IBM SmartCloud Storage Access and supported storage systems
This chapter provides an introduction to the storage systems that IBM SmartCloud Storage Access supports.
This chapter also includes a high-level architecture overview, and describes the features of each of the storage subsystems that IBM SmartCloud Storage Access supports.
5.1 IBM SmartCloud Storage Access Supported storage systems
In an information technology (IT) environment, storage infrastructure is a key component. Any storage infrastructure will have a disk storage system back-end. IBM SmartCloud Storage Access can support some of the storage subsystems directly, and others are supported through a virtualization system. One of the most attractive features released in IBM SmartCloud Storage Access version 1.2 is the support for block storage provisioning. IBM SmartCloud Storage Access continues to support the file storage that was supported in the previous version.
The following list shows the comprehensive collection of IBM SmartCloud Storage Access supported storage subsystems:
•Enterprise Storage System
– IBM XIV (block Storage)
– IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (file storage)
•Storage virtualization system
– IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SAN Volume Controller) for block storage
•Midrange storage subsystem
– IBM Storwize V7000 (block storage and virtualization system for block storage)
– IBM Storwize V7000 Unified (block storage, file storage, and virtualization system for block storage)
The following sections describe each of these storage subsystems briefly.
5.2 IBM SmartCloud Storage Access and block storage virtualization support
IBM SmartCloud Storage Access supports three block storage virtualization systems, as described in 5.1, “IBM SmartCloud Storage Access Supported storage systems” on page 88. This section describes storage virtualization at a high level.
Storage virtualization, such as server virtualization, is one of the foundations of building a flexible and reliable infrastructure. Storage virtualization enables companies to better align their business and IT needs.
The biggest boon of using virtualization systems is that they allow enterprises to continue to use their existing storage systems. The benefits of the storage virtualization can be reaped at a lower total cost of investment.
Storage virtualization enables an organization to implement pools of storage across physically separate disk systems (which might be from different vendors). Storage can then be deployed from these pools, and can be moved between pools without any outage of the attached host systems. Storage virtualization provides a set of tools for advanced functions, such as instant copy and remote mirroring solutions, which means that deploying storage can be performed using a single tool regardless of the underlying storage hardware.
With IBM SmartCloud Storage Access version 1.2 support for SAN Volume Controller, Storwize V7000, and Storwize V7000 Unified, existing storage infrastructures can be migrated to storage cloud at a lower total cost of investment.
Figure 5-1 shows storage virtualization at a high level.
Figure 5-1 Storage virtualization
5.3 IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage
IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage is designed to embrace and deliver cloud storage in the petabyte (PB) age. IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage can meet storage challenges in quick and cost-effective ways. With IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage, IT-enabled business can grow on an unprecedented scale.
IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage can also deliver storage services that make the supporting technology almost invisible. It enables applications and services to be uncoupled from the underlying infrastructure, enabling businesses to adjust and change quickly. As a result, IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage can easily integrate with any organization’s strategies to develop a more dynamic enterprise.
IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage is enterprise class network-attached storage (NAS) that can be linearly scaled to meet growing demands of capacity and performance.
5.3.1 IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage highlights
The following list shows some of the highlights of IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage:
•Accommodate capacity growth with scale-out performance for both random-access and streaming file workloads.
•Enable ubiquitous access to files between IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage and Storwize V7000 systems across the globe. This can be achieved quickly and cost-effectively with IBM Active Cloud Engine®. Active Cloud Engine enables disaster recovery and business continuity.
•Enable cloud storage through seamless integration with IBM SmartCloud Storage Access.
•Lower the total cost of investment by up to 40% with automated lifecycle management and migration to tape.
•Provide gateway options for XIV, IBM System Storage DCS3700, and Storwize V7000 disk systems.
•Deliver high performance with a new performance module and drive support with up to 360 drives.
5.3.2 IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage features and benefits
The following list describes some of the key features and benefits of using IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage:
•Provide massive scalability:
– Supports billions of files (up to 15 PB of storage) in a single global file system.
– Supports up to 256 global file systems.
•Provide increased flexibility:
– Enables access to data in a single global namespace, providing all users a single, logical view of files through a single drive letter, such as a Z drive.
– Provides efficient distribution of files, images, application updates, and fixes to multiple locations quickly and cost-effectively.
