Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5

Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems

Technical White Paper

Issue 01

Date 2018-07-31

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2018. All rights reserved.
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior
written consent of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Trademarks and Permissions

and other Huawei trademarks are trademarks of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
All other trademarks and trade names mentioned in this document are the property of their respective
holders.

Notice
The purchased products, services and features are stipulated by the contract made between Huawei and
the customer. All or part of the products, services and features described in this document may not be
within the purchase scope or the usage scope. Unless otherwise specified in the contract, all statements,
information, and recommendations in this document are provided "AS IS" without warranties, guarantees or
representations of any kind, either express or implied.
The information in this document is subject to change without notice. Every effort has been made in the
preparation of this document to ensure accuracy of the contents, but all statements, information, and
recommendations in this document do not constitute a warranty of any kind, express or implied.

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Address: Huawei Industrial Base
Bantian, Longgang
Shenzhen 518129
People's Republic of China

Website: http://e.huawei.com

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. i

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper Contents

Contents

1 Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 1

2 Overview......................................................................................................................................... 2
2.1 OceanStor V5 Mid-Range Series .................................................................................................................................. 2
2.2 Customer Benefits ........................................................................................................................................................ 3

3 System Architecture ...................................................................................................................... 5

3.1 Hardware Architecture .................................................................................................................................................. 5
3.1.1 Scale-out of Controllers ............................................................................................................................................. 5
3.1.2 Full Hardware Redundancy ....................................................................................................................................... 8
3.1.3 SED Data Encryption................................................................................................................................................. 8
3.2 Software Architecture ................................................................................................................................................. 10
3.2.1 Block Virtualization ................................................................................................................................................. 12
3.2.2 SAN and NAS Convergence .................................................................................................................................... 14
3.2.3 Load Balancing ........................................................................................................................................................ 15
3.2.4 Data Caching ........................................................................................................................................................... 16
3.2.5 End-to-End Data Integrity Protection ...................................................................................................................... 17
3.2.6 Various Software Features ....................................................................................................................................... 17
3.2.7 Flash-Oriented System Optimization ....................................................................................................................... 17

4 Smart Series Features ................................................................................................................. 19

4.1 SmartVirtualiztaion ..................................................................................................................................................... 19
4.2 SmartMigration ........................................................................................................................................................... 21
4.3 SmartDedupe and SmartCompression ........................................................................................................................ 22
4.4 SmartTier .................................................................................................................................................................... 25
4.5 SmartThin ................................................................................................................................................................... 27
4.6 SmartQoS.................................................................................................................................................................... 28
4.7 SmartPartition ............................................................................................................................................................. 29
4.8 SmartCache ................................................................................................................................................................. 31
4.9 SmartErase .................................................................................................................................................................. 32
4.10 SmartMulti-Tenant .................................................................................................................................................... 32
4.11 SmartQuota ............................................................................................................................................................... 34
4.12 SmartMotion ............................................................................................................................................................. 35

5 Hyper Series Features ................................................................................................................. 36

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ii

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper Contents

5.1 HyperSnap .................................................................................................................................................................. 36

5.1.1 HyperSnap for Block ............................................................................................................................................... 36
5.1.2 HyperSnap for File .................................................................................................................................................. 37
5.2 HyperClone ................................................................................................................................................................. 39
5.2.1 HyperClone for Block .............................................................................................................................................. 39
5.2.2 HyperClone for File ................................................................................................................................................. 41
5.3 HyperReplication ........................................................................................................................................................ 43
5.3.1 HyperReplication/S for Block.................................................................................................................................. 43
5.3.2 HyperReplication/A for Block ................................................................................................................................. 46
5.3.3 HyperReplication/A for File .................................................................................................................................... 47
5.4 HyperMetro ................................................................................................................................................................ 50
5.4.1 HyperMetro for Block ............................................................................................................................................. 50
5.4.2 HyperMetro for File ................................................................................................................................................. 51
5.5 HyperVault .................................................................................................................................................................. 54
5.6 HyperCopy.................................................................................................................................................................. 55
5.7 HyperMirror................................................................................................................................................................ 56
5.8 HyperLock .................................................................................................................................................................. 59
5.9 3DC............................................................................................................................................................................. 62

6 Best Practices ................................................................................................................................ 63

A Appendix ..................................................................................................................................... 64
A.1 More Information ....................................................................................................................................................... 64
A.2 Feedback .................................................................................................................................................................... 64
A.3 Acronyms and Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................... 64

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. iii

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 1 Executive Summary

1 Executive Summary

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5 hybrid flash storage systems (OceanStor
V5 mid-range storage systems) are designed for enterprise-class applications.
This document describes and highlights the key technologies, unique advantages, and
customer benefits of OceanStor V5 hybrid flash storage systems. These will be discussed in
terms of product positioning, hardware architecture, software architecture, and features.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 1

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 2 Overview

2 Overview

2.1 OceanStor V5 Mid-Range Series

2.2 Customer Benefits

2.1 OceanStor V5 Mid-Range Series

OceanStor V5 mid-range series products consist of OceanStor 5300 V5, 5500 V5, 5600 V5,
and 5800 V5.

Figure 2-1 Exterior of OceanStor 5300 V5 and 5500 V5

Figure 2-2 Exterior of OceanStor 5600 V5 and 5800 V5

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 2 Overview

For detailed product specifications, visit:

http://e.huawei.com/en/products/cloud-computing-dc/storage/massive-storage/5300-5500-560
0-5800-v5

2.2 Customer Benefits

By taking advantage of a storage operating system, primarily the OceanStor OS built on a
cloud-oriented architecture, a powerful new hardware platform, and suites of intelligent
management software, OceanStor V5 mid-range series products deliver industry-leading
functions, performance, efficiency, reliability, and ease of use.
These products provide data storage for applications such as large-database Online
Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), file sharing, and
cloud computing, and can be widely applied in industries and sectors ranging from
government, finance, telecommunications, and energy, to media and entertainment (M&E).
In addition, mid-range series products can be deployed with a wide range of efficient and
flexible backup and disaster recovery solutions. This ensures business continuity and data
security and delivers excellent storage services to customers.

Converged: Accelerated Data Service Efficiency

 Convergence of all types of flash storage
Huawei provides comprehensive flash storage products that support interconnection and
communication between one another, regardless of their types, levels, and versions. The
convergence of data storage, management, and O&M ensures that storage systems can
deliver high performance (million-level IOPS) and low latency, as well as the long-term
robust reliability of SSDs.
 Convergence of SAN and NAS
SAN and NAS are converged to provide elastic storage, improve storage resource
utilization, and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO). Block and file data services are
converged, enabling storage systems to carry different types of services and boosting the
industry-leading performance and functions of SAN and NAS to even greater levels.
 Convergence of storage resource pools
The built-in heterogeneous virtualization function, SmartVirtualization, enables
OceanStor V5 mid-range storage systems to take over the storage systems (of different
levels, types, and models) of other mainstream vendors, and integrate them into a unified
storage resource pool. This can eliminate data silos and enable unified resource
management, automation, and service orchestration.
In addition, data can be automatically migrated from third-party storage to Huawei
storage without interrupting services. This reduces the migration time by an average of
60%.
 Convergence of multiple data centers
Networking is simpler. HyperMetro cooperates with HyperVault 3DC to further ensure
the continuity of mission-critical services. The active-active data centers (two data
centers) can be smoothly upgraded to three data centers, delivering the highest level of
service continuity in geo-redundant mode, achieving 64:1 multi-level DCs, providing
centralized data disaster recovery and assurance.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 3

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 2 Overview

Stable and Reliable: 99.9999% High Availability from Products to Solutions

 Load balancing across controllers
The multi-controller architecture allows load balancing among controllers and eliminates
single points of failure, thereby ensuring the high availability and stable running of
services. Multiple controllers can be used simultaneously to accelerate the services of
one host, removing performance bottlenecks of a single controller while boosting
performance.
 Rapid data restoration
Innovative block-level virtualization reduces the time required to reconstruct 1 TB of
data from 10 hours to 30 minutes. When compared with traditional storage systems, the
OceanStor mid-range storage series reduces the risk of data damage, caused by disk
failure, by 95%.
 Rich data protection solutions
The Hyper series data protection features include HyperSnap, HyperClone, HyperVault,
and HyperReplication. These features protect user data locally, remotely, inside systems,
and across different regions, achieving 99.9999% availability and maximizing business
continuity and data availability.
 HyperMetro for both SAN and NAS for core applications
Huawei launched the innovative integrated active-active solution in the industry.
OceanStor V5 mid-range storage supports HyperMetro for both SAN and NAS, ensuring
the high availability of databases and file services. The gateway-free HyperMetro
enables the load balancing of active-active mirrors and non-disruptive cross-site takeover.
This ensures zero losses of core application data and zero service interruptions.
In addition, Huawei's HyperMetro solution can be effortlessly upgraded to
geo-redundant mode with three data centers.

Fast: Outstanding Performance Achieved to Meet Ever-Increasing Requirements

of Enterprise Services
 Flash storage architecture
The OceanStor V5 mid-range storage uses the flash-oriented system architecture. Based
on flash convergence technology, CPU scheduling, cache, RAID, and interworking
between the OceanStor OS and disk drives are all specially designed to suit flash
memory.
The OceanStor V5 mid-range storage can intelligently sense HDDs and SSDs,
automatically distinguish media types, and dynamically select the optimal algorithms.
This allows the storage to deliver stable I/O response time of less than 1 ms in the event
of a large number of service access requests, thereby ensuring optimal performance for
critical applications.
 Industry-leading specifications for flash design
The OceanStor V5 mid-range storage uses next-generation Intel multi-core processors,
PCIe 3.0 buses, 12 Gbit/s SAS 3.0 high-speed disk ports, and supports a variety of host
ports such as 16 Gbit/s Fibre Channel, 10 Gbit/s FCoE, and 56 Gbit/s InfiniBand host
ports. The series fully satisfies the needs of video, large file, and other
bandwidth-sensitive applications.
 Flexible scalability
The OceanStor V5 mid-range storage can be smoothly expanded to have a maximum of
8 controllers, 4 TB cache, and 2000 disk drives. This addresses ever-increasing data
storage needs now and in the future and helps customers maximize their return on
investment (ROI).

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 4

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

3 System Architecture

3.1 Hardware Architecture

3.2 Software Architecture

3.1 Hardware Architecture

OceanStor V5 mid-range storage systems use the intelligent matrix multi-controller
architecture. A storage system can be expanded horizontally, in the unit of controller
enclosures, to achieve a linear increase in both performance and capacity.
A controller enclosure uses the dual-controller redundancy architecture. Two controllers use
the onboard PCIe 3.0 to implement dual-controller cache mirroring. Multiple controller
enclosures are scaled out through 10GE switches.
Disks in the controller enclosure are connected to two controllers through two ports. SSDs,
SAS disks, and NL-SAS disks are supported.
Backup battery units (BBUs) are used to ensure that data in the cache can be quickly written
to coffer disks when a storage system encounters a power failure. This protects cache data and
achieves zero data loss.

3.1.1 Scale-out of Controllers

OceanStor V5 mid-range storage systems adopt the PCIe 3.0 backplane interconnection
design, back-end SAS 3.0 technology, and Intel Skylake CPU with high-speed channels and
powerful computing capabilities. This meets all customer requirements for higher
performance. In addition, the mid-range series uses the single point of failure prevention
design and Scale-out to deliver robust reliability and flexible scalability while sticking to a
tight budget.
The controller enclosures are interconnected by IP addresses to achieve horizontal expansion.
The service switching channels between controller enclosures are carried by a 10GE Ethernet
network. A mid-range storage system supports a maximum of four controller enclosures. Each
controller enclosure contains two controllers. The entire system supports a maximum of eight
controllers. Each controller is connected to another in the system through two mutually
redundant switching channels, implementing data forwarding.
The two controllers in a controller enclosure are interconnected through a PCIe 3.0 backplane,
as shown in Figure 3-1. A maximum of 32 lanes can be used to form a high-speed mirroring
channel between the two controllers.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 5

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

Figure 3-1 Dual-controller interconnection by PCIe 3.0

Switching channels support direct-connection networks and switch-connection networks. On

a switch-connection network as shown in Figure 3-2, controller enclosures are connected to
two data switches over a 10GE Ethernet network to exchange data. Such a cluster supports a
maximum of eight controllers. On a direct-connection network as shown in Figure 3-3, two
network ports of one network adapter are connected to the controllers in the other controller
enclosure. Such a cluster supports a maximum of four controllers. Dual switching links are
used to ensure the redundancy of cluster data exchange networks. IP interconnection reserves
sufficient space for future cluster expansion, improving cluster scalability. Data exchange
between controllers and mirroring channels adopts the all-PCIe interconnection architecture,
accelerating data exchange.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 6

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

Figure 3-2 Switch-connection network of the 8-controller architecture

Figure 3-3 Direct-connection network of the 4-controller architecture

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 7

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

3.1.2 Full Hardware Redundancy

All components and channels of the OceanStor V5 mid-range storage systems are fully
redundant, eliminating the risk of single points of failure. Components and channels can
detect, repair, and isolate faults independently to ensure stable system running.

