Enhance enterprise capability, increase information availability. PowerPath™ software is a server-resident, performance and information availability enhancing software solution. PowerPath integrates multiple path I/O capabilities, automatic load balancing, and path failover functions into one comprehensive package for use on Hewlett-Packard HP-UX® , Sun® Solaris® , IBM® AIX® , and Intel®-based Windows NT® platforms connected to Symmetrix® Disk Storage systems. PowerPath also supports high availability cluster environments.

PowerPath operates in association with Symmetrix Enterprise Storage Systems. The PowerPath software resides on the open server platforms and supports FWD SCSI, Ultra SCSI, and Fibre Channel for both switched fabric and arbitrated loop environments.

Together, PowerPath and Symmetrix give you the ability to implement your IT strategy with the highest availability and performance and with all the advantages of the industry's leading information storage system.

Multiple Channels and Load Balancing Make Faster Work, Greater Opportunity

With PowerPath, not only are multiple channels used to share the I/O workload, but the automatic load balancing capability ensures that they are utilized in the most efficient manner possible.

Multipathing allows for two or more data paths (up to 32) to be simultaneously used for read/write operations. Performance is thereby enhanced by automatically and equally dispersing data access across all the available paths. PowerPath is unique in the industry in providing this multipath load balancing capability. The result is more work done in a shorter time, more customers served, more applications run, and more business opportunities profitably exploited.

PowerPath's workload balancing feature ensures that no one path can become overloaded while others have underutilized bandwidth causing an I/O bottle-neck. When one or more paths become busier than others, PowerPath shifts the I/O traffic from the busy paths to the others, further enhancing throughput over the already efficient multipathing feature.

Automatic Path Failover Keeps Your Business in Business
PowerPath's automatic path failover and dynamic recovery feature permits data access to be immediately and
nondisruptively dispersed to an alternate data path or paths in the event of a failure. This eliminates the possibility of disrupting an application due to the failure of an adapter, cable, or channel controller. In the event of a path failover, all outstanding and subsequent I/O requests are automatically and nondisruptively directed to the alternative path. Mission-critical applications continue without interruption and your business stays online.

PowerPath automatically rebalances workloads for maximum throughput and efficiency. In the event a component fails on the server side, PowerPath has the intelligence to redirect the data, avoiding any interruption to the application.

Enhanced High Availability Cluster Support
PowerPath is particularly beneficial in cluster environments in that it can prevent costly interruptions to operations. PowerPath's path failover capability avoids node failover, thus maintaining uninterrupted application support on the primary node in the event of a single path disconnect. Currently supported cluster software is listed below.

Typical Fields in a UNIX Device Display

Typical Fields in a Windows NT Device Display

Key Features

• Enhances overall I/O rates through multiple (up to 32) path capability to get more work done sooner
• Industry-unique capability of intelligently managing multiple I/O streams with automatic load balancing for greatest efficiency and throughput
• Dynamic configuration options relieve system administration workload
• Keeps applications running and information flowing through automatic error detection, failover, and rerouting of I/O to a predefined alternative data path
• Allows dynamic recovery on-the-fly of failed components
• Increases overall availability and flexibility for UNIX, Windows NT, and high availability cluster environments