About The Sc4020 Storage System; Storage Center Hardware Components; Sc4020 Storage System; Switches - Dell SC4020 Deployment Manual

About the SC4020 Storage System

The SC4020 storage system provides the central processing capabilities for the Storage Center Operating
System and management of RAID storage.

Storage Center Hardware Components

The Storage Center described in this document consists of an SC4020 storage system, enterprise-class
switches, and expansion enclosures.
To allow for storage expansion, the SC4020 storage system supports multiple SC200/SC220 expansion
enclosures and SC280 expansion enclosures.
NOTE: The cabling between the storage system, switches, and host servers is referred to as front‐
end connectivity. The cabling between the storage system and expansion enclosures is referred to
as back-end connectivity.

SC4020 Storage System

The SC4020 is a 2U storage system that supports a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 24 internal 2.5-inch
hot-swappable SAS hard drives installed horizontally side-by-side.
The SC4020 storage system contains two redundant power supply/cooling fan modules and two storage
controllers with multiple I/O ports that provide communication with servers and expansion enclosures.

Switches

Dell offers enterprise-class switches as part of the total Storage Center solution.
The SC4020 storage system supports Fibre Channel (FC) and Ethernet switches, which provide robust
connectivity to servers and allow for the use of redundant transport paths. Fibre Channel (FC) or Ethernet
switches can provide connectivity to a remote Storage Center to allow for replication of data. In addition,
Ethernet switches provide connectivity to a management network to allow configuration, administration,
and management of the Storage Center.

Expansion Enclosures

Expansion enclosures allow the data storage capabilities of the SC4020 storage system to be expanded
beyond the 24 internal disks in the storage system chassis.
An SC4020 a total of 192 disks per Storage Center system. This total includes the disks in the storage
system chassis and the disks in the SC200/SC220 expansion enclosures or SC280 expansion enclosures.
An SC4020 can support:
• Up fourteen SC200 expansion enclosures
• Up to seven SC220 expansion enclosures
• Any combination of SC200/SC220 expansion enclosures, as long as the total disk count of the system
does not exceed 192
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About the SC4020 Storage System
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