STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION TOPICS
Storage Virtualization is the concept of completely abstracting the disk space used by your server data from the
physical disks or "spindles". Storage Virtualization allows you to aggregate disks and LUNs from disparate systems
into common storage pools. Different classes of storage from multiple vendors can be managed and exploited as a whole.
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Storage Pooling is an abstraction of physical storage resources from the logical volumes or LUNs
published by a storage system. Storage Pooling is the very foundation of Storage Virtualization.
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Whether you are considering a server virtualalization project or just a refresh of your server hardware,
here is a low-cost SAN storage consolidation solution that could save you thousands of dollars.
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That depends entirely on the virtualization implementation. Much has been written about the two common
methods of implementing storage virtualization, "In-Band" and "Out-Of-Band". The arguments are
generally limited to the concepts and not the actual implementations by the vendors. Caveat emptor.
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VMWARE ESX SAN STORAGE SOLUTIONS
Overview and implementation details for building an ESX environment with integrated virtual SAN for a true Business Continuity solution.
[Read the paper...]
Overview and details of a combined VM Backup, Offsite Backup and DR Facility employing Vizioncore's vRanger PRO
and DataCore's SANmelody with Async Replication.
[Read the paper...]
This "Work in Progress" discusses how to implement High-Availability with VMotion when you can't afford a traditional SAN. It also discusses how some Storage Virtualization
features augment capacity provisioning and availability in a Virtual Server environment.
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Discusses best practices for configuring SAN or shared storage for virtual server environments such as VMWare ESX. Includes discussion of how many VMs per Datastore.
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These benchmarks and spreadsheet are posted on the VMWare Tech Network site. Independent users ran IOMeter tests on VMs against their SAN storage arrays. While the results are not
"apples to apples", they are interesting to review.
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CITRIX XENSERVER SAN STORAGE SOLUTIONS
Overview and implementation details for building a virtual SAN for use with Citrix XenServers and XenMotion.
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DISASTER RECOVERY TOPICS
An overview of Disaster Recovery with a focus on the storage and data replication aspects. Includes an example using DataCore's AIM (Asynchronous IP Mirroring) products.
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Overview and details of a combined VM Backup, Offsite Backup and DR Facility employing Vizioncore's vRanger PRO
and DataCore's SANmelody with Async Replication.
[Read the paper...]
HP SAN STORAGE SOLUTIONS
An example configuraton of a high-performance Fibre Channel SAN using an HP DL380 G5
ProLiant server. The objective is to create a scalable appliance with at least 3TB
usable high-performance storage. The configuration should allow room for growth in
capacity and/or features. The configuration should allow room for growth in capacity
and/or features. [Read more...]
In this white paper, we will configure a feature-rich, high-performance iSCSI
SAN using an HP DL380 G5 server. The objective is to create a scalable appliance
with 3TB usable high-performance storage, and a Tier-1 SAN feature set. The SAN
should be capable of performing both synchronous mirroring for Business Continuity
and asynchronous replication for implementing a Disaster Recovery site. The
configuration should be scalable, providing for growth in capacity. [Read the paper...]
In this example, we will configure a high-performance Fibre Channel SAN
using an HP ProLiant server. The objective is to create a storage array
with at least 1TB of high-performance storage, and at least 2 Fibre
Channel ports. The configuration should allow room for growth in capacity
and/or features. [Read more...]
In this example, we will configure a high-performance iSCSI SAN
using an HP ML350 G4 ProLiant server. The objective is to build a scalable
storage array with at least 2TB of storage and 2 iSCSI ports. The
configuration should allow room for growth in capacity and/or features.
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The answer depends primarily on the storage virtualization vendor's support for the EVA platform.
For instance, with DataCore's SANsymphony product, the answer is a definitive "YES. You CAN use SANsymphony to
virtualize ANY of HP's storage products. SANsymphony runs as a set of services on a standard Windows
2003 installation on common server hardware. From the EVA's perspective, SANsymphony is nothing more
than an application running on a Windows server.
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I've put together an example config of using HP kit to build
a one-vendor solution using DataCore. The idea here is that you will be using HP
hardware for servers, storage, etc. The storage management or storage
controller becomes an application running on a standard HP platform. You could
use just about any HP server and disk solution you choose — I just picked what
looked like an attractive package for maximizing storage in a small footprint.
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DELL SAN STORAGE SOLUTIONS
I just took delivery of a couple of Dell PE840s. In this cookbook, I demonstrate how to turn them into iSCSI SAN Storage Arrays implementing
Synchronous Data Mirroring (i.e. RAID-1). We also prove scalability by expanding our SAN storage using an MD1000 SAS shelf.
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In this example, we will build a turbo-charged Fibre Channel / iSCSI storage array or "SAN"
using Dell servers. The objective is to achieve I/O performance equivalent to the so-called
"Tier 1" Storage Frames, combined with High Availability — but at a fraction of the price
of a Tier-1 solution.
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IBM SAN STORAGE SOLUTIONS
In this example, we will configure a high-performance iSCSI SAN using
an IBM System x (xSeries) server. The objective is to build a scalable
storage array with at least 2TB of storage and 2 iSCSI ports. The configuration
should allow room for growth in capacity and/or features.
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In this example, we will build a scaleable iSCSI SAN storage array featuring Synchronous Data Mirroring
for Extreme High Availability using IBM System x (a.k.a. xSeries) servers.
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EMC SAN STORAGE SOLUTIONS
Despite their unconventional start as an office furniture supplier, EMC made its name with their Symmetrix (a.k.a. DMX) product line.
These Tier-1 SAN storage servers offer a rich feature set including snapshoting and data replication, not to mention performance
tuning features. Unfortunately, those advanced features come at a significant price, both in licensing costs and capacity utilization.
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SAN STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR THE APPLE MAC OS X PLATFORM
"Insanely Great!" In this cookbook, we describe a low-cost software solution for implementing an iSCSI SAN (Storage Area Network)
for your Mac OS Clients. The cookbook includes complete configuration details with screenshots.
[Read the paper...]
ISCSI & FC SAN STORAGE TOPICS
Absolutely not! A few vendors would like you to believe that you need a lot of special iSCSI "Infrastructure" to implement
an iSCSI SAN. Nonsense. In most cases you can build your iSCSI SAN using standard Ethernet kit. That was the whole point
of iSCSI in the first place.
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This is a complicated question that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no.
The objective of volume defragmentation is to improve I/O performance by reducing
seek latency on an inherently slow physical medium: the disk drive or "spindle"
as well as improve the performance of the File System.
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Work In Progress, A comparison of technologies and discussion of what's important...
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A "Work in Progress". Discusses best practices for configuring SAN or shared storage for virtual server environments such as VMWare ESX.
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