Faster, Easier Server Management
With Virtualized Storage from Xiotech
One of the biggest challenges with direct-attached storage is the extensive time—and downtime—required to perform common server management tasks. Moving storage to a virtualized storage system from Xiotech significantly eases the administrative burden, while minimizing downtime and reducing costs. Rob Peglar, Vice President, Technology, Storage Systems Group & Christopher Arnold, Worldwide Services Program Manager Xiotech Corporation
Contents
Server Management .......................................................................... 1
Applying Server Patches................................................................................................................2 Upgrading Operating Systems & Applications..............................................................................2 Installing Operating Systems & Applications .................................................................................3 Protecting Installations ..................................................................................................................5 Adding Capacity ..........................................................................................................................5 Changing RAID Types ..................................................................................................................6 Upgrading Server Hardware .......................................................................................................6 Consolidating Servers & Migrating Data ......................................................................................8 Supporting Heterogeneous Networks...........................................................................................8 Server Clustering ..........................................................................................................................9 Deploying Servers Remotely .........................................................................................................9 Building a Test Lab .......................................................................................................................9 Improving Backups ....................................................................................................................10 Automation................................................................................................................................10
Other IT Benefits ..............................................................................11
Smaller Data Center Footprint....................................................................................................11 Effective Standards Management ...............................................................................................11 Painless Capacity Planning.........................................................................................................11 Data Availability, Replication, & Recovery ...................................................................................11
Summary.........................................................................................12
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From the very beginning when Xiotech introduced virtualized storage to the marketplace, the architecture has included two key features that make server management easy and efficient:
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In Today’s
nonstop, 24x7, always-connected world, managing servers with direct-attached storage (DAS) can be a nightmare—particularly in environments with high numbers of servers dispersed throughout the organization, or virtual servers running on physical servers with DAS.
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No Server-Side Software: Unlike DAS and most other networked storage options, Xiotech® systems require no storage software on the server. With most other systems, when you upgrade the storage system (controller) firmware, you must also upgrade or patch the associated software or agents on every server that accesses the storage system. Not only is this time consuming, but it often leads to periods of application unavailability. Xiotech, on the other hand, delivers true storage and server independence—no software on the servers means no software to upgrade or patch. Powerful Boot from SAN: The entire Magnitude 3D family of systems enables myriad servers running diverse operating systems to simultaneously boot from the storage area network (SAN). One Magnitude 3D 4000 system, for instance, can boot up to 248 servers, running all common operating systems. This makes installing and upgrading operating systems and applications far safer and faster than is possible in a DAS environment. It also makes server maintenance and replacements quick and easy.
The inherent inflexibility of DAS often leads to extensive server downtime to perform common, but necessary, maintenance tasks. Operationally, this requires administrators to often perform server maintenance at night or on weekends so user access to data and applications is not interrupted. Of course, for organizations that function 24x7, there is no good time to take servers offline. Planned downtime has become an oxymoron. Xiotech Corporation’s Magnitude 3D® family is built on a unique virtualized storage architecture, which dramatically simplifies, speeds, and reduces the cost of both server and storage management. With this innovative technology, you can easily perform most server administration in the middle of the day, without any planned downtime. In addition, Xiotech’s innovative ICON Manager software—utilizing Web Services as its communication method between servers and storage—enables you to combine many aspects of server and storage management into a single, unified whole, thus reducing even further the time required to perform critical server management tasks. This approach removes many administrative, training, and cost barriers that are present in proprietary interfaces (APIs) or slow and tedious browser-plus-Java storage management approaches.
Server Management
Changing configurations with DAS is time consuming and wrought with challenges, perhaps causing you to avoid necessary server maintenance tasks. Xiotech eliminates this nightmare, reducing complexity, time, and cost of many server-related tasks, including:
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Applying patches Installing and upgrading operating systems and applications Adding capacity Changing RAID types
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• • • • • •
Upgrading hardware Consolidating servers Server clustering Deploying servers remotely Building a test lab Backing up data
In the event the patch does not go smoothly, just point the server to the copy, reboot the server, and be up and running in minutes. The server will be fully functional, in the state it was prior to the patch attempt. Without this capability, you would have to reinstall the operating system and backup software, and then restore from tape, taking several hours to recover—if recovery was possible at all. Xiotech’s systems do this in minutes, not hours. No reinstalling the operating system, no installing backup software, no restoring the operating system files and configuration from tape. Just repoint and reboot.
