Storage Networking Concepts -- Foundations - NEW Mastering Storage Networking for the Storage Professional

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Accessing, Managing, Securing Your Distributed Stored Data Assets Including Cloud Storage, Flash and other Options

Storage Networking Concepts

-- Foundations - NEW 2016

SNC-F v7 2016 Edition

Course materials in preparation for the new SNCF 110 SNIA

Certification Exam

and much much more!

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NOTICE

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without written permission of Infinity I/O.

This is Storage Networking- Concepts – Foundations Version 7

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty.

Use of this book constitutes consent to the following conditions:

This book is supplied “AS IS” for informational purposes only, without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied. Infinity I/O shall not be liable for any loss of profit or other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, indirect or other damages.

Infinity I/O reserves the right to make changes to this book at any time, without notice, and assumes no responsibility for its use.

IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ

Digital Rights Management.

When you purchase this electronic study guide Infinity I/O will grant you a 2 system licence.

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Forward

Storage Networking has been in use for over twenty years in enterprise data centers. Mastery of the field has become essential for large organizations and especially those applying Enterprise Architecture and Management for

organizational expanded benefit. The Storage Networking Industry Association sponsors vendor neutral education through its Education Committee. These activities support industry recognized certification programs.

This updated version (V7) incorporates new storage networking concepts since the last update. As well, it incorporates the new topics on the S10-110 SNIA Certification Exam. Specifically new topics on Cloud Based Storage, NVMe, and Distributed Management are now included.

The purpose of this publication is to train Storage Professionals to be able to master the concepts and is prepared to provid professional services to their employer or client. It covers but is NOT just a checklist for passing the new S10-110 Certification Exam.

Prerequisites:

A copy of the 2015 SNIA Dictionary: http://www.snia.org/education/dictionary

A working knowledge of enterprise level computer systems.

A BS in Information or Computer Science or equivalent experience is highly recommended or 12 months hands-on storage systems related experience. See Appendix B for a brief listing of expected experimental skills.

With special thanks for development of the new course to ‘Sam’ Samuel and Ronald Hendriks. The professional organizations, ANSI T11 and SNIA, have been very central to the development of this Storage Networking technology. Your comments and suggestions on this material are most welcome –

[email protected].

Edward M. Frymoyer Editor

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SNIA Certification Program

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SNIA Certification Program

The SNIA Vendor Neutral Certification process is explained on the SNIA

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IStorage Networking Concepts - Foundation

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Storage Networking Concepts – Foundation

Introduction

Objectives

– The objective of this programmed eLearning Course is to provide the Storage Networking professional with a vendor neutral deep understanding and competency in Storage Networking. The course is intended to outfit the student with the expertise to provide value to their employer or client in their enterprise level storage systems. Storage Networking contains Systems Level topics including management, optimization of systems and disaster recovery including protocols,

techniques, and components. This is much more than simply a teaching to the test document. Todays storage systems encompass every

increasing oceans of data, often in a cloud that is physical somewhere. The goal is to train the professional in Accessing, Managing, and

Securing your distributed stored data assets for the benefit of the organization or enterprise.

The course is arranged in a logical manner to enhance total storage

networking topic mastery. The course prepares the student to be able to pass new S10-110 SNIA foundations level exam plus gain a thorough understanding that will enable enhanced professional business level results for their enterprise employer or client. This course has been tested and improved continuously for over 15 years and many

thousands of students.

These objectives can occur in multiple sections of the course. For the convenience of the reader, the mapping of the exam objectives covered section by section are noted in the page(s) following the title page of each section.

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Contents

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The teaching methodology is to group the topics logically from a

systems perspective section by section. The major items covered are listed each section, followed by a sub-section grouping.

Pre-tests, Section Tests and Post Tests

- As a result of these broader

objectives, this eLearning course provides tests section by section. If the reader wishes, they can use the section tests (separate document) as a pre-test to provide some indication of areas on which they need to focus. A

comprehensive set of questions is covered by the Post Tests of Appendix D. These questions also contain an extensive set of real life storage networking examples at the systems level.