Table 3-1 Fully redundant hardware components

Hardware Component Redundancy Fault Impact

Controller Controller 1+1 Performance
enclosure deteriorates
accordingly.
Power module 1+1 None
Fan module Redundancy (Redundancy varies None
according to different product
models.)
BBU module Redundancy (Redundancy varies None
according to different product
models.)
Interface 1+1 None
module
Management 1+1 None
module
2 U disk Expansion 1+1 None
enclosure module
Power module 1+1 None
Fan module 1+1 None
4 U disk Expansion 1+1 None
enclosure module
Power module 2+2 None
Fan module 5+1 None

3.1.3 SED Data Encryption

OceanStor V5 mid-range storage can work with self-encrypting drives (SEDs) and either
Internal Key Manager (built-in key management system) or External Key Manager (an
independent key management system) to implement static data encryption. The data
encryption feature uses the AES 256 algorithm to encrypt user data on storage to ensure the
confidentiality, integrity, and availability of user data.

Internal Key Manager

Internal Key Manager is a key management application built in OceanStor V5 mid-range
storage systems. It uses the best practice design of NIST SP 800-57 to manage the AK life

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 8

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

cycle of SEDs. Internal Key Manager supports key generation, updating, destruction, backup,
and restoration.
Internal Key Manager is easy to deploy, configure, and manage. Therefore, Internal Key
Manager is recommended if there are no requirements for FIPS 140-2 and key management is
only being used by storage systems in a data center. It is unnecessary to deploy an
independent key management system.

External Key Manager

OceanStor V5 mid-range series supports the External Key Manager (an independent key
management system) that uses the Key Manager Server (KMS) of a third-party system to
manage keys.
External Key Manager is a SafeNet Key Secure system that uses standard KMIP + TLS
protocols and complies with FIPS 140-2. Therefore, External Key Manager is recommended
if FIPS 140-2 is required or multiple systems in a data center require centralized key
management.
External Key Manager supports key generation, updating, destruction, backup, and restoration.
Two External Key Managers can be deployed to synchronize keys in real time for enhanced
reliability.

SED
SEDs use AKs and data encryption keys (DEKs) to implement two layers of security
protection.
 AK mechanism
After data encryption has been enabled on a storage system, the storage system activates
the AutoLock function for an SED, applies an AK from the key manager, and stores the
AK on the SED. AutoLock protects the SED and allows only the storage system itself to
access the SED. When the storage system accesses an SED, it acquires an AK from the
key manager and compares it with the AK stored on the SED. If the acquired AK and
stored AK are the same, the SED decrypts the DEK for data encryption or decryption. If
they are different, all read and write operations fail.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 9

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

Figure 3-4 AK mechanism

 DEK mechanism
After AutoLock authentication succeeds, the SED uses its hardware circuits and internal
DEK to encrypt or decrypt the data. DEK will encrypt data after it has been written to
disks. The DEK cannot be acquired separately, meaning that the original information on
an SED cannot be recovered mechanically after it is removed from the storage system.

Figure 3-5 Data encryption

3.2 Software Architecture

The software suite provided by the OceanStor V5 mid-range series consists of software
deployed on storage systems, software on maintenance terminals, and software on application

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 10

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

servers. These three types of software work jointly to deliver storage, backup, and disaster
recovery services in a smart, efficient, and cost-effective manner.
Figure 3-6 shows the software architecture.

Figure 3-6 Software architecture

The mid-range storage series uses the dedicated OceanStor OS to manage hardware and
support the running of storage system software. Basic function control software provides
basic data storage and access services, while value-added features are used to provide
advanced functions, such as backups, disaster recovery, and performance optimization.
Storage systems can be managed by management function control software.
The following describes key technologies in terms of block-level virtualization, SAN and
NAS integration, load balancing, data cache, end-to-end data integrity protection, and
software features.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 11

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

3.2.1 Block Virtualization

Working Principle
OceanStor V5 mid-range storage series uses the RAID 2.0+ block virtualization technology.
Different from traditional RAID that has fixed member disks, RAID 2.0+ enables block
virtualization of data on disks. All disks in a storage system are divided into chunks at a fixed
size. Multiple chunks from disks are automatically selected at random to form a chunk group
(CKG) based on the RAID algorithm. A CKG is further divided into extents at a fixed size.
These extents are allocated to different volumes. Volumes are presented as LUNs or file
systems. Figure 3-7 shows RAID 2.0+.

Figure 3-7 RAID 2.0+ block virtualization

Fast Reconstruction
A RAID group consists of multiple chunks from several physical disks. If a disk fails, other
disks participate in reconstructing the data of the faulty disk. More disks are involved in data
reconstruction to accelerate the process, allowing 1 TB of data to be reconstructed within 30
minutes.
For example, in a RAID 5 group with nine member disks, if disk 1 becomes faulty, the data in
CKG0 and CKG1 is damaged. The storage system then randomly selects chunks to
reconstruct the data on disk 1.
As shown in Figure 3-8, chunks 14 and 16 are damaged. In this case, idle chunks (colored
light orange) are randomly selected from the pool to reconstruct data. The system tries to
select chunks from different disks.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 12

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

Figure 3-8 RAID 2.0+ fast reconstruction (1)

As shown in Figure 3-9, chunk 61, on disk 6, and chunk 81, on disk 8, are randomly selected.
Data will be reconstructed to these two chunks.

Figure 3-9 RAID 2.0+ fast reconstruction (2)

The bottleneck for traditional data reconstruction typically lies in the target disk (a hot spare
disk) because data on all member disks is written to a target disk for reconstruction. As a
result, the write bandwidth is the key factor deciding the reconstruction speed. For example, if
2 TB of data on a disk is reconstructed and the write bandwidth is 30 MB/s, it will take 18
hours to complete data reconstruction.
RAID 2.0+ improves data reconstruction in the following two aspects:
1. Multiple target disks
In the preceding example, if two target disks are used, the reconstruction time will be
shortened from 18 hours to 9 hours. If more chunks and member disks are involved, the
number of target disks will be equal to that of member disks. As a result, the
reconstruction speed linearly increases.
2. Chunk-specific reconstruction
If fewer chunks are allocated to a faulty disk, less data needs to be reconstructed, further
accelerating reconstruction.
RAID 2.0+ shortens the reconstruction time per TB to 30 minutes, greatly reducing the
probability of a dual-disk failure.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 13

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

Load Balancing Among Disks

RAID 2.0+ automatically balances workloads on disks and evenly distributes data from
volumes to all disks of a storage system. This prevents individual disks from being overloaded
and enhances reliability. As more disks participate in data reads and writes, storage system
performance improves.

Maximized Disk Utilization

 Performance
In a RAID 2.0+ environment, LUNs or file systems are created using storage space from
a storage resource pool and are no longer limited by the number of disks in a RAID
group, greatly boosting the performance of a single LUN or file system.
 Capacity
The number of disks in a storage resource pool is not limited by the RAID level. This
eliminates the chance of usage differences of different RAID groups in traditional
volume management environments. Coupled with dynamic LUN or file system capacity
expansion, disk space usage is remarkably improved.

Enhanced Storage Management Efficiency

 Easy planning
It is unnecessary to spend much time in planning storage. Customers simply need to
create a storage pool by using multiple disks, set the tiering policies of the storage pool,
and allocate space (volumes) from the storage pool.
 Easy expansion of storage pools
To expand the capacity of a storage pool, customers just need to insert new disks, and the
system will automatically distribute data evenly across all disks.
 Easy expansion of volumes
When customers need to expand the capacity of a volume, they only need to specify the
size of the volume to be expanded. The system automatically allocates the required space
from the storage pool and adjusts the data distribution of the volume to evenly distribute
the volume data across all disks.

3.2.2 SAN and NAS Convergence

OceanStor V5 mid-range storage systems adopt a SAN and NAS convergence design. NAS
gateways are no longer needed. One set of hardware and software supports both SAN and
NAS as well as file access protocols such as Network File System (NFS), Common Internet
File System (CIFS), FTP, and HTTP, and file backup protocol Network Data Management
Protocol (NDMP). Like SAN, NAS supports Scale-out of eight controllers. Hosts can access
any LUN or file system from a front-end host port on any controller.
Figure 3-10 shows the converged architecture of the storage systems. File systems and LUNs
directly interact with the space subsystem. The file system architecture is based on objects.
Each file or folder acts as an object, and each file system is an object set. LUNs are classified
into thin LUNs and thick LUNs. The two types of LUNs come from the storage pool system
and space system, instead of file systems. In this way, this converged architecture delivers a
simplified software stack and provides a higher storage efficiency than the traditional unified
storage architecture. In addition, LUNs and file systems are independent from each other.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 14

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

Figure 3-10 OceanStor OS software architecture

3.2.3 Load Balancing

SAN Load Balancing
By default, an OceanStor V5 mid-range storage system evenly allocates LUNs to controllers
and evenly distributes LUN space across all disks in the system.
If there is an I/O path between a host and each controller of the storage system, UltraPath,
Huawei proprietary multipathing software, preferably selects the path to the owning controller
of the target LUN. If no optimum path is available, the system automatically determines the
corresponding controller of the LUN service after I/O requests are delivered to the storage
system. Then the Smart Matrix architecture transfers the I/O requests to the corresponding
controller.
Even the allocation of LUNs to controllers and the distribution of LUN space among disks
will balance the workloads of controllers and disks. SmartMatrix selects the optimum path to
deliver I/O requests using UltraPath, allowing the system to reach its optimum performance.

NAS Load Balancing

By default, an OceanStor V5 mid-range storage system automatically allocates file systems to
controllers. The file system space is evenly distributed to all disks in the system to balance the
service loads and disk pressure.
OceanStor V5 mid-range storage systems also provide the DNS load balancing feature to
intelligently distribute host NFS/CIFS/FTP client connections to service IP addresses
configured on different nodes and ports based on service loads, improving system
performance and reliability.
When a host uses a domain name to access the NAS service of a storage system, the host
sends a DNS request to the built-in DNS server of the storage system to obtain an IP address
based on the domain name. If the domain name contains multiple IP addresses, the built-in
DNS server selects an IP address with a light load to respond to the host based on the CPU
usage, port bandwidth usage, and number of NAS connections of the controllers where IP
addresses reside. After receiving the DNS response, the host sends a service request to the
destination IP address.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 15

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

The DNS load balancing feature supports the following load balancing policies: round robin,
node CPU usage, node connection quantity, node bandwidth usage, and comprehensive node
load.