Let’s take a closer look at how Xiotech improves server management, essentially giving you your life back.
Applying Server Patches
Have you ever had a server patch fail and you had to rebuild a server because of it? When was the last time you applied a server patch and a backup was performed up to the point in time before that patch was installed? Be honest. The reality is that most administrators do not complete a full backup before applying a patch. They just rely on the backup from the night before in the event that a patch does not go well. But what are you really upgrading? It is not the data volumes, it is the operating system volumes—the same volumes that you will have to rebuild from scratch if all does not go well. Xiotech’s DataScale™ Copy software enables you to quickly and easily create copies of your operating systems and their boot volumes, which you can use if something should go wrong with the patch. Magnitude 3D 4000, for instance, can perform a blocklevel copy of the storage volume (virtual disk or VDisk) at the nominal rate of 3-6GB/minute. This means you can completely copy a 12GB operating system volume in only 2-4 minutes!
Upgrading Operating Systems & Applications
Do you ever think about why upgrades have to be done in the dead of night or on the weekend? And why server operating system upgrades are so painful? Unlike applying a patch, you know that you must make a full backup before performing an operating system upgrade. A typical scenario is to wait until 10:00 pm or so on a Friday, and then start a full tape backup of the server in case you have to restore from tape. If you truly are careful, you perform two backups, just in case a tape in the first backup set is bad. This may take several hours or an entire day. Being optimistic, all tape backups might be done by 10:00 am on Saturday, taking 12 hours. Now you begin the server upgrade. If the upgrade takes an hour and everything goes well, then you can go home—the upgrade took only 13 hours to accomplish. If it does not go well, then you get to wipe the volume clean, reinstall the operating system, reinstall backup software, and restore from tape. Now it is pushing 8:00 or 9:00 pm, and the objective is to return to where the server was before the upgrade, rather than actually performing the upgrade. The process will have to be repeated, and you now have less than 24 hours to perform the task. Meanwhile the server has been unavailable for over 24 hours! Xiotech storage enables you to do what you were actually hired to do. As mentioned before, Magnitude 3D 4000 can perform a block-level VDisk copy at 36GB/minute. This reduces backup time from hours to minutes. Instead of starting the upgrade at 10:00 am on Saturday, you can begin at 10:04 pm on Friday. If the upgrade takes an hour, then you will be done by
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11:15 pm and can either upgrade another server or go home at a halfway decent hour. Total upgrade time is 75 minutes, far better than the 13 hours it might take with DAS. What happens if the upgrade does not go well? All you do is point the server to the operating system copy, boot the server, make another block-level copy, and start the upgrade again just 4 minutes later. There are no backups to tape, no reinstallation of the operating system, no reinstallation of backup software, no restoring from tapes. Just copy and upgrade. Focus your time on what you need to do, not on the supporting functions. You can also use this same technique when upgrading applications. After all, this can destroy a boot partition as well as any patch or server operating system upgrade.
stages fails, stop the installation process, and copy the VDisk with the latest successful step over the install VDisk. Then begin mirroring on the next VDisk again, and in a few minutes, you are again performing the step that failed before—but you are not starting from the very beginning.
