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New White Papers

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:29:53 +0000

There are three new white papers available on the site that may be of interest. They are: Create a Smarter Storage Strategy http://thestoragearchitect.tradepub.com/free/w_fnet24 Availability and the Cloud http://thestoragearchitect.tradepub.com/free/w_fnet22/ The Economic Impact of File Virtualization: Reducing Costs and Improving Efficiency for File-Based Storage http://thestoragearchitect.tradepub.com/free/w_fnet09/ As usual I welcome any feedback as to whether this part of the site is useful. Disclaimer: For each subscription I receive a payment which goes to fund the running of this site and www.thevirtualisationarchitect.com. This includes covering the costs of trial subscriptions to cloud services.

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New White Papers

HP Challenges Dell for 3Par

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:57:54 +0000

So there we have it. A week after Dell announce their intention to acquire 3Par, HP put their cards on the table and trump the Dell bid with an updated offer of $24 a share. This represents a 1/3 increase over the Dell $18/share offer. HP have been pretty acquisitive in the storage arena over the last few years, acquiring LeftHand, Ibrix and others. Why now would they want to acquire 3Par

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HP Challenges Dell for 3Par

Hardware Review: Promise SmartStor NS4600 – Part III

admin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:42:20 +0000

This is a series of posts on the Promise SmartStor NS4600 home storage server. Previous posts: Hardware Review: Promise SmartStor NS4600 – Part I Hardware Review: Promise SmartStor NS4600 – Part II In this post, we will discuss file layout, formats and protocols available on the NS4600. The previous post (above) discussed how RAID is constructed across physical disks. Multiple volumes can be constructed from the disks available in the system (subject to a disk being dedicated to only one volume). Above this layer sits the file system and logical iSCSI devices. Filesystem Status The first screen shot shows the normal status of a file system. In this example there are two drives paired together in a RAID-1 mirror, providing approximately 1675GB of storage space. At present only around 1442GB of space as been allocated to the file system, with some 187GB of free capacity still available. At first it may not seem obvious why all the available space shouldn’t be allocated to the file system, however the answer is simple; standard NAS file space and iSCSI LUNs sit beside each other together on the RAID volume. Therefore as a file system is created, it can be sized as required, allowing future expansion as either additional file space or as iSCSI LUNs. The creation of the iSCSI LUN is shown in subsequent screen shots, highlighting the initial available 187GB of space, followed by the creation of two 50GB iSCSI LUNs, reducing the available space to 87GB. Mixing data types on the same RAID set would not necessarily be best practice on a medium-tier or enterprise-class array; fortunately the ability to create multiple volumes enables some disks to be dedicated to file and others to block-level access, simply by creating multiple volumes. Of course the main restriction is only having 4 drives to play with, however the underlying architecture enables multiple configurations to be created and potentially in the future, should Promise choose to create larger devices, would offer the fundamentals for sensible data segregation. In any event, for single CPU, single NIC devices like the NS4600, high performance isn’t likely to be the main purchasing consideration and mixing file and block data on the same RAID group shouldn’t pose a problem. Protocols For file data, the NS4600 provides Windows, Mac, FTP and Unix connectivity. See screenshot 9 in the gallery at the end of this post. Protocols can be turned on/off system-wide or specified for each file share. For Windows, the server is able to connect to an Active Directory domain. This may not be everyone’s first choice but in a small office, centralising security is an essential requirement – I always look for Active Directory support as it simplifies my home lab setup. Mac settings are pretty simple; on or off, with the ability to issue a message to connecting systems. FTP is similarly simply specified and for Unix/Linux connectivity, the NS4600 can be connected to a NIS domain. It also seems possible to connect a share to both a NIS domain and AD at the same time. Now, unfortunately I don’t run NIS so couldn’t test this; however specifying two security domains does throw up issues of consistency and questions around which security model “wins” in the event of a conflict. There doesn’t appear to be any way to specify userid translation as there is in Data ONTAP for example

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Hardware Review: Promise SmartStor NS4600 – Part III

Balancing Bicycle and Storage Resources

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:29:00 +0000

London Cycle Locations Transport for London today unveiled their new bicycle hire scheme, hopefully making it easier and cheaper to get around London on short journeys. You can find details of the scheme here . The concept is pretty simple; at various locations around central London you can hire a bicycle, collecting and dropping it off at one of a number of dedicated stations, placed at strategic locations such as railway stations. Have a look at the image; it shows where the stations are located across London.

