Scale Datacom’s Data Storage Blog

We get asked about Thin Provisioning quite a bit so I thought it might be a good idea to post a quick overview of it.

Thin Provisioning is like a credit card for your SAN storage. It allows you to present more storage capacity to your applications and users than you physically have.  It allows you to make full use of your physical resources with almost no waste…but it comes w/ some asterisks.

In the olden days (2006), when you created a data volume, you hard-allocated the entire amount.  ex: your SQL DB was using 3GB at present but was anticipated to grow to 10GB within 4-6months so you created a 10GB volume. 10GB was removed from the SAN and 7GB of it sat idle for some time while the DB grew.

With Thin Provisioning, you can still create a volume that looks like 10GB to your apps but you can elect to only hard-allocate 3-4GB to it while allowing it to dynamically grow to 10GB on its own. The remaining 6-7GB is free to be used by other apps/users on the SAN.

At its base Thin Provisioning is a lie: you are telling your apps that you have more physical storage than you really do.  Given that, you really only want to Thin Provision volumes with predictable growth patterns.  Picking volumes for new applications or users that have erratic usage patterns is a bad idea because if you have a run on the bank and everyone goes for that same pool of unused capacity at the same time, bad things happen and you may be looking for a new job.

Almost all Thin Provisioning systems have what we call a “save your job slider” in the volume creation area. This slider is the “in-use warning” notification which makes you aware when volumes start to grow towards their maximum aloted size so you can either un-thin-provision the volume, increase the volume size, or think about buying additional physical storage. In the example above, you make 10GB volume, thin provision it for 3GB and put the in-use warning slider at 7GB and when the volume gets to that size a warning is kicked off to make you aware.

If you’d like to discuss this feature in more detail or would like info on which SAN vendors include Thin Provisioning, just let us know.

Its has been a busy week at Dell-EqualLogic.  First the PS-5500E announcement and now they’re released a version of their Auto-Snapshot Manager for VMware.

If you are thinking of deploying (or already have) VMware in your environment, the aptly-named Auto-Snapshot Manager VMware Edition will no doubt make your life a lot easier. It leverages the VMware snapshotting technology to place virtual machines in the native snapshot mode, takes a SAN-based snapshot, then returns the environment to its normal state.

In their own words:  “Integrated directly with standard VMware and EqualLogic APIs, Auto-Snapshot Manager/VMware Edition understands the relationships and location of virtual machines, VMFS Datastores, and PS Series SAN-based volumes. With intuitive SAN and VMware-centric navigation and a built-in scheduler, the VMware administrator can simply and flexibly set snapshot creation schedules of individual virtual machines, groups of virtual machines, or even all virtual machines in a VMware Datacenter, coordinating snapshot creation across all SAN-based volumes upon which the virtual machines reside.”

Benefits:

• High performance, space-efficient hypervisor-aware SAN-based snapshot support
• Automated, consolidated virtual machine backup and recovery
• Scalable HW-based solution for online data protection of virtual infrastructure
• Reduced snapshot space overhead and enhanced ESX Server performance
• Fast recovery of virtual machines and VMFS DataStores
• Easy to navigate GUI with both SAN and VMware-centric views
• Snapshot policies logically assigned to virtual machine hierarchies

On-Demand Seminar - Auto-Snapshot Manager VMware Edition in action

Oh yeah, and it comes bundled w/ every array at no-cost….Yet another reason why Dell-EqualLogic is the best VMware storage platform on the planet.

Contact us if you’d like more info or to discuss in further detail.

File this one under BIG: Dell-EqualLogic has just announced their latest array, the PS-5500E (development codename: Sumo).  The PS-5500E packs 48 x SATA II drives into 4U of rack space making it one of the densest iSCSI SAN arrays around.

Certainly there are other arrays on the market that offer this level of density (Nexsan, Xyratex etc.) but no one offers the level and breadth of features and tight host-side integration that Dell-EqualLogic does.  And because its completely virtualized, it plays well with all the other Dell-EqualLogic PS Series arrays, allowing you to build a true end-to-end storage platform.