– Supports lower-cost Storwize V7000 Unified systems at remote branches, and still enables an aggregated view and centralized management of all files.
– Offers internal (serial-attached SCSI (SAS) and near-line SAS) and external (tape) storage pools, along with automated, policy-based file placement and migration.
– Provides multiple storage tiers for flexible, efficient management of PBs of files.
– Supports industry-standard protocols:
• Common Internet File System (CIFS)
• Network File System (NFS)
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)
– Includes up to two dual-port 10 GbE cards per interface node, which provides each interface node with more flexibility, connectivity, and performance enablement. Offers additional connectivity to manage multiple data streams and functions:
• Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP)
• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
• Antivirus or asynchronous replication
• Both antivirus and asynchronous replication
•Provide operational savings and lower total cost of ownership (TCO):
– Enables consolidation of multiple individual files and their management, thereby avoiding problems associated with administering an array of islands of NAS storage systems.
– Localizes files to improve file access performance and reduced network costs.
– Automates file placement by transparently moving files to tiered internal or external storage pools. This optimizes storage resources, and offers tremendous time and cost savings in administering PBs of files.
– Tivoli Storage Manager enables automated file migration to external storage devices (for example, tape) to help lower TCO by up to 40% over the long term.
– Helps conserve floor space (up to 1 PB of data in less than a square meter), is highly scalable, and can help reduce capital expenditure and enhance operational efficiency. Its advanced architecture virtualizes and consolidates file space into a single, enterprise-wide file system, which can translate into reduced TCO.
•Provide data protection:
– Asynchronous replication for site-to-site protection provides disaster recovery and business continuity.
– File system and fileset-level snapshots (up to 256 per file system) provide a way to partition the namespace into smaller, more manageable units.
– File-level cloning provides a full file copy at better granularity.
– Tivoli Storage Manager integration provides efficient and extremely fast backup and restore processes, in addition to policy-driven migration of files to an external disk system or tape-based disk.
– NDMP support provides both full and incremental file backup.
– Provides Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) 6 support.
•Provide cloud storage:
– Active Cloud Engine provides ubiquitous access to files from across the globe quickly and cost-effectively.
– Enables enterprises to implement a cloud storage solution where users can request and receive storage capacity with just a few clicks, and administrators can easily monitor and report usage with IBM SmartCloud Storage Access.
– Self-managing, autonomic system enables capacity, provisioning, and other IT Service Management decisions to be made dynamically, without human intervention or increased administrative costs.
– Seamless elasticity enables enterprises to scale computing resources up or down, as required to meet changing organizational needs, without service interruption.
– Highly resilient and secure applications and an underlying infrastructure help meet expected levels of availability, reliability, and integrity.
– Highly standardized environment facilitates simultaneous service deployment and upgrades for all users, no matter where they are.
•Continue antivirus protection:
– Integrates with McAfee and Symantec AntiVirus, enabling users to secure data from malware and take advantage of the most commonly deployed antivirus applications.
•Provide management capabilities:
– Command-line interface (CLI) functions and a browser-based, simple, intuitive, state-of-the-art administrative GUI provide icon-based navigation, informative graphics, and IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage visualizations that streamline storage tasks and display real-time capacity, performance, and system health information.
– Optional IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center V5.1 (or later) helps to manage IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage, providing discovery and visualization, health status monitoring, and capacity usage reporting. Tivoli Storage Productivity Center also enables applications to perform IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage provisioning.
•Provide storage efficiency:
– Reduces infrastructure and administrative complexity and cost, and increases resource efficiency, with a consolidated, virtualized infrastructure.
– Achieves time and cost efficiencies with tiered storage (disk and tape), and policy-driven automated file management.
– Provides scale-out performance and capacity, while managing a single, global namespace that is accessible worldwide.
5.3.3 IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage architecture
The IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage appliance consists of a minimum of two network-facing interface nodes and one or more storage pods. The interface nodes are clustered, and provide an image of a common NAS namespace to users. The IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage Cluster Manager coordinates resources and ensures data integrity across the multiple nodes in the IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage cluster.
Each interface node is capable of serving thousands of clients simultaneously. An IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage file system can have up to eight logical storage pools. IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage supports CIFS, NFS, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) file protocols. IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage provides the following abilities:
– Add more storage without an outage.
