Storage Area Network Technologies: November 2014

Storage Area
Network
Technologies
November 2014
© Copyright 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. HP Confidential – For training purposes only.
Course objectives
After completing this course, you should be able to:

• Explain disk connectivity options and disk technologies
• Identify storage area network (SAN) host components and technologies, including the HP Virtual Connect
FlexFabric
• Discuss advanced Fibre Channel technologies such as Fibre Channel addressing, zoning, fabric segmentation,
and quality of service (QoS)
• Explain iSCSI SAN and technologies such as Net RAID
• Discuss SAN security
• Explain data protection terms and technologies
• Discuss storage area network design
2 © Copyright 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. HP Confidential – For training purposes only.
Disk technologies
© Copyright 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. HP Confidential – For training purposes only.
Parallel SCSI
• A SCSI standard established by ANSI in 1986, but still evolving

• The Common Command Set (CCS) was developed in parallel with the ANSI SCSI-1, SCSI-2, SCSI-3, and
SCSI-4 standards
• The SCSI-1 standard was too permissive and allowed too many vendor-specific options
• The result was incompatibility between products from different vendors, which made for confusion on:
− Speed and feed: Fast, Ultra, Ultra2, narrow, and wide
− Command sets: Common Command Set, Enhanced Command Set
− Termination: Passive, Active, Forced Perfect Termination
• Ultra320 and Ultra640 (AKA Fast-320) are the last offerings
IMPORTANT: When referring to SCSI disks, you need to know specific details about the interface type and signaling
method.
NOTICE: Ultra640 standard reached the limits of speed/cable lengths, that made it impractical for more than two devices.
Most manufacturers skipped over Ultra640 for Serial Attached SCSI instead.
Serial ATA (SATA)
• Hot-plug and Native Command Queuing (NCQ) support

• Transfer rates up to 300 MB/s for SATA2 and 600 MB/s for SATA3, using half-duplex
• SATA3.1 introduced support for Solid State Disks (SSD) and the Zero-Power Optical Disk Drive
• SATA3.2 combines SATA commands with the PCI Express interface to achieve device speeds up to 16 Gb/s
• Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) is 1.2 million hours
Serial Attached SCSI
• SAS uses the full-duplex architecture, effectively doubling the transfer speeds
• The current SAS standard provides speed of 12 Gb/s, with a maximum theoretical speed of 16 Gb/s
• The maximum number of attached devices is 128 (compared to 16 for Parallel SCSI)
• A single SAS domain can address up to 65,535 devices using a fanout expander
• The MTBF is increased to 1.6 million hours
Near-line SAS
• Serial Attached SCSI provides backward compatibility with SATA

• The near-line SAS drive is combination of a regular SATA drive with a SAS interface
• The near-line SAS drives enable all of the enterprise features of SAS
• Because near-line SAS uses SATA drives, performance and MTBF are limited by the SATA technology
Native Command Queuing
What is Native Command Queuing (NCQ)?

• NCQ is a technology designed to increase the performance of SATA drives.
• Disks are enabled to internally optimize the order in which read/write commands are executed.
• NCQ is reducing the amount of unnecessary HDD head movement.
• NCQ is supported on the HP Smart Array P400, P400i, E500, and P800 disk controllers.
NCQ performance gains
SAS domains
Solid State Drives
• Based on Flash memory technology

• Use the same communication protocols as magnetic
disk drives
• Based on two technologies
− Single-Level Cell (SLC)
− Multi-Level Cell (MLC)
Solid State Drive functional diagram
NOTE: Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHDs) combine the large capacity of HDD with the speed of the SSD used for
caching to improve performance and keep the price low.
Single-level cell
• As the name suggests, SLC Flash stores one bit value

per cell, which basically is a voltage level
− The bit value is interpreted as a “0” or a “1”
• Because there are only two states, it represents only
one bit value
− Each bit can have a value of “programmed” or
“erased”
Value State
0 Programmed
1 Erased
Multi-level cell
• An MLC cell can represent multiple values

• These values can be interpreted as four distinct states:
00, 01, 10, or 11
Value State
00 Fully programmed
01 Partially programmed
10 Partially erased
11 Fully erased
Comparing SLC and MLC
Characteristic SLC MLC

Density 16 Mb 32 Mb 64 Mb
Read speed 100ns 120ns 150ns
Block size 64 Kb 128 Kb
Architecture x8 X8/x16
Endurance 100,000 cycles 10,000 cycles
Operating temperature Industrial Commercial
NOTE: MLC is less desirable for use in server

storage.
SSD wear leveling
What is wear leveling?