Due to its intended role (replication DR and disk backup target, near line and archival storage tier), there are some particulars on the PS-5500E that make it unique among the rest of the PS Series family.  It is SATA-only (for now), RAID 50 is the only RAID setting and PS-5500E’s can only be in a tier w/ themselves (altho they can be in the same SAN w/ all other arrays).  You can add up to 12 in a single SAN, giving you a raw total capacity of 576TB!

Adding this new, ultra-dense tier of storage fills out the PS Series line and makes it an even more attractive enterprise-class iSCSI SAN solution.

There will be 2 drive options for the PS-5500E initially: 500GB (24TB Raw) and 1.0TB (48TB raw).  Give us a shout if you’d like to discuss this or any of the PS Series arrays further.

More info and Quote Request

A few months back our friends at Exagrid released the aptly named “Exagrid Deduplication Gateway for iSCSI” and had closely aligned themselves with the market leader in iSCSI storage, EqualLogic.

A slight name tweak now knows this box as the Exagrid iSCSI Backup Gateway (Data Sheet) which has a nicer ring to it. Make no bones about it, these guys want tape GONE.  And lets face it, tape is a pain in the ass neck.

Exagrid makes a pretty good case:

• Eliminates failed backups and restores
• Greatly reduces your backup window
• Works with your existing backup app
• Perfect for environments w/ 1-60TB backups
• Compression and dedupe backups in one package
• Optional WAN-efficient remote replication for DR

So, if you one of the 6000+ organizations that already have an EqualLogic SAN or are thinking of implementing one, this would be a great add-on to tie everything together from a backup perspective.

If you’d like to discuss this product or deduplication in general, please drop us a line.

At long last, and after much fanfare, VMware’s Site Recovery Manager (SRM) is finally here.  Given the buzz around this product, we get a lot of folks asking “This is gonna be so great!….now, exactly what does SRM do?”

In a nutshell: SRM takes the hassle out of validating and testing your disaster recovery plan. DR plans have historically been  complex and difficult to errect and test, often involving heroic levels of scripting and finger-crossing.  SRM removes that and is honestly a quantum leap in simplifying this once daunting part of IT.

SRM ties into compatible replication engines from most leading vendors (EqualLogic, EMC, NetApp etc..) and allows you to create a “recovery image” that includes VM’s, storage and network connections at a remote location and to autonomously switch over to that image in the event of a disaster.  It also allows you to segregate this environment, allowing you to freely test it to ensure your environment fails over correctly without fear of impacting production ops.

One thing to keep in mind: SRM does NOT replicate data.  That duty is still the responsibility of the SAN, so make sure your storage platform has the requisite storage adapter for SRM.  EqualLogic has a great SRM adapter and when coupled with their excellent replication engine, creates a bulletproof DR platform.

If you’d like to see a demo of VMware’s SRM and EqualLogic  in action, simply let us know.

This video illustrates one of the big differentiators of Dell-EqualLogic’s PS Series iSCSI SAN arrays: simplicity.

The clip takes you from populating the hard drives in a chassis to setting up the SAN, creating a data volume and mounting it to a server.  Its sped up in the interest of time but so is the stopwatch keeping time so its entirely accurate….as are the not-so-subtle digs at HP thruout. Warning: the music is annoying.

If you’d like to schedule a Dell-EqualLogic online demo like this just drop us a line.

RELDATA’s 9240 storage gateway is a very cool piece of data storage gear for a number of reasons that we think businesses will find attractive.

Typically, when you want to look at an enterprise-class storage solution you had a list of usual suspects: NetApp, EMC, Compellent, HP, EqualLogic etc…and they all do a bang-up job (some better than others quite frankly). But they all require you to buy the actual disks from them….at seemingly ludicrous prices. $1495 for a 750GB SATA Drive???

