Category: Data protection

Backup, Snapshots, Replicaiotn, Local and Remote Mirroring, CDP, Clustering and HA

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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)

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2013 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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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).

Microsoft Windows

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
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
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

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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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!

2013 season greetings

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.".

The doors via Amazon.com
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

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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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

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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November 2013 Server and StorageIO Update Newsletter & AWS reinvent info


November 2013 Server and StorageIO Update Newsletter & AWS reinvent info

Welcome to the November 2013 edition of the StorageIO Update (newsletter) containing trends perspectives on cloud, virtualization and data infrastructure topics. Fall (here in North America) has been busy with in-person, on-line live and virtual events along with various client projects, research, time in the StorageIO cloud, virtual and physical lab test driving, validating and doing proof of concept research among other tasks. Check out the industry trends perspectives articles, comments and blog posts below that covers some activity over the past month.

Last week I had the chance to attend the second annual AWS re:Invent event in Las Vegas, see my comments, perspectives along with a summary of announcements from that conference below.

Watch for future posts, commentary, perspectives and other information down the road (and in the not so distant future) pertaining to information and data infrastructure topics, themes and trends across cloud, virtual, legacy server, storage, networking, hardware and software. Also check out our backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving (Under the resources section on StorageIO.com) for various presentation, book chapter downloads and other content.

Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO Update newsletter.

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers gs

StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

Industry trends: Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent

Last week I attended the AWS re:Invent event in Las Vegas. This was the second annual AWS re:Invent conference which while having an AWS and cloud theme, it is also what I would describe as a data infrastructure event.

As a data infrastructure event AWS re:Invent spans traditional legacy IT and applications to newly invented, re-written, re-hosted or re-platformed ones from existing and new organizations. By this I mean a mix of traditional IT or enterprise people as well as cloud and virtual geek types (said with affection and all due respect of course) across server (operating system, software and tools), storage (primary, secondary, archive and tools), networking, security, development tools, applications and architecture.

That also means management from application and data protection spanning High Availability (HA), Business Continuance (BC), Disaster Recovery (DR), backup/restore, archiving, security, performance and capacity planning, service management among other related themes across public, private, hybrid and community cloud environments or paradigms. Hmm, I think I know of a book that covers the above and other related topic themes, trends, technologies and best practices called Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press) available via Amazon.com in print and Kindle (among other) versions.

During the event AWS announced enhanced and new services including:

  • WorkSpaces (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure – VDI) announced as a new service for cloud based desktops across various client devices including laptops, Kindle Fire, iPad and Android tablets using PCoIP.
  • Kinesis which is a managed service for real-time processing of streaming (e.g. Big) data at scale including ability to collect and process hundreds of GBytes of data per second across hundreds of thousands of data sources. On top of Kinesis you can build your big data applications or conduct analysis to give real-time key performance indicator dashboards, exception and alarm or event notification and other informed decision-making activity.
  • EC2 C3 instances provide Intel Xeon E5 processors and Solid State Device (SSD) based direct attached storage (DAS) like functionality vs. EBS provisioned IOPs for cost-effective storage I/O performance and compute capabilities.
  • Another EC2 enhancement are G2 instance that leverage high performance NVIDIA GRID GPU with 1,536 parallel processing cores. This new instance is well suited for 3D graphics, rendering, streaming video and other related applications that need large-scale parallel or high performance compute (HPC) also known as high productivity compute.
  • Redshift (cloud data warehouse) now supports cross region snapshots for HA, BC and DR purposes.
  • CloudTrail records AWS API calls made via the management console for analytics and logging of API activity.
  • Beta of Trusted Advisor dashboard with cost optimization saving estimates including EBS and provisioned IOPs
  • Relational Database Service (RDS) support for PostgresSQL including multi-AZ deployment.
  • Ability to discover and launch various software from AWS Marketplace via the EC2 Console. The AWS Marketplace for those not familiar with it is a catalog of various software or application titles (over 800 products across 24 categories) including free and commercial licensed solutions that include SAP, Citrix, Lotus Notes/Domino among many others.
  • AppStream is a low latency (STX protocol based) service for streaming resource (e.g. compute, storage or memory) intensive applications and games from AWS cloud to various clients, desktops or mobile devices. This means that the resource intensive functionality can be shifted to the cloud, while providing a low latency (e.g. fast) user experience off-loading the client from having to support increased compute, memory or storage capabilities. Key to AppStream is the ability to stream data in a low-latency manner including over networks normally not suited for high quality or bandwidth intensive applications. IMHO AppStream while focused initially on mobile app’s and gaming, being a bit streaming technology has the potential to be used for other similar functions that can leverage download speed improvements.

    • When I asked an AWS person if or what role AppStream might have or related to WorkSpaces their only response was a large smile and no comment. Does this mean WorkSpaces leverages AppStream? Candidly I don’t know, however if you look deeper into AppStream and expand your horizons, see what you can think up in terms of innovation. Updated 11/21/13 AWS has provided clarification that WorkSpaces is based on PCoIP while AppStream uses the STX protocols.

    Check out AWS Sr. VP Andy Jassy keynote presentation here.

Overall I found the AWS re:Invent event to be a good conference spanning many aspects and areas of focus which means I will be putting it on my must attend list for 2014.

StorageIO Industry Trends and PerspectivesIndustry trends tips, commentary, articles and blog posts
What is being seen, heard and talked about while out and about

The following is a synopsis of some StorageIOblog posts, articles and comments in different venues on various industry trends, perspectives and related themes about clouds, virtualization, data and storage infrastructure topics among related themes.

Storage I/O posts

Recent industry trends, perspectives and commentary by StorageIO Greg Schulz in various venues:

NetworkComputing: Comments on Software-Defined Storage Startups Win Funding

Digistor: Comments on SSD and flash storage
InfoStor: Comments on data backup and virtualization software

ITbusinessEdge: Comments on flash SSD and hybrid storage environments

NetworkComputing: Comments on Hybrid Storage Startup Nimble Storage Files For IPO

InfoStor: Comments on EMC’s Light to Speed: Flash, VNX, and Software-Defined

InfoStor: Data Backup Virtualization Software: Four Solutions

ODSI: Q&A With Greg Schulz – A Quick Roundup of Data Storage Industry

Recent StorageIO Tips and Articles in various venues:

FedTechMagazine: 3 Tips for Maximizing Tiered Hypervisors
InfoStor:
RAID Remains Relevant, Really!

Storage I/O trends

Recent StorageIO blog post:

EMC announces XtremIO General Availability (Part I) – Announcement analysis of the all flash SSD storage system
Part II: EMC announces XtremIO General Availability, speeds and feeds – Part two of two part series with analysis
What does gaining industry traction or adoption mean too you? – There is a difference between buzz and deployment
Fall 2013 (September and October) StorageIO Update Newsletter – In case you missed the fall edition, here it is

StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

Check out our objectstoragecenter.com page where you will find a growing collection of information and links on cloud and object storage themes, technologies and trends.

Server and StorageIO seminars, conferences, web cats, events, activities StorageIO activities (out and about)

Seminars, symposium, conferences, webinars
Live in person and recorded recent and upcoming events

While 2013 is winding down, the StorageIO calendar continues to evolve, here are some recent and upcoming activities.

