EonStor DS Storage Solutions in Datacenters

White paper

Abstract This white paper describes how EonStor DS storage solutions support datacenters where data consolidation, high-availability clusters, server virtualization and Green IT are implemented.

EonStor DS Storage Solutions in Datacenters

Efficiency, the Key to Next-Generation Datacenters

In todays uncertain economy, worldwide businesses, whether big or small, are facing a shared IT challenge: how can they mange the exponentially-growing data with limited IT budgets? Implementing datacenter transformation is a necessity, and EFFICIENCY, or the overused do more with less, is the key to the transformation. Centering on the concept of efficiency, Infortrend has been developing advanced storage solutions to serve as powerful building blocks of next-generation datacenters. By making datacenters more simple, agile and intelligent, Infortrend storage solutions facilitate IT investment to create maximized value with minimized management overhead. In this whitepaper, you will see the storage solutions Infortrend provides with its entry-level product line, EonStor DS.

Infortrend EonStor DS Family

EonStor DS is Infortrends entry-level product line for both direct-attached storage (DAS) and storage area network (SAN) storage systems. At price points affordable to SMBs, the EonStor DS delivers high availability, outstanding price/performance, flexible scalability, and easy management. High Availability EonStor DS storage solution features high-availability hardware designs with redundant, hot-swappable hardware components, such as RAID controllers, power supplies and cooling fans to eliminate single point of failure. Hardware RAID protection ensures data accessibility during drive failure. In the event of a power outage, CacheSafe technology would automatically leverage power of the Battery Backup Unit (BBU) to safeguard cached data by writing it to flash module for permanent retention. To protect valuable data sets against more critical threats, EonStor DS also supports storage-based snapshot and volume copy/mirror. Data availability can be achieved with minimal downtime in case of human errors or data volume failure by employing the EonStor DS snapshot and volume copy/mirror features. Outstanding Price/Performance Leveraging Infortrend's proprietary RAID engine, EonStor DS storage solution delivers breakthrough performance for demanding business applications. The models supporting Small Form Factor (SFF) drives can further increase performance density to support highly IO-intensive applications.

EonStor DS Storage Solutions in Datacenters

Flexible Scalability The EonStor DS storage solution supports dynamic scaling to aid in the planning for future storage growth while satisfying the current storage needs. Flexible drive type and capacity support (2.5-inch or 3.5-inch, 3Gb/s or 6Gb/s, SAS or SATA and various drive sizes) allows for the accommodation of current application needs while future proofs to support tomorrow's applications. EonStor DS storage solution can be expanded to more than one hundred drives to meet the proliferation of storage growth. The scale as you grow flexibility of the EonStor DS storage solution minimizes the upfront investment and provides the best overall Total Cost ofAcquisition (TCA). Intuitive and Easy Management Storage management should be simple. The EonStor DS storage solution includes a comprehensive management software suite, SANWatch, to centrally manage multiple EonStor DS subsystems over a standard TCP/IP network. EonStor DS status and event information summary can be viewed on the portal window. Necessary functions to configure, manage and monitor the EonStor DS are only a few clicks away. Besides providing all firmware features through a user-friendly GUI, SANWatch also supports script-based configuration of multiple EonStor DS subsystems simultaneously. Automatic critical event notifications can be customized to suit the most critical storage environment. SANWatch will guide users through initializing, configuring and maintaining the EonStor DS every step of the way.

EonStor DS for Storage Infrastructure Consolidation

Storage infrastructure consolidation, also known as data consolidation, is the foundation of IT infrastructure consolidation. Put in the simplest way, it means to consolidate data for single point access. Storage infrastructure consolidation often starts from consolidating internal DAS onto external DAS, and then external DAS onto SAN. Internal DAS to External DAS In a distributed datacenter at the primary stage, every server stores data on its internal drives.

EonStor DS Storage Solutions in Datacenters

Figure 1. Internal DAS In the first stage of consolidation, the server islands are consolidated to share capacity of external DAS. The number of servers allowed to share the storage depends on the number of ports the storage provides. The number is often less than four.

