Performance Support

Storage: Storage Virtualization

Transcript
In this discussion we'll cover storage virtualization. What is it and how does it work? But first lets get some basics out of the way that kind of set the stage for storage virtualization. From a high level most enter!rise class storage systems are much more than a bunch of s!inning disks. "hey ty!ically use s!ecialized hardware and software in order to !rovide very fast and reliable storage. "his is great but storage systems are generally com!le#. In fact as we see in the diagram here they can be thought of as s!ecial !ur!ose com!uters themselves designed to !rovide storage ca!acity and advanced data !rotection features. "his is accom!lished by layering the com!uter or the storage !rocessors together on to! of the disks. "his is the hardware and this is where the s!ecialized software resides. "ruth is the disk drives themselves really only !rovide one of the many elements within a storage system. "his diagram de!icts the most basic storage virtualization all contained within a single storage system. $torage virtualization is the abstraction layer that resides between the !hysical storage and the host com!uter system that accesses that storage. $torage virtualization masks the !hysical storage systems and the related com!le#ities from the host com!uter systems. In a broader sense consider an e#tra layer of hardware and software that resides over two or more storage systems to virtualize the storage even further. "his is accom!lished either in the hardware itself or in added software that resides between the !hysical storage and the hosts in the storage !rocessors or $%s. When discussing storage virtualization one of the main benefits often mentioned is a reduced administrative overhead. "his is true in some cases but not always. &et me e#!lain. When using storage virtualization all of the same administrative tasks are still re'uired the same tasks as would be needed without storage virtualization. (reating logical units assigning them to servers configuring the access monitoring the !erformance et cetera. $o where do we reduce administrative effort? "his is mainly accom!lished in the mi#ed storage environment. If you have several ty!es of storage from different vendors or even different versions and different models those administrative tasks can be carried out 'uite differently across all of those storage systems and that adds a lot of effort. $ince the virtualization console masks the storage in the back end administrative tasks and res!onsibilities are at least conducted via single consolidated console and the methods are then standardized. "his is has been an overview of storage virtualization. "hanks for watching.

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