3.2.4 Data Caching

 Cache distribution
The physical memory usage of an OceanStor V5 mid-range storage system is as follows:
Physical memory = Cache occupied by the operating system + Read cache + Local write
cache + Mirroring write cache + Cache occupied by service features
 Cache types
There are two types of cache in OceanStor V5 mid-range series, namely, read cache and
write cache.
− Read cache: Data that has been read is saved to the memory (read cache). This
eliminates the need to read the same data from disks again, accelerating read
efficiency.
− Write cache: Data that is about to be written onto disks is saved to the memory (write
cache). When the amount of data that is saved in the write cache reaches a specified
threshold, the data will be saved to disks.
Read cache and write cache reduce disk-related operations, improve read and write
performance of storage systems, and protect disks from being damaged due to repeated
read and write operations.
If the write cache is not used, all cache can be used as the read cache. Each storage
system reserves the minimum read cache to ensure that read cache resources are still
available even if the write workload is heavy.
 Cache prefetch
In the event of a large number of random I/Os, OceanStor V5 mid-range storage systems
identify sequential I/Os with the multi-channel sequential I/O identification algorithm.
For the sequential I/Os, the storage systems use prefetch and merge algorithms to
optimize system performance in various application scenarios.
The prefetch algorithm supports intelligent prefetch, constant prefetch, and variable
prefetch. By automatically identifying I/O characteristics, intelligent prefetch determines
whether data is prefetched and determines the prefetch length, ensuring that the system
performance meets requirements of different scenarios.
By default, storage systems adopt the intelligent prefetch algorithm. However, in
application scenarios with definite I/O models, users can also configure storage systems
to use constant prefetch or variable prefetch. These two algorithms allow users to define
prefetch length.
 Cache eviction
When the cache usage reaches a specified threshold, the cache eviction algorithm
calculates the access frequency of each data block based on historical and current data
access frequencies. The eviction algorithm then works with the multi-channel sequential
I/O identification algorithm to evict unnecessarily cached data. In addition, you can
configure the cache priority of a volume and adjust the priority of each I/O for a specific
service. Data with low priorities is eliminated first, and high-priority data is cached to
ensure the data hit rate.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 16

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

3.2.5 End-to-End Data Integrity Protection

The ANSI T10 Protection Information (PI) standard provides a way to check data integrity
when accessing a storage system. This check is undertaken based on the PI field defined in the
T10 standard. This standard adds an 8-byte PI field to the end of each sector to check data
integrity. In most cases, the T10 PI is used to ensure the integrity of data in a storage system.
Data Integrity Extensions (DIX), provided by vendors such as Oracle and Emulex, further
extend the protection scope of T10 PI. Therefore, DIX+T10 PI can achieve complete
end-to-end data protection.
In addition to using T10 PI to ensure the integrity of data in a storage system, OceanStor V5
mid-range storage series also adopts DIX + T10 PI to implement end-to-end data integration
protection. A storage system verifies and delivers PI fields of data in real time. If a host does
not support PI, the storage system adds the PI fields to the host interface and then delivers the
fields. In a storage system, PI fields are forwarded, transmitted, and stored together with user
data. Then, before user data is read by a host again, the storage system uses PI fields to check
the accuracy and integrity of user data.

3.2.6 Various Software Features

OceanStor V5 mid-range storage series provides the Smart series features to accelerate system
efficiency and the Hyper series features to protect data.
 The Smart series features include SmartDedupe, SmartCompression, SmartThin,
SmartVirtualization, SmartMigration, SmartTier, SmartQoS, SmartPartition, SmartErase,
SmartMulti-Tenant, SmartCache, SmartQuota, and SmartMotion. These software
features help users improve storage efficiency and reduce the total cost of ownership
(TCO).
 The Hyper series features include HyperSnap, HyperClone, HyperReplication,
HyperMetro, HyperVault, HyperCopy, HyperMirror, and HyperLock. These software
features help users implement data backup and disaster recovery. In addition, the storage
systems can be used in various disaster recovery solutions in which three data centers are
deployed.
The storage systems can also be deployed in solutions that are integrated with common IT
systems. The following is an example of integration with some VM environments.
 VMware vSphere
The storage systems support VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI),
vStorage APIs for Software Awareness (VASA), and Site Recovery Manager (SRM). The
vCenter plugin is provided, enabling unified management in vCenter.
 Windows Hyper-V
Storage systems support Windows Thin space reclamation technology and Windows
Offload Data Transfer (ODX). In addition, the System Center plug-in is provided and
can be managed by the System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) and System Center
Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM).

3.2.7 Flash-Oriented System Optimization

SSDs deliver high performance for random I/O access, and ensure low latency, however, their
erase times are limited. HDDs deliver high performance for sequential I/O access but their
erase times are not restricted. Huawei has optimized SSDs, as well as the hybrid storage of
SSDs and HDDs used in OceanStor V5 mid-range storage systems, to achieve better
performance and reliability.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 17

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 3 System Architecture

 Seamless collaboration between OceanStor OS and Huawei SSD (HSSD) firmware

SSDs use flash chips that are involved in erasure operations. When erasure operations
are being performed, other data in the channels that is involved in the erasure operations
is inaccessible. As a result, a latency of 1 ms to 2 ms occurs, leading to performance
fluctuations.
Huawei storage systems use HSSDs. OceanStor OS is designed to work alongside
HSSDs to ensure that erasure operations are sequentially performed on multiple HSSDs.
OceanStor OS does not read data from HSSDs on which erasures are being performed.
Instead, data is read from other HSSDs based on a RAID redundancy mechanism,
thereby ensuring stable latency.
 Intelligent SSD perception by cache
Storage systems use different dirty data flushing policies for SSDs and HDDs. When
Huawei-certified disks are connected, the storage systems automatically identify the
media types. For SSDs, the storage systems delay the flushing of active data, reduce the
flushing times, and decrease write amplification based on the Least Recently Used (LRU)
algorithm. This boosts system performance and prolongs the service life of SSDs.
 Performance optimized using multiple cores
In terms of a multi-core scheduling mechanism, system performance is optimized for the
NUMA architecture. For example, messages related to a single I/O are dispatched to the
same CPU to reduce cross-CPU access overheads and increase the CPU cache hit ratio.
With regard to multi-thread operating efficiency, a data structure design is used to
prevent multiple threads from concurrently accessing data on the cache line of the CPU
L1 cache. This eliminates the pseudo-sharing of the CPU L1 cache, improves the CPU
L1 cache efficiency, and reduces the CPU overhead in memory-based data access.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 18

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

4 Smart Series Features

4.1 SmartVirtualiztaion
4.2 SmartMigration
4.3 SmartDedupe and SmartCompression
4.4 SmartTier
4.5 SmartThin
4.6 SmartQoS
4.7 SmartPartition
4.8 SmartCache
4.9 SmartErase
4.10 SmartMulti-Tenant
4.11 SmartQuota
4.12 SmartMotion

4.1 SmartVirtualiztaion
OceanStor V5 mid-range series uses SmartVirtualization to take over heterogeneous storage
systems (including other Huawei storage systems and third-party storage systems), protecting
customer investments. SmartVirtualization conceals the software and hardware differences
between local and heterogeneous storage systems, allowing the local system to use and
manage the heterogeneous storage resources as if they were local resources. In addition,
SmartVirtualization can work with SmartMigration to migrate data from heterogeneous
storage systems online, facilitating device replacement.

Working Principle
SmartVirtualization maps the heterogeneous storage system to the local storage system, which
in turn uses external device LUNs (eDevLUNs) to take over and manage the heterogeneous
resources. eDevLUNs consist of metadata volumes and data volumes. The metadata volumes
manage the data storage locations of eDevLUNs and use the physical space of the local
storage system. The data volumes are logical representations of external LUNs, and use the

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 19

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

physical space of the heterogeneous storage system. eDevLUNs on the local storage system
match external LUNs on the heterogeneous storage system, allowing application servers to
access data on the external LUNs through the eDevLUNs.

Figure 4-1 Heterogeneous storage virtualization

SmartVirtualization uses LUN masquerading to set the world wide names (WWNs) and Host
LUN IDs of eDevLUNs on OceanStor V5 mid-range series to the same values as those on the
heterogeneous storage system. After data migration is complete, the host's multipathing
software switches over the LUNs online without interrupting services.

Application Scenarios
 Heterogeneous array takeover
Because customers build data centers over time, the storage arrays they use may come
from different vendors. Storage administrators can use SmartVirtualization to manage
and configure existing devices, protecting investments.
 Heterogeneous data migration
Customers may need to replace storage systems with warranty periods that are about to
expire or performance that does not meet service requirements. SmartVirtualization and
SmartMigration can migrate customer data to OceanStor V5 mid-range series online
without interrupting host services.
 Heterogeneous disaster recovery
If service data is stored at two sites having heterogeneous storage systems and requires
robust service continuity, SmartVirtualization can work with HyperReplication to allow
data on LUNs in heterogeneous storage systems to be mutually backed up. If a disaster
occurs, a functional service site takes over services from the failed service site and then
recovers data.
 Heterogeneous data protection

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 20

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

Data on LUNs that reside in heterogeneous storage systems may be attacked by viruses
or corrupted. SmartVirtualization can work with HyperSnap to instantly create snapshots
for LUNs that reside in heterogeneous storage systems, and use these snapshots to
rapidly restore data to a specific point in time if the data is corrupted.

4.2 SmartMigration
OceanStor V5 mid-range series uses SmartMigration for intelligent data migration based on
LUNs. Data on a source LUN can be completely migrated to a target LUN without
interrupting ongoing services. SmartMigration supports data migration within a Huawei
storage system or between a Huawei storage system and a compatible heterogeneous storage
system.
When the system receives new data during migration, it simultaneously writes the new data to
both the source and target LUNs and records data change logs (DCLs) to ensure data
consistency. After migration is complete, the source and target LUNs exchange information so
that the target LUN can take over services.
SmartMigration involves data synchronization and LUN information exchange.

Data Synchronization
1. Before migration, customers must configure the source and target LUNs.
2. When migration begins, the source LUN replicates data to the target LUN.
3. During migration, the host can still access the source LUN, and when the host writes
data to the source LUN, the system records the DCL.
4. The system writes the incoming data to both the source and target LUNs.
− If data is successfully written to both LUNs, the system clears the record in the DCL.
− If data fails to be written to the target LUN, the storage system identifies the data that
failed to be synchronized according to the DCL. Then, the system copies the data to
the target LUN. After the data is copied, the storage system returns a write success to
the host.
− If data fails to be written to the source LUN, the system returns a write failure to
notify the host to re-send the data. Upon receiving the data again, the system only
writes the data to the source LUN.

LUN Information Exchange

After data replication is complete, host I/Os are temporarily suspended, and the source and
target LUNs exchange information, as seen in Figure 4-2.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 21

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

Figure 4-2 LUN information exchange

The LUN information exchange is instantaneous, and does not interrupt services.

Application Scenarios
 Storage system upgrades with SmartVirtualization
SmartMigration works with SmartVirtualization to migrate data from legacy storage
systems (from Huawei or other vendors) to new Huawei storage systems. This improves
service performance and data reliability.
 Data migration for capacity, performance, and reliability adjustments

4.3 SmartDedupe and SmartCompression

SmartDedupe and SmartCompression provide data deduplication and compression functions
to shrink data for file systems and thin LUNs. This saves space while reducing the TCO of the
enterprise IT architecture.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 22

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

SmartDedupe
OceanStor V5 mid-range series uses SmartDedupe to implement inline deduplication for file
systems and thin LUNs. In inline deduplication mode, the storage system deduplicates new
data before writing it to disks.
The data deduplication granularity is consistent with the minimum data read and write unit
(grain) of file systems or thin LUNs. Users can specify the grain size (4 KB to 64 KB) when
creating file systems or thin LUNs, so that OceanStor V5 mid-range series implements data
deduplication based on different granularities.
Figure 4-3 shows how OceanStor V5 mid-range series deduplicates data.

Figure 4-3 Deduplication process

The storage system

receives new data.

Divides the data into

blocks of fixed length.

Calculates the
fingerprints of the data
blocks using hash.

Checks whether the

fingerprints are the same as No
those in the library.

Yes

Links the storage

Allocates storage space
locations of the new
for the new data and
data to those of the
writes the data to disks.
existing data.

The process is as follows:

1. The storage system divides new data into blocks based on the deduplication granularity.
2. The storage system compares the fingerprints of new data blocks with those of existing
data blocks, kept in the fingerprint library. If identical fingerprints are not found, the
storage system writes new data blocks. If identical fingerprints are found, the system
does the following:

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 23

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

− With byte-by-byte comparison disabled (default), the system identifies the data
blocks as duplicates. It will not allocate storage space for these duplicate blocks, and
instead links their storage locations with those of the existing data blocks.
− With byte-by-byte comparison enabled, the storage system will compare the new data
blocks with the existing data blocks byte by byte. If they are the same, the system
identifies duplicate data blocks. If they are different, the system writes the new data
blocks.
The following is an example of the process:
A file system has data blocks A and B, and an application server writes data blocks C and D to
the file system. C has the same fingerprint as B, while D has a different fingerprint from A
and B. Figure 4-4 shows how the data blocks are processed when different data deduplication
policies are used.

Figure 4-4 Data processing with SmartDedupe enabled and disabled

SmartCompression
Inline and post-process compression is available in the industry. OceanStor V5 mid-range
series uses inline compression, which compresses new data before it is written to disks. Inline
compression has the following advantages when compared to post-process compression:
 Requires less initial storage space, lowering the initial investment of customers.
 Generates fewer I/Os, applicable to SSDs, which restrict the number of reads and writes.
 Compresses data blocks after snapshots are created, saving space.
SmartCompression compresses data blocks based on the user-configured compression policy.
The storage system supports the following compression policies:
 Fast policy (default)
This policy has a higher compression speed but lower efficiency in capacity saving.
 Deep policy

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 24

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

This policy significantly improves capacity saving efficiency but takes longer to perform
compression and decompression.
Figure 4-5 shows how data blocks are processed when different data compression policies are
used.

