Current Trends in Storage Architecture Rob Peglar Corporate Architect XIOtech Corporation, a Seagate Company

Agenda Enterprise Storage Directions Current Storage Trends SAN over WAN using IP SAN over WAN using DWDM SNIA examples of emerging technologies REDI SAN-Links D/R example Virtualization Building Enterprise Agility: Effective Storage Management The Right Storage Design

SAN – What is it? It is a high speed network, with both LAN and channel characteristics, that establishes a connection between filesystems (servers) and storage elements It can be though of as an extended storage bus, interconnected using similar technologies as LANs and WANs, e.g. repeaters, hubs, bridges, switches, converters, extenders SAN interfaces are typically Fibre Channel rather than Ethernet or ATM; FC is the best ‘cloud’ there is for storage

Why use SAN? Reduce total cost of ownership 24x7 operations require efficient control of management of resources; centralized SAN model capitalizes on costly human resources Gain competitive advantage Consolidations, acquisitions and mergers are counter-productive if system efficiencies cannot be achieved Improve server and network efficiency Separate client-server (packet I/O) activities from server-storage (block I/O) activities to optimize bandwidth utilization

SAN Data Sharing Archival Migration Retrieval Backup Shared and Extraction, movement and loading of data between environments SAN Data Sharing Backup and Restore Archival Retrieval Migration Shared Storage Disk Mirroring Near-line or off-line data storage on less time-sensitive media Moving data from one storage system to another Creation of copies of data to protect against human error, machine failure, or catastrophic event Open and legacy access to common physical storage resources Nearly instantaneous recovery from failure by re-mapping LUN, utilizing mirror Vdisk image

Technology Innovations > 1 Gb/sec medias – Fibre Channel/Ethernet Denser/faster disk – e.g. 146GB/10K, 240 or 450 GB/7200, 73GB/15K, 18 and 36 GB/20K, U-640, 1280 Denser/faster tape – e.g. > 15MB/s heads, >150 GB uncompressed media Virtual subsystems, virtual appliances (middle layer), virtual switches, virtual HBAs, … Way Out There – holographic storage, heat-assisted magnetic recording, multiple TB on a spindle, massive parallel subsystems (N x N)

Enterprise Storage Directions Fibre Channel is mature and is the incumbent SAN media Installed base growing faster than expected; ~70% of enterprises have implemented FC to date InfiniBand will also be used as interconnect to FC SANs from high-end servers; IP from low, mid-range Storage Area Networks are widespread Windows XP and future MS releases – integrated Unix OSes – layered (3rd party)

Enterprise Storage Directions Network Attached Storage NAS devices getting attention, good with Unix servers, but lack full capability provided with SAN by Windows 2000 or XP file servers (e.g. CIFS support for Exchange and SQL Server) Microsoft working with the SNIA on Device Resource Management and CIMOM IETF Drafts exist for iSCSI, FCIP & iFCP Clustering Well-established solutions for Unix; upcoming Linux Windows 2000 DC and XP bring expanded implementations of clustering; four-node and multi-node support Clustering experience gives the coming SAN improvements (e.g. FC-SW-2) better positioning for current and future HW support

Current Storage Trends Virtualization – abstraction of detail 2Gig Fibre Channel HBAs/devices Path failover in fabric mesh topologies 100% fabric connectivity for both hosts and devices No more FC-AL except inside the storage cabinet Storage Clustering for five-nines HA 3rd party copy for server-less backup/restore

SAN over WAN using IP Why? You know and understand IP Requires minimal training Maximizes use of your existing IP infrastructure Utilizes common switches and network management tools Mature IP standards and tools for QoS & Security (802.3ad Link Aggregation, IPsec, etc)

SAN over WAN using DWDM Why? Extends native FC to 80Km Enables cost effective use of leased or private fiber Integrates Fibre Channel traffic with legacy services ESCON, FDDI Integrates Storage traffic with LAN services 100Mb Ethernet, 1Gb Ethernet, upcoming 10Gb Ethernet

Remote Tape with Legato Networker SNIA Example: SAN over WAN NT Server Remote Disk with Veritas Volume Manager over IP IP Brocade Brocade McData 2 McData 1 ATM CNT OSD CNT OSD ATTO FibreBridge XIOtech NT Server XIOtech SpectraLogic Tape Library CommVault Galaxy Tape Backup XIOtech Optera Optera Qlogic SANbox Qlogic SANbox Dark Fiber SpectraLogic Tape Library NT Server Crossroads 7100 Crossroads 7100 Remote Tape with Legato Networker ATM

REDI SAN Links Replicator – WAN (Multi-hop) W2K NetWare Solaris Backup Server RSLR copies data from Source to Remote Copy Volume (RCV) Tape Library Brocade Switch/Fabric Brocade Switch/Fabric 3000 WAN/MAN 3000 PROCESS Data Establish Mirror to RCV1 Quiesce the application Break the mirror (5 seconds) Activate the application REDI Copy to RCV2 Backup RCV2 to tape (Automate with AutoScript) RCV2 RCV1 MAGNITUDE MAGNITUDE

Virtualization And Other Fun Topics

Virtualization “What does it really mean”? SNIA Taxonomy Definitions: Block Virtualization: The act of applying virtualization to one or more block-based storage services for the purpose of providing a new block service to clients. Some examples of block virtualization are disk aggregation. (Most vendors fall under this definition) Storage Sub-System Virtualization: The implementation of virtualization in a storage subsystem such as a disk array. Storage Virtualization: The act of abstracting, hiding or isolating the internal function of a storage (sub) system or service from applications, host computers or general network resources for the purpose or enabling application, server, and network independent management of storage or data.

Storage Sub-System Virtualization Storage element abstraction – make storage easy to add, remove, discover, manage, and secure – reduce operating costs by reducing administration & downtime Storage should follow the computation model; we have virtual primary memory, why not virtual storage? Hide physical device detail from the OS Mixing & Matching any drive size or drive speed, within the same enclosure on same SCSI bus or FC_AL, without reducing capability to the lowest common denominator.

Advantages of Storage Virtualization Decrease time spent to manage real storage by orders of Magnitude (e.g. copy, swap, mirror, d/b re-org, defrag, change protection level, change stripe size) Eliminate server downtime needed to perform traditional storage management (add/change/delete/reconfigure LUNs) Add servers online to storage; add storage online to servers; no downtime Manage space, not drives

The Right Storage Design Real-time Configuration Flexibility and Scalability Space management versus drive management Add drives while online, allowing instant access to storage Virtual drives are carved from pool amongst any/all spindles Assign storage to heterogeneous servers, OS-independent Assign servers in topology-independent connections online Add physical space or reconfigure virtual drives while online Connect new servers while online Change data protection schemes while online Mix and match drive sizes and speeds Online upgrade to new physical technology

So How Does The Future Look? Applications make direct API calls to manipulate storage Networks provide independent transport Storage subsystems have visible APIs Break the relationship between the OS, filesystem and the underlying devices Attribute-based storage, not storage-based attributes Virtual Everything

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