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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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)

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Virtualization And Other Fun Topics

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Q & A
THANK YOU