convergence Archives

February 6, 2014December 4, 2019

Server Storage I/O Network Benchmark Winter Olympic Games

Storage I/O trends

Server Storage I/O Network Benchmark Winter Olympic Games

It is time for the 2014 Winter Olympic games in Sochi Russia where competitors including some athletes come together in what has become a mix of sporting and entertainment engaging activities.

Games of inches and seconds, performance and skill

Some of these activities including real Olympic game events are heavier on sports appeal, some with artistic and others pure entertainment with a mix of beauty, braun and maybe even a beast or two. Then there are those events that have been around since the last ice age, while others being post global warming era.

Hence some have been around longer than others showing a mix of old, new in terms of the sports, athletes not to mention technology and their outfits.

I mean how about some of the new snow boarding and things on skis being done, can you image if they brought in as a new "X" sport roller derby on the short speed skating track sponsored by Red Bull or Bud light? Wait, that sounds like the Red Bull Crashed Ice event (check this out if not familiar with) think motto cross, hockey, down hill on ice. How about getting some of the south African long distance sprinters to learn how to speed skate, talk about moving some gold metal as in medals back to the african continent! On the other hand, the current powers to be would lodge protest, change the benchmark or rules to stay in power, hmm, sound familiar with IT?

Ok, enough of the fun stuff (for now), let’s get back on track here (catch that pun?).

Metrics that matter, winners and losers

Since these are the Olympics, lets also remember that there still awards for personal and team winners (along with second and third place), after all, if all Olympians were winners, there would be no losers and if no losers, how could there be a winner?

Who or what decides the winners vs. losers involves metrics that matter, something that also applies to servers, storage I/O networking hardware, software and services.

In the case of the Olympics, some of the sports or events are based on speed or how fast (e.g. time) something is done, or how much is accumulated or done in that amount of time while in other events the metrics that matter may be more of a mystery based on judging that maybe subjective.

The technologies to record times, scores, movements and other things that go into scoring have certainly improved, as have the ability for fans to engage and vote their choice, or opposition via social media venues from twitter to face book among others.

What about server storage I/O networking benchmarks

There could easily be an Information Technology (IT) or data infrastructure benchmarking Olympics with events such as faster server (physical, virtual or cloud, personal or consortium team), storage, I/O and networking across hardware, software or services. Of course there would be different approaches favored by the various teams with disputes, protests and other things sometimes seen during Olympic games. One of the challenges however is what would be the metrics that matter particularly to the various marketing groups of each organization or their joint consortium?

Just like with sports, which of the various industry trade groups or consortiums would be the ruling party or voice for a particular event specifying the competition criteria, scoring and other things. What happens when there is a break away group that launches their own competing approach yet when it comes time for the IT benchmarking Olympics, which of the various bodies does the Olympic committee defer to? In case you are not familiar with in sports there are various groups and sub-groups who can decide the participants for various supports perhaps independent of an overall group, sound like IT?

Storage I/O trends

Let the games begin

So then the fun starts, however which of the events are relevant to your needs or interest, sure some are fun or entertaining while others are not practical. Some you can do yourself, while others are just fun to watch, both the thrill of victory and agony of defeat.

This is similar to IT industry benchmarking and specmanship competitions, some of which is more relevant than others, then there are those that are entertaining.

Likewise some benchmarks or workload claims can be reproduced to confirm the results or claims, while others remain more like the results of figure skating judges.

Hence some of the benchmark games are more entertaining, however for those who are not aware or informed, they may turn out to be more misinformation or lead to poor decision-making.

Consequently benchmarks and metrics that matter are those that most closely aging with what your environment is or will be doing.

If your environment is going to be running a particularly simulation or script, than so be it, otoh, look for comparisons that are reflective.

On the other hand, if you can’t find something that is applicable, then look at tools and results that have meaning along with relevance, not to mention that provide clarity and repeatable. Being repeatable means that you can get access to the tools, scripts or scenario (preferably free) to run in your own environment.

There is a long list of benchmarks and workload simulation tools, as well as traces available, some for free, some for fee that apply to components, subsystems or complete application systems from server, storage I/O networking applications and hardware. These include those for Email such as Microsoft Exchange related, SQL databases, , LoginVSI for VDI, VMmark for VMware, Hadoop and HDFS related for big data among many others (see more here).

Apples to Apples vs. Apple pie vs. Orange Jello

Something else that matters are apples to apples vs. apples to oranges or worse, apple pie to orange Jello.

This means knowing or gaining insight into the pieces as we as how they behave under different conditions as well as the entire system for a baseline (e.g normal) vs. abnormal.

Hence its winter server storage I/O networking benchmark games with the first event having been earlier this week with team Brocade taking on Cisco. Here is a link to a post by Tony Bourke (@tbourke) that provides some interesting perspectives and interactions, along with a link here to the Brocade sponsored report done by Evaluator Group.

In this match-up, Team Brocade (with HP servers, Brocade switches and an unnamed 16GFC SSD storage system) take on Team Cisco and their UCS (also an un-named 16GFC SSD system that I wonder if Cisco even knows whose’s it was?). Ironic that it was almost six years to the date that there was a similar winter benchmark wonder event when NetApp submitted an SPC result for EMC (read more about that cold day here).

The Brocade FC (using HP servers and somebody’s SSD storage) vs. Cisco FCoE using UCS (and somebody else’s storage) comparison is actually quite entertaining, granted it can also be educational on what to do or not do, focus on or include among others things. The report also raises many questions that seem more wondering why somebody won in an ice figuring skating event vs. the winner of a men’s or women’s hockey game.

Closing thoughts (for now)

So here’s my last point and perspective, let’s have a side of context with them IOPs, TPS, bandwidth and other metrics that matter.

Take metrics and benchmarks with a grain of salt however look for transparency in both how they are produced, information provided and most important, does it matter or is it relevant to your environment or simply entertaining.

Lets see what the next event in the ongoing server storage I/O networking benchmark 2014 winter Olympic games will be.

Some more reading:
SPC and Storage Benchmarking Games
Moving Beyond the Benchmark Brouhaha
More storage and IO metrics that matter
Its US Census time, What about IT Data Centers?
March Metrics and Measuring Social Media (keep in mind that March Madness is just around the corner)
PUE, Are you Managing Power, Energy or Productivity?

How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do?
Part II: How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware?

You can also take part in the on-going or re-emerging FC vs. FCoE hype and fud events by casting your vote here and see results below.

Note the following poll is from a previous StorageIOblog post (Where has the FCoE hype and FUD gone? (with poll)).

Disclosure: I used to work for Evaluator Group after working for a company called Inrange that competed with, then got absorbed (via CNT and McData) into Brocade who has been a client as has Cisco. I also do performance and functionality testing, audits, validation and proof of concepts services in my own as well as in client labs using various industry standard available tools and techniques. Otoh, not sure that I even need to disclose anything however its easy enough to do so why not ;).

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

February 5, 2014January 23, 2019

Removing complexity and cost to drive return on innovation the new ROI

Storage I/O trends

Removing complexity and cost to drive return on innovation the new ROI

There is no such thing as an information recession however there the realities of economic challenges in IT data centers also known as information factories.

Likewise, people and data are living longer with increased dependency on information being available and reliable when needed. Hence the need for data infrastructures that protect, preserve and serve information in a cost-effective productive way.

Driving return on innovation (the new ROI) to support growth

A common challenge for organizations of all size is how to support business and data growth while working within budget constraints without compromising on customer service expectations. Simply cutting cost at the price of reliability, availability, serviceability or performance is not an option for most environments.

Driving data center and data infrastructure sustainability

The solution is to find and remove complexity and thus remove costs. How to carry out the above goal is to leverage various tools and techniques to streamline IT and data infrastructures in creative ways.

Core IT building blocks (servers, storage and networking, hardware and software)

With data storage along with servers, networks and associated software management tools being the fundamental building blocks for traditional, virtual and cloud environments, it makes sense to apply some focus there.

How you use different tools and technologies to address various challenges while enabling your organization to be more effective and productive will decide your return on innovation, the new ROI. The new ROI is a companion reflecting qualitative business benefits vs. traditional black and white quantitative spreadsheet numbers based indicators.