• Technology used to increase the overall endurance of
NAND-based SSDs
• Each NAND cell supports up to 100,000 read/write
operations
• Wear leveling continuously remaps logical SCSI
blocks to different physical pages in the NAND array,
ensuring that reads and writes remain equally
distributed
• Logical-to-physical mapping is maintained as a
pointer array in the high-speed DRAM on the SSD
controller
− This index is then copied to a special region of
NAND to enable rebuilding of the map in the case of
a sudden power loss
SSD over-provisioning
• On high-end SSDs, it is possible to over-provision by 25% above the stated storage capacity
• Distributes the total number of reads and writes across a larger population of NAND blocks and pages over
time
• The SSD controller gets additional buffer space for managing page writes and NAND block erases
SmartSSD Wear Gauge
NOTE: SmartSSD Wear Gauge is part of the Array Configuration Utility (ACU) in the HP Intelligent Provisioning
that is embedded in HP ProLiant Gen8 and newer servers.
Disk enclosures
• A disk enclosure is a specialized casing designed to

hold and power disk drives while providing a
mechanism to allow them to communicate to one or
more separate computers
• In enterprise terms, “disk enclosure” refers to a larger
physical disk chassis
• Disk enclosures do not have RAID controllers
• Disk enclosures can be connected directly to the hosts
HP D2700 6Gb Drive Enclosure
Fault-tolerant cabling
Fault-tolerant cabling allows any drive enclosure

to fail or be removed while maintaining access to
other enclosures
• P2000 G3 Modular Storage Array (MSA)
• Two D2700 6Gb enclosures
• The I/O module As on the drive enclosures are shaded
green
• The I/O module Bs on the drive enclosures are shaded
red
Straight-through cabling
Straight-through cabling can sometimes provide

increased performance in the array, it also
increases the risk of losing access to one or more
enclosures in the event of an enclosure failure or
removal
• P2000 G3 Modular Storage Array (MSA)
• Two D2700 6Gb enclosures
• The I/O module As on the drive enclosures are shaded
green
• The I/O module Bs on the drive enclosures are shaded
red
LUN masking
• Enables host visibility of LUNs within the storage

array
• LUN granularity
• Independent of zoning
• Can be implemented at the host, fabric, or array level
• Used for data security
• Selective Storage Presentation on HP 3PAR and EVA
Arrays
Storage virtualization
HP 3PAR Storage Virtualization Scheme
Fat (thick) or thin provisioning
HP Storage Arrays
HP XP7
HP XP
HP 3PAR P9500
EVA StoreServ 10000
P6000
Storage
Consolidation and performance
HP 3PAR
StoreServ 7000
HP P2000 MSA 4 PB maximum

Array System 2 PB maximum 247 PB external
HP StoreVirtual
4000 Storage storage maximum
1200TB maximum 3.2 PB maximum 255 PB external
720 TB storage maximum
384 TB maximum 8 Gb FC ports 8 Gb FC ports
maximum
1/8 Gb FC ports 10 Gb/sec iSCSI 10 Gb/sec iSCSI ports
1536 TB maximum 8 Gb FC ports
6 Gb/sec SAS ports ports (8) 3PAR quad-core
1/10 GbE iSCSI 1/10 Gb/s iSCSI
1/10 GbE iSCSI (4) 3PAR 7000 ports 2.8GHz P10000
ports
ports 6-core 1.8 GHz controller nodes
8 Gb FC ports controller nodes
Business continuity and availability
Storage area network hosts
SAN hosts
• Multiple HBAs to connect to different SAN fabrics