Figure 4-5 Data processing with SmartCompression enabled and disabled

Interworking of SmartDedupe and SmartCompression

SmartDedupe and SmartCompression can work together. When they are both enabled, data is
deduplicated and then compressed, saving more storage space.
SmartDedupe and SmartCompression, provided by the OceanStor V5 mid-range series, work
in in-line mode. When the functions are enabled, new data is deduplicated and compressed.
When the functions are disabled, deduplicated data cannot be restored.

4.4 SmartTier
SmartTier for Block
OceanStor V5 mid-range series uses SmartTier for dynamic storage tiering.
SmartTier categorizes storage media into three storage tiers based on performance:
high-performance tier (SSDs), performance tier (SAS disks), and capacity tier (NL-SAS
disks). Storage tiers can be used independently or together to provide data storage space.
SmartTier performs intelligent data storage based on LUNs, segmenting data into extents
(with a default size of 4 MB, configurable from 512 KB to 64 MB). SmartTier collects
statistics on and analyzes the activity of data based on extents and matches the data of various
activity levels with proper storage media. More-active data will be promoted to
higher-performance storage media (such as SSDs), whereas less-active data will be demoted
to more cost-effective storage media with larger capacities (such as NL-SAS disks).
SmartTier implements data monitoring, placement analysis, and data relocation, as shown in
the following figure:

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 25

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

Figure 4-6 SmartTier implementation

Data monitoring and data placement analysis are automated by the storage system, and data
relocation is initiated manually or by a user-defined policy.
SmartTier improves storage system performance and reduces storage costs to meet enterprise
requirements of both performance and capacity. By preventing historical data from occupying
expensive storage media, SmartTier ensures effective investment and eliminates energy
consumption caused by idle capacities. This reduces the TCO and optimizes the
cost-effectiveness.

SmartTier for File

SmartTier also applies to file systems. It helps customers simplify data life cycle management,
improve media usage, and reduce costs. SmartTier dynamically relocates data by file, among
different media based on user-defined tiering policies.
A storage pool can be composed of SSDs and HDDs. SmartTier automatically promotes files
to high-performance media (SSDs) or demotes files to large-capacity media (HDDs, including
SAS and NL-SAS disks) based on user-configured tiering policies. Users can specify tiering
policies by file name, file size, file type, file creation time, and SSD usage. Figure 4-7 shows
the working principles of SmartTier.

Figure 4-7 SmartTier working principles

File system

Tiering policy

Performance tier Capacity tier

(SSD) (HDD)

Metadata

SmartTier features:
 Custom tiering policies

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 26

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

Users can flexibly define tiering policies by file name, file size, file type, file creation
time, SSD usage, or a combination of these to meet requirements in various scenarios.
 File access acceleration
By default, file system metadata is stored in SSDs, which facilitates the locating of files
and directories, thereby accelerating file access.
 Intelligent flow control
File relocation increases CPU and disk loads. The storage system performs intelligent
flow control for relocation tasks based on service pressure, minimizing the impact of
data relocation on service performance.
 Saved cost
SmartTier enables tiered storage. The storage system saves data on SSDs and HDDs,
ensuring service performance at lower costs when compared with All Flash Arrays
(AFAs).
 Simplified management
SmartTier supports tiered storage within a file system. It automatically relocates cold
data to HDDs, archiving data without requiring other features or applications, which
simplifies data life cycle management. Users are not aware of this seamless data
relocation.
SmartTier applies to scenarios in which file life cycle management is required, such as
financial check images, medical images, semiconductor simulation design, and reservoir
analysis. The services in these scenarios have demanding performance requirements in the
early stages and low performance requirements later. The following describes an example.
In the reservoir analysis scenario, small files are imported to the storage system for the first
time. These small files are frequently accessed and have high performance requirements. After
small files are processed by professional analysis software, large files are generated, which
have low performance requirements. Users can configure tiering policies based on file sizes.
To be specific, small files are stored on SSDs and large files are stored on HDDs (such as
low-cost NL-SAS disks). In this way, SmartTier helps reduce customer's costs while meeting
performance requirements.

4.5 SmartThin
SmartThin enables the storage system to allocate storage resources on demand. SmartThin
does not allocate all available capacity in advance, and instead presents a virtual storage
capacity larger than the physical storage capacity. In this way, you see the storage space as
being larger than the actual allocated space. When you begin to use the storage, SmartThin
provides only the required space. If the allocated storage space is about to use up, SmartThin
triggers storage resource pool expansion to add more space. The expansion process is not
noticeable by users and causes no system downtime.
SmartThin applies to:
 Core businesses that have demanding requirements for continuity, such as bank
transaction systems
SmartThin allows customers to conduct online capacity expansion without interrupting
businesses.
 Businesses with application system data usage that fluctuates unpredictably, such as
email services and online storage services

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 27

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

SmartThin enables physical storage space to be allocated on demand, preventing wasted

resources.
 Businesses that involve various systems with diverse storage requirements, such as
telecom carrier services
SmartThin allows different applications to contend for physical storage space, improving
space utilization.

4.6 SmartQoS
SmartQoS dynamically allocates storage system resources to meet the performance objectives
of applications.
SmartQoS enables you to set upper limits for IOPS or bandwidth for specific applications.
Based on the upper limits, SmartQoS can accurately limit the performance of these
applications, preventing them from contending for storage resources with critical applications.
SmartQoS uses LUN-, FS-, or snapshot-specific I/O priority scheduling and I/O traffic control
to guarantee service quality.
 I/O priority scheduling
This schedules resources based on application priorities. When allocating system
resources, a storage system prioritizes the resource allocation requests initiated by
high-priority services. If there is a shortage of resources, a storage system allocates more
resources to the high-priority services to meet their QoS requirements.

Figure 4-8 I/O priority scheduling process

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 28

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

 I/O traffic control

This limits the traffic of some applications by limiting their IOPS or bandwidth, thereby
preventing these applications from affecting other applications. I/O traffic control
involves I/O request processing, token distribution, and dequeuing control.

Figure 4-9 Managing LUN or snapshot I/O queues

4.7 SmartPartition
SmartPartition is a smart cache partitioning technique provided by OceanStor V5 mid-range
series. SmartPartition ensures high performance of mission-critical applications by
partitioning cache resources. An administrator can allocate a cache partition of a specific size
to an application. The storage system then ensures that the application has exclusive
permission to use its allocated cache resources.

Cache is the most critical factor that affects the performance of a storage system.
 For a write service, a larger cache size means a higher write combination rate and higher write hit
ratio (write hit ratio of a block in a cache).
 For a read service, a larger cache size means a higher read hit ratio.
Different types of services have different cache requirements.
 For a sequential service, the cache size must meet the I/O combination requirements.
 For a random service, a larger cache size indicates that I/Os are more likely to fall onto stripes within
the cache, thereby improving performance.

SmartPartition can be used with other QoS techniques (such as SmartQoS) for better QoS
effects.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 29

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

Working Principle
SmartPartition allocates cache resources to services (the actual control objects are LUNs and
file systems) based on partition sizes, thereby ensuring the QoS of mission-critical services.
Figure 4-10 illustrates the SmartPartition working principle.

Figure 4-10 SmartPartition working principle

Technical Highlights
 Intelligent partition control
Based on user-defined cache sizes and QoS policies, SmartPartition automatically
schedules system cache resources to ensure optimal system QoS and the required
partition quality.
 Ease of use
SmartPartition is easy to configure. All configurations take effect immediately without a
need to restart the system. Users do not need to adjust partitions, thereby improving the
usability of partitioning.

Application Scenarios
SmartPartition is applicable in scenarios where multiple applications exist, for example:
 A multi-service system. SmartPartition can be used to ensure high performance of core
services
 VDI scenario. SmartPartition can be used to ensure high performance for important users
 Multi-tenant scenarios in cloud computing systems

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 30

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

4.8 SmartCache
SmartCache, serving as a read cache module of a storage system, uses SSDs to store clean hot
data that RAM cache cannot hold. Figure 4-11 shows the logical architecture of SmartCache.

Figure 4-11 Logical architecture of SmartCache

SmartCache improves performance when accessing hot data through a LUN or file system.
The working principle is as follows:
1. After a LUN or file system is enabled with SmartCache, RAM cache delivers hot data to
SmartCache.
2. SmartCache establishes a mapping relationship between the data and the SSD in the
memory and stores the data on the SSD.
3. When the host delivers a new read I/O to the storage system, the system preferentially
looks for the required data in RAM cache.
− If the required data cannot be found, the system then looks for the required data in
SmartCache.
− If the required data is found in SmartCache, the corresponding data is read from the
SSD and returned to the host.
When the amount of data buffered in SmartCache reaches the upper limit, SmartCache selects
cache blocks according to the LRU algorithm, clears mapping items in the lookup table, and
eliminates data on the buffer blocks. Data writes and elimination are continually performed,
ensuring that data stored on SmartCache is frequently accessed data.

Application Scenarios
SmartCache applies to services that have hotspot areas and intensive random read I/Os, such
as databases, OLTP applications, web services, and file services.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 31

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

4.9 SmartErase
As a head cannot read data from or write data to the same point every time, newly written data
cannot precisely overwrite the original data. For this reason, some data will remain. Dedicated
devices can be used to obtain copies of the original data (data shadow), and the more times
data is overwritten, the less residual data that exists.
SmartErase employs overwriting to destroy data on LUNs. SmartErase provides two methods
for destroying data: DoD 5220.22-M and customized
 DoD 5220.22-M
DoD 5220.22-M is a data destruction standard that was introduced by the US
Department of Defense (DoD). This standard provides a software method for destroying
data on writable storage media, namely, three times of overwriting:
− Using an 8-bit character to overwrite all addresses
− Using the complementary codes of the character (complements of 0 and 1) to
overwrite all addresses
− Using a random character to overwrite all addresses
 Customized
For customized overwriting, a system generates data based on internal algorithms and
uses that data to overwrite all addresses of LUNs a specific number of times. The
number of times for overwriting range from 3 to 99 (7 by default).

4.10 SmartMulti-Tenant
SmartMulti-Tenant allows the creation of multiple virtual storage systems (vStores) in a
physical storage system. vStores can share the same storage hardware resources in a
multi-protocol unified storage architecture, without affecting the data security or privacy of
each other.
SmartMulti-Tenant implements management, network, and resource isolation, which prevents
data access between vStores and ensures security.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 32

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

Figure 4-12 Logical architecture of SmartMulti-Tenant

Host layer Application

Operating system

ESX VMkernel

Network layer VLAN VLAN

vStore Network vStore Network

Storage layer
Protocol Protocol
DB DB
FS FS FS FS

QoS
Data service
(Snapshot/Mirror/Replication/Clone)

Space system
(Volume/ObjectSet/Cache)

Pool system
(RAID 2.0+)

 Management isolation
Each vStore has its own administrator. vStore administrators can only configure and
manage their own storage resources through the GUI or RESTful API. vStore
administrators support role-based permission control. When being created, a vStore
administrator is assigned a role specific to its permissions.
 Service isolation
Each vStore has its own file systems, users, user groups, shares, and exports. Users can
only access file systems belonging to the vStore through logical interfaces (LIFs).
Service isolation includes: service data isolation (covering file systems, quotas, and
snapshots), service access isolation, and service configuration isolation (typically for
NAS protocol configuration).
− Service data isolation
System administrators assign different file systems to different vStores, thereby
achieving file system isolation. File system quotas and snapshots are isolated in the
same way.
− Service access isolation
Each vStore has its own NAS protocol instances, including the SMB service, NFS
service, and NDMP service.
− Service configuration isolation
Each vStore can have its own users, user groups, user mapping rules, security policies,
SMB shares, NFS shares, AD domain, DNS service, LDAP service, and NIS service.
 Network isolation
VLANs and LIFs are used to isolate the vStore network, preventing illegal host access to
vStore's storage resources.
vStores use LIFs to configure services. A LIF belongs only to one vStore to achieve
logical port isolation. You can create LIFs from GE ports, 10GE ports, bond ports, or
VLANs.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 33

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

4.11 SmartQuota
In a NAS file service environment, resources are provided to departments, organizations, and
individuals as shared directories. Because each department or person has unique resource
requirements or limitations, storage systems must allocate and restrict resources, based on the
shared directories, in a customized manner. SmartQuota can restrict and control resource
consumption for directories, users, and user groups, perfectly tackling all of these challenges.
SmartQuota allows you to configure the following quotas:
 Space soft quota
Specifies a soft space limit. If any new data writes are performed and would result in this
limit being exceeded, the storage system reports an alarm. This alarm indicates that space
is insufficient and asks the user to delete unnecessary files or expand the quota. The user
can still continue to write data to the directory.
 Space hard quota
Specifies a hard space limit. If any new data writes are performed and would result in
this limit being exceeded, the storage system prevents the writes and reports an error.
 File soft quota
Specifies a soft limit on the file quantity. If the number of used files exceeds this limit,
the storage system reports an alarm. This alarm indicates that the file resources are
insufficient and asks the user to delete unnecessary files or expand the quota. The user
can still continue to create files or directories.
 File hard quota
Specifies a hard limit on the file quantity. If the number of used files for a quota exceeds
this limit, the storage system prevents the creation of new files or directories and reports
an error.
SmartQuota employs space and file hard quotas to restrict the maximum number of resources
available to each user. The process is as follows:
1. In each write I/O operation, SmartQuota checks whether the accumulated quota (Quotas
of the used space and file quantity + Quotas of the increased space and file quantity in
this operation) exceeds the preset hard quota.
− If yes, the write I/O operation fails.
− If no, follow-up operations can be performed.
2. After the write I/O operation is allowed, SmartQuota adds an incremental amount of
space and number of files to the previously used amount of space and number of files.
This is done separately.
3. SmartQuota updates the quota (used amount of space and number of files + incremental
amount of space and number of files) and allows the quota and I/O data to be written into
the file system.
The I/O operation and quota update succeed or fail at the same time, ensuring that the used
capacity is correct during each I/O check.

