IBM Storwize family


IBM Storwize systems are virtualizing RAID computer data storage systems with raw storage capacities up to 32 PB. Storwize is based on the same software as IBM SAN Volume Controller.

Models

The Storwize family offers several members:
Each of the above family members run software that is based on a common source codebase, although each has a type specific downloadable package.

Architecture

Storwize V7000 provides a very similar architecture to SVC, using the RAID code from the DS8000 to provide internal managed disks and SSD code from the DS8000 for tiered storage.

Features and software

All Storwize systems offer the following features:
In addition, other Storwize systems offer the following features :
In addition, the Storwize V7000 Unified offered the following features:.
Most Storwize systems are intended for certain environments and provide several features, that are not licensed by default.
There are several types of licenses that depend on the chosen model and the subject of the license:
There are some limitations for each model and each licensed internal code.
These can be read on IBMs web pages. Here are examples for V7000, the V5000 series, and IBM SAN Volume Controller.
In addition, there are more contributors to a working environment. IBM provides this in an interactive interoperabitlity matrix
called .

Timeline

According to the official availability dates and the days the systems are removed from marketing you can determine the following availability to purchase shown in light green.
The graphics only contains the IBM storage systems starting with 'V',.i.e. V3700, V5000, V5010, V5020, V5030, V5100 and V7000.
These systems vary even beyond their names, therefore the graphics also contains IBM type and model.
All the displayed systems can still get regular service at the end of the timeline. After the light green purchase period, the time of regular service is displayed light blue.
For the IBM SAN Volume Controller's timeline see there.

Hardware

The Storwize family hardware consists of control enclosures and expansion enclosures, connected with wide SAS cables. Each enclosure houses 2.5" or 3.5" drives. The control enclosure contains two independent control units based on SAN Volume Controller technology, which are clustered via an internal network. Each enclosure also includes two power supply units.

Storwize V7000 Gen 3 (or 'Next Gen')

The IBM Storwize V7000 SFF Enclosure Model 724, announced November 6 2018, supports NVMe and FC-NVMe on 16 Gbit/s or 32 Gbit/s adapters, and iSER or iSCSI on 25GbE adapters. The Control Enclosure holds twenty-four 2.5 inch NVMe flash drives or twenty-four 2.5 inch NVMe FlashCore modules.
FlashCore modules contain IBM MicroLatency technology with built-in hardware compression and encryption.
Software Details:
The IBM Storwize V7000 SFF Control Enclosure Model 624, announced 23 August 2016, features two node canisters and up to 256 GiB cache in a 2U, 19-inch rack mount enclosure. 1 Gbit/s iSCSI connectivity is standard, with options for 16 Gbit/s FC and 10 Gbit/s iSCSI/FCoE connectivity. It holds up to twenty-four 2.5-inch SAS drives and supports the attachment of up to 20 Storwize V7000 expansion enclosures.
IBM Storwize V7000 Gen 2+ is an updated Storwize V7000 Gen 2 with a newer CPU, doubled cache memory and faster FC options, integrated compression acceleration, and additional scalability with the following features:
Software Details:
The IBM Storwize V7000 SFF Control Enclosure Model 524, announced 6 May 2014, features two node canisters and up to 128 GiB cache in a 2U, 19-inch rack mount enclosure. 1 Gbit/s iSCSI connectivity is standard, with options for 8 Gbit/s FC and 10 Gbit/s iSCSI/FCoE connectivity. It holds up to twenty-four 2.5-inch SAS drives and supports the attachment of up to 20 Storwize V7000 expansion enclosures.
IBM Storwize V7000 next-generation models offer increased performance and connectivity, integrated compression acceleration, and additional scalability with the following features:
Hardware Details:
Software Details:
Storwize V7000 consists of one to four control enclosures and up to 36 expansion enclosures, for a maximum of 40 enclosures altogether. It can scale up to 960 disks and 1.44PB raw internal capacity.
Hardware details:
Storwize V5100 consists of a control enclosure and up to 20 standard expansion enclosures or 8 high-density expansion enclosures. It supports NVMe and FC-NVMe on 16Gbit/s/32Gbit/s adapters, and iSCSI/iWARP/RoCE on 25GbE adapters. It can scale up to 760 disks and 23.34PB raw internal capacity.
Hardware details:
Storwize V5030E consists of a control enclosure and up to 20 standard expansion enclosures or 8 high-density expansion enclosures. It can scale up to 760 disks and 23.34PB raw internal capacity.

Storwize V5010E

Storwize V5010E consists of a control enclosure and up to 10 standard expansion enclosures or 4 high-density expansion enclosures. It can scale up to 392 disks and 12.04PB raw internal capacity.

Storwize V5030

Storwize V5030 consists of a control enclosure and up to 20 standard expansion enclosures or 8 high-density expansion enclosures. It can scale up to 760 disks and 23.34PB raw internal capacity.

Storwize V5020

Storwize V5020 consists of a control enclosure and up to 10 standard expansion enclosures or 4 high-density expansion enclosures. It can scale up to 392 disks and 12.04PB raw internal capacity.

Storwize V5010

Storwize V5010 consists of a control enclosure and up to 10 standard expansion enclosures or 4 high-density expansion enclosures. It can scale up to 392 disks and 12.04PB raw internal capacity.

Storwize V5000

Storwize V5000 consists of one to two control enclosures and up to 12 expansion enclosures, for a maximum of 18 enclosures altogether. It can scale up to 480 disks and 960TB raw internal capacity.
Hardware details:
An entry-level SAN Volume Controller configuration contains a single I/O group, can scale out to support four I/O groups and can scale up to support 4,096 host servers, up to 8,192 volumes and up to 32 PB of virtualized storage capacity. For the full article, see IBM SAN Volume Controller.
Hardware details :
Storwize V3700 consists of one control enclosure and up to 4 expansion enclosures. It can scale up to 240 2.5-inch disk drives or 120 3.5-inch disk drives and 480TB raw internal capacity.
Hardware details:
Flex System V7000 can scale up to 240 per control enclosure; 960 per clustered system. This is not supported at v7.3.0.
Hardware details: