Successfully Planning your iSCSI Storage Area Network (SAN)

1. Successfully Planning your iSCSI Storage Area Network (SAN)

2. Analyze Current Environment • Servers • Server Hardware Inventory/Specs • Physicaland/or Virtual Hosts • CPU/RAM/Bus/NICs/RAID CTRLs • I/O – Maximum Network Utilization • Storage • Current Storage Consumption/Rate • I/O – maximum I/O Rates per Server • Storage Classification – Tiers 1,2,3 • Existing Storage Reutilization

3. Analyze Current Environment • Networking • Physical Inventory/Diagrams • Helpful for Storage Vendor and Internal Use • Switches • Jumbo Frame/VLAN/Aggregation Support • Dedicated Storage Network • Segregation with Switches or VLANs • Dedicated NICs in Servers • Current Vendors/Products • Virtualization, Database, File Storage • Best Practices for Storage and Networking

4. Identify Appropriate SAN Solution • Building SAN with ISCSI Software • Software/OS Requirements – CPU and Memory • RAID CTRL(s) • Bus/Speed, Channels, I/O Capabilities, Scalability • RAID Level and Cache Support • Storage • Capacity and Tiers – Scalability • Drive Type(s)/Speeds - Internal and/or Direct Attached • RAID Level(s) 0,1,5,6, x+0 • Memory and Cache • Recommendations for RAM-Based Disk Cache • RAID CTRL’d SSD • Networking • 1GB, 10GB, 40GB Ethernet • PCI BUS/Card Type • Scalability – Available Expansion Slots

5. Identify Appropriate SAN Solution • Additional Features to Leverage • High Availability • Active/Active – Active/Passive Clustering • Data Deduplication • Significantly Reduce Capacity Requirements • Auto-Tiering • Move Data to Faster/Slower Drives • Thin Provisioning • Expand Storage Later – Be Careful! • Snapshot Capabilities • Rollback and Cloning Features • Security Considerations • Disk and Packet Encryption • Interface Binding

6. Compatibility and Potential Upgrades • Certified for Use by your OS/Virtualization Vendor • Microsoft, VMware, XEN Ready • Physical and Virtual Hosts • Adequate Hardware for iSCSI Support • Additional CPU and RAM Workload • Dedicated Storage Adapters and Capabilities • Jumbo Frame/Aggregation/TOE/RSS/Chimney Offload • Supporting Bus Type and Speed • Supported Communication Methods and Considerations • MPIO Policies • Link Aggregation • Switch or Non-Switch Aware

7. Compatibility and Potential Upgrades • LAN/WAN Compatibility and Upgrades • Dedicated Storage Network Equipment • Physical or VLAN Segregation • 1GB, 10GB, 40GB Switches • Switch Fabric Capacity • Jumbo Frame Support • Aggregation Support • Scalability • Additional Features and Required Support • Deduplication – Additional RAM and CPU I/Os • Active/Passive-Active/Active Storage Clustering • I/O’s – CPU/RAM/RAID CTRL/Drives • Support Entire Workload from Single SAN • Snapshots – VSS for Microsoft Servers/Applications • Offsite/DR Replication – Bandwidth Requirements

8. Best Practices and Optimization • Identify all Vendor Best Practices • RAID Level, Stripe Sizes, Cache, Partitions/Formatting • Dedicated, Dedicated, Dedicated! • Segregate Your Traffic • Eliminate Single Points of Failure • Multiple Switches and NICs • Ling Aggregation with Failover • Redundant Power and UPS • Non-Routable Subnets • Aggregation Causes Aggravation with Proxy ARP

9. Best Practices and Optimization • Performance Tuning – Multiple Factors • Network Performance and Throughput to Disk • RAID Type/Stripe Size/Drive Speeds • Jumbo Frames, TOE/Large Send Offload, RSS, Chimney Offload • One Size does not Fit All • Storage Vendor Recommendations • Server/SAN Benchmark Testing • Server/Platform Performance Tools • I/O Subsystem Measurement Tools – Iometer • Modify Jumbo Frames and Offload Engines • I/O’s Should be on NICs not CPU • Network Utilization and Latency • Between 50% and 99% • 1ms-5ms Latency is Ideal • Disk Utilization and Queue Lengths • High Utilization and Low Queue Length • Queue Length Should Not Exceed Total Spindles

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