1 / 9

Storage Procurements

Storage Procurements. Some random thoughts on getting the storage you need Martin Bly Tier1 Fabric Manager. You want How Much ?. Know your units TB (10^12) is not the same as TiB (2^40) Storage vendors talk in terms of TB and raw capacity

drea
Download Presentation

Storage Procurements

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Storage Procurements Some random thoughts on getting the storage you need Martin Bly Tier1 Fabric Manager

  2. You want How Much? • Know your units • TB (10^12) is not the same as TiB (2^40) • Storage vendors talk in terms of TB and raw capacity • Define what you mean by 1TB and what you mean by your capacity requirements • For the Tier1 procurements: • Capacity in units of 1TB=10^12 bytes • Usable capacity described in terms of RAID5 or RAID6 redundancy (or even RAID 1+0) • Thus N data drives will give (N-2)*Size_of_drives usable storage (R5,6) Stoarge Procurements - HEPSysMan @ RAL

  3. Storage type • Lots of sorts • SAN, NAS, DAS, iSCSI… • Different technologies • FC, SCSI, SAS, SATA • Arrangement • RAID levels, array/server arrangements • Each appropriate for different use cases • Speed, cache/buffer sizes (disk, controller), battery backup units Stoarge Procurements - HEPSysMan @ RAL

  4. Technical specs • Specify what *you* want • In as much detail as is necessary to get it • Be as unambiguous as possible • Three types of specification: • Mandatory – non-compliant if not provided • Desirable – you’d like it but omission is not a non-compliance • Optional – gives the vendor some scope for added value • Specify *everything* • Including CPU performance, RAM, NICs, which OS, acceptance tests, documentation requirements, maintenance and warranty etc • Provide required (achievable!) performance metrics • And a recipe to do the tests… • Define bid evaluation criteria before issuing the spec or call for tender Stoarge Procurements - HEPSysMan @ RAL

  5. Technology issues • Motherboard SATA controllers, NICs • Issues with concurrent i/o performance of 3ware cards • Are the drivers required for the components you need available in the version of the OS you intend to run • If not – are you prepared to build extra modules for them, and do it every time a new kernel comes along until it *is* available in the stock builds: c.f. areca driver in SL 4.6, kernel >= 2.6.9-67.0.15 • And you may have to add them to the installation kernel… Stoarge Procurements - HEPSysMan @ RAL

  6. Technology Issues II • In RAID systems, number of drives per controller: • Fewer drives, fewer concurrent drives used for read or write, lower performance • More drives, better performance, but performance drops off across the Span • Large RAID sets on single controllers are not recommended, though more than one RAID per controller seems OK Stoarge Procurements - HEPSysMan @ RAL

  7. Technology Issues III • Capacity per box • I/O bandwidth to disks • I/O bandwidth to network • Memory – is more better • CPU architecture • OS issues • Resilience • Reliability Stoarge Procurements - HEPSysMan @ RAL

  8. Large Procurements • Where value large => EU tender rules • Avoid specifications that mention Tradenames, OEM names, non-benchmarked performance indicators, proprietary technologies… • Unless referring to a common name for a part to a recognised industry standard • ‘commando’ plugs are IEC.309 / BS EN.60309-2 • But quote the standard first • Use ISO, EN or BS standards • ISO and EN take precedence over BS where there is an equivalent EN. Some EN standards adopted as the BS. • Be prepared for a long process • Restricted: longer, two stages, get to restrict the final bidders • Open: shorted, many more bidders to evaluate • Can use Catalyst (GCAT) or other schemes • For small volumes, exercise your supplier contacts Stoarge Procurements - HEPSysMan @ RAL

  9. Random thoughts • Weight, cooling, power consumption, power feeds, power redundancy, NIC redundancy, switch uplink capacity, warranty, availability of spares after maintenance period, Castor/dCache/DPM/xrootd, disks/controller, controllers/chassis, RAM per chip/core, chips/cores per chassis, redundant system drives, lights-out operation, component quality, interoperability with existing systems, chunk size Stoarge Procurements - HEPSysMan @ RAL

More Related