December 11, 2013 Backup.UData Protection for Cloud 201Backup.U
Google+ hangout
December 3, 2013 Backup.UData Protection for Cloud 101Backup.U
Online Webinar
November 19, 2013 Backup.UData Protection for Virtualization 201Backup.U
Google+ hangout
November 12-13, 2013AWS re:InventAWS re:Invent eventLas Vegas, NV
November 5, 2013 Backup.UData Protection for Virtualization 101Backup.U
Online Webinar
October 22, 2013 Backup.UData Protection for Applications 201Backup.U
Google+ hangout

Click here to view other upcoming along with earlier event activities. Watch for more 2013 events to be added soon to the StorageIO events calendar page. Topics include data protection modernization (backup/restore, HA, BC, DR, archive), data footprint reduction (archive, compression, dedupe), storage optimization, SSD, object storage, server and storage virtualization, big data, little data, cloud and object storage, performance and management trends among others.

Vendors, VAR’s and event organizers, give us a call or send an email to discuss having us involved in your upcoming pod cast, web cast, virtual seminar, conference or other events.

If you missed the Fall (September and October) 2013 StorageIO update newsletter, click here to view that and other previous editions as HTML or PDF versions. Subscribe to this newsletter (and pass it along)

and click here to subscribe to this news letter. View archives of past StorageIO update news letters as well as download PDF versions at: www.storageio.com/newsletter

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)

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved    

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Part II: EMC announces XtremIO General Availability, speeds and feeds

Storage I/O trends

XtremIO flash SSD more than storage I/O speed

Following up part I of this two-part series, here are more more details, insights and perspectives about EMC XtremIO and it’s generally availability that were announced today.

XtremIO the basics

  • All flash Solid State Device (SSD) based solution
  • Cluster of up to four X-Brick nodes today
  • X-Bricks available in 10TB increments today, 20TB in January 2014
  • 25 eMLC SSD drives per X-Brick with redundant dual processor controllers
  • Provides server-side iSCSI and Fibre Channel block attachment
  • Integrated data footprint reduction (DFR) including global dedupe and thin provisioning
  • Designed for extending duty cycle, minimizing wear of SSD
  • Removes need for dedicated hot spare drives
  • Capable of sustained performance and availability with multiple drive failure
  • Only unique data blocks are saved, others tracked via in-memory meta data pointers
  • Reduces overhead of data protection vs. traditional small RAID 5 or RAID 6 configurations
  • Eliminates overhead of back-end functions performance impact on applications
  • Deterministic  storage I/O performance (IOPs, latency, bandwidth) over life of system

When would you use XtremIO vs. another storage system?

If you need all enterprise like data services including thin provisioning, dedupe, resiliency with deterministic performance on an all-flash system with raw capacity from 10-40TB (today) then XtremIO could be a good fit. On the other hand, if you need a mix of SSD based storage I/O performance (IOPS, latency or bandwidth) along with some HDD based space capacity, then a hybrid or traditional storage system could be the solution. Then there are hybrid scenarios where a hybrid storage system, array or appliance (mix of SSD and HDD) are used for most of the applications and data, with an XtremIO handling more tasks that are demanding.

How does XtremIO compare to others?

EMC with XtremIO is taking a different approach than some of their competitors whose model is to compare their faster flash-based solutions vs. traditional mid-market and enterprise arrays, appliances or storage systems on a storage I/O IOP performance basis. With XtremIO there is improved performance measured in IOPs or database transactions among other metrics that matter. However there is also an emphasis on consistent, predictable, quality of service (QoS) or what is known as deterministic storage I/O performance basis. This means both higher IOPs with lower latency while doing normal workload along with background data services (snapshots, data footprint reduction, etc).

Some of the competitors focus on how many IOPs or work they can do, however without context or showing impact to applications when back-ground tasks or other data services are in use. Other differences include how cluster nodes are interconnected (for scale out solutions) such as use of Ethernet and IP-based networks vs dedicated InfiniBand or PCIe fabrics. Host server attachment will also differ as some are only iSCSI or Fibre Channel block, or NAS file, or give a mix of different protocols and interfaces.

An industry trend however is to expand beyond the flash SSD need for speed focus by adding context along with QoS, deterministic behavior and addition of data services including snapshots, local and remote replication, multi-tenancy, metering and metrics, security among other items.

Storage I/O trends

Who or what are XtremIO competition?

To some degree vendors who only have PCIe flash SSD cards might place themselves as the alternative to all SSD or hybrid mixed SSD and HDD based solutions. FusionIO used to take that approach until they acquired NexGen (a storage system) and now have taken a broader more solution balanced approach of use the applicable tool for the task or application at hand.

Other competitors include the all SSD based storage arrays, systems or appliance vendors which includes legacy existing as well as startups vendors that include among others IBM who bought TMS (flashsystems), NetApp (EF540), Solidfire, Pure, Violin (who did a recent IPO) and Whiptail (bought by Cisco).  Then there are the hybrid which is a long list including Cloudbyte (software), Dell, EMCs other products, HDS, HP, IBM, NetApp, Nexenta (Software), Nimble, Nutanix, Oracle, Simplivity and Tintri among others.

What’s new with this XtremIO announcement

10TB X-Bricks enable 10 to 40TB (physical space capacity) per cluster (available on 11/19/13). 20TB X-Bricks (larger capacity drives) will double the space capacity in January 2014. If you are doing the math, that means either a single brick (dual controller) system, or up to four bricks (nodes, each with dual controllers) configurations. Common across all system configurations are data features such as thin provisioning, inline data footprint reduction (e.g. dedupe) and XtremIO Data Protection (XDP).

What does XtremIO look like?

XtremIO consists of up to four nodes (today) based on what EMC calls X-Bricks.
EMC XtremIO X-Brick
25 SSD drive X-Brick

Each 4U X-Brick has 25 eMLC SSD drives in a standard EMC 2U DAE (disk enclosure) like those used with the VNX and VMAX for SSD and Hard Disk Drives (HDD). In addition to the 2U drive shelve, there are a pair of 1U storage processors (e.g. controllers) that give redundancy and shared access to the storage shelve.

XtremIO Architecture
XtremIO X-Brick block diagram

XtremIO storage processors (controllers) and drive shelve block diagram. Each X-Brick and their storage processors or controllers communicate with each other and other X-Bricks via a dedicated InfiniBand using Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) fabric for memory to memory data transfers. The controllers or storage processors (two per X-Brick) each have dual processors with eight cores for compute, along with 256GB of DRAM memory. Part of each controllers DRAM memory is set aside as a mirror its partner or peer and vise versa with access being over the InfiniBand fabric.

XtremIO fabric
XtremIO X-Brick four node fabric cluster or instance

How XtremIO works

Servers access XtremIO X-Bricks using iSCSI and Fibre Channel for block access. A responding X-Brick node handles the storage I/O request and in the case of a write updates other nodes. In the case of a write, the handling node or controller (aka storage processor) checks its meta data map in memory to see if the data is new and unique. If so, the data gets saved to SSD along with meta data information updated across all nodes. Note that data gets ingested and chunked or sharded into 4KB blocks. So for example if a 32KB storage I/O request from the server arrives, that is broken (e.g. chunk or shard) into 8 4KB pieces each with a mathematical unique fingerprint created. This fingerprint is compared to what is known in the in memory meta data tables (this is a hexadecimal number compare so a quick operation). Based on the comparisons if unique the data is saved and pointers created, if already exists, then pointers are updated.