• Need to be members of a zone in each fabric
• Need to have visibility to the disk array ports within
the zone to allow them to map storage presentations
• Might have additional multipath drivers or software to
enable failover and policy-based load balancing in a
redundant fabric SAN design
Hosts and Fibre Channel
• To communicate with Fibre Channel infrastructure,

the host requires a host bus adapter (HBA)
• Each HBA port physically connects to the fabric and
becomes visible to the SAN
• Port behavior depends on the HBA driver
configuration and type and on the configuration of the
fabric port
Converged network adapter
• Converged network adapter (CNA) combines:

− Traditional
host bus adapters for Fibre Channel (FC-HBA) and Ethernet network interface cards (NICs)
− Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol
− Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE)
N_Port ID virtualization
What is NPIV?
• N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is an industry-standard Fibre Channel protocol that provides a means to
assign multiple Fibre Channel addresses on the same physical link.
• NPIV makes a single Fibre Channel port appear as multiple virtual ports, each having its own N_Port ID and
virtual WWN.
• HP offers an NPIV-based Fibre Channel interconnect option for server blades called Virtual Connect.
NPIV
• NPIV allows a single HBA, called an “N_Port,” to register multiple World Wide Port Names (WWPNs) and
N_Port identification numbers
Server virtualization with NPIV
HP Virtual Connect Fibre Channel
HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric
• Up to four physical functions for each server blade

adapter network port
• The physical function corresponds to the HBA
• Four physical functions share the 10 Gb link
• One of the four physical functions can be defined as
the Fibre Channel HBA, and the remaining three will
act as NICs
• Each physical function has 100% hardware-level
performance, but the bandwidth might be fine-tuned
to quickly adapt to virtual server workload demands
Boot from SAN
What is boot from SAN?

The process of booting a server using external
storage devices over a SAN
• Used for server and storage consolidation
• Minimizes server maintenance and reduces backup
time
• Allows for rapid infrastructure changes
Multipath concept
• Multipath I/O (MPIO) provides automatic path

failover between the server and the disk arrays
• Some multipath solutions provide load balancing over
multiple HBA paths
Path failover
• Failover is handled by MPIO, and it is supported via

services, drivers, and agents
• It is transparent to the applications
• The administrator has to configure the primary and
alternate paths
Load balancing
• MPIO provides load balancing across all installed HBAs (ports) in a server
• There are various load-balancing policies, depending on the multipath software:
− Round robin
− Least I/O
− Least bandwidth
− Shortest queue (requests, bytes, service time)
Microsoft Multi-Port IO
• Uses redundant physical paths to eliminate single points of failure between servers and storage
• Increases data reliability and availability
• Reduces bottlenecks
• Provides fault tolerance and load balancing
• Two components:
− Driversdeveloped by Microsoft
− Device-specific modules (DSMs) developed by storage vendors to Microsoft standards
NOTICE: Starting with Windows Server 2008, Microsoft provides native multipathing (Microsoft MPIO)
software.
Fibre Channel
advanced features
Fibre Channel addressing
• Fibre Channel switch ports use a 24-bit address scheme

− Allows for 16 million addresses
Fibre Channel name and address
• 24-bit addresses are automatically assigned by the topology to remove the overhead of manual administration
• Unlike the WWN addresses, port addresses are not built-in
• The switch is responsible for assigning and maintaining the port addresses
• The switch maintains the correlation between the port address and the WWN address of the device on that port
• The Name server is a component of the fabric operating system running on the switch
Fibre Channel port address (1 of 2)
• A 24-bit port address consist of three parts:

− Domain—Bits from 23 to 16
− Area—Bits from 15 to 08
− Port or arbitrated loop physical address (AL_PA)—Bits from 07 to 00
8 bits 8 bits 8 bits
Domain Area Port
239 addresses 256 addresses 256 addresses
Fibre Channel port address (2 of 2)
Domain Area Port