– Remove storage without taking the file system offline.
– Relocate file data to match access patterns and storage criteria appropriate to the data using a sophisticated internal and inline Active Cloud Engine.
IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage storage pod consists of two storage nodes and up to four enclosures of 60 drives, each which makes up to 240 drives per pod. Storage nodes work as a clustered pair to manage and present the storage to the IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage parallel file system (known as IBM General Parallel File System, or IBM GPFS). Up to 30 storage pods and up to 30 interface nodes can exist in an IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage appliance.
The IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage appliance can store billions of files, and can use automated policy-based management to control backups, restores, snapshots, remote replication, archiving, antivirus scanning, and Active Cloud Engine integration.
Figure 5-2 shows the hardware architecture of IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage.
Figure 5-2 IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage hardware architecture
Figure 5-3 shows IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage software architecture.
Figure 5-3 IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage software architecture
For more information about IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage, see the following website:
5.4 Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified
Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified are powerful midrange disk systems that have been designed to be easy to use, and to enable rapid deployment without additional resources. Storwize V7000 supports only block workloads, but Storwize V7000 Unified consolidates block and file workloads into a single storage system for simplicity of management and reduced cost. These systems also enable enterprises to virtualize and reuse existing disk systems, supporting a greater potential return on investment (ROI).
Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified are virtualized software-defined storage systems designed to consolidate workloads into a single storage system for simplicity of management, reduced cost, highly scalable capacity, performance, and high availability. These systems offer improved efficiency and flexibility through built-in flash memory optimization, thin provisioning, and nondisruptive migration from existing storage.
Consider the challenges that IT organizations typically face in these complex environments. Sharing storage among servers is often impossible, but relieving the problem by deploying tiered storage can be difficult. Isolated server and storage management tools reduce IT productivity. When data migration processes are implemented, they can disrupt business operations.
Meanwhile, organizations are concerned about the growing costs of storage and storage management. These organizations often are unable to use virtualized storage, such as virtual servers, to optimize expenditures, resources, and capabilities.
On today’s smarter planet, organizations are faced with massive amounts of data created by an array of new sources, including sensors, social media, mobile platforms, and more. Although the sheer volume of this new data might seem overwhelming, the value of information is stronger than ever.
Some even consider this information as the new currency of business. To help maximize the benefits of this flood of data, businesses are turning to software-defined environments, which can provide flexibility and responsiveness to business demands, higher scalability, and greater efficiency.
As the pace of innovation continues to accelerate, the Storwize platform enables rapid integration of new technologies from both IBM and third-party vendors. For example, Storwize family systems now include Bridgeworks SANSlide technology to help optimize the use of network bandwidth.
Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified are virtualized storage systems that enable businesses to respond to the demands of the rapidly changing marketplace. To complement virtualized server environments, the IBM solutions provide extraordinary performance, availability, advanced functions, and highly-scalable capacity never before seen in midrange disk systems.
In particular, Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified enable IT organizations to overcome the following complex challenges:
•Disruptive migrations
•Difficulty deploying tiered storage
•Concern about growth in storage and storage management costs
•Inability to share storage among servers
•Reduced productivity and increased cost caused by isolated server and storage management tools
•Inability to use virtualized storage in the same way as virtual servers, as a tool for optimizing expenditures, resources, and capabilities
5.4.1 Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified highlights
The following list describes highlights of Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified functionality:
•Deliver sophisticated, enterprise-class storage functionality for businesses.
•Support growing business requirements while controlling costs.
•Provide up to three times performance improvement by moving as little as 5% of data to flash memory.
•Enable storing up to five times more active primary data in the same physical disk space using IBM Real-time Compression™.
•Improve network usage for remote mirroring with innovative replication technology.
•Consolidate block and file storage for simplicity, greater efficiency, and ease of management.
•Enable near-continuous availability of applications.
•Provide easy-to-use data management, designed with a GUI and point-and-click system management capabilities.
•Use Metro Mirror and Global Mirror to replicate data, synchronously or asynchronously, between systems for backup efficiency.
•Flash memory for applications that demand high speed and quick access to data.
•Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10.