In addition to determining if unique data, the fingerprint is also used for generate a balanced data dispersal plan across the nodes and SSD devices. Thus there is the benefit of reducing duplicate data during ingestion, while also reducing back-end IOs within the XtremIO storage system. Another byproduct is the reduction in time spent on garbage collection or other background tasks commonly associated with SSD and other storage systems.

Meta data is kept in memory with a persistent copied written to reserved area on the flash SSD drives (think of as a vault area) to support and keep system state and consistency. In between data consistency points the meta data is kept in a log journal like how a database handles log writes. What’s different from a typical database is that XtremIO XIOS platform software does these consistency point writes for persistence on a granularity of seconds vs. hours or minutes.

Storage I/O trends

What about rumor that XtremIO can only do 4KB IOPs?

Does this mean that the smallest storage I/O or IOP that XtremIO can do is 4GB?

That is a rumor or some fud I have heard floated by a competitor (or two or three) that assumes if only 4KB internal chunk or shard being used for processing, that must mean no IOPs smaller than 4KB from a server.

XtremIO can do storage I/O IOP sizes of 512 bytes (e.g. the standard block size) as do other systems. Note that the standard server storage I/O block or IO size is 512 bytes or multiples of that unless the new 4KB advanced format (AF) block size being used which based on my conversations with EMC, AF is not supported, yet. (Updated 11/15/13 EMC has indicated that host (front-end) 4K AF support, along with 512 byte emulation modes are available now with XIOS). Also keep in mind that since XtremIO XIOS internally is working with 4KB chunks or shards, that is a stepping stone for being able to eventually leverage back-end AF drive support in the future should EMC decide to do so (Updated 11/15/13 Waiting for confirmation from EMC about if back-end AF support is now enabled or not, will give more clarity as it is recieved).

What else is EMC doing with XtremIO?

  • VCE Vblock XtremIO systems for SAP HANA (and other databases) in memory databases along with VDI optimized solutions.
  • VPLEX and XtremIO for extended distance local, metro and wide area HA, BC and DR.
  • EMC PowerPath XtremIO storage I/O path optimization and resiliency.
  • Secure Remote Support (aka phone home) and auto support integration.

Boosting your available software license minutes (ASLM) with SSD

Another use of SSD has been in the past the opportunity to make better use of servers stretching their usefulness or delaying purchase of new ones by improving their effective use to do more work. In the past this technique of using SSDs to delay a server or CPU upgrade was used when systems when hardware was more expensive, or during the dot com bubble to fill surge demand gaps.  This has the added benefit of stretching database and other expensive software licenses to go further or do more work. The less time servers spend waiting for IOP’s means more time for doing useful work and bringing value of the software license. Otoh, the more time spent waiting is lot available software minutes which is cost overhead.

Think of available software licence minutes (ASLM) in terms of available software license minutes where if doing useful work your software is providing value. On the other hand if those minutes are not used for useful work (e.g. spent waiting or lost due to CPU or server or IO wait, then they are lost). This is like airlines and available seat miles (ASM) metric where if left empty it’s a lost opportunity, however if used, then value, not to mention if yield management applied to price that seat differently. To make up for that loss many organizations have to add extra servers and thus more software licensing costs.

Storage I/O trends

Can we get a side of context with them metrics?

EMC along with some other vendors are starting to give more context with their storage I/O performance metrics that matter than simple IOP’s or Hero Marketing Metrics. However context extends beyond performance to also availability and space capacity which means data protection overhead. As an example, EMC claims 25% for RAID 5 and 20% for RAID 6 or 30% for RAID 5/RAID 6 combo where a 25 drive (SSD) XDP has a 8% overhead. However this assumes a 4+1 (5 drive) RAID , not apples to apples comparison on a space overhead basis. For example a 25 drive RAID 5 (24+1) would have around an 4% parity protection space overhead or a RAID 6 (23+2) about 8%.

Granted while the space protection overhead might be more apples to apples with the earlier examples to XDP, there are other differences. For example solutions such as XDP can be more tolerant to multiple drive failures with faster rebuilds than some of the standard or basic RAID implementations. Thus more context and clarity would be helpful.

StorageIO would like see vendors including EMC along with startups who give data protection space overhead comparisons without context to do so (and applaud those who provide context). This means providing the context for data protection space overhead comparisons similar to performance metrics that matter. For example simply state with an asterisk or footnote comparing a 4+1 RAID 5 vs. a 25 drive erasure or forward error correction or dispersal or XDP or wide stripe RAID for that matter (e.g. can we get a side of context). Note this is in no way unique to EMC and in fact quite common with many of the smaller startups as well as established vendors.

General comments

My laundry list of items which for now would be nice to have’s, however for you might be need to have would include native replication (today leverages Recover Point), Advanced Format (4KB) support for servers (Updated 11/15/13 Per above, EMC has confirmed that host/server-side (front-end) AF along with 512 byte emulation modes exist today), as well as SSD based drives, DIF (Data Integrity Feature), and Microsoft ODX among others. While 12Gb SAS server to X-Brick attachment for small in the cabinet connectivity might be nice for some, more practical on a go forward basis would be 40GbE support.

Now let us see what EMC does with XtremIO and how it competes in the market. One indicator to watch in the industry and market of the impact or presence of EMC XtremIO is the amount of fud and mud that will be tossed around. Perhaps time to make a big bowl of popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show…

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)

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

Posted on

Fall 2013 StorageIO Update Newsletter

Storage I/O trends

Fall 2013 StorageIO Update Newsletter

Welcome to the Fall 2013 (joint September and October) edition of the StorageIO Update (newsletter) containing trends perspectives on cloud, virtualization and data infrastructure topics. It is fall (at least here in north America) which means conferences, symposium, virtual and physical events, seminars, webinars in addition to normal client project activities. Starting with VMworld back in late August, that event occurred in San Francisco which kicked off the fall (or back to school) season of activity. VMworld was followed with many other events including in-person along with virtual or on-line such as webinars, Google+ hangouts among others, not to mention all the briefings for vendor product announcements and updates. Check out the industry trends perspectives articles, comments and blog posts below that covers some activity over the past few months.

VMworld 2013
Congratulations to VMworld on the 10th anniversary of the event. With the largest installment yet of a VMworld in terms of attendance, there were also many announcements. Here are a synopsis of some of those announcements which of course included plenty of software defined marketing (SDM).

CMG and Storage Performance
During mid-September I was invited to give an industry trends and perspectives presentation to the Storage Performance Council (SPC) board. The SPC board were meeting in the Minneapolis area and I gave a brief talk about Metrics that Matter and importance of context with focus on applications. Speaking of the Minneapolis area, Tom Becchetti (@tbecchetti) organized a great CMG event hosted over at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. I gave a discussion around Technolutionary, technology evolution and revolution, using old and new things in new ways.

Check out our backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving (Under the resources section on StorageIO.com) for various presentation, book chapter downloads and other content.

SNW Fall 2013 Long Beach
Talking about traveling, there was a quick trip out to Long Beach for the fall 2013 edition of Storage Networking World (SNW) where I had some good meetings and conversations with those who were actually there. No need to sugar coat it, likewise no need to kick sand in its face. Plain and simple, SNW is not the event it used to be has been a common discussion theme for several years which I had set my expectation accordingly.

Some have asked me why I even spent time, money and resources to attend SNW?

My answer is that I had some meetings to attend to, wanted to see and meet with others who were going to be there, and perhaps even say goodbye to an event that I have been involved with for over a decade.

