Cray Sonexion 1300 Hardware

The architecture of the Cray Sonexion is comprised of pre-configured storage modules that can be easily expanded using integrated building blocks. The key hardware components include:

• Metadata Management Unit (MMU)
• Scalable Storage Unit (SSU)
• InfiniBand Network Fabric Switches for data
• Ethernet Management Switch for management

A base MMU is configured in a 2U 24-bay 2.5" drive enclosure with 22 10K RPM disk drives and two solid state drives. Up to three MMU expansion enclosures, with 24 drives each, can be connected to the base MMU to facilitate file systems with several billion files.

A base SSU is housed in a 5U 84-bay 3.5" drive enclosure with 80 drives used to provide data storage in an 8 x (8+2) RAID6 target configuration, two global hot spares and two solid state drives. An SSU expansion enclosure can be added to double the usable capacity for a given bandwidth.

The modular and redundant architecture of the Cray Sonexion 1300 was created to deliver the highest reliability, highest resiliency storage solution in the industry. In addition, each component, module and sub-system must pass extensive factory testing under demanding test conditions to ensure maximum system robustness year after year.