The next evolution in storage: clustered storage architectures

The next evolution in storage: clustered storage architectures.

In the no-excuses 24x7 business environment the IT infrastructure must adapt dynamically to unpredictable utilization and processing requirements, and must deliver uninterrupted uptime. Clustered processing and application architectures have been proven to improve uptime and resilience resilience (r·zilˑ·yens),
n
..... Click the link for more information., configuration flexibility, and make it possible to increase capacity as needed as needed prn. See prn order. .

In contrast, in the enterprise storage arena, storage area networks (SANs) continue to feature dual-processor, chassis-based, static architectures--limiting storage flexibility, increasing complexity, and requiring significant up-front capital investment. To protect against unplanned downtime The time during which a computer is not functioning due to hardware, operating system or application program failure.  events chassis-bound architectures rely on a complex system of proprietary backplanes, interconnects, and processors. Organizations have little control over these proprietary infrastructures, severely limiting configuration flexibility.

 

Moreover, legacy architectures demand planned downtime when configuration changes or upgrades are required to match ever-changing business needs. Although planned downtime accounts for over 80% of system unavailability, the industry accepts this as "status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. ." In today's Web-based business environment, the impact of any type of downtime--planned or unplanned reaches far beyond internal users: it can impact revenue generation by impacting customers, just-in-time (JIT JIT - dynamic translation ) supplier delivery and partner performance. Planned downtime limits overall responsiveness, increases operating expense Operating Expense

The essential things that a company must purchase in order to maintain business.

Notes:
For example, the payment of employees wages are an operating expense.

Also known as OPEX.  and total cost of ownership (TCO (1) (Total Cost of Ownership) The cost of using a computer. It includes the cost of the hardware, software and upgrades as well as the cost of the inhouse staff and/or consultants that provide training and technical support. See ROI. ).

Although clustered storage is a departure from legacy SAN architectures, computing computing - computer  and application administrators already understand the nature and management of clustered solutions. By applying this expertise to the storage arena, organizations gain the same proven benefits of application and server clustering See clustering.
..... Click the link for more information. in the storage infrastructure.

Clustered storage delivers resilient, continuously available information access to essentially eliminate both planned and unplanned downtime. A distributed, clustered storage architecture changes the way storage is deployed and managed across the enterprise. A modular design In the context of systems engineering, modular design — or "modularity in design" — is an approach aiming to subdivide a system into smaller parts (modules) that can be independently created and then used in different systems to drive multiple functionalities.  enables on-demand scaling of capacity, performance and availability, matching storage capacity to ongoing business requirements and fully utilizing storage resources.

The resulting savings and efficiencies, both in operational costs and capital investment, dramatically improve the bottom line. The clustered approach provides a storage architecture that delivers true competitive advantage, business responsiveness, and accelerated return on investment.

A clustered storage architecture offers improvements over a traditional SAN architecture because it supports:

Multiple layers of resilience: Traditional architectures focus on eliminating single points of failure within a chassis-restricted system. Storage clusters can deliver Multiple Layers of Resilience (MLOR MLOR A Momentary Lapse of Reason (Pink Floyd album)
MLOR Multiple Layers of Resilience
MLOR Minimum Life On Receipt (product shelf live)
MLOR maximum lock-on range ). MLOR enables a storage architecture to provide resilient availability, performance and data integrity across infrastructure layers--in many cases where traditional architectures would suffer from performance degradation, data loss or outright failure. Storage Clusters improve resilience beyond traditional single-chassis systems by supporting distributed, N-Way availability, continuous storage performance, full server and application infrastructure independence and maximum data integrity in case of site or cluster-wide disasters. This approach to the architecture delivers resilience far beyond the traditional single-chassis focus on elimination of unplanned downtime, delivering distributed availability.

Fiber-distributed storage: The clustered storage architecture leverages modular components, deployed independently across fiber-distributed networks. When components are placed where they are needed versus in a single chassis, flexibility and resilience increase to mitigate risk in the event of an outage out·age  
n.
1. A quantity or portion of something lacking after delivery or storage.

2. A temporary suspension of operation, especially of electric power.
..... Click the link for more information. in any single location. This architecture can give IT organizations the flexibility to design and deploy a storage configuration that matches their specific reliability and cost requirements. A relatively simple configuration might involve a single interconnect (1) To attach one device to another.

(2) A physical port (plug, socket) or wireless port (transmitter, receiver) used to attach one device to another.  path between two nodes, whereas a full N-way mesh configuration will provide ultimate resiliency.

N-Way clustering: With N-Way storage clustering, multiple storage processors (controller nodes) can be deployed across fiber networks, and controllers can be added as needed to provide greater resiliency and performance. If controllers provide an active-active I/O (Input/Output) The transfer of data between the CPU and a peripheral device. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another. See PC input/output.

I/O - Input/Output  workload and communicate between all controllers within the cluster, fiber-distributed controllers will be able to continue to process storage requests even if all but one location has all outage. Servers and applications will continue to access, process, and deliver business information--transparent to failure events.