Does that mean I’m all done with SNW?

Not sure yet as will have to wait and see what SNIA and IDG/Computerworld the event co-owners and producers put together for future events. However there are enough other events and activities to pick up the slack which is part of what has caused the steady decline in events like SNW among others.

Perhaps it is time for SNIA to partner with another adjacent yet like-minded organization such as CMG to collaborate and try doing something like what was done in the early 2000s? That is SNIA providing their own seminars along with others such as myself who involved with both CMG, SNW and SNIA to beef up or set up a storage and I/O focused track at the CMG event.

Beyond those items mentioned above, or in the following section, there are plenty of interesting and exciting things occurring in the background that I cant talk about yet. However watch for future posts, commentary, perspectives and other information down the road (and in the not so distant future).

Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO Update newsletter.

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers gs

StorageIO Industry Trends and PerspectivesIndustry trends perspectives and commentary
What is being seen, heard and talked about while out and about

The following is a synopsis of some StorageIOblog posts, articles and comments in different venues on various industry trends, perspectives and related themes about clouds, virtualization, data and storage infrastructure topics among related themes.

Storage I/O trends

InfoStor: Perspectives on Data Dynamics file migration tool (Read more about StorageX later in this newsletter)
SearchStorage: Perspectives on Data Dynamics resurrects StorageX for file migration
SearchStorage: Perspectives on Cisco buying SSD storage vendor Whiptail

Recent StorageIO Tips and Articles in various venues:

21cIT:  Why You Should Consider Object Storage
InfoStor:  HDDs Are Still Spinning (Rust Never Sleeps)
21cIT:  Object Storage Is in Your Future, Even if You Use Files
21cIT:  Playing the Name Game With Virtual Storage
InfoStor:  Flash Data Storage: Myth vs. Reality
InfoStor:  The Nand Flash Cache SSD Cash Dance
SearchEnterpriseWAN:  Remote Office / ROBO backup and data protection for networking Pro’s
TheVirtualizationPractice:  When and Where to use NAND Flash SSD for Virtual Servers
FedTech:  These Data Center (DCIM) Tools Can Streamline Computing Resources

Storage I/O posts

Recent StorageIO blog post:

Seagate Kinetic Cloud and Object Storage I/O platform (and Ethernet HDD)
Cloud conversations: Has Nirvanix shutdown caused cloud confidence concerns?
Cisco buys Whiptail continuing the SSD storage I/O flash cash cache dash
WD buys nand flash SSD storage I/O cache vendor Virident
EMC New VNX MCx doing more storage I/O work vs. just being more
Is more of something always better? Depends on what you are doing
VMworld 2013 Vmware, server, storage I/O and networking update (Day 1)
EMC ViPR software defined object storage part II

Check out our objectstoragecenter.com page where you will find a growing collection of information and links pertaining to cloud and object storage themes, technologies and trends.

Brouwer Storage Consultancy

StorageIO in Europe (Netherlands)
Spent over a week in the Netherlands where I presented three different seminar workshop sessions organized by Brouwer Storage Consultancy who is celebrating their 10th anniversary in business. These sessions spanned five full days of interactive discussions with an engaged diverse group of attendees in the Nijkerk area who came from across Holland to take part in these workshops.

Congratulations to Gert and Frank Brouwer on their ten years of being in business and best wishes for many more. Fwiw those who are curious StorageIO will be ten years young in business in about two years.

StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

Some observations from while in Europe:

Continued cloud privacy concerns amplified by NSA and suspicion of US-based companies, yet many are not aware of similar concerns of European or UK-based firms from those outside those areas. While there were some cloud concern conversations over the demise of Nirvanix, those seemed less so then in the media or US given that at least in Holland they have seen other cloud and storage as a service firms come and go already. It should be noted that the US has also seen cloud and storage as a service startups come and go, however I think sometimes we or at least the media tends to have a short if not selective memory at times.

In one of our workshops sessions we were talking about service level objectives (SLO), service level agreements (SLA), recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO) among other themes. Somebody mentioned why the focus of time in RPO and questions why not a transactional perspective which I thought was a brilliant question. We had a good conversation in the group and concurred that while RPO is what the industry uses, that there also needs to be a transactional state context tie to what is inferred or assumed with RPO and RTO. Thus the importance of looking beyond just the point in time, however the importance of a transactional context or state, such as not just the time, however to a given transactional point.

Note that transactional could mean database, file system, backup or data protection index or catalog, meta data repository or other entity. This is where some should be jumping up and down like Donkey in Shrek wanting to point out that is exactly what RTO and RPO refer to which would be great. However all to often what is assumed is not conveyed, thus those who don’t know, well, they assume or simply don’t know what others.

StorageIO Industry Trends and Perspectives

Data Dynamics StorageX 7.0 Intelligent Policy Based File Data Migration – There is no such thing as a data or information recession . Likewise, people and data are living longer as well as getting larger. These span various use cases from traditional to personal or at work productivity. From little to big data content, collaboration including file or document sharing to rich media applications all of which are leveraging unstructured data. For example, email, word processing back-office documents, web and text files, presentations (e.g. PowerPoint), photos, audio and video among others. These macro trends result in the continued growth of unstructured Network Attached Storage (NAS) file data.

Thus, a common theme is adding management including automated data movement and migration to carry out structure around unstructured NAS file data. More than a data mover or storage migration tool, Data Dynamics StorageX is a software platform for adding storage management structure around unstructured local and distributed NAS file data. This includes heterogeneous vendor support across different storage system, protocols and tools including Windows CIFS and Unix/Linux NFS.
(Disclosure DataDynamics has been a StorageIO client). Visit Data Dynamics at www.datadynamicsinc.com/

Server and StorageIO seminars, conferences, web cats, events, activities StorageIO activities (out and about)

Seminars, symposium, conferences, webinars
Live in person and recorded recent and upcoming events

Announcing: Backup.U brought to you by Dell

Some on-line (live and recorded) events have include an ongoing series tied to data protection (Backup/restore, HA, BC, DR and Archiving) called Backup.U organized and sponsored by Dell Data Protection Software that you can learn more about at the landing page www.software.dell.com/backupu (more on this in a future post). In addition to data protection, some other events and activities including a BrightTalk webinar on storage I/O and networking for cloud environments (here).

In addition to the above, check out the StorageIO calendar to see more recent and upcoming activities.

Watch for more 2013 events to be added soon to the StorageIO events calendar page. Topics include data protection modernization (backup/restore, HA, BC, DR, archive), data footprint reduction (archive, compression, dedupe), storage optimization, SSD, object storage, server and storage virtualization, big data, little data, cloud and object storage, performance and management trends among others.

Vendors, VAR’s and event organizers, give us a call or send an email to discuss having us involved in your upcoming pod cast, web cast, virtual seminar, conference or other events.

If you missed the Summer (July and August) 2013 StorageIO update newsletter, click here to view that and other previous editions as HTML or PDF versions. Subscribe to this newsletter (and pass it along)

and click here to subscribe to this news letter. View archives of past StorageIO update news letters as well as download PDF versions at: www.storageio.com/newsletter

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)

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

Posted on

Cloud conversations: Has Nirvanix shutdown caused cloud confidence concerns?

Storage I/O trends

Cloud conversations: Has Nirvanix shutdown caused cloud confidence concerns?

