Dell EMC Unity Family

Frequently Asked Questions

April 2019

Dell EMC Partner Only. Confidential.

The Dell EMC Unity Family is made up of two product series:
The Dell EMC Unity Series whose systems (300 – 600 and 350F – 650F models)
have been in the market for the past several years and the new Dell EMC Unity XT
Series (380F/380 – 880F/880 models) announced at Dell Technologies World April
30, 2019.

 lso announced at Dell Technologies World (DTW) 2019 is the

A These FAQs are not intended to be an all-encompassing
Dell EMC Unity Operating Environment (OE) 5.0. OE 5.0 runs learning tool, but rather to answer key questions often asked,
on both the new Dell EMC Unity XT Series and the Dell EMC and it assume a basic knowledge of the current Dell EMC
Unity Series. Unity Series.

Important: For purposes of this document, if there is no mention of a specific Series then the question applies to the Dell
EMC Unity Family (i.e. both the new Dell EMC Unity XT Series and the Dell EMC Unity Series).

General Questions
Question: What is the short description of the Dell EMC Question: Why the new name “Dell EMC Unity
Unity Family? XT Series”?
Answer: The Dell EMC Unity Family is a midrange storage Answer: The new Dell EMC Unity XT Series name
offering that simplifies a customer’s path to IT transformation distinguishing these new, more powerful systems from the
and helps them unlock the full potential of their data capital. current Dell EMC Unity models. Note: The term “Dell EMC
Dell EMC Unity sets a new standard for simplicity, modern Unity Family” is used to denote our total Dell EMC Unity
design, affordable prices, and flexible deployments – to meet offering - the Dell EMC Unity XT Series and the Dell EMC
the needs of resource-constrained IT professionals in large or Unity Series.
small companies.
Question: Will the Dell EMC Unity XT Series have a
Dell EMC Unity is perfect for midsized deployments, ROBO, new look?
and cost-sensitive mixed workload environments.
Answer: Yes. Dell EMC Unity XT models will have a new
It is designed for all-flash, delivers the best value, and
bezel design. There is no branding color difference on bezels
is available in purpose-built (all-flash or hybrid flash),
between the Dell EMC Unity XT Series All-Flash and Hybrid
converged deployment (through VxBlock systems), and as a
models as there is with the current Dell EMC Unity
software-defined virtual edition. With all-inclusive software,
Series models.
differentiated features, internet-enabled management, cloud-
tiering, and a modern design, Dell EMC Unity family is where
powerful meets simplicity.
The new Dell EMC Unity XT Series storage arrays features 2X
more IOPS, dual-active controller architecture, more memory,
up to 50% more drives and 33% more processing power than
Dell EMC Unity Series models, these All-Flash and Hybrid
storage systems are designed for performance, optimized for
efficiency with up to 5:1 data reduction, and built to simplify
your multi cloud journey.

