TECHNICAL NOTE

VMware Infrastructure 3

SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

VMwareESXServercanbeusedinconjunctionwithaSAN(storageareanetwork),a specializedhighspeednetworkthatconnectscomputersystemstohighperformance storagesubsystems.UsingESXServertogetherwithaSANprovidesextrastoragefor consolidation,improvesreliability,andhelpswithdisasterrecovery. TouseESXServereffectivelywithaSAN,youreexpectedtobefamiliarwiththeSAN technology.ThiswhitepaperoffersabriefintroductiontosomebasicSANconcepts, butdoesntaimtobeanexhaustivesourceofinformationonSANs.IfyouareanESX ServeradministratorplanningtosetupESXServerhoststoworkwithSANs,you shouldalsoconsultotherresourcesavailableinprintandontheInternettoachievea workingknowledgeofSANconcepts.AdditionalinformationonhowESXServer interactswithSANmaybefoundinSANConfigurationGuide. Thewhitepaperdiscussesthesetopics:
! ! ! ! !

SANBasicsonpage 1 SANComponentsonpage 4 UnderstandingSANInteractionsonpage 7 SANInstallationConsiderationsonpage 10 SANDesignBasicsonpage 11

SAN Basics
ASANisaspecializedhighspeednetworkofstoragedevicesandswitchesconnected tocomputersystems.Thiswhitepaperreferstothecomputersystemsasserversor hosts. ASANpresentssharedpoolsofstoragedevicestomultipleservers.Eachservercan accessthestorageasifitweredirectlyattachedtothatserver.ASANsupports centralizedstoragemanagement.SANsmakeitpossibletomovedatabetweenvarious storagedevices,sharedatabetweenmultipleservers,andbackupandrestoredata rapidlyandefficiently.Inaddition,aproperlyconfiguredSANfacilitatesbothdisaster recoveryandhighavailability.

SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

ThephysicalcomponentsofaSANcanbegroupedinasinglerackordatacenteror connectedoverlongdistances.ThismakesaSANafeasiblesolutionforbusinessesof anysize:theSANcangroweasilywiththebusinessitsupports.

SAN Component Overview

ThissectiongivesanoverviewofSANcomponents.Thenumbersinthetext correspondtonumbersinFigure 1,SANComponents,onpage 3. Initssimplestform,aSANconsistsofoneormoreservers(1)attachedtoastorage array(2)usingoneormoreSANswitches.Eachservermighthostnumerous applicationsthatrequirededicatedstorageforapplicationsprocessing. Thefollowingcomponents,discussedinmoredetailinSANComponentsonpage 4 areinvolved:
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SANSwitches(3)SANswitchesconnectvariouselementsoftheSAN.In particular,theymightconnecthoststostoragearrays.SANswitchesalsoallow administratorstosetuppathredundancyintheeventofapathfailurefromhost servertoswitchorfromstoragearraytoswitch. Fabric(4)TheSANfabricistheactualnetworkportionoftheSAN.Whenone ormoreSANswitchesareconnected,afabriciscreated.TheFCprotocolisusedto communicateovertheentirenetwork.ASANcanconsistofmultiple interconnectedfabrics.EvenasimpleSANoftenconsistsoftwofabricsfor redundancy.

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

Connections:HostBusAdapters(5)andStorageProcessors(6)Hostservers andstoragesystemsareconnectedtotheSANfabricthroughportsinthefabric.
! !

AhostconnectstoafabricportthroughanHBA. Storagedevicesconnecttofabricportsthroughtheirstorageprocessors.
ESX Server 1

HBA 2 5 4 fabric A

HBA 1 4 fabric B

3 SAN switch 6 SP SP

3 SAN switch

storage array

Figure 1. SAN Components

How a SAN Works

TheSANcomponentsinteractasfollows: 1 2 WhenahostwantstoaccessastoragedeviceontheSAN,itsendsouta blockbasedaccessrequestforthestoragedevice. SCSIcommandsareencapsulatedintoFCpackets.Therequestisacceptedbythe HBAforthathostandisconvertedfromitsbinarydataformtotheopticalform requiredfortransmissiononthefiberopticcable. Atthesametime,therequestispackagedaccordingtotherulesoftheFCprotocol. TheHBAtransmitstherequesttotheSAN. DependingonwhichportisusedbytheHBAtoconnecttothefabric,oneofthe SANswitchesreceivestherequestandsendsittothestorageprocessor,which sendsitontothestoragedevice.

