HP StorageWorks XP Mainframe Disk Array and Solutions for Data Storage Archiving

HP StorageWorks XP mainframe disk array and solutions for data storage archiving white paper Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 2 Technical development ......................................................................................................................... 2 Developments in data volume................................................................................................................ 4 Legal prerequisites ............................................................................................................................... 5 Data storage ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Requirements for file protection—data privacy ........................................................................................ 6 Choice of medium ............................................................................................................................... 6 Operation requirements........................................................................................................................ 7 Demands on the archive system............................................................................................................. 7 For more information............................................................................................................................ 9 Introduction The rapidly increasing quantities of data generated in the last couple of years, in particular the electronic data, meant that a larger amount of data must be archived. Businesses recently noted that the time it takes to double the data volume has steadily decreased. Today, it takes about less than a year. At the same time, software and especially hardware technologies have also undergone rapid changes, making it difficult to give a long-term forecast as to which technology will be around in the next five, ten, or more years. A data archive must be serviceable over a long period of time and should not be dependent on the choice of technology. Future upgrades of the technology should not lead to data loss (unreadable data), which would under these circumstances lead to a violation in the legal retention period of the data. This white paper discusses the demands for data archiving and offers suggestions for meeting these demands. This paper does not deal with the software applications needed to create these data archives. Technical development Developments and changes in technology are occurring over ever shorter periods of time and this is especially true for storage media and devices. The availability of newer technologies has little effect on data storage or archiving. The result is that older technology is removed faster from the market, and the time span before having to plan and upgrade a system will be shorter. At the present time, it is considered that hardware technology changes occur in six-year cycles. This means that data archives will have to be copied over to a newer storage medium within their useful and legal retention periods because of the incompatibilities between the newer technology and older storage media. The demands of the user are an important consideration and have also influenced the development of the technology. The user expects faster data availability even with the rapidly increasing volumes of data or number of users. Another aspect is that changing to the newest available technology should be implemented immediately to avoid coming too early to the next upgrade. A system environment is seldom homogenous and data archives may not only reside on mainframe (OS/390, zOS) machines but also on other systems (Microsoft® Windows®, UNIX®, and Linux). Increasing amounts of other data, that is, emails, must also be archived. The preceding points lead to having to upgrade the technology, even though the older technology is still useful, or as an alternative, use a technology that allows independent transparent data migration. The next scenario describes the effect that the upgrade of a technology has on archived data. After twelve years it is necessary to make a change in the present technology, as the manufacturer no longer offers or even supports the older technology. Every year, 1 TB of data is generated, and the data has a legal retention period of twelve years. As a consequence, data using the present technology will not be read or processed by newer technologies. 2 The effects of storing data after six years on a newer technology can be seen in Figure 1. Figure 1. TB After 8 years: End of life for the product 4 years maintenance 12 12TB 12TB 12 Years Fixed on one technology 3 Participate on changes after six years in storage technology can be seen in Figure 2. Figure 2. TB 12 6 TB 6 TB 6 TB 6 Using old and new technology 12 Year Developments in data volume Studies show that the data volume of a company increases more rapidly than the business volume. If one assumes that in 1997 the worldwide volume of data doubled within one year, in 2000 it is considered to have doubled in six to eight months. This increase in the volume of data leads to increased storage needs, but not necessarily to the same extent, and can nevertheless be assumed to have had a non-linear increase. One reason is the legal requirements such as those enacted after September 11 in the United States in the fight against terrorism. From the user’s point of view, rapid access to the data is necessary, and this has an impact on the technology and organization of the data archive. But it is important that the user has constant access to the archived data. As increasing volumes of data make it necessary to expand an archive or upgrade a technology, users must not be unnecessarily obstructed. Transferring a large volume of data onto a new storage medium during an upgrade, without hindering the users, presents a substantial challenge. 4 Legal prerequisites The statutory prerequisites for businesses, book-keeping standards, and data protection (consumer protection) are defined by government regulations and build the legal framework for data archiving. Highlights of the main points from the German GoDV: • Archived data has to be secure against forgery and subject to audit. • Archived data has to be complete and permanently readable. • The correct transfer of archived data has to be ensured during system upgrades. • The functionality of the data medium has to be periodically documented. • An expert third party must be able to understand the procedures in a short time. • Storage procedures must be documented. • Archived data has to be able to withstand legal inquiry. The requirements for data storage archives vary throughout the world. Figure 3 shows the different regulations in various countries. Figure 3. SBF advantis Government regulation Canadian Electronic Evidence Act Basel II Capital Accord Electronic Ledger Storage Law (Japan) 11MEDIS-DC (Japan) SEC 17a-4 (USA) HIPAA (USA) ISO 18501/18509 AIPA (Italy) GDPdU & GoBS (Germany) NF Z 42-013 (France) Public Records Office (UK) BSI PD0008 (UK) Financial Services Authority (UK) FDA 21 CRF Part 11 Sarbanes-Oxley Act (USA) SBF advantis GmbH & Co. KG, V1.0, Jan2005 6 5 Data storage Measures against archive forgery can be ensured through the choice of the correct software and control techniques. Technical possibilities such as a write once only medium (WORM, or write once, read many) can support this aim. The requirement for an evaluation of the functionality of the data media is, with the present development in techniques, difficult to establish. Under correct storage conditions the life-span for magnetic tape is 30 years and for optical media 50 years. After