A Practical Example
Let’s look at how this works in the real world. Say you are installing Microsoft® Windows® 2003 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on a Magnitude 3D 4000 system. You have the operating system and patch, as well as the SQL Server application and patch, to install. Something is bound to go wrong during the install; let’s face it, it almost always does. With Xiotech storage, you don’t have to worry. Simply do the following:
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Installing Operating Systems & Applications
How long does an operating system installation usually take? And what happens if something goes wrong? Do you really want to start all over from the beginning? What if you could just take one step back and restart the installation from the last completed step? With Xiotech’s storage systems, it’s not only possible, it’s very easy to do. To install an operating system, for example, first create a VDisk, identify it to the server, and begin the installation process to that VDisk. While the operating system is being installed, create several more VDisks of the same size and mirror the installation VDisk to each of those other VDisks. When you complete the first step in the installation, shut down the server and break the mirror to the first VDisk. After you complete each subsequent step, shut down the server and break the mirror to the next VDisk. You will end up with multiple VDisks, each with a completed stage of the installation. If one of the
Create five VDisks that are all the same size (one for the actual installation, plus one additional VDisk for each installation step). Using ICON Manager, this process is simple. Just right-click on the desired server and choose “Create Volume.” ICON Manager will execute a wizard to create the VDisk and format the volume on Windows automatically. Most other storage management approaches force you to learn and use the Windows Disk Management snap-in to format and assign the volume. ICON Manager does this without intervention. All steps after this point are a simple matter of selecting the desired volume in ICON Manager and right-clicking to perform the desired task. No other management tools or screens are necessary.
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Install Windows 2003 R2 to VDisk 1 and mirror VDisk 1 to the other four VDisks. − When the Windows 2003 installation is complete—but before you apply the patch —shut down the server and break the mirror to VDisk 2; then bring the server back up. − VDisks 2, 3, 4, and 5 are complete copies of the installation to that point. − Because the mirror from VDisk 1 to VDisk 2 was broken, VDisk 2 remains a pointin-time copy of the installation.
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installation. However, when you get to the SQL Server 2005 patch part of the installation, you click Yes instead of No (or No instead of Yes). In any case, the SQL Server 2005 patch part of the installation does not go the way you want it to. In a normal installation, you are 1.5 hours in and you have to start all over again. Not so with Xiotech storage. With Xiotech’s storage systems, you only have to take one step back. Because VDisk 4 was successfully completed (Windows 2003 R2, Windows 2003 R2 patch, SQL Server 2005), this is your good copy. Break the mirror to VDisk 5, and copy VDisk 4 over VDisk 1. This replaces the failed installation VDisk with one that is good up through the SQL Server 2005 installation. Turn the server on, and it will be running through the end of the SQL Server 2005 installation, ready to start over again. Before you start, however, remirror VDisk 1 over VDisk 5. Because this is the last step it may seem unnecessary, but who knows what you may decide to do after you get the patch installed. Now, install the patch and break the mirror when you are done. VDisk 1 is the fully installed server operating system with applications installed; VDisks 2, 3, 4, and 5 are copies at various stages of the installation. These VDisks can either be kept as “gold” copies of the installation at various stages, or may be deleted to reclaim disk space.
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Install the Windows 2003 R2 patch to VDisk 1, which is still being mirrored to VDisks 3, 4, and 5. − When the patch has been applied, shut down the server and break the mirror to VDisk 3. − VDisk 2 is a copy of the Windows 2003 installation. − VDisk 3 is a copy of Windows 2003 with the patch applied. Continue the process with SQL Server 2005 and then the SQL Server 2005 patch.
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When you are done, you will have the following:
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VDisk 1 (logically connected to the server): − Windows 2003 R2 − Windows 2003 R2 patch − SQL Server 2005 − SQL Server 2005 patch VDisk 2: − Windows 2003 R2 VDisk 3: − Windows 2003 R2 − Windows 2003 R2 patch
• VDisk 4:
Take It to the Next Level
What do you do with all these extra VDisks? Save them! When you deploy another SQL Server 2005 server, you already have an image that you can deploy in just minutes. If the physical server is different than the server the VDisk was built on, you can use SYSPREP with Microsoft operating systems to prepare the server to bring the image up on another physical configuration. Novell® NetWare® and Linux® operating systems are even easier, as they almost do not care that the physical hardware has changed. NetWare only notices if you change the network adapter card, and Linux tells you what you need to delete or add to make the new configuration work. Finally, VMware® ESX Server is also very aware of what hardware it is being installed on and is able to self-configure to a great extent.