Recently seven plus year old cloud storage startup Nirvanix announced that they were finally shutting down and that customers should move their data.

nirvanix customer message

Nirvanix has also posted an announcement that they have established an agreement with IBM Softlayer (read about that acquisition here) to help customers migrate to those services as well as to those of Amazon Web Services (AWS), (read more about AWS in this primer here), Google and Microsoft Azure.

Cloud customer concerns?

With Nirvanix shutting down there has been plenty of articles, blog posts, twitter tweets and other conversations asking if Clouds are safe.

Btw, here is a link to my ongoing poll where you can cast your vote on what you think about clouds.

IMHO clouds can be safe if used in safe ways which includes knowing and addressing your concerns, not to mention following best practices, some of which pre-date the cloud era, sometimes by a few decades.

Nirvanix Storm Clouds

More on this in a moment, however lets touch base on Nirvanix and why I said they were finally shutting down.

The reason I say finally shutting down is that there were plenty of early warning signs and storm clouds circling Nirvanix for a few years now.

What I mean by this is that in their seven plus years of being in business, there have been more than a few CEO changes, something that is not unheard of.

Likewise there have been some changes to their business model ranging from selling their software as a service to a solution to hosting among others, again, smart startups and establishes organizations will adapt over time.

Nirvanix also invested heavily in marketing, public relations (PR) and analyst relations (AR) to generate buzz along with gaining endorsements as do most startups to get recognition, followings and investors if not real customers on board.

In the case of Nirvanix, the indicator signs mentioned above also included what seemed like a semi-annual if not annual changing of CEOs, marketing and others tying into business model adjustments.

cloud storage

It was only a year or so ago that if you gauged a company health by the PR and AR news or activity and endorsements you would have believed Nirvanix was about to crush Amazon, Rackspace or many others, perhaps some actually did believe that, followed shortly there after by the abrupt departure of their then CEO and marketing team. Thus just as fast as Nirvanix seemed to be the phoenix rising in stardom their aura started to dim again, which could or should have been a warning sign.

This is not to solo out Nirvanix, however given their penchant for marketing and now what appears to some as a sudden collapse or shutdown, they have also become a lightning rod of sort for clouds in general. Given all the hype and fud around clouds when something does happen the distract ors will be quick to jump or pile on to say things like "See, I told you, clouds are bad".

Meanwhile the cloud cheerleaders may go into denial saying there are no problems or issues with clouds, or they may go back into a committee meeting to create a new stack, standard, API set marketing consortium alliance. ;) On the other hand, there are valid concerns with any technology including clouds that in general there are good implementations that can be used the wrong way, or questionable implementations and selections used in what seem like good ways that can go bad.

This is not to say that clouds in general whether as a service, solution or product on a public, private or hybrid bases are any riskier than traditional hardware, software and services. Instead what this should be is a wake up call for people and organizations to review clouds citing their concerns along with revisiting what to do or can be done about them.

Clouds: Being prepared

Ben Woo of Neuralytix posted this question comment to one of the Linked In groups Collateral Considerations If You Were/Are A Nirvanix Customer which I posted some tips and recommendations including:

1) If you have another copy of your data somewhere else (which you should btw), how will your data at Nirvanix be securely erased, and the storage it resides on be safely (and secure) decommissioned?

2) if you do have another copy of your data elsewhere, how current is it, can you bring it up to date from various sources (including update from Nirvanix while they stay online)?

3) Where will you move your data to short or near term, as well as long-term.

4) What changes will you make to your procurement process for cloud services in the future to protect against situations like this happening to you?

5) As part of your plan for putting data into the cloud, refine your strategy for getting it out, moving it to another service or place as well as having an alternate copy somewhere.

Fwiw any data I put into a cloud service there is also another copy somewhere else which even though there is a cost, there is a benefit, The benefit is that ability to decide which to use if needed, as well as having a backup/spare copy.

Storage I/O trends

Cloud Concerns and Confidence

As part of cloud procurement as services or products, the same proper due diligence should occur as if you were buying traditional hardware, software, networking or services. That includes checking out not only the technology, also the companies financial, business records, customer references (both good and not so good or bad ones) to gain confidence. Part of gaining that confidence also involves addressing ahead of time how you will get your data out of or back from that services if needed.

Keep in mind that if your data is very important, are you going to keep it in just one place? For example I have data backed-up as well as archived to cloud providers, however I also have local copies either on-site or off.

Likewise there is data I have local kept at alternate locations including cloud. Sure that is costly, however by not treating all of my data and applications the same, I’m able to balance those costs out, plus use cost advantages of different services as well as on-site to be effective. I may be spending no less on data protection, in fact I’m actually spending a bit more, however I also have more copies and versions of important data and in multiple locations. Data that is not changing often does not get protected as often, however there are multiple copies to meet different needs or threat risks.

Storage I/O trends

Don’t be scared of clouds, be prepared

While some of the other smaller cloud storage vendors will see some new customers, I suspect that near to mid-term, it will be the larger, more established and well funded providers that gain the most from this current situation. Granted some customers are looking for alternatives to the mega cloud providers such as Amazon, Google, HP, IBM, Microsoft and Rackspace among others, however there are a long list of others some of which who are not so well-known that should be such as Centurylink/Savvis, Verizon/Terremark, Sungurd, Dimension Data, Peak, Bluehost, Carbonite, Mozy (owned by EMC), Xerox ACS, Evault (owned by Seagate) not to mention a long list of many others.

Something to be aware of as part of doing your due diligence is determining who or what actually powers a particular cloud service. The larger providers such as Rackspace, Amazon, Microsoft, HP among others have their own infrastructure while some of the smaller service providers may in fact use one of the larger (or even smaller) providers as their real back-end. Hence understanding who is behind a particular cloud service is important to help decide the viability and stability of who it is you are subscribed to or working with.

Something that I have said for the past couple of years and a theme of my book Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Taylor & Francis) is do not be scared of clouds, however be ready, do your homework.

This also means having cloud concerns is a good thing, again don’t be scared, however find what those concerns are along with if they are major or minor. From that list you can start to decide how or if they can be worked around, as well as be prepared ahead of time should you either need all of your cloud data back quickly, or should that service become un-available.

Also when it comes to clouds, look beyond lowest cost or for free, likewise if something sounds too good to be true, perhaps it is. Instead look for value or how much do you get per what you spend including confidence in the service, service level agreements (SLA), security, and other items.

Keep in mind, only you can prevent data loss either on-site or in the cloud, granted it is a shared responsibility (With a poll).

Additional related cloud conversation items:
Cloud conversations: AWS EBS Optimized Instances
Poll: What Do You Think of IT Clouds?
Cloud conversations: Gaining cloud confidence from insights into AWS outages
Cloud conversations: confidence, certainty and confidentiality
Cloud conversation, Thanks Gartner for saying what has been said
Cloud conversations: AWS EBS, Glacier and S3 overview (Part III)
Cloud conversations: Gaining cloud confidence from insights into AWS outages (Part II)
Don’t Let Clouds Scare You – Be Prepared
Everything Is Not Equal in the Datacenter, Part 3
Amazon cloud storage options enhanced with Glacier
What do VARs and Clouds as well as MSPs have in common?
How many degrees separate you and your information?

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)

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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EMC New VNX MCx doing more storage I/O work vs. just being more

Storage I/O trends

It’s not how much you have, its how storage I/O work gets done that matters

Following last weeks VMworld event in San Francisco where among other announcements including this one around Virtual SAN (VSAN) along with Software Defined Storage (SDS), EMC today made several announcements.

