UNIT - IV STORAGE MANAGEMENT 11 Hrs

3 Hrs
4.1 Storage Network: Architecture of storage, analysis and planning. Storage network
design considerations;
4 Hrs
4.2 NAS and FC SANs, hybrid storage networking technologies (ISCSI, FCIP, FCoE), design
for storage virtualization in cloud computing,
4 Hrs
4.3 File systems or object storage.

UNIT – IV
STORAGE MANAGEMENT

1) Define storage Network?

A storage area network is a high speed network, that provides block level network access to storage. It
consists of hosts, switches, storage elements and storage devices that are interconnected using a variety
of technologies, topologies and protocols.
The main functions of a storage area network (SAN) includes the following.
 A high-speed network of storage devices.
 Connects the storage devices with servers.
 Can be accessed by applications on networked servers.
 Particularly helpful in backup and disaster recovery.
 Offers flexibility, availability and performance.
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2) Explain the architecture of storage network?
A SAN generally consists of three core components
 SAN interfaces.
 SAN interconnects
 SAN fabric

SAN interfaces:
Interfaces allow to be accessed externally and have the ability to host shared storage
configurations for interconnection.SAN interface come in a number of different flavors:
 ESCON(Enterprise System Connection)
 SCSI(Small Computer Systems Interface),SSA(Serial Storage Architecture)
 HIPPI(High Performance Parallel Interface)
 Fibre Channel
 I-SCSI(Internet Small Computer Systems Interface)
 Gigabit Ethernet
 FCIP(Fibre Channel Over Internet Protocol)
 IFCP(Internet Fibre Channel Protocol)

SAN Interconnects:
 Interconnects are devices such as Hubs, Routers, Gateways and switches, and Host Bus
Adapters.SAN interconnects join storage interfaces into many network configurations and across great
distances.

SAN Fabric:
Switched fabric, Switched fiber are common SAN fabrics. SANs can be shared or
dedicates local or remote and central storage. The following diagram is an example of a SAN application
taken from Business Communications.

Fig: 4.1: Architecture of storage area network

Typically SAN architecture defines:

 Pool storage used and how it is shared in between different servers or computers
connected via the network.
 Type of network or data transmission connection used between the key SAN
infrastructure and all connecting nodes.
 Placement of data depending upon the type of SAN architecture or topology.
 Type of SAN topology being used.
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3) How will you analysis, planning and design a storage area network?
Analysis and planning:
In cloud computing, the business requirements are mandatory to consider before deploying the
applications to cloud.
 Data Security and privacy requirement
 Budget requirements
 Data backup, training
 Type of cloud i.e public, private or hybrid
 Dashboard and reporting requirements
 Client access requirements
 Data export requirements
To achieve these, well-compiled planning is required.

Phases of planning:
There are three types of phases:
1. Strategy phase
2. Planning phase
Deployment phase

1. Strategy Planning:
This phase analyze the strategy problems that customer might face. There are two steps to perform this
analysis:
i)Cloud Computing Value Proposition:
In this, examine the factors affecting the customers while applying the cloud computing mode. Target
the key problems they want to solve. The key factors are:
 IT management simplification
 Operation and maintenance cost reduction
 Business mode innovation
 Low cost outsourcing hosting
 High service quality outsourcing hosting
All of the above analysis helps in decision making for future development.
ii)Cloud Computing Strategy Planning:
The strategy establishment is based on the analysis result of the above step. In this step, a strategy
document is prepared according to the conditions a customer might face when applying cloud
computing mode.

2. Planning phase:
This step performs analysis of problems and risks in the cloud application to ensure the customers that
the cloud computing is successfully meeting their business goals. This phase involves the following
planning steps:
 Business Architecture Development
 IT Architecture development
 Requirements on Quality of Service Development
 Transformation Plan development

3. Deployment Phase:
This phase focuses on both of the above two phases. It involves the following two steps:
Selecting Cloud Computing Provider:
This step includes selecting a cloud provider on basis of Service Level Agreement (SLA), which defines
the level of service the provider will meet.
Maintenance and Technical Service:
Maintenance and Technical services are provided by the cloud provider. They need to ensure the
quality of services.

Storage network design considerations:

The best storage area network design for a customer will take into consideration a number of critical
issues:
 Uptime and availability
 Capacity and scalability
 Security
 Replication and disaster recovery
i)Uptime and availability:
In a typical storage area network design, each storage device connects to a switch that then connects to
the servers that need to access the data. To make sure this path isn't a point of failure, the client should
buy two switches for the SAN network. Each storage unit should connect to both switches, as should
each server.
ii)Capacity and scalability:
A good storage area network design should not only accommodate the client's current storage needs,
but it should also be scalable so that the client can upgrade the SAN as needed throughout the expected
lifespan of the system.
Because a SAN's switch connects storage devices on one side and servers on the other, its number of
ports can affect both storage capacity and speed.
iii)Security:
The security plays an important role in a storage area network design. Most of this security work is
done at the SAN's switch level.
iv)Replication and disaster recovery:
With so much data stored on a SAN, the client wants to build disaster recovery into the system. SANs
can be set up to automatically mirror data to another site, which could be a failsafe SAN a disaster
recovery (DR) site hundreds or thousands of miles away.
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Briefly explain NAS in detail?
Network-attached storage (NAS) is a type of dedicated file storage device that provides local area
network(LAN) nodes with file-based shared storage through a standard Ethernet connection.
 Fig:4.2.:Network Attached Storage