5.4.2 Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified features and benefits
The following list describes some of the features and benefits of using Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified:
•Dynamic migration provides efficiency and business value with nondisruptive migration function.
•IBM System Storage Easy Tier® provides automatic migration of frequently accessed data elements to high-performing solid-state drives (SSDs).
•Clustered systems enable growth from the smallest configurations up to systems with 960 drives (up to 1.92 PB capacity).
•Thin provisioning supports business applications that need to grow dynamically, while consuming only the space actually used.
•Unified storage (Storwize V7000 Unified) combines block and file storage requirements into a single system for simplicity and efficiency. There is a single UI for managing both block and file storage.
•IBM FlashCopy® creates a near-instant copy of active data that can be used for backup or for parallel processing activities. It supports backup for recovering corrupted data.
•Provides SSD support for applications that demand high disk speed, quick access to data, and support for tiered storage environments.
•Active Cloud Engine provides several additional functions:
– Reduces costs through policy-based file management using tiered storage, and improves data governance.
– Automates movement of less-frequently used files to lower-cost tiers of storage, including tape in a Tivoli Storage Manager system.
– Automates deletion of unwanted or expired files.
– Caches files at remote locations to help improve performance and reduce networking cost.
•IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager helps minimize the effect of backups, provides near-instant restore, shortens backup and recovery times, simplifies management, and automates routine tasks.
•Metro Mirror and Global Mirror provide the following functionality:
– Enable synchronous or asynchronous data replication between any Storwize family systems for maximum flexibility.
– Help optimize network bandwidth use with integrated Bridgeworks SANSlide technology, to reduce network costs or speed replication cycles, improving the accuracy of remote data.
•Real-time Compression helps improve efficiency by storing up to five times as much active primary data in the same physical disk space.
5.4.3 Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified architectures
The following sections, “Storwize V7000 architecture” and “Storwize V7000 Unified architecture” on page 99, describe the Storwize V7000 and Storwize V7000 Unified architectures at a high level.
Storwize V7000 architecture
Storwize V7000 provides a modular storage system that includes the capability to virtualize external storage area network (SAN)-attached storage, and virtualize its own internal storage. The IBM Storwize V7000 solution is built upon the SAN Volume Controller technology base, and uses technology from the IBM System Storage DS8000® family.
A Storwize V7000 system provides several configuration options that are aimed at simplifying the implementation process. It also provides automated wizards, called Directed Maintenance Procedures (DMPs), to help resolve any events that might occur. The Storwize V7000 system is a clustered, scalable midrange storage system, and an external virtualization device.
Figure 5-4 shows a high-level architecture of IBM Storwize V7000.
Figure 5-4 IBM Storwize V7000 Architecture overview
Included with a Storwize V7000 system is a simple and easy-to-use GUI that is designed to help you deploy storage quickly and efficiently. The GUI runs on the Storwize V7000 system, so there is no need for a separate console. The management GUI contains a series of preestablished configuration options, called presets.
Presets use commonly used settings to quickly configure objects on the system. You can use presets to create volumes and FlashCopy mappings, and to set up a RAID configuration.
The Storwize V7000 solution provides a choice of up to 240 x 3.5-inch or 480 x 2.5-inch SAS drives for the internal storage, and uses SAS cables and connectors to attach to the optional expansion enclosures.
When virtualizing external storage arrays, a Storwize V7000 system can provide up to 32 PB of usable capacity. A Storwize V7000 system supports a range of external disk systems, similar to what the SAN Volume Controller currently supports.
The Storwize V7000 solution consists of a one or two control enclosures and, optionally, up to 18 expansion enclosures (and it supports the intermixing of the different expansion enclosures). In each enclosure are two canisters. Control enclosures contain two node canisters, and expansion enclosures contain two expansion canisters.
For more information about Storwize V7000, see the following website:
Storwize V7000 Unified architecture
Storwize V7000 Unified is a combination of storage server and file server. Storwize V7000 Unified serves both file and block workloads.
To be able to serve logical volumes and files, the hardware and software to provide these services is integrated into one product. Viewed from its clients, one part of Storwize V7000 Unified is a storage server, and the other part is a file server (therefore, it is called Unified).
