EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 2008 Book of Abstracts

Knowledge Sharing
An EMC Proven™ Professional Publication
2008 Book of Abstracts

Knowledge Sharing Winners 2007Awards:
Frank Hauck, Executive Vice President, Global Thank You!
Marketing and Customer Quality (center) and
Alok Shrivastava, Senior Director, Educa- Thank you to all the EMC® Proven Professionals who took the time to share
tion Services present awards at EMC World,
Orlando to (from left) Venugopal Reddy, Bryan their knowledge, expertise, best practices, and case studies with the broader
Horton, Fernando Moreno Liso, Paul Bryant,
and Charlene Giza (on behalf of Barry Nelson). IT community. Once again, employees, partners and customers from diverse
areas including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States took the time to
share their knowledge, expertise, and best practices.

Starting this year, we have opened access to these valuable articles so you
can learn from our community of EMC Proven™ Professionals. If you’d like to
read the 2007 EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing articles, you can
find them at http://education.EMC.com/knowledgesharing. The 2008 articles
will be released on a monthly basis, with the winning articles posted immedi-
ately after EMC World.

We thank each of you who submitted a Knowledge Sharing article and
congratulate you on your passion for excellence.

Tom Clancy Alok Shrivastava
Vice-President Sr. Director
EMC Education Services EMC Education Services

3

Table of Contents
Relevant Industry Topics
Crossing the Great Divide in Going Green: Challenges and Best Practices in
Deploying Next- Generation IT Equipment, Paul Brant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Impact of Web 2.0/Web 3.0/Social Networking Tools on an Organization’s
IT Research and Development, Charanya Hariharan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Is ITIL® the Explosive Formula that Will Make EMC2 = 1 EMC?, Bartley Corbin . . . . . . . . . . 10

Leveraging EMC Open Replicator for Online Symmetrix® Migration
Virtually Eliminates Downtime for MS Cluster File Server
Migration to VMware ESX 3.0, Brian Russell and Michael Aldo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Service-Oriented Architecture with D6, Pawan Kumar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

CLARiiON®
Automated Balancing of I/O Loads across I/O Paths in an ESX Server
3.x and CLARiiON® Environment, Andre Rossouw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

CLARiiON® CLI Administration and Ruby: A Powerful Combination,
Wagner Ikeda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Transitioning from Implementation to Operations in a CLARiiON®
Environment: Practical Guidance, Timothy Gibbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Symmetrix®
Creating EMC Symmetrix® Baseline Performance Reports, Charles Macdonald. . . . . . . . . 17

Get to Know Your Symmetrix®, Alastair Adamson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Mainframe SRDF/A MSC Troubleshooting Guide, Michael Smialek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Solutions Enabler and its SYMAPI Force: A Pioneer in a Remote
Software Revolution, Ramiro Canovas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Using Symmetrix® Access Controls (SymACL) to Prevent Unwanted
Configuration Changes and Information Disclosure, Jurjen Oskam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Visual Basic Program: Creating Relevant Scripts, Tasks, and Logs
Server-based EMC Open Replicator Migration Push and Pull
from Symmetrix® to Symmetrix DMX™, Wolfgang Graf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4 EMC Proven Professional: Knowledge Sharing 2008

Table of Contents (Continued)
NAS
Best Practice: Deploying NAS Health Check Automation, Cheol Jang. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Mass Transit and the Evolution of File Virtualization: A Guide to
Understanding EMC Rainfinity®, Craig Kensey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Multi-Protocol File System (MPFS) Applied Example,
Ayyaswamy Thangavel and Edward Chew. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Using VMware and Celerra® Simulator as Training Tools, Andrew Harrington. . . . . . . . . . . 27

SAN
Best Practices, Strategies, and Benefits of Consolidating Multiple Island
SANs (SAN Consolidation Project), Kofi Ampofo Boadi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Best Practice: Interopmode/ISL and Troubleshooting FSPF/VSAN and
DOMAINS in Cisco MDS Environments, Sanjay Sood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Brocade Fiber Channel over Internet Protocol (FCIP) EMC Complementary
Technology Overview, Joseph Holbrook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Block-Level Virtualization Technologies: How they Fit in Your Environment,
Guy Dierckx. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Reconfiguring Fibre Channel-Attached Disk Storage Devices in Solaris Servers,
Diedrich Ehlerding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

SAN Backups Optimization Based on the SSLP Algorithm, Krasimir Miloshev. . . . . . . . . . . 35

Storage Solutions Case Studies
A Pre-Sales Engineers’ Guide to Comparing Alternative Storage Proposals:
Comparing Apples to Oranges to Bricks, Bruce Yellin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Case Study: Consolidating Three Companies’ Data Systems into a
Unified Storage Environment Leveraging EMC’s CLARiiON®, Celerra®,
and Centera® Platforms, Christopher Johnson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Developing an Enterprise Solution to Support High Availability and Disaster
Recovery for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in a Virtualized Environment,
Douglas Collimore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Genesis of a Disaster Recovery Solution, Lalit Mohan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Site Implementation Guide (SIG), Alexandre Zancope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

5

Table of Contents (Continued)
Backup, Recovery and Archive
Archiving Cries for a Holistic Architecture, Paul Kingston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Best Practices for Legato NetWorker® and Firewalls, Pascal De Cock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Best Practice: Proactive EMC Centera® Monitoring, Holger Jakob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Designing and Implementing an Effective Backup Solution,
Anuj Mediratta and Neeraj Mediratta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

NetWorker® and EDL Capacity on Demand Library Virtualization Challenges,
Erico Silva. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

The views, processes, or methodologies published in this compilation are thoses of the authors. They do not
necessarily reflect EMC Corporation’s views, processes, or methodologies.


Crossing the Great Divide in Going Green:
Challenges and Best Practices in Deploying
Next-Generation IT Equipment
Paul Brant, Senior Technology Consultant
EMC Corporation, United States

Computing technologies are becoming increasingly powerful and power hungry. While the
enhanced capabilities of new server, storage, and networking equipment deliver bottom-
line results, new equipment can stress the power and cooling infrastructure of the data
center and utility companies. This can create a range of potential demands:

• Data centers may not be able accommodate new equipment due to power and cooling
capacity limitations or space.
• Data centers may have hot spots that cause reliability issues.
• Data center power and cooling costs are increasing.
• ompanies may have committed to reduce their carbon footprint, but increasing data
C
center power demands make it an elusive goal.

Each generation of IT equipment requires more power and cooling per unit of space, but
delivers more computing power, capacity, and information management potential per
unit of applied energy. The alignment of new information management solutions that
are properly configured and utilized can help the enterprise and small-to-medium-size
businesses (SMBs) to do more with less equipment and to reclaim power and cooling
for the data center.

The ability to see the big picture, define best practices, and adopt a holistic approach to
next-generation information and power management technologies are our greatest
challenges. Improving data center efficiencies involves virtualization, consolidation, and
new storage technologies used in ways that best address the “divide” of power and
cooling requirements and the need for information management growth.

In summary, this article will offer best-practice solutions in our quest to cross this great
“Green” divide.

7

Impact of Web 2.0 /Web 3.0/ Social
Networking Tools on an Organization’s IT
Research and Development
Charanya Hariharan
Pennsylvania State University, United States

“Web 2.0” is the aggregate of recent trends in Internet technology and business models.
“Enterprise Web 2.0” is the enterprises’ application of these Web 2.0 practices, technologies,
products, and services for their own gain.

