HyperMetro is Huawei’s active-active, dual-active data center solution. It uses synchronous replication to ensure zero Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and provides automatic, rapid failover (low RTO), which is critical for zero data loss and continuous availability for core financial transactions. Asynchronous replication (HyperReplication) introduces a potential for data loss, while local clusters or backups do not protect against a site-level disaster.

The Performance Analysis tool within OceanStor DeviceManager is specifically designed for in-depth troubleshooting. It allows engineers to collect and analyze performance data across multiple dimensions (like LUN, controller, port, disk) over a historical period. It can correlate front-end and back-end metrics, identify hot spots, and analyze I/O characteristics (size, type, latency) far more effectively than the basic real-time dashboard or generic CLI commands.

For high-end systems like the OceanStor 18000, a fully redundant dual-fabric topology is a critical best practice. This means disk enclosures are connected to both controller enclosures via redundant SAS or PCIe cables, forming two independent physical paths. This eliminates any single point of failure, provides multipath I/O for load balancing and failover, and is essential for meeting the high availability and performance design goals of the platform.

VDI environments, especially those using linked clones, are ideal for deduplication and compression. The operating system disks are often identical across many desktops, leading to extremely high deduplication ratios. User data disks also have significant redundancy. The capacity savings are enormous and typically outweigh the computational overhead in this use case. The other scenarios involve either latency-sensitive random I/O, incompressible unique data, or high-speed sequential writes where the overhead is less desirable.

The core advantage of a true all-flash array like Dorado is its flash-native architecture. Unlike hybrid systems that must manage data movement between flash and slower mechanical disks, all components (front-end, cache, and persistent media) are optimized for flash. This eliminates the latency spikes and performance variability caused by cache misses and HDD seek times, delivering consistent microsecond-level latency that is critical for Tier-0 and Tier-1 applications.

SmartVirtualization (also known as storage federation or external storage virtualization) is designed for this exact scenario. It allows the OceanStor system to take control of the disks/LUNs on the legacy third-party array. Once virtualized, the data on those LUNs can be accessed through the OceanStor and then seamlessly migrated to native OceanStor disks using features like SmartMigration, all with minimal disruption to connected hosts.

The key difference is in the data transfer timing. Asynchronous replication transfers data continuously as it is written, aiming for a small RPO (seconds to minutes). Periodic asynchronous replication, however, transfers data in discrete batches according to a user-defined schedule (e.g., every 15 minutes, every hour). This makes periodic asynchronous more bandwidth-efficient and suitable for less critical data or over longer distances with bandwidth constraints, but it results in a larger, schedule-dependent RPO.

For SQL Server, transaction log writes are sequential and synchronous, making their performance critical for overall database throughput. Huawei best practices recommend placing logs on dedicated, high-performance LUNs. Using a ‘Thick LUN’ (fully allocated) policy avoids the overhead of thin provisioning. Assigning a higher priority (e.g., via SmartQoS or a dedicated high-priority storage pool) ensures log writes are serviced promptly. Separating data and log files is also a standard performance practice.

UltraPath is a host-based multipath I/O (MPIO) solution. Its core function is to manage multiple physical connections (paths) from the host to a storage LUN (e.g., through different FC switches or iSCSI NICs). It provides path failover in case of a link, HBA, or switch failure, and load balancing across active paths to aggregate bandwidth and improve performance. It is a crucial component for building a resilient and high-performance SAN connectivity layer.

HyperMetro is Huawei’s active-active, dual-active data center solution. It uses synchronous replication to ensure zero Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and provides automatic, rapid failover (low RTO), which is critical for zero data loss and continuous availability for core financial transactions. Asynchronous replication (HyperReplication) introduces a potential for data loss, while local clusters or backups do not protect against a site-level disaster.0