Watch out for Garbage In, Garbage Out ROI and TCO analysis

Return on innovation reflects how various tools and technologies, joined with different processes, procedures, and best practices and people skills are combined to address a problem or challenge and enable some benefit. An example is deploying storage optimization techniques to support growth by finding and removing complexities, boosting effectiveness (as well as efficiency) without negatively affecting productivity.

Where financial based ROI looks at a number that may show impacts to customer service, return on innovation highlights the business benefit (e.g. perhaps non-financial) such as getting more work done in same amount of time or keeping customers satisfied.

Keep in mind, that when you can find and remove complexity, cost savings are the usual benefit vs. finding and moving or masking problems that end up costing more over time.

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

February 4, 2014March 7, 2022

StorageIO data infrastructure industry vendors links page updated with over 1,200 entries

Storage I/O trends

StorageIO data infrastructure industry vendors links page updated with over 1,200 entries

Is your company, organization or one that you are a fan of, or represent listed on the StorageIO industry links page?

The StorageIO industry links page has been updated with over thousand different industry related companies, vendors, vars, trade groups, part and solution suppliers along with cloud and managed service providers. The common theme with these industry links is information and data infrastructures which means severs, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, applications and tools, services, products and related items for traditional, virtual and cloud environments.

The industry links page is accessed from the StorageIO main web page via the Tools and Links menu tab, or via the URL https://storageio.com/links. An example of the StorageIO industry links page is shown below with six different menu tabs in alphabetical order.

Know of a company, service or organization that is not listed on the links page, if so, send an email note to info at storageio.com. If your company or organization is listed, contact StorageIO to discuss how to expand your presence on the links page and other related options.

Visit the updated StorageIO industry links page and watch for more updates, and click here to learn more about the links page.

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

January 30, 2014March 7, 2022

Part II Until the focus expands to data protection – What to do about it

Storage I/O trends

Part II – Until the focus expands to data protection – What to do about it

This is the second of a three-part series (read part I here) about how vendors are keeping backup alive, however what they can and should do to shift and expand the conversation to data protection and related themes.

Modernizing data protection and what to do about it

Building off of what was mentioned in the first post, lets take a look at what can be done including expanding the conversation around data protection in support of business continuance (BC), disaster recovery (DR), high availability (HA), business resiliency (BR) not to mention helping backup to actually retire (someday). Now when I backup retire, I’m not necessarily talking about a technology such as hardware, software or a service including clouds, rather when, where, why and how data gets protected. What I mean by this is to step back from looking at the tools and technologies to how they are used and can be used in new and different ways moving forward.

StorageIO people convergence
Converged people and technology teams

All to often I see where new technologies or tools get used in old ways which while providing some near-term relief, the full capabilities of what is being used may not be fully realized. This also ties into the theme of people not technologies can be a barrier to convergence and transformation that you can read more about here and here.

Whats your data protection strategy, business or technology focused?

expand focus beyond tools
Data protection strategy evolving beyond tools looking for a problem to solve

Part of modernizing data protection is getting back to the roots or fundamentals including revisiting business needs, requirements along with applicable threat risks to then align application tools, technologies and techniques. This means expanding focus from just the technology, however also more importantly how to use different tools for various scenarios. In other words having a tool-box and know how to use it vs. everything looking like a nail as all you have is a hammer. Check out various webinars, Google+ hangouts and other live events that I’m involved with on the StorageIO.com events page on data protection and related data infrastructure themes including BackupU (getting back to the basics and fundamentals).

data protection options

Everything is not the same, leverage different data protection approaches to different situations

Wrap up (for now)

Continue reading part three of this series here to see what can be done (taking action) about shifting the conversation about modernizing data protection. Also check out conversations about trends, themes, technologies, techniques perspectives in my ongoing data protection diaries discussions (e.g. www.storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/).

Ok, nuff said

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

January 30, 2014January 23, 2019

Until the focus expands to data protection, backup is staying alive!

Storage I/O trends

Until the focus expands to data protection, backup is staying alive!

This is the first of a three-part series discussing how and why vendors are keeping backup alive, read part two here.

Some vendors, Value Added Resellers (VARs), pundits (consultants, analysts, media, bloggers) and their followers want backup to not only be declared dead, they also want to attend (or send flowers) to the wake and funeral not to mention proof of burial so to speak.

Yet many of these same vendors, VARs and their pundits also are helping or causing backup to staying alive.

Sure there are plenty of discussion including industry adoption and customer deployment around modernizing backup and data protection that are also tied to disaster recovery (DR), business continuance (BC), high availability (HA) and business resiliency (BR).

On the other hand the usual themes are around talking about product or technology deployment to modernize backup by simply swapping out hardware (e.g. disk for tape, cloud for disk), applying data footprint reduciton (DFR) including archiving, compression and dedupe or, another common scenario of switching from one vendors tool to another.

How vendors are helping backup staying alive?

One of the routine things I hear from vendors among others is that backup needs to move from the 70’s or 80’s or 90’s to the current era when the John Travolta and Oliva Newton John movie Saturday Night Fever and the Bee Gees song "Stayin Alive" appeared (click here to hear the song via Amazon).

Stayin Alive Image via Amazon.com

Some vendors keep talking and using the term backup instead of expanding the conversation to data protection that includes backup/restore, business continuance (BC), disaster recovery (DR) along with archiving and security. Now let’s be that we can not expect something like backup to be removed from the vocabulary overnight as its been around for decades, hence it will take time.

IMHO: The biggest barrier to moving away from backup is the industry including vendors, their pundits, press/media, vars and customers who continue to insist on using or referring to back up vs. expanding the conversation to data protection. – GS @StorageIO

Until there’s a broad focus on shifting to and using the term data protection including backup, BC, DR and archiving, people will simply keep referring to what they know, read or hear (e.g. backup). On the other hand if the industry starts putting more focus on using data protection with backup, people will stat following suit using the two and over time backup as a term can fade away.

Taking a step back to move forward

Some of the modernizing backup discussions is actually focused on take a step back to reconsider why, when, where, how and with what different applications, systems and data gets protected. certainly there are the various industry trends, challenges and opportunities some of which are shown below including more facts to protect, preserve and service for longer periods of time.

Likewise there are various threat risks or scenarios to protect information assets from or against, not all of which are head-line news making event situations.

data protection threat risk scenarios

Not all threat risks are headline news making events

There is an old saying in and around backup/restore, BC, DR, BR and HA of never letting a disaster go to waste. What this means is that if you have never noticed, there is usually a flurry of marketing and awareness activity including conversations about why you should do something BC, DR and other data protection activities right around, or shortly after a disaster scenario. However not all disasters or incidents are headline news making events and hence there should be more awareness every day vs. just during disaster season or situations. In addition, this also means expanding the focus on other situations that are likely to occur including among others those in the following figure.

data protection headline news and beyond

Continue reading part two of this series here to see what can be done about shifting the conversation about modernizing data protection. Also check out conversations about trends, themes, technologies, techniques perspectives in my ongoing data protection diaries discussions (e.g. www.storageioblog.com/data-protection-diaries-main/).

Ok, nuff said

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

January 24, 2014March 7, 2022

IT and data center sustainability, the other convergence zone

Storage I/O trends

IT and data center sustainability convergence

Recently Hailey Lynne McKeefry (@HaileyMcK), Editor in Chief over at Data Center Acceleration (@DataAccelerate) reached out for a conversation about well, data center themes and topics. Given Hailey’s background in covering technology as well as business supply chain we somehow ended up talking about business, IT and data center sustainability. Hailey wrote a piece about Driving for Datacenter Sustainability and in addition I was honored to be an invited guest for a live on-line chat yesterday (you can view the conversation here).

Excerpt from Haileys piece:

Too often, sustainability efforts in the datacenter are written off as feel-good, public relations efforts. In reality, green is about economics — and done well, it can save the datacenter tons of cash.

"You mention green, and datacenter managers run or cringe and roll their eyes, because there’s been so much green washing done in the past few years," said Greg Schulz, founder of IT consultancy StorageIO. "It’s really about green economics, though, and getting more work done with the same budget."

Many different faces of IT and data center sustainability

Granted, when you here the term sustainability, IT and data centers you may think of different things depending on your view or area of focus.

For some it will be Green or environmental focused such as use of renewable and EH&S themes, recycling among others Related to the previous item some will see sustainability as being tied to energy, either tied to cost, availability/accessibility, standby or alternative and renewable Yet for others, it will mean business continuance (BC), disaster recovery (DR), business resiliency (BR), high availability or reliability availability service (RAS) among others Then the economics concerns of keeping the business running to discuss top and bottom line concerns.

