disks of the big^[1].

As a part of a basic equipment of a management tool for administrators of HPE ProLiant/BladeSystems, and tools: Snapshots for creation of instant copies and Volume Copy for copying of volumes.

MSA 2042

On August 16, 2016 HPE announced release of the drive for storage area networks (SAN) of MSA 2042 on the basis of a solid-state memory.

Representation of MSA 2042 ChalkTalk, (2016)

The drive is the platform of storage of initial level with built-in hybrid a flash array for acceleration of operation of applications and high performance. MSA 2042 with a capacity of 800 GB is intended for resource-intensive applications and, according to the statement of vendor, gives a 60 percent gain of speed during the work with databases. Response time of applications, in comparison with the previous model, was reduced by 80%^[2].

As a part of the software package for MSA 2042 the built-in distribution of data on storage levels in real time: constantly used data move to a flash memory, the others to less expensive carriers. In a basic equipment of MSA 2042 allows to create up to 512 instant pictures for recovery acceleration. Drive cost ~ $9.88 thousand.

HP MSA of 1040 Storage - DWH of initial level

DWH differs in higher performance (50% more effectively, than the previous system) and is offered at lower starting price. A system is focused on the enterprises of small and medium business.

Specific Features

The data warehouse with the general access of HP MSA of 1040 supports projects of consolidation, virtualization and placement of applications, including e-mail, databases and multimedia. It is offered at the price of a system of initial level and at the same time provides the mass of valuable advantages:

• cost reduction on a power supply and cooling of DPC;
• support of bigger number of VM per unit of the equipment;
• protection of investments and reduction of a turnover cycle thanks to a unique feature of updating with preserving of the integrity of data simplifying transition from HP MSAP2000 G3 to HP MSA 1040 or with HP MSA of 1040 on flagman HP MSA platform 2040;
• user-friendly interface of management clear to administrators of HP servers of ProLiant and HP BladeSystem.
• the maximum capacity is 192 TB (depending on model)

Support of OS

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012
• Microsoft Windows 2008
• Microsoft Windows Hyper-V
• Red Hat Linux
• SUSE Linux
• VMware ESXi 5.x

Availability

Presumably, HP MSA of 1040 will be available for sale on March 31, 2014 in configurations with two controllers: 1 GbE iSCSI, 8 GB of the Fibre Channel and 10 GbE iSCSI. Starting price: $6500, $7500 and $8500, respectively.

In August, 2016 the HPE company announced upgrade of HPE MSA1040 — a shared storage system to which it is possible to connect directly four servers, using the interface of SAS.

A system supports connection by means of iSCSI and the Fibre Channel. Use of solid state drives is possible (Solid State Disk, SSD) – their delivery with the disks SSD with a capacity from 200 Gbyte to 3.2 Tbyte and also hard drives of the big and small form factor is provided. The maximum capacity of arrays of MSA1040 reaches 384 Tbyte, in them it is possible to place up to 99 small-size disks and up to 48 disks of the big form factor.

Arrays of MSA1040 are developed on the basis of architecture of controllers of fourth generation: in them the upgraded processors, two a host connector and a cache memory with a capacity of 4 Gbytes on each controller are used.

2015: There was an updating of a firmware of MSA 2040 Storage

On July 28, 2015 the HP company announced innovations for HP MSA Storage focused on the help of small and medium business to the enterprises in increase in their competitiveness^[3].

Updates of microprogram providing for MSA 2040 Storage help to make quicker decisions and to accelerate operation of applications for 45% without additional costs. Several new sets of the equipment MSA 2040 allow to cut down expenses on deployment of hybrid storages on a basis a flash memory for 45%. New connectivities of SAS for MSA 1040 Storage make this system the most available to DWH from the large supplier in the market.

MSA 2040, 2015

Performance improvement of a hybrid array of MSA 2040 for 45% without excess expenses.

The last update of microprogram providing for HP MSA of 2040 Storage optimizes access of annexes to solid state drives in configurations of hybrid storage. As result: customers who use a hybrid flash array of HP MSA 2040 can increase performance by value 37000 IOPs thanks to free updating.

HP offers improvements of microprogram providing:

• The optimized ways of data transmission which increase efficiency a controller CPU cache memory using the built-in algorithms of monitoring of performance
• Improvements of use of the front-side bus Peripheral Component Interconnect Express which allow to reduce number of the transactions necessary for accomplishment of each request of input-output
• Implementation of new methods of data reading from a cache memory

To help new customers to accelerate implementation of business projects and to get access to the high-performance systems, HP offers several new promo-sets hybrid MSA 2040 flash arrays. These sets of the equipment allow to cut down cash expenditures for 45%. In their structure the license MSA 2040 Performance Tiering and they can be ordered by one SKU code.

HP announced connectivities for deployment of shared storage. By means of these opportunities customers of arrays of MSA can take advantage of high availability of applications without need to spend money for acquisition of specialized infrastructure of storage area networks. The array of HP MSA 1040 SAS with support of high-performance connection 6Gb/12Gb SAS allows to be connected directly to four application servers for creation of an excess pool of shared resources which can be scaled up to 384 TB. At the same time specialized switching infrastructure of SAN is not required that considerably simplifies deployment of storage systems for the small companies and allows to save up to 34% in comparison with use of other options of connection.

Updates of microprogram providing HP MSA 1040/2040 are available on pages of support on the website of vendor.

Notes