Storwize V7000 Unified storage subsystem: The Storwize V7000
Storwize V7000 Unified uses internal storage to generate and provide logical volumes to storage clients, therefore acting as a storage system. It is capable of the virtualization of external storage systems as well.
The storage subsystem of Storwize V7000 Unified consists of the hardware and software of the Storwize V7000 storage system. Initially, it runs the SAN Volume Controller/Storwize V7000 code level (at the time of data write).
The storage subsystem is used for the following functions:
• Provision logical volumes to external storage clients.
• Provision logical volumes to the internal storage clients, the file modules.
Storwize V7000 Unified file server subsystem: The file modules
In addition to providing logical volumes, Storwize V7000 Unified is used to provide access to file system space, and therefore to files in these file systems. It uses file sharing protocols/file access protocols and file transfer/file copy protocols, therefore acting as a file server.
The file server subsystem of Storwize V7000 Unified consists of two IBM Storwize V7000 file modules. These file modules perform the functions of the IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage software code level (at the time of writing). The file modules of Storwize V7000 Unified are internal storage clients of Storwize V7000 Unified. They use the logical volumes provided by the Storwize V7000 to save files and share files to file clients.
The base operating system (OS) of the file modules is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.1. They use a distributed file system, the GPFS, to store and retrieve files. To make the content of the GPFS accessible by file clients, the file modules use the following file sharing protocols/file access protocols:
•NFS
•Server Message Block (SMB)
•FTP
•HTTPS
•SCP
•Secure FTP (SFTP)
Figure 5-5 shows the high-level architecture of Storwize V7000 Unified with a virtualized storage system, a storage client, and a file client.
Figure 5-5 Storwize V7000 Unified architecture overview
For more information about Storwize V7000 Unified, see the following website:
5.5 IBM XIV
XIV is a high-end disk storage system enabling thousands of enterprises to meet the challenge created by staggering data growth. XIV delivers “no excuses”, hotspot-free high performance, and empowers organizations with extreme ease of use. For optimal agility in cloud and large environments, XIV offers transformative functionality:
•IBM Hyper-Scale management scalability
•High service levels for dynamic, mixed workloads,
•Tight hypervisor and OpenStack integration
The XIV Storage System is high-end disk storage that supports the need for high performance, availability, operational flexibility, and security, while helping minimize costs and complexity. Optimized to simplify storage, XIV Storage System is enabling thousands of organizations to take control of their storage and gain business insights from their data.
Designed for consistent, enterprise-level performance and high availability, XIV storage handles static and dynamic workloads with ease. While never compromising performance for reliability, the XIV grid architecture delivers massive parallelism, resulting in uniform allocation of system resources at all times. XIV storage secures your data through industry-standard data-at-rest encryption, while keeping performance uninterrupted.
5.5.1 XIV highlights
The following list includes some of the highlights of XIV functionality:
•Deliver consistent, tuning-free high performance, and provide remarkable ease of use through a grid-based architecture.
•Provide linear scaling up to 325 terabytes (TB) per array, and IBM Hyper-Scale for extreme operational agility over multiple systems.
•Enable elasticity, open-standards support, and mixed-workload affinity for optimized compute clouds and virtualized environments.
•Offer high reliability and availability by providing full redundancy, self-healing, and unprecedented rebuild speed.