Today’s EMC announcements include:

  • The new VNX MCx (Multi Core optimized) family of storage systems
  • VSPEX proven infrastructure portfolio enhancements
  • Availability of ViPR Software Defined Storage (SDS) platform (read more from earlier posts here, here and here)
  • Statement of direction preview of Project Nile for elastic cloud storage platform
  • XtremSW server cache software version 2.0 with enhanced management and support for VMware, AIX and Oracle RAC

EMC ViPREMC XtremSW cache software

Summary of the new EMC VNX MCx storage systems include:

  • More processor cores, PCIe Gen 3 (faster bus), front-end and back-end IO ports, DRAM and flash cache (as well as drives)
  • More 6Gb/s SAS back-end ports to use more storage devices (SAS and SATA flash SSD, fast HDD and high-capacity HDD)
  • MCx – Multi-core optimized with software rewritten to make use of threads and resources vs. simply using more sockets and cores at higher clock rates
  • Data Footprint Reduction (DFR) capabilities including block compression and dedupe, file dedupe and thin provisioning
  • Virtual storage pools that include flash SSD, fast HDD and high-capacity HDD
  • Block (iSCSI, FC and FCoE) and NAS file (NFS, pNFS, CIFS) front-end access with object access via Atmos Virtual Edition (VE) and ViPR
  • Entry level pricing starting at below $10,000 USD

EMC VNX MCx systems

What is this MCx stuff, is it just more hardware?

While there is more hardware that can be used in different configurations, the key or core (pun intended) around MCx is that EMC has taken the time and invested in reworking the internal software of the VNX that has its roots going back to the Data General CLARRiON EMC acquired. This is similar to an effort EMC made a few years back when it overhauled what is now known as the VMAX from the Symmetric into the DMX. That effort expanded from a platform or processor port to re-architecting and software optimizing (rewrite portions) to leverage new and emerging hardware capabilities more effectively.

EMC VNX MCx

With MCx EMC is doing something similar in that core portions of the VNX software have been re-architected and written to take advantage of more threads and cores being available to do work more effectively. This is not all that different from what occurs (or should) with upper level applications that eventually get rewritten to leverage underlying new capabilities to do more work faster and leverage technologies in a more cost-effective way. MCx also leverages flash as a primary medium with data than being moved (256MB chunks) down into lower tiers of storage (SSD and HDD drives).

Storage I/O trends

ENC VNX has had in the past FLASH Cache which enables SSD drives to be used as an extension of main cache as well as using drive targets. Thus while MCx can and does leverage more and faster core as would most any software, it is also able to leverage those cores and threads in a more effective way. After all, it’s not just how many processors, sockets, cores, threads, L1/L2 cache, DRAM, flash SSD and other resources, its how effective you use them. Also keep in mind that a bit of flash in the right place used effectively can go a long way vs. having a lot of cache in the wrong place or not used optimally that will end up costing a lot of cash.

Moving forward this means that EMC should be able to further refine and optimize other portions of the VNX software not yet updated to make further benefit of new hardware platforms and capabilities.

Does this mean EMC is catching up with newer vendors?

Similar to more of something is not always better, its how those items are used that matters, just because something is new does not mean its better or faster. That will manifest itself when they are demonstrated and performance results shown. However key is showing the performance across different workloads that have relevance to your needs and that convey metrics that matter with context.

Storage I/O trends

Context matters including type and size of work being done, number of transactions, IOPs, files or videos served, pages processed or items rendered per unit of time, or response time and latency (aka wait or think time), along with others. Thus some newer systems may be faster on paper, powerpoint, WebEx, You tube or via some benchmarks, however what is the context and how do they compare to others on an apples to apples basis.

What are some other enhancements or features?

Leveraging of FAST VP (Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools) with improved MCx software

Increases the effectiveness of available hardware resources (processors, cores, DRAM, flash, drives, ports)

Active active LUNs accessible by both controllers as well as legacy AULA support

Data sheets and other material for the new VNX MCx storage systems can be found here, with software options and bundles here, and general speeds and feeds here.

Learn more here at the EMC VNX MCx storage system landing page and compare VNX systems here.

What does then new VNX MCx family look like?

EMC VNX MCx family image

Is VNX MCx all about supporting VMware?

Interesting that if you read behind the lines, listen closely to the conversations, ask the right questions you will realize that while VMware is an important workload or environment to support, it is not the only one targeted for VNX. Likewise if you listen and look beyond what is normally amplified in various conversations you will find that systems such as VNX are being deployed as back-end storage in cloud (public, private, hybrid) environments for use with technologies such as OpenStack or object based solutions (visit www.objectstoragecenter.com for more on object storage systems and access)..

There is a common myth that the cloud and service providers all use white box commodity hardware including JBOD for their systems which some do, however some are also using systems such as VNX among others. In some of these scenarios the VNX type systems are or will be deployed in large numbers essentially consolidating the functions of what had been done by even larger number of JBOD based systems. This is where some of you will have a DejaVu or back to the future moment from the mid 90s when there was an industry movement to combine all the DAS and JBOD into larger storage systems. Don’t worry if you are not yet reading about this trend in your favorite industry rag or analyst briefing notes, however ask or look around and you might be surprised at what is occurring, granted it might be another year or two before you read about it (just saying ;).

Storage I/O trends

What that means is that VNX MCx is also well positioned for working with ViPR or Atmos Virtual Edition among other cloud and object storage stacks. VNX MCx is also well positioned for its new low-cost of entry for general purpose workloads and applications ranging from file sharing, email, web, database along with demanding high performance, low latency with large amounts of flash SSD. In addition to being used for general purpose storage, VNX MCx will also complement data protection solutions for backup/restore, BC, DR and archiving such as Data Domain, Avamar and Networker among others. Speaking of server virtualization, EMC also has tools for working with Hyper-V, Xen and KVM in addition to VMware.

If there is an all flash VNX MCx doesn’t that compete with XtremIO?

Yes there are all flash VNX MCx just as there have been all flash VNX before, however these will be positioned for different use case scenarios by EMC and their partners to avoid competing head to head with XtremIO. Thus EMC will need to be diligent in being very clear to its own sales and marketing forces as well as those of partners and customers of what to use when, where, why and how.

General thoughts and closing comments

The VNX MCx is a good set of enhancements by EMC and an example of how it’s not as important of how more you have, rather how you can use it to be more effective.

Ok, nuff said (fow 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)

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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Is more of something always better? Depends on what you are doing

Storage I/O trends

Is more always better? Depends on what you are doing

As with many things it depends, however how about some of these?

Is more better for example (among others):

  • Facebook likes
  • Twitter followers or tweets (I’m @storageio btw)
  • Google+ likes, follows and hangouts
  • More smart phone apps
  • LinkedIn connections
  • People in your circle or community
  • Photos or images per post or article
  • People working with or for you
  • Partners vs. doing more with those you have
  • People you are working for or with
  • Posts or longer posts with more in them
  • IOPs or SSD and storage performance
  • Domains under management and supported
  • GB/TB/PB/EB supported or under management
  • Mart-time jobs or a better full-time opportunity
  • Metrics vs. those that matter with context
  • Programmers to get job done (aka mythical man month)
  • Lines of code per cost vs. more reliable and tested code per cost
  • For free items and time spent managing them vs. more productivity for a nominal fee
  • Meetings for planning on what to do vs. streamline and being more productive
  • More sponsors or advertisers or underwriters vs. fewer yet more effective ones
  • Space in your booth or stand at a trade show or conference vs. using what you have more effectively
  • Copies of the same data vs. fewer yet more unique (not full though) copies of information
  • Patents in your portfolio vs. more technology and solutions being delivered
  • Processors, sockets, cores, threads vs. using them more effectively
  • Ports and protocols vs. using them more effectively

Storage I/O trends

Thus does more resources matter, or making more effective use of them?