Otoh, if your focus is on one of the above or a subset of one of them, you might not view the other areas as being tied to sustainability.

It data center sustainability

Likewise, you might even want to not be included in another other, let alone share your area with others. For example if your focus is on security you may not want to see or hear that data protection is part of sustainability, not to mention backup/restore, bc, dr and so forth.

Learning, education and knowledge sustainability

Part of sustainability is also continuing to learn about new things not only in your field or focus area, also in adjacent spaces.

Keep in mind that there is more of a data center or information factory than just a building or facility with power, cooling as there are the technologies, tools, people, process, delivery/distribution network, warehouse for storing raw and finished material, metrics and management that all go into delivering the product which is information services.

Hence there are many aspects to IT and data center sustainability and thus think more pragmatically about sustaining information factories, however lets also be realistic and not jump the shark by declaring everything as sustainable ;).

Check out the live talk chat that we had yesterday over at Data Center Acceleration by clicking here.

Ok, nuff said

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

January 23, 2014November 26, 2023

Lenovo buys IBM’s xSeries aka x86 server business, what about EMC?

Storage I/O trends

Lenovo buys IBM’s xSeries x86 server business for $2.3B USD, what about EMC?

Once again Lenovo is new owner of some IBM computer technology, this time by acquiring the x86 (e.g. xSeries) server business unit from big blue. Today Lenovo announced its plan to acquire the IBM x86 server storage business unit for $2.3B USD.

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and Armonk, New York – January 23, 2014

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have entered into a definitive agreement in which Lenovo plans to acquire IBM’s x86 server business. This includes System x, BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches, x86-based Flex integrated systems, NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers and associated software, blade networking and maintenance operations. The purchase price is approximately US$2.3 billion, approximately two billion of which will be paid in cash and the balance in Lenovo stock.

IBM will retain its System z mainframes, Power Systems, Storage Systems, Power-based Flex servers, and PureApplication and PureData appliances.

What this means for IBM?

What this means is that IBM is selling off a portion of its systems technology group which is where the servers, storage and related hardware, software technologies report into. Note however that IBM is not selling off its entire server portfolio, only the x86 e.g. Intel/AMD based products that make up the xSeries as well as companion Blade and related systems. This means that IBM is retaining its Power based systems (and processors) that include the pSeries, iSeries and of course the zSeries mainframes in addition to the storage hardware/software portfolio.

However as part of this announcement, Lenovo is also licensing from IBM the Storwize/V7000 technology as well as tape summit resources, GPFS based scale out file systems used in SONAS and related products that are part of solution bundles tied to the x86 business.

Again to be clear, IBM is not selling off (or at least at this time) Storwize, tape or other technology to Lenovo other than x86 server business. By server business, this means the technology, patents, people, processes, products, sales, marketing, manufacturing, R&D along with other entities that form the business unit, not all that different from when IBM divested the workstation/laptop aka PC business in the past.

Storage I/O trends

What this means for Lenovo?

What Lenovo gets are an immediate (once the deal closes) expansion of their server portfolio including high-density systems for cloud, HPC as well as regular enterprise, not to mention also for SME and SMB. Lenovo also gets blade systems as well as converged systems (server, storage, networking, hardware, software) hence why IBM is also licensing some technology to Lenovo that it is not selling. Lenovo also gets the sales, marketing, design, support and other aspects to also expand their server business. By gaining the server business unit, Lenovo will now be in a place to take on Dell (who was also rumored to be in the market for the IBM servers), as well as HP, Oracle and other x86 system based suppliers.

What about EMC and Lenovo?

Yes, EMC, that storage company who is also a primary owner of VMware, as well as partner with Cisco and Intel in the VCE initiatives, not to mention who also entered into a partnership with Lenovo a year or so ago.

In case you forgot or didn’t’t know, EMC after breaking up with Dell, entered into a partnership with Lenovo back in 2012.

This partnership and initiatives included developing servers that in turn EMC could use for their various storage and data appliances which continue to leverage x86 type technology. In addition, that agreement found the EMC Iomega brand transitioning over into the Lenovo line-up for both domestic North America, as well as international including the chinese market. Hence I have an older Iomega IX4 that says EMC, and a newer one that says EMC/Lenovo, also note that at CES a few weeks ago, some new Iomega products were announced.

In checking with Lenovo today, they indicated that it is business as usual and no changes with or to the EMC partnership.

Via email from Lenovo spokesperson today:

A key piece to Lenovo’s Enterprise strategy has always included strong partnerships. In fact today’s announcements reinforce that strategy very clearly.

Given the new scale, footprint and Enterprise credibility that this server acquisition affords Lenovo, we see great opportunity in offering complimentary storage offerings to new and existing customers.

Lenovo’s partnership with EMC is multifaceted and stays in-tact as an important part of Lenovo’s overall strategy to offer customers compelling solutions built on world-class technology.

Lenovo will continue to offer Lenovo/EMC NAS products from our joint venture as well as resell EMC stand-alone storage platforms.

IBM Storwize storage and other products are integral to the in-scope platforms and solutions we acquired. In order to ensure continuity of business and the best customer experience we will partner with IBM for storage products as well.

We believe this is a great opportunity for all three companies, but most importantly these partnerships are in place and will remain healthy for the benefit for our customers.

Hence it is my opinion that for now it is business as usual, the IBM x8x business unit has a new home, those people will be getting new email addresses and business cards similar to how some of their associates did when the PC group was sold off a few years ago.

Otoh, there may also be new products that might become opportunities to be placed into he Lenovo EMC partnership, however that is just my speculation at this time. Likewise while there will be some groups within Lenovo focused on selling the converged Lenovo solutions coming from IBM that may in fact compete with EMC (among others) in some scenarios, that should be no more and hopefully less than what IBM has with their server groups at times competing with themselves.

Storage I/O trends

What does this mean for Cisco, Dell, HP and others?

For Cisco, instead of competing with one of their OEMs (e.g. IBM) for networking equipment (note IBM also owns some of its own networking), the server competition shifts to Lenovo who is also a Cisco partner (its called coopitition), and perhaps business as usual in many areas. For Dell, in the mid-market space, things could get interesting and the Round Rock folks need to get creative and beyond VRTX.

For HP, this is where IMHO it’s going to get really interesting as Lenovo gets things transitioned. Near-term, HP could have a disruptive upper hand, however longer-term, HP has to get their A-Game on. Oracle is in the game as are a bunch of others from Fujitsu to SuperMicro to outside of North America and in particular china there is also Huawei. Back to EMC and VCE, while I expect the Cisco partnership to stay, I also see a wild card where EMC can leverage their Lenovo partnership into more markets, while Cisco continues to move into storage and other adjacent areas (e.g. more coopitition).

What this means now and going forward?

Thus this is as much about enterprise, SME, SMB as it is HPC, cloud and high-density where the game is about volume. Likewise there is also the convergence or data infrastructure angle combing server, storage, networking hardware, software and services.

One of the things I have noticed about Lenovo as a customer using ThinkPads for over 13 years now (not the same one) is that while they are affordable, instead of simply cutting cost and quality, they seem to have found ways to remove cost which is different then simply cutting to go cheap.

Case in point about a year and a half ago I dropped my iPhone on my Lenovo X1 keyboard that is back-lit and broke a key. Calling Lenovo after trying to find a replacement key on the web, they said no worries and next morning a new keyboard for the laptop was on my doorstep by 10:30Am with instructions on how to remove the old, put in the new, and do the RMA, no questions asked (read more about this here).

The reason I mention that story about my X1 laptop is that it ties to what I’m curious and watching with their soon to be expanded new server business.

Will they go in and simply look to reduce cost by making cuts from design to manufacturing to part quality, service and support, or, find ways to remove complexity and cost while providing more value?

Now I wonder whose technology will join my HP and Dell systems to fill some empty rack space in the not so distant future to support growth?

Time will tell, congratulations to Lenovo and the IBMers who now have a new home best wishes.

Ok, nuff said

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

January 21, 2014March 7, 2022

Securing your information assets and data, what about your storage?

Storage I/O trends

Securing your information assets and data, what about your storage?