3 4 5

Theremainingsectionsofthiswhitepaperprovideadditionalinformationaboutthe componentsoftheSANandhowtheyinteroperate.Thesesectionsalsopresentgeneral informationonconfigurationoptionsanddesignconsiderations.

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

SAN Components
ThecomponentsofanFCSANcanbegroupedasfollowsandarediscussedbelow:
! ! !

HostComponentsonpage 4 FabricComponentsonpage 5 StorageComponentsonpage 5

Figure 2showstheSANcomponentlayers.
ESX Server ESX Server

host components

HBA

HBA

HBA

HBA

fabric A

fabric B

fabric components
SAN switch A SAN switch B

SP

SP

SP

SP

storage components

storage array

storage array

Figure 2. SAN Component Layers

Host Components
ThehostcomponentsofaSANconsistoftheserversthemselvesandthecomponents thatenabletheserverstobephysicallyconnectedtotheSAN.
!

HBAsarelocatedintheservers,alongwithacomponentthatperforms digitaltoopticalsignalconversion.Eachhostconnectstothefabricportsthrough itsHBAs. HBAdriversrunningontheserversenabletheserversoperatingsystemsto communicatewiththeHBA.

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

Fabric Components
AllhostsconnecttothestoragedevicesontheSANthroughtheSANfabric.The networkportionoftheSANconsistsofthefollowingfabriccomponents:
!

SANSwitchesSANswitchescanconnecttoservers,storagedevices,andother switches,andthusprovidetheconnectionpointsfortheSANfabric.Thetypeof SANswitch,itsdesignfeatures,anditsportcapacityallcontributetoitsoverall capacity,performance,andfaulttolerance.Thenumberofswitches,typesof switches,andmannerinwhichtheswitchesareinterconnecteddefinethefabric topology.

!

ForsmallerSANs,thestandardSANswitches(calledmodularswitches)can typicallysupport16or24ports(thoughsome32portmodularswitchesare becomingavailable).Sometimesmodularswitchesareinterconnectedto createafaulttolerantfabric. ForlargerSANfabrics,directorclassswitchesprovidealargerportcapacity (64to128portsperswitch)andbuiltinfaulttolerance.

DataRoutersDataroutersareintelligentbridgesbetweenSCSIdevicesandFC devicesintheSAN.ServersintheSANcanaccessSCSIdiskortapedevicesinthe SANthroughthedataroutersinthefabriclayer. CablesSANcablesareusuallyspecialfiberopticcablesthatareusedtoconnect allofthefabriccomponents.ThetypeofSANcableandthefiberopticsignal determinethemaximumdistancesbetweenSANcomponentsandcontributeto thetotalbandwidthratingoftheSAN. CommunicationsProtocolFabriccomponentscommunicateusingtheFC communicationsprotocol.FCisthestorageinterfaceprotocolusedformostof todaysSANs.FCwasdevelopedasaprotocolfortransferringdatabetweentwo portsonaserialI/Obuscableathighspeeds.FCsupportspointtopoint, arbitratedloop,andswitchedfabrictopologies.Switchedfabrictopologyisthe basisformostcurrentSANs.

Storage Components
ThestoragecomponentsofaSANarethestoragearrays.Storagearraysincludestorage processors(SPs).TheSPsarethefrontendofthestoragearray.SPscommunicatewith thediskarray(whichincludesallthedisksinthestoragearray)andprovidethe RAID/LUNfunctionality.

Storage Processors
SPsprovidefrontsidehostattachmentstothestoragedevicesfromtheservers,either directlyorthroughaswitch.TheserverHBAsmustconformtotheprotocolsupported bythestorageprocessor.Inmostcases,thisistheFCprotocol.

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

Storageprocessorsprovideinternalaccesstothedrives,whichcanbeusingaswitchor busarchitecture.Inhighendstoragesystems,drivesarenormallyconnectedinloops. ThisbackendlooptechnologyemployedbytheSPprovidesseveralbenefits:

! ! !