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− Windows 2003 R2 − Windows 2003 R2 patch − SQL Server 2005
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VDisk 5: − Windows 2003 R2 − Windows 2003 R2 patch − SQL Server 2005 − SQL Server 2005 patch
What happens if part of the installation fails? Imagine that you get all the way through the Windows 2003 R2, Windows 2003 R2 patch, and SQL Server 2005
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Protecting Installations
How often has this happened to you? You build a server for a vendor to install his or her product on, only when the vendor installs the application, he or she destroys the operating system installation. With DAS, you have a lot of work ahead of you to rebuild the operating system. Xiotech’s storage systems provide a quick and easy option to protect your operating system from unintentional corruption. Simply make a copy of the operating system before the vendor arrives. If the installation goes well, you can delete the copy. If the vendor makes a mistake, then copy the recently made operating system VDisk over the original VDisk and let the vendor start again. This enables quick recovery of failed installations—just like when you apply your own patches and upgrades.
volume, you can expand the VDisk on the fly, and again, depending on the operating system, add the space with no downtime to the server. For Windows servers, this expansion process also grows the filesystem on the fly, enabling applications to continue to run without interruption or need for you to use Windows Diskpart to extend the volume. ICON Manager also frees you from using Windows dynamic disks in order to easily manage volume expansion. All ICON Manager functions for Windows servers operate on basic disks without you having to learn or use Diskpart whatsoever. Furthermore, in Windows environments, Xiotech’s Intelligent Provisioning capability enables you to set a policy such that when the volume’s filesystem (NTFS) grows to exceed a certain percentage of the volume’s space, the volume will be automatically expanded by a specified amount. This growth is completely transparent to applications and allows for controlled growth and guaranteed allocation—unlike thin provisioning methods that permit uncontrolled growth and deliver unguaranteed allocation, resulting in potential system crashes, downtime, data corruption and other negative outcomes.
Adding Capacity
How do you add more capacity to a server? With DAS, you must back up the server and take it offline. Then you must add disks to the server, reboot it, recognize the new disks, and restore the data. This is very risky, not to mention all the downtime associated with the procedure. It can take several hours or even several days, especially if you are restoring multiple terabytes from tape. Xiotech eliminates the hassles of increasing both logical and physical capacity for a server.
Adding Physical Capacity
When more physical disk space is needed, you can add it to Xiotech storage systems without the servers being aware, without a reboot to the system or the servers, and without users knowing it happened. Mixing and Matching Drives: What happens when you want to add more physical space to a server? Assuming this is easy (which it usually is not), you may have to match the size and spindle speed of the drive to add it to your array. If you don’t, then you lose valuable disk space. For example, if you have a typical older RAID 5 set with three 18GB drives and you want to add more disk space, all you have to do is add another 18GB drive. The problem is, no one sells 18GB drives anymore. You have to buy a much larger drive (for example, a 146GB drive) and add that to the set, but you can only use 18GB of the drive because of server software limitations. Your other option is to replace all your 18GB drives with larger capacity units and lose your original drive investment. What a waste! With the Magnitude 3D family, you can mix drive sizes and speeds within the same system and efficiently
Adding Logical Capacity
Using ICON Manager, you can create volumes and assign them to a server in a matter of seconds. When a server needs more capacity, you can add the space right away with no downtime (depending on the server operating system). If additional space is needed on the same
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use all the space on all the drives. You can even use different tiers of storage altogether:
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Solid state disk for extremely response-timesensitive and high-performance applications Enterprise Fibre Channel for mission-critical applications and data Economy Fibre Channel for important but lower-performance applications Serial ATA (SATA) for longer-term storage and archiving This is investment protection at its best! If you fill a cabinet half full with 146GB drives and a year later want to add space, you can add 300GB drives right next to the 146GB drives; they even can be different spindle speeds. You do not lose disk space on the 300GB drives; you use it all, yet you do not have to get rid of your 146GB drives. Just leave them in there.
Perhaps the server was initially configured with RAID 10, but it is being used for longterm storage. You could increase capacity utilization by changing it to RAID 5.
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Many administrators will not change the RAID level because of the pain involved and the potential for a serious outage involving many hours of downtime. Changing the RAID configuration on DAS involves a destructive rebuild of the server, requiring you to:
• Back up all the data on the drives
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• (Potentially) back up the data a second time • Wipe the drive configuration clean • Rebuild the RAID set • Reinstall the operating system • Reinstall backup software • Restore from tape
This could take many hours. Not to mention that it puts your data at significant risk! With ICON Manager, you can change RAID configurations while the server is running, with end users actively working, without any downtime.
