SAN QUICK REFErEnCE GUIDE

SAN HaRDWaRE
SANs are built up from many types of hardware components. Some of these devices, such as Fibre Channel switches, are often unique to SANs. The physical SAN itself frequently includes RAID storage systems, hubs, switches, bridges, servers, backup devices, interface cards, and specialized cabling. These can come together to form a storage system, or network, that provides the storage resources and facilitates the policies of an IT organization. It is very important to select and configure these hardware devices with care. A successful SAN implementation needs to be well planned and requires a good understanding of the operating principles, and standards, that are involved. Some of these standards are still evolving and havent been equally adopted by all equipment manufacturers and software developers. This can lead to difficulties when matching up devices from different vendors and suppliers. Much of an individual SANs design is concerned with the interoperability of its member devices. How these elements interconnect, particularly in High Availability configurations, may not always be intuitive - even for storage veterans. And, because SANs are typically just as dependent upon software for their operation, it can be vital to secure the latest software (and firmware) in order to avoid potential problems. For these reasons, companies that specialize in supplying complete SAN solutions can be worth seeking out. Their real world experience in designing and deploying SANs can save great amounts of time and money. In many cases, SAN specialists represent the quickest and most efficient way to achieve the many benefits available from Storage Area Networks (SANs).
Remote Mirroring
Server
RAID B'

SAN ManaGEmEnT SOFTWaRE

Though typically spoken of in terms of hardware, SANs very often include (or require) specialized software for their operation. In fact, configurating, optimizing, monitoring, and securing a contemporary SAN will almost certainly involve advanced software, particularly centralized management tools. When considering more complex options, such as High Availability configurations, selecting the proper management software can be just as critical as choosing the equipment. Though somewhat recent in its development, SAN management software borrows heavily from the mature ideas, benefits, and functionality that have been available for traditional LANs and WANs. Ideally, this new category of software would be universal and work with any SAN equipment. But in todays multi-vendor and hardware-diverse SAN environments, this software is very often proprietary and/ or tied to certain products and vendors. While this situation is beginning to change, SAN management software today must be selected with great care. Much consideration has to be given to the SAN equipment manufacturers, OS platforms, firmware revisions, HBA drivers, client applications, and even other software that may be running on the SAN. Until SAN management software becomes very universal, it will continue to be quite important, and even vital, to work closely with product (and total solution) providers in order to successfully implement, and realize, the best features that SANs have to offer.

SAN Admin Console

(Remote)

SAN BEnEFITs
Administrating all of the storage resources in large, high-growth, mission-critical data centers can be quite daunting and expensive. SANs represent a way to dramatically reduce these costs and complexities while providing significant technical advantages. They can provide large increases in storage performance, facilitate shared access to equipment and data, greatly simplify scalability, and offer state-of-the-art reliability. In fact, the I/O performance of a SAN can be much higher than that of traditional direct-attached storage, largely because of the very high data transfer rates of the interfaces used to connect devices in a contemporary SAN (such as Fibre Channel). Additional techniques, such as load balancing and Server-free backup, are made possible by a SANs flexible architecture and can improve overall performance significantly. Even storage reliability can be greatly enhanced by special features made possible within a SAN. Options like redundant I/O paths, server clustering, and run-time data replication (local and/or remote) can ensure data and application availability. Adding storage capacity and other storage resources can be accomplished easily within a SAN, often without the need to shut down or even quiesce the server(s) or their client networks. These, and other, features can quickly add up to big cost savings, painless expansion, reduced network loading, and fewer network outages. 1
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SAN QUICK REFErEnCE GUIDE

LAN

Locally Clustered Servers

Remote Cluster Member

FC Switch

WAN
RAID C' Backup Server Disaster Recovery

SAN
Shared Storage RAID C

sERVER CLUsTERInG
In a SAN context, server clustering generally refers to the grouping together of servers for the purposes of sharing storage resources and data, enhancing their performance (i.e. Load balancing), and/or providing fail-over protection in the event that a member server misbehaves or malfunctions. Though servers can be clustered together outside of a SAN environment, there are several benefits associated with clustering them together as part of a common SAN. One of these is the capability to provide uninterrupted access to data, and applications, during and after a server failure. Other benefits often include shared access to disk and tape backup equipment, simplified scalability, data replication options, and increased I/O performance. In many cases, the specialized software involved in server clustering can even fail-back a server in the event it is repaired or begins working properly again (often automatically). Some clustering software can even divide application tasks among clustered servers in order to dramatically improve their response time and overall performance. Server clusters can also be very valuable when considering disaster recovery options. In these cases, the clustered servers can be joined together with WAN links instead of local SAN connections in order to provide enough geographic distance for disaster protection.

