Introduction to Next Gen Dell EMC Unity
Gen2 vs Gen1
In general, the second generation Unity systems have more cores per CPU and memory when compared with the hardware introduced last year. Does that mean there must be an improvement in performance? Yes, the maximum IOPS that the new generation hardware can handle is slightly increased when compared to the older generation. Another important thing to note is that Dell EMC is going all in on All Flash and this year in the Unity product line there is no new introduction of hybrid models (spinning disks + SSD’s). The new Unity models 350F, 450F, 550F and 650F are all Flash and does not support spinning disks. Here is a table that summarizes the improvements.
| Unity 350F | Unity 450F | Unity 550F | Unity 650F | |
| Processor | Intel E5-2603v4 6-core, 1.7 GHz | Intel E5-2630v4 10-core, 2.2 GHz | Intel E5-2660v4 14-core, 2.0 GHz | Intel E5-2680v4 14-core, 2.4 GHz |
| Memory | 48GB (3x 16GB DIMMs) – per SP | 64GB (4x 16GB DIMMs) – per SP | 128GB (4x 32GB DIMMs) – per SP | 256GB (4x 64GB DIMMs) – per SP |
| Minimum/Maximum drives | 6/150 | 6/250 | 6/500 | 6/1000 |
| Maximum raw capacity* | 2.4 PBs | 4.0 PBs | 8.0 PBs | 16.0 PBs ** |
| Max IO modules | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Max LUN Size | 256 TB | 256 TB | 256 TB | 256 TB |
| Max LUNs per array | 1,000 | 1,500 | 2,000 | 4,000 |
| Max File System Size | 256 TB | 256 TB | 256 TB | 256 TB |
*Maximum raw capacity may vary.
**Unity 650F raw capacity is a 2x increase when compared with Unity 600F.
The look of the hardware remains the same and there is no change in the aesthetics. But on the inside, things have changed so much with the introduction of Unity OE 4.2. Before we jump on to what new in the software, Dell EMC has introduced 80 drive DAE this year. This 80 drive DAE is compatible with all generation hardware. It can work with a Gen1 hybrid, all flash arrays, and Gen2 all flash arrays.
80 Drive DAE
The 80 drive DAE is a dense DAE that accommodates eighty 3.5″ drives and the drives used in this DAE cannot be used in fifteen drive DAE. The new 80 drive DAE supports connecting to all generation Unity hardware. The backend connection can be x4 lanes SAS or x8 lanes SAS.
If you would like to read about Unity DPE, other DAE types and the internal components of Unity DPE check out my post Unity hardware architecture.
New features in Unity OE 4.2
Unity OE 4.2 release is a major update of this year and here is a list of most notable ones, (click the arrow to expand and read)
I will be publishing separate posts detailing the most important features of Unity OE release 4.2. Stay tuned!
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