HPE Primera

HPE Discover – Multiple new storage systems unveiled

Today at HPE Discover a large number of storage announcements where made, including some new product lines.

HPE Primera

HPE Primera

This is a brand new storage system from HPE aimed at the high end. I asked the product manager about the heritage of the system, if it was 3PAR or Nimble based and they advised that it was a new from the ground up system combining the best of both. Primera starts in a two node configuration available as all flash and hybrid, it can scale to 4 nodes capable of delivering 1.5 million IOPs. The influence from the 3PAR and Nimble family is obvious in the feature set and key capabilities being marketed.

Like 3PAR today the Primera system is based on an active active design with all data striped across all components in order to maximise performance and resiliency.

InfoSight

InfoSight which was originally developed by Nimble is used extensively in conjunction with Primera. InfoSight is described by HPE as providing global intelligence “Powered with the most advanced AI for infrastructure”.  This is essentially describing that InfoSight will be gathering data from the entire install base and using machine learning to identify any potential issues or improvements and inform users.  HPE estimate that 90% of issues are non-storage related, InfoSight is able to discover potential issues beyond the storage layer to enable a complete wrap around to infrastructure services.

HPE Primera features

Primera is powered by a modular OS which means that software components of the system are decoup.  Today planning an upgrade to a storage system is a major undertaking with an all or nothing decision of either do or don’t upgrade.  The new modular design has decoupled data services allowing individual services to be updated. This new design should allow safer updates with fewer reboots and allow a more agile route to updates and deployment which should in turn enhance innovation and willingness to apply updates.

Possibly the most surprising aspect of the new system is that HPE are guaranteeing 100% availability.  This guarantee is available on all Primera systems without qualification, it seems this is enabled not only by HPE’s confidence in the new system but again because of the Intelligence that InfoSight will give them. This will ensure that customers systems are configured are correctly , any issues are remediated before they occur and if appropriate fixes rolled out to other customers.  Primera has been developed to be simple even though it is an advanced high end system with time to deployment estimated at 20 minutes.

SimpliVity Updates

The SimpliVity hyper-converged platform received some new models and enhancements also

  • InfoSight – Now works with SimpliVity. Similar to other implementations this make proactive health recommendations and other insights beyond the storage layer for example into noisy VMs
  • Archive node – This is a new 2U hardware offering that contains a mixture of HD and SSD disks. The node is intended as the name suggests for longer term storage
  • SimpliVity 325 – This is a new model in the range that takes on a 1U form factor. This dense format is intended for environments where space is at a premium

Nimble Storage dHCI

This is again a brand new system from HPE, it is a Hyper-converged product that enables you to scale storage and compute separately. The system is designed for simplicity in 5 clicks the entire stack is setup and ready for vCenter.

Simplicity of HCI flexibility of converged

I think this latest batch of updates show a significant engineering effort and understanding towards the requirements of todays datacentre customers who want flexibility, simplicity and performance.

Stay tuned for more information on the new announcements. Any questions let me know and I will try to find out the answer.

Further Reading

Primera – HPE Storage Blog

HPE Storage dHCI – HPE Storage Blog

Meet HPE Primera

Video – Primera Chalk Talk

Looking inside the HPE Primera array’s internals