Changing RAID Types
What possible reason could you have for changing the RAID configuration on a server? Perhaps an existing server is underutilized and is configured to use RAID 5. You want to install SQL Server 2005 but are concerned about performance, knowing that RAID 10 would perform better.
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Upgrading Server Hardware
New server hardware is available roughly every 12-18 months. If your business depends on efficiency of your servers, why not upgrade every 18 months to the latest server hardware? You can also deploy virtual servers on the new server hardware. Hardware upgrades can be time-consuming activities and often are performed alongside a server operating system upgrade. With DAS, changing hardware requires downtime and many hours of backup and restore functions. A typical hardware upgrade with DAS requires you to:
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Perhaps you have a server that is running an application, such as Oracle® 11i, that requires high performance. You did not build the server but are now responsible for it, and it uses RAID 5. Changing the configuration to RAID 10 would dramatically improve performance.
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Back up the original server Configure the new hardware
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server. Once fixed, this can become your spare. You have effectively reduced your downtime from hours to a few minutes.
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Multiple-OS Support: Because Xiotech’s storage systems support multiple operating systems simultaneously, including multiple virtual operating systems, you can keep one server on hand as a spare for any server running an Intel-based operating system. That includes VMware ESX Server, Windows, Linux, NetWare, among others. Server Maintenance Agreement Savings: What good is a 24x7, 4-hour server maintenance agreement if you have to wait for the replacement part to be delivered? If there is something wrong with a server, your server is down while you wait for a technician—that could mean four hours or more that end users cannot access data and applications. If you have a spare server on hand, you can point the spare server to the VDisk and have the server up and running in the time it takes to make a phone call to support. You can save money by having only a 9x5 maintenance agreement. You can swap the problem server out with your spare and address the issue during normal business hours because end users continue to have access to data and applications through the new server.
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Install the operating system on the new server Install the backup software on the new server Restore the data from tape to the new server Verify that all data is intact
What is the real reason hardware upgrades are so painful? Your disk is inside your server! If the disk was not tied to the server, then you could simply move your disk to the new server. On typical server platforms, you cannot just move a RAID controller from one server to another; the configuration will typically be lost and you will have to rebuild from scratch. Xiotech’s storage systems separate storage from servers, so server hardware upgrades take place with very little downtime. All you have to do is unplug the old server, plug in the new one, point the new server to the same VDisk the old server used, and in a couple of minutes you have a server operating with new hardware. Once again, minutes instead of hours! Let’s look at how the ability to quickly and easily upgrade server hardware might impact your organization and your job.
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Remote Server Sparing: What happens if your server goes down on the weekend and you live an hour away? Do you really want to drive into the office to fix the problem? With ICON Manager, you can monitor and configure storage from remote locations through a WAN or VPN-on-WAN connection. If a server fails, just point your spare server to the VDisk and have someone at the data center turn it on. The server is back up and running and you never had to leave home. If your server has remote-boot capabilities, you do not even have to call anyone; just tell the server to reboot, and your work is complete.
Server Sparing
If you have servers without disk in them, your servers boot from their assigned VDisks, and you can upgrade the physical server in minutes. How could you better address server failure? Keep a spare server on hand. If a server fails, instead of trying to fix it while the server is down, point your spare server at the same VDisk, turn the server on, and the new server takes over the job of the failed unit. You now can try to figure out what happened to the other
Lease Replacements
If you have servers on a lease program, how do you return a server when the lease is over, especially when there is data on it? If the server boots from and all its
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data is on a Xiotech storage system, simply unplug the old server and replace it with a new unit. Now that the pain of replacing servers is eliminated, you can move to a shorter lease cycle—perhaps two years instead of three. Your organization can keep up with server technology and reduce lease costs because residual value is higher at the end of the shorter term. Another unexpected cost that organizations incur is at the end of the lease cycle. If the leased equipment is not returned on time, then additional, unbudgeted lease payments have to be made. Many times, the reason for delinquent equipment return is the pain and time associated with migrating the data to new equipment. With Xiotech’s storage systems, replacing servers is quick and easy, making it more likely that leased equipment is returned on time.
