Cluster Configurations | Teradata VantageCore with Dell ECS Object Storage - ECS EX500 Cluster Configurations - Teradata VantageCore

The ECS EX500 solutions are currently to be sized for customer opportunities by the usable capacity required (and are not sized by the performance required). The specific ECS EX500 solution offered by Teradata is designed to address customer capacity requirements between 316TB and 6,065 TB.

ECS cluster capacity is primarily governed by the number of ECS nodes, the number of drives per node, and the capacity of the drives. All ECS nodes within the cluster must have the same number of drives per node, and the same type / size drive present.

While customer capacity requirements shape the necessary ECS cluster configuration, the size of the Vantage platform that will leverage the object store is another factor that must be considered. Each ECS node in the cluster can support a maximum of 1,000 S3 connections (for optimal performance, use less than 500 connections). Since each NOS session initiated on a Vantage platform can result in a S3 connection from every AMP, the minimum number of ECS nodes required for proper NOS operation can be calculated as follows:

It’s important to note that if Vantage platform expansions are planned, or if there are other non-Teradata applications intending to leverage ECS, this must be considered as well, as additional ECS nodes may be required for those needs.

ECS cluster sizes can be scaled up by a single EX500 for in-rack expansions. The EX500 is offered with two drive configurations per node: (12) 8TB HDDs per node, and (24) 8TB HDDs per node.

Between these configuration options, the following usable/protected capacities can be achieved (see the following table for cluster capacities). The usable capacities in the table reflect the total capacity available for host/application write operations, after factoring in the capacity required by ECS for erasure coding (EC). Erasure coding provides fault-tolerance and ensures data integrity is maintained when node and/or drive failures occur.

The ECS base rack within the configuration must have at least (5) EX500 chassis present and can accommodate up to (12) EX500 chassis as needed. For cluster configurations requiring more than (12) EX500 chassis, multiple racks are required. ECS expansion racks within the configuration must have at least (4) EX500 present and can accommodate up to (12) EX500 chassis as needed.

A single (base) rack deployment always includes (2) Kemp H2 NG ECS Connection Managers (load balancers), for redundancy. When scaling beyond a single rack, additional load balancers are added to expansion racks to ensure full ECS performance is available to client applications such as Vantage. As ECS EX500 nodes are added, additional H2 NG load balancers must be added to maintain a ratio of at least 1 load balancer for every 4 EX500 nodes.

As previously noted, every rack has (2) front-end and (2) back-end S5248F-ON 25GbE Switches. When taken together with the above equipment allocation for nodes and load-balancers, the rack-level stack-up for the maximum ECS rack configuration can be visually depicted as follows.

ECS environment specifications and data center requirements vary by the specific rack configurations in question, as outlined in the following table: The maximum ECS configuration per rack (shown in the rack configuration diagram) has the following specifications for weight, power, and cooling.

Since and ECS EX500 cluster can compromise multiple racks, weight, and cooling requirements must be considered at the individual rack level, as well as the total (multi-rack) solution level. The customer is responsible for ensuring their data center environment can meet these requirements, to ensure proper operation and safety of data center personnel.

Additional environmental specifications and requirements for the ECS EX500 are described in the ECS EX500 Installation Guide found on the Dell ECS InfoHub.