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Balancing Bicycle and Storage Resources

IBM to Acquire StorWize

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:14:08 +0000

I read with interest yesterday’s announcement from IBM that they are to acquire Storwize, a vendor of NAS compression technology. Maybe I don’t understand enough about the technology, however I don’t see much benefit in installing an application in front of my NAS environment to only achieve between 50-90% reduction in storage. What’s more surprising is that IBM would want to acquire this technology. Firstly, let’s summarise the benefits of the Storwize offering: Better Storage Utilisation Lowers Capital and Operational Costs Better Energy Efficiency These bullet points are taken directly from the Storwize website and are then expanded into more detail. Whilst implementing compression may save some storage space in the short term, it doesn’t address the overall reasons for growth within an organisation and at some stage capacity will reach previous levels, regardless of the ability to compress that data. I’d also agree that compression reduces some capital costs – but these will be via cost avoidance rather than the ability to remove existing hardware. This implies that the savings can only be made if significant growth exists in the environment in the first place.

Hitachi uValue

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 09:04:19 +0000

I have been fortunate to be invited by Hitachi to attend next week’s uValue conference in Tokyo, Japan. For those who aren’t aware, 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Hitachi Ltd, the owning parent of Hitachi Data Systems, so this year’s uValue conference should be something special. This event isn’t about Hitachi Data Systems, but rather the parent company that makes bullet trains, diggers, televisions and so on. Obviously I’m hoping the trip will provide some more insight into the workings of the storage division of Hitachi Ltd and the relationship between Hitachi, HP and HDS. Joining me on this trip are some good storage friends (in no particular order); Greg Knieriemen, Devang Panchigar, Rick Vanover, Nigel Poulton and Robin Harris. I’ve never been to Japan before so I know the event will be fantastic just from the sight-seeing alone

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Hitachi uValue

Cloud: Cloud Backup /= Cloud Archiving

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:00:43 +0000

This is a guest post from Patrick Jobin at StoragePipe Solutions , a provider of world-class corporate data protection solutions including online backup and recovery, electronic archiving and business continuity. Despite its mainstream acceptance, Software-as-a-Service is still a very new field. And when it comes to data protection in the cloud, there are still many terms that are not yet well-understood by all. For this reason, “online archiving” and “online backup” are often believed to be the same, although they are – in fact – quite different from each other

Hardware Review: Promise SmartStor NS4600 – Part II

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:00:34 +0000

This is a series of posts on the Promise SmartStor NS4600 home storage server. Previous posts: Hardware Review: Promise SmartStor NS4600 – Part I In the first post of this series, we discussed the basic hardware configuration. This post will look at connectivity and RAID configurations supported by the NS4600. A quick glance at the back of the unit provides a clue as to what connectivity exists. See the first image in this post. There is are 2x USB, 1x eSATA and 1x Ethernet ports available.

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Hardware Review: Promise SmartStor NS4600 – Part II

Guest Post: Setting up a Disaster Recovery Plan

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:00:27 +0000

This guest post was provided by Sean McCreary on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. For more information about GFI business backup solution visit http://www.gfi.com/business-backup-software When most companies think about disaster recovery, a variety of thoughts come to mind. If you search for a definition of disaster recovery, you will get slightly different meanings depending on the source. For the purpose of this article, I am referring to the recovery of a business from a disaster. This definition encompasses more than just the recovery of IT services, infrastructure, data (information) and other technology resources of a company. Disaster recovery must include preparing for and recovering from the loss of human resources, such as key employees of a business, and other essential resources that allow a business to function. The principles laid out in this article will pertain to disaster recovery of the technology and information resources of a business but can and should be applied to the other essential resources of a business. If all critical resources of a business are not included in the plan, the disaster recovery plan will not be effective. For example, I have worked with a variety of small businesses over the years, and most are determined to deal with data or information backup with no thought of other disaster recovery needs. Usually, though, after further assessment, the business finds that they also need to address recovery issues related to other segments of their business. These include network and internet access and cross-training of employees to keep the business functioning if someone leaves. Also, most businesses find they need to look at key suppliers and shipping channels so if there is a loss of one it will not affect the profitability of their business. Obviously, there are a lot of things to think about when developing a disaster recovery plan. Key Points for Disaster Recovery How do you get to the point of being able to prepare and recover from a disaster that may affect your business? Here are some essential steps to take to reach that point.

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Guest Post: Setting up a Disaster Recovery Plan

Enterprise Computing: 4 Pillars – Service: More On Chargeback

admin — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:03:34 +0000

This is a series of posts covering the subject of Storage Management. Previous posts: The Four Pillars of Storage Management Four Pillars: Service Four Pillars: The Service Catalogue Four Pillars – Service: Chargeback In the previous article I discussed the subject of Billing and Chargeback. This entry discusses some of the issues raised in that post as additional considerations.

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Enterprise Computing: 4 Pillars – Service: More On Chargeback