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General Questions (continued)
Question: What variants are available? Question: What primary use cases does the Dell EMC
Unity Family of storage systems address?
Answer: The Dell EMC Unity XT Family is orderable as:
Answer: Dell EMC Unity is perfect for midrange storage
• D
 ell EMC Unity XT All-Flash: The Dell EMC Unity 380F,
solutions that include transactional workloads such as
Dell EMC Unity 480F, Dell EMC Unity 680F, and Dell EMC
databases and virtualized servers and multiple workload
Unity 880F Models
consolidation – Dell EMC Unity is a unified solution that
• D
 ell EMC Unity XT Hybrid: The Dell EMC Unity 380, Dell supports both block and file environments. The flexibility to
EMC Unity 480, Dell EMC Unity 680 and Dell EMC Unity configure a system for performance, capacity points, and
880 Models data protection options positions Dell EMC Unity as a great
solution for a wide range of customer projects from delivering
• Dell EMC UnityVSA: a virtual instance that runs on top of
data to performance-sensitive applications that are critical
a VMware ESXi Server
to daily business operations, to affordable storage for service
• Dell EMC UnityVSA CommDell EMC Unity Edition: providers, to reliable branch office environments.
Free download for up to 4TB with commDell EMC Unity
support Question: Are there block-only or file-only Dell EMC
Unity Family systems?
• Dell EMC UnityVSA Professional Edition: 10TB, 25TB,
and 50TB 1-year subscription with Dell EMC support Answer: All Dell EMC Unity systems are Unified (block and
file) and are configured by the user.
• Dell EMC VxBlock System 1000 (or latest VxBlock offering)
will support All Dell EMC Unity XT systems including the
Question: Is the Dell EMC Unity Family part of the
Dell EMC Unity XT All Flash series, 380F, 480F, 680F and
Future-Proof Loyalty Program?
880F and Dell EMC Unity XT Hybrid Flash series models
380,480,680 and 880. Answer: Yes. It was 1st developed for the Dell EMC Unity
Series and covers the entire Dell EMC Unity Family. The
• Dell EMC VxBlock System 1000 (or latest VxBlock offering)
following Program offerings apply to the Dell EMC Unity
supports Dell EMC Unity 350F, 450F, 550F and 650F.
Family AFA: 3-Year Satisfaction Guarantee, Hardware
Also Dell EMC VxBlock System 350 (the previous
Investment Protection, Storage Data Reduction Guarantees,
generation VxBlock System) supports Dell EMC Unity
Clear Price Maintenance Framework, Never-Worry Data
350F, 450F, 550F and 650F AND the 300, 400, 500 and
Migrations, All-Inclusive Software. Dell EMC Unity Family
600 Dell EMC Unity models.
Hybrids apply to all these offerings, excluding the Storage Data
Reduction Guarantees.

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Technical focused questions
Question: Where can I find information on Dell EMC • Dell EMC Unity XT is NVMe ready, that is, the new Dell
Unity Pre-Sales Tools? EMC Unity hardware is capable of supporting NVMe drives
in the last 8 slots of the DPE. Dell EMC Unity OE support
Answer: The Dell EMC Unity Family offers several tools
for this capability will be added in a future release
for Pre-Sales and Partner Enablement. The MidrangeSizer
provides a single tool to size your system in terms of capacity • Other hardware differences
and performance, while the Dell EMC Power Calculator
• 25GB IP is supported on the mezzanine card and can
can be used to calculate power consumption and cooling
also be added as an IO module for FE connectivity
requirements.
• Other options for additional FE connectivity for Dell
These tools and their support materials are available at
EMC Unity XT include:
https://MidrangeSizer.emc.com and https://powercalculator.
emc.com, respectively. If you are trying to compare Dell • 16/8/4Gb FC (4-PORT)
EMC Unity performance with an existing customer system,
• 10/1GbT IP (4-PORT)
LiveOptics supporting a #GetModern Assessment provides
work profile assessments and creates field ready reports. • 25/10GbE IP OPT (4-PORT)
LiveOptics is available at https://www.liveoptics.com/.
Question: Is the Dell EMC Unity Family model’s backend
Question: What are the main hardware differences a true active-active architecture?
between the Dell EMC Unity Series (x00/x050F models) Answer: Yes. The multicore optimized technology allows
and Dell EMC Unity XT Series (x80/x80F) models? the system to access the drives at the same time from each
Answer: The main hardware differences are: controller. To achieve this, we implemented a region-locking
mechanism. In Dell EMC Unity there is no trespass for a
• Dell EMC Unity XT uses higher performing processors than
backend operation or fault scenario. For example, if there’s an
the current in market Dell EMC Unity offer. The 380/380F
issue with SP A, SP B can access the drives without
uses a single Intel Broadwell CPU per controller while the
a trespass.
higher-end x80/x80F models use dual Intel Skylake CPUs
per controller. For the frontend, our Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA)
• Each Dell EMC Unity XT System has more memory than implementation allows the system to internally redirect IO
the model it replaces. to the correct SP in the case of a host path failure without
the need of a trespass operation. Also, in the case of a host
• Dell EMC Unity XT supports higher drive counts than the
misconfiguration, Dell EMC Unity’s multicore optimized
current in market offer.
technology can detect the IO redirects to the non-preferred
• Dell EMC Unity 380/380F up to 500 drives path and automatically resolve it to restore
optimal performance.
• Dell EMC Unity 480/480F up to 750 drives
• Dell EMC Unity 680/680F up to 1000 drives
• Dell EMC Unity 880/880F up to 1500 drives
• Dell EMC Unity XT 480/480F, 680/680F and 880/880F
will support an optional 4-port mezzanine card for
25GbE/10GbE IP OPTICAL or 10/1GBaseT