Highspeedaccesstothedrives Abilitytoaddmoredrivestotheloop Redundantaccesstoasingledrivefrommultipleloops(whendrivesare dualportedandattachedtotwoloops)

Storage Devices
Dataisstoredondiskarraysortapedevices(orboth). DiskarraysaregroupsofmultiplediskdevicesandarethetypicalSANdiskstorage device.Theycanvarygreatlyindesign,capacity,performance,andotherfeatures. Storagearraysrarelyprovidehostsdirectaccesstoindividualdrives.Instead,the storagearrayusesRAID(RedundantArrayofIndependentDrives)technologyto groupasetofdrives.RAIDusesindependentdrivestoprovidecapacity,performance, andredundancy.Usingspecializedalgorithms,severaldrivesaregroupedtoprovide commonpooledstorage.TheseRAIDalgorithms,commonlyknownasRAIDlevels, definethecharacteristicsoftheparticulargrouping. InsimplesystemsthatprovideRAIDcapability,aRAIDgroupisequivalenttoasingle LUN.ALUNisasingleunitofstorage.Dependingonthehostsystemenvironment,a LUNisalsoknownasavolumeoralogicaldrive.FromaVIClient,aLUNlookslike anyotherstorageunitavailableforaccess. Inadvancedstoragearrays,RAIDgroupscanhaveoneormoreLUNscreatedfor accessbyoneormoreservers.TheabilitytocreatemorethanoneLUNfromasingle RAIDgroupprovidesfinegranularitytothestoragecreationprocess.Youarenot limitedtothetotalcapacityoftheentireRAIDgroupforasingleLUN. Note ASANadministratormustbefamiliarwiththedifferentRAIDlevelsandunderstand howtomanagethem.Discussionofthosetopicsisbeyondthescopeofthisdocument.

Moststoragearraysprovideadditionaldataprotectionandreplicationfeaturessuchas snapshots,internalcopies,andremotemirroring.
!

AsnapshotisapointintimecopyofaLUN.Snapshotsareusedasbackupsources fortheoverallbackupproceduresdefinedforthestoragearray. InternalcopiesallowdatamovementfromoneLUNtoanotherforanadditional copyfortesting. RemotemirroringprovidesconstantsynchronizationbetweenLUNsonone storagearrayandasecond,independent(usuallyremote)storagearrayfor disasterrecovery.

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

Tape Storage Devices

TapestoragedevicesarepartoftheSANbackupcapabilitiesandprocesses.
!

SmallerSANsmightusehighcapacitytapedrives.Thesetapedrivesvaryintheir transferratesandstoragecapacities.Ahighcapacitytapedrivemightexistasa standalonedrive,oritmightbepartofatapelibrary. Typically,alargeSAN,oraSANwithcriticalbackuprequirements,isconfigured withoneormoretapelibraries.Atapelibraryconsolidatesoneormoretapedrives intoasingleenclosure.Tapescanbeinsertedandremovedfromthetapedrivesin thelibraryautomaticallywitharoboticarm.Manytapelibrariesofferlargestorage capacitiessometimesintothepetabyte(PB)range.

Understanding SAN Interactions

TheprevioussectionsprimaryfocuswasthecomponentsofaSAN.Thissection discusseshowSANcomponentsinteract:
! ! ! !

SANPortsandPortNamingonpage 7 MultipathingandPathFailoveronpage 7 Active/ActiveandActive/PassiveDiskArraysonpage 8 Zoningonpage 9

SAN Ports and Port Naming

!

Inthecontextofthisdocument,aportistheconnectionfromadeviceintothe SAN.EachnodeintheSANeachhost,storagedevice,andfabriccomponent (routerorswitch)hasoneormoreportsthatconnectittotheSAN.Portscanbe identifiedinanumberofways: WWPNWorldWidePortName.Agloballyuniqueidentifierforaportwhich allowscertainapplicationstoaccesstheport.TheFCswitchesdiscovertheWWPN ofadeviceorhostandassignaportaddresstothedevice. Port_ID(orportaddress)WithintheSAN,eachporthasauniqueportIDthat servesastheFCaddressfortheport.ThisenablesroutingofdatathroughtheSAN tothatport.TheFCswitchesassigntheportIDwhenthedevicelogsintothe fabric.TheportIDisvalidonlywhilethedeviceisloggedon.

IndepthinformationonSANportscanbefoundathttp://www.snia.org,theWebsite oftheStorageNetworkingIndustryAssociation.

Multipathing and Path Failover

AnFCpathdescribesaroute:
! ! !

FromaspecificHBAportinthehost, Throughtheswitchesinthefabric,and Intoaspecificstorageportonthestoragearray.