NAS is specialized for serving files either by its hardware, software, or configuration. Serving files
include faster data access, easier administration and simple configuration.
Benefits:
 Simple to operate, a dedicated IT professional is often not required
 Lower cost
 Easy to use for back up of data, so it’s always accessible when you need it
 Good at centralizing data storage in a safe, reliable way
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5) Briefly explain FC SAN in detail?
Fiber Channel (FC) is a high speed serial interface for connecting computers and storage systems.
A fiber channel storage area network (FC SAN) is a system that enables multiple servers to access
network storage devices. A storage area network enables high performance data transmission between
multiple storage devices and servers.
 Fig: 4.3: FCSAN
It is an open, high-speed serial interface for interconnecting servers to storage devices (discs, tape
libraries or CD jukeboxes) or servers to servers.
FC has large addressing capabilities. Similar to SCSI, each device receives a number on the channel.
The Fiber Channel can be fully meshed providing excellent redundancy. FC can operate at the following
speeds: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 Gb/s with 8Gb/s to 16 Gb/s currently being predominant.
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6) Explain the hybrid storage networking technologies (ISCSI, FCIP and FCoE)?
It is a technology for transmitting data between computer devices and servers at data rate up to
20gbps and more.

ISCSI:
 Internet Small Computer Systems Interface is an Internet Protocol (IP)-based storage
networking standard for linking data storage facilities.
 ISCSI is used to facilitate data transfers over intranets and to manage storage over long
distances.

How ISCSI works:

 ISCSI works by transporting block-level data between an ISCSI initiator on a server and an ISCSI
target on a storage device.
 The ISCSI protocol encapsulates SCSI commands and assembles the data in packets for the
TCP/IP layer.
 Packets are sent over the network using a point-to-point connection. Upon arrival, the ISCSI
protocol disassembles the packets, separating the SCSI commands so the operating system will see the
storage as a local SCSI device that can be formatted as usual.
 Fig 4.4:ISCSI

FCIP:
 Fiber channel over IP (FCIP) is an important technology for linking Fiber channel storage area
networks (SAN)
 It is developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
 It enables the transmission of fiber channel information by tunneling data between SAN and IP
network.
 It shares the data over geographically distributed enterprise.
 It is enabling interconnection of remote locations.
 It control data frames between switches.
 Fig:4.5:FCIP
FCoE:
 It is the technology that encapsulates fiber channel frames over Ethernet networks for
protecting a data frames.
 This allows fiber channel to use high speed network for preserve the fiber channel protocol for
establish a secure remote connection.
 FCoE is majorly operated in data centers. Commonly in data centers Ethernet for TCP/IP
network and fiber channel for SAN.

Fig:4.6:FCoE
Benefits:
 Support any traffic type with agility
 Reduce number of adaptors, cables and network devices
 Simplify management and reduced cost.
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7) Explain the design for storage virtualization in cloud computing?
Storage virtualization techniques are commonly used in a storage area network (SAN), but are also
applicable to large-scale NAS environments where there are multiple NAS filers.
There are two primary types of virtualization that can occur:
1. Block level storage virtualization
2. File level storage virtualization

1. Block level storage virtualization:

 Block level storage virtualization is a storage service that provides a flexible, logical
arrangement of storage capacity to applications
 Virtualization enables administrators to provide the storage capacity when and where it’s
needed while isolating users from the potentially disruptive details of expansion, data protection and
system maintenance.

Fig: 4.7: Block level storage virtualization

2. File level storage virtualization:

 File level storage can be defined as a centralized location, to store files and folders. These files
systems are Network attached and so form a platform for Network Attached Storage.
 This level of storage requires file level protocols (computer communication language) like NFS
presented by Linux and VMware and SMB/CIFS which is presented by Windows.
 Fig:4.8: File level storage virtualization
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8) Explain the concept of file storage or object storage?

Object storage (also known as object-based storage) is a computer data storage
architecture that manages data as objects
Object storage can be implemented at multiple levels, including the device level, the system level, and
the interface level.
Object storage systems allow retention of massive amounts of unstructured data such as music, image
and video files.
Object storage is used for purposes such as storing photos on Facebook, songs on Spotify, or files in
online collaboration services, such as Dropbox.
The majority of cloud storage available in the market uses the object storage architecture. For example
Amazon Web Services S3, Rackspace Files. Other major cloud storage services include IBM Bluemix,
Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Storage etc.,
Characteristics of Object Storage:
 Performs best for big content and high storage throughput
 Data can be stored across multiple regions
 Scales infinitely to Petabytes (bigger than terabyte) and beyond
 Customizable metadata, not limited to number of tags
Advantages:
 Scalable capacity
 Scalable performance
 Durable
 Low cost
 Simplified management
 Single Access Point
 No volumes to manage/resize/etc.
Disadvantages:
 No random access to files
 The Application Programming Interface (API), along with command line shells and utility
interfaces do not work directly with object-storage
 Integration may require modification of application and workflow logic
 Typically, lower performance on a per-object basis than block storage
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