Recently I did a piece over at the site Information Security Buzz title How Secure Is Your Data Storage? that takes a cursory look at securing your digital assets from a storage perspective. Keep in mind that data protection can mean many things to different people from various focus or technology domain perspectives. Likewise there are various threat risks to protect against and, not all of them are head-line news making events.

data protection threat risk scenarios

Protecting data and data protection

Protecting your data or data protection is a diverse topic and not exclusive to just backup/restore, business continuance (BC), disaster recovery (DR), high availability (HA), durability, archiving, privacy and compliance (PCI, Hippa, High-tech, Sarbox, etc) or security (logical [encryption, access control, identity management] and physical).

In the broader scope and context of information infrastructures and data infrastructures, think of data protection as part of or enabling protect, process, preserve and serving of information in an effective way that does not introduce complexity or compromise your digital and physical assets.

Following is an excerpt from the piece over at Information Security Buzz:

The usual belief is that information behind firewall’s and on storage attached to servers that have rights access control and find access, all is safe; hence no need to encrypt the real storage device.

There is a couple of other usual comments or statements that people make to me about encrypting storage devices that it is too difficult due to lack of good key management, and the other is that people say the encryption algorithms are no good. Both can be valid points, particular given what we are hearing with the NSA and other government activities. My usual response is a) have spare keys placed in safe trusted locations and b) do you lock the doors and windows on your home as somebody who really wants to get in probably can, hence need for multiple rings of security, however the encryption will deter the casual or more typical adversary.

Click to read more

Additional data protection topics and links

In addition to the above, also check out the following related items on the many difference faces or facets of data protection.

Various StorageIO tips and articles from different venues: Via StateTech Magazine – 5 Tips for Factoring Software into Disaster Recovery Plans and Via the StorageIO fall November 2013 news letter, Cloud and data protection perspectives.

Also via StorageIOblog: Data protection modernization, more than swapping out media and Cloud conversations: Has Nirvanix shutdown caused cloud confidence and data protection concerns? along with In the data center or information factory not everything is the same plus Securing data at rest and fast secure erase with SED’s.

Also check out BackupU (www.software.dell.com/backupU) series of webinars and Google+ hangouts that I’m involved with about modernizing and rethinking data protection. Note that while Dell is the sponsor of these events, they are also vendor and technology neutral, that’s a disclosure btw fwiw ;) ).

Closing perspective, for now…

Only you can prevent data loss as it is a shared responsibility!

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

January 14, 2014May 24, 2020

Dell Inspiron 660 i660, Virtual Server Diamond in the rough?

Storage I/O trends

Dell Inspiron 660 i660, Virtual Server Diamond in the rough?

During the 2013 post thanksgiving black friday shopping day, I did some on-line buying including a Dell Inspiron 660 i660 (5629BK) to be used as a physical machine (PM) or VMware host (among other things).

Now technically I know, this is a workstation or desktop and thus not what some would consider a server, however as another PM to add to my VMware environment (or be used as a bare metal platform), it is a good companion to my other systems.

Via Dell.com Dell 660 i660

Taking a step back, needs vs. wants

Initially my plan for this other system was to go with a larger, more expensive model with as many DDR3 DIMM (memory) and PCIe x4/x8/x16 expansion slots as possible. Some of my other criteria were PCIe Gen 3, latest Intel processor generation with VT (Virtualization Technology) and Extended Page Tables (EPT) for server virtualization support without breaking my budget. Heck, I would love a Dell VRTX or some similar types of servers from the likes of Cisco, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Supermicro among many others. On the other hand, I really don’t need one of those types of systems yet, unless of course somebody wants to send some to play with (excuse me, test drive, try-out).

Hence needs are what I must have or need, while wants are those things that would be, well, nice to have.

Server shopping and selection

In the course of shopping around, looking at alternatives and having previously talked with Robert Novak (aka @gallifreyan) and he reminded me to think outside the box a bit, literally. Check out Roberts blog (aka rsts11 a great blog name btw for those of use who used to work with RSTS, RSX and others) including a post he did shortly after I had a conversation with him. If you read his post and continue through this one, you should be able to connect the dots.

While I still have a need and plans for another server with more PCIe and DDR3 (maybe wait for DDR4? ;) ) slots, I found a Dell Inspiron 660.

Candidly normally I would have skipped over this type or class of system, however what caught my eye was that while limited to only two DDR3 DIMM slots and a single PCIe x16 slot, there were three extra x1 slots which while not as robust, certainly gave me some options if I need to use those for older, slower things. Likewise leveraging higher density DIMM’s, the system is already now at 16GB RAM waiting for larger DIMM’s if needed.

VMware view of Inspiron 600

The Dell Inspiron 660-i660 I found had a price of a little over $550 (delivered) with an Intel i5-3330 processor (quad-core, quad thread 3GHz clock), PCIe Gen 3, one PCIe x16 and three PCIe x1 slots, 8GB DRAM (since reallocated), GbE port and built-in WiFi, Windows 8 (since P2V and moved into the VMware environment), keyboard and mouse, plus a 1TB 6Gb SATA drive, I could afford two, maybe three or four of these in place of a larger system (at least for now). While for something’s I have a need for a single larger server, there are other things where having multiple smaller ones with enough processing performance, VT and EPT support comes in handy (if not required for some virtual servers).

Some of the enhancements that I made were once the initial setup of the Windows system was complete, did a clone and P2V of that image, and then redeploying the 1TB SATA drive to join others in the storage pool. Thus the 1TB SATA HDD has been replaced with (for now) a 500GB Momentus XT HHDD which by time you read this could already changed to something else.

Another enhancements was bumping up the memory from 8GB to 16GB, and then adding a StarTech enclosure (See below) for more internal SAS / SATA storage (it supports both 2.5" SAS and SATA HDD’s as well as SSD’s). In addition to the on-board SATA drive port plus one being used for the CD/DVD, there are two more ports for attaching to the StarTech or other large 3.5" drives that live in the drive bay. Depending on what I’m using this system for, it has different types of adapters for external expansion or networking some of which have already included 6Gbps and 12Gbps SAS HBA’s.

What about adding more GbE ports?

As this is not a general purpose larger system with many expansion ports for PCIe slots, that is one of the downsides you get for this cost. However depending on your needs, you have some options. For example I have some Intel PCIe x1 GbE cards to give extra networking connectivity if or when needed. Note however that as these are PCIe x1 slots they are PCIe Gen 1 so from a performance perspective exercise caution when mixing these with other newer, faster cards when performance matters (more on this in the future).

Via Amazon.com Intel (Gigabit CT PCI-E Network Adapter EXPI9301CTBLK)

One of the caveats to be aware of if you are going to be using VMware vSphere/ESXi is that the Realtek GbE NIC on the Dell Inspiron D600-i660 may not play well, however there are work around’s. Check out some of the work around’s over at Kendrick Coleman (@KendrickColeman) and Erik Bussink (@ErikBussink) sites both of which were very helpful and I can report that the Realtek GbE is working fine with VMware ESXi 5.5a.

Need some extra SAS and SATA internal expansion slots for HDD and SSD’s?

The StarTech 4 x 2.5″ SAS and SATA internal enclosures supports various speed SSD and HDD’s depending on what you connect the back-end connector port to. On the back of the enclosure chassis there is a connector that is a pass-thru to the SAS drive interface that also accepts SATA drives. This StarTech enclosure fits nicely into an empty 5.2″ CD/DVD expansion bay and then attach the individual drive bays to your internal motherboard SAS or SATA ports, or to those on another adapter.

Via Amazon.com StarTech 4 x 2.5" SAS and SATA internal enclosure

So far I have used these enclosures attached to various adapters at different speeds as well as with HDD, HHDD, SSHD and SSD’s at various SAS/SATA interface speeds up to 12Gbps. Note that unlike some other enclosures that have SAS or SATA expander, the drive bays in the StarTech are pass-thru hence are not regulated by the expander chip and its speed. Price for these StarTech enclosures is around $60-90 USD and are good for internal storage expansion (hmm, need to build your own NAS or VSAN or storage server appliance? ;) ).

Via Amazon Molex power connector

Note that you will also need to get a Molex power connector to go from the back of the drive enclosure to an available power port such as for expansion DVD/CD that you can find at a Radio Shack, Fry’s or many other venues for couple of dollars. Double check your specific system and cable connector leads to verify what you will need.