If the directory quota, user quota, and group quota are concurrently configured in a shared directory in
which you are performing operations, each write I/O operation will be restricted by these three quotas.
All types of quota are checked. If the hard quota of one type of quota does not pass the check, the I/O
will be rejected.

SmartQuota does the following to clear alarms: When the used resource of a user is lower
than 90% of the soft quota, SmartQuota clears the resource over-usage alarm. In this way,

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 34

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 4 Smart Series Features

even though the used resource is slightly higher or lower than the soft quota, alarms are not
frequently generated or cleared.

4.12 SmartMotion
In the IT industry, enterprises and administration departments are faced with numerous
challenges concerning capacity, performance, and costs related to data storage. Enterprises
cannot accurately assess the growth of service performance when purchasing storage systems.
In addition, as service volume grows, it is hard to adjust existing services after disks are added
to legacy storage systems.
To address the preceding problems, enterprises must develop a long-term performance
requirement plan in the initial stages of IT system construction.
SmartMotion dynamically migrates data and evenly distributes data across all disks, resolving
the problems facing customers. Customers need to assess only recent performance
requirements when purchasing storage systems, significantly reducing initial purchase costs
and total TCO. If the system performance requirements increase with the service volume,
customers only need to add disks to storage systems. After the disks are added, SmartMotion
migrates data and evenly distributes the original service data across all disks, notably
improving service performance.
SmartMotion is implemented based on RAID 2.0+. For RAID 2.0+, the space of all the disks
in a disk domain is divided into fixed CKs. When CKGs are required, disks are selected in a
pseudo-random manner and the CKs from these disks compose CKGs based on a RAID
algorithm. All CKs are then evenly distributed across all disks.
When disks are added into a disk domain, the storage system starts SmartMotion. The
implementation of a SmartMotion task is performed as follows:
1 Selects the first CKG that is not load-balanced.
2 Selects disks for the CKG in a pseudo-random manner.
− If the selected disks are consistent with the original disks of the CKG, this CKG is
skipped and the process goes back to step 1.
− If the selected disks are inconsistent, the process goes to step 3.
3 Compares the original disks of the CKG with the newly selected disks and computes the
mapping between the source disks and the target disks based on disk differences. Then,
selects the source disks and target disks.
4 Traverses all the source disks for the CKG, allocates new CKs from the target disks, and
migrates data from the source disks to the target disks to release the source disks.
5 After all CKGs in the system are traversed, the SmartMotion task is complete. Otherwise,
the process goes back to step 1 and processes the next CKG.
After the SmartMotion task is complete, disks are selected for all CKGs in a pseudo-random
manner and all required data is migrated. All CKs are evenly distributed across all available
disks.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 35

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

5 Hyper Series Features

5.1 HyperSnap
5.2 HyperClone
5.3 HyperReplication
5.4 HyperMetro
5.5 HyperVault
5.6 HyperCopy
5.7 HyperMirror
5.8 HyperMirror
5.9 3DC

5.1 HyperSnap
5.1.1 HyperSnap for Block
OceanStor V5 mid-range series uses HyperSnap to quickly generate a consistent image, that is,
a duplicate, for a source LUN at a point in time without interrupting the services that are
running on the source LUN. The duplicate is available immediately after being generated, and
reading or writing the duplicate has no impact on source data. HyperSnap helps with online
backups, data analysis, and application testing. It works based on the mapping table and
copy-on-write (COW) technology.

Technical Highlights
 Zero-duration backup window
Traditional backup deteriorates application servers' performance, or even interrupts
ongoing services. Therefore, a traditional backup task can be executed only after
application servers are stopped or during off-peak hours. A backup window refers to the
data backup duration, which is the maximum downtime tolerated by applications.
HyperSnap can back up data online, and requires a backup window that takes almost
zero time and does not interrupt services.
 Less occupied disk capacity

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 36

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

After creating a consistent copy of a source LUN, HyperSnap uses a COW volume to
save data on the source LUN at the snapshot point in time upon the first update. The size
of the COW volume is independent of the source LUN size but dependent on the amount
of data changed on the source LUN. If the amount of changed data is small, the snapshot
captures a consistent copy of the source LUN and uses a small disk space. The consistent
copy can be used for service tests, saving disk space.
 Quick data restoration
Data backed up using traditional offline backup methods cannot be read online.
Long-time data restoration is required before a usable duplicate of the source data that
was backed up at the specific point in time is available. HyperSnap can directly read the
snapshot volume to obtain data on the source volume at the snapshot point in time. This
allows it to quickly restore data in the case of data corruption on the source volume.
 Data consistency by consistency group
For OLTP applications, snapshots for multiple pieces of source LUN data must be
created at the same time. In this way, associated application data distributed on different
LUNs can be kept at the same point in time. For example, the management data, service
data, and log information of an Oracle database application are distributed on different
source LUNs. Consistent copies of the three source LUNs must be created at the same
time. Otherwise, the three source LUNs cannot be restored to the same point in time,
losing data dependency. HyperSnap provides snapshot consistency groups to resolve this
problem. I/Os on multiple source LUNs are frozen at the snapshot point in time, and a
snapshot is generated for the frozen I/Os.
 Continuous data protection through timing snapshots
OceanStor V5 mid-range series allows snapshots to be created for a source LUN at
multiple points in time. Working together with ReplicationDirector on the host,
HyperSnap can create or delete snapshots at minute-level intervals. In addition, a
snapshot policy can be set to automate the activation and stopping of snapshot tasks. As
time elapses, snapshots are generated at multiple points, implementing continuous data
protection at a low cost.
 Snapshot copy
A snapshot copy backs up the data of a snapshot at the snapshot activation point in time.
It does not back up data written to the snapshot after the snapshot activation point in time.
The snapshot copy and source snapshot share the COW volume space of the source LUN,
but the private space is independent. The snapshot copy is a writable snapshot and is
independent of the source snapshot. The read and write processes of a snapshot copy are
the same as those of a common snapshot.
Snapshot copy allows users to obtain multiple data copies of a snapshot for various
purposes.

5.1.2 HyperSnap for File

OceanStor V5 mid-range series uses HyperSnap to quickly generate a consistent image, that is,
a duplicate, for a source file system at a certain point in time without interrupting services
running on the source file system. This duplicate is available immediately after being
generated, and reading or writing the duplicate does not impact the data on the source file
system. HyperSnap helps with online backups, data analysis, and application testing.
HyperSnap can:
 Create file system snapshots and back up these snapshots to tapes.
 Provide data backups of the source file system so that end users can restore accidentally
deleted files.
 Work together with HyperReplication and HyperVault for remote replication and backup.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 37

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

HyperSnap works based on ROW file systems. In a ROW file system, new or modified data
does not overwrite the original data but instead is written to newly allocated storage space.
This ensures enhanced data reliability and high file system scalability. ROW-based
HyperSnap, used for file systems, can create snapshots in seconds. The snapshot data does not
occupy any additional disk space unless the source files are deleted or modified.

Technical Highlights
 Zero-duration backup window
A backup window refers to the maximum backup duration tolerated by applications
before data is lost. Traditional backup deteriorates file system performance, or can even
interrupt ongoing applications. Therefore, a traditional backup task can only be executed
after applications are stopped or if the workload is comparatively light. HyperSnap can
back up data online, and requires a backup window that takes almost zero time and does
not interrupt services.
 Snapshot creation within seconds
To create a snapshot for a file system, only the root node of the file system needs to be
copied and stored in caches and protected against power failure. This reduces the
snapshot creation time to seconds.
 Reduced performance loss
HyperSnap makes it easy to create snapshots for file systems. Only a small amount of
data needs to be stored on disks. After a snapshot is created, the system checks whether
data is protected by a snapshot before releasing the data space. If the data is protected by
a snapshot, the system records the space of the data block that is protected by the
snapshot but is deleted by the file system. This results in a negligible impact on system
performance. Background data space reclamation contends some CPU and memory
resources against file system services only when the snapshot is deleted. However,
performance loss remains low.
 Less occupied disk capacity
The file system space occupied by a snapshot (a consistent duplicate) of the source file
system depends on the amount of data that changed after the snapshot was generated.
This space never exceeds the size of the file system at the snapshot point in time. For a
file system with little changed data, only a small storage space is required to generate a
consistent duplicate of the file system.
 Rapid snapshot data access
A file system snapshot is presented in the root directory of the file system as an
independent directory. Users can access this directory to quickly access the snapshot data.
If snapshot rollback is not required, users can easily access the data at the snapshot point
in time. Users can also recover data by copying the file or directory if the file data in the
file system is corrupted.
If using a Windows client to access a CIFS-based file system, a user can restore a file or
folder to the state at a specific snapshot point in time. To be specific, a user can
right-click the desired file or folder, choose Restore previous versions from the
short-cut menu, and select one option for restoration from the displayed list of available
snapshots containing the previous versions of the file or folder.
 Quick file system rollback
Backup data generated by traditional offline backup tasks cannot be read online. A
time-consuming data recovery process is inevitable before a usable duplicate of the
source data at the backup point in time is available. HyperSnap can directly replace the
file system root with specific snapshot root and clear cached data to quickly roll the file
system back to a specific snapshot point in time.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 38

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

You must exercise caution when using the rollback function because snapshots created
after the rollback point in time are automatically deleted after a file system rollback
succeeds.
 Continuous data protection by timing snapshots
HyperSnap enables users to configure policies to automatically create snapshots at
specific time points or at specific intervals.
The maximum number of snapshots for a file system varies depending on the product
model. If the upper limit is exceeded, the earliest snapshots are automatically deleted.
The file system also allows users to periodically delete snapshots.
As time elapses, snapshots are generated at multiple points, implementing continuous
data protection at a low cost. It must be noted that snapshot technology cannot achieve
real continuous data protection. The interval between two snapshots determines the
granularity of continuous data protection.

5.2 HyperClone
5.2.1 HyperClone for Block
HyperClone generates a complete physical copy of a source LUN at a point in time without
interrupting ongoing services. If the clone is split, writing data to and reading data from the
physical copy do not affect source LUN data.