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Technical focused questions (continued)
Question: What does it mean when it is stated that the Question: What optional software and capabilities
Dell EMC Unity XT Series is NVMe ‘ready”? are available?
Answer: On Dell EMC Unity XT Series models 480F/480 Answer: The Dell EMC Unity Family supports a wide variety
– 880F/880 the last 8 drive slots are capable of supporting of Dell EMC and third-party software and capabilities including
the use of NVMe media and will be supported in a future the following:
release. This new feature insures investment protection and is
• For the All-Flash systems
future ready. Adding NVMe drives, once supported, is a non-
(additional to the Base Software package):
disruptive OE upgrade.
• Advanced Options: AppSync Advanced, Full
Question: For the new Dell EMC Unity XT system RecoverPoint, PowerPath Multipathing, VPLEX
hardware family are there in-family Dell EMC Unity
• Mobility Options: PowerPath Migration Enabler, VPLEX
“Data in Place” (DIP) upgrades?
• For the Hybrid Systems
Answer: Not at GA; DIP upgrades for the Dell EMC Unity XT
(additional to the Base Software package)
systems are in planning for a future release.
• AppSync Advanced, Full RecoverPoint, PowerPath
Question: What migration capabilities are in Dell EMC Multipathing, VPLEX
Unity OE 5.0?
Question: Are there separate license files for each
Answer: In OE 5.0 are:
feature a customer is entitled to?
• Native online file migration from VNX
Answer: A single license file will contain all the features a
• Native block migration from VNX (SAN copy) customer has purchased.
• SAN Copy Pull for integrated block migration from 3rd
Question: What is Dell EMC Unisphere, and what value
party arrays is also supported
does it provide my Dell EMC Unity Family customers?
Question: What are the tools that can be used to Answer: Unisphere is based on HTML5 and provides levels
migrate to the Dell EMC Unity Family? of simplicity, flexibility, and automation—all key requirements
for the journey to the private cloud. Unisphere for Dell EMC
Answer: A variety of migration tools can be used to migrate
Unity systems provides unprecedented ease-of-use which
to Dell EMC Unity. Options to migrate block and file data are
is reflected in its intuitive task-based controls, customizable
summarized in the table below. Dell EMC Unity has been
dashboards, application context-based management, and
qualified to work with 3rd party tool DataDobi DobiMiner
single-click access to real-time support tools and online
offered through Dell EMC Select. In addition, VMware Storage
customer communities.
vMotion for both block and file migration can be used for
virtualized environments.

Question: Why might customers need data migration

services in addition to the built-in data migration tools
for Dell EMC Unity products?
Answer: Data migration services complement the
functionalities of the built-in data migration tools.
Customers who wish to perform data migrations without
help from a services provider can leverage data migration
tools to move the data themselves. Customers who need
help with discovery, planning, and execution should leverage
data migration services to efficiently migrate their data with
reduced risk, allowing internal teams to focus on
other priorities.