•Provide compelling data economics:
– Superb price performance
– Low-touch and simplified management
– Footprint density
– Power efficiency
– All-inclusive software licensing
5.5.2 XIV features and benefits
The following list includes some of the key features and benefits of XIV:
•Grid architecture with InfiniBand interconnect
– Automated, uniform data distribution in and across XIV systems
– Fully utilized system resources at all times, including disks, processor cores, RAM, and cache, resulting in the following benefits:
• Hotspot-free, consistent, and predictable high performance for online transaction processing (OLTP)-like workloads, without the need for tuning
• Rapid disk rebuild in minutes per TB, with negligible performance effect
•Flash caching
– Up to 4.5 times performance boost for database-like workloads
– Reduced need to access data on spindles due to sizable distributed flash cache
•Exceptionally simple management tools
– Highly intuitive GUI and IBM Hyper-Scale Manager for consolidated, integrated ease of management across large XIV and cloud deployments
– Powerful CLI for complex scripting
– XIV Mobile Dashboard supporting iOS and Android-based devices to provide flexible remote monitoring of performance, health, and capacity
•Built-in advanced features
– Thousands of snapshots with virtually no performance effect
– IBM Hyper-Scale Consistency for concurrent, consistent snapshots of all of the application volumes across multiple XIV systems, for enhanced data protection
– Replication for disaster recovery, including built-in support for synchronous and asynchronous mirroring
– IBM Hyper-Scale Mobility for online volume movement between XIV systems, nondisruptive to applications, for vast operational agility
– Easy-to-use thin provisioning for optimal use of storage resources
– Quick-start synchronous mirroring through offline initialization for easy swapping between synchronous and asynchronous mirroring to meet varied service-level needs
•Cloud and hypervisor integration
– Open-standards tools support, including for OpenStack and IP SAN (10 Gbps), for robust and highly available and automated cloud deployments
– IBM SmartCloud Storage Access, enabling cloud storage by providing self service, on-demand capacity provisioning with metering and chargeback options, and improving employee productivity
– XIV Representational State Transfer (REST) application programming interface (API) for integrating XIV monitoring and automated provisioning in cloud environments
– Deep VMware integration:
• Support for storage hardware acceleration with vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI)
• Certified, robust disaster recovery using VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
– Advanced IBM-native storage visibility and self-service provisioning through the new IBM Storage Integration Server using a vSphere Web Client plug-in
– Profile-based storage provisioning and automated storage placement using vSphere Storage APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA), and space reclamation through XIV support for VMware ESXi v5.5
– Integration with Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) for simpler storage management.
•Security
– Industry-standard data-at-rest encryption without performance effect:
• Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit keys
• Trusted Computing Group (TCG) storage specification-compliant
– Separate, simplified key support by IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager
– USGv6 certification and support for the added security features available with IPv6/IPSec
•Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager integration
– Automated, application-aware snapshots for fast and easy backup and restore of popular enterprise applications
5.5.3 XIV architecture
To convey the conceptual principles that make up the XIV Storage System architecture, it is useful to first look at the physical design. The XIV Storage System configuration includes:
•Data modules
•Interface modules
•Interconnect switches
•Uninterrupted power supply units
The following sections describe the key components in IBM XIV.
Modules
The primary components of the XIV Storage System are known as modules. Modules provide processing, cache (including an optional SSD caching layer), and host interfaces. They are composed of standard Intel-based systems.
The modules are redundantly connected to one another through an internal switched network. All of the modules work together concurrently as elements of a grid architecture, so the system harnesses the powerful parallelism inherent in such a Distributed Computing Environment (DCE).
Data modules
At a conceptual level, data modules function as the elementary “building blocks” of the system, providing storage capacity, processing power, and caching, in addition to advanced system-managed services. The data modules’ ability to share and manage system software and services are key elements of the physical architecture.
Interface modules
Interface modules are equivalent to data modules in all aspects, with the following exceptions:
•In addition to disk, cache, and processing resources, interface modules are designed to include both Fibre Channel and IP network SCSI (iSCSI) interfaces for host system connectivity, remote mirroring, and data migration activities.
•The system services and software functionality associated with managing external I/O is located exclusively on the interface modules.
Module interconnect switches
The XIV Storage System contains a redundant switched network that transmits both data and metadata traffic between the modules. Traffic can flow in any of the following ways:
• Between two interface modules
• Between two data modules
• Between an interface module and a data module
Figure 5-6 shows an XIV hardware overview.
Figure 5-6 IBM XIV hardware overview
Parallelism
The concept of parallelism pervades all aspects of the XIV Storage System architecture by using a balanced, redundant data distribution scheme with a pool of distributed (or grid) computing resources.
Hardware parallelism and grid architecture
The XIV grid design has the following characteristics:
•Both interface and data modules work together in a distributed computing sense.
•However, the interface modules also have additional functions and features associated with host system connectivity.
•The modules communicate with each other through the internal and redundant switched network.
•The software services and distributed computing algorithms running in the modules collectively manage all aspects of the operating environment.
Software parallelism
In addition to the hardware parallelism, the XIV Storage System also employs sophisticated algorithms to achieve optimal software parallelism.
Modular software design
The XIV Storage System internal operating environment consists of a set of software functions that are loosely coupled with the hardware modules. These software functions are on one or more modules, and can be redistributed among modules as required, therefore ensuring resiliency under changing hardware conditions.