Working Principle
HyperClone is implemented through a combination of bitmap and COW, and a combination
of bitmap and dual-write (where data is written to the primary and secondary LUNs
simultaneously). The working principle is as follows:
After a secondary LUN is added to a clone group, all data in the primary LUN is replicated to
the secondary LUN by default. This is called initial synchronization, and a progress bitmap
reflects the synchronization process. If the primary LUN receives a write request from the
production host during initial synchronization, the storage system checks the synchronization
progress, and performs subsequent operations as follows:
 If the write-targeted data block has not been synchronized to the secondary LUN, data is
written to the primary LUN and the storage system notifies the host of a write success.
Then, the data is synchronized to the secondary LUN during the subsequent
synchronization task.
 If the write-targeted data block has already been synchronized, data is written to both the
primary and secondary LUNs.
 If the write-targeted data block is being synchronized, the storage system waits until the
data block is copied. Then, the storage system writes data to both the primary and
secondary LUNs.
After the initial synchronization is complete, the clone group can be split. After splitting the
clone group, the primary and secondary LUNs can be used separately for testing and data
analysis. Changing the data in a primary or secondary LUN does not affect the other LUN,
and the progress bitmap records data changes to both LUNs.
Figure 5-1 illustrates the HyperClone working principle.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 39

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Figure 5-1 HyperClone working principle

Technical Highlights
 1-to-16 mode
HyperClone allows you to assign a maximum of 16 secondary LUNs for a primary LUN.
A clone in 1-to-N mode can back up multiple copies of source data for various data
analyses.
 Zero-duration backup window
HyperClone backs up data without interrupting services, ensuring a backup window that
takes almost no time.
 Dynamic adjustment of copy speeds
You can manually change the copy speed to prevent conflicts between synchronization
tasks and a production services. If a storage system has detected that the service load is
heavy, you can manually lower the copy speed to free system resources for services.
When the service load is light, you can increase the copy speed to mitigate service
conflicts during peak hours.
 Reverse synchronization
If data on the primary LUN is incomplete or corrupted, you can recover the original
service data by performing incremental reverse synchronization from the secondary LUN
to the primary LUN.
 Automatic recovery
If a problem occurs, for example, the primary or secondary LUN fails, the corresponding
clone created on the system will enter a disconnected state. After this problem is resolved,
the clone is recovered based on a specified recovery policy.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 40

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

− If the specified policy is automatic recovery, the clone automatically enters the
synchronizing state, and differential data is incrementally synchronized to the
secondary LUN.
− If the specified policy is manual recovery, the clone waits to be recovered and you
must manually initiate synchronization.
Incremental synchronization greatly reduces the fault/disaster recovery time.
 Clone consistency group
In OLTP applications, you must, typically, simultaneously split multiple clone pairs to
obtain data copies at the same point in time. In this way, associated data that is
distributed to different LUNs can be maintained at the same point in time. HyperClone
can split multiple clone pairs simultaneously, freezing data on multiple primary LUNs at
the point in time at which the split was performed, and obtaining consistent copies of the
primary LUNs.

Application Scenarios
 Data backup
HyperClone can generate multiple physical copies of a primary volume and allow
multiple services to access data concurrently.
 Data recovery and protection
If primary LUN data is corrupted by a virus or human error, or is physically damaged, a
data copy from the secondary LUN taken at a suitable point in time can be reversely
copied to the primary LUN. Then, the primary LUN can be restored to its state when the
data copy was created.

5.2.2 HyperClone for File

HyperClone creates a clone file system, which is a copy, for a parent file system at a specified
point in time. Clone file systems can be shared to clients exclusively to meet the requirements
of rapid deployment, application tests, and DR drills.

Working Principle
A clone file system is a readable and writable copy taken from a point in time that is based on
redirect-on-write (ROW) and snapshot technologies.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 41

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Figure 5-2 Working principle of HyperClone for File

 As shown in Figure a, the storage system writes new or modified data onto the newly
allocated space of the ROW-based file system, instead of overwriting the original data.
The storage system records the point in time of each data write, indicating the write
sequence. The points in time are represented by serial numbers, in ascending order.
 As shown in Figure b, the storage system creates a clone file system as follows:
− Creates a read-only snapshot in the parent file system.
− Copies the root node of the snapshot to generate the root node of the clone file
system.
− Creates an initial snapshot in the clone file system.
This process is similar to the process of creating a read-only snapshot during which no
user data is copied. Snapshot creation can be completed in one or two seconds. Before
data is modified, the clone file system shares data with its parent file system.
 As shown in Figure c, modifying either the parent file system or the clone file system
does not affect the other system.
− When the application server modifies data block A of the parent file system, the
storage pool allocates new data block A1 to store new data. Data block A is not
released because it is protected by snapshots.
− When the application server modifies data block D of the clone file system, the
storage pool allocates new data block D1 to store new data. Data block D is not
released because its write time is earlier than the creation time of the clone file
system.
 Figure d shows the procedure for splitting a clone file system:
− Deletes all read-only snapshots from the clone file system.
− Traverses the data blocks of all objects in the clone file system, and allocates new
data blocks in the clone file system for the shared data by overwriting data. This splits
shared data.
− Deletes the associated snapshots from the parent file system.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 42

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

After splitting is complete, the clone file system is independent of the parent file system.
The time required to split the clone file system depends on the size of the share data.

Technical Highlights
 Rapid deployment
In most scenarios, a clone file system can be created in seconds and can be accessed
immediately after being created.
 Saved storage space
A clone file system shares data with its parent file system and occupies extra storage
space only when it modifies shared data.
 Effective performance assurance
HyperClone has a negligible impact on system performance because a clone file system
is created based on the snapshot of the parent file system.
 Splitting a clone file system
After a clone file system and its parent file system are split, they become completely
independent of each other.

5.3 HyperReplication
OceanStor V5 mid-range series uses HyperReplication in synchronous mode
(HyperReplication/S) and asynchronous mode (HyperReplication/A) to implement remote
replication. Developed on the OceanStor OS unified storage software platform, OceanStor V5
mid-range series is compatible with the replication protocols of all Huawei OceanStor
converged storage products. Therefore, OceanStor V5 mid-range series can interconnect with
all new or legacy Huawei converged storage systems to construct highly flexible disaster
recovery solutions.
OceanStor V5 mid-range series supports HyperReplication/S for Block, HyperReplication/A
for Block, and HyperReplication/A for File.

5.3.1 HyperReplication/S for Block

Working Principle
HyperReplication/S maintains data consistency between primary and secondary LUNs based
on a log mechanism. The working principle of HyperReplication/S is as follows:
After a synchronous remote replication relationship is established between primary and
secondary LUNs, initial synchronization is implemented to copy all data from the primary
LUN to the secondary LUN.
After initial synchronization is complete, I/Os are processed as follows:
1 The primary site receives a write request from a production host. HyperReplication sets
the differential log value to differential for the data block that corresponds to the request.
2 The requested data is written to both the primary and secondary LUNs. When writing
data to the secondary LUN, the primary site sends the data to the secondary site over a
preset link.
3 If data is successfully written to both the primary and secondary LUNs, the
corresponding differential log value is changed to non-differential. If data is not

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 43

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

successfully written, the value remains differential, and the data block is copied again
during the next synchronization.
4 The primary site returns a write acknowledgement to the production host.

Figure 5-3 Working principle of HyperReplication/S

Technical Highlights
 Zero data loss
HyperReplication/S synchronizes data from the primary LUN to the secondary LUN in
real time, ensuring zero recovery point objective (RPO).
 Support for the split mode
In split mode, write requests initiated by the production host are delivered only to the
primary LUN. This mode meets certain user needs, such as temporary link maintenance,
network bandwidth expansion, and data being saved at a certain point in time on the
secondary LUN.
 Primary/Secondary switchover
HyperReplication/S supports primary/secondary switchover. In the following figure, the
primary LUN at the primary site becomes the new secondary LUN after the switchover,
and the secondary LUN at the secondary site becomes the new primary LUN. This
process requires only some simple operations on the host side. The major operation,
which can be done in advance, is to map the new primary LUN to the standby production
host. Then, the standby production host at the secondary site takes over services and
delivers subsequent I/O requests to the new primary LUN.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 44

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Figure 5-4 Primary/Secondary switchover

 Support for consistency groups

HyperReplication/S provides the consistency group function to ensure that data is
simultaneously replicated among LUNs. HyperReplication/S allows you to add remote
replication pairs to a consistency group. When performing splitting, synchronization, or a
primary/secondary switchover for a consistency group, the operations apply to all
members of the consistency group. In addition, if a fault occurs, all members of the
consistency group enter simultaneously the disconnected state.

Figure 5-5 Consistency group of HyperReplication/S

Application Scenarios
HyperReplication/S applies to local data disaster recovery and backup, which are scenarios
where the primary site is near the secondary site. An example of this is intra-city disaster
recovery. For HyperReplication/S, a write success acknowledgement is returned to the
production host only after the data in the write request is written to both the primary site and

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 45

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

secondary site. If the primary site is far from the secondary site, the write latency of
foreground applications is relatively high, affecting foreground services.

5.3.2 HyperReplication/A for Block

Working Principle
The working principle of HyperReplication/A is similar to that of HyperReplication/S: After
an asynchronous remote replication relationship is set up between primary and secondary
LUNs, initial synchronization is implemented to copy all data from the primary LUN to the
secondary LUN. After the initial synchronization is complete, the data status of the secondary
LUN is changed to Synchronized or Consistent. Then, I/Os are processed as follows:
1. The primary site receives a write request from a production host.
2. The primary site writes the new data to the primary LUN and immediately sends a write
acknowledgement to the host.
3. Incremental data is automatically synchronized from the primary LUN to the secondary
LUN based on a user-defined synchronization period. This can range from 1 to 1440
minutes. (If the synchronization type is Manual, synchronization must be triggered
manually.)
4. Before synchronization begins, a snapshot is generated for the primary and secondary
LUNs respectively. The snapshot of the primary LUN ensures that the data read from the
primary LUN during synchronization remains unchanged. The snapshot of the secondary
LUN backs up the data of the secondary LUN in case an exception during
synchronization causes the data to become unavailable.
5. During synchronization, data is read from the snapshot of the primary LUN and copied
to the secondary LUN. After synchronization is complete, the snapshots of the primary
and secondary LUNs are discarded, and the system waits for the next synchronization.

Figure 5-6 Working principle of HyperReplication/A

Technical Highlights
 Data compression and data encryption
HyperReplication/A uses the AES-256 algorithm to support data encryption specific to
iSCSI links. It supports data compression specific to iSCSI links. The data compression

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 46

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

ratio varies significantly depending on service data type. The maximum compression
ratio of database services is 4:1.
 Quick response to host requests
After a host writes data to the primary LUN at the primary site, the primary site
immediately returns a write acknowledgement to the host before the data is written to the
secondary LUN. In addition, data is synchronized from the primary LUN to the
secondary LUN in the background, without impacting the access to the primary LUN.
HyperReplication/A does not synchronize incremental data from the primary LUN to the
secondary LUN in real time. Therefore, the amount of data lost is determined by the
synchronization period. This can range from 3 seconds (default value) to 1440 minutes,
and be specified based on site requirements.
 Splitting, primary/secondary switchover, and rapid fault recovery
HyperReplication/A supports splitting, synchronization, primary/secondary switchover,
and recovery functions.
 Consistency groups
You can create and delete consistency groups, create and delete HyperReplication pairs
in a consistency group, and split pairs. When performing splitting, synchronization, or a
primary/secondary switchover for a consistency group, the operations apply to all
members of the consistency group.

Application Scenarios
HyperReplication/A applies to remote data disaster recovery and backup, which are scenarios
where the primary and secondary sites are far from each other, or the network bandwidth is
limited. For HyperReplication/A, the write latency of foreground applications not affected by
the distance between the primary and secondary sites.

5.3.3 HyperReplication/A for File

HyperReplication/A supports the long-distance data disaster recovery of file systems. It copies
all content of a primary file system to the secondary file system. This implements remote
disaster recovery across data centers and minimizes the performance deterioration caused by
remote data transmission. HyperReplication/A also applies to file systems within a storage
system for local data disaster recovery, data backup, and data migration.
HyperReplication/A implements data replication based on the file system object layer, and
periodically synchronizes data between primary and secondary file systems. All data changes
made to the primary file system since the last synchronization will be synchronized to the
secondary file system.

Working Principle
 Object layer-based replication
HyperReplication/A implements data replication based on the object layer. The files,
directories, and file properties of file systems consist of objects. Object layer-based
replication copies objects from the primary file system to the secondary file system
without considering complex file-level information, such as dependency between files
and directories, and file operations, simplifying the replication process.
 Periodical replication based on ROW
HyperReplication/A implements data replication based on ROW snapshots.
− Periodic replication improves replication efficiency and bandwidth utilization. During
a replication period, the data that was written most recently is always copied. For

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 47

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

example, if data in the same file location is modified multiple times, the data written
last is copied.
− File systems and their snapshots employ ROW to process data writes. Regardless of
whether a file system has a snapshot, data is always written to the new address space,
and service performance will not decrease even if snapshots are created. Therefore,
HyperReplication/A has a slight impact on production service performance.
Written data is periodically replicated to the secondary file system in the background.
Replication periods are defined by users. The addresses, rather than the content of incremental
data blocks in each period, are recorded. During each replication period, the secondary file
system is incomplete before all incremental data is completely transferred to the secondary
file system.
After the replication period ends and the secondary file system becomes a point of data
consistency, a snapshot is created for the secondary file system. If the next replication period
is interrupted because the production center malfunctions or the link goes down,
HyperReplication/A can restore the secondary file system data to the last snapshot point,
ensuring consistent data.