both servers are compatible). What if your VDisk is 500GB? How about 1TB or greater? How do you move so much data in so little time? Xiotech has a simple answer: You don’t! After all, the fastest way to move data is to not move it at all. Xiotech’s solution for this DAS migration nightmare is easy. If an existing Windows 2003 server has data volumes on a Magnitude 3D 4000 system, all you have to do to move your data is change the pointers. For instance, if you want to migrate your data to a new Windows 2003 R2 installation, simply change the pointer for the VDisks from the Windows 2003 server to the Windows 2003 R2 server. This entire unassignment and reassignment process is just four clicks in ICON Manager. That’s all—you have just migrated your data… in seconds. You could even use the same server. Xiotech’s storage systems simplify the management of data to the point that tens of terabytes can be dismounted on one server and mounted on another server in seconds.
Consolidating Servers & Migrating Data
Server consolidation is a time-consuming process. How do you move terabytes of data efficiently? The most common method is backup and restore. Why? If your data is already on a Xiotech storage system and you want to consolidate servers, point your VDisk to the server you want to move it to, have your server rescan for disks, and you’ve moved potentially huge amounts of data with minimal effort—all in less than a minute. This is a big enough issue to expound on it a little more. For example, if you have a Windows 2003 server and you want to migrate to Windows 2003 R2, how would you do this today? You probably would buy another server, install Windows 2003 R2 from scratch, and then spend hours either using a utility to copy data from one server to the other or possibly using the tried and true back-up-one-server-and-restoreto-another method (assuming the tape drives in
Supporting Heterogeneous Networks
Many storage systems cannot work with more than a couple of operating systems. If a system works well with Windows and Linux, it generally does not work well with UNIX® platforms. If it works well with UNIX platforms, it does not work well with other, non-UNIX systems. Very few storage platforms work well—if support is offered at all—with NetWare. But Xiotech’s storage systems are different. The Magnitude 3D family works with all common operating systems, including VMware ESX Server, several flavors of UNIX, and Mac® OS. Why can Xiotech’s storage systems work with all these operating systems, but other storage systems cannot? From the very beginning, Xiotech has designed its systems to isolate each VDisk to the worldwide name (WWN) of the server’s Fibre Channel adapter or the IP address of the server’s iSCSI network interface card (NIC). This is a very simple process: ICON Manager can change volume assignment to a server in just seconds. Because of the ability to isolate a VDisk to a WWN or IP address, multiple operating systems can access the same storage pool, and they never see disks assigned to other servers. This is what allows Windows, Linux, ESX Server, NetWare, Mac OS, HP-UX, IBM® AIX®,
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Sun™ Solaris™, and most other UNIX operating systems to coexist on the same storage system, at the same time, without any concern about servers seeing each other’s disks.
management board in the server, once the server is hooked up and plugged in, you can do everything remotely!
Centralized OS Rollout
Xiotech’s Magnitude 3D family even has the ability to copy a server image from one location to another across long distances. If you have multiple sites, you can build a standard server and deploy it to each remote location and, using the techniques mentioned immediately above, deploy servers remotely.
Server Clustering
In the same way that you can isolate Magnitude 3D VDisks to only be seen by one server, you also can allow multiple servers to see the same VDisk. Again, this is a simple process—two mouse clicks with ICON Manager. Xiotech’s storage systems have been integral in the development of Novell’s and Microsoft’s server clustering solutions. Why? Because changes can be made so fast it significantly reduces the development time of these companies’ products. Xiotech’s storage systems also support VMware clustering (at both the physical and virtual levels) and clustering software from other vendors, such as Symantec, Sun, and HP .
Building a Test Lab
Everyone wants a great test lab, but usually cannot afford to buy the equipment to duplicate their server configuration. Xiotech’s storage systems offer extreme flexibility and allow you to cost-effectively build a truly useful test lab configuration.
Server/Application Upgrade Testing
What is the real reason organizations do not upgrade to the latest operating system, application, or patch when it first comes out? Because they have to test it. Building a test environment takes a lot of time. Furthermore, when you build that test server from scratch, it is a clean system with no skeletons in the directories, so your test is not totally accurate. Xiotech gives you that time back, and makes your tests realistic. Because you can copy Magnitude 3D VDisks internally, you can make a VDisk that is an exact copy of your operating system, including data, initialization files, overall configuration, applications, everything. This VDisk can be loaded on a test lab server, and the patch/upgrade/application can be tested on an exact copy of the server to get a realistic idea of how the actual production system will perform.