Figure 2. External DAS External DAS to SAN In the second stage of consolidation, several external DAS storage systems are further consolidated into a SAN. With one or multiple switches in-between, the network of storage devices can be shared by theoretically limited number of servers as long as users have enough switch ports. Users often determine the best deployment based on their evaluation of applications performance and capacity demands.

EonStor DS Storage Solutions in Datacenters

Figure 3. SAN Consolidation Benefits The most significant advantages of consolidated storage infrastructure are better resource utilization, higher scalability and easier management. Compared with SAN, external DAS is based on simpler topology. It therefore is easier to deploy and requires less initial cost. However in terms of resource utilization and management efficiency, SAN would be a better choice. EonStor DS Solutions: External DAS Users who would like to implement external DAS can choose EonStor DS SAS- or FC-host series. The SAS-host series provides single controller and redundant controller models, with each controller providing two multi-lane 3Gb/s SAS host ports. The models support either 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SAS/SATA drives. In a sequential I/O environment with RAID 5 configuration, the EonStor DS SAS-host storage systems can deliver up to 1500MB/s Read and 809MB/s Write data transfer rate. Through expansion enclosures, they can be scaled up to 80 drives. As to the EonStor DS Fibre-host series, it also provides single controller and redundant controller models, and support either 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SAS/SATA drives. Each controller provides up to four 8Gb/s or 4Gb/s FC host ports. In a sequential I/O environment with RAID 5 configuration, the EonStor DS Fibre-host storage systems can deliver up to 2500MB/s Read and 1200MB/s Write data transfer rate. Through expansion enclosures, they can be scaled up to 112 drives. EonStor DS Solutions: SAN

EonStor DS Storage Solutions in Datacenters

Users who would like to implement SAN can choose EonStor DS iSCSI-host series for IP SAN or FC-host series for FC SAN. Performance of IP SANs is not so good as FC SANs but they require lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and less manager expertise. The EonStor DS iSCSI-host series provides single controller and redundant controller models, and supports 3.5-inch SAS or SATA drives. EonStor DS iSCSI-host models also support link aggregation and jumbo frame features to help users optimize performance. With up to four 1Gb/s iSCSI ports on each controller, the storage systems can deliver up to 720MB/s Read and 310MB/s Write data transfer rate in a sequential I/O environment with RAID 5 configuration Through expansion enclosures, the iSCSI-host models can be scaled up to 80 drives.

EonStor DS for High-Availability Clusters

High-availability clusters are often implemented to provide high service availability for mission-critical applications. Two-node configuration is the most common practice in high-availability clusters. The two servers can be configured as Active/Active or Active/Passive. With constant heartbeats, one node can immediately take over the applications hosted on the other node when it fails. The failover operation requires no administrative intervention and is transparent to clients.

Figure 4. High-Availability Clusters

EonStor DS Solutions
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EonStor DS Storage Solutions in Datacenters

High-availability clusters can satisfactorily support mission-critical applications only when they are complemented by high-availability storage. Although all EonStor DS storage systems are based on high-availability architecture, FC-host and iSCSI-host series are better match with high-availability clusters since they can be more widely shared among servers when configured into SAN infrastructure. Users can choose among the two series based on their data demands. Both EonStor FC-host series and iSCSI-host series support clustering on the Windows Server platform, and the FC-host series further supports clustering on the Red Hat Linux platforms. By configuring mulitpathing for redundant controller models, users can achieve no-single-point-of-failure fault-tolerant capability throughout data paths. Both series of EonStor DS allow users to implement RAID technology and data protection features including snapshot and volume copy. In the easy-to-use GUI of SANWatch, users can non-disruptively execute and even automate data protection for mission-critical applications such as Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Exchange and Oracle database. With the multiple levels of protection, valuable data sets can remain intact no matter physical or logical errors happen. Among EonStor DS FC-host series, the models based on Infortrend latest ASIC further come with CacheSafe technology. During a power outage, the technology can ensure the integrity of cached data by writing them into the flash module for permanent retention.

