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NOTE: To identify the physical hardware displayed in PowerVault FluidFS Manager, match the
Service Tag shown in FluidFS Manager with the Service Tag printed on a sticker on the front right
side of the NAS appliance.
All NAS appliances in a FluidFS system must use the same controllers — mixing of 1 GbE and 10 GbE
appliances or controllers is not supported. The following appliances are supported:
• NX3500 (legacy) — 1 Gb Ethernet client connectivity with 1GB iSCSI back‐end connectivity to the MD
system(s)
• NX3600 — 1 Gb Ethernet client connectivity with 1GB iSCSI back‐end connectivity to the MD
system(s)
• NX3610 — 10 Gb Ethernet client connectivity with 10GB Ethernet iSCSI back‐end connectivity to the
MD system(s)
NAS appliance numbers start at 1 and NAS controller numbers start at 0. So, NAS Appliance 1 contains
NAS Controllers 0 and 1 and FluidFS Appliance 2 contains NAS Controllers 2 and 3.
Internal Cache
Each NAS controller has an internal cache that provides fast reads and reliable writes.
Internal Backup Power Supply
Each NAS controller is equipped with an internal Backup Power Supply (BPS) that protects data during a
power failure. The BPS units provide continuous power to the NAS controllers for a minimum of 5
minutes and have sufficient battery power to allow the NAS controllers to write all data from the cache to
non‐volatile internal storage before they shut down.
The NAS controllers regularly monitor the BPS battery status for the minimum level of power required for
normal operation. To ensure that the BPS battery status is accurate, the NAS controllers routinely
undergo battery calibration cycles. During a battery calibration cycle, the BPS goes through charge and
discharge cycles; therefore, battery error events during this process are expected. A battery calibration
cycle takes up to seven days to complete. If a NAS controller starts a battery calibration cycle, and the
peer NAS controller BPS has failed, the NAS controllers enter journaling mode, which might impact
performance. Therefore, Dell recommends repairing a failed BPS as soon as possible.
Internal Storage
Each NAS controller has an internal storage device that is used only for the FluidFS images and as a cache
storage offload location in the event of a power failure. The internal hard drive does not provide the NAS
storage capacity.
PowerVault FluidFS Architecture
PowerVault FluidFS scale‐out NAS consists of:
• Hardware:
– FluidFS appliance(s)
– MD system
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