How is it working and performing

So far so good, in addition to using it for some initial calibration and validation activities, the D660 is performing very well and no buyers remorse. Ok, sure, would like more PCIe Gen 3 x4/x8/x16 or an extra on-board Ethernet, however all the other benefits have outweighed those pitfalls.

Speaking of which, if you think a SSD (or other fast storage device) is fast on a 6Gbps SAS or PCIe Gen 2 interface for physical or virtual servers, wait until you experience those IOPs or latencies at 12Gbps SAS and PCIe Gen 3 with a faster current generation Intel processor, just saying ;)…

In the above chart (slide scroll bar to view more to the right) a Windows 7 64 bit systems (VMs configured with 14GB DRAM) on VMware vSphere V5.5.1 is shown running on different hardware configurations. The Windows system is running Futuremark PCMark 7 Pro (v1.0.4). From left to right the Windows VM on the Dell Inspiron 660 with 16GB physical DRAM using a SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive). Second from the left shows results running on a Dell T310 with an Intel X3470 processor also on a SSHD. Middle is the workload on the Dell 660 running on a HHDD, second from right is the workload on the Dell T310 also on a HHDD, while on the right is the same workload on an HP DCS5800 with an Intel E8400. The workload results show a composite score, system storage, simulating user productivity, lightweight processing, and compute intensive tasks.

Futuremark PCMark Windows benchmark

Don’t forget about the KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse)

Mention KVM to many people in and around the server, storage and virtualization world and they think KVM as in the hypervisor, however to others it means Key board, Video and Mouse aka the other KVM. As part of my recent and ongoing upgrades, it was also time to upgrade from the older smaller KVM’s to a larger, easier to use model. The benefit, support growth while also being easier to work with. Having done some research on various options that also varied in price, I settled in on the StarTech shown below.

Via Amazon.com StarTech 8 Port 1U USB KVM Switch

What’s cool about the above 8 port StarTech KVM switch is that it comes with 8 cables (there are 8 ports) that on one end look like a regular VGA monitor screen cable connector. However on the other end that attached to your computer, there is the standard VGA connection that attached to your video out, and a short USB tail cable that attached to an available USB port for Keyboard and Mouse. Needless to say it helps to cut down on the cable clutter while coming in around $38.00 USD per server port being managed, or about a dollar a month over a little over three years.

Word of caution on make and models

Be advised that there are various makes and models of the Dell Inspiron available that differ in the processor generation and thus feature set included. Pay attention to which make or model you are looking at as the prices can vary, hence double-check the processor make and model and then visit the Intel site to see if it is what you are expecting. For example I double checked that the processor for the different models I looked at were i5-3330 (view Intel specifications for that processor here).

Summary

Thanks to Robert Novak (aka @gallifreyan) for taking some time providing useful tips and ideas to help think outside the box for this, as well as some future enhancements to my server and StorageIO lab environment.

Consequently while the Dell Inspiron D600-i660 was not the server that I wanted, it has turned out to be the system that I need now and hence IMHO a diamond in the rough, if you get the right make and mode.

Ok, nuff said

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)

January 13, 2014January 23, 2019

Book review: Rethinking Enterprise Storage by Microsoft/Storsimple Marc Farley

Storage I/O trends

Book review: Rethinking Enterprise Storage – A Hybrid Cloud Model by Marc Farley

The O’Reilly @oreillymedia media folks (oops, excuse me, Microsoft Press) sent me out (that’s a disclosure btw) an real soft cover print copy of Rethinking Enterprise Storage – A Hybrid Cloud Model by Marc Farley aka @MicroFarley of Microsoft/Storsimple that features a forward by Martin Glassborow aka @Storagebod.

Rethinking Enterprise Storage - A Hybrid Cloud Model

Topics and themes covered in the book

Understanding scale storage architectures (hmm, great way of saying hybrid ;)
Rethinking data protection including disaster recovery (DR) best practices
Enhancing data protection using cloud snapshots beyond traditional backups
Deterministic thin recovery capabilities while dynamically expanding capacity to the cloud
Implement data footprint reduction (DFR) including archiving digital documents to the cloud
Insight and awareness into keep performance indicators along with various use cases

Rethinking Enterprise Storage book Details

Publisher: Microsoft Press
Author: Marc Farley
Paper back
Features: Many diagrams, figures, index, glossary
Pages: 101
ISBN: 978-0-7356-7990-3
Published: 2013
MSRP: $9.99 USD

Sample pages of rethinking enterprise storage
One of the many books many figures on the right, on the left i needed to hold a page down ;)!

What’s inside the book

Make no mistake that this is a Microsoft and Storsimple themed book, however IMHO Marc (aka Farley) does a great job of making it more relevant than just another vendor product book (JAVPB). While it is a Microsoft focused book around enabling hybrid cloud storage for various applications, the premises presented could be adapted for other environments or implementations. The book at 101 pages including table of contents (TOC), index, appendix, glossary and other front matter is a very easy and fast read while providing more information or coverage than what might be found in a "Dummies" type themed book.

Looking inside Rethinking Enterprise Storage by Marc Farley
Start thinking outside the box (or cloud), imagine what you can do with a Hybrid cloud!

Summary

Overall I found the book to be good and not just because I know Marc or that the O’Reilly folks sent me a free copy (I had actually previously received the electronic ebook version), rather that it is timely and does a nice job of conveying the topic theme and setting up the conversation, time to rethink storage for enterprise and other environments. IMHO the question is not if hybrid cloud storage is in your future, rather when, where, why, for what, how, with whom and related conversations. While you can buy a copy of the book at various venues, it shouldn’t take a lot of effort to get your own printed soft cover copy, or an ebook version.

Btw, here’s a pod cast discussion with Marc Farley from spring 2013 at SNW, as well as a link to a hybrid cloud and object storage post he did over at Microsoft Technet.

To summarize and quote Marc Farley "Hey now…."

Ok, nuff said

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)

January 13, 2014November 3, 2024

Some Windows Server Storage I/O related commands

Storage I/O trends

Some Windows Server Storage I/O related commands

The following are some commands and tools for Microsoft Windows environments that are useful for storage I/O activities (among others).

Finding a Windows physical disk, SSD or storage system device name

So you may know and how to find out the more familiar Windows storage device (Solid State Device – SSD, Hard Disk Drives – HDD among others) names such as A:, B:, C:, D: as what you can view from the Windows Explorer, Computer or Admin tools.

Windows storage devices

However what if you need to find out a physical name for raw (not mounted) and mounted devices for configuration? For example, if you have a tool that wants the physical name for your C: drive that might be \\.\PhysicalDrive0\?

No worries, use the command WMIC DISKDRIVE LIST BRIEF

WIndows physical device name

Need more detail about the devices beyond what is shown above?

Then use WMIC DISKDRIVE LIST or as in the above example, direct the output to a file with the results shown below (scroll to the left or right to see more detail information).

