Slideshow

Inside D-Link's xStack DSN-3200-10 iSCSI SAN array

8 Photos James Hutchinson (Good Gear Guide)

We take a look into D-Link's 3U SAN array to see what makes it tick

  • Drive trays will accept any standard 3.5in SATA 2 hard drive and are fully hot-swappable.

  • We have already opened up D-Link's [[Artnid:304882|2U xStack DSN-2100-10 Storage Area Network (SAN) array|In pictures: Taking apart D-Link's xStack DSN-2100-10 SAN array]]. The D-Link xStack DSN-3200-10 is a larger, 3U SAN array that provides increased storage, greater network flexibility and better reliability in case of power failures.

  • There is a lot of room inside the xStack DSN-3200-10 SAN array, providing plenty of space you need to conduct maintenance or replace parts and aiding airflow. Three fans are provided in total, with two pushing air across the motherboard and a third cooling the power supplies. Each fan has a carry handle and can be inserted and removed by pulling.

  • The eight Gigabit Ethernet ports support IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Groups (LAG), so you can set up two groups of four Ethernet ports for a bandwidth of 425 megabytes per second for each group. Full offload capability is provided, and the xStack DSN-3200-10 SAN array can be assigned a separate IP address for each group, effectively providing two storage networks. The 10 gigabit iSCSI solution provides plenty of headroom for the two LAG groups, and there is redundancy in case of Ethernet failover.

  • D-Link uses an embedded "System-on-a-Chip" (SoC) which combines an iSCSI controller, processor, storage virtualisation firmware and offload capabilities in a single component. This improves reliability (because you don't have to worry about compatibility) and increases I/O operation speeds. Along with the 10 gigabit bandwidth for iSCSI commands, the xStack DSN-3200-10 SAN array is capable of 65,000 I/O operations per second.

    The four DIMM slots can be configured to fit 4GB of DDR1 memory reserved for the disk write cache. This is protected by a 6500mAh Li-Ion battery to keep the cache safe for 72 hours after power failure. System memory can also be configured to a total of 512MB of DDR1 RAM.

  • Drive bays on the D-Link xStack DSN-3200-10 SAN array are aligned vertically for easy accessibility. The array supports JBOD as well as RAID0, 1, 1+0 and 5 drive configurations.

  • Eight host Gigabit Ethernet connections are provided in total, along with a ninth Ethernet port for management purposes and an RS-232 diagnostic port.

    Three power supplies ensure the xStack DSN-3200-10 SAN array won't go down if one of the supplies fails. A status light on each power supply indicates if it is operational or faulty; you can swap the faulty power supply for a new one without any downtime. The power supplies are rated at 400W each and are interchangeable with the DSN-2100-10 SAN array. D-Link quotes power consumption for the xStack DSN-3200-10 SAN array at 570W when fully configured, so it will require two of the power supplies to be functioning in order to operate properly.

  • The D-Link xStack DSN-3200-10 SAN array features 15 drive bays but doesn't come with any drives. Standard 3.5in SATA 2 hard drives are accepted for a potential 30TB of total storage. The drive bays sit behind a lockable perforated grill which also has status LEDs to indicate operation and power for each individual drive.

Show Comments
Security Watch
Back to top

Don’t have an account? Sign up here

Don't have an account? Sign up now

Forgot password?