Index

– The Table of Contents is a brief Index. A more through index can be found using the Find Command -- CNTRL F on a PC or CMD F on a Mac. Any topic of Storage Networking covered in this document can be discovered this way. This employs the more useful thorough features of Adobe Reader in searching. Mapping to specific exam topics is shown in Appendix A.

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Contents

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Storage Networking Concepts – Foundation

Page

• Introduction to Storage Networking ………. 1-1 o What is Storage Networking About? ……… 1-2

o Evolution or Revolution? ……… 1-6

o Business Needs ……….. 1-13 o The New Data Center ……….. 1-18 o Storage Consolidation ……… 1-23 o Storage Networking Applications ………. 1-28

• Storage Networking Architectures ……… 2-1

o Direct-Attached Storage (DAS) ………. 2-2 o Network-Attached Storage (NAS) ………. 2-6 o Storage Area Network (SAN) ……… 2-10 o Comparing Solutions ………. 2-14 o Storage Transport Protocols ……….. 2-24 o Network Metrics ……… 2-37

• Storage Components ……….. 3-1

o Disk Physical Characteristics ………. 3-2 o Tape Physical Characteristics ……… 3-15 o Optical Media ……….. 3-36 o Solid State Disks (SSDs)……… 3-41

• Data Storage Techniques……….. 4-1

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Contents I-‐11

Page

• I/O Interfaces ……… 5-1 o Overview ……….. 5-2 o Parallel ATA ………. 5-5 o Serial ATA ……… 5-10 o Parallel SCSI ……… 5-12 o Serial Attached SCSI ………. 5-26 o Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) ……….. 5-34 o Interface Comparisons ……….. 5-50

• Host Architectures ……….. 6-1

o Moving Data ……… 6-2

o Bus Metrics ………. 6-9

o Fibre Channel HBA Feature Sets ……… 6-16 o Converged Network Adapter ………... 6-22 o Fibre Channel HBA Multipathing ………. 6-25 o iSCSI Host Implementations ……… 6-30 o File Systems and File System Protocols ……… 6-41 o Support Matrices ……… 6-49 o Host Virtualization ………. 6-54

o Server Clustering ……….. 6-62

• RAID and Subsystem Architectures ………. 7-1

o Subsystem Architectures ……… 7-2 o RAID Configurations ……… 7-12 o Configuring Logical Units ……… 7-30 o Assigning Hosts to Storage ……… 7-34

• NAS Concepts ……… 8-1

o NAS Concepts ……… 8-2

o NAS Architecture ……… 8-9

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Contents I-‐12

Page

• FC Components ……… 9-1

o Fibre Channel Terminology ………. 9-2

o Infrastructure Devices ……….. 9-19

• FC Protocol and Ethernet Architecture .……….. 10-1 o Fibre Channel Layered Model ………. 10-2 o ULP Mapping ……….. 10-11 o Ethernet Primer ………. 10-15 o FCoE – Fibre Channel over Ethernet ………... 10-24

• Cables and Connectors……….. 11-1

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Contents I-‐13

o Storage Resource Management ………. 16-2 o Information Lifecycle Management ……….. 16-5 o Archiving and Compliance………. 16-10 o Tiers of Storage ……….. 16-16 o ILM Enabling Technologies ……….. 16-28 o SRM Applications ………... 16-31 o Usage Management ……….. 16-33 o Automating Storage Management ……….. 16-37 o Content Addressed Storage ………. 16-47

• iSCSI Protocol Architecture ……….. 17-1

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Contents I-‐14

Page

• Storage Virtualization ……… 18-1

o Defining Storage Virtualization ……… 18-2 o Storage Virtualization Architectures ……… 18-14 o Subsystem-Based Virtualization ………. 18-21 o Host-Based Virtualization ………. 18-23 o Network-Based Virtualization ……….. 18-28 o SAN Virtualization ………... 18-33 • Data Protection ……….. 19-1 o Terminology ……… 19-2 o Backup ………. 19-18 o Tape Virtualization ………. 19-40 o When is Tape Not Enough? ………. 19-48 o Snapshots ……… 19-54 o Split Mirrors ………. 19-68 o Remote Mirroring ……… 19-74 o Access Controls ………..… 19-83 o Encrypting Data ... 19-88 • Distributed Storage ……..……….. 20-1 o The Cloud ..……… 20-3

o Object Based Storage………...…………. 20-23 o Software Defined Storage ………...…….. 20-32 o Grid Storage ………... 20-43 o Cloud Storage Management ……….... 20-53