An example of this modular design is located specifically in the interface modules. All six interface modules actively manage system services and software functionality associated with managing external I/O. Also, three of the interface modules deliver the system’s management interface service for use with the XIV Storage System.
Data distribution algorithms
Data is distributed across all drives in a pseudo-random fashion. The patented algorithms provide a uniform yet random spreading of data, which is divided into 1 MB partitions across all available disks. This is to maintain data resilience and redundancy. The storage administrator does not need to worry about data placement effect on performance.
Full storage virtualization
The data distribution algorithms employed by the XIV Storage System are innovative and unique in that they are deeply integrated into the system architecture, rather than at the host or SAN level.
To appreciate the value inherent in the virtualization design that is used by the XIV Storage System, remember the various aspects of the physical and logical relationships that make up conventional storage subsystems. Specifically, traditional subsystems rely on storage administrators to plan the relationship between logical structures, strategically balance workloads, and meet the demands of storage. These logical structures include:
•Arrays and volumes
•Physical resources, such as disk packs and drives
Figure 5-7 shows XIV Software architecture.
Figure 5-7 IBM XIV software architecture.
For more information about XIV, see the following website:
5.6 SAN Volume Controller
SAN Volume Controller, a member of the IBM Storwize family, is a storage virtualization system with a single point of control for storage resources. SAN Volume Controller improves business application availability and delivers greater resource use so that you can get the most from your storage resources, and achieve a simpler, more scalable, and cost-efficient IT infrastructure. Innovative technologies such as Real-time Compression and integrated Bridgeworks SANSlide network optimization for remote mirror help to deliver both better performance and greater efficiency for new and existing storage.
Virtualizing storage with SAN Volume Controller helps make new and existing storage more effective. SAN Volume Controller includes many functions traditionally deployed separately in disk systems. By including these in a virtualization system, SAN Volume Controller standardizes functions across virtualized storage for greater flexibility and potentially lower costs.
SAN Volume Controller functions benefit all virtualized storage:
•Easy Tier optimizes use of flash memory.
•Real-time Compression enhances efficiency even further by enabling the storage of up to five times as much active primary data in the same physical disk space.
•High-performance thin provisioning helps automate provisioning.
These benefits can help extend the useful life of existing storage assets, reducing costs. Integrating these functions into SAN Volume Controller also means that they are designed to operate together, reducing management effort.
5.6.1 SAN Volume Controller highlights
The following list includes some of the SAN Volume Controller highlights:
•Enhance storage capabilities with sophisticated virtualization, management, and functionality.
•Move data among virtualized storage systems without disruptions.
•Store up to five times as much active data in the same physical disk space using Real-time Compression.
•Optimize flash memory deployments automatically with Easy Tier.
•Allow for nondisruptive scalability from the smallest configuration to the largest.
•Improve network usage for remote mirroring with innovative replication technology.
•Implement stretched configurations for high availability and data mobility between data centers.
