Welcome to SAN Storage and it's manufacturers | Storage Terminology - SAN Admin - A Guide to Storage & Backup Administrators

SAN STORAGE

Hi All,

Today you will get an overview about the SAN & NAS and also about the Storage market leaders in the world. To know about the Information Storage and Management , refer the link below

http://www.sanadmin.net/2016/02/Information-Storage-Management.html

Introduction about SAN Storage

A storage area network (SAN) is a network which provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to enhance storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear to the operating system as locally attached devices. A SAN typically has its own network of storage devices that are generally not accessible through the local area network (LAN) by other devices.

SAN compared to NAS

SAN compared to NAS

Here we can see some of the manufacturer details who is leading in the IT Infrastructure.

SAN Storage manufacturers: EMC, Netapp, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Dell, Tintri, Orcale, and etc.

Fiber Switch manufacturers: Brocade, Cisco and Mc-Data

HBA manufacturers: Qlogic and Emulex.

Servers manufacturers: Orcale, Dell, IBM, HP, Hitachi Servers.

Types of drives: Sata, SAS, NL-SAS, FC and EFD/SSD/Flash drives.

Storage Terminology

There are some familiar words will be remained in the Storage Platform.

LUN: LUN is known as Logical Unit Number. It’s a slice of space from a hard drive.

Raid Group: A collection of 16 drives in a group with same drive type from where the LUN is created.

Storage Pool: A collection of drives in a pool with same or different type of drives from where the LUN is created.

Masking: It means particular LUN is visible to particular Host. In clear, A LUN can be visible to only one Storage Group/Host.

Storage Group: It’s nothing but a Host name. Storage group is a collection of one or more LUNs (or meta LUNs) to which you connect one or more servers.

Meta LUN: The meta LUN feature allows Traditional LUNs to be aggregated in order to increase the size or performance of the base LUN. LUN will be expanded by the addition of other LUNs. The LUNs that make up a meta LUN are called meta members and the base LUN is known as Meta head. We can add 255 meta members to 1 meta head (256 LUNs).

Access logix: Access Logix provides LUN masking that allows sharing of storage system.

PSM: The Persistent Storage Manager LUN stores the configuration information about the VNX/Clariion such as Disks, Raid Groups, Luns, Access Logix information, SnapView configuration, MirrorView and SanCopy configuration as well.

Migration: Storage migration you can move storage from one location to another without interrupting the workload of the virtual machine, if it is running. You can also use storage migration to move, service, or upgrade storage resources, or for migration of a standalone or cluster virtual machine

Replication: Remote replication is the process of copying production data to a device at a remote location for data protection or disaster recovery purposes. Remote replication may be either synchronous or asynchronous. Synchronous replication writes data to the primary and secondary sites at the same time

Archiving: Data archiving is the process of moving data that is no longer actively used to a separate storage device for long-term retention. Archive data consists of older data that is still important to the organization and may be needed for future reference, as well as data that must be retained for regulatory compliance

The FLARE Code is broken down as follows:-

1.14.600.5.022 (32 Bit)

2.16.700.5.031 (32 Bit)

2.24.700.5.031 (32 Bit)

3.26.020.5.011 (32 Bit)

4.28.480.5.010 (64 Bit)

The first digit: 1, 2, 3 and 4 indicate the Generation of the machine this code level can be installed on. For the 1st and the 2nd generation of machines (CX600 and CX700), you should be able to use standard 2nd Generation code levels. CX3 code levels would have a 3 in front of it and so forth.

These numbers will always increase as new Generations of VNX/Clariion machines are added.

The next two digits are the release numbers; these release numbers are very important and really give you additional features related to the VNX/Clariion FLARE Operating Environment. When someone comes up to you and says, my VNX/Clariion CX3 is running Flare 26, this is what they mean. These numbers will always increase, 28 being the latest FLARE Code Version.

The next 3 digits are the model number of the VNX/Clariion, like the CX600, CX700, CX3-20 and CX4-480. These numbers can be all over the map, depending what the model number of your VNX/Clariion is.

The 5 here is unknown, it’s coming across from previous FLARE releases. Going back to the pre CX days (FC), this 5 was still used in there. I believe this was some sort of code internally used at Data General indicating it’s a FLARE release.

The last 3 digits are the Patch level of the FLARE Environment. This would be the last known compilation of the code for that FLARE version.

Failover mode: They are 4 types

1. Failover mode 1 or Passive/Passive mode

2. Failover mode 2 or Passive/Active mode

3. Failover mode 3 or Active/Passive mode

4. Failover mode 4 or Active/Active mode

As per best practice, failover mode 4 is suitable than others.

With Failover Mode 4, in the case of a path, HBA, or switch failure, when I/O routes to the non-owning SP, the LUN may not trespass immediately.

To know about components of a storage system environment, refer the link below

http://www.sanadmin.net/2015/10/fc-storage.html