Deploying Servers Remotely
You must deploy a new server, but you are not onsite and do not have anyone onsite who can perform the installation. Does that sound familiar? Do you have someone who can hook up a server and plug it in? Probably. So have them do that. Using Xiotech’s remote management capabilities, you can create VDisks, copy VDisks, and point them at servers. Internal to the system, you can take a copy of an already installed operating system (such as from the extra VDisks created earlier) and assign it to the server. Have someone reboot the server, and you are off and running. Better yet, if you have a remote
“Playing” in Your Test Lab
If you have a typical test lab, you have three servers and must be particular about what you put on each one in order to have a variety of platforms to support your needs. Why be constrained like that? With those same servers booting from a Magnitude 3D 4000 storage system, you can go from having three servers with everything installed on them to having as many three-server configurations as your
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effective (in FTE burden and time) than tapebased backup. Imagine that you have 10 remote sites and need to back up one server at each site. The way most administrators do that today is to perform a backup to a tape drive that is local to each server. This is an expensive proposition when you consider that tape drives (and tapes) cost at least as much as servers do. Additionally, how often is the tape actually replaced by the person designated to do that? Often, the tape cartridge remains in the drive and is overwritten every night. Using available backup software, consider backing up your servers to disk across the WAN to a central site. At this point, the server’s data is actually protected, as it’s at another location. Then when you are at work the next day, during normal hours, you can control the backup process and make sure that the tapes are changed. When a restore is actually needed, it is probably because the server is not functional. The restore of that system can be performed at your main location—where you happen to be most of the time—and then delivered to the remote site when the restored server is ready to be put in place.
system can support. You can build a VDisk for each of the three servers to house the base configuration. You can copy those three VDisks and load one application on the servers. When you need to play around and test a different application (or operating system), just point to different VDisks and reboot the servers. Imagine that you start with three VMware virtual machines. You can point the servers to different VDisks, reboot them, and be running Windows 2003. You can do it again for SUSE® Linux. Or you might have a VMware virtual machine, a Windows 2003 server, and a Linux server. It comes down to what you want to have set up and functioning. When you need one operating system, just fire it up and have fun.
Accelerating Time to Market
Are you developing an application? Do you want to test it on multiple operating systems? What better way than to utilize your Magnitude 3D system’s capabilities to boot different operating systems? Simply pull up a clean copy of the operating system on a server and install the latest version of the application, or you can test upgrading an application from a previous version. Xiotech’s virtualized storage makes it easy.
Automation
Everything you can do manually on Xiotech’s storage systems, you can also do automatically. Xiotech’s innovative Web Services API enables storage provisioning and control from Web Services-aware applications. Common, standardized interfaces and sample code is included with ICON Manager. For example, you can provision, reprovision, control, manage, and report on Magnitude 3D 4000 storage from an Excel spreadsheet, all automatically, via Web Services. This innovative and powerful approach will also permit applications (e.g., database, ERP CRM) , that are Web Services aware to manage their own storage, further reducing the administrative burden on the IT staff. The IT staff remains in control, but the “grunt work” of manually provisioning and managing storage is removed.
Improving Backups
Backups present a constant challenge for every network administrator. In reality, it is not the backups, but the restores that cause most of the problems. Diskbased backup—whether alone or in conjunction with tape—offers faster, easier restores, and is becoming more common and more affordable. Xiotech is not saying that tape is disappearing as a data storage medium. However, disk-based backup— whether alone or in conjunction with tape—is becoming more common, and is arguably more cost-
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Other IT Benefits
Smaller Data Center Footprint
With data center space becoming more and more valuable, the more efficient use of space, the better. Xiotech storage allows you to maximize floor space by deploying thin, blade, and virtual servers. Today, up to 240 blade servers can be mounted in a single rack, all booting from the same Magnitude 3D system. Imagine, in just two standard server racks, you could have 240 servers plus hundreds of terabytes of flexible, virtualized, clustered storage capacity.
today. If you need more capacity, you can add drives without any downtime to the storage system, servers, applications, or end-user productivity.
