LSI, known mostly for their I/O controller chips and storage adapters, is expanding their line of customizable storage systems. The new CTS2600 family offers their channel partners the ability to buy complete storage systems, with custom branding options for both the hardware and software.
LSI CTS2600, 24x2.5" model
LSI has two 2U chassis: one offering 12 slots for 3.5 inch drives, and one with a 24-drive capacity when using 2.5 inch drives. Both support drives with 6Gb/s SAS interconnects. For connecting to other systems, various options are available:
- 6 Gb/s SAS
- 1 Gb/s iSCSI
- 8 Gb/s FC
Notice the lack of 10 Gb/s iSCSI support? I’m pretty sure there will be a 10 Gb/s option in the near future, but if I were planning to offer storage systems based on these units I’d be sure to get some official statement on that. Apart from that there is one other item that caught my eye:
The units can be stacked together to provide a 96-drive system (when using the 24-drive chassis obviously) that can be managed as a single entity. The performance figures quoted for this are:
- Maximum sustained transfer rate: 4,000 MB/s
- IOs per second from cache: 140,000
- IOs per second from drives: 40,000
The press release says these units support Solid State Drives; when using even a single chassis filled with SSDs these figures should be much higher. If this is a controller limitation, many companies using the chassis will hit this sooner or later when they invest in SSDs. Fortunately all major components including the controllers are redundant and hot-swappable, so if this turns out to be a limiting factor LSI might choose to release a faster controller model in the future.
LSI CTS2600, 12x3.5" model
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