• The address of the switch itself • Provides 256 addresses • Provides 256 addresses
• 256 possible addresses, but some • Identifies the individual • Identifies the attached N_ports
bits are reserved FL_Ports supporting loops and NL_Ports
• Only 239 addresses are actually • Can be used as the identifier of a
available group of F_Ports
− This means that you can have
up to 239 switches in your
SAN environment
Available addresses:
239 x 256 x 256 = 15,663,104
Simple Name Server
• The Name server stores information about all of the devices in the fabric
• An instance of the Name server runs on every Fibre Channel switch in a SAN
• A switch service that stores names, addresses, and attributes for up to 15 minutes and provides them as required
to other devices in the fabric
10-bit addressing mode
• The number of physical ports on the switch is limited to 256 by the number of bits in the Area part of the Fibre
Channel address.
• Director switches, such as Brocade DCX and DCX 4, support Virtual Fabric, where the number of required
ports might easily grow to more than 256.
• To support up to 1,024 ports in a Virtual Fabric, use the 10-bit addressing mode.
• The 10-bit addressing mode uses the 8-bit Area_ID and the borrowed upper 2 bits from the AL_PA portion of
the port ID.
8 bits 8 bits 2bits 6 bits
Domain Area Port
239 addresses 1024 addresses 64 addresses
Arbitrated loop addressing
• In an arbitrated loop, only one of the three bytes is

used
− The least significant 8 bits
− Known as the AL_PA
Arbitrated loop order sets
• An ordered set is a group of four transmission

characters.
• An arbitrated loop has several order sets that are used
in:
− Loop arbitration
− Opening of loop circuits
− Closing of loop circuits
• Loop arbitration is a complex process of transmitting
signals (order sets).
• The two types of order sets are:
− Frame delimiters—Exists at the start or the end of
the frame
− Primitive—Order sets without frames
Port Arbitration Activity Example

Fabric flow control
• An Arbitrated Loop uses arbitration, and a switched fabric uses flow control to prevent data overruns at the
receiver side.
• Fibre Channel implements a credit-based flow-control mechanism to prevent frame dropping.
• The transmitter (Tx) can send frames in the amount of the buffer-to-buffer (B2B) credits reported by the
receiver (Rx).
• For each packet sent, the Rx port needs to send an R_Rdy (Receiver_Ready, Fibre Channel Primitive) signal.
Types of flow control
• Fibre Channel defines two types of flow control:

− Buffer-to-buffer(port to port)
− End-to-end (source to destination)
Fibre Channel class of service
• Fibre Channel defines several classes of service (CoS), which can be used by applications to provide the
optimal type of delivery priority and flow control, depending on the type of application data.
• Each CoS uses a connection-oriented, packet-switched, or quality of service (QoS) communication strategy.
Fabric zoning
• A method of restricting server access to storage

resources that are not allocated to that server
• Similar to LUN masking
• Implemented on the switch
• Operates on the basis of port identification (WWPN)
• Zoning types:
− Software based—Restricts only the fabric name
service to show only an allowed subset of devices
− Hardware based—Restricts the actual
communication across a fabric
− Port based—Zoning applied to the switch port to
which a device is connected
− WWN based—Zoning that restricts access by a
device WWN
Hard and soft zoning
Hard zoning
• A member is identified by its port number
• Known as “hard” zoning
• Enforced by a switch at a hard level
Soft zoning
• A member is identified by its port WWN
• Known as “soft” zoning
• Enforced by the Name server, which returns filtered
responses to port queries
Software zone enforcement
• The Name server service in the fabric masks the Name server entries that a host should not access.
• When the host logs in to the fabric, it discovers only the unmasked Name server entries.
• Software-enforced zoning has no mechanism that prevents a host from accessing storage.
Hardware zone enforcement
• Hardware enforcement
− Frame-based
− Session-based
• Performed by the Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) in fabric switches
• A proactive security mechanism
• Every port has a filter that allows only the traffic defined by the zoning configuration to pass through
Zoning decisions
Zoning by HBA Zoning by OS Zoning by application