Reallocation of Unused Space
When a server no longer needs some of the space allocated to it, you can delete the VDisk. This immediately places the deleted space back into the pool of available storage to then be assigned to another server. With most other storage arrays, you must reconfigure and/or reboot the array to recover and reuse the deleted space. With Xiotech’s systems, recovery and reuse are immediate.
Effective Standards Management
Xiotech’s storage systems make standardizing on a specific server platform easier than with many other nonvirtual, nonclustered storage systems. As you replace servers, you can purchase a standard server platform, or virtualize servers on a standard platform. Because diskless servers are less expensive and no longer tied to storage, they may be replaced more often, hastening deployment of a unified platform throughout your organization.
Data Availability, Replication, & Recovery
Xiotech’s Magnitude 3D storage systems offer several options that help you protect data and applications from local disaster—and recover them quickly if the need arises.
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Distributed Cluster Architecture: Unlike most other storage systems on the market today, Magnitude 3D solutions are not tied to a single rack or a single location. You can separate components to best meet your organization’s needs. Automatic failover and failback both within the controller and across cluster components ensure continued availability in the case of a local outage. DataScale GeoRAID: DataScale GeoRAID software adds a layer of data protection exclusive to Xiotech’s systems. When enabled, DataScale GeoRAID automatically writes data to two separate physical locations within the storage cluster. If one of the locations goes down, data and application access is automatically redirected to the remaining site. And, with GeoRAID, you only have a single VDisk to manage. DataScale GeoReplication: DataScale GeoReplication software enables you to easily copy, mirror, and swap operating systems, applications, and data among multiple Magnitude family storage systems. If a system or site goes down, simply repoint servers to the disaster recovery system and bring them back online.
Painless Capacity Planning
Many organizations staff a position specifically to estimate future storage needs so they can acquire the capacity before their capacity runs out. Xiotech’s storage systems practically eliminate the need for capacity planning because you only have to purchase what you need
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Summary
Xiotech’s storage systems dramatically simplify normal administrative tasks, reduce downtime to end users, and reduce weekend and night-time work for IT staff. Xiotech reduces administrative effort from hours to minutes—and saves your organization money in the process. To learn more about how Xiotech’s products and services can help relieve your server management and other storage-related challenges, contact your local Xiotech representative, visit www.xiotech.com, or call Xiotech’s corporate headquarters toll free at 1.866.472.6764.
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IMPORTANT NOTICE
By accepting, reviewing, or using this document, you, as the recipient, agree to be bound by the terms of this notice. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Names and data used in examples are fictitious unless otherwise noted. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred. Xiotech and/or its licensors may have patents or pending patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering the subject matter in this document. The configuration(s) tested or described in this document may not be the only available solution(s). This document is not intended (nor may it be construed) as an endorsement of any product(s) tested, as a determination of product quality or correctness, or as assurance of compliance with any legal, regulatory, or other requirements. This document provides no warranty of any kind, including, but not limited to, any express, statutory, or implied warranties, whether this document is considered alone or in addition to any product warranty (limited warranties for Xiotech products are stated in separate documentation accompanying or relating to each product). No direct or indirect damages or any remedy of any kind shall be recoverable by the recipient or any third party for any claim or loss in any way arising or alleged to arise from or as a result of this document, whether considered alone or in addition to any other claim.
Xiotech, Magnitude 3D, Magnitude, Dimensional Storage Cluster, TimeScale, DataScale, and GeoRAID are trademarks or registered trademarks of Xiotech Corporation. All other trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners. The reproduction of any trademark or service mark, registered or otherwise, belonging to any third party appears in this document for the purposes of identification of the goods or services of that third party only. No license of any kind is provided by Xiotech and/or its licensors to any party because of this document. No right or title in any mark or other proprietary interest is transferred by Xiotech and/or its licensors to any party because of this document. The Intelligent Control (ICON) management platform employs an Intel® processor. © 2002-2007 Xiotech Corporation. All rights reserved. PN 070160-1207
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