HIGH aVaILabILITY
SANs offer many options that can provide uninterrupted access to data and applications, even if equipment fails or a disaster strikes. By incorporating Server Clusters, RAID Storage Systems, Remote Data Replication, and robust Management Software into a SAN, continuous access to data assets can be achieved. Note that data is only part of the overall availability requirement since applications must also be protected. Therefore, a well implemented SAN should include provisions for application specific monitoring and application fail-over. Additionally, a SAN should keep data protected from non-hardware errors, such as operating system or database corruption.

REmOTE REPLICaTIOn
Data Replication provides many benefits in todays IT environments. For example, it can allow system administrators to create and manage multiple copies of vital information across a global enterprise. This enables disaster recovery solutions, maximizes business continuity, and permits file server content to be distributed over the Internet. Replication options can even improve host processing efficiency by moving data sets onto secondary (often remote) servers for backup operations. In some cases, these data replication capabilities are required by the high availability and server clustering features provided by many of todays SAN architectures. Remote data replication is typically achieved with one of two basic strategies: Storage replication is focused on the bulk transfer of files, or block data, from one server to one or more other servers. This type of replication generally allows application(s) to be running on a server while they, and/or their data, are being replicated to another off-site server. Application level replication is specific to a particular application, such as a database or web server, and is typically performed at the transaction level (field, row, table, etc.) by the application itself. Many replication products include the ability to transfer data Synchronously or Asynchronously. With synchronous transfers, each packet of transmitted data is acknowledged by the receiving server before more data is sent to it. This can be a slower form of replication, but is very reliable. Asynchronous data transfers allow data packets to be sent ahead of acknowledgements from the receiving server for previously sent packets. This method is usually faster but allows more data to be lost if links fail. Eventually, in either case, all transmitted packets must be acknowledged by the receiving system.

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SAN QUICK REFErEnCE GUIDE

baCKUP sOLUTIOns
One of the most valuable time and cost-saving features of a SAN architecture is its ability to offload backup operations from LANs and servers. This capability can significantly increase the available bandwidth on a LAN to network clients and end users during backup operations. When traditional backup servers are relieved from handling backup data, they can be repurposed and made available for other tasks. LAN-free backup solutions can optimize backup operations by offloading backup traffic from a LAN to a SAN, thereby increasing the amount of LAN bandwidth. Serverless backup, on the other hand, extends these performance gains even further by offloading more than 90 percent of the administrative burden that is usually placed upon a dedicated backup server as backups are performed. This is typically achieved by embedding some of the backup intelligence into the data storage devices themselves (RAID systems and tape drives) or SAN connectivity peripherals (switches, hubs or bridges). This can free up traditional backup servers significantly by releasing them from data moving duties and large portions of a backup operations administration. When implemented properly, these SAN based backup solutions let administrators optimize network and server utilization, dramatically shorten backup times, and regain processor and network resources.

Separate Storage Assets

STORaGE VIa IP
Dedicated Storage Server

Fib re Ch an ne
SCSI

Fibr

ann e Ch

el
SC SI

Simplified Storage Capacity Management

Storage Client(s)