Figure 5-7 Working principle of HyperReplication/A for File

1. The production storage system receives a write request from a production host.
2. The production storage system writes the new data to the primary file system and
immediately sends a write acknowledgement to the host.
3. When a replication period starts, HyperReplication/A creates a snapshot for the primary
file system.
4. The production storage system reads and replicates snapshot data to the secondary file
system based on the incremental information received since the last synchronization.
5. After incremental replication is complete, the content of the secondary file system is the
same as the snapshot of the primary file system. The secondary file system becomes the
point of data consistency.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 48

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Technical Highlights
 Splitting and incremental resynchronization
If you want to suspend data replication from the primary file system to the secondary file
system, you can split the remote replication pair. For HyperReplication/A, splitting will
stop the ongoing replication process and later periodical replication.
After splitting, if the host writes new data, the incremental information will be recorded.
You can start a synchronization session after splitting. During resynchronization, only
incremental data is replicated.
Splitting applies to device maintenance scenarios, such as storage array upgrades and
replication link changes. In such scenarios, splitting can reduce the number of concurrent
tasks so that the system becomes more reliable. The replication tasks will be resumed or
restarted after maintenance.
 Automatic recovery
If data replication from the primary file system to the secondary file system is interrupted
due to a fault, remote replication enters the interrupted state. If the host writes new data
when remote replication is in this state, the incremental information will be recorded.
After the fault is rectified, remote replication is automatically recovered, and incremental
resynchronization is automatically implemented.
 Readable and writable secondary file system and incremental failback
Normally, a secondary file system is readable but not writable. When accessing a
secondary file system, the host reads the data on snapshots generated during the last
backup. After the next backup is completed, the host reads the data on the new snapshots.
A readable and writable secondary file system applies to scenarios in which backup data
must be accessed during replication.
You can set a secondary file system to readable and writable if the following conditions
are met:
− Initial synchronization has been implemented. For HyperReplication/A, data on the
secondary file system is in the complete state after initial synchronization.
− The remote replication pair is in the split or interrupted state.
If data is being replicated from the primary file system to the secondary file system (the
data is inconsistent on the primary and secondary file systems) and you set the secondary
file system to readable and writable, HyperReplication/A restores the data in the
secondary file system to the point in time at which the last snapshot was taken.
After the secondary file system is set to readable and writable, HyperReplication/A
records the incremental information about data that the host writes to the secondary file
system for subsequent incremental resynchronization. After replication recovery, you can
replicate incremental data from the primary file system to the secondary file system or
from the secondary file system to the primary file system (a primary/secondary
switchover is required before synchronization). Before a replication session starts,
HyperReplication/A restores target end data to a point in time at which a snapshot was
taken and the data was consistent with source end data. Then, HyperReplication/A
performs incremental resynchronization from the source end to the target end.
Readable and writable secondary file systems are commonly used in disaster recovery
scenarios.
 Primary/Secondary switchover
Primary/secondary switchover exchanges the roles of the primary and secondary file
systems. These roles determine the direction in which the data is copied. Data is always
copied from the primary file system to the secondary file system.
Primary/secondary switchover is commonly used for failback during disaster recovery.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 49

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

 Quick response to host I/Os

All I/Os generated during file system asynchronous remote replication are processed in
the background. A write success acknowledgement is returned immediately after host
data is written to the cache. Incremental information is recorded and snapshots are
created only when data is flushed from cache to disks. Therefore, host I/Os can be
responded to quickly.

5.4 HyperMetro
HyperMetro, an array-level active-active technology provided by OceanStor V5 mid-range
series, enables two storage systems to work in active-active mode in two different locations
up to 100 km away from each other. For example, the systems could be in the same equipment
room or just in the same city.
OceanStor V5 mid-range series supports both HyperMetro for Block and HyperMetro for
File.

5.4.1 HyperMetro for Block

HyperMetro allows two LUNs from two storage arrays to maintain real-time data consistency
and to be accessible to hosts. If one storage array fails, hosts automatically choose the path to
the other storage array for service access. If the links between the storage arrays are
interrupted, a quorum server deployed at a third location determines which storage array
continues providing services.
HyperMetro supports both Fibre Channel and IP networking (GE/10GE).

Figure 5-8 Architecture of HyperMetro for Block

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 50

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Technical Highlights
 Gateway-free active-active solution
Simple networking makes deployment easy. The gateway-free design improves
reliability and performance because it ensures one less possible failure point, and
eliminates the 0.5 ms to 1 ms latency caused by a gateway.
 Active-active mode
Storage arrays in two data centers are accessible to hosts, implementing load balancing
across data centers.
 Site access optimization
UltraPath is optimized specifically for active-active scenarios. It can identify region
information to reduce cross-site access, reducing latency. UltraPath can read data from
the local or remote storage array. However, when the local storage array is working
properly, UltraPath preferentially reads data from and writes data to the local storage
array. This prevents data reads and writes across data centers.
 FastWrite
In a common SCSI write process, a write request goes back and forth twice between two
data centers to complete two interactions, Write Alloc and Write Data. FastWrite
optimizes the storage transmission protocol and reserves cache space on the destination
array for receiving write requests. Write Alloc is omitted and only one interaction is
required. FastWrite halves the time required for data synchronization between two arrays,
improving the overall performance of the HyperMetro solution.
 Service granularity-based arbitration
If links between two sites fail, HyperMetro can enable some services to run
preferentially in data center A and others in data center B based on service configurations.
Compared with traditional arbitration, where only one data center provides services,
HyperMetro improves resource usage of hosts and storage systems and balances service
loads. Service granularity-based arbitration is implemented based on LUNs or
consistency groups.
 Automatic link quality adaptation
If multiple links exist between two data centers, HyperMetro automatically balances
loads among links based on the quality of each link. The system dynamically monitors
link quality and adjusts the load ratio between links to minimize the retransmission rate
and improve network performance.
 Compatibility with other features
HyperMetro can work with SmartThin, SmartTier, SmartQoS, and SmartCache.
HyperMetro can enable heterogeneous LUNs managed by the SmartVirtualization
feature to work in A/A mode. HyperMetro can also work with HyperSnap, HyperClone,
HyperMirror, and HyperReplication to form a more complex, advanced data protection
solution, such as the Disaster Recovery Data Center Solution (Geo-Redundant Mode),
which uses local A/A and remote replication.
 Dual quorum servers
HyperMetro supports dual quorum servers. If one quorum server fails, its services are
seamlessly switched to the other, preventing a single point of failure (SPOF) and
improving the reliability of the HyperMetro solution.

5.4.2 HyperMetro for File

HyperMetro enables hosts to virtualize the file systems of two storage systems as a single file
system on a single storage system. In addition, HyperMetro keeps data in both of these file

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 51

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

systems consistent. Data is read from or written to the primary storage system, and is
synchronized to the secondary storage system in real time. If the primary storage system fails,
HyperMetro uses vStore to switch services to the secondary storage system, without losing
any data or interrupting any applications.
HyperMetro provides the following benefits:
 High availability with geographic protection
 Easy management
 Minimal risk of data loss, reduced system downtime, and quick disaster recovery
 Negligible disruption to users and client applications
HyperMetro supports both Fibre Channel and IP networking (GE/10GE).

Figure 5-9 Architecture of HyperMetro for File

Technical Highlights
 Gateway-free solution
With the gateway-free design, host I/O requests do not need to be forwarded by storage
gateway, avoiding corresponding I/O forwarding latency and gateway failures and
improving reliability. In addition, the design simplifies the cross-site high availability
(HA) network, making maintenance easier.
 Simple networking
The data replication, configuration synchronization, and heartbeat detection links share
the same network, simplifying the networking. Either IP or Fibre Channel links can be
used between storage systems, making it possible for HyperMetro to work on all-IP
networks, improving cost-effectiveness.
 vStore-based HyperMetro

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 52

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Traditional cross-site HA solutions typically deploy cluster nodes at two sites to

implement cross-site HA. These solutions, however, have limited flexibility in resource
configuration and distribution. HyperMetro can establish pair relationships between two
vStores at different sites, implementing real-time mirroring of data and configurations.
Each vStore pair has an independent arbitration result, providing true cross-site HA
capabilities at the vStore level. HyperMetro also enables applications to run more
efficiently at two sites, ensuring better load balancing. A vStore pair includes a primary
vStore and a secondary vStore. If either of the storage systems in the HyperMetro
solution fail or if the links connecting them go down, HyperMetro implements
arbitration on a per vStore pair basis. Paired vStores are mutually redundant, maintaining
service continuity in the event of a storage system failure.

Figure 5-10 vStore-based HyperMetro architecture

 Automatic recovery
If site A breaks down, site B becomes the primary site. Once site A recovers, HyperMetro
automatically initiates resynchronization. When resynchronization is complete, the
HyperMetro pair returns to its normal state. If site B then breaks down, site A becomes
the primary site again to maintain host services.
 Easy upgrade
To use the HyperMetro feature, upgrade your storage system software to the latest
version and purchase the required feature license. You can establish a HyperMetro
solution between the upgraded storage system and another storage system, without the
need for extra data migration. Users are free to include HyperMetro in initial
configurations or add it later as required.
 FastWrite
In a common SCSI write process, a write request goes back and forth twice between two
data centers to complete two interactions, Write Alloc and Write Data. FastWrite
optimizes the storage transmission protocol and reserves cache space on the destination

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 53

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

array for receiving write requests, while Write Alloc is omitted and only one interaction
is required. FastWrite halves the time required for data synchronization between two
arrays, improving the overall performance of the HyperMetro solution.
 Self-adaptation to link quality
If there are multiple links between two data centers, HyperMetro automatically
implements load balancing among these links based on quality. The system dynamically
monitors link quality and adjusts the load ratio between links to minimize the
retransmission rate and improve network performance.
 Compatibility with other features
HyperMetro can be used with SmartThin, SmartQoS, and SmartCache. HyperMetro can
also work with HyperVault, HyperSnap, and HyperReplication to form a more complex
and advanced data protection solution, such as the Disaster Recovery Data Center
Solution (Geo-Redundant Mode), which uses HyperMetro and HyperReplication.
 Dual quorum servers
HyperMetro supports dual quorum servers. If one quorum server fails, its services are
seamlessly switched to the other, preventing a single point of failure (SPOF) and
improving the reliability of the HyperMetro solution.

5.5 HyperVault
OceanStor V5 mid-range series provides an all-in-one backup feature called HyperVault to
implement file system data backup and recovery within or between storage systems.
HyperVault can work in either of the following modes:
 Local backup
Data backup within a storage system. HyperVault works with HyperSnap to periodically
back up a file system, generate backup copies, and retain these copies based on
user-configured policies. By default, five backup copies are retained for a file system.
 Remote backup
Data backup between storage systems. HyperVault works with HyperReplication to
periodically back up a file system. The process is as follows:
1. A backup snapshot is created for the primary storage system.
2. The incremental data between the backup snapshot and its previous snapshot is
synchronized to the secondary storage system.
3. After data is synchronized, a snapshot is created on the secondary storage system.
By default, 35 snapshots can be retained on the backup storage system.

Technical Highlights
 High cost efficiency
HyperVault can be seamlessly integrated into the primary storage system and provide
data backup without additional backup software. Huawei-developed storage management
software, OceanStor DeviceManager, allows you to configure flexible backup policies
and efficiently perform data backup.
 Fast data backup
HyperVault works with HyperSnap to achieve second-level local data backup. For
remote backup, the system performs full backup the first time, and then only backs up

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 54

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

incremental data blocks. This allows HyperVault to provide faster data backup than
software that backs up data every time.
 Fast data recovery
HyperVault uses snapshot rollback technology to implement local data recovery, without
requiring additional data resolution. This allows it to achieve second-level data recovery.
Remote recovery, which is incremental data recovery, can be used when local recovery
cannot meet requirements. Each copy of backup data is a logically full backup of service
data. The backup data is saved in its original format and can be accessed immediately.
 Simple management
Only one primary storage system, one backup storage system, and native management
software, OceanStor DeviceManager, are required. This mode is simpler and easier to
manage than old network designs, which contain primary storage, backup software, and
backup media.

5.6 HyperCopy
OceanStor V5 mid-range series uses HyperCopy to copy data from a source LUN to a target
LUN within a storage system or between storage systems.
HyperCopy implements full copy, which copies all data from a source LUN to a target LUN.
Figure 5-11 illustrates the working principle of HyperCopy.