Web 2.0 generates greater user participation, promotes openness, offers lightweight
processes and technology, and decentralizes development, deployment, and operations.
Two major movements drive the inevitability of EW 2.0’s processes and business model:

1. Changing demographics include the behaviors of “digital natives” who have grown up with
the Web and with advanced digital technologies.

2. Consumerization is the phenomenon by which consumer technologies and behaviors drive
innovation in IT products and practices.

The popularity of Web 2.0/social networking tools is just not in the wikis, blogs, and tagging
technologies that they use, but rather in the way that they enable end users to create, edit,
and classify content, and allow people to connect with others. Over time, user-generated
content and semantic links lock users into a site more tightly than proprietary technology
platforms.

For example, “Web Content Management” (WCM) is a knowledge-sharing and management
strategy that originated from the magic word, “Web 2.0.” WCM helps knowledge workers and
RD gather information that sits outside the enterprise. Tagging this information to a
knowledgebase can be very important to future design work.

Web 2.0 for enterprises offers big rewards. They include committed customers, more productive
employees, and empowered communities that increase the rate of innovation around corporate
assets such as products and historical data.

Key Research Questions
1. Are research and development units within organizations using Web 2.0/Web 3.0/social
networking technologies? In what way? In pursuit of what goals?

2. How are the work practices of these research and development units changing as a result
of using these technologies? Are these changes the result of a grassroots (bottoms-up)
movement, or an organizational mandate? Are these in conflict?


Research Approach
Sources: There is little archived academic literature devoted to this topic. Instead, our literature
review will draw on white papers, blogs, academic and practitioner conference presentations,
and case studies. In addition, we will review contemporary research literature that describes
and analyzes these technologies.

Survey: Conduct a study within EMC to measure the effectiveness of the existing Web 2.0
collaboration tools and determine where certain tools are more/less effective. We will also
explore which research and development units within EMC could benefit from incorporating
the existing Web 2.0/3.0 tools, as well as the possible causes of ineffective usage of the
tools where they are currently employed.

9

Is ITIL® the Explosive Formula that Will
Make EMC2 = 1 EMC?
Bartley Corbin, Infrastructure Consulting Services

The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is the explosive de facto standard for IT service management
that will transform the way we provide IT services to the business over the next decade. ITIL
service is the gateway to information lifecycle management. So, how does it all fit together,
how does it affect you, and how do you prepare to become a capable contributor in the
coming evolution?

ITIL facilitates the development of consultative infrastructure solutions that logically flow
from error to resolution. The ITIL philosophy has evolved from a purely process-driven
approach to a more services-centric focus. It now considers service management as a number
of closely related, highly integrated processes. These processes must optimize people
and products effectively, efficiently and economically to deliver high quality, innovative, and
business-aligned IT services to realize service management’s key objectives.

This brings us to aligning the infrastructure to business needs. ITIL states that we should, but
does not provide the prescriptive remedy to implement. Thus, it falls short of some expectations.
EMC delivers information lifecycle management to fill this gap. ITIL eliminates the “silos of
power” and provides the glue by which the infrastructure/EMC can now act as one.

The cornerstone to any assessment is the performance of a baseline. However, the baseline
quickly becomes outdated without change management to make a request for change (RFC).
What is the solution? EMC provides infrastructure mapping through automated tools, and ITIL
provides the necessary framework to maintain and improve the current and future state of
the infrastructure through a configuration management process.

Why do we baseline? A current state assessment answers the question, “Where are we now?”
Implementing service management explains that we must first understand where we are while
maintaining a clear vision of where we want to be. This is commonly called a gap analysis
without a clear understanding of where it fits into the ITIL framework.

EMC provides a service catalog offering through its Infrastructure Consulting Services. This is
significant because now we are answering the other two questions within the process
improvement model, “How do we get where we want to be?” and “How do we know we have
arrived?” Therefore, implementing IT service management is actually a process improvement
activity that re-engineers the architecture and aligns applications based on the service-level
agreements and service offerings defined in the service catalog. Customers can now order
what they want, much like they would order from a menu in a restaurant.

The EMC edge as an information infrastructure solutions provider delivers state of the art
tools and technology as well as a repeatable methodology based on best practices. The
purpose of this article is to provide an effective and efficient roadmap for success from ITIL to ILM.


Leveraging EMC Open Replicator for Online
Symmetrix® Migration Virtually Eliminates Downtime
for MS Cluster File Server Migration to VMware ESX 3.0
Brian Russell and Michael Aldo
A Leading Healthcare Provider, United States

We would like to share a real-world challenge and solution. Our mission was to complete
a large file server cluster migration into a virtualized server environment combined with a
storage array hardware refresh.

We are a Symmetrix shop with a growing VMware infrastructure. The Storage Team has
adopted a rolling hardware refresh strategy. Every year, we replace the oldest storage
array (EMC Symmetrix DMX-3000) which allows us to introduce newer technology (EMC
Symmetrix DMX-3). This hardware refresh requires that all hosts are migrated off the
four-year old disk array over to the new disk array. Four Microsoft Cluster File Servers (8
nodes) connecting to 16 TB of protected storage are included in these hosts.

Simultaneously, the Wintel Team has a similar hardware refresh strategy requiring them to
replace the Microsoft Cluster Fileservers that are going out of maintenance. Due to the
complexity and the increased business reliance on the environment, the team had to develop
with an approach that yielded minimal downtime and a quick rollback timeline. We decided
to migrate the File Clusters to the existing VMware infrastructure along with presenting new
DMX-3 storage to these virtual hosts. Open Replicator copied the file server data to the
new storage array.

In this article, we will document how we combined multiple supported solutions from
EMC, VMware, and Microsoft to facilitate our two concurrent migrations. The fact that
we experienced virtually no downtime during migration was one of the most exciting
outcomes of our approach.

Storage and server administrators seem to be very interested in replication technology
and virtualization. The combination of the two topics and desirable outcome discussed
in this article should prove helpful to anyone considering a migration into a virtualized
server environment.

11

Service-Oriented Architecture with D6
Pawan Kumar
doQuent, United States

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) facilitates the composition of loosely-coupled services
into new services and applications. To achieve success, SOA should deliver business as
well as technical agility. In other words, SOA needs to serve business goals other than the
standard “potential cost reduction via technical changes.”

This article takes a real-life business goal and shows the reader how to translate that goal
into an SOA solution, including a key service provided by D6 (EMC Documentum version 6).
While the paper is technical in nature, it serves as well to emphasize the business drivers
and context when pursuing technical initiatives.

Even as SOA is becoming a mainstream approach, enterprise content management (ECM)
has already become a key piece of the enterprise infrastructure jigsaw puzzle. Gartner has
forecasted a 12 percent annual growth in ECM software revenues for the next three years
based on the explosive growth of global content. EMC Documentum has been a leading
player in the ECM space and it should come as no surprise that SOA has been adopted as
one of the core principles in D6.

D6 provides Documentum Foundation Services (DFS) for plugging Documentum into an SOA
solution. As you might expect, the majority of documentation and articles about D6 and
SOA have focused on DFS features. While these features are essential for using Documentum
in an SOA solution, they need another complementary capability for completing the SOA
picture—orchestration of services for composing new services or applications.

