UCS-SD19TH61X-EV Cisco 1.9TB SAS 12GBPS SSD Enterprise

Cisco UCS SAS Solid State Drives: Powering Modern Data Centers

Understanding the UCS-SD19TH61X-EV Enterprise SSD

The Cisco UCS-SD19TH61X-EV represents the pinnacle of enterprise-grade storage technology, specifically engineered for demanding data center environments. This 1.9TB SAS SSD delivers exceptional performance, reliability, and efficiency for organizations requiring consistent, high-speed data access. As part of Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) portfolio, this drive integrates seamlessly into existing infrastructure while providing the robust performance characteristics needed for today's data-intensive applications.

Enterprise SSD Technology Overview

Enterprise Solid State Drives represent a significant advancement over traditional mechanical hard drives, utilizing NAND flash memory to store data without moving parts. This fundamental difference enables dramatically faster data access, lower latency, and improved reliability. The Cisco UCS-SD19TH61X-EV leverages the latest SAS 12Gbps interface to maximize throughput while maintaining compatibility with existing 6Gbps SAS infrastructures.

NAND Flash Architecture in Enterprise Environments

Enterprise SSDs utilize sophisticated NAND flash architectures optimized for write-intensive workloads. Unlike consumer-grade SSDs, enterprise models like the UCS-SD19TH61X-EV incorporate advanced wear-leveling algorithms, power-loss protection, and enhanced error correction to ensure data integrity and extended lifespan under constant operation.

Key Specifications Deep Dive

Capacity and Form Factor

The 1.9TB capacity represents an optimal balance between storage density and performance characteristics. This specific capacity is engineered to provide ample storage for virtual machines, databases, and applications while maintaining consistent performance across the entire storage space. The 2.5-inch small form factor ensures compatibility with standard enterprise server and storage enclosures while optimizing power efficiency and density.

Understanding NAND Over-Provisioning

The advertised 1.9TB capacity reflects industry-standard over-provisioning practices where additional NAND flash is reserved for wear-leveling, garbage collection, and maintaining performance consistency. This approach significantly extends the drive's operational lifespan and ensures consistent performance under heavy write workloads.

SAS 12Gbps Interface Technology

The Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 12Gbps interface represents the current generation of enterprise storage connectivity, offering double the bandwidth of previous 6Gbps SAS implementations. This high-speed interface enables full-duplex communication, meaning data can be read and written simultaneously without performance degradation. The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV maintains backward compatibility with 6Gbps and 3Gbps SAS infrastructures, providing investment protection during technology refresh cycles.

Dual-Port SAS Capability

Enterprise SAS SSDs feature dual-port capability, allowing simultaneous access through two independent pathways. This architecture enables high-availability configurations where multiple controllers can access the same drive, providing redundancy and failover capabilities critical for mission-critical applications and storage arrays.

Performance Characteristics

The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV delivers exceptional performance metrics tailored for enterprise workloads. With sustained read and write operations maintaining consistent input/output operations per second (IOPS), this drive excels in mixed-workload environments. The advanced controller architecture ensures minimal performance degradation during sustained write operations, a common challenge with consumer-grade SSDs.

Latency Optimization

Enterprise SSDs prioritize consistent low latency, with the UCS-SD19TH61X-EV delivering sub-millisecond response times for random read operations. This low latency is crucial for database applications, virtualization environments, and real-time analytics where delayed data access can impact overall system performance and user experience.

Enterprise Reliability and Endurance

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV is engineered for exceptional reliability with a rated MTBF typically exceeding 2 million hours. This exceptional reliability stems from rigorous component selection, advanced error correction, and robust thermal management. Enterprise SSDs undergo extensive qualification testing under extreme environmental conditions to ensure consistent operation in data center environments.

Annualized Failure Rate (AFR)

Closely related to MTBF, the Annualized Failure Rate provides a more intuitive measure of reliability, with enterprise SSDs typically achieving AFR below 0.5%. This translates to fewer than 5 drives failing per 1,000 units annually under normal operating conditions, significantly reducing maintenance overhead and data loss risk.

Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) and Terabytes Written (TBW)

The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV is rated for specific endurance metrics, typically expressed as Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) or Total Bytes Written (TBW). These specifications indicate how much data can be written to the drive over its warranty period, with enterprise models supporting significantly higher write volumes compared to consumer-grade alternatives.

Understanding Endurance Ratings

DWPD specifies how many times the entire drive capacity can be written per day over the warranty period. For example, a 1.9TB drive with 10 DWPD rating would endure 19TB of writes daily. TBW represents the total amount of data that can be written throughout the drive's lifespan, providing a cumulative endurance measurement.

Power-Loss Protection

Enterprise SSDs incorporate comprehensive power-loss protection circuits that ensure data in transit is preserved during unexpected power interruptions. The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV includes capacitors that provide sufficient power to complete pending write operations and flush cache contents to non-volatile storage, preventing data corruption and maintaining data integrity.