• Troubleshooting ………..……… 21-1

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Contents

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Page

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Contents I-‐16 • Appendix A CompTIA Storage +

Exam Objectives ……….A-1

to 16

• Appendix B

Basic Skill Sets expected of person taking this course

B-1 • Appendix C Suggested Hands-On Exercises………..C1 IOmeter Exercise ………1 – 6 • Appendix D Comprehensive Post Test………D-1 Answer Sheet ……….D-40

• Review Pre Test and Section Questions and

Answers………… See separate document:

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Introduction to Storage Networking

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In this module we are going to look at some of the drivers that have taken us on the path to implement storage area networks and network attached storage architectures.

We will look at the evolution of both the business drivers, and the technology advances, and how they help craft the different solutions available.

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Effective storage networking solutions focus on information:

Not just storing information, but also accessing that information reliably and securely

Not just high-speed interconnects, but flexible, extensible, and highly scalable infrastructures

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The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a non-profit trade association dedicated to "ensuring that storage networks become complete and trusted solutions across the IT community” by:

Sponsoring technical work groups

Co-producing the Storage Networking World conference series

Maintaining a vendor-neutral Technology Centre in Colorado Springs Promoting activities that expand the breadth and quality of the storage networking market

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To make a SAN which is actually useful, you need an integrated set of elements that includes:

Device management tools to manage the hardware infrastructure

SAN system management tools to manage higher-level functionality such as storage allocation and data security, and to integrate SAN management functions into the broader enterprise resource management schema

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Comparing the proprietary mainframe model to an open systems model shows that:

Mainframe systems consist of monolithic components that can be difficult to scale and limit flexibility.

The system uses proprietary technologies that were designed by the same vendor.

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The advent of the departmental computing model scattered computing and storage resources across the enterprise:

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The system architectures enabled by SANs start to resemble the mainframe architecture:

Storage virtualization can create a unified storage pool, just like mainframe storage cabinets.

Tightly integrated server clusters and blade architectures integrate microcomputer CPUs into a unified computing resource.

The user sees a “single system image” of both servers and storage. The basic conceptual model of a computing system has not changed, but the implementation of that model has evolved:

Monolithic systems simplify system management but have limited flexibility.

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Data storage requirements:

Exponentially increasing since the first business-critical application hit the market

Rapid growth of the Internet has added fuel to the fire E-mail messages sent daily

1995: 400,000,000 2000: 9,700,000,000 2005: 35,000,000,000

E-mail is just the tip of the iceberg:

Digital audio and video require massive amounts of storage space. Some customer relationship management (CRM) applications record every click that a user makes on a website.

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In the past, the storage paradigm focused on data: Businesses accumulated and warehoused data.

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Today, the new paradigm focuses on information:

The focus has shifted from storing the data to using the information that the data contains.

Businesses have realized that the ability to share information is more of a competitive asset than the ability to hoard it. By 2000, a “Partners” link had appeared on the home pages of nearly all corporate websites.

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Businesses must be able to easily adapt to the dynamic global marketplace: They must be prepared to respond to rapid growth.

They must be able to add capacity with very short planning windows and minimal disruption to operations.

Storage Networking Concepts -- Foundations - NEW Mastering Storage Networking for the Storage Professional

Storage Networking Concepts

-- Foundations - NEW 2016

SNC-F v7 2016 Edition

Course materials in preparation for the new SNCF 110 SNIA

Certification Exam

and much much more!

Storage Networking Concepts – Foundation

Introduction

Objectives

Pre-tests, Section Tests and Post Tests

Index

Storage Networking Concepts – Foundation

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Page

CONTENTS

Page

CONTENTS

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS

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CONTENTS

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