Consider a scenario where one business goal is to reduce days sales outstanding (DSO).
The customer defines this as the average collection period of account receivables measured
over a time period (typically quarterly or yearly). A large DSO value means that it takes longer
for the business to collect payments.

Your process analysis reveals that invoice presentment and payment are the prime activities
targeted for improvement. This article describes an SOA-based implementation of an Invoice
Presentment and Payment Application. In this application, Documentum is used to manage
relevant documents such as invoices and payment receipts.

The article also illustrates the following key aspects of such a solution:

• Using DFS for creating content-oriented services
• Orchestration of services in SOA for composing applications or other services
• Real-life concerns

This article explores the implementation of a real-life business scenario via an SOA solution
which includes Documentum as a key component.


Automated Balancing of I/O Loads across
I/O Paths in an ESX Server 3.x and
CLARiiON® Environment
Andre Rossouw

The multi-pathing software built into ESX Server 3.x allows path failover if a CLARiiON SP port,
an HBA, or a switch port fails. This failover is automated and requires little to no configuration.

CLARiiON storage systems are classified as active/passive systems for failover purposes,
and must use a most-recently used (MRU) failover policy. An I/O path will be used for
I/O until it fails, or until administrative changes are made to the multi-path configuration.
Operations such as CLARiiON non-disruptive upgrades (NDUs), or CLARiiON SP failures will
cause all LUNs to be trespassed to a single SP. They will not fail back to their default owner
after the NDU completes due to the nature of the MRU policy. LUNs may be trespassed back
to their default owning SP fairly easily, but may still be accessed across a single I/O path.

Neither EMC nor VMware have tools or utilities to simplify load sharing across paths. EMC
PowerPath® is not available for the ESX Server platform, and will likely not become available
for this platform in the foreseeable future. ESX Server 3.x does not support asymmetric LUN
access (ALUA); support is not expected until late 2008.

This article investigates methods that may be used to statically balance LUNs across SPs
after an event such as an NDU. It also investigates balancing LUNs across I/O paths based
on the amount of I/O being carried across the paths. An administrator can perform this
balancing manually, but it is time-consuming, tedious, and potentially risky.

A solution to automate these operations ensures near-optimal load balancing in a reasonable
time, while minimizing the risk caused by manually manipulating I/O paths. It can be scripted
in a number of programming languages; this solution will use Perl.

Perl was chosen because of its ease of use, powerful text-handling capability, and availability
on the ESX Server 3.x platform. We make extensive use of ESX Server 3.x commands and
Navisphere® secure CLI commands to obtain the raw information used to determine how I/O
paths should be balanced.

Code snippets will be used to demonstrate how to accomplish specific aspects of the balancing
operation. These code snippets may be incorporated into scripts that perform other useful
functions, such as mapping CLARiiON LUNs to a specific VM. The output reports of successful
script runs will demonstrate the effectiveness of the load balancing.

13

CLARiiON® CLI Administration and Ruby:
A Powerful Combination
Wagner Ikeda, Infrastructure Specialist
Electronic Data Systems, Brazil

The EMC CLARiiON command-line interface (CLI) implements a complete set of commands to
query and modify the configuration of a CLARiiON system. However, I found that a high-level
component was necessary to improve the process. The two primary problems I wanted to solve:

1. From time to time, we need to document the current configuration of a CLARiiON. That is
not a problem if it is already under ongoing support. But sometimes we need to validate
the documentation of a CLARiiON that we never touched; this process can consume a great
deal of time.

We use an Excel spreadsheet to consolidate many of the configuration details. The process
relies on a set of scripts to collect configuration data and generate comma-separated values
(CSV) files. Then, we open the Excel file, cut and paste some data, format it manually, create
formulas, and after some time, we produce the final document. This process clearly needed
improvement.

2. It is possible to write scripts that make queries about the configuration or the status of
a CLARiiON. But sometimes we need to make more complex queries interactively and cannot
afford the time to rewrite scripts. For example, what if I need to list all the LUNs assigned
to host ORASRV1, where the RAID level is 1+0 and the number of spindles is greater than 5?

After researching and testing, I chose the Ruby Programming Language [1] to implement
improvements. Ruby is a high-level, object-oriented scripting language whose primary
advantages are its:

• comprehensive syntax
• ease of use (assuming previous programming experience)
• many libraries available in the public domain

Remember the first problem that was resolved by using Excel spreadsheets? “…sometimes
we need to validate the documentation of a CLARiiON that we have never touched, and this
process can consume a great deal of time.”

We implemented classes to:

• Collect configuration data from a CLARiiON
• Process the configuration data
• Input the data automatically to an Excel window
• Format the data in the Excel window


For the second problem involving more complex queries, the same classes implemented
before to retrieve configuration parameters from a CLARiiON were used. Then, the data
generated by these classes was used by another set of classes which are pre-loaded in the
Interactive Ruby Shell (irb) [2], allowing the administrator to compose complex queries.

With this setup, it is possible to make the query mentioned above in Ruby:

irb(main):006:0 CX700A2.storagegroup(ORASRV1).raidlevel(10).spindles_gt(5)

= [“LUN380”, “LUN777”, “LUN767”,”LUN340”]

The objective of this article is to describe how these two problems were solved, and focus
on CLARiiON administration using NaviCLI. Please note, however, that these ideas can be
used with Symmetrix® systems.

References

[1] http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/
[2] http://ruby.about.com/od/learnruby/p/hello_irb.htm

15

Transitioning from Implementation to
Operations in a CLARiiON® Environment:
Practical Guidance
Timothy Gibbs, Sr. Systems Engineer
SyCom Technologies, United States

Transitioning the environment to a well-managed operation is one of the most obvious facets of
any new implementation. In theory, this transition should be just another well-planned task in
the project, but in reality it is more often an afterthought. If that isn’t bad enough, customers
often think of it well after the project has been labeled a success, and the implementation team
has exited.

There are both independent and interdependent aspects that must be considered in each
implementation ranging from the storage arrays to the switches and attached hosts. From the
most mundane configuration details to the everyday administrative tasks, these have a direct
impact on the ability to sufficiently support and maintain a storage area network (SAN).

The storage area network has evolved into a dynamic environment with the introduction and
adoption of technologies such as multi-protocol storage arrays, and server and storage
virtualization. Many organizations have remained current with technology, but have either
maintained staffing levels or fallen behind. These organizations are at risk since they lack the
minimal operational foundations to properly support and maintain their storage area network.

This article is a practical guide to transitioning during a new implementation with an
emphasis on CLARiiON environments. It is intended to provide a baseline that you can
build upon. Technical staff in existing environments will find this guidance useful when
assessing their operational capability.

This article will pose relevant considerations including:

• What resources are currently available
• What is practical from a documentation perspective
• What are the most relevant administrative tasks you need to know
• What is practical from a best-practice perspective
• What are the most common technical pitfalls

Implementing a new storage area network can be an exciting and challenging project for any
organization. In fact, the project is usually closed before the continued operation is properly
addressed. This article will provide practical guidance to properly support and maintain a
storage area network that can be implemented immediately.


Creating EMC Symmetrix® Baseline
Performance Reports
Charles Macdonald, SAN Specialist
TELUS, Canada

We must collect and analyze historical performance data, anticipate growth, and detect
potential problem areas before they significantly impact the environment in order to
effectively manage storage. To extrapolate growth, we compare current performance to past
performance; to determine the impact of changes in the storage environment, we compare
current data to historical data.

