LENOVO ThinkSystem DE4000F SAS All Flash Array SFF (64 GB cache)

Lenovo ThinkSystem DE4000F is a scalable, all flash entry-level storage system that is designed to provide performance, simplicity, capacity, security, and high availability for medium to large businesses. The ThinkSystem DE4000F delivers enterprise-class storage management capabilities with a wide choice of host connectivity options, flexible drive configurations, and enhanced data management features.

This product guide provides essential technical and pre-sales information on the Lenovo ThinkSystem DE4000F All Flash Storage Array, its key features and specifications, components and options, and configuration guidelines.

This guide is intended for technical specialists, sales specialists, sales engineers, and IT architects who want to learn more about the ThinkSystem DE4000F All Flash Storage Array and consider its use in their solutions.

Lenovo ThinkSystem DE4000F is a scalable, all flash entry-level storage system that is designed to provide performance, simplicity, capacity, security, and high availability for medium to large businesses. It delivers enterprise-class storage management capabilities with a wide choice of host connectivity options, flexible drive configurations, and enhanced data management features. The ThinkSystem DE4000F is a perfect fit for a wide range of enterprise workloads, including big data and analytics, video surveillance, technical computing, and other storage I/O-intensive applications.

ThinkSystem DE4000F models are available in a 2U rack form-factor with 24 small form-factor (2.5-inch SFF) drives (2U24 SFF) and include two controllers, each with 8 GB or 32 GB cache for a system total of 16 GB or 64 GB. Universal 1/10 Gb iSCSI or 4/8/16 Gb Fibre Channel (FC) ports provide base host connectivity, and the host interface cards provide additional 1/10 Gb iSCSI or 4/8/16 Gb FC, 12 Gb SAS, 10/25 Gb iSCSI, or 8/16/32 Gb FC connections.

The ThinkSystem DE4000F Storage Array scales up to 120 solid-state drives (SSDs) with the attachment of Lenovo ThinkSystem DE240S 2U24 SFF Expansion Enclosures.

The Lenovo ThinkSystem DE4000F 2U24 SFF enclosure is shown in the following figure.

he ThinkSystem DE4000F offers the following key features and benefits:

All-flash array capabilities to meet the demand for higher speed storage and provide higher IOPs and bandwidth with lower power usage and total cost of ownership than hybrid or HDD-based solutions.
Scalable entry-level storage with dual active/active controller configurations with 8 GB or 32 GB cache per controller for high availability and performance.
Improved performance and data protection with Dynamic Disk Pools (DDP) technology, as well as support for traditional RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, and 10.
Flexible host connectivity to match diverse client needs with support for 1/10 Gb iSCSI or 4/8/16 Gb FC, and 12 Gb SAS, 10/25 Gb iSCSI, or 8/16/32 Gb FC connectivity at the same time.
12 Gb SAS drive-side connectivity with support for up to 24x 2.5-inch small form factor (SFF) drives in the 2U24 SFF enclosures.
Scalability to up to 120 SFF drives with the attachment of up to four ThinkSystem DE240S 2U24 SFF expansion enclosures to satisfy growing needs for storage capacity and performance.
Rich set of storage management functions comes with the system, including Dynamic Disk Pools, snapshots, volume copy, thin provisioning, and asynchronous mirroring.
Optional synchronous mirroring licensed function for continuous data availability.
Intuitive, web-based GUI for easy system setup and management.
Designed for 99.9999% availability with redundant hot-swap components, including controllers and I/O modules, power supplies, proactive maintenance, and non-disruptive firmware upgrades.
The following solid-state drives are supported in the 2U24 SFF enclosures:

Capacity-optimized SSDs (1 drive write per day [DWD]): 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, and 15.36 TB
High performance SSDs (3 DWD): 800 GB, 1.6 TB, and 3.2 TB
High performance self-encrypting FIPS SSDs (3 DWD): 1.6 TB
All drives are dual-port and hot-swappable. Drives of the same form factor can be intermixed within the appropriate enclosure, which provides the flexibility to address performance and capacity needs within a single enclosure.

Up to four ThinkSystem DE240S 2U24 SFF expansion enclosures are supported by a single ThinkSystem DE4000F system. More drives and expansion enclosures are designed to be dynamically added with virtually no downtime, which helps to quickly and seamlessly respond to ever-growing capacity demands.

The ThinkSystem DE4000F offers high levels of system and data availability with the following technologies:

Dual-active controller modules with automatic load balancing and failover
Mirrored data cache with flash backup (battery-backed destaging to flash)
Dual-port SAS SSDs with automatic drive failure detection and rebuild with global hot spares
Redundant, hot-swappable and customer replaceable hardware components, including SFP/SFP+ transceivers, controller and I/O modules, power supplies, and drives
Automated path failover support for the data path between the host and the drives with multipathing software
Non-disruptive controller and drive firmware upgrades