        Availability  BytesPerSector  Capabilities  CapabilityDescriptions                 CompressionMethod  ConfigManagerErrorCode  ConfigManagerUserConfig  DefaultBlockSize  Description  DeviceID            ErrorCleared  ErrorDescription  ErrorMethodology  Index  InstallDate  InterfaceType  LastErrorCode  Manufacturer            MaxBlockSize  MaxMediaSize  MediaLoaded  MediaType              MinBlockSize  Model                                  Name                NeedsCleaning  NumberOfMediaSupported  Partitions  PNPDeviceID                                                  PowerManagementCapabilities  PowerManagementSupported  SCSIBus  SCSILogicalUnit  SCSIPort  SCSITargetId  SectorsPerTrack  Signature   Size           Status  StatusInfo  SystemName  TotalCylinders  TotalHeads  TotalSectors  TotalTracks  TracksPerCylinder  
              512             {3, 4}        {"Random Access", "Supports Writing"}                     0                       FALSE                                      Disk drive   \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2                                                    2                   SCSI                          (Standard disk drives)                              TRUE         Fixed hard disk media                ATA ST3000DM001-1CH1 SCSI Disk Device  \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2                                         0           SCSI\DISK&VEN_ATA&PROD_ST3000DM001-1CH1\5&3626375C&0&000600                                                         0        0                3         6             63               0           3000590369280  OK                  DBIOTEST    364801          255         5860528065    93024255     255                
              512             {3, 4}        {"Random Access", "Supports Writing"}                     0                       FALSE                                      Disk drive   \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3                                                    3                   SCSI                          (Standard disk drives)                              TRUE         Fixed hard disk media                SEAGATE ST600MP0034 SCSI Disk Device   \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3                                         0           SCSI\DISK&VEN_SEAGATE&PROD_ST600MP0034\5&3626375C&0&000A00                                                          0        0                3         10            63                           600124654080   OK                  DBIOTEST    72961           255         1172118465    18605055     255                
              512             {3, 4}        {"Random Access", "Supports Writing"}                     0                       FALSE                                      Disk drive   \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE4                                                    4                   SCSI                          (Standard disk drives)                              TRUE         Fixed hard disk media                SEAGATE ST600MX0004 SCSI Disk Device   \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE4                                         0           SCSI\DISK&VEN_SEAGATE&PROD_ST600MX0004\5&3626375C&0&000C00                                                          0        0                3         12            63                           600124654080   OK                  DBIOTEST    72961           255         1172118465    18605055     255                
              512             {3, 4}        {"Random Access", "Supports Writing"}                     0                       FALSE                                      Disk drive   \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1                                                    1                   SCSI                          (Standard disk drives)                              TRUE         Fixed hard disk media                SEAGATE ST9300603SS SCSI Disk Device   \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1                                         0           SCSI\DISK&VEN_SEAGATE&PROD_ST9300603SS\5&3626375C&0&000400                                                          0        0                3         4             63                           299992412160   OK                  DBIOTEST    36472           255         585922680     9300360      255                
              512             {3, 4}        {"Random Access", "Supports Writing"}                     0                       FALSE                                      Disk drive   \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0                                                    0                   SCSI                          (Standard disk drives)                              TRUE         Fixed hard disk media                VMware Virtual disk SCSI Disk Device   \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0                                         2           SCSI\DISK&VEN_VMWARE&PROD_VIRTUAL_DISK\5&1982005&1&000000                                                           0        0                2         0             63               -873641784  64420392960    OK                  DBIOTEST    7832            255         125821080     1997160      255

Remembering (or learning) Xcopy

Some of you might be familiar with Xcopy and if not, it is a handy tool for copying files, folders and directories to local as well as networked storage. Some handy Xcopy command switches include:

/j = use un-buffered IO for large files
/y = suppress prompting
/c = continue if error
/E = copy sub directories
/H = copy hidden files
/Q = quiet mode (don’t list files being copied)

In the following example the content of the Videos folder and its sub-directories (83.5GB) are copied to another destination. Note the Time /T command that is also shown which is useful for timing how long the copy takes (e.g. subtract start-time from end-time and you have elapsed time). In this example 83.5GB are copied from one place to another on the same SSD device and using the results of the Time /T command the elapsed time was about 12 minutes.

Windows SSD TRIM
Xcopy command example

Diskpart, don’t be scared, however be careful

Ever have a Windows storage device or system that failed to boot, or a problem with a partition, volume or other issue?

How about running into a situation where you are not able to format a device that you know and can confirm is ok to erase, yet you get a message that the volume is write protected or read only?

Diskpart is handy, powerful and potentially dangerous tool if you are not careful as you could mistakenly drop a good volume or partition (e.g. the importance of having good backups). However Diskpart can be used to help repair storage devices that have boot problems, or for clearing read only attributes among other tasks. If you are prefer GUI interfaces, many of the Diskpart functions can also be done via Disk Management interface (e.g. Control Panel -> All Control Panel Items -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management ). Note that Diskpart to do certain functions will need to be run as Administrator.

windows diskpart

In the above example the LIST DISK command shows what disks are present (on-line or off-line) which means that you may see devices here that do not show up elsewhere. Also shown is selecting a disk and then listing partitions, selecting a partition and showing attributes. The Attribute command can be used for clearing Read Only modes should a partition become write protected.

Hint, ever have a device that was once had VMware installed on it, then you move it to Windows and try to reformat for use and get a Read Only error? If so, you will want to have a look at Diskpart and the Attribute commands. However BE CAREFULL and pay attention which disk, partition and volumes you are working with as you can easily cause a problem that would result in testing how good your backups are.

Is SATA SSD TRIM Enabled?

If you have a SATA SSD the TRIM command is a form of garbage collection that is supported with Windows 7 (SAS drives use the SCSI UNMAP). Not sure if your system has TRIM enabled? Try the following command as administrator. Note that if you see a result of "0" then TRIM is enabled while a value of "1" means that it is disabled for your system.

Windows SSD TRIM

Want to learn more about TRIM, check out this piece from Intel as well as this Microsoft Windows item.

Having issues with collecting CPU and performance statistics?

Have an issue or problem collecting your system statistics, or when running a benchmark, workload generation tool such as vdbench and getting an "Unable to obtain CPU statistics"?

Try the Lodctr /R command (as administrator), however read this Microsoft Tip first to learn more.

Windows Lodctr /R

Sdelete and drive erase

Like its name implies, if you do not have this tool, you can download it here from Microsoft to not only delete files, folders, as well as write "0" patterns across a disk to secure erase it. You can specify the number of times you want to run the write "0" patterns across a disk to meet your erasure requirements.

There is also another use for Sdelete which is if you need or want to pre-condition a SSD or other device such as for testing, you can run a pre-conditioning pass using Sdelete.

Some command options include -p #n where "n" is the number of times to run, -s recursive to process sub-directories, -z to write "0" or zero out the space on the device, -c for clean, -a to process read-only attributes. Learn more and get your copy of Sdelete from Microsoft here.

Rufus, Seatools, Samsung Disk Magician and Cyberduck

A handy tool available from Seagate (may only work with Seagate and their partner devices) is SeaTools that can give drive information, health and status as well as perform various tests including SMART.

Seagate Seatools example

Different HDD and SSD as well as storage system vendors give tools for configuration, monitoring, management and in some cases data movement with their solutions. Samsung SSD Magician is a tool I have installed for managing my SSDs (830 and 840 Pros) that has features for updating firmware, drive health as well as performance optimization. Other hand tools include the Samsung copy tool based on Clonix as Acronis among other clone or data migration utilities (more on those in a future post).

Samsung SSD Magician

While the Microsoft WIndows USB Tool is handy for dealing with Microsoft ISO, however for creating USB’s with ISO’s such as for installing VMware or Linux on bare metal systems, Rufus is a handy tool to have in the tool-box.

Rufus ISO to USB tool

Another useful tool that functions as an SSH and FTP utility is Cyberduck that also supports access to Amazon S3 among other cloud services.

There are many other tools for server, storage I/O and other activities on WIndows, not to mention other platforms, however hopefully you find the above useful.

How about it, what’s your favorite Windows server, storage I/O tools and commands?

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

January 7, 2014January 23, 2019

IoD, IoT, IoE, IoS, IoP, IoU and IoX are in your future

Storage I/O trends

IoD, IoT, IoE, IoS, IoP, IoU and IoX are in your future

Have you figured out the new buzzword trend for 2014 that starting ramping up in 2013?

Yup, its Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Devices’s (IoD)

Assuming that IoT, IoD and other variations catch on which looks like they will, this could bring relief and rest for the over-worked Big Data and Software Defined "X" buzzword bingo bandwagon usage.

Buzzword bingo

Introducing IoX?

For those not familiar with Software Defined "X", simply replace "X" with your favorite term such as Data Center (SDDC), Networking (SDN), Storage (SDS), Marketing, (SDM) among others.as the new IT (and beyond) industry term might just take some pressure from the over-worked software defined "x" usage (you pick "x" such as data center, networking, storage, marketing, etc).

This is good news as we now have IoX where "X" can be leveraged from Things (IoT) and Devices (IoD) to People, Places, Protocols or Platforms (IoP), not to mention APIs, Applications and Apple (IoA).

How about Internet of Items (IoI) or Internet of Objects (IoO)?

We are already seeing Cisco with Internet of Everything (IoE) from CES and rest assured the Big Data folks will want to get all over IoBD while storage folks serve up Internet of Storage (IoS), granted that might be a little close to Apple’s OS for comfort of some.

Of course this should also prompt the question of if instead of Internet of Things (IoT) or IoX as being public, then would a Intranet of Things or other items (e.g. IoX) be considered private?