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Technical focused questions (continued)
Question: What options are available for the centralized • Predictive Analytics
monitoring of Dell EMC Unity systems?
• CloudIQ uses Machine Learning algorithms to identify
Answer: Unisphere Central provides comprehensive and predict potential issues before they occur in the
centralized monitoring of Dell EMC Unity systems and environment.
allows users to monitor VNX, VNX2, VMAX, PowerMax, SC
• Plan and optimize for capacity trending and performance.
Series systems as well. CloudIQ also provides a cloud-based,
centralized proactive and predictive monitoring platform which
Question: What primary customer benefits does
supports all Dell EMC Unity systems, VMAX, PowerMax, SC
CloudIQ provide?
Series and XtremIO.
Answer: CloudIQ delivers these primary benefits:
Question: What is CloudIQ and which arrays
• Reduce TCO: monitor Dell EMC storage arrays from a
are supported?
single screen anytime, anywhere, increase self-service, and
Answer: CloudIQ is a cloud-based storage analytics expedite quality resolutions - all at no charge
application for Dell EMC Storage, enabling storage administers
• Expedite Time to Value: Get started in minutes with no
to monitor the health of all their Dell EMC storage arrays on
software to install. New features and capabilities are
a single, simple display. CloudIQ is fully available for Dell EMC
seamlessly and non-disruptively provided through CloudIQ
Unity, SC Series, XtremIO, VMAX, and PowerMax arrays. As
a no cost software as a service management application, • Drive Operational Value: Deliver higher uptime, increase
CloudIQ proactively monitors and measures the overall performance, and perform effective capacity planning
health of Dell EMC storage systems through intelligent,
comprehensive, and predictive analytics. Each connected Question: How does a customer connect to CloudIQ?
array is represented in CloudIQ through simple and intuitive Answer: Customers can easily connect and get started with
dashboards where customers can drill down into the details CloudIQ in three easy steps:
of five health check areas – capacity, performance, data
protection, system, configuration – to see array issues, alerts, • Install and configure the Dell EMC storage system
and remediation based on best practices. CloudIQ supports • Connect to Secure Remote Services (formerly ESRS) and
both Dell EMC Unity All-Flash and Hybrid configurations. have SiteID enabled

Question: What are the key elements of CloudIQ? • Go to cloudiq.dellemc.com and supply valid Dell EMC
Support credentials, and customers will be authenticated
Answer: CloudIQ delivers these primary capabilities to and able to start using CloudIQ
monitor, manage, and service:
• Proactive Health Scores CloudIQ can be accessed from anywhere with an internet
connection, from a browser or mobile device
• Present comprehensive health scores for Dell EMC
storage that provides measurements of the overall Download and use the CloudIQ laptop demo at URL:
health of the system.
https://www.emc.com/auth/rcoll/productdemos/cloudiq-
• Get practical recommended remediation to issues demo-guidelines.docx
based on best practices and risk management.
Dell EMC Partners have the capability of becoming a Trusted
• Proactive Monitoring Advisor to their customer by having their name added to the
• Centrally monitor performance, capacity, system, list of supporting contacts in CloudIQ
configuration, and protection data.
• View metrics about CPU utilization, compliance, RPOs,
storage pools, LUNs, file systems, and more.

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Technical focused questions (continued)
Question: Does the Dell EMC Unity Family support Question: Are advanced replication topologies supported?
ProtectPoint?
Answer: Yes, for File. Dell EMC Unity OE 5.0 introduced
Answer: Not at this time. However it is in consideration for a two new advanced asynchronous file replication topologies:
future release. Fan-out Replication (“1 to Many Replication”), which allows
up to 1:4 storage replication mapping for a single file storage
Question: Does the Dell EMC Unity Family support resource, with the ability for each replication session to have
SAN Copy? its own defined RPO. And Cascade Replication (“Multi-
Answer: Yes, in 2 ways. SAN Copy is supported in push-only hop Replication”) which provides the ability to replicate to
mode from a VNX1 or VNX2 to a Dell EMC Unity system. another tier or level from already replicated resource. Cascade
Native online file migration from VNX1 and VNX2 (NFS and replication supports up to 3 level, and you can use fan-out
CIFS), and native block migration from VNX (using SAN copy) replication (up to 4 resources).
is now supported. SAN Copy Pull, integrated block migration
Question: What are some uses for Dell EMC UnityVSA?
from 3rd party arrays is also supported.
Answer: Dell EMC UnityVSA is VMware vSAN Certified for
Question: What type of support is available on the File Services. It runs on vSAN and provides file services over
Dell EMC Unity Family to provide VM-level replication, SMB, NFS, FTP, and SFTP
backup and recovery?
Question: What capabilities/features does Dell EMC
Answer: RecoverPoint for VMs is a storage agnostic product
Cloud Tiering Appliance (CTA) offer that are beneficial
that can be used for VM-level replication. RP4VMs is not in
for the Dell EMC Unity Family?
the Dell EMC Unity order path or Base Software Package
bundle. To obtain a license for RecoverPoint for VMs for Answer: CTA which is included and the Dell EMC Unity
Dell EMC Unity you must order the RecoverPoint for VMs Family working together support file archiving and block
Subscription path in the MyQuotes order tool. snapshot archiving to Virtustream, Microsoft Azure, Amazon
S3, IBM Storage Cloud public clouds and Dell EMC Elastic
Question: Does Dell EMC Unity OE 5.0 support iCDM Cloud Services (ECS). Specific to block snapshot archiving,
(integrated content data management)? customers can archive a LUN/Consistency Group Full Copy
Answer: Yes, Dell EMC Unity OE 5.0 supports iCDM. Dell to the cloud as well as all subsequent snapshots. By default,
EMC Unity can be leveraged to create performant, space- every 30th archived snapshot will be a full copy baseline
efficient copies without impacting production (within the snapshot (this is customizable in the CTA management GUI).
specified limits). These copies (snapshots and thin clones) Block snapshots that have been archived to the cloud, are
are integrated and managed through AppSync providing independent of the base LUN on Dell EMC Unity and are not
the application developer a self-service portal to create and altered by the archiving. Instead they share blocks with the
manage space efficient copies. baseline snapshot. A restore from the cloud is also possible. A
CTA restore will first restore the last full copy to a new LUN/
Question: What remote replication technology is Consistency Group on Dell EMC Unity to be followed by the
included in the Dell EMC Unity Operating Environment? subsequent snapshots.