• Each zone has one HBA (the • The minimum required zoning • Combines multiple operating
initiator) method systems in the same zone
• Each of the target devices is • Multiple HBAs with the same • Allows for potential disruptions
added to the zone operating system are grouped • More susceptible to
• If the HBA also accesses tape with the accessed storage ports administrative errors
devices, a separate zone is • Prevents the interaction of the
created for the HBA and the HBAs with incompatible
associated tape devices operating systems
• Zoning by HBA limits
disruptions and the number of
fabric change notifications
Traffic isolation zones
• Traffic isolation (TI) allows data paths to be specified

• TI zoning has the following benefits:
− Separates direct attached storage device (DASD)
and tape traffic
− Selects traffic for diverse Inter-Switch Link (ISL)
routes
− In conjunction with long-distance channel extension
equipment, it guarantees bandwidth for certain
mission-critical data
Brocade QoS zones
• A Quality of Service (QoS) zone adds traffic-shaping

capabilities to regular zones
• The priority of a traffic flow is set to High or Low,
based on the name of the zone
− High-priority zone name: QoSH<id>_<zonename>
− Low-priority zone name: QoSL<id>_<zonename>
LSAN zones
• A Logical SAN provides device connectivity between

fabrics without merging the fabrics
• It consists of zones in two or more edge or backbone
fabrics that contain the same devices
• Members must be identified by their port WWN,
because port IDs are not necessarily unique across
fabrics
Fabric segmentation
• Fabric segmentation occurs when two or more switches are joined together by ISLs but they do not
communicate with each other
• Possible causes for fabric segmentation are:
− Zone type mismatch
− Zone content mismatch
− Zone configuration mismatch
− Duplicate domain IDs
iSCSI storage area network
The value of an iSCSI SAN architecture
• Built on top of a dedicated or existing Gigabit

Ethernet infrastructure
• Uses the familiar TCP/IP technology
• The IP protocol is universal and it works seamlessly,
regardless of the equipment vendor
• Customers can leverage the 10Gb Ethernet
• iSCSI components can be virtualized
• Removes distance limitations
Built for virtualization
HP StoreVirtual Technology
• Simple management for virtualized environments
Simple • All-inclusive licensing with enterprise-class storage features

• Virtualization platform integration for increased functionality and ease of use
• Nondisruptively scale performance and capacity

Scalable • One homogenous storage pool with iSCSI and Fibre Channel connectivity
• Proven five 9s high availability and reliability

Highly • Multisite disaster recovery with transparent failover
available • Online data mobility across systems, locations, and technology changes
HP StoreVirtual for iSCSI and Fibre Channel
For customers:
• With disjointed storage pools across Fibre Fibre Channel 10GbE IP network
Centralized
Channel and iSCSI networks management network (SAN/iQ OS/iSCSI)
− Leverages a single storage architecture for console
all applications in the enterprise iSCSI clients

• Standardizing on Ethernet-based FC clients
technologies
− Provides easier migration options when
going from Fibre Channel to iSCSI
• Looking for an all-inclusive enterprise
feature set
HP StoreVirtual
4330 or 4730
HP StoreVirtual storage clustering
• HP StoreVirtual offers storage clustering as a way to:

− Aggregate all components for performance
− Load balance data across all nodes
− Offer nondisruptive scalability
− Create a tiered environment for different
performance requirements
− Offer online volume migration
− Simplify management through a centralized
management console
Scale-out architecture
Start with the current needs Capacity

• Use storage nodes to build clusters Ti e r
• Leverage all critical resources
1GbE /
Grow as needed 10GbE
• Scale performance and capacity linearly
• Data remains online as you grow
P e r f o r m a n c e Ti e r
Build single or multiple tiers
1GbE /
• SSD, SAS, and Nearline SAS clusters 10GbE
• Migrate data with Peer Motion C o n t ro l l e r
Scalable Storage
Disks
1 oPool
r10 GbE NICs
Redundancy
Seamless and nondisruptive data mobility
StoreVirtual Peer Motion