Use Cases and Application Scenarios

Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure

The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV excels in virtualization environments where multiple virtual machines contend for storage resources. The high IOPS and low latency characteristics ensure consistent performance for boot operations, application loading, and database access across numerous virtual instances. In cloud infrastructure, these drives provide the performance density required for multi-tenant environments while maintaining quality of service guarantees.

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI)

In HCI deployments, storage performance directly impacts overall system capability. The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV provides the consistent low latency and high throughput necessary for distributed storage architectures, enabling efficient data locality and reducing network congestion in software-defined storage environments.

Database and Transaction Processing

Database workloads, particularly Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), benefit significantly from the predictable low latency and high random read performance of the UCS-SD19TH61X-EV. The drive's ability to handle mixed read/write workloads efficiently ensures optimal database performance for critical business applications, financial systems, and customer relationship management platforms.

In-Memory Databases

While in-memory databases primarily operate from RAM, they still require persistent storage for recovery logs, checkpoints, and backup operations. The high write endurance and performance consistency of the UCS-SD19TH61X-EV make it ideal for these demanding write-intensive operations that must complete within strict time constraints.

High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Analytics

HPC environments demand exceptional storage performance for scientific computing, engineering simulations, and big data analytics. The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV provides the bandwidth and IOPS necessary for rapid data access in parallel file systems, reducing computation time and improving researcher productivity.

AI and Machine Learning Workloads

Machine learning training workflows generate massive datasets that must be efficiently loaded into GPU memory. The high sequential read performance of the UCS-SD19TH61X-EV ensures that data loading doesn't become a bottleneck in the training pipeline, maximizing GPU utilization and reducing overall training time.

Integration with Cisco UCS Ecosystem

Cisco UCS Manager Integration

Through Cisco UCS Manager, administrators can monitor drive health, performance metrics, and firmware levels across the entire UCS domain. This centralized management capability provides comprehensive visibility into storage performance and proactive alerting for potential issues before they impact operations.

Storage Policy Management

Cisco UCS incorporates sophisticated storage policy management that enables automated provisioning and configuration of storage resources. The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV can be incorporated into these policies, ensuring consistent configuration across multiple servers and simplifying large-scale deployments.

Advanced Features and Technologies

Data Integrity and Protection

The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV implements comprehensive data protection through advanced error correction codes (ECC), end-to-end data path protection, and T10 Protection Information (T10 PI). These technologies work together to detect and correct data corruption, ensuring data integrity from the host interface through to the NAND flash media.

T10 Protection Information (T10 PI)

T10 PI, also known as Data Integrity Field (DIF), extends traditional error detection by adding protection information to each sector of data. This enables the storage infrastructure to verify data integrity throughout the entire data path, from host application to physical storage media and back.

Advanced Encryption and Security

Enterprise data security is paramount, and the UCS-SD19TH61X-EV includes comprehensive encryption capabilities to protect sensitive information. These drives typically support IEEE 1667 and TCG Enterprise security standards, providing hardware-based encryption that minimizes performance impact while ensuring data confidentiality.

Sanitize and Crypto Erase Operations

For data disposal and repurposing, the UCS-SD19TH61X-EV supports sanitize operations that permanently erase all user data. Crypto erase operations instantly render encrypted data inaccessible by destroying the encryption key, providing near-instantaneous secure erasure for large capacity drives.

Thermal and Power Management

Enterprise SSDs incorporate sophisticated thermal monitoring and throttling mechanisms to prevent overheating during sustained operations. The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV includes temperature sensors and adaptive performance management to maintain optimal operating temperatures without compromising data integrity.

Power Efficiency Characteristics

Compared to traditional hard drives, SSDs consume significantly less power during both active and idle states. The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV optimizes power consumption through advanced power states, contributing to reduced operational costs and improved power utilization efficiency in large-scale deployments.

Comparison with Alternative Storage Technologies

SAS vs. SATA SSDs

While SATA SSDs offer cost advantages, SAS SSDs like the UCS-SD19TH61X-EV provide superior performance, reliability, and feature sets. The dual-port capability, higher queue depths, and enhanced error recovery of SAS make it the preferred choice for mission-critical applications where performance consistency and availability are paramount.

SAS vs. NVMe Storage

NVMe represents the latest storage interface technology, offering significantly higher bandwidth and lower latency than SAS. However, SAS maintains advantages in large-scale deployments due to its mature ecosystem, dual-port capabilities, and extensive compatibility with existing infrastructure. Many organizations implement tiered storage approaches utilizing both technologies based on application requirements.

Cost-Performance Considerations

While NVMe offers superior performance, SAS SSDs provide an optimal balance of performance, capacity, and cost for many enterprise workloads. The UCS-SD19TH61X-EV delivers enterprise-grade reliability and performance at a more accessible price point than comparable NVMe solutions, making it ideal for performance-sensitive applications that don't require the absolute maximum bandwidth.