EonStor DS for Server Virtualization

Server virtualization is a technology to abstract server resources from the physical machine so that the resources can be shared among multiple virtual machines hosting different OS and applications on a single server. VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V are key providers of server virtualization technology.

EonStor DS Storage Solutions in Datacenters

Figure 5. Server Virtualization Server Virtualization Benefits Through server virtualization, users are allowed to more flexibly allocate server resources for applications and in turn better utilize the computational power and capacity. Along with the decreasing number of required physical servers, users enjoy significant benefits of smaller energy footprint and easier management. These benefits have made server virtualization prevalent in companies of all sizes to drive IT consolidation. EonStor DS Solutions EonStor DS Fibre-host and iSCSI-host series are both tested compatible with VMware environment. The compatibility test in Hyper-V and Citrix environment will also be soon completed in 2010 Q3. Besides compatibility, EonStor DS storage systems are also designed to deal with the challenges server virtualization causes on storage infrastructure. According to a survey done by Taneja Group in 2009, the main storage problems induced by introducing server virtualization technology into datacenters are capacity management, scalability, complicated data protection tasks and difficult troubleshooting. Supporting non-disruptive LUN expansion, EonStor DS allows users to scale the data volume as needed. To further simplify capacity management, EonStor DS will soon support thin provisioning technology at the end of June. Just-in-time capacity allocation realized by thin provisioning technology can also ensure optimized space utilization. When applications capacity demands exceed what a single storage system can afford, users can scale the Fibre-host
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EonStor DS Storage Solutions in Datacenters

models up to 112 drives and the iSCSI-host models up to 80 drives through expansion enclosures. With snapshot and volume copy/mirror features, the virtual machines stored in EonStor DS storage systems can be soundly protected from storage accidents. Moreover, coming with multiple monitoring methods, including component LEDs, buzzers, event notifications, diagnostic reports and event logs, EonStor DS can help users effectively perform error-handling, whether proactive or reactive.

EonStor DS for Green Datacenters

Green IT has been a hot topic in recent years. Businesses are working to make their datacenters green not only for concerns of environmental sustainability but to comply with regulations and increase corporate reputation. Considering green initiatives in light of business benefits, they are especially important in helping businesses reduce energy bills. The first step companies can take to green their datacenters is using devices with lower energy consumption and cooling requirements. If companies would like to implement Green IT in a more fundamental and effective way, they should further perform IT consolidation with the help of virtualization technology. According to VMware, for every server virtualized, customers can save about 7,000 kilowatt hours, or four tons of CO2 emissions, each year. EonStor DS Solutions EonStor DS Fibre-series is the ideal storage to support green datacenters since they come with the most comprehensive green designs. The ESDS B12F storage systems support 2.5-inch drives and consume 30% to 40% less energy than their counterparts supporting 3-5inch drives. They also generate less heat and therefore demand lower cooling requirements. To further reduce drive power consumption, the EonStor DS storage systems also support smart drive spin-down. Based on user-configurable policies, drives will automatically enter idle or spin-down mode if no I/O activity happens after a pre-set period of time. The technology has been proven able to save up to 65% of storage power consumption. To make the storage systems even more energy-efficient, Infortrend also bases some models from the EonStor DS Fibre-host series on power supplies delivering more than 85% energy efficiency. Supported by the 80 PLUS-Silver certified power supplies, the EonStor DS storage systems can deliver best-in-class energy efficiency. By integrating these energy-efficient storage systems into virtualized environment, companies will be able to carry out green initiatives without sacrificing necessary capacity and performance.

EonStor DS Storage Solutions in Datacenters

Copyright 2010 Infortrend Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Infortrend, ESVA, EonStor and EonPath are trademarks or registered trademarks of Infortrend. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The content provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any kind. ESDS_WP001_060210_V1.0