Both of these functions require us to correct and manipulate historical data to provide an
accurate baseline for analysis. Baseline data is generally a collection of values collected over
a reasonably large sample, and then averaged.

In addition to averages, we often include a measure of variance. EMC Performance Manager
provides “maximum values,” but does not provide other measures of variance. However,
we can leverage the Performance Manager CLI (pmcli.exe) to produce customized, automated
reports that utilize additional measures of variance.

This article explains how to:

• select statistics we should use in a general purpose Symmetrix baseline collection
• determine the standard deviation as a measure of variance for the baseline
• leverage the EMC Performance Manager CLI (pmcli.exe) to extract performance statistics
for the baseline
• automate the creation of the baseline using commonly available tools

While the article focuses on Symmetrix, the techniques we will discuss can easily be adapted
for other Performance Manager objects or for Navisphere® Analyzer.

17

Get to Know Your Symmetrix®
Alastair Adamson, SAN and Storage Architect
European Commission, Luxembourg

Each member of your team who is responsible for SAN and storage in your company must
know a great deal about the EMC Symmetrix and Symmetrix DMX disk arrays. For example,
you must know how they are configured and currently used, the number and size of available
HVEs (hypers), fan-in counts on the front-end FA ports, which servers are using capacity
on the array, and how much they are using. As a storage architect, the same information is
valuable when, for example, you are designing the layout for a new application.

Of course, this information is available through commands provided with Solutions Enabler.
However, a spreadsheet can make the information more convenient and readily available.
This is particularly true if you use SRDF® to replicate between sites and want to easily ensure
the consistency of arrays.

This article describes how Solutions Enabler commands can be used together in an automated
script to provide the required data. You can then automatically import the script into an Excel
spreadsheet providing:

• A detailed LUN map showing protection, type (BCV, R1, …), size, server accessibility,
meta-LUN, and mapping information per logical volume (LVOL)
• FA port usage per server and fan-in per port
• All servers masked to the array and the capacities they use
• lobal capacity per type of usage (system, two-way mirror, RAID 5, R1, R2, BCV, and
G
combinations) including gatekeepers

The spreadsheet will help you to answer the following non-exhaustive list of questions
almost immediately:

• How much unused BCV capacity is left?
• Are the hypers/metas in the SRDF-paired arrays symmetrically laid out per server?
• Which FA ports are available for use for the new OS type being rolled out (without using
heterogeneous mode)?
• What is the capacity used by this server?
• Are there enough gatekeepers for my new project or do more need to be created?
• Which FA ports are being under- or over-utilized?
• Is the use of ASCII WWNs (AWWN) consistent in the VCMDB?
• Are all servers masked to an even number of FA ports?

The article shows how to extract the pertinent information from the arrays, via SymmCLI
commands, arrange the data according to the use of Symmetrix and DMX arrays locally,
and present the information to the users via a spreadsheet. This is achieved via a shell script
running on a UNIX server and Excel macros to import the data automatically.


Mainframe SRDF/A MSC Troubleshooting
Guide
Michael Smialek

Quickly resolving performance or SRDF/A drop events is one of the most critical tasks after
a mainframe SRDF®/A MSC solution is installed. The customer’s business continuance
plan will be jeopardized if SRDF/A is not performing as anticipated or not operational. Quickly
resolving these issues is critical to protecting customers’ information assets.

There are several warning signs that SRDF/A MSC is not performing well. They include:

• SRDF/A MSC periodically drops processing
• High number of SRDF/A Transmit and Restore messages
• Secondary delay values higher than desired
• Instability of the SRDF links or network equipment
• Network throughput lower than anticipated
• Less than optimum SRDF link throughput

This article provides a methodology for analyzing available information to determine what is
causing a performance problem, and then recommends how to improve performance. This
includes reviewing various logs, WLA or STP data, network reports, Primus cases and parameter
file values. The article focuses on several key problem resolution areas:

• SCF log review
• Buffer-to-buffer network credits
• Reviewing the SQ SRDF/A display
• Service processor event codes
• Recovery procedures
• Performance considerations
• Network considerations
• Balancing SRDF links

This article is designed for Solution Architects, Implementation Specialists, MSS personnel,
and Storage Administrators who want insight into resolving mainframe SRDF/A MSC
performance problems. An Excel macro tool is provided to analyze the SCF or z/OS SYSLOG
and to tally the number of Transmit, Restore, Secondary Delay and other SRDF/A messages
by frame. Analyzing the SRDF/A messages will show processing patterns, peak periods, and
localize the problem to specific source and target SRDF/A frames.

19

Solutions Enabler and Its SYMAPI Force:
A Pioneer in a Remote Software Revolution
Ramiro Canovas, Regional Software Support Specialist

The most valuable assets are often intangible in the IT world. In the midst of economic
obstacles such inflation and market fluctuations, as well as industry breakthroughs such
as virtualization and advancements in wireless technology, there is one product that has
emerged and consistently proven its value: the Solutions Enabler and its SYMAPI force.

Solutions Enabler serves the gateway to every Symmetrix®-related change, facilitating
and accurately assisting EMC field personnel to perform changes and also allowing users to
fill roles that, until recently, required a hardware provider. Solutions Enabler is an “EASY”
solution to performing simple tasks like masking a device for a specific host, to complex
tasks such as establishing security through Access Control changes.

• Every host needs gatekeepers. Can someone go onsite and assign them in the BIN file?
• A new server type needs to be added in the environment, requiring us to change a bit flag
in an FA. This is an offline event. Right?
• So, I need four new two-way mirrored devices. Can someone go onsite and create them in
the BIN file for me?
• Yes, I would like only one server to emit changes to the VCM database and the Symmetrix.
Should we disable the VCM bit flag in the FA?

These common IT questions, representing daily tasks in our industry, can finally take their
place in the history books. Regardless of whether your host type is Solaris, AIX, Windows,
etc., this article will transport you into the new age of SYMAPI, an age of universality,
usability, and security.

In this article, you will find an easy and secure solution to many of the challenges that our
customers face. It will detail Solution Enabler best practices and the interrelationship with
EMC ControlCenter® and the Symmetrix array, with particular emphasis on how the evolution
of this product created a revolution in remote software.


Using Symmetrix® Access Controls
(SymACL) to Prevent Unwanted Configuration
Changes and Information Disclosure
Jurjen Oskam, Storage Specialist
Rabobank Nederland, The Netherlands

By default, a Symmetrix array will accept configuration commands from any host that can
access a device on the Symmetrix. By knowingly or unknowingly altering the Symmetrix
configuration, a host can influence the operation or access the data of other hosts on the
same Symmetrix. The host only needs access to one or more devices on the Symmetrix to
send configuration commands; it does not need to have Symmetrix management software
(e.g., Solutions Enabler) installed.

This article describes the Symmetrix Access Controls (SymACL) feature that prevents unwanted
configuration changes and the information disclosure that may result. It restricts classes
of configuration commands to trusted hosts, allowing them to control only a specific set of
devices. Documentation about SymACL doesn’t always provide enough information to
confidently perform an implementation. This is unfortunate because SymACL is a very useful
and often essential method to meet security requirements in companies and institutions. Even
when SymACL isn’t needed to meet a formal requirement, it can be beneficial to implement
it as part of a defence-in-depth strategy.

