Dell CX300

The CX300 is one of the entry level Dell/EMC RAID Storage System with Fibre Channel host interfaces, Fibre Channel disk drives, and capable of operating as direct attach storage (DAS) or in a Storage Area Network (SAN). Simplicity and low cost are key attributes of the CX300.

In order to be able to access all of the documents that you are looking for and will need you will need to gain access to PowerLink. In the link below you will see an option that will take you to an online form where you can request access to that site where you will be able to download all of the resources you need.

ftp.dell.com/.../dellemc-cx200_Concept%20Guide_en-us.pdf

Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

You'll need a fiber channel adapter (a network card with optical ports will not work).

EMC devices will not accept any non-EMC drives. The CX300 enclosure itself will only accept fiber channel drives (certain disk enclosures that you could daisy chain off of the CX300 will support SATA or possibly even ATA drives (still all EMC certified/labelled drives)).

Hello Kenny,

My scenario :

I am using Symantec Backup Exec software to take backups.

we would like to have scalable storage solution .Now we have

Dell EMC CX 300 Series Storage Array  

HP MSL2024 1 LTO-4 Ultrium 1760 SAS Tape Library    10x1.6TB

HP Storage Works Network Storage System                --- 5TB

Need to go for a solution using the existing ones ,suggest new ones ( like hardware upgrade,using SAN etc.)

Based on the above storage :

1) we have tape library.

2) we need B2D disks where in we need to take exchange backups and archive data ( for disaster recovery scenarios).

I am planning for Dell SAN storage.Is it be possible to go for upgradation of existing Dell EMC CX 300 Series to latest models.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Please let me know your thoughts .

Thanks .

The CX300 can not be upgraded to a later model. Dell stopped offering EMC, but even then, EMC's latest models are different hardware and you cannot upgrade to them (it would be a replace and migrate data).

How many servers are  you needing to backup? I can make a suggestion to what hardware would be  the best to use.

Hello Kenny,

Total of 20 Servers. Applications include

1) Exchange Server         -- now 250-300GB

2) 3 File Servers               -- now 800+600 GB

3) 2 SQL Server                 -- 150 GB    

4) Active Directory Servers -- 150 GB  

Sizes mentioned are approximate. If we take a full backup weekly we may need 3TB storage.

We have the below storage

1) Dell EMC CX 300 Series Storage Array  

          In this first 5 slots are occupied and have room for 10 more drives.

2) HP MSL2024 1 LTO-4 Ultrium 1760 SAS Tape Library    10 tapes each with 1.6TB

          In this there is room for 12 more tapes

3) HP Storage Works Network Storage System                --- 5TB

Today I spoke with my manager and he wanted to include the existing storage and come with a solution.

If possible we can go for new storage on the existing ones (budget constraints).

 New ones mean increasing tapes in the library – this can be possible.

 I wanted B2D disks for the Exchange backup jobs.so I suggested ATA/SATA drives for Dell EMC. Is it possible to add SATA drives and connect it to our Backup server and make it online in LAN? What you think,  can this be possible?

While i was going through the Dell EMC CX series initial config guide, i found below and thought using this option .Can this be put in to action in our scenario ?

"Backup-to-disk

Backup-to-disk is sequential in nature and typically uses medium (64 KB) to large (256 KB) I/O

sizes. For these types of applications use ATA or SATA-II drives, although you can use Fibre

Channel drives. To calculate the number of Fibre Channel drives use the “rule-of-thumb” values

in EMC Dell/EMC CX Series Best Practices for Fibre Channel Storage.

For ATA or SATA-II drives use RAID 3 4+1 or 8+1. "

Based on the above number of servers and storage availability ,could you please suggest me in deciding a solution.

Thanks again .

Hello Kenny,

Any suggestions / updates on this ....

If you have a SATA DAE then you can add the SATA disks to the enclosure and create a lun to assign to the host so then you can do backups directly to the CX300.