For example more ports, protocols, processors, cores, sockets, threads, memory, cache, drives, bandwidth, people among other things is not always better, particular if those resources are not being used effectively.

Likewise don’t confuse effective with efficient often assumed to mean used.

For example a cache or memory may be 100% used (what some call efficient) yet only providing a 35% effective benefit (cache hit or miss) vs. cache turn (misses etc).

Throwing more processing power in terms of clock speed, or cores is one thing, kind of like throwing more server blades at a software problem vs. using those cores and sockets not to mention threads more effectively.

Good software will run better on fast hardware while enabling more to be done with the same or less.

Thus with better software or tools, more work can be done in an effective way leveraging those resources vs. simply throwing or applying more at the situation.

Hopefully you get the point, so no need to do more with this post (for now), if not, stay tuned and pay more attention around you.

Ok, nuff said, I need to go get more work done 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)

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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Fall 2013 Dutch cloud, virtual and storage I/O seminars

Storage I/O trends

Fall 2013 Dutch cloud, virtual and storage I/O seminars

It is that time of the year again when StorageIO will be presenting a series of seminar workshops in the Netherlands on cloud, virtual and data storage networking technologies, trends along with best practice techniques.

Brouwer Storage

StorageIO partners with the independent firm Brouwer Storage Consultancy of Holland who organizes these sessions. These sessions will also mark Brouwer Storage Consultancy celebrating ten years in business along with a long partnership with StorageIO.

Server Storage I/O Backup and Data Protection Cloud and Virtual

The fall 2013 Dutch seminars include coverage of storage I/O networking data protection and related trends topics for cloud and virtual environments. Click on the following links or images to view an abstract of the three sessions including what you will learn, who they are for, buzzwords, themes, topics and technologies that will covered.

Modernizing Data Protection
Moving Beyond Backup and Restore

Storage Industry Trends
What’s News, What’s The Buzz and Hype

Storage Decision Making
Acquisition, Deployment, Day to Day Management

Modern Data Protection
Modern Data Protection
Modern Data Protection
September 30 & October 1
October 2 2013
October 3 and 4 2013

All seminar workshop seminars are presented in a vendor technology neutral including (e.g. these are not vendor marketing sales presentations) providing independent perspectives on industry trends, who is doing what, benefits, caveats of various approaches to addressing data infrastructure and storage challenges. View posts about earlier events here and here.

Storage I/O trends

As part of theme of being vendor and technology neutral, the workshop seminars are held off-site at hotel venues in Nijkerk Netherlands so no need to worry about the sales teams coming in to sell you something during the breaks or lunch which are provided. There are also opportunities throughout the workshops for engagement, discussion and interaction with other attendees that includes your peers from various commercial, government and service providers among others.

Learn more and register for these events by visiting the Brouwer Storage Consultancy website page (here) and calling them at +31-33-246-6825 or via email info@brouwerconsultancy.com.

Storage I/O events

View other upcoming and recent StorageIO activities including live in-person, online web and recorded activities on our events page here, as well as check out our commentary and industry trends perspectives in the news here.

Bitter ballen
Ok, nuff said, I’m already hungry for bitter ballen (see above)!

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)

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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VMworld 2013 Vmware, server, storage I/O and networking update (Day 1)

Storage I/O trends

Congratulations to VMware on 10 years of VMworld!

With the largest installment yet of a VMworld in terms of attendance, there were also many announcements today (e.g. Monday) and many more slated for out the week. Here are a synopsis of some of those announcements.

Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) and Software Defined Networks (SDN)

VMware made a series of announcements today that set the stage for many others. Not surprisingly, these involved SDDC, SDN, SDS, vSphere 5.5 and other management tool enhancements, or the other SDM (Software Defined Management).

VMworld image

Here is a synopsis of what was announced by VMware.

VMware NSX (SDN) combines Nicira NVPTM along with vCloud Network and Security
VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) not to be confused with virtual storage appliances (VSAs)
VMware vCloud Suite 5.5
VMware vSphere 5.5 (includes support for new Intel Xeon and Atom processors)
VMware vSphere App HA
VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache software
VMware vSphere Big Data Extensions
VMware vCloud Automation Center
VMware vCloud

Note that while these were announced today, some will be in public beta soon and general availability over the next few months or quarters (learn more here including pricing and availability). More on these and other enhancements in future posts. However for now check out what Duncan Epping (@DuncanYB) of VMware has to say over at his Yellowbook site here, here and here.

buzzword bingo
Buzzword Bingo

Additional VMworld Software Defined Announcements

Dell did some announcements as well for cloud and virtual environments in support of VMware from networking to servers, hardware and software. With all the recent acquisitions by Dell including Quest where they picked up Foglight management tools, along with vRanger, Bakbone and others, Dell has amassed an interesting portfolio. On the hardware front, check out the VRTX shared server infrastructure, I want one for my VMware environment, now I just need to justify one (to myself). Speaking of Dell, if you are at VMworld on Tuesday August 27 around 1:30PM stop by the Dell booth where I will be presenting including announcing some new things (stay tuned for more on that soon).

HP had some announcements today. HP jumped into the SDDC and SDN with some Software Defined Marketing (SDM) and Software Defined Announcements (SDA) in addition to using the Unified Data Center theme. Today’s announcements by HP were focused more around SDN and VMware NSX along with the HP Virtual Application Networks SDN Controller and VMware networking.

NetApp (Both #1417) announced more integration between their Data ONTAP based solutions and VMware vSphere, Horizon Suite, vCenter, vCloud Automation Center and vCenter Log Insight under the them theme of SDDC and SDS. As part of the enhancement, NetApp announced Virtual Storage Console (VSC 5.0) for end-to-end storage management and software in VMware environments. In addition, integration with VMware vCenter Server 5.5. Not to be left out of the SSD flash dash NetApp also released a new V1.2 of their FlashAccel software for vSphere 5.0 and 5.1.

Storage I/O trends

Cloud, Virtualization and DCIM

Here is one that you probably have not seen or heard much about elsewhere, which is Nlyte announcement of their V1.5 Virtualization Connector for Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM). Keep in mind that DCIM is more than facilities, power, and cooling related themes, particular in virtual data centers. Thus, some of the DCIM vendors, as well as others are moving into the converged DCIM space that spans server, storage, networking, hardware, software and facilities topics.

Interested in or want to know more about DCIM, and then check out these items:
Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) and Infrastructure Resource Management (IRM)
Data Center Tools Can Streamline Computing Resources
Considerations for Asset Tracking and DCIM

Data Protection including Backup/Restore, BC, DR and Archiving

Quantum announced that Commvault has added support to use the Lattus object storage based solution as an archive target platform. You can learn more about object storage (access and architectures) here at www.objectstoragecenter.com .