Answer: The Dell EMC Unity OE provides native synchronous

and asynchronous replication for both Block and File. A
single, unified replication for Block and File enables common
management workflows and user interfaces to simplify
management and configuration.

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Technical focused questions (continued)
Question: What are other ways that the Dell EMC Unity • Cloud Connected Systems
Family is leveraged in the Cloud?
• Dell EMC Cloud Tiering Appliance – An automated
Answer: Customers now demand their storage infrastructure policy-based solution to perform file tiering and block
be cloud-ready. Dell EMC Unity XT was designed for a multi- archiving from Dell EMC Unity XT to a multi-cloud
cloud world and can be leveraged when deploying any of environment freeing up capacity and reducing
these cloud options: backup windows.

• Cloud Data Services • Integrated with VMware Cloud Foundation

• Introducing, Dell EMC Cloud Storage Services – • VMware Cloud Foundation – as the first external
Connect Dell EMC Unity XT, consumed as a service, storage platform to be validated for use with VMware
directly to the public cloud(s) of your choice through a Cloud Foundation (VCF), Dell EMC Unity XT offers
high-speed, low latency connection. the best of both worlds for customer’s multi-cloud
This enables users to gain the economic benefits of deployments. Customers can easily provision storage
cloud as well as the high-availability and durability of for VCF with Dell EMC Unity XT NFS enabling
persistent Dell EMC Unity XT storage while maintaining customers to use best of breed components.
complete control of data. Plus, VMware customers
can deploy an automated DRaaS solution with Dell • Cloud Data Insights
EMC Unity XT in VMware Cloud on AWS for seamless,
• CloudIQ – Delivers Infrastructure Insight right in the
enterprise-grade, pay-as-you-go DR in the cloud. Cloud
palm of your hand. This free, cloud-based application
Storage Services additionally offers agile, multi-cloud
that lets you easily monitor, analyze, and troubleshoot
support allowing users to leverage multiple clouds and
your storage environment from anywhere. With no
easily and quickly switch clouds for use cases such as
software to install and support for Dell EMC Unity XT,
workload migration, analytics, test/dev and more to
it uses predictive analytics to immediately begin
maximize business outcomes.
providing comprehensive health scores for all your
• Dell EMC Cloud Edition – Dell EMC Unity XT storage. The best IT issue is the one that never
software-defined storage solution deployed with happens.
VMware Cloud on the AWS cloud. This block and file
solution is ideal for a variety of use cases in the cloud
including home directory for running a VDI environment
in VMware Cloud, Test/Dev, or replication services to a
third site.

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