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Data Storage in a Virtualized World

Data Storage in a Virtualized World

Physical Infrastructure

In a purely physical environment, servers connect directly to storage. Storage may

be comprised of local disks or in an external array. The largest caveat to storage in a physical environment is

servers retain complete ownership of the physical device, with an entire disk drive or LUN connected to an individual server.

Legacy storage

Many of the storage practices and procedures from the physical days have not changed for virtual environments.

Logical arrays for virtual environments still use common RAID configurations.

Adding storage was a cumbersome, time-consuming process involving downtime and service disruption.

Once storage was allocated, it was committed.

Forecast was more important with physical resources because of lack of mobility later.

Each physical server had its own device drivers for storage.

Minimum 2 disks.

Excellent performance ( as

blocks are striped ).

No redundancy ( no mirror, no

parity ).

Don’t use this for any critical system.

RAID 0 - Striping

Minimum 2 disksGood performance

(no striping, no parity).

Excellent redundancy ( as

blocks are mirrored ).

RAID 0 - Mirroring

Minimum 3 disks. Good performance ( as blocks are striped ).

Good redundancy ( distributed parity ).

Best cost effective option providing both performance and redundancy. Use this for

DB that is heavily read oriented. Write operations

will be slow.

RAID 5 – Stripping with Parity

Minimum 4 disks. This is also called as “stripe of mirrors”

Excellent redundancy ( as blocks are mirrored

)

Excellent performance ( as blocks are striped )

If you can afford the cost, this is the BEST

option for any mission critical applications

(especially databases).

RAID 10 – Striping and Mirroring

A SAN is a dedicated network of disks providing access to consolidated, block level data storage.

SANs are primarily used to make disk arrays accessible to servers so that the devices appear

as locally attached devices.

Storage Area Network (SAN)

Dual independent storage processing units. Proprietary operating system designed for one purpose –

high performance data access. Multiple high-speed disk channels. Redundant network, management, and iSCSI connections. Snapshot capabilities. Data replication for Disaster Recovery. Disk caching for faster I/O. Hot-swappable components eliminate downtime.

SAN Features

SAN Features

In virtual world, disk I/O considerations are more

important to properly optimize performance.

Disk I/O Considerations

Virtualization

Virtualization involves the separation of a

resources fromthe underlying physical devices involved in the

delivery.

Virtualization Hosts

Hypervisor hosts: A piece of computing hardware that host virtual guest machines and directs the resources needed for the overall virtual platform.

Centralized Storage for Virtualization

Provides for disk sharing on the virtualization

hosts.

High availability (HA)

Ability to migrate guests between

hosts.

Load balancing between hosts.

Storage Connectivity

• iSCSI: SCSI commands over IP networks.• Fibre Channel: High-speed fiber used for SANs.• FCoE: Fibre channel over Ethernet.

The SAN supports all common block-based storage connections:

Storage featuresProfile Driven Storage: Reduce the complexity regarding in storage selection by classifying storage according to user-defined policies.

Storage I/O Control: Prioritizes storage access by monitoring I/O load of a storage volume and dynamically allocating available I/O resources to VM according to defined criteria.

Storage Thin Provisioning: Dramatically increase VM storage utilization by enabling dynamic allocation and intelligent provisioning of physical storage capacity.

Storage APIs: Enhance your storage awareness, data protection, and array integration as well as take advantage of multi-pathing capabilities offered by third-party storage vendors.

Storage versatility

Change drive type without service interruption, i.e. from SATA to solid state.

Manipulate sizes of logical units and virtual hard drives.

Options between thin and thick provisioning.

Facilitates store protection through data replication.

Reclaim space surrendered by decommissioned virtual machines.

Ability to scale the storage solution by addition of disks and disk array expansion (DAE) units.

With or without sophisticated tools, most organizations should be able to classify many of

their key applications and have a clear understanding of the value of that data to the

business. This pattern of matching data and devices can then assign data to the optimal tier.

