Storage virtualization seminar discusses breaking connections between physical and logical storage through virtualization. It covers volume management, file systems, virtualizing the SAN and NAS, and polling attendees on their virtualization usage. Benefits discussed include pooling for efficiency and scalability, improved performance and availability through technologies like snapshots and replication, and enabling disaster recovery of virtual machine images. Downsides and costs are considered.

1. Storage Virtualization SeminarStephen FoskettDirector of Data Practice, Contoural

2. Part 1:Breaking the ConnectionsStorage virtualization is here, breaking the connection between physical storage infrastructure and the logical way we use it

3. AgendaWhat is storage virtualization?Volume managementAdvanced file systemsVirtualizing the SAN Virtual NAS

4. Poll: Who is Already Using Storage Virtualization?We talk about virtualization like it is new or strange…

5. …but your storage is already virtualized!

6. Disk drives map blocks

7. RAID is as old as storage (conceived 1978-1988)

8. Modern OSes include volume management and path management

9. Network-attached storage (NAS) redirectors and DFS

10. Storage arrays are highly virtualized (clustering, LUN carving, relocation, tiering, etc…)

11. According to ESG, 52% have already implemented storage virtualization and 48% plan to! (ESG 2008)The act of abstracting, hiding, or isolating the internal function of a storage (sub)system or service from applications, compute servers or general network resources for the purpose of enabling application and network independent management of storage or data.The application of virtualization to storage services or devices for the purpose of aggregating, hiding complexity or adding new capabilities to lower level storage resources. Storage can be virtualized simultaneously in multiple layers of a system, for instance to create HSM like systems.SNIA Defines Storage VirtualizationThe act of abstracting, hiding, or isolating the internalfunction of a storage (sub)system or service from applications, compute servers or general network resources for the purpose of enabling application and network independentmanagement of storage or data.The application of virtualization to storage services or devices for the purpose of aggregating, hiding complexity or adding new capabilities to lower level storage resources. Storage can be virtualized simultaneously in multiple layers of a system, for instance to create HSM like systems.

12. What and Why?Virtualization removes the hard connection between storage hardware and usersAddress space is mapped to logical rather than physical locationsThe virtualizing service consistently maintains this meta-dataI/O can be redirected to a new physical locationWe gain by virtualizingEfficiency, flexibility, and scalabilityStability, availability, and recoverability

13. The Non-Revolution:Storage VirtualizationSoftwareWe’ve been talking about storage virtualization for 15 years!

14. Virtualization exists for both block and file storage networks

15. Can be located in server-based software, on network-based appliances, SAN switches, or integrated with the storage arraySwitchApplianceArray

16. Introducing Volume ManagementVolume management = server-based storage virtualization

17. Volume managers abstract block storage (LUNs, disks, partitions) into virtual “volumes”

18. Very common – all* modern OSes have volume managers built in

19. Windows Logical Disk Manager, Linux LVM/EVMS, AIX LVM, HP-UX LVM, Solaris Solstice, Veritas Volume Manager

20. Mostly used for flexibility

21. Resize volumes

22. Protect data (RAID)

23. Add capacity (concatenate or expand stripe or RAID)

24. Mirror, snapshot, replicate

25. Migrate dataLogical Volume Managers

26. ZFS: Super File System!ZFS (originally “zettabyte file system”) is a combined file system, volume manager, disk/partition manager

27. Open source (CDDL) project managed by Sun

28. Will probably replace UFS (Sun), HFS+ (Apple OS X Snow Leopard Server)

29. ZFS creates a truly flexible, extensible, and full-featured pool of storage across systems and disks

30. Filesystems contained in “zpools” on “vdevs” with striping and optional RAID-Z/Z2

31. 128-bit addresses mean near-infinite capacity (in theory)

32. Blocks are “copy-on-write” with checksums for snapshots, clones, authentication

33. …but there are some limitations

34. Adding (and especially removing) vdevs is hard/impossible

35. Stacked RAID is impossible

36. There is no clustering (until Sun adds Lustre)Path Management SoftwarePath management virtualizes the connection from a server to a storage systemFailoverLoad balancing strategiesA few choicesVeritas DMP (cross-platform, with Storage Foundation)EMC PowerPath (supports EMC, HDS, IBM, HP)IBM SDD (free for IBM)HDS (HDLM)Microsoft MPIO (Windows, supports iSCSI and most FC)VMware Failover Paths

37. Virtualizing the SANThe storage area network (SAN) is a popular location for virtualization

38. Can require less reconfiguration and server work

39. Works with all servers and storage (potentially)

40. Resides on appliance or switch placed in the storage network

41. Some are in the data path, others are less so

42. Brocade and Cisco switches have application blades

43. Some use dedicated storage services modules (SSMs)In-Band vs. Out-of-BandIn-band devices intercept trafficOut-of-band devices redirect trafficWhere’s my data?Where’s my data?It’s over there!I got yer data right here!

44. SAN Virtualization Products

45. Virtual NASFile-based network-attached storage (NAS) lends itself to virtualization

46. IP network connectivity and host processing possibilities

47. Multitude of file servers? Virtualize!

48. Global namespace across all NAS and servers

49. Share excess capacity

50. Transparently migrate data (easier than redirecting users!)

51. Tier files on large “shares” with variety of data

52. Create multiple virtual file serversNAS Virtualization Products

53. Transformed Storage SystemsVirtualization technology is common in storage array controllers

54. Arrays create large RAID sets and “carve out” virtual LUNs for use by servers

55. Controller clusters (and grids) redirect activity based on workload and availability

56. Snapshots/mirrors and replication are common features

57. A new generation arrays with virtualization features is appearing, with tiered storage, thin provisioning, migration, de-duplication

58. Sub-disk RAID = the end of RAID as we know it?Virtual Tiered StorageArray controllers can transparently move data from low-cost to high-performance disk

59. Most arrays support multiple drive types

60. “Bulk” SATA or SAS drives are common (500 GB - 1 TB)

61. Solid-state drives are the latest innovation