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

AgivenhostmightbeabletoaccessaLUNonastoragearraythroughmorethanone path.HavingmorethanonepathfromahosttoaLUNiscalledmultipathing. Bydefault,VMwareESXServersystemsuseonlyonepathfromthehosttoagiven LUNatanytime.IfthepathactivelybeingusedbytheVMwareESXServersystem fails,theserverselectsanotheroftheavailablepaths.Theprocessofdetectingafailed pathandswitchingtoanotheriscalledpathfailover.Apathfailsifanyofthe componentsalongthepathHBA,cable,switchport,orstorageprocessorfails.

Active/Active and Active/Passive Disk Arrays

Itisusefultodistinguishbetweenactive/activeandactive/passivediskarrays:
!

Anactive/activediskarrayallowsaccesstotheLUNssimultaneouslythroughall thestorageprocessorsthatareavailablewithoutsignificantperformance degradation.Allthepathsareactiveatalltimes(unlessapathfails). Inanactive/passivediskarray,oneSPisactivelyservicingagivenLUN.Theother SPactsasbackupfortheLUNandmaybeactivelyservicingotherLUNI/O.I/O canbesentonlytoanactiveprocessor.Iftheprimarystorageprocessorfails,one ofthesecondarystorageprocessorsbecomesactive,eitherautomaticallyor throughadministratorintervention. Usingactive/passivearrayswithpathpolicyFixedcanpotentiallyleadtopath thrashing.SeeESXServerSANConfigurationGuideformoreinformationonresolving paththrashing.

Note

InFigure 3,onestorageprocessorisactive,theotherispassive.Dataarrivesthrough theactivearrayonly.

storage processor active

storage processor passive

physical disks storage array

Figure 3. Active/passive Storage Array

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

Zoning
ZoningprovidesaccesscontrolintheSANtopology;itdefineswhichHBAscan connecttowhichSPs.YoucanhavemultipleportstothesameSPindifferentzonesto reducethenumberofpresentedpaths. WhenaSANisconfiguredusingzoning,thedevicesoutsideazonearenotvisibleto thedevicesinsidethezone.Inaddition,SANtrafficwithineachzoneisisolatedfrom theotherzones. WithinacomplexSANenvironment,SANswitchesprovidezoning.Zoningdefines andconfiguresthenecessarysecurityandaccessrightsfortheentireSAN. Typically,zonesarecreatedforeachgroupofserversthataccessasharedgroupof storagedevicesandLUNs.Youcanusezoninginseveralways.Herearesome examples:
!

ZoningforsecurityandisolationYoucanmanagezonesdefinedfortesting independentlywithintheSANsotheydontinterferewiththeactivitygoingonin theproductionzones.Similarly,youcouldsetupdifferentzonesfordifferent departments. ZoningforsharedservicesAnotheruseofzonesistoallowcommonserver accessforbackups.SANdesignsoftenhaveabackupserverwithtapeservicesthat requireSANwideaccesstohostserversindividuallyforbackupandrecovery processes.Thesebackupserversneedtobeabletoaccesstheserverstheybackup. ASANzonemightbedefinedforthebackupservertoaccessaparticularhostto performabackuporrecoveryprocess.Thezoneisthenredefinedforaccessto anotherhostwhenthebackupserverisreadytoperformbackuporrecovery processesonthathost. MultiplestoragearraysZonesarealsousefulwhentherearemultiplestorage arrays.Throughtheuseofseparatezones,eachstoragearrayismanaged separatelyfromtheothers,withnoconcernforaccessconflictsbetweenservers.

LUN Masking
LUNmaskingiscommonlyusedforpermissionmanagement.LUNmaskingisalso referredtoasselectivestoragepresentation,accesscontrol,andpartitioning, dependingonthevendor. LUNmaskingisperformedattheSPorserverlevel;itmakesaLUNinvisiblewhena targetisscanned.Theadministratorconfiguresthediskarraysoeachserverorgroup

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

ofserverscanseeonlycertainLUNs.Maskingcapabilitiesforeachdiskarrayare vendorspecific,asarethetoolsformanagingLUNmasking.
ESX Server Mask LUN 11 ESX Server Mask LUN 12

21:00:00:E0:8B:19:AB:31 zoning: done at switch level; used to segment the fabric

HBA

HBA

21:00:00:E0:8B:19:B2:33 LUN masking: done at SP or server level; makes a LUN invisible when a target is scanned

FC switch

50:05:01:60:10:20:AD:87 SP LUNs 0 11 storage array 12 WWN (world-wide name) unique, 64-bit address assigned to Fibre Channel node

Figure 4. LUN Zoning and Masking

SAN Installation Considerations

InstallingaSANrequirescarefulattentiontodetailsandanoverallplanthataddresses allthehardware,software,storage,andapplicationsissuesandtheirinteractionsasall thepiecesareintegrated.