STORaGE VIRTUaLIZaTIOn
The term Storage Virtualization generally refers to the process of dividing, concatenating or aggregating available storage devices, and their capacity, into Virtual Volumes without regard to the physical layout or topology of the actual storage elements (i.e. Disk Drives, RAID sub-systems, etc.). Typically, these resulting Virtual Volumes are presented to their clients Operating Systems as abstraction(s) of the physical devices and are used by these OSes as if they were distinct disk drives or separate storage subsystems. The virtualization of storage assets typically involves the use of centralized SAN management software. Along with other features, this category of software can assist storage administrators with allocating volumes and repurposing storage resources. The independence of Virtual Volumes from physical storage device(s) can also assist with migrating from, or replacing, obsolete storage subsystems without server shutdowns or interrupting data access. In addition, data management can be significantly enhanced through storage applications such as Snapshot, Mirroring, Remote Replication, etc. that often require the creation and expansion of Virtual Volumes for their use. In summary, a typical SAN is much more valuable and functional with storage virtualization features. A first step toward storage virtualization is to combine physical storage assets (even devices from multiple vendors) into virtual storage pools that can be divided up and securely assigned to various hosts. These hosts will no longer need to interact with captive physical, and logical, storage devices. Instead, they will see storage as virtual disk pools, each with the potential to deliver specifiable Quality of Service (QoS), redundancy, robustness, and performance to meet the potentially diverse needs of each SAN client. Additionally, since data is typically centralized in these storage pools, sharing stored data (i.e. files) between hosts, if desired, is made much simpler. In other words, with virtualized storage, one can literally slice and dice consolidated storage capacity and dynamically allocate it to particular servers or to particular applications.

Storage over IP refers to the communication with, and access to, storage systems and services over IP based networks. By using IP networks and infrastructures instead of, or in addition to, other protocols and connections such as Fibre Channel, very flexible and cost effective SANs can be deployed. Also, because IP based storage can be accessed over existing networking infrastructures (including Ethernet), it retains the existing manageability, interoperability, compatibility, and cost advantages that have made Ethernet networks very successful and widely implemented. Provisioning storage storage over IP lets customers use inexpensive, readily available Ethernet switches, hubs, routers and cabling to implement low cost, low risk IP based SANs. Using IP as the underlying communication conduit also provides an unsurpassed level of connectivity and allows the use of existing networking know-how. With IP based storage systems, replication, backup and restoration operations can be performed at any location without the distance restrictions often imposed by traditional infrastructures (i.e. Fibre Channel). An additional advantage of providing storage via IP networks is that these systems dont require the replacement of existing storage resources. In fact, blending IP based storage with existing storage networks can present a user with the benefits of each simultaneously. Additionally, IP based storage systems can leverage future advances in Ethernet and IP.

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SAN QUICK REFErEnCE GUIDE

Client

iSCSI implementations can differ. The example below employs special software drivers that encapsulate SCSI data within IP packets for transport over a GigE Ethernet network.

SCSI driver wrapper

IP Network

SCSI driver wrapper

NIC

NIC

IP Packet IP Header iSCSI Header SCSI Command/Data

SCSI Storage

iSCSI encapsulates SCSI commands and SCSI data within IP packets.

isCsI
The iSCSI protocol was developed to provide the capability to supply block level storage access and data over IP networking infrastructures. This protocol, having been approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), is poised to become a widely used standard. The use of iSCSI, for example, would let a corporate network transfer SCSI commands and data (from SCSI devices and storage systems) to any location with access to a metropolitan area network (MAN), WAN, or if transmitted over the Internet, to locations with Internet access. It will also allow for smaller localized SANs to be built using the common Ethernet infrastructure (instead of Fibre Channel or other interfaces). Hence, iSCSI enables SANs to be implemented by a broader, mainstream market. Other reasons for this standards development include: gaining price point economies of scale for storage networks by capitalizing on the large volume of Ethernet LAN and IP WAN products, and easing the use of SANs by implementing them using these wellknown Ethernet and IP technologies. However, note that using the iSCSI format over Ethernet places a much higher burden on networks than ordinary LAN traffic. Use of encryption and other IP based security features, like VPNs, can now be applied to storage traffic. Network and performance management applications for IP based networks can now be applied to storage traffic also. Basically, iSCSI deals with both the storage and IP worlds, taking SCSI protocol data and encapsulating it within IP packets for transmission via IP based networks. Specifically, the iSCSI protocol describes the mapping of the SCSI remote procedure call model on top of the Internets Transport Control Protocol (TCP). SCSI commands are first divided into their various SCSI phases. Then the iSCSI protocol takes the information contained in the SCSI phases and encapsulates them into iSCSI Protocol Data Units (PDUs). These PDUs are transmitted over an IP network and reconstructed at the receiving end. Once reconstituted, the SCSI commands are passed to, and processed by, the target SCSI device or system. If required, the encapsulated SCSI commands and data can be encrypted for transmission over insecure networks.

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