Seamlessly move volumes between:
• Systems
• Tiers
Motion
Peer Motion
• Locations
• Form factors 43
30
• Disk types 43
Peer
30
43
30
• Different generations 43
30
• Physical and virtual platforms

In a matter of minutes—Swap out or swap in entire
clusters and upgrade technology nondisruptively
All data remains online and available
Network RAID
• Creates redundant copies of blocks that reside on

different storage nodes
• The mirroring level cannot exceed the number of
nodes in the cluster
• Supports 2-, 3-, and 4-way mirroring
• Requires 2, 3, or 4 times as much storage
Network RAID 0
• Every block of data will be written once.

• Blocks are striped across the nodes.
• The failure of one node means the loss of the whole
volume because there is no redundancy.
Network RAID 10
• Network RAID 10 data is striped and mirrored across

two storage systems.
• Network RAID 10 is the default data protection level
assigned when creating a volume, as long as there are
two or more storage systems in the cluster.
• Data in a volume configured with Network RAID 10
is available and preserved in the event that one
storage system becomes unavailable.
Network RAID 10+1
• Network RAID 10+1 data is striped and mirrored

across three or more storage systems.
• Data is available and preserved in the event that any
two storage systems become unavailable.
Network RAID 10+2
• Network RAID 10+2 data is striped and mirrored

across four or more storage systems.
• Network RAID 10+2 is designed for multisite SANs,
to preserve data in the event of an entire site
becoming unavailable.
Network RAID 5
• Data is divided into stripes.

• Each stripe is stored on three of the storage systems,
and parity is stored on the fourth system.
single storage system becomes unavailable.
Network RAID 6
• Network RAID 6 divides the data into stripes.

• Each stripe is stored on four of the storage systems in
the cluster, and parity is stored on the fifth and sixth
systems.
• Data is preserved and available in the event that any
Storage area network security
SAN security
• Storage security is the act of protecting the data that resides in the SAN from unauthorized access.
• Security is an Internet Protocol (IP) issue, not a Fibre Channel issue.
• To provide proper protection, all aspects of data security must be addressed.
• On average, more resources are spent on protecting web servers than on protecting SANs.
Security model
• The security of a computer system is responsibility of a security manager.

• Three types of attacks, corresponding to the three aspects of information security:
− Data can be made unavailable for access
− Data can be deleted or modified without permission
− Data can be examined without permission
• Security can be implemented at three levels in the SAN:
− Storage array level
− Fabric level
− Host level
Elements of storage security
Differentiating data security and data protection
Data protection deals with information dependability

• Reliability, availability, fault protection, performance, and so on
Information security includes the following core principles:
• Confidentiality • Utility
• Integrity • Privacy
• Availability • Authorized use
• Possession • Nonrepudiation
• Authenticity
Transitive trust problem
• SAN security must not be treated separated from the security of other parts of IT infrastructure such as
networking.
• If there is a network security breach, SAN data becomes exposed even if the storage infrastructure remains
intact.
• Risk mitigation includes:
− Identification (authentication)
− Authorization (LUN and tape access permissions)
− Audit
− Encryption (data on disk and tape and data in transit)
SAN security: Where and how to implement it
Where? How?
• Enable authentication for: • To prevent unauthorized access:
− User − Use multilevel passwords.
− Management − Use Access Control Lists (ACLs).
− Server − Use centralized access control or Domain
− Switch authentication.
Fabric Access Control Lists (ACLs)
• The Brocade Fabric OS provides following policies: • The FCS, DCC, and SCC policy members are
− Fabricconfiguration server (FCS) policy specified by the device port WWN, the switch
− Device connection control (DCC) policies
WWN, domain IDs, or switch names, depending on
the policy
− Switch connection control (SCC) policy
Valid methods for specifying policy members:
Device authentication
• The authentication of devices is an effort expended by • Levels of authentication

a device to ensure the identity of another device with − None
which it is communicating. − Trustingthe device address
− Challenging the device to prove its identity
Device authorization
• Authorization is used to perform the selective • Levels of authorization:

presentation of devices and LUNs − No authorization
• Used on DAS
− LUN masking and selective LUN presentation
based on the WWN
− iSCSI
• By using ACLs at the device level or per LUN
− NAS
• Authorization using supported operating system
methods
Data encryption
• Data transferred across an untrusted connection must be secured.