• Perfmon• PerfCollect• PAL tool

Data Classification – Understanding Your Data

I/O intensive data represents up to 3% of online data and includes a variety of response time critical applications. This data typically resides on tier 0 Flash or tier 1 high-performance disk arrays.

Mission-critical data generally represents 12-20 % of online data and is the most valuable data to an enterprise, used in the critical business processes, revenue generating or customer facing applications. Data recovery times, the RTO (Recovery Time Objective), ranging from a minute or less up to an hour or two, are typically acceptable. Mission critical data usually reside on tier 0 or tier 1 storage based on the performance requirements.

Data Classification Categories – Understanding What They Mean

Vital and sensitive data typically averages up to 20-25 % of all data stored online and represents the majority of data stored on disk. However, vital and sensitive data doesn’t require instantaneous recovery for the business to remain in operation. Data recovery times can normally take up to four or five hours without causing major operational impact .

Archival data presently represents approximately 43-60 % of all data stored online making it the largest category and at >60% CAGR, is the fastest growing data classification segment. Low activity, long term and infinite retention periods for data such as e-mail archives, compliance and legal records, medical information and images, video archives, photos and fixed content all fit this profile. Lost, corrupted or damaged data can be reconstructed with minimal effort, and acceptable recovery times can range from hours to days. Archival data is typically stored on the lowest cost storage systems, primarily automated tape storage, or other removable storage systems, in local and/or remote locations. Tier 3 data is the primary market for future tape growth and the prime opportunity for outsourcing data to cloud or other types of service providers.

Data Classification Categories – Understanding What They Mean

Disaster Recovery

• Synchronous Replication• Asynchronous Replication

SAN replication

• VMware features• Hyper-V features• Veeam product

Host Replication

• RecoverPoint

Network Replication

Who is DRS?

Managed Services

Professional Services Cloud Computing Collaboration

Support Desk Building and Metro Cabling

Connectivity and Internet Solutions

Business Continuity,

Disaster Recovery and Backup

Application Development

Colocation and Data Center IT Consulting Solution

Implementation

Services include: Services include:

DRS

DRS has over 36,000 sq. ft. of Data Center space with locked cabinets, cages and technical office suites for enhanced security. Our Data Centers are all Tier 3 facilities.

DRS has over 36,000 sq. ft. of Data Center space with locked cabinets, cages and technical office suites for enhanced security. Our Data Centers are all Tier 3 facilities.

Belmont Technology Complex

Features: • Dual Bus Power System • Redundant HVAC • SAS 70 • Rack Space • 21,000 sq. ft. • Office Suites Avalable

WeConnect Data Center

Features: • 16,000 sq. ft.• Cage and Rack Space• Disaster Recovery Planning• Dedicated Electrical Room• Dedicated Battery Room• Fiber Connectivity

Youngstown Data Center

Features: • AC & DC Protected Power• Carrier Class Data Center• Cage and Rack Space• SAS 70• 16,000 sq. ft.

Pittsburgh Location

Features: • AC & DC Protected Power• Centrally Located• Cage and Rack Space• Dedicated Standby Power

Colocation Facilities

DRS has developed the technical expertise and IT solutions to help customers increase their productivity while decreasing their costs. DRS employees are dedicated to making sure they have the latest and greatest certifications and continuing education available. The staff has achieved more than 50 of specialized certifications and the company as a whole has earned high-ranking partnership status with major IT vendors.

DRS has developed the technical expertise and IT solutions to help customers increase their productivity while decreasing their costs. DRS employees are dedicated to making sure they have the latest and greatest certifications and continuing education available. The staff has achieved more than 50 of specialized certifications and the company as a whole has earned high-ranking partnership status with major IT vendors.

Partners and Certifications

Contact Info

Speakers: Roy Greier, Platform Service LeadRyan Geilhard, Senior Sales Engineer

Designed by: Dom Cascarelli, Marketing & Media Associate

Presentation

Youngstown Office:1343 Belmont AvenueYoungstown, Ohio 44504Local Phone #: 330-259-4900

DRS Corporate Headquarters