Like the $5000 toilet bowl seats the government has been buying for years, these high drive prices are one place where these companies pay for their R&D budgets…everyone knows the drives aren’t special. Its a $250 Seagate w/ maybe some firmware and a fancy drive sled but thats it.

RELDATA takes a different approach: sure they offer disk trays to back their 9240 storage gateways, but you don’t HAVE to buy them (altho they are a lot more budget-friendly than most). They are hardware-agnostic and extremely flexible: you can attach Fibre, SCSI or iSCSI disk from virtually anyone to the backend. You can even mix new storage with systems you currently own for investment protection and centralized management.

RELDATA then takes all this storage, virtualizes it and doles it out as iSCSI and/or NAS to your users and apps. And because we’re talking options here, they allow you to do it over Gigabit or 10Gigabit links. And its all bolstered by enterprise-class snapshot, remote replication and multi-path I/O features.

The savings in backend storage options, the ability to use existing disk and the flexibility to provision it out as block and file-level data is only the first half of the movie. Its also SCREAMING FAST. Each 9240 has dual Xeon CPU’s, up to 16GB DRAM and you can active-active cluster up to 32 of them. Simply put: you will never outgrow this solution, from either a performance or capacity standpoint.

Exagrid announced on Tuesday (aka my birthday) that they are bringing to market the world’s first data deduplication gateway for iSCSI storage. The creatively named ‘Exagrid iSCSI De-Deuplication Gateway’ will cut back storage requirements for backup by 10:1 to as much as 50:1, while promising a 30-90% reduction in backup and restore times.

And since we’re talking about iSCSI, can you guess who they’re marketing this heavily with? One guess….Yup: EqualLogic. De-Dupe has been on our wish list w/ EqualLogic for some time now and this new partnership with Exagrid, one of the clear leaders in the field, fulfills that wish.

If you currently have or are planning on implementing a Dell/EqualLogic PeerStorage SAN and intend to use it for disk backup, this gateway is worth a serious look.

More Info or Pricing: Click Here

We write in this blog a fair bit about EqualLogic’s technology and why its so special. But given that a picture is worth a thousand words, I think it’d be better to show you. We do a lot of these WebEx demos for prospective customers and most of them are blown away at the ease with which an EqualLogic SAN can be admin’ed (especially if they’ve dealt with EMC in the past).

So, I’m opening it up to any folks out there that may be thinking of implementing an iSCSI SAN in the near future. We’ve got an EqualLogic array here and we’ll run thru a WebEx demo to show you how the SAN is setup, config’ed and go over all of their award-winning features. If you’re considering an EMC CX3, NetApp FAS, LeftHand or any other midrange iSCSI SAN, you should take a look at this.

Click this link to schedule an EqualLogic WebEx Demo Today!

As a long-standing Certified Partner of EqualLogic’s I can honestly say we here at Scale Datacom were more than a little concerned when Dell announced their acquisition intentions. Dell had a well-earned reputation for treating resellers, how you say, poorly. We sat in on con-calls w/ EqualLogic and Dell folks where they pledged up and down that we partners would continue to be the backbone of their sales efforts on the EqualLogic line and they looked forward to a long and prosperous relationship bla bla bla…. we rolled our eyes and braced for the worst.

But the worst never came…

Turns out they are doing exactly what they said they would. We have been welcomed with open arms and are actively engaged with the Dell Sales folks at all levels working as a united team to make sure all our customers are taken care of and prospective customers get the technical information and great pricing they deserve. We are winning new customers left and right as a united team and for the first few weeks I found myself trying to slap myself out of what I was sure was a dream.

Scale Datacom’s extensive technical and competitive knowledge on the product and professional services coupled with Dell’s economies of scale in manufacturing and distribution have truly created a dream team that offers much more value than I could’ve imagined.

At the end of the day its about getting our customers the best iSCSI SAN for the best value and I can honestly say that our new and improved Dell/EqualLogic partnership is helping us do exactly that.

More on the product and quote request: www.scaledatacom.com/equallogic