• Data encryption is necessary to prevent unauthorized access in the case of lost media
− Lost CD, DVD, tape, or disk
• In general, data can be encrypted:
− In flight
• Fibre Channel, Ethernet, WAN
− At rest
• On a disk or tape
Management security
• An important aspect of security that is applicable to SANs

• Management security includes:
− The authentication of administrators
− Single sign-on technologies (Active Directory, LDAP, and so on)
− Selective administration capability
− Role-based access
− Error tracking
− A centralized management view
Data protection
Data protection overview
• The primary goal of data protection is to maintain the availability of data.

• RAID is designed to protect data against bit and byte errors.
− RAID is not backup!
Challenges in data protection
• Long backup windows

• Long recovery times
• Protection gaps
• Inconsistent recovery
• Impacts on production applications
• Disaster recovery
• Compliance
Recovery Time and Recovery Point Objectives
• The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the goal for how quickly you need to have your information available
after downtime has occurred.
• The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) describes the point in time to which data must be restored to successfully
resume processing.
RPO RTO
Time
Last Backup Event Data Restored
Data protection
• Physical tapes
− Traditional destination for backup sets
− Shelf life of up to 30 years
− Requires tape library solutions to handle complex
backup environments
• Virtual Tapes
• Replication
− Local
− Remote
• Clustering
Data protection topologies
• Direct backup • Centralized SAN backup

− A fast but expensive solution − A LAN is used only to initiate and control a data
− Data is backed up to locally attached tape drives backup
− Complex administration − Data is moved over the SAN
• Centralized server backup − Tape libraries are connected to the SAN fabric
− Client-server architecture
− One server has a tape library attached
− Uses a LAN to transport data
• The LAN might become a bottleneck
Tape libraries
• Dedicated SAN-based devices

• High performance, capacity, and availability
• Compatible with the latest tape technologies
• Contain sophisticated robotics to automate tape-
changing
• Provide data encryption to comply with standards
Virtual tape libraries
• Emulate physical tapes and libraries to back up

software
• Capable of supporting parallel jobs
• Reduce backup time
• Granular recovery enables fast single-file restores
• Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity
HP StoreOnce Backup
Remote Copy introduction
• Array-based remote replication solution for an

HP 3PAR Storage Array
• Supported modes:
− Synchronous
− Asynchronous periodic
− Asynchronous long distance
• Supported transports:
− Fibre Channel
− Ethernet
− Fibre Channel over IP
Fibre Channel-based Remote Copy
High performance
• Used for campus-distance solutions
• Offers low latency and high bandwidth
Flexible
• Direct or Fibre Channel SANs are supported
• Extended-distance technologies
− Longwave links
− FCIP bridging or routing
Native IP-based Remote Copy
Native IP eliminates the need for

expensive converters
• Distance flexibility
• Cost-effective
Designed to be transport agnostic

• Native Gigabit Ethernet TCP/IP today
• Other protocols will be quickly assimilated
Synchronous mode operation
2 4
Data is written to Data is written to

cache on two nodes the cache on two
Host nodes
server
3
1
Write request Write request
is forwarded
Secondary or
Primary Storage Backup Storage
6
Array Array
Primary 5
acknowledges Secondary or Backup
the Host acknowledges the
Primary
Asynchronous periodic operation
2
Only the most
Data is written to recent data is
the cache on two written to the cache
Host nodes on the nodes
server
1
Write request
Only the most
recent data is
Primary Storage copied over, Secondary or
3 “deltas” Backup Storage
Array
Array
Primary
acknowledges
the Host Scheduled or manual resynchronization
Synchronous long distance
Fibre Channel sync mode
Bidirectional between
Source and Sync targets A
A ’
• The same volume is protected on two arrays.
− One in synchronous mode B Metropolitan distance
− One in asynchronous mode B
’ (Source – Sync site)
• Customers need to replicate the delta changes from Sync Site,

