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Clariion Basics: DAE, DPE, SPE, Drives, Naming Conventions and Backend

Architecture

DAE: Disk Array Enclosure


DPE: Disk Processor Enclosure
SPE: Service Processor Enclosure
A DAE, DPE and SPE does sound similar to each other, but below you will see
the major differences between them.
The picture above is a diagram of a Clariion Backend Architecture. Drives are
enclosed in DAE’s and Service Processors in DPE’s or SPE’s depending on the
model types.

DAE: Disk Array Enclosure


Each Disk Array Enclosure (DAE) holds 15 drives, count starts from 0 to 14.
DPE: Disk Processor Enclosure
The CX200, CX300, CX400 and CX500 have DPE’s installed in them that can
hold 15 drives in the front with 2 Service Processors in the back.

SPE: Service Processor Enclosure


With CX3’s, CX4’s, CX600 and CX700, the SPE holds the Service Processors
in the backend with cooling fans in the front end.

Architecture
CX200, CX300, CX3-10 has one bus/loop
CX400, CX500, CX600 has two bus/loops
CX700, CX3-20, CX3-40, CX3-80 has 4 bus/loops.

With more bus / loops you can expect more throughput. The Clariion
CX700’s and the new CX3’s & CX4’s have more buses than the traditional
CX200, CX300, CX400 and CX500.
All data from host goes to cache and is queued to be written on disk through
this backend bus / loops. The speed of backend bus / loop on a CX series of
machine is 2Gb, with CX3’s it jumps up to 4 Gb and with CX4’s to 8GB per
second.
Also the bus/loop initiates at the SP level and goes up to the DAE’s which
have LCC (Link Control Cards). Each LCC is where the bus / loop from the
previous DAE/SP comes in and further daisy chains to the one above it,
creating a true chained environment and protecting from single points of
failure. All LCC’s are connected (loop) using HSSDC (cables). These HSSDC
cables and LCC cards are hot swappable which will not cause an outage on
the machine. There are Power Supplies on each SPE, DAE, DPE allowing hot
replacements on those while the machine is functional. Based on your
environment these replacements might possibly cause some performance
issues or I/O bottleneck during the replacement window.

Addressing
Part of Architecture of Clariion is the Addressing scheme. To be able to
properly understand the Clariion functionality and its backend working, the
addressing scheme is very important.
Based on the model number you will have X number of buses.
For example
CX200, CX300, CX3-10 has one bus/loop
CX400, CX500, CX600 has two bus/loops
CX700, CX3-20, CX3-40, CX3-80 has 4 bus/loops.
Each bus is numbered as BUS 0, BUS 1, BUS 2 and BUS 3 depending on the
model types.
Each DAE (Disk Array Enclosure) located on the BUS is numbered based on
the actual physical loop number running into it. Again numbering starts at 0.
So for a CX700, if you have 4 Buses and 8 DAE’s you will have your
addressing as follows:
Bus0_Enclosure0
Bus1_Enclosure0
Bus2_Enclosure0
Bus3_Enclosure0
Bus0_Enclosure1
Bus1_Enclosure1
Bus2_Enclosure1
Bus3_Enclosure1
And so forth…..the picture above explains that in a CX500 with 2 bus / loops.
The idea is the SPE/DPE is where the bus/loop starts and runs into the DAE
(enclosures) assigning them a unique ID for communication and expansion
purposes.
Further to add some complexity to the mix, each DAE can have 15 drives
installed in it starting at Slot 0 and going to Slot 14.
To the equation above with the bus and enclosure, we have BUS
X_ENCLOSURE X, now with the disk info included we have BUS
X_ENCLOSURE X_DISK XX in short called B_E_D.
Disk 9 installed on Bus 0, Enclosure 0, would designate it as
Bus0_Enclosure0_Disk9 or in short 0_0_9.
For the 2nd drive installed in Bus 2, Enclosure 0, you would have the address
as ??????
????
????
????
????
????
2_0_1
(Remember the numbering starts at 0; we are talking about the 2nd drive.)
Why is all this information necessary????
Good idea to know exactly where your data is sitting, helps you with parts
replacement, troubleshooting and also figuring out disk contention or
possibly help you design your environment with your applications and
database, so you can put certain apps on certain buses, enclosures and
drives (let’s say your ORACLE needs 15K drives and your backups need ATA
drives). You will be able to configure all of it using LUNS, MetaLUNS, RAID
Groups, Storage Groups, etc.

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