Figure 5-11 HyperCopy working principle

1. A user suspends services to which HyerCopy is applied.

This prevents services from being interrupted during full LUN copy.
2. A user triggers full LUN copy.
Data can be copied to a target LUN over a Fibre Channel or IP link. The target LUN's
capacity must be greater than or equal to that of the source LUN. Otherwise, data cannot
be copied successfully.
During copying, the progress is displayed.
OceanStor V5 mid-range series can implement full LUN copy by reading snapshot volumes
without interrupting services, ensuring a zero backup window.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 55

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Technical Highlights
 Multiple copy methods
OceanStor V5 mid-range series supports LUN copy within one storage system and
between storage systems. Data can be copied from the local/target storage system to the
target/local storage system. One-to-many LUN copy is provided to generate multiple
copies for a source LUN.
 Dynamic adjustment of the copy speed
HyperCopy allows a storage system to dynamically adjust the copy speed so that LUN
copy does not affect production services. When a storage system detects that the service
load is heavy, it dynamically lowers the LUN copy speed to make system resources
available to services. When the service load is light, the storage system dynamically
increases the copy speed, mitigating service conflicts in peak hours.
 Support for third-party storage systems
LUN copy can be implemented within OceanStor storage systems or between OceanStor
storage systems and Huawei-certified third-party storage systems. Table 5-1 outlines the
storage systems supported by LUN copy.

Table 5-1 Storage systems supported by LUN copy

Storage System Where a OceanStor Storage Huawei-Certified

Source LUN Resides System Where a Target Third-Party Storage
LUN Resides System Where a Target
LUN Resides
OceanStor storage system Supported Supported
Huawei-certified third-party Supported N/A
storage system

 IP network-based LUN copy

Regarding LUN copies between storage systems, most vendors in the industry support
only Fibre Channel-based LUN copy. OceanStor V5 mid-range series supports both
Fibre Channel-based and IP network-based LUN copies. Customers can flexibly choose
between these based on their site requirements. Furthermore, with the popularization of
IP networks, IP network–based LUN copy features low costs, easy deployment, and
simple maintenance.

5.7 HyperMirror
OceanStor V5 mid-range series uses HyperMirror for volume mirroring.
HyperMirror creates two physical copies for a LUN. The space for each copy can come from
either a local storage pool or an external LUN, with each copy having the same virtual storage
capacity as its mirror LUN. When a server writes data to a mirror LUN, the storage system
simultaneously writes the data to the LUN's copies. When a server reads data from a mirror
LUN, the storage system reads data from one copy of the mirror LUN. Even if one mirror
copy of a mirror LUN is temporarily unavailable (for example, when the storage system
where the storage pool resides is unavailable), servers can still access the LUN. Then, the
storage system records the LUN areas to which data has been written and synchronizes these
areas after the mirror copy recovers.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 56

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Working Principle
HyperMirror implementation involves mirror LUN creation, synchronization, and splitting.
Mirror LUN creation
Figure 5-12 shows the process for creating a mirror LUN.

Figure 5-12 Process for creating a mirror LUN

1. A user creates a mirror LUN for a local or external LUN. The mirror LUN has the same
storage space, properties, and services as the source LUN. Host services are not
interrupted during creation.
2. Local mirror copy A is automatically generated during mirror LUN creation. The storage
space is swapped from the mirror LUN to mirror copy A. Mirror copy A synchronizes
data from the mirror LUN.
3. A user creates mirror copy B for the mirror LUN, and mirror copy B copies data from
mirror copy A. In doing so, the LUN with mirror copies A and B has the space mirroring
function.
The following describes the process when a host sends an I/O request to the mirror LUN.
1 When a host sends a read request to the mirror LUN, the storage system reads data from
the mirror LUN and its mirror copies in round-robin mode. If the mirror LUN or one
mirror copy malfunctions, host services are not interrupted.
2 When a host sends a write request to the mirror LUN, the storage system writes data to
the mirror LUN and its mirror copies in dual-write mode.
Synchronization
Figure 5-13 illustrates the synchronization process. When a mirror copy recovers from a fault
or the data on a mirror copy becomes complete, that mirror copy copies incremental data from
the other mirror copy. This ensures data consistency between the mirror copies.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 57

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Figure 5-13 Synchronization process

Dual Write After the

Synchronization
Synchronization

Mirror LUN Mirror copy

Host

Write data d to
Initial synchronization: A full copy is performed replace data a.
in the initial synchronization.
Mirror LUN Mirror copy Mirror LUN Mirror copy

Incremental synchronization: An incremental copy When the host sends a write request, the same
is performed when a mirror copy recovers from a data is written to both the mirror LUN and mirror
splited or interrupted state. copy (dual write).

Data already stored Internal signal flow in the Host signal

Data to be stored storage system flow

Splitting
A mirror copy can be split from its mirror LUN. After the mirror copy is split, the mirror LUN
cannot perform mirroring on the mirror copy. Subsequent data changes made between the
mirror copy and the mirror LUN are recorded by the DCL for incremental data
synchronization when the mirroring relationship is restored.

Figure 5-14 Splitting

Mirror Copy After
the Splitting

Splitting a Pair

Mirror copy Mirror copy

Host

Mirror LUN Mirror LUN

Mirror copy Mirror copy

After the split, data is no longer written to the mirror LUN and mirror copy A
After a pair is split, data synchronization between in dual-write mode. The data host of mirror copy A becomes unavailable,
the mirror LUN and mirror copy A is no longer but mirror copy B can still work normally. Therefore, host services are not
implemented. interrupted.
Subsequent data changes made between mirror copy A and the mirror LUN
are recorded by the DCL for incremental data synchronization.

Data already Internal signal flow in

the storage system Host signal flow
stored

Technical Highlights
 High data reliability within a storage system
HyperMirror creates two independent mirror copies for a LUN. If one mirror copy
malfunctions, host services are not interrupted, significantly improving data reliability.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 58

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

 Robust data reliability of heterogeneous storage systems

When SmartVirtualization is used to take over LUNs of heterogeneous storage systems,
HyperMirror is employed to create a mirror LUN and local mirror copies for each
heterogeneous LUN. Services will not be interrupted if heterogeneous storage systems
are unstable or their links are down.
 Minor impact on host performance
Mirror copies generated by HyperMirror reside in the cache of their LUN, and
concurrent write and round-robin read technologies are implemented between mirror
spaces. This ensures host service performance is not affected.
 Ensured host service continuity
HyperMirror allows mirror copies to be created online for ongoing LUNs. In this way,
host services are unaware of any changes made to LUN data space.

5.8 HyperLock
With the explosive growth of information, increasing importance has been pinned on secure
access and application. To comply with laws and regulations, important data such as case
documents from courts, medical records, and financial documents can be read but not written
within a specific period. Therefore, measures must be taken to prevent such data from being
tampered with. In the storage industry, Write Once Read Many (WORM) is the most common
method used to archive and back up data, ensure secure data access, and prevent data
tampering.
Huawei's WORM feature is called HyperLock. A file protected by WORM can enter the
read-only state immediately after data is written to it. In the read-only state, the file can be
read, but cannot be deleted, modified, or renamed. WORM can prevent data from being
tampered with, meeting the data security requirements of enterprises and organizations.
File systems that WORM has been configured for are called WORM file systems and can
only be configured by administrators. There are two WORM modes:
 Regulatory Compliance WORM (WORM-C for short): applies to archive scenarios
where data protection mechanisms are implemented to comply with laws and
regulations.
 Enterprise WORM (WORM-E): mainly used by enterprises for internal control.

Working Principle
With WORM, data can be written to files once only, and cannot be rewritten, modified,
deleted, or renamed. If a common file system is protected by WORM, files in the WORM file
system can be read only within the protection period. After WORM file systems are created,
they must be mapped to application servers using the NFS or CIFS protocol.
WORM enables files in a WORM file system to be shifted between initial state, locked state,
appending state, and expired state, preventing important data from being tampered with
within a specified period. Figure 5-15 shows how a file shifts from one state to another.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 59

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Figure 5-15 File state shifting

1. Initial to locked: A file can be shifted from the initial state to the locked state using the
following methods:
− If the automatic lock mode is enabled, the file automatically enters the locked state
after a change is made and a specific period of time expires.
− You can manually set the file to the locked state. Before locking the file, you can
specify a protection period for the file or use the default protection period.
2. Locked to locked: In the locked state, you can manually extend the protection periods of
files. Protection periods cannot be shortened.
3. Locked to expired: After the WORM file system compliance clock reaches the file
overdue time, the file shifts from the locked state to the expired state.
4. Expired to locked: You can extend the protection period of a file to shift it from the
expired state to the locked state.
5. Locked to appending: You can delete the read-only permission of a file to shift it from
the locked state to the appending state.
6. Appending to locked: You can manually set a file in the appending state to the locked
state to ensure that it cannot be modified.
7. Expired to appending: You can manually set a file in the expired state to the appending
state.
You can save files to WORM file systems and set the WORM properties of the files to the
locked state based on service requirements. Figure 5-16 shows the reads and writes of files in
all states in a WORM file system.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 60

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

Figure 5-16 Read and write of files in a WORM file system

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 61

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 5 Hyper Series Features

5.9 3DC
OceanStor V5 mid-range series can be used in various SAN and NAS disaster recovery
solutions.
SAN 3DC solutions are deployed on:
 Cascading/Parallel networks equipped with HyperMetro + HyperReplication/S
 Cascading/Parallel networks equipped with HyperMetro + HyperReplication/A
 Ring networks equipped with HyperMetro + HyperReplication/A
 Cascading/Parallel networks equipped with HyperReplication/S + HyperReplication/A
 Cascading/Parallel networks equipped with HyperReplication/A + HyperReplication/A
 Ring networks equipped with HyperReplication/S + HyperReplication/A
NAS 3DC solutions are deployed on:
 Cascading/Parallel networks equipped with HyperMetro + HyperReplication/A
 Cascading/Parallel networks equipped with HyperMetro + HyperVault
 Cascading/Parallel networks equipped with HyperReplication/A + HyperReplication/A
Two data centers equipped with HyperMetro or HyperReplication/S + HyperReplication/A
can be flexibly expanded to three data centers without requiring external gateways.
For details about 3DC solutions supported by OceanStor V5 mid-range series, visit
http://storage.huawei.com/en/index.html.

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 62

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper 6 Best Practices

6 Best Practices

For best practices of OceanStor V5 mid-range series, visit:

http://storage.huawei.com/en/html/OceanStor_V5_en.html

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 63

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper A Appendix

A Appendix

A.1 More Information

For more information about OceanStor V5 mid-range series, visit:
http://e.huawei.com/en/products/cloud-computing-dc/storage/massive-storage/5300-5500-560
0-5800-v5
For more information about Huawei storage, visit:
http://e.huawei.com/en/products/cloud-computing-dc/storage
For after-sales support, visit our technical support website:
http://support.huawei.com/enterprise/en
For pre-sales support, visit the following website:
http://e.huawei.com/en/how-to-buy/contact-us
You can also contact your local Huawei office:
http://e.huawei.com/en/branch-office

A.2 Feedback
Huawei welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation. If you have comments,
please send your feedback to [email protected].
We seriously consider all suggestions we receive and will strive to make necessary changes to
the document in the next release.

A.3 Acronyms and Abbreviations

Table A-1 Acronyms and abbreviations

Acronym and Abbreviation Full Spelling

AK Authentication Key
BBU Backup Battery Unit
CK Chunk

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 64

Huawei OceanStor 5300, 5500, 5600, and 5800 V5
Mid-Range Hybrid Flash Storage Systems
Technical White Paper A Appendix

Acronym and Abbreviation Full Spelling

CKG Chunk Group
CIFS Common Internet File System
COW Copy-On-Write
DCL Data Change Log
DEK Data Encryption Key
DIX Data Integrity Extensions
DoD Department of Defense
eDevLUN External Device LUN
HA High Availability
KMS Key Manager Server
LRU Least Recently Used
NDMP Network Data Management Protocol
NFS Network File System
ODX Offload Data Transfer
OLAP Online Analytical Processing
OLTP Online Transaction Processing
RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks
RPO Recovery Point Objective
ROW Redirect-On-Write
SED Self-Encrypting Drive
SPOF Single Point of Failure
SRM Site Recovery Manager
SCOM System Center Operations Manager
SCVMM System Center Virtual Machine Manager
TCO Total Cost of Ownership
VAAI VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration
VASA vStorage APIs for Software Awareness
WWN World Wide Name
WORM Write Once Read Many

Issue 01 (2018-07-31) Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 65