Multi-level failover/failback: Multiple layers of resilience within and across the storage cluster can be provided by failover and failback mechanisms that optimize storage resilience and continuous application performance. The following describes the levels across which failover and failback mechanisms might operate and the advantages of each.

Intra-Controller Failover/ Fallback fall·back  
n.
1.
a. Something to which one can resort or retreat.

b. A retreat.

2. Computer Science : A clustered storage architecture that provides multiple layers of failover within the controller will deliver uninterrupted storage performance and consequent application uptime during failover. In contrast, the legacy design of traditional SAN controller failover mechanisms degrade TO DEGRADE, DEGRADING. To, sink or lower a person in the estimation of the public.
     2. As a man's character is of great importance to him, and it is his interest to retain the good opinion of all mankind, when he is a witness, he cannot be compelled to disclose  performance during failover operations since one storage processor and its throughput are completely lost, even in the case of minor hardware or cabling issues.

Clustered Failover/Fastback: In a clustered storage architecture with automatic failover between nodes within a cluster, computing resources are transparently redirected across the cluster to alternative ports or controllers without disrupting business.

Server and application transparency and independence: The optimal clustered storage architecture requires no additional server software for resilient SAN connectivity. This enables transparent failover/failback without host-based components, dramatically simplifying deployment, changes and upgrades for the server, the SAN and the application architecture. Localizing the storage, server, and application layers provides true infrastructure independence.

Dynamic responsiveness: With today's highly volatile, Web-based workloads, the ability to scale, prioritize pri·or·i·tize  
v. pri·or·i·tized, pri·or·i·tiz·ing, pri·or·i·tiz·es Usage Problem

v.tr.
To arrange or deal with in order of importance.

v.intr.
..... Click the link for more information., and optimize storage processing is critical to avoiding disruption, slow response, or transaction delay. Reflecting the power of clustered application and server architectures, a clustered storage architecture call virtually eliminate the need for planned downtime. IT staff can dynamically update storage cluster configurations to meet specific business requirements--during business hours BUSINESS HOURS. The time of the day during which business is transacted. In respect to the time of presentment and demand of bills and notes, business hours generally range through the whole day down to the hours of rest in the evening, except when the paper is payable it a bank or by a
..... Click the link for more information., without costly professional expertise or overtime charges.

Ability to adapt to business requirements: Storage clusters must simplify storage operations to improve flexibility and expansion options and to meet ever-changing business requirements. Routine tasks that once required planned downtime, often during after-hours or weekends, can now be performed transparently during normal business hours. Addition, replacement, or removal of disk drives, servers, or virtual storage volumes can occur in an operating system operating system (OS)

Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs.  and application-transparent environment. IT personnel can dynamically manage the storage infrastructure in real-time--organizations can install, tune, maintain, upgrade and alter storage configurations to continuously match their business requirements without ever sacrificing information or application availability. For example, storage clusters can:

* Update or change storage configurations to meet application needs without disruption.

* Respond automatically to application requests such as might be received from Microsoft VDS/VSS.

* Expand volume sizes or reallocate Verb 1. reallocate - allocate, distribute, or apportion anew; "Congressional seats are reapportioned on the basis of census data"
reapportion

allocate, apportion - distribute according to a plan or set apart for a special purpose; "I am allocating a loaf of  volumes to higher performance or higher availability physical units (disk drives).

* Re-direct computing resources to alternative storage locations as needed, within seconds or minutes.

A policy-driven environment transparently adapts the storage configuration to business needs without manual intervention. Automated provisioning The ability to set up new communications services for customers automatically. Carriers use automated provisioning to set up their network based on customers' requirements. Such systems control all network devices from a central console and greatly speed up deployment time from days to
..... Click the link for more information. and configuration take place based on application, time or event-based triggers, providing continuous availability without the need for emergency staffing or after-hours/overtime efforts. Application-to-storage APIs from industry leaders including Microsoft can enable storage clusters to dynamically respond to changes requested by the application or operating system itself.

Multiple dimensions of scale: The clustered storage architecture should provide multiple dimensions of scale, such that components can be geographically deployed and independently scaled, based on business or application needs. As storage requirements expand, capacity and performance can be incrementally and transparently scaled, without disrupting applications. The architecture should allow independent, incremental Additional or increased growth, bulk, quantity, number, or value; enlarged.

Incremental cost is additional or increased cost of an item or service apart from its actual cost.
..... Click the link for more information. performance scale across both the storage pool and scalable storage access. The architecture must be designed to scale application access to the storage pool by transparently adding controller nodes to the cluster. The architecture must be designed to support true parallelized, multi-threaded I/O access between applications/servers and the storage pool. Applications, or individual modules within a clustered computing infrastructure, take advantage of parallelized I/O access to the entire storage pool, delivering scale and responsiveness to business needs.

Storage has evolved from monolithic Single object. Self contained. One unit.
..... Click the link for more information. to modular to clustered options. Clustered storage offers dramatic improvements over legacy SANs, which once offered a dramatic improvement over monolithic storage options.

www.xiotech.com

Rob Peglar is chief architect at XIOtech (Eden Prarie, MN)

 

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