Requirements
TointegrateallcomponentsoftheSAN,youmustmeetthevendorshardwareand softwarecompatibilityrequirements,includingthefollowing:
! ! !

HBA(firmwareversion,driverversion,andpatchlist) Switch(firmware) Storage(firmware,hostpersonalityfirmware,andpatchlist)

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

SAN Setup
WhenyourereadytosetuptheSAN,completethesetasks. To prepare the SAN 1 Assembleandcabletogetherallhardwarecomponentsandinstallthe correspondingsoftware. a b c 2 3 Checktheversions. SetuptheHBA. Setupthestoragearray.

Changeanyconfigurationsettingsthatmightberequired. Testtheintegration. Duringintegrationtesting,testalltheoperationalprocessesfortheSAN environment.Theseincludenormalproductionprocessing,failuremodetesting, backupfunctions,andsoforth.

EstablishabaselineofperformanceforeachcomponentandfortheentireSAN. Eachbaselineprovidesameasurementmetricforfuturechangesandtuning.See ESXServerSANConfigurationGuideforadditionalinformation.

DocumenttheSANinstallationandalloperationalprocedures.

SAN Design Basics

WhendesigningaSANformultipleapplicationsandservers,youmustbalancethe performance,reliability,andcapacityattributesoftheSAN.Eachapplicationdemands resourcesandaccesstostorageprovidedbytheSAN.TheSANsswitchesandstorage arraysmustprovidetimelyandreliableaccessforallcompetingapplications. ThissectiondiscussessomeSANdesignbasics.ItdoesnotfocusonSANdesignforESX Serverhosts,butonthefollowinggeneraltopicsofinterest:
! ! ! !

DefiningApplicationNeedsonpage 11 ConfiguringtheStorageArrayonpage 12 ConsideringHighAvailabilityonpage 13 PlanningforDisasterRecoveryonpage 13

Defining Application Needs

TheSANmustsupportfastresponsetimesconsistentlyforeachapplicationeven thoughtherequirementsmadebyapplicationsvaryoverpeakperiodsforbothI/Oper secondandbandwidth(inmegabytespersecond). AproperlydesignedSANmustprovidesufficientresourcestoprocessallI/Orequests fromallapplications.DesigninganoptimalSANenvironmentisthereforeneither

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

simplenorquick.ThefirststepindesigninganoptimalSANistodefinethestorage requirementsforeachapplicationintermsof:
! ! ! ! ! !

I/Operformance(I/Opersecond) Bandwidth(megabytespersecond) Capacity(numberofLUNsandcapacityofeachLUN) Redundancylevel(RAIDlevel) Responsetimes(averagetimeperI/O) Overallprocessingpriority

Configuring the Storage Array

Storagearraydesigninvolvesmappingthedefinedstoragerequirementstothe resourcesofthestoragearrayusingtheseguidelines:
!

EachRAIDgroupprovidesaspecificlevelofI/Operformance,capacity,and redundancy.LUNsareassignedtoRAIDgroupsbasedontheserequirements. IfaparticularRAIDgroupcannotprovidetherequiredI/Operformance,capacity, andresponsetimes,youmustdefineanadditionalRAIDgroupforthenextsetof LUNs.YoumustprovidesufficientRAIDgroupresourcesforeachsetofLUNs. ThestoragearraysneedtodistributetheRAIDgroupsacrossallinternalchannels andaccesspaths.ThisresultsinloadbalancingofallI/Orequeststomeet performancerequirementsofI/Ooperationspersecondandresponsetimes.

Peak Period Activity

BasetheSANdesignonpeakperiodactivityandconsiderthenatureoftheI/Owithin eachpeakperiod.Youmayfindthatadditionalstoragearrayresourcecapacityis requiredtoaccommodateinstantaneouspeaks. Forexample,apeakperiodmayoccurduringnoontimeprocessing,characterizedby severalpeakingI/Osessionsrequiringtwiceorevenfourtimestheaverageforthe entirepeakperiod.Withoutadditionalresources,I/Odemandsthatexceedthecapacity ofastoragearrayresultindelayedresponsetimes.

