HP MSA 2040 – Product Brief
Evaluator Series Research - May 30, 2013
HP MSA 2040 Modular
Storage Array (MSA)
Introduction
The HP MSA 2040 is a block storage system with multiple
protocol connectivity. The system can be configured with Fibre
Channel, SAS, and iSCSI connectivity in a single controller or dual
controller arrangement. The MSA 2040 is an entry-level system
that supports many advanced features such as VMware
integration, remote replication and the ability to support SSDs
which is often found only in higher end systems.
Highlights
 Block storage array with
single or dual controllers
 Multiple protocols – FC,
SAS, iSCSI
 Snapshots
 Remote Replication
 Multiple drive and host
connectivity options
 VMware integration
HP also sells the HP MSA 2040 packaged with servers as a part of
many solution offerings. There are a number of configuration
and capacity scaling options and a wide range of disk drives supported. HP Insight Control may
be used to complement the 2040’s web based GUI for management.
Usage
The HP MSA 2040 is used in both direct attach and SAN environments for scale-out storage
designs, remote enterprise locations or for small and mid-size businesses. The storage system is
used as part of solution offerings such as Exchange servers and other specific applications. The
MSA 2040 is a general-purpose storage system and for use in many situations including remote
offices.
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Characteristics
- Performance – The MSA 2040 has good performance characteristics due to its
efficient controllers combined with support for a large number of disks and solidstate devices. Additionally VMware VAAI support can enhance performance in
some environments.
- Availability – Dual controller systems provide HA features through failover
capability, combined with hot swap features on all critical components. The
transportable cache enables the hot swapping of a controller without loss of any
cached data.
- Replication for BC/DR – Asynchronous remote replication is available.
Applications
- The MSA 2040 is targeted at applications that use block I/O in the entry-level
space.
- The MSA’s snapshots, VSS, VAAI and remote replication provide a large degree of
application and OS integration to enable application consistency. The
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HP MSA 2040 – Product Brief
Evaluator Series Research - May 30, 2013
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performance and features allow applications to be deployed in a high availability
environment.
- Applications that demand high sustained throughput are a good fit for the MSA
2040 due to the large cache and the number and speed of host I/O ports
- Transaction based applications generating a high I/O rate should perform well
with configuration utilizing a high number of drives combined with SSD’s
System environments
- The MSA 2040 is a block storage system with wide connectivity for both direct and
SAN attachment using SAS, FC, and iSCSI.
Deployment and Administration
- As an entry-level storage system, the MSA 2040 is meant to be installed and
managed by an IT generalist with basic knowledge of storage.
- HP Insight Manager and a Web GUI are supported administration tools
Potential
The HP MSA 2040 continues to evolve and add features. Despite some overlap with the HP midrange products in terms of capacity, data protection and host integration capabilities, the MSA
2040 is positioned as an entry-level product. The addition of more ports, faster FC connectivity,
faster controllers with larger cache and the new support for SSD’s all help maintain the MSA
2040’s strong heritage in the entry level marketplace.
Link to vendor site for specifications:
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/data-storage/data-storageproducts.html?compURI=1401941
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HP MSA 2040 – Product Brief
Evaluator Series Research - May 30, 2013
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System Specifications from Evaluator Group Competitive Matrix
Vendor
HP
Max LUNs / System
512
Max LUN size
16TB / 64TB
Basics
Wide Striping
Yes - within RAID group
Models
Host Connectivity
MSA
Number of Controllers
Drive number - Max by
Model
Max physical capacity (Raw)
2000 Gen3 / 2040
1 or 2
199 SFF or 96 LFF drives
max
288 TB
Drives Currently Available
SSD
SAS 15K
SAS 10K
NL-SAS, SATA 7.2K
Drive intermix (per drive
enclosure)
RAID Configurations
RAID Levels
RAID Intermix
Max RAID set size group
2040: 200, 400 GB
2.5" : 146, 300 GB
3.5" : 300, 450, 600 GB
2.5" : 300, 450, 600, 900
GB
1 TB SFF
1, 2, 3 TB LFF
Yes
0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 50, 10
No
16 - RAID 0,3,5,6
32 - RAID 5
Global hot spare
Yes
Redundant hot swap
Yes
Cache
Data Cache Max - per node
2 /4 GB
Increment
N/A
Dynamic Cache Partitioning
No
Cache binding option
No
Performance
Total bandwidth (GB/sec)
Max IOPs
2000: 1.57GB/s Rd
0.790 GB/s Wr
2040: 4.68 GB/s Rd
3.62 GB/s Wr
Random
2000: 18,698
2040: 49,000 (HDD)
SPC-1
No
SPC-2
No
LUNs
Max SAS
2000: 2 @ 8Gbps
2040: 8 @ 8/16 GBps
2000: 2 @ 10Gb/s or 4
@ 1Gb/s
2040: 4 @ 10 Gb/s
4 @ 6 Gb/s
Max FCoE
No
NAS Capability
No
Max Fibre Channel Ports
Max iSCSI Ports
Back-end Connectivity
Max back-end interfaces
1: 4-Lane SAS @ 6Gb/s
per controller
Physical
Min / Max Controller Size
(U)
Disk Chassis Size (U)
2U
Disk Density per enclosure
3.5" : 12
2.5" : 24
Controller enclosure may
hold disks
Host Integration
2U
Yes
Active/Active Controller
pairs
FC - Symmetric LUN
Access
FC - ALUA - Asymmetric
LUN Access
Yes
Clustering of A/A pairs
No
Yes
Yes
Microsoft VSS provider
No
Microsoft VDS interface
No
Storage Management
Element Mgr.
