DirectFlash Innovation
FlashArray is specifically architected for innovators, moving beyond the legacy SSD architectures that have flash pretending to be a hard disk. Instead, DirectFlash speaks directly to raw NAND with a super-efficient NVMe protocol and leverages NVMeoF. DirectFlash includes multiple components:
DirectFlash Module (DFM): DFM is a Pure-designed flash module that connects raw flash directly to the FlashArray storage via NVMe. Unlike traditional SSDs that use a flash controller or flash translation layer, DFM is just raw flash. This design removes performance roadblocks of SSDs used by many legacy storage architectures.
DirectFlash software: DirectFlash software manages array I/O globally, for a faster, more efficient architecture. It provides detailed I/O scheduling and performance management. This makes I/Os deterministic and reduces average latency by reducing the number of slow I/Os that would often occur in SSD architectures.
DirectFlash Shelf: DirectFlash Shelf is used to add additional NVMe capacity to a FlashArray//C and is external to the array chassis. Instead, it’s connected to the chassis via NVMe-oF protocol with RDMA over converged (RoCE), leveraging 100GB/sec Ethernet. The shelf maintains the ability to support different sizes of DFMs as flash density improves.
DirectFlash Fabric: DirectFlash Fabric lowers network latency dramatically and enables enterprise-class reliability and data services via shared storage versus DAS. NVMe-oF enables massive optimization between the storage controllers and host over fast networking: Fibre Channel, RoCE, and TCP. DirectFlash Fabric delivers greater performance and efficiency gains, including offloading the host CPU.