5.6.2 SAN Volume Controller features and benefits
The following list describes some of the features and benefits of SAN Volume Controller:
•Single point of control for storage resources
– Designed to increase management efficiency
– Designed to help support business application availability
•Pooled storage capacity of multiple storage systems on a SAN
– Helps enterprises to manage storage as a resource to meet business requirements, and not just as a set of boxes
– Helps administrators better deploy storage as required beyond traditional “SAN islands”
– Can help increase use of storage assets
– Insulates applications from physical changes to the storage infrastructure
•Clustered pairs of storage engines based on IBM System x technology
– Highly reliable hardware foundation
– Designed to avoid single points of hardware failure
•Real-time Compression
– Increases effective capacity of storage systems up to five times, helping to lower costs, floor-space requirements, power, and cooling
– Can be used with a wide range of data, including active primary data, for dramatic savings
•Innovative and tightly integrated support for flash memory
– Designed to deliver ultra-high performance capability for critical application data
– Can move data to and from flash memory without disruption
– Can make copies of data onto a hard disk drive (HDD)
•Scalable to support 4096 host servers
– Room for growth as demanded by business conditions
•Support for IBM FlashSystem™
– High performance for critical applications with IBM MicroLatency™, coupled with sophisticated functionality
•Easy-to-use Storwize family management interface
– Single interface for storage configuration, management, and service tasks, regardless of storage vendor
– More efficient use of existing storage assets by administrators
•IBM Storage Mobile Dashboard
– Basic monitoring capabilities to securely check the health and performance of SAN Volume Controller systems
•Dynamic data migration
– Data migration among devices without taking applications using that data offline
– Storage capacity managed and scaled without disrupting applications
•Tiered storage management
– Performance needs balanced against infrastructure costs in a tiered storage environment
•Advanced network-based copy services
– Data copied across multiple storage systems with FlashCopy
– Data copied across metropolitan and global distances as needed to create high availability storage solutions
•Integrated Bridgeworks SANSlide technology for IP replication
– Optimized use of network bandwidth
– Reduced network costs or speed replication cycles, improving remote data accuracy
•Enhanced stretch cluster configurations
– Concurrent access to a single copy of data from data centers up to 300 km apart
– Nondisruptive storage and virtual machine mobility between data centers
•Thin provisioning and snapshot replication
– Dramatically reduced physical storage requirements, using physical storage only when data changes
– Improved storage administrator productivity through automated on-demand storage provisioning
•iSCSI support for server attachment
– Eliminated cost of Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) in servers, and reduced need for Fibre Channel switches
•Support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol
– Simplified storage infrastructure through the use of converged networks.
– Same network used for storage, WAN, and LAN, simplifying the data center and easing management
•IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager application-aware snapshots
– Near-instant application-aware snapshot backups, with minimal performance effect for IBM DB2, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Exchange
– Advanced, granular restoration of Microsoft Exchange data
5.6.3 SAN Volume Controller architecture
A SAN Volume Controller node is an individual server in a SAN Volume Controller clustered system on which the SAN Volume Controller software runs. The nodes are always installed in pairs, with a minimum of one and a maximum of four pairs of nodes constituting a system. Each pair of nodes is known as an I/O group. All I/O operations that are managed by the nodes in an I/O group are cached on both nodes.
I/O groups take the storage that is presented to the SAN by the storage systems as managed disks (MDisks), and translate that storage into logical disks (volumes) that are used by applications on the hosts. A node is in only one I/O group, and provides access to the volumes in that I/O group.
The SAN Volume Controller combines software and hardware into a comprehensive, modular appliance that uses symmetric virtualization.
Symmetric virtualization is achieved by creating a pool of MDisks from the attached storage systems. Those storage systems are then mapped to a set of volumes for use by attached host systems. System administrators can view and access a common pool of storage on the SAN. This functionality helps administrators to use storage resources more efficiently, and provides a common base for advanced functions.
A SAN is a high-speed Fibre Channel network that connects host systems and storage devices. In a SAN, a host system can be connected to a storage device across the network. The connections are made through units, such as routers and switches. The area of the network that contains these units is known as the fabric of the network. The SAN Volume Controller software provides the following functions for the host systems that attach to SAN Volume Controller:
•Creates a single pool of storage
•Provides logical unit virtualization
•Manages logical volumes
•Mirrors logical volumes
The SAN Volume Controller system also provides these functions:
•Large scalable cache
•Copy services
FlashCopy (point-in-time copy) provides the following functions, including thin-provisioned FlashCopy to make multiple targets affordable:
•Metro Mirror (synchronous copy)
•Global Mirror (asynchronous copy)
•Data migration
•Space management
Easy Tier is used to migrate the most frequently used data to higher-performance storage:
•Metering of service quality when combined with Tivoli Storage Productivity Center
•Thin-provisioned logical volumes
•Compressed volumes to consolidate storage
Figure 5-8 shows a SAN Volume Controller architecture overview.
Figure 5-8 SAN Volume Controller Architecture Overview
For more information about SAN Volume Controller, see the following website:
5.7 Quick reference links
Table 5-1 provides a list of quick reference links for the storage subsystems described in this chapter.
Table 5-1 IBM SmartCloud Storage Access supported storage subsystems and quick access links
|
Storage System
|
Link
|
|
IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage
|
|
|
Storwize V7000
|
|
|
Storwize V7000 Unified
|
|
|
XIV
|
|
|
SAN Volume Controller
|
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