This article will offer theoretical and practical information to thoroughly understand and
adequately implement SymACL. It will include information about how SymACL interacts with
other applications such as EMC ControlCenter®, describe the issues that SymACL doesn’t
solve, and review where and how SymACL fits in a Symmetrix environment.

Symmetrix configuration commands are sent over the same path as regular I/Os. Any
restriction of a host to alter the configuration of a Symmetrix must be placed and enforced in
the I/O-path (the path used by configuration commands). Access restrictions outside this
path, such as an IP-based firewall, cannot prevent configuration commands from reaching
the Symmetrix. Since SymACL is a feature of the Symmetrix array itself, it can guarantee
that all configuration commands are subjected to the configuration restrictions set by the
administrator. In other words, the Symmetrix array (and therefore SymACL) is guaranteed to
be in the I/O-path of the host.

Note that SymACL only restricts configuration commands, and does not restrict regular I/O’s.
It has no influence on which host has access to which devices. Those restrictions are set up
using Device Mapping and Device Masking, even when using SymACL. Also, SymACL cannot
secure the connection between a host and the Symmetrix array; it isn’t aware of the type of
connection and assumes that it is secure.

For example, if the connection runs through a Fibre Channel fabric, measures are still needed
to protect against fabric-specific issues such as WWN spoofing or traffic snooping. These
measures then both protect configuration commands as well as regular host I/O activity.

21

Although securing the connection between a host and the Symmetrix array is beyond the
scope of this article, you can use SymACL to ensure that configuration commands are never
accepted from a distrusted connection.

The article first describes how a Symmetrix array receives and processes configuration
commands. It then introduces SymACL by explaining terminology and describing how it
integrates with the processing of configuration commands. We will discuss the different
classes of commands and demonstrate how to permit hosts to execute configuration
commands from different classes. Also, we will review how to restrict hosts to operate only on
specific devices.

Once we’ve reviewed the foundations of SymACL, we will use examples to illustrate more
complicated points. “Corner cases” will be presented and a separate section will discuss
the interaction between SymACL and EMC ControlCenter (versions 5 and 6). Finally, a brief
overview about additional methods to prevent unwanted configuration changes and methods
to record a log of executed configuration changes will be presented.


Visual Basic Program: Creating Relevant Scripts, Tasks and
Logs for Server-based EMC Open Replicator Migration Push
and Pull from Symmetrix® to Symmetrix DMX™
Wolfgang Graf
EMC Corporation®, Germany

During several enterprise customer migration projects, I learned that we need an automated
program to create relevant scripts for Open Replicator Migration from various Symmetrix®
storage platforms to the new Symmetrix DMX™ platforms.

The primary reason for developing this script was to reduce the time needed to prepare the tasks
needed for server-based migration with Open Replicator pull and push.

These activities include:

• check existing production storage
• migration source and target mapping file
• source and target device groups
• production masking
• migration masking for push and pull
• migration ini file
• tasks for the relevant migration type
• log file for the migration
• checklist for the server based migration tasks

The program, which is fully detailed in my article, can be used for any Open Replicator migration
from various supported storage platforms to Symmetrix DMX platforms.

23

Best Practice: Deploying NAS Health Check
Automation
Cheol Jang, Regional Software Specialist 2
EMC Corporation, Korea

As we know, EMC’s NAS product is superior in performance and stability when compared to
our competitors. The best feature is the Auto Call-home function that monitors and detects
errors, and alerts the corporate data center to take immediate action. However, despite this
great functionality, it sometimes does not work properly due to a few fatal weaknesses:

• Control Station is down
• Auto Call-Home does not detect a problem
• Auto Call Home does not work due to a change in the customer’s extension number
• Human error during registration of Auto Call-Home number
• Operating system bug
• System prevents Auto Call-Home working properly

I thought that if we can perform Health Check by conducting regular dial-ins to the NAS system
and sending the results to the responsible account CE or system administrator by e-mail,
it could dramatically increase system reliability. Potentially, it might prevent mis-detected
errors by overcoming the issues listed above.

After conducting a simulation seven months ago, I set up the automated NAS Health Check
system in Korea. To date, more than 100 problem cases have been prevented by taking
corrective actions prior to problem occurrence.

This document will introduce the automated NAS Health Check system that I have introduced
in Korea. It might be used as a guide to reduce of EMC field engineers’ workload or the
customer’s system administrators. This article will also provide in-depth knowledge of NAS
by presenting the Health Check process.


Mass Transit and the Evolution of File
Virtualization: A Guide to Understanding
EMC Rainfinity®
Craig Kensey, Technology Consultant

The article explains Global File Virtualization (GFV) and its benefits to the customer. We will
examine Rainfinity deployments and specific cases in conjunction with various aspects of
network integration. These are vital to a successful Rainfinity deployment.

Competitive differentiations and EMC Rainfinity customers’ return on investment (ROI) will be
highlighted. Rainfinity’s approach to data mobility and file archiving has similarities to other
EMC products; to minimize confusion, this article will explain when to position Rainfinity.

In most cases, Rainfinity is initially proposed for data migrations, NAS consolidations, or
file-serving environments that could be on dissimilar platforms. Rainfinity allows “a foot in
the door” approach for sales teams to present and recommend additional products. For
example, once a customer has decided on Rainfinity, the sales person could position EMC
Celerra or Centera in their NetApp data center. The ability of a single Rainfinity solution
to manage both active and inactive data (CIFS and NFS) allows EMC customers to simplify
the management of their NAS infrastructure, save time and money, and implement a
customized tiered storage solution.

EMC sales teams will benefit by understanding how to position Rainfinity for a particular
customer, and what can be expected when deploying a Rainfinity solution. Customers
typically require “no downtime” or “no changes to the environment” when deciding on a
file virtualization solution; these topics will be discussed by referencing past deployments
of Rainfinity and reviewing how Rainfinity has resulted in substantial and recurring ROI.

25

Multi-Protocol File System (MPFS) Applied
Example
Ayyaswamy Thangavel, EMC Corporation
Edward Chew, Motorola, Singapore

Computer aided design (CAD) and simulation for the high-tech market requires tools to
quickly analyze and produce accurate results. Design cycles are short and product vendors
often do not have time to physically test components. They are under constant pressure to
achieve aggressive time-to-market schedules. Prototyping and qualification allow designers
to run more iterations leading to improved products in the market.

EMC Celerra® MPFS Solution
This is a scalable, high-performance data-sharing solution for the high-performance computing
environment. Other solutions include native NFS, use disks in external storage, JBOD in the
compute nodes, etc. Their purpose is to deliver very high throughput at lower latency. MPFS
of MPFSi allows clients to send the request through the IP network and receive a response
over the faster FC or iSCSI network.

Finite Element Analysis
• Unified modeling and simulation
• Simulation methods to allow robust analyses
• Multiple load types can be applied to a single model
• Techniques available to efficiently handle the problems of different size
scales typically found in electronic assemblies

The article will fully detail an example of the capabilities of this solution, a solution that is
portable for a HPC (high-performance computing) environment. It can be applied to various
industries where product quality and time-to-market pressures are evident. Target industries
include aerospace, automotive, and consumer products.