Browser-based
CLI
Yes
SMI-S
No
Data Protection
Point In Time Snapshots
(PIT)
Max # PIT Copies per array
Copy on Write
64 / 64 option to 512
Max # PIT copies per LUN
64 / 64 option to 512
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HP MSA 2040 – Product Brief
Evaluator Series Research - May 30, 2013
Local Replication (within
array)
# Local Clones
64/ 64 option to 128
Resync Clone
No
Read / Write Clones
Yes
Remote Replication (array
to array)
Replication Connectivity
FC or iSCSI
Synchronous Replication
No
Async Replication
Yes
Write Order Consistency
No
Consistency Groups
No
Bandwidth Throttle
No
Delta Replication
Yes
WAN Acceleration
No
In-flight Encryption
No
Multi-hop (cascade)
No
3 Way replication
No
Data at rest Encryption
No
Data Reduction
No
Thin Provisioning
No
Stretched Clusters
No
Disk Spin Down
No
Automated Tiering within
box
Frequency of Tiered
Movement
Level of Tiered
Movement
Number of Tiers
No
VMware SRM integration
VMware VAAI
n/a
n/a
n/a
Yes
FC, SAS & iSCSI
HW Zero Copy
Yes
HW Lock Reservation
Yes
HW Accelerated Copy
Yes
Other Advanced Features
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HP MSA 2040 – Product Brief
Evaluator Series Research - May 30, 2013
HP MSA 2040 - Highlights
 HP Entry-level
–
–
–
–
–
2U disk & controller enclosure with 24 SFF drives, or 12 LFF
Scalable to 288 TB using 9 - 2U enclosures
2 controllers in active / active HA with ALUA LUN access
Multiple RAID levels (1, 5, 6, 10, 50)
Data in place upgrade from previous MSA systems, swap drives and go
 Web based GUI, plus data protection options
– Up to 64 snapshots and local clones included, extra charge for more
– Web GUI
HP MSA 2040: Features
MSA
2040
Max
Controllers
Max
Cache
Disk Drives
Max Ports
Max
Capacity
2
8 GB,
SSD, 15K, 10K,
7.2K
199 total drives
8 @ 16 Gb FC or
8 @10 GbE
288 TB
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HP MSA 2040 – Product Brief
Evaluator Series Research - May 30, 2013
HP MSA 2040 Software
 MSA 2040 includes :
– Management
 Web GUI
– Upgradeability
 Data in place upgrade from MSA G2, or G3 ; swap drives to upgrade
– Data Protection
 64 snapshots / clones included, up to 512 available
 Optional remote async replication available
– Host Integration
 VSS for MS Windows PIT copy
 VMware VAAI – all three block primitives (Zero, Copy & Locking)
 VMware SRM support with remote replication
HP MSA 2040 – Web GUI
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HP MSA 2040 – Product Brief
Evaluator Series Research - May 30, 2013
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HP MSA 2040
Perceived Strengths and Concerns
Strengths
 Solid history and large install base
 Data in place upgrade reduces
upgrade issues
 Competitive pricing
 Good performance
Potential Concerns
 Older architecture, not based on
pooling
 Limitation on number of SSD devices
– Large cache and 8 @ 16 Gb FC
– SSD support and other features
 Application Integration
– VMware SRM, VAAI and VASA
– VSS for MS Windows apps
More detailed information is available at http://evaluatorgroup.com
Copyright 2013 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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the use or operation of the products described herein. In no event shall Evaluator Group be liable for any indirect, special,
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© 2013 Evaluator Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is prohibited.