HPE PRIMERA

With the introduction of HPE Primera, lots of questions come up about the internal components and makeup of the new storage array. Is it Nimble or is it 3PAR? Is it all-flash or is it NVMe? Can it support spinning disks? This post is a living doc (I’ll update as I get questions or answers).

Is it Nimble or 3PAR?
That’s a tricky question – however it shares a lot with 3PAR but marries the extreme capabilities of 3PAR arrays with the simplicity of Nimble and the deep integration of Infosight. While 3PAR has Infosight support, it is not complete like Nimble’s integration.

Is it all-flash? Is it NVMe?
According to staff, it is flash storage on SAS in the array. It is not NVMe flash storage. NVMe uses the PCI bus to take advantage of the native capabilities of flash storage, but the NVMe transport lacks a lot of maturity and capabilities needed in enterprise storage arrays – like multipathing – so this is not a shocking revelation. NVMe will come in the future and the arrays are engineered to support it.

Does it support spinning disks?
Why yes, it does. But it does not do automatic tiering like the 3PAR arrays before it. Spinning disk can be added to the array as a discrete tier and could be used for archival. With a strong focus on Tier 0/Mission Critical targets, its unsurprising that the company chose to remove some data services, like tiering.

Is the array self-installable or does it require services for install?
HPE Primera arrays are self-installable. In line with the goals to make the arrays radically simpler than any other mission critical storage array, the 4U chassis is able to be installed by a customer and no longer requires services.

What is the Timeless Storage feature of HPE Primera?
Seems like HPE is chasing Pure Storage and their Evergreen refresh model with HPE Primera. Timeless Storage allows customers to do in the field, non-disruptive controller upgrades. No more fork-lift upgrades according to the marketing.

What is the Services-Centric OS feature of HPE Primera?
HPE Primera’s OS has been architected to decouple the data services from the core OS – much like microservices architecture in modern, cloud-native applications. This allows HPE to release and upgrade software on a continual basis, without disruption.

Does Primera miss any features that are in 3PAR?
HPE Primera does not support native File capabilities. The first release of Primera will not have VVOL support.

Disclaimer: HPE paid for my trip to attend HPE Discover. All thoughts and writing in this post are my own views and opinions and not reviewed or dictated by HPE.

This week at HPE Discover in Las Vegas, HPE announced a new storage platform, HPE Primera, built on the technologies of both its Nimble and 3PAR storage lines. The new platform is targeted for mission critical workloads and offers a 100% uptime guarantee for customers.

The new array draws a lot of from the 3PAR line of storage arrays, with scale and speed in the new all-flash Primera. There is shared heritage and data services between the two platforms and HPE is committed to 3PAR in the mid-market for the future – meaning these two lines will co-exist for some amount of time. The portability of data using Peer Copy as well as the ability to protect data with Peer Persistence (aka Metro Storage Clustering for VMware folks) mean that these arrays can protect your data to provide the 100% uptime guaranteed by the company.

In terms of the Nimble heritage for the array, two key features made their way into Primera – Infosight and Simplicity. Gone are the legacy 3PAR constructs of CPG creation and other base setup — the Nimble simplicity is front and center in Primera. While the introduction of 3PAR SSMC (StoreServ Management Console) went a long way to simplifying the complexity under the covers of 3PAR, Primera is said to go even further in simplification towards the startup and administration model of Nimble.

Infosight plays a primary role in the Primera arrays. While HPE has worked to bring 3PAR and Infosight together, the company has native support in the Primera platform – taking advantage of building a brand-new array and platform. In fact, Infosight is large component of how HPE is delivering the 100% uptime guarantee.

In terms of guarantees, the 100% uptime is a bit disappointing. While it sounds great in terms of guaranteed uptime, the penalty of a miss is not substantial for the company. The 100% uptime offers customers up to 20% of the cost of the array back for use with upgrades and future purchases. So essentially, the company if offering store credit for your money spent. I get that it is value, but its not a pure guarantee like most other SLA guarantees.

HPE says the Primera storage arrays will be available for ordering in August, 2019, but no pricing was announced. For more information, see https://hpe.com/storage/Primera.

Disclaimer: HPE paid for my trip to attend HPE Discover. All thoughts and writing in this post are my own views and opinions and not reviewed or dictated by HPE.