And if you just said or thought, what hybrid, sure, why not, its 2014 after all…

Here’s my point

There are many other variations particular if you apply some cloud and virtual based Big Data analytics with some software defined marketing creativity.

So what’s your take on IoT, IoD, IoP and other IoX, is it all IoH (Internet of Hype) and Internet of Marketing (IoM), something new to get excited about for those who suffer from technology buzzword ADD?

What say you?

Ok, nuff said

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

January 6, 2014November 26, 2023

Goodbye 2013, hello 2014, predictions past, present and future

Storage I/O trends

Good by 2013 and hello 2014 along with predictions past, present and future

First, for those who may have missed this, thanks to all who helped make 2013 a great year!

Looking back at 2013 I saw a continued trend of more vendors and their media public relations (PR) people reaching out to have their predictions placed in articles, posts, columns or trends perspectives pieces.

Hmm, maybe a new trend is predictions selfies? ;)

Not to worry, this is not a wrapper piece for a bunch of those pitched and placed predictions requests that I received in 2013 as those have been saved for a rainy or dull day when we need to have some fun ;) .

What about 2013 server storage I/O networking, cloud, virtual and physical?

2013 end up with some end of year spree’s including Avago acquiring storage I/O and networking vendor LSI for about $6.6B USD (e.g. SSD cards, RAID cards, cache cards, HBA’s (Host Bus Adapters), chips and other items) along with Seagate buying Xyratex for about $374M USD (a Seagate suppliers and a customer partner).

Xyratex is known by some for making the storage enclosures that house hard disk drive (HDD’s) and Solid State Device (SSD) drives that are used by many well-known, and some not so well-known systems and solution vendors. Xyratex also has other pieces of their business such as appliances that combine their storage enclosures for HDD and SSD’s along with server boards, along with a software group focus on High Performance Compute (HPC) Lustre. There is another part of the Xyratex business that is not as well-known which is the test equipment used by disk drive manufacturers such as Seagate as part of their manufacturing process. Thus the Seagate acquisition moves them up market with more integrated solutions to offer to their (e.g. Seagate and Xyratex) joint customers, as well as streamline their own supply chain and costs (not to mention sell equipment to the other remaining drive manufactures WD and Toshiba).

Storage I/O trends

Other 2013 acquisitions included (Whiptail by Cisco, Virident by WD (who also bought several other companies), Softlayer by IBM) along with various mergers, company launches, company shutdowns (cloud storage Nirvanix and SSD maker OCZ bankruptcy filing), and IPO’s (some did well like Nimble while Violin not so well), while earlier high-flying industry darlings such as FusionIO are now the high-flung darling targets of the shareholder sock lawsuit attorneys.

2013 also saw the end of SNW (Storage Network World), jointly produced by SNIA and Computerworld Storage in the US after more than a decade. Some perspectives from the last US SNW held October 2013 can be found in the Fall 2013 StorageIO Update Newsletter here, granted those were before the event was formal announced as being terminated.

Speaking of events, check out the November 2013 StorageIO Update Newsletter here for perspectives from attending the Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent conference which joins VMworld, EMCworld and a bunch of other vendor world events.

Lets also not forget Dell buying itself in 2013.

StorageIO in the news

Click on the following links read (and here) more about various 2013 industry perspectives trends commentary of mine in various venues, along with tips, articles, newsletters, events, pod cast, videos and other items.

What about 2014?

Perhaps 2014 will build on the 2013 momentum of the annual rights of pages refereed to as making meaningless future year trends and predictions as being passe?

Not that there is anything wrong with making predictions for the coming year, particular if they actually have some relevance, practicality not to mention track record.

However that past few years seems to have resulted in press releases along with product (or services) plugs being masked as predictions, or simply making the same predictions for the coming year that did not come to be for the earlier year (or the one before that or before that and so forth).

On the other hand, from an entertainment perspective, perhaps that’s where we will see annual predictions finally get classified and put into perspectives as being just that.

Storage I/O trends

Now for those who still cling to as well as look forward to annual predictions, ok, simple, we will continue in 2014 (and beyond) from where we left off in 2013 (and 2012 and earlier) meaning more (or continued):

Software defined "x" (replace "x" with your favorite topic) industry discussion adoption yet customer adoption or deployment question conversations.

Cloud conversations shifted from lets all go to the cloud as the new shiny technology to questioning the security, privacy, stability, vendor or service viability not to mention other common sense concerns that should have been discussed or looked into earlier. I have also heard from people who say Amazon (as well as Verizon, Microsoft, Blue host, Google, Nirvanix, Yahoo and the list goes on) outages are bad for the image of clouds as they shake people’s confidences. IMHO people confidence needs to be shaken to that of having some common sense around clouds including don’t be scared, be ready, do your homework and basic due diligence. This means cloud conversations over concerns set the stage for increased awareness into decision-making, usage, deployment and best practices (all of which are good things for continued cloud deployments). However if some vendors or pundits feel that people having basic cloud concerns that can be addressed is not good for their products or services, I would like to talk with them because they may be missing an opportunity to create long-term confidence with their customers or prospects.

VDI as a technology being deployed continues to grow (e.g. customer adoption) while the industry adoption (buzz or what’s being talked about) has slowed a bit which makes sense as vendors jump from one bandwagon to the new software defined bandwagon.

Continued awareness around modernizing data protection including backup/restore, business continuance (BC), disaster recovery (DR), high availability, archiving and security means more than simply swapping out old technology for new, yet using it in old ways. After all, in the data center and information factory not everything is the same. Speaking of data protection, check out the series of technology neutral webcast and video chats that started last fall as part of BackupU brought to you by Dell. Even though Dell is the sponsor of the series (that’s a disclosure btw ;) ) the focus of the sessions is on how to use different tools, technologies and techniques in new ways as well as having the right tools for different tasks. Check out the information as well as register to get a free Data Protection chapter download from my book Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press) at the BackupU site as well as attend upcoming events.

The nand flash solid state devices (SSD) cash-dash (and shakeout) continues with some acquisitions and IPO’s, as well as disappearances of some weaker vendors, while appearance of some new. SSD is showing that it is real in several ways (despite myths, fud and hype some of which gets clarified here) ranging from some past IPO vendors (e.g. FusiuonIO) seeing exit of their CEO and founders while their stock plummets and arrival of shareholder investor lawsuits, to Violins ho-hum IPO. What this means is that the market is real, it has a very bright future, however there is also a correction occurring showing that reality may be settling in for the long run (e.g. next couple of decades) vs. SSD being in the realm of unicorns.

Storage I/O trends

Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Devices (IoD) may give some relief for Big Data, BYOD, VDI, Software Defined and Cloud among others that need a rest after they busy usage that past few years. On the other hand, expect enhanced use of earlier buzzwords combined with IoT and IOD. Of course that also means plenty of questions around what is and is not IoD along with IoT and if actually relevant to what you are doing.

Also in 2014 some will discover storage and related data infrastructure topics or some new product / service thus having a revolutionary experience that storage is now exciting while others will have a DejaVu moment that it has been exciting for the past several years if not decades.

More big data buzz as well as realization by some that a pragmatic approach opens up a bigger broader market, not to mention customers more likely to realize they have more in common with big data than it simply being something new forcing them to move cautiously.

To say that OpenStack and related technologies will continue to gain both industry and customer adoption (and deployment) status building off of 2013 in 2014 would be an understatement, not to mention too easy to say, or leave out.

While SSD’s continue to gain in deployment, after the question is not if, rather when, where, with what and how much nand flash SSD is in your future, HDD’s continue to evolve for physical, virtual and cloud environments. This also includes Seagate announcing a new (Kinetic) Ethernet attached HDD (note that this is not a NAS or iSCSI device) that uses a new key value object storage API for storing content data (more on this in 2014).

This also means realizing that large amounts of little data can result in back logs of lots of big data, and that big data is growing into very fast big data, not to mention realization by some that HDFS is just another distributed file system that happens to work with Hadoop.

SOHO’s and lower end of SMB begin to get more respect (and not just during the week of Consumer Electronic Show – CES).

Realization that there is a difference between Industry Adoption and Customer Deployment, not to mention industry buzz and traction vs. customer adoption.

server storage I/O trends

What about beyond 2014?

That’s easy, many of the predictions and prophecies that you hear about for the coming year have also been pitched in prior years, so it only makes sense that some of those will be part of the future.