PHD Virtual did a couple of data protection (backup/restore , BC, DR ) related announcements (here and here ). Speaking of backup/restore and data protection, if you are at VMworld on Tuesday August 27th around 1:30PM, stop by the Dell booth where I will be presenting, and stay tuned for more info on some things we are going to announce at that time.

In case you missed it, Imation who bought Nexsan earlier this year last week announced their new unified NST6000 series of storage systems. The NST6000 storage solutions support Fibre Channel (FC) and iSCSI for block along with NFS, CIFS/SMB and FTP for file access from virtual and physical servers.

Emulex announced some new 16Gb Fibre Channel (e.g. 16GFC) aka what Brocade wants you to refer to as Gen 5 converged and multi-port adapters. I wonder how many still remember or would rather forget how many ASIC and adapter gens from various vendors occurred just at 1Gb Fibre Channel?

Storage I/O trends

Caching and flash SSD

Proximal announced V2.0 of AutoCache 2.0 with role based administration, multi-hypervisor support (a growing trend beyond just a VMware focus) and more vCenter/vSphere integration. This is on the heels of last week’s FusionIO powered IBM Flash Cache Storage Accelerator (FCSA ) announcement, along with others such as EMC , Infinio, Intel, NetApp, Pernix, SanDisk (Flashsoft) to name a few.

Mellanox (VMworld booth #2005), you know, the Infinaband folks who also have some Ethernet (which also includes Fibre Channel over Ethernet) technology did a series of announcements today with various PCIe nand flash SSD card vendors. The common theme with the various vendors including Micron (Booth #1635) and LSI is in support of VMware virtual servers using iSER or iSCSI over RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access). RDMA or server to server direct memory access (what some of you might know as remote memory mapped IO or channel to channel C2C) enables very fast low server to server data movement such as in a VMware cluster. Check out Mellanox and their 40Gb Ethernet along with Infinaband among other solutions if you are into server, storage i/o and general networking, along with their partners. Need or want to learn more about networking with your servers and storage check out Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking and Resilient Storage Networking .

Rest assured there are many more announcements and updates to come this week, and in the weeks to follow…

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

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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Summer 2013 Server and StorageIO Update Newsletter

StorageIO 2013 Summer Newsletter

Cloud, Virtualization, SSD, Data Protection, Storage I/O

Welcome to the Summer 2013 (combined July and August) edition of the StorageIO Update (newsletter) containing trends perspectives on cloud, virtualization and data infrastructure topics.

StorageIO News Letter Image
Summer 2013 News letter

This summer has been far from quiet on the merger and acquisitions (M&E) front with Western Digital (WD) continuing its buying spree including Stec among others. There is the HDS Mid Summer Storage and Converged Compute Enhancements and EMC Evolves Enterprise Data Protection with Enhancements (Part I and Part II).

With VMworld just around the corner along with many other upcoming events, watch for more announcements to be covered in future editions and on StorageIOblog as we move into fall.

Click on the following links to view the Summer 2013 edition as (HTML sent via Email) version, or PDF versions. Visit the news letter page to view previous editions of the StorageIO Update.

You can subscribe to the news letter by clicking here

Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO Update news letter, let me know your comments and feedback.

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

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC All Rights Reserved

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Can RAID extend the life of nand flash SSD?

Storage I/O trends

Can RAID extend nand flash SSD life?

Imho, the short answer is YES, under some circumstances.

There is a myth and some FUD that RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) can shorten the life durability of nand flash SSD (Solid State Device) vs. HDD (Hard Disk Drives) due to extra IOP’s. The reality is that depending on how configured, RAID level, implementation and other factors, nand flash SSD can be extended as I discuss in this here video.

Video

Nand flash SSD cells and wear

First, there is a myth that nand flash SSD does not have moving parts like hard disk drives (HDD’s) thus do not wear out or break. That is just a myth in that nand flash by its nature wears out with write usage. This is due to how they store data in cells that have a rated number of program erase (P/E) cycles that vary by type of medium. For example, Single Level Cell (SLC) has a longer P/E life duration vs. Multi-Level Cells (MLC) and eMLC that stack multiple cells together.

There are a number of factors that contribute to nand flash wear, also known as duty cycle or durability tied to P/E. For example, some storage systems or controllers do a better job both at the lower level flash translation layer (FTL) in addition to controllers, firmware, caching using DRAM and IO optimization such as write ordering or grouping.

Now what about this RAID and SSD thing?

Ok first as a recap keep in mind that there are many RAID levels along with variations, enhancements and where, or how implemented ranging from software to hardware, adapters to controllers to storage systems.

In the case of RAID 1 or mirroring, just like replication or other one to one or one too many copy operation a write to one device is echoed to another. In the case of RAID 5, data is spread across drives and parity; however, the parity is rotated across all drives in an equal manner.

Some FUD or myths or misunderstandings come into play is that not all RAID 5 implementations as an example are not the same. Some do a better job of buffering or caching data in battery protected mirrored DRAM memory until a full stripe write can occur, or if needed, a partial write.

Another attribute is the chunk or shard size (how much data is sent to each drive member) along with the stripe width (how many drives). Some systems have narrow stripes of say 3+1 or 4+1 or 5+1 while others can be 14+1 or 15+1 or wider. Thus, data can be written across a wider number of drives reducing the P/E consumption or use of a single drive depending on implementation.

How about RAID 6 (dual parity)?

Same thing, it is a matter of how well the implementation is, how the write gathering is done and so forth.

What about RAID wearing out nand flash SSD?

While it is possible that it has or can occur depending on type of RAID implementation, lack of caching or optimization, configuration, type of SSD, RAID level and other things, in general I will say myth busted.

Want some proof?

I could go through a long technical proof point and citing lots of facts, figures, experts and so forth leaving you all silenced and dazed similar to the students listening to Ben Stein in Ferris Buelers day off (Click here to see what I mean) asking “anybody anybody Buleler?

Ben Stein via https://nostagjicmoviesandthings.blogspot.com
Image via nostagjicmoviesandthings.blogspot.com

How about some simple SSD and storage math?

On a very conservative basis, my estimate is that around 250PB of nand flash SSD drives are shipped and installed on a revenue basis attached to or in storage systems and appliances. Combine what Dell + DotHill + EMC + Fujitsu + HDS + HP + IBM (including TMS) + NEC + NetApp + NEC + Oracle among other legacy along with new all flash as well as hybrid vendors (e.g. Cloudbyte, FusionIO (Via their Nexgen acquisition), Kaminario, Greenbytes, Nutanix or Nimble, Purestorage, Starboard or Solidfire, Tegile or Tintri, Violin or Whiptail among others).

It is also a safe assumption based on how customers configure and use those and other storage systems is with some form of RAID. Thus if things were as bad as some researchers were, vendors and their pundits have made them out to be, wouldn’t’t we be hearing of those issues?

Is it just a RAID 5 problem and that RAID 6 magically corrects the problem?

Well, that depends on apples to apples vs. apples to oranges comparisons.

For example if you are using a 14+2 (16 drive) RAID 6 to compare to say a 3+1 (4 drive) RAID 5 that is not a fair comparison. Granted, it is a handy one if you are a vendor that supports wider RAID groups, stripes and ranks vs. those who do not. However also keep in mind that some legacy vendors actually also support wide stripes and RAID groups.

So in some cases the magic is not in the RAID level, rather the implementation or how configured or lack thereof.

Video

Watch this TechTarget produced video recorded live while I was at EMCworld 2013 to learn more.

Otherwise, 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

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