Using VMware and Celerra® Simulator as
Training Tools
Andrew Harrington, Regional Network Specialist

This article reviews the concept of using VMware and Celerra® Simulator as training aids. I
have successfully created a windows domain, as well as CIFS servers and iSCSI hosts utilizing
these software products. Verification was done by writing data to the iSCSI LUN and CIFS
server; existing data was verified and new files created. The physical server is installed in
the Newton RDC on the 10.5.25 network. The server is a Dell PowerEdge 1850. Its original
purpose (and current) is to test device deployments using EMC Secure Remote Support
Gateway (ESRS).

There was a need for training and knowledge-sharing. I initially installed VMware on my
laptop, but quickly determined that I needed an alternative due to space considerations and
processor speed. There were few devices being monitored for ESRS; this was normally set up
when an engineer needed to test remote access to a particular EMC device.

I decided to install VMware Server Console v1.0.4 on the server. Knowing there was increased
CIFS activity, I installed single instances of Windows 2003 Server as well as the Celerra
Simulator. I created my own domain for the windows server, making it easier for me to manage
the environment. I installed NAS v5.5.20 code on the Celerra Simulator. Both were setup
with IP addresses on the same subnet. Once I verified that I could putty into the Celerra, I was
ready to create my first CIFS server.

Using Powerlink, I located a document about Configuring CIFS on Celerra. When everything
had been set up, I verified the configuration by writing data to the CIFS share. After this was
completed, I created an iSCSI connection between a windows host and Celerra.

I used a document that I located on the Celerra Web Form about virtually provisioning iSCSI
hosts. This was more labor intensive as I had to setup ISCSI initiator software on the windows
host and also complete many steps on the Celerra before actually writing data to the LUN.

The article will describe the full process and will help everyone to use VMware and the Celerra
Simulator as training tools in their home locations.

27

Best Practices, Strategies, and Benefits of
Consolidating Multiple Island SANs (SAN
Consolidation Project)
Kofi Ampofo Boadi, Sr. Solutions Architect
NASA Michoud Assembly Facility USDA NFC, United States

The benefit of having multiple island SANs is vastly fading. Many companies are beginning
to realize the enormous expense involved in maintaining multiple island SANs. This has
heightened the need to consolidate the storage area network. SAN consolidation thereby,
brings to the storage world a vast number of benefits both economically and with the ease of
management. There are several ways to approach this project. Each comes with its stress
and complexity. The intent of this paper is to outline and provide a clear, precise strategy
to approach SAN consolidation. It also highlights the best practices and more imperatively,
its benefits.

1. Strategies and step-by-step approach to SAN consolidation.

Every SAN consolidation project needs to commence with a detail research of the existing
inventory of storage arrays, switches, servers, and applications. Identify what you have and
how many islands need to be consolidated. This section will detail and elaborate on the
information below with real-life examples in the form of a case study.

a) Factors to note before commencing
b) Step-by-step approach to merging fabrics
c) Things to watch for after merging fabrics

2. There are several best practices that need to be considered and carefully monitored to
ensure an accurate and error-free consolidation, thus, yielding zero-percent down-time
during the process. This section will detail what common practices to avoid and those
to enforce in the consolidation process. The factors below will be elaborated upon.

a) Redundancy checks
b) Application and user conflict concerns
c) Instituting a proper SAN design to accommodate the consolidated islands
d) What kind of switch-fabric topology do you have and what impact it brings
e) Performance analysis checks


3. The benefits of island SANs vanish rapidly as more of them are added to the storage
infrastructure. With the emerging concept of centralized SAN, the single-purpose reason of
island SANs is quickly diminishing. Below are some of the benefits that will be highlighted
in this section.

a) Consolidation enables the idea of tiered storage
b) Consolidation simplifies disaster recovery processes
c) Increases the degree of storage resource utilization
d) Improves the ease of storage management
e) Reduces cost around tiered storage
f) Ideal for managing different classes of applications

In spite of having different approaches to SAN consolidation, it is imperative to note that
they all lead you to achieve the same goal. This paper intends to demonstrate, with real-life
examples, the best ways to approach consolidation to reduce and nullify any down-time
possibility; hence making you more efficient and effective.

29

Best Practice: Interopmode/ISL and
Troubleshooting FSPF/VSAN and DOMAINS
in Cisco MDS Environments
Sanjay Sood, Solutions Architect

There are a number of reasons why we need an Interswitch Link (ISL). It may be due to data
migrations, data replication, physical limitations of the fabric (extension of fabric), or FC
cables. There may be another reason due to the world of server consolidation/virtualization.
For example, the introduction of blade servers and embedded multi-vendor FC switches/
hubs operating under banners like Dell, IBM, or HP which are competing in the server market
may require ISL.

When it comes to making an ISL between multi-vendor environments, it is always a challenge
in the production environment and it’s equally challenging in new implementations. EMC
has a proven track record in data migrations and continuously maintaining our leadership in
the storage industry. Every customer expects us to set up parameters to implement and make
the best use of Interopmode in open fabric.

Troubleshooting is another component, though Cisco maintains its leadership in the
networking industry. They offer world-class products in the SAN industry. Brocade is their
largest competitor, particularly after the merger with McDATA. Earlier, it was difficult to
troubleshoot if the VSAN, domains, and Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF) in multi-vendor
environments were not laid/designed based on best practices.

This article presents best practices on Interopmode when deploying ISL on blade servers
and in open fabric (multi-vendor environment), and best practices when deploying and
troubleshooting the following in Cisco MDS environments:

• Best Practices for VSAN Implementation
• Best Practices for Domain ID Assignment
• Best Practices for FSPF


Brocade Fibre Channel over Internet
Protocol (FCIP) EMC Complementary
Technology Overview
Joseph Holbrook
Brocade Professional Services Americas, United States

Maintaining application availability is a top priority for IT organizations. Data centers now run
24x7, and global operations may come to a grinding halt if even one critical application
goes down. As a result, IT departments must ensure that operations continue even in the face
of disasters that could disable a site or even an entire region. Business continuity, disaster
tolerance, disaster recovery, and similar solutions are being deployed more and more often.
Indeed, regulatory requirements are mandating this category of solution for many indus-
tries. All solutions must be able to move large amounts of data in a reliable and repeatable
manner. As a result, they are generally built on top of a Fibre Channel (FC) storage area
network (SAN) infrastructure.

To be effective, solutions require locations separated by great distances. There is no point
in copying data between sites if they are close enough that they may be affected by the same
disaster. It may be necessary to extend a SAN over hundreds of kilometers, or across a
continent. To be effective over such distances, it is sometimes necessary to use an IP network
to transport the FC SAN data; Fiber Channel over IP (FCIP) is the standard.

FCIP allows transparent tunneling of FC switch-to-switch links across IP networks. In addition
to offering a full range of Fibre Channel switching and routing products, Brocade offers
several FCIP gateway solutions that are fully complementary with EMC® solutions such as
CLARiiON® and Symmetrix®.

The article will fully detail FCIP and its benefits.

31

Block-Level Virtualization Technologies:
How They Fit in Your Environment
Guy Dierckx, Sr. Storage Design Engineer
Belgacom, Belgium

Virtualization is one of the major IT buzz words. It is often presented as a solution to all
the customer’s problems. However, the customer may not be interested in virtualization;
their benefit lies more often in the features of the virtualization solution.

Implementation of these features is possible in three different layers:

• host layer
• storage layer
• storage network

Until now, there has been no real consensus where block-level virtualization should be
implemented. Although each block-level virtualization provider has its own preference, the
implementation layer for block-level virtualization is dependent upon the customer and his
infrastructure. All of these factors, and more, drive the best choice of block-level virtualization
layer for the customer: size of his environment (servers, SAN, storage), storage experience,
current storage provider, and anticipated benefits.

