PERC H710

RAID Controller PERC H710

Overview

The PERC H710 RAID Controller is a high-performance hardware solution designed for efficient management of storage in servers. Developed by Dell, this RAID controller offers a versatile and reliable solution for creating and managing RAID arrays. It supports a wide range of storage configurations, ensuring optimal performance and redundancy for both enterprise and small business environments.

Key Features

• Enhanced Data Protection: The PERC H710 RAID controller utilizes advanced RAID levels such as RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, and RAID 50 to deliver flexible configurations for data protection and performance.
• High Throughput: With its 6Gbps SAS interface, the PERC H710 offers fast data transfer speeds, ensuring minimal latency and higher performance for demanding applications.
• Integrated Cache: The controller features integrated cache with battery backup, providing write-back cache to improve I/O performance and ensuring data integrity during power interruptions.
• Support for Multiple Drives: The PERC H710 can support up to 32 physical drives, offering scalability for growing data storage needs.
• Advanced Monitoring and Management: Dell’s OpenManage storage management software enables administrators to monitor, configure, and maintain the PERC H710 RAID controller with ease.

RAID Configurations Supported by the PERC H710

The PERC H710 RAID controller supports several RAID levels that are crucial for balancing data redundancy and performance. These include:

• RAID 0 (Striping): Provides excellent performance by dividing data into smaller chunks across two or more disks. This RAID level has no redundancy, so it is typically used for high-speed storage where data loss is not a primary concern.
• RAID 1 (Mirroring): Ensures data redundancy by duplicating data across two drives. This configuration offers excellent fault tolerance but does not improve performance compared to other RAID levels.
• RAID 5 (Striped with Parity): Combines striping and parity data, providing a balance of performance, redundancy, and storage efficiency. It requires at least three drives.
• RAID 6 (Striped with Double Parity): Similar to RAID 5, but with double parity. This provides an additional layer of data protection and can survive up to two drive failures.
• RAID 10 (1+0): A combination of RAID 1 and RAID 0, providing both redundancy and performance by mirroring data and then striping it across multiple drives.
• RAID 50 (RAID 5+0): Combines RAID 5 and RAID 0 to offer the benefits of both striping and parity, improving both performance and fault tolerance with higher levels of drive redundancy.

Benefits

The PERC H710 RAID controller offers a wide range of benefits for organizations that require reliable storage solutions. Some of the main advantages include:

• Reliability and Stability: The PERC H710 is built to ensure high uptime and data integrity. With its enterprise-grade components, the controller is ideal for critical applications that demand continuous data availability.
• Improved I/O Performance: The PERC H710’s integrated cache accelerates read and write operations, which is essential for performance-intensive environments such as virtualization, databases, and large-scale file storage.
• Data Redundancy: By supporting multiple RAID levels, the PERC H710 ensures that data is safeguarded against drive failures, minimizing the risk of data loss.
• Scalability: The controller supports up to 32 drives, which makes it an ideal solution for expanding storage capacity as your organization grows. With additional drive slots, the RAID array can be extended to accommodate larger volumes of data.
• Advanced Management Tools: Dell’s management software suite provides detailed insights into system health and allows administrators to easily configure, monitor, and maintain RAID configurations, improving operational efficiency.

Compatibility of the PERC H710 RAID Controller

The PERC H710 RAID controller is compatible with a variety of Dell server models, ensuring its flexibility for different environments. It supports the latest generation of SAS and SATA hard drives and solid-state drives (SSDs), offering compatibility with both traditional spinning disks and modern SSDs. This flexibility makes it suitable for diverse storage needs, from high-performance computing environments to enterprise-level data centers.

Server Models Compatible with PERC H710

Below is a list of Dell server models that the PERC H710 RAID controller is compatible with:

• Dell PowerEdge R320
• Dell PowerEdge R620
• Dell PowerEdge T620
• Dell PowerEdge R720
• Dell PowerEdge R820
• Dell PowerEdge T630

By supporting a broad range of Dell servers, the PERC H710 RAID controller ensures that enterprises and small businesses alike can take advantage of its advanced features and reliability. Its compatibility with both SAS and SATA drives also offers significant flexibility for storage configurations.

Performance

The PERC H710 is designed to deliver exceptional performance in data-intensive environments. With the ability to manage up to 32 drives, the controller ensures that large volumes of data are processed efficiently. Whether handling high transaction loads or managing virtualized environments, the H710 RAID controller’s high throughput and low-latency performance can handle a variety of demanding workloads. It also supports both SAS and SATA interfaces, allowing for a mix of drive types that can be tailored to performance and capacity needs.

Integrated Cache for Faster Data Access

The PERC H710 features an integrated 1GB cache that significantly improves performance, especially in write-heavy environments. This cache stores frequently accessed data, which reduces access times and increases throughput. Furthermore, the controller’s write-back caching feature ensures that data is written to disk only after it has been safely stored in cache, improving the overall reliability and speed of write operations. In the event of a power failure, the cache is backed up with an optional battery, which preserves data until power is restored, ensuring no loss of critical information.

Performance Benchmarks

In benchmarking tests, the PERC H710 RAID controller has demonstrated exceptional throughput and low-latency performance for both sequential and random I/O operations. It is ideal for use in database applications, file servers, and virtualized environments, where speed and reliability are paramount.

PERC H710 RAID Controller

The PERC H710 RAID controller is suitable for a wide range of applications, from small businesses to large enterprise data centers. Its versatility and high performance make it ideal for:

• Virtualization: With its high throughput and low-latency capabilities, the PERC H710 is an excellent choice for virtualized environments where multiple virtual machines require fast and reliable storage access.
• Database Management: Databases benefit from the controller’s fast data access speeds and its ability to support multiple drives in RAID configurations that optimize both performance and redundancy.
• Cloud Storage: As more businesses move to the cloud, the PERC H710’s scalability and support for high-capacity drives make it an ideal solution for managing large volumes of cloud-based data.
• File Servers: For organizations with large amounts of file data, the PERC H710 provides high throughput, ensuring that data access is fast and consistent for multiple users accessing shared files.