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A quick introduction to SANs and Panasas ActivStor. Storage Networking. Kevin Haines, eScience Centre, STFC, RAL. WikiPedia defines a SAN:.
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A quick introduction to SANs and Panasas ActivStor Storage Networking Kevin Haines, eScience Centre, STFC, RAL
WikiPedia defines a SAN: A storage area network (SAN) is an architecture to attach remote computer storage devices (such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes) to servers in such a way that the devices appear as locally attached to the operating system.
SAN Topology It’s like a LAN... Host/HBA 1 Storage 1 Host/HBA 2 Storage 2 Host/HBA 3 SAN Switch
SAN Topology It’s like a LAN... it has a switch... Host/HBA 1 Storage 1 Host/HBA 2 Storage 2 Host/HBA 3 SAN Switch
SAN Topology It’s like a LAN... it has a switch, and network cards. Host/HBA 1 Storage 1 Host/HBA 2 Storage 2 Host/HBA 3 SAN Switch
SAN Topology It’s like a LAN... it has a switch, and network cards. Host/HBA 1 Storage 1 Host/HBA 2 Storage 2 Host/HBA 3 SAN Switch
SAN Topology It’s like a LAN...but a little different. Fibre Connectors 2/4/8Gb/s Host/HBA 1 Storage 1 Host/HBA 2 Storage 2 Host/HBA 3 SAN Switch Initiators Targets WWNs
Controlling Access Zoning implemented by the switch Host/HBA 1 Storage 1 Host/HBA 2 Storage 2 Host/HBA 3 SAN Switch Zone 1 = HBA1 + Storage1 Zone 2 = HBA2 + HBA3 + Storage 2
Controlling Access LUN masking on the storage array Host/HBA 1 Storage 1 Host/HBA 2 LD1 HBA2 LD2 Host/HBA 3 HBA2 LD3 HBA3 SAN Switch Zone 1 = HBA1 + Storage1 Zone 2 = HBA2 + HBA3 + Storage 2
Controlling Access LUN masking on the storage array Host/HBA 1 Storage 1 Host/HBA 2 LD1 HBA2 LD2 Host/HBA 3 HBA2 LD3 HBA3 SAN Switch Zone 1 = HBA1 + Storage1 Zone 2 = HBA2 + HBA3 + Storage 2
Increasing Resilience Multipath HOST HBA 1 SAN Switch 1 Storage 1 HBA 2 SAN Switch 2
PanasasActivStor • Director Blades • Meta-data and volume management services • NFS access gateway
PanasasActivStor • Storage Blades • Two disks (up to 2TB per blade) • 2xGb/s ethernet (failover mode) • 11 per shelf (must be managed by DB)
PanasasActivStor Resilience • Data is striped across all Storage Blades (RAID5 or RAID1) • One or more Storage Blades’ worth of space reserved for failures • System monitoring for pre-emptive actions (Blade Drain) • Two or more Director Blades can provide failover for each other
PanasasActivStor Performance • DirectFLOW clients • Available for most major Linux distributions • Directly communicates with Storage Blades • RAID computations performed by client • ~5000 supported (12000 option)
PanasasActivStor Performance • DirectFLOW clients • Available for most major Linux distributions • Directly communicates with Storage Blades • RAID computations performed by client • ~5000 supported (12000 option) • Results show scalable claim is true • RAL: 1.2 GB/s from 22 nodes (2 shelves) • RoadRunner: 60GB/s (103 shelves)