Block-level virtualization is praised for its features, but it is also cursed with a considerable
price tag. “Tiering in the box” is provided by some vendors and storage hardware prices are
declining. All of this makes it difficult to prove that company benefits exceed the cost.

This paper is divided into two sections. One section describes our environment and the
criteria we used to decide where the block-level virtualization layer should reside. The second
section describes features that offer added value to our company and how these features are
being exploited.

There are two primary types of SAN virtualization. This first is fabric virtualization consisting
of a switch logically cut into several VSANs. Each VSAN then hosts a fabric in its own right. In
other words, a single physical switch contains several SANs. Each is completely transparent
with communication between the VSANs performed over inter-SAN routing.

Storage virtualization is the second type. It involves intermixing an abstraction layer between
disk bays and application servers. They then have access to this layer-engine virtualization
which itself dialogues with the storage resources spread over the SAN. It behaves as well as a
large and unique virtual array.

Proceeds of virtualization storage fall into two categories whose architecture is both symmetric
(in-band), and sometimes asymmetric (out-of-band).


With symmetrical virtualization, the virtualization engine receives requests from servers
and runs (by reading or writing data blocks on disks on your SAN). In other words, all
data flows through that engine. A clustering solution is required to prevent it from becoming
a point of failure.

With the single-ended mode (asymmetric), the virtualization server is used only for management
of services allocation and replication. Queries are transmitted directly between servers and
storage arrays through a layer of virtualization built into each server via an agent. There is no
bottleneck.

Throughout these processes, the host continues to believe that the disks are still directly
attached while the data is actually scattered on the network. The host believes there is a
unique connection to the storage array where the volumes live.

The lie is possible because all the data travels at the speed of light. Each of us has already
seen the stars in the sky using our naked eyes, hardly realizing that they are physically
located light years away. Virtualization is the same idea; what’s important is that the image
of the data presented to the host appears to be close by.

33

Reconfiguring Fibre Channel-Attached Disk
Storage Devices in Solaris Servers
Diedrich Ehlerding, Professional Services
Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Germany

This article describes the procedures to dynamically reconfigure Solaris servers accessing
Fibre Channel-attached EMC disk arrays over Emulex HBAs without a reboot. (Most
segments also apply to QLogic HBAs with an SFS driver). It considers Solaris, multipathing,
and volume manager layers primarily focusing on, but not restricted to, EMC PowerPath®
as the multipathing layer and Symantec’s Veritas Storage Foundation 5.0 as the volume
manager layer.

All layers need their own reconfiguration procedure to avoid subsequent issues. Automated
processes, especially de-configuration processes, are error-prone. Any failure to execute
proper procedures may result in software hangs in some of these layers. The reconfiguration
must be performed layer by layer, in a prescribed sequence. We must also consider the
mutual influences of HBA drivers, multi athing layers and volume manager layers.
p

This article will include examples of the procedures. It will be most valuable for anyone who
must change a Solaris system device configuration.


SAN Backup Optimization Based on the
SSLP Algorithm
Krasimir Miloshev

This article proposes reducing the total backup time (SAN backup window) to optimize SAN
backup operations. This can be done by applying an optimization method based on Graph
Theory’s single-source longest-paths (SSLP) algorithm.

We can implement this method by creating a software program called SAN Backup Job
Scheduler. Existing backup programs are based on “manually” entered backup time
schedules. The SAN Backup Administrator has to schedule (determine) the starting time of
all operations prior to running the backup program itself.

Instead of manual scheduling for backup tasks, we will use automation to generate all
the backup schedules and reduce the total backup execution time. We can actually reduce
the backup window by reducing the total execution time for SAN backup operations.

Imagine that we must perform a large number of backups of varying duration. We have
some constraints set by a precedence relationship (one job must be completed before
the next can be started).

This article will discuss how to minimize the amount of time to complete all the jobs by first
satisfying all the precedence constraints. We will then optimize performance by using what
we know about Graph Theory, Job Scheduling, and SSLPs.

35

A Pre-Sales Engineers’ Guide to Comparing
Alternative Storage Proposals: Comparing
Apples to Oranges to Bricks
Bruce Yellin, Advisory Technology Consultant

Comparing competitive vendor proposals for new projects or triennial enterprise storage
refreshes can be a daunting task, often beset with time and budget pressures and the fear
of making the wrong choice.

Perhaps because equipment trends towards obsolescence, is lease encumbered, has
insufficient capacity, or is too slow (based on our last wise decision), we are once again
thrust into that evil predicament that ranks up there with a root canal or buying a new
car. Each glorious multi-colored, jargon-laden, animated vendor PowerPoint session contains
self-proclaimed breakthrough paradigm shifts that challenge you to conduct a solution
evaluation that soon makes you feel as though you are comparing apples to oranges to bricks.

Some of these storage acquisition attempts were very logical and progressed from the needs-
assessment stage to product comparison studies and eventually, financial negotiations.
Some of these transactions were conducted with a less rigorous approach, and some were
based on confusion as the staff tried (vainly) to separate the wheat from the chaff.

This article tackles the issue with a common sense, easy approach that illustrates the
important factors when making decisions that you and your company can happily live with
until the next cycle rears its ugly head. Key concepts are explored to help the customer
make the right choice for their organization.

Topics for the career pre-sales engineer include the:

• simple truth about performance
• capacity for the clueless
• financial pitfalls
• service imperatives
• required training


Case Study: Consolidating Three Companies’ Data
Systems into a Unified Storage Environment Leveraging
EMC’s CLARiiON®, Celerra®, and Centera® Platforms
Christopher Johnson, UNIX Administrator/Storage Architect
Spheris Operations, LLC, United States

Today’s global markets are characterized by constant business acquisitions and consolidations.
IT administrators face the daunting task of consolidating the new company’s data systems
into one unified environment. In this article, I describe how we utilized EMC’s CLARiiON, Celerra,
and Centera platforms to consolidate the disparate data systems of three companies after a
series of acquisitions.

I will describe the challenges we faced as we migrated both Windows and UNIX files servers,
from multiple domains, onto our Celerra NAS system. We had a great deal of unstructured data
within our environment that required long-term online access so I will discuss how Centera
provided us with a great option to meet both the company’s needs and our SLAs. With an
extensive VMware environment, we use our CLARiiON disk array for its backend storage
foundation.

Finally, I will describe how we used our CLARiiON disk arrays to migrate our various database
servers’ storage away from localized disk systems.

Here are the EMC technologies utilized and discussed in the article:

• CLARiiON SAN – CX700, CX3-40, MirrorView™ /A
• Celerra NAS – NS502G, CIFS, NFS, Celerra Replicator™
• Centera CAS – Parity Protection, CFA, CUA, Centera Replication

37

Developing an Enterprise Solution to Support High
Availability and Disaster Recovery for Microsoft
Exchange 2007 in a Virtualized Environment
Douglas Collimore, Microsoft Solutions Consultant

The term SOLUTION implies an application that performs a specific process. For example,
Microsoft Exchange is an application that empowers collaboration between users through
e-mail, unified messaging, file sharing, etc. While this is important to corporations
throughout the world, it is simply an example of a point solution—a problem solved through the
use of a specific software application.

