Dell EMC Storage Systems Metro Node Appliance Product Guide
Summary
Optimize your distributed storage infrastructure using the Dell EMC Metro node appliance. This guide provides comprehensive technical documentation for system administrators and IT professionals implementing highly available and resilient data solutions. Coverage includes metro node architecture overview, essential use cases (mobility and availability), detailed features like Global Visibility, performance monitoring, and non-disruptive upgrade procedures. Perfect for managing complex, large-scale storage environments requiring enterprise-grade reliability.
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Dell EMC Storage Systems Product Guide for the metro node appliance 7.0 Service Pack 1
July 2021
Page Summary Contents For Dell EMC Storage Systems Metro Node Appliance Product Guide
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Dell EMC Storage Systems Product Guide for the metro node appliance 7.0 Service Pack 1 July 2021
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Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of d...
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Contents Figures..........................................................................................................................................5 Tables.........................................
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Metro node Metro HA................................................................................................................................................ Metro HA (without cross-connect).......
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Figures Metro node active-active.........................................................................................................................................9 Metro node family: Local and ...
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Tables Typographical conventions...................................................................................................................................... General metro node use cases and ...
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Preface As part of an effort to improve its product lines, Dell EMC periodically releases revisions of its software and hardware. Therefore, some functions described in this document might not be supp...
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Typographical conventions Dell EMC uses the following type style conventions in this document: Table 1. Typographical conventions Bold Used for names of interface elements, such as names of windows, d...
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Introducing metro node This chapter introduces the metro node feature. Topics: Metro node overview Metro node product family Metro node hardware platforms Configuration highlights Management interface...
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Metro node offers the following unique innovations and advantages: Metro node distributed/federated virtual storage enables new models of application and Data Mobility. Metro node is optimized for vir...
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Federation allows transparent data mobility between arrays for simple, fast data movement and technology refreshes. Standardizes LUN presentation and management using simple tools to provision and all...
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Figure 3. Configuration highlights Metro node conforms to established world wide naming (WWN) guidelines that can be used for zoning. It also supports Dell EMC storage and arrays from other storage ve...
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Figure 4. Claim storage using the GUI (for HTML5) The UI supports most of the metro node operations, and includes Dell EMC Online help for metro node to assist new users in learning the interface. Met...
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Metro node use cases This chapter describes the general features, benefits, and the important use cases of metro node. Topics: General use cases and benefits Mobility Availability General use cases an...
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Figure 5. Moving data with metro node The source and target arrays can be in the same data center (metro node Local) or in different data centers separated by up to 10ms (metro node Metro). The source...
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Table 3. Types of data mobility operations Device Moves data from one device to another device (within a cluster and across clusters). Batch Moves data using a migration plan file. Create batch migrat...
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Virtual Volume Array A Array B Array C VPLX-000380 Figure 6. Metro node technology refresh Because the virtual machine is addressing its data to the abstracted virtual volume, its data continues to fl...
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Figure 7. High availability infrastructure example Metro node redundancy provides zero Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) because, metro node Access Anywhere mirrors all ...
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Features in metro node This chapter describes the specific features of metro node. Topics: Metro node security features ALUA Provisioning with metro node Performance monitoring Notification Metro node...
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Explicit ALUA - The storage processor changes the state of paths in response to commands (for example, the Set Target Port Groups command) from the host (the metro node backend). The storage processor...
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The unmap feature reclaims the unused VMFS blocks by removing the mapping between the logical blocks and the physical blocks. This essentially removes the link between a logical block and a physical b...
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Figure 10. Unisphere Performance Monitoring Dashboard - sample chart (for UI) For additional information about the statistics available through the Performance Monitoring Dashboard, see the Online Hel...
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Integrity and resiliency This chapter describes how the high availability and the redundancy features of metro node provide robust system integrity and resiliency. Topics: About metro node resilience ...
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Figure 11. Path redundancy: different sites Cluster A metro node is a true cluster architecture. That is, all components are always available and I/O that enters the cluster from anywhere can be servi...
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management network and instruct half with the director with the lowest UUID to keep running and the directors without the lowest UUID to operationally stop. Quorum loss - An operational metro node clu...
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When the network or cluster is restored, metro node reads the logging volume to determine what writes to synchronize to the reattached volume. There is no I/O activity during normal operations. High a...
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Figure 13. Path redundancy: different directors Management server Each metro node server has embedded management server. You can manage both clusters in a metro node Metro configuration from a single ...
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Figure 14. High level metro node Witness architecture Metro node Metro HA Metro node Metro High Availability (HA) configurations consist of a metro node Metro system deployed in conjunction with metro...
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Metro HA with cross-connect Metro node Metro HA with cross-connect (that is, hosts have connectivity to front-end ports of both metro node) can be deployed where the metro node clusters are separated ...
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Table 4. How metro node Metro HA recovers from failure (continued) Failure description Failure handling Inter-cluster link failure If the cross-connects use different physical links from those used to...
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Higher availability Deploy the metro node Witness in a third site failure domain to create even higher availability, as witness software can run on physical host or virtual machine (VMware, Hyper-V, a...
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Software and upgrade This chapter describes the software that runs on the metro node hardware. Topics: Metro node OS Non-disruptive upgrade (NDU) Metro node OS Metro node OS is the operating system th...
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Table 5. Metro node OS Access Anywhere features (continued) Feature Description and considerations Global Visibility The presentation of a volume from one metro node cluster where the physical storage...
Manual Details
| Brand | Metro |
|---|---|
| Pages | 33 |
| File Size | 1.96 MB |
| Published | May 26, 2026 |
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Frequently Asked Questions
How can I use the Global Visibility feature?
Use it for AccessAnywhere collaboration between different locations so one metro node cluster can present a volume stored in another remote cluster.
Is maintenance disruptive to operations?
No. Metro nodes support Non-disruptive upgrades, allowing components like hardware or software (e.g., GeoSynchrony) to be upgraded without service interruptions or required service windows.
What types of system expansion can metro node handle easily?
It enables the easy addition or removal of storage, applications, and hosts, and supports scaling from a local to metro node architecture.