Caching
ThoughESXServersystemsbenefitfromwritecache,thecachecouldbesaturatedwith sufficientlyintenseI/O.Saturationreducesthecacheseffectiveness. Becausethecacheisoftenallocatedfromaglobalpool,itshouldbeallocatedonlyifit willbeeffective.
!

AreadaheadcachemaybeeffectiveforsequentialI/O,suchasduringcertain typesofbackupactivities,andfortemplaterepositories. AreadcacheisoftenineffectivewhenappliedtoaVMFSbasedLUNbecause multiplevirtualmachinesareaccessedconcurrently.Becausedataaccessis random,thereadcachehitrateisoftentoolowtojustifyallocatingareadcache.

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

Areadcacheisoftenunnecessarywhentheapplicationandoperatingsystem cachedataarewithinthevirtualmachinesmemory.Inthatcase,thereadcache cachesdataobjectsthattheapplicationoroperatingsystemalreadycache.

Considering High Availability

Productionsystemsmustnothaveasinglepointoffailure.Makesurethatredundancy isbuiltintothedesignatalllevels.Buildinadditionalswitches,HBAs,andstorage processors,creating,ineffect,aredundantaccesspath.
!

RedundantSANComponentsRedundantSANhardwarecomponents includingHBAs,SANswitches,andstoragearrayaccessports,arerequired.In somecases,multiplestoragearraysarepartofafaulttolerantSANdesign. RedundantI/OPathsI/Opathsfromtheservertothestoragearraymustbe redundantanddynamicallyswitchableintheeventofaport,device,cable,orpath failure. I/OConfigurationThekeytoprovidingfaulttoleranceiswithinthe configurationofeachserversI/Osystem. WithmultipleHBAs,theI/OsystemcanissueI/OacrossalloftheHBAstothe assignedLUNs.Failurescanhavethefollowingresults:
!

IfanHBA,cable,orSANswitchportfails,thepathisnolongeravailableand analternatepathisrequired. IfafailureoccursintheprimarypathbetweentheSANswitchandthestorage array,thenanalternatepathatthatlevelisrequired. IfaSANswitchfails,theentirepathfromservertostoragearrayisdisabled, soasecondfabricwithacompletealternatepathisrequired.

MirroringProtectionagainstLUNfailureallowsapplicationstosurvivestorage accessfaults.Mirroringcanaccomplishthatprotection. MirroringdesignatesasecondnonaddressableLUNthatcapturesallwrite operationstotheprimaryLUN.MirroringprovidesfaulttoleranceattheLUN level.LUNmirroringcanbeimplementedattheserver,SANswitch,orstorage arraylevel. Note UsuallyRAIDSdontmirror.

DuplicationofSANEnvironmentForextremelyhighavailability requirements,SANenvironmentsmaybeduplicatedtoprovidedisasterrecovery onapersitebasis.TheSANenvironmentmustbeduplicatedatdifferentphysical locations.ThetworesultantSANenvironmentsmayshareoperationalworkloads orthesecondSANenvironmentmaybeafailoveronlysite.

Planning for Disaster Recovery

Ifasitefailsforanyreason,youmayneedtoimmediatelyrecoverthefailed applicationsanddatafromaremotesite.TheSANmustprovideaccesstothedatafrom

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SAN Conceptual and Design Basics

analternateservertostartthedatarecoveryprocess.TheSANmayhandlethesitedata synchronization. ESXServermakesdisasterrecoveryeasierbecauseyoudonothavetoreinstallan operatingsystemonadifferentphysicalmachine.Justrestorethevirtualmachine imageandcontinuewhatyouweredoing.

VMware, Inc. 3145 Porter Drive Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com Copyright 1998-2006 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Protected by one or more of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,397,242, 6,496,847, 6,704,925, 6,711,672, 6,725,289, 6,735,601, 6,785,886, 6,789,156, 6,795,966, 6,880,022 6,961,941, 6,961,806 and 6,944,699; patents pending. VMware, the VMware boxes logo and design, Virtual SMP and VMotion are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Revision yyyymmdd Version: x.y Item: TBD

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