this time the data will be destroyed as the medium begins to disintegrate. It is important for the future functionality of the data medium that a technology is available that is capable of reading the data medium. This is very dependent on the development in technology: An innovative technology today is out-dated within a few years, although usable for a limited time (20 years maximum) provided that the manufacturer is still in business and maintains and supports the technology. Requirements for file protection—data privacy The requirements for file protection and data privacy in Germany are difficult to meet. With writeonce media, data cannot be erased from the same medium after the prescribed retention period, and reusable optical or magnetic storage data media do not fulfill the requirements for data privacy or the demands for forgery protection. WORM technology with compatible software can be set up as a backend device. Government requirements demand that rules and procedures are implemented to maintain the original database and this must be documented and secured by hardware and software processes (including copy transfers by technical upgrades). Similar regulations exist throughout the world, but unfortunately with little agreement between them in their purpose or extent. The most common aims in the regulations are to ensure the fastest possible data access and permanent data availability. Choice of medium As mentioned, there are no legal requirements for the type of data medium. Neither does the GoDV in Germany prescribe any particular type of data medium. Other aspects enter into the choice of data medium. Various data media can be used depending on factors such as legal retention periods of the data and the lifetime of the medium, allowing a balanced choice between costs and benefits. Currently there is a trend back from the optical storage medium to magnetic tape. Large financial institutes increasingly choose storing large archives on magnetic tape. Some providers of the optical medium have left the market (Kodak), which has added the increased uncertainty for its use in the future. It is therefore advisable to choose the best available technology at the time to avoid having to make another change sooner than necessary. Storage onto magnetic tape is less expensive and the increasing volumes of storage have made this an attractive choice, but the technique only partly fulfills the demands for fast information retrieval. Only through a combination of different data media can the demands on a modern archive technology be fulfilled. 6 Data can be protected by implementing the HP StorageWorks family with WORM capability. The advantage of this protection is that data cannot be written over and provides for a transparent technical upgrade (increasing disk capacity, replacing disks, and so on) without interrupting the application. One special advantage is that disk space from expired data can be reused for new data, thus fulfilling various legal regulations. Operation requirements The previous discussion suggested that it cannot be assumed that business systems are homogenous computer environments, and this will remain so as further developments can be expected. Statutory requirements demand that data be readable for 20, 30, or 100 years and along with the lifespan of the data medium, another important aspect is the future availability of the present technology and system platform. Other important points include: • How can permanent availability of the archived data be assured? • How can the increasing numbers of users be assured reasonable access to the archived data? • How can it be assured that users have access only to the data they are authorized to? • How can the costs for a necessary upgrade be minimized? • How can it be assured that the old archived data can be processed by the new system? • What happens to archived data with changes in the system platform? • How can the possibilities of the newer technology be best used? • What other mechanisms are necessary to satisfy the statutory requirements? These questions and the previous discussion can be used to suggest a profile for an archive system. Demands on the archive system The main challenges of an archive storage system are as previously described—changes in technology occur in shorter intervals, rapid increase in the volume of archived data, availability of the increasing volume of archived data for an increasing number of users on different platforms and various clients. The following points should be taken into consideration: • The archive system must not be dependent on the hardware platform, and upgrades should not limit its function. And the reverse, the structure of the archive system should not limit the use of the newer technologies • Management and control of the archive should not be dependent on the system platform used to create the data archive. Propriety solutions should be avoided. • Upgrades to the system such as additional storage media or devices should not interrupt the system operation. • Upgrades in technology should not interfere with the availability of the archives (the archive system should control copying the data onto the new medium). • File protection should ensure, with the increasing volumes of data from different clients, a logical separation of the client data and limit data access to those working with the client. • Changes in the archived data must be understandable for revision, and this includes the transferring of data onto another medium when making an upgrade. 7 • Access to or manipulation of the archived data should only occur by way of an established procedure between the archive system and the user system. Software that is able to manipulate the data archive must not be allowed on the system. • New or upgraded system platforms should not influence the storing of archived data. • The demands for data protection must be fulfilled. For example, the archive system erases or makes data inaccessible, after the retention period has been exceeded. The result is that this space will be made available for new data written to the archive. This means if you make only the data unavailable you have a hole on the medium and the quantity of physical space is the same as before. For these circumstances you need a system to condense data (space reclamation) and make this transparent to the application in a secure way. • As the number of users increases, the archive system should ensure equal availability to all users, especially in a reasonable amount of time. • The archive system must remain functional, despite the increase in the volumes of archived data. HP offers various archiving systems for mainframe and open-systems platforms and the knowledge to find the right solution for your requirements. 8 For more information • Archiving & Active Archiving http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/archivalstorage.html • HP StorageWorks Ultra Density Optical Jukeboxes http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/udojukeboxes/index.html ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/storageworks/30gbwodisks/UDO-Warranty.pdf • XP LDEV Guard and Open LDEV Guard support manual http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00433446/c00433446.pdf • HP StorageWorks External Storage XP http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/extstxp/index.html • HP StorageWorks Storage Media Ultrium Tape http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/products/storagemedia/tape_ultrium/overview.html © 2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. UNIX is a trademark of the Open Group. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. 4AA0-3329ENW, Rev. 2, January 2006