If you have seen or experienced something you are more likely to have DejaVu.
Otoh if you have not seen or experienced something you are more likely to have a new and revolutionary moment!
Start using new (and old) things in new ways vs. simply using new things in old ways.
Barrier to technology convergence, not to mention new technology adoption is often people or their organizations.
Convergence is still around, cloud conversations around concerns get addressed leading to continued confidence for some.
Realization that data infrastructure span servers, storage I/O networking, cloud, virtual, physical, hardware, software and services.
That you can not have software defined without hardware and hardware defined requires software.
And it is time for me to get a new book project (or two) completed in addition to helping others with what they are working on, more on this in the months to come…

Here’s my point

The late Jim Morrison of the Doors said "There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors.".

Above image and link via Amazon.com

Hence there is what we know about 2013 or will learn about the past in the future, then there is what will be in 2014 as well as beyond, hence lets step through some doors and see what will be. This means learn and leverage lessons from the past to avoid making the same or similar mistakes in the future, however doing so while looking forward without a death grip clinging to the past.

Needless to say there will be more to review, preview and discuss throughout the coming year and beyond as we go from what is unknown through doors and learn about the known.

Thanks to all who made 2013 a great year, best wishes to all, look forward to seeing and hearing from you in 2014!

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

December 26, 2013January 23, 2019

Small Medium Business (SMB) IT continues to gain respect, what about SOHO?

Storage I/O trends

Blog post: Small Medium Business (SMB) IT continues to gain respect, what about SOHO?

Note that in Information Technology (IT) conversations there are multiple meanings for SMB including Server Message Block aka Microsoft Windows CIFS (Common Internet File System) along with its SAMBA implementation, however for this piece the context is Small Medium Business.

A decade or so ago, mention SMB (Small Medium Business) to many vendors, particular those who were either established or focused on the big game enterprise space and you might have gotten a condescending look or answer if not worse.

In other words, a decade ago the SMB did not get much respect from some vendors and those who followed or covered them.

Fast forward to today and many of those same vendors along with their pundits and media followers have now gotten their SMB grove, lingo, swagger or social media footsteps, granted for some that might be at the higher end of SMB also known as SME (Small Medium Enterprise).

Today in general the SMB is finally getting respect and in some circles its down right cool and trendy vs. being perceived as old school, stodgy large enterprise. Likewise the Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO) gained more awareness and coverage a few years back which while the ROBO buzz has subsided, the market and opportunities are certainly there.

What about Small Office Home Office (SOHO) today?

I assert that SOHO today is getting the same lack of respect that SMB in general received a decade ago.

IMHO the SOHO environment and market today is being treated with a similar lack of respect that the larger SMB received a decade ago.

Granted there are some vendors and their followings who are seeing the value and opportunity, not to mention market size potential of expanding their portfolios, not to mention routes to markets to meet their different needs of the SOHO.

relative enterprise sme smb soho positioning

What is the SOHO market or environment

One of the challenges with SMB, SOHO among other classifications are just that, the classifications.

Some classificaitons are based on number of employees, others on number of servers or workstations, while others are based on revenue or even physical location.

Meanwhile some are based on types of products, technologies or tools while others are tied to IT or general technology spending.

Some confuse the SOHO space with the consumer market space or sector which should not be a surprise if you view market segments as enterprise, SMB and consumer. However if you take a more pragmatic approach, between true consumer and SMB space, there lies the SOHO space. For some the definitions of what is consumer, SOHO, SMB, SME and enterprise (among others) will be based on number of employees, or revenue amount. Yet for others the categories may be tied to IT spending (e.g. price bands), number of workstations, servers, storage space capacity or some other metric. On the other hand some definitions of what is consumer vs. SOHO vs. SMB vs. SME or enterprise will be based on product capabilities, size, feature function and cost among other attributes.

Storage I/O trends

Understanding the SOHO

Keep in mind that SOHO can also overlap with Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO), not to mention blend with high-end consumer (prosumer) or lower bounds of SMB.

Part of the challenge (or problem) is that many confuse the Home Office or HO aspect of SOHO as being consumer.

Likewise many also confuse the Small Office or SO part of SOHO as being just the small home office or the virtual office of a mobile worker.

The reality is that just as the SMB space has expanded, there is also a growing area just above where consumer markets exist and where many place the lower-end of SMB (e.g. the bottom limits of where the solutions fit).

First keep in mind that many put too much focus and mistakenly believe that the HO or Home Office part of SOHO means that this is just a consumer focused space.

The reality is that while the HO gets included as part of SOHO, there is also the SO or Small Office which is actually the low-end of the SMB space.

Keep in mind that there are more:
SOHO than SMB
SMB than SME
SME than enterprise
F500 (Fortune 500) than F100
F100 than F10 and so forth.

Here is my point

SOHO does not have to be the Rodney Dangerfield of IT (e.g. gets no respect)!

If you jumped on the SMB bandwagon a decade ago, start paying attention to what’s going on with the SOHO or lower-end SMB sector. The reasons are simple, just as SMBs can grow up to be larger SMBs or SME or enterprise, SOHOs can also evolve to become SMBs either in business size, or in IT and data infrastructure needs, requirements.

For those who prefer (at least for now) look down upon or ignore the SOHO similar to what was done with SMB before converting to SMBism, do so at your own risk.

However let me be clear, this does not mean ignore or shift focus and thus disrupt or lose coverage of other areas, rather, extend, expand and at least become aware of what is going on in the SOHO space.

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

Server Storage I/O Network Benchmark Winter Olympic Games

Games of inches and seconds, performance and skill

Metrics that matter, winners and losers

What about server storage I/O networking benchmarks

Let the games begin

Apples to Apples vs. Apple pie vs. Orange Jello

Closing thoughts (for now)

Share this:

Removing complexity and cost to drive return on innovation the new ROI

Driving data center and data infrastructure sustainability

Share this:

StorageIO data infrastructure industry vendors links page updated with over 1,200 entries

Share this:

Part II – Until the focus expands to data protection – What to do about it

Modernizing data protection and what to do about it

Whats your data protection strategy, business or technology focused?

Wrap up (for now)

Share this:

Until the focus expands to data protection, backup is staying alive!

How vendors are helping backup staying alive?

Taking a step back to move forward

Not all threat risks are headline news making events

Share this:

IT and data center sustainability convergence

Many different faces of IT and data center sustainability

Learning, education and knowledge sustainability

Share this:

Lenovo buys IBM’s xSeries x86 server business for $2.3B USD, what about EMC?

What this means for IBM?

What this means for Lenovo?

What about EMC and Lenovo?

What does this mean for Cisco, Dell, HP and others?

What this means now and going forward?

Share this:

Securing your information assets and data, what about your storage?

Protecting data and data protection

Additional data protection topics and links

Closing perspective, for now…

Share this:

Dell Inspiron 660 i660, Virtual Server Diamond in the rough?

Taking a step back, needs vs. wants

Server shopping and selection

What about adding more GbE ports?

Need some extra SAS and SATA internal expansion slots for HDD and SSD’s?

How is it working and performing

Don’t forget about the KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse)

Word of caution on make and models

Summary

Share this:

Book review: Rethinking Enterprise Storage – A Hybrid Cloud Model by Marc Farley

Topics and themes covered in the book

Rethinking Enterprise Storage book Details

What’s inside the book

Summary

Share this:

Some Windows Server Storage I/O related commands

Finding a Windows physical disk, SSD or storage system device name

Remembering (or learning) Xcopy

Diskpart, don’t be scared, however be careful

Is SATA SSD TRIM Enabled?

Having issues with collecting CPU and performance statistics?

Sdelete and drive erase

Rufus, Seatools, Samsung Disk Magician and Cyberduck

Share this:

IoD, IoT, IoE, IoS, IoP, IoU and IoX are in your future

Yup, its Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Devices’s (IoD)

Introducing IoX?

Here’s my point

Share this:

Good by 2013 and hello 2014 along with predictions past, present and future

What about 2013 server storage I/O networking, cloud, virtual and physical?

What about 2014?

What about beyond 2014?

Here’s my point

Share this:

Blog post: Small Medium Business (SMB) IT continues to gain respect, what about SOHO?

What about Small Office Home Office (SOHO) today?

What is the SOHO market or environment

Understanding the SOHO

Here is my point