The problem with point solutions is that they solve a specific customer requirement, but
the solution itself does not necessarily take enterprise needs into consideration. A specific
example of this directly impacts Exchange 2007. A point solution might entail utilizing
Continuous Cluster Replication (CCR) for local high availability of the Exchange database.
However, additional requirements might include an online, zero-impact backup of the same
database(s), a remote replication technology to enable disaster recovery of the entire
production Exchange environment, and/or an archive and compliance solution that must be
available regardless of where the Exchange servers are operating (local or remote).

The creation of a complete enterprise solution supporting Exchange 2007 is critical to
provide the customer with the ability to address the following real-world requirements:

• Five-nines local availability
• Site failover during a disaster (flood, fire, etc.) and eventual failback
• Zero or near-zero local recovery-point objectives (RPOs)
• Zero or near-zero remote recovery-point objectives (RPOs)
• Recovery-time objectives (RTOs)
• Archiving for extended periods (seven years or more)
• Compliance (meeting Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and other requirements)
• Integration of multiple vendor technologies

Obviously, there are many more requirements based on different business needs. No application
or point solution can address each and every one of these requirements. This requires the
creation of an enterprise solution, one that considers ALL the requirements and builds a solution
that will meet each one utilizing one or many hardware and software products.


This article will address one solution in an Exchange 2007 infrastructure within a virtualized
environment. The requirements established for this solution include:

• Local RPO of zero meaning no data loss of Exchange databases (implying a synchronous
solution)
• emote RPO of less than five minutes for the Exchange databases (implying an Asynchro-
R
nous solution) at a distance greater than 100 km
• Local and remote RTO of under four hours
• Daily backups (RTO of less than four hours)
• Archiving of all mail over 90 days old with a retention policy of seven years
• Maximum utilization of server and network hardware
• Support for 10K to 15K users

This article will provide a best-of-breed design that enables the repetitive installation of an
enterprise solution supporting local high availability and remote disaster recovery of the
Exchange 2007 infrastructure. The documented solution will provide a reference architecture
based upon current test results of Exchange 2007 and the integration of the associated EMC
and Microsoft applications.

39

Genesis of a Disaster Recovery Solution
Lalit Mohan
EMC Corporation, Singapore

Immediately following a disaster event, the business must execute processes for regaining
access to the information infrastructure: data, hardware, and software. These components
must be recovered to the required level of operational readiness to resume critical business
functions. Simply stated, “disaster recovery enables business continuance.”

In this article, we will focus on disaster recovery in the context of creating data protection and
recovery processes. These are part of the much larger process of business continuity planning that
includes impact analyses for classifying various business functions into categories (e.g., critical,
vital, important, and non-critical) according to their respective criticality to the business.

To make this classification, businesses consider: data significance, stakeholder interest,
regulatory compliance, and other requirements. Recovery-point objective (RPO) and
recovery-time objective (RTO) are the prescribed recovery metrics for these categories
and drive the disaster recovery solution design and technical requirements.

This article will illustrate the impact of these recovery metrics upon the data recovery solution
using case scenarios. We will review:

• Relevant terms and definitions
• Assessing a disaster recovery solution’s capability
• Improving a disaster recovery solution’s capability
• Case scenarios to illustrate key points
• Recommendations in conclusion
• Assumptions, their impact, and suggested improvements

After reading this article, you will be able to anticipate the recovery technology and product
choice’s potential impact on disaster recovery. You will also be able to assess a solution’s
capability and facilitate discussions that yield informed decisions.


Site Implementation Guide (SIG)
Alexandre Zancope
EMC Corporation, Brazil

The Site Implementation Guide (SIG) is one of the most important implementation documents
to guarantee the success of any project. This document provides implementation specialists
with all of the information needed to execute the project. It also provides the project manager
with a great deal of technical information to create the plan, tasks, and schedules. With just
a little technical knowledge, the project manager can understand the document and use it as
a powerful tool to create project documentation.

The solution architect (SA) is the primary contributor. Today, looking at the Powerlink website,
we do not have a single document that reviews all pre-sales and post-sales project information.
The SA validates all of the technical information by participating in pre-sales and post-sales
activities. During this time, he participates in customer meetings to understand the environment
and identify the best EMC solution to meet the customers’ requirements.

Once the SA understands the customer environment, he may ask for a great deal of information
from the customer. For example, he may ask for EMCGrabs, outputs from installed switches,
previously answered questions, Bin File (from Symmetrix® base) or SP Collect (from CLARiiON®
base), and information collected by the customer.

Before creating the Site Implementation Guide (SIG), I will divide the generation of outputs
into three categories:

1. Hosts
Using EMCGrabs, the SA will generate Health Check and Volumes documentation. The Health
Check consists of checking all changes to be made on the host of the customer, from a simple
patch of the operating system to the latest HBA driver and firmware. It includes EMC and
non-EMC software checks. Based on the host information, it is used to create an E-Lab™
output, certifying whether or not the customer’s current environment is supported. We use
HEAT to collect all host information.

The Health Check is very important because if you have a host or environment that is not
supported on our matrix, we have time to open a Request for Product Qualifier (RPQ). The
other important thing is that the customer has an accurate vision of future changes that will
be performed on their environment—with sufficient time to check this change with vendors.

So, to this point, the customer has provided EMCGrabs, HEAT output, Health Check, and
E-Lab information. The volumes spreadsheet is the other important document. The SA knows
the customer’s current capacity planning. With this information, he can plan future capacity
based on EMC best practices.

With this document, the SA can define the future Bin File of a Symmetrix, define the future
CLARiiON format, and define a migration strategy.

41

2. SAN
The SA can design the customer’s SAN using the switches’ output. He can check if all created
zones align with EMC best practices, check if there are any zone mistakes or errors, and map
storage’s fan-in/fan-out ratios.

Following the current draft of SAN, the SA can either create a new design or correct the current
design. This generates a port list from each switch that is used to calculate future changes.

Other relevant information can be extracted from the switch output, such as the current
firmware version. The SA will check on the matrix to correct it, determine if there is any ISL on
the SAN, and check interoperability and special settings.

The final documentation provides the customer with a real scenario for the future by
recommending corrections and best practices.

3. Storage
The storage information provides the direction we will use to migrate, correct, or check the
customer’s current situation. Other references from storage, such as performance, are very
important before designing the new storage architecture.

The current local or remote replication process defines the future layout of storage. Local
replication software and configuration provides the information necessary to consider the
new storage architecture.

We must work with the customer to discover the customer’s implemented storage technologies.
If the customer is planning to change their platform from a Symmetrix® to a CLARiiON®, it
is important to clarify some basic concept and functionality differences associated with each
storage system.

Drafting the solution is the other relevant phase of the project. The SA should know what
the customer application does to determine the optimal solution. Some white papers are
very helpful and must be reviewed with the customer to select the definitive layout.

The SA creates a document to help IS implement the solution. It is based on format, front-end
distribution, host masking, and other considerations.

Any other relevant information from the customer helps us to create the SIG, including EMC
ControlCenter® implementation. An interview with the customer can help us to discover
the hardware specifications where EMC ControlCenter will be installed and which operating
system we have to install the contracted agents. This information will be used to qualify
the process.

The same operation can be used to request information about Replication Manager software;
this information will be used to fill the qualification process.


EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 2008 Book of Abstracts

EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 2008 Book of Abstracts

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