Source
one of the disaster recovery sites in case of a failure Target 1
IP idire and
• In the case of a failure, a full sync of a volume is not
or
Un urc
k
FC on R t
lin
So
required
IP al b arg
by
cti D
e
nd
as
yn twe ts
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od
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DR Site,
Target 2
Continental distance
(Source, Sync – DR Site)
Deduplication
Deduplication in remote and branch office setups
Storage area network design
SAN design considerations
Distance &
Geographic
Layout
Connectivity & Scalability

Capacity
Availability Performance
Management &
Security
Planning considerations
• Inventory of the current environment

• Growth plan
• Current storage configuration
• LAN and SAN structure
• Application uses
• Traffic loads
• Peak periods
• Current performance
• Current constraints
• Use of the existing fiber cables
• Use of the existing components
HP standard supported SAN topologies
HP simplified design HP SAN design considerations

Three approaches to designing a SAN • Based on the scope and requirements for a given
• You can implement: business application, HP SAN topologies depend on
the required:
− An HP standard SAN fabric topology design
− Size
− A subset or variation of an HP standard SAN fabric
− Availability
topology design
− Performance
− A custom SAN fabric topology design
− Extendibility
TIP: HP SAN design rules are explored in the SAN Design Guide available at:
http://www.hp.com/go/sandesign
HP SAN Design Reference Guide
SAN fabric topology overview
Single-switch fabric
Cascaded fabric
Meshed fabric
Ring fabric
Core-edge fabric
Single-switch fabric
The smallest SAN, consists of:

• A Fibre Channel switch
• A storage system
• A server
The benefits of a single-switch fabric include:

• Easy installation and configuration of servers and
storage
• Maximum fabric performance because all
communicating devices connect to the same switch
• Support for local, centralized, and distributed data
access needs
Cascaded fabric
Cascading enables you to:

• Achieve optimum I/O activity by connecting servers and storage to the
same switch in a cascaded fabric
• Easily scale the fabric over time by adding cascaded switches
The benefits of a cascaded fabric include:

• The ability to connect SANs in diverse geographic locations
• Ease of scalability for increased server and storage connectivity
• Shared backup and management support
• Optimum local performance when communicating devices are connected
to the same switch in the cascaded fabric
• Cost efficiency resulting from the large number of available switch ports
• Support for local data access and the occasional centralized data access
Meshed fabric
Built on top of a group of switches, uses multiple

ISLs for fabric resiliency
• If one ISL fails, data is automatically rerouted through an
alternate path in the fabric
The benefits of a meshed fabric include:

• The ability to meet multiple data access needs
• Multiple paths for internal fabric resiliency
• Ease of scalability
• Shared backup and management support
• Less impact on performance from intra-switch traffic
ISL connections in a meshed fabric
Ring fabric
A ring of interconnected switches that enables

you to:
• Scale the fabric in a modular fashion
• Achieve optimum I/O performance by connecting a
group of servers and storage to one switch
The benefits of a ring fabric include:

• Modular design and ease of scalability by adding a
switch and other devices
• Multiple paths for internal fabric resiliency
• Support for a mix of local data access and the
occasional centralized data access
Ring fabric with satellite switches
Core-edge fabric (1 of 2)
HP recommends using a core-edge fabric

wherever possible
• A core-edge fabric has one or more Fibre Channel
switches (called core switches) that connect to the
edge switches in the fabric
The core-edge fabric is optimal for:

• Many-to-many connectivity environments that require
high performance
• Unknown or changing I/O traffic patterns
• SAN-wide storage pooling
Core-edge fabric (typical depiction)
Core-edge fabric (2 of 2)
Core-edge fabric topologies can be depicted hierarchically

• The physical implementation is typically the same as in the depiction
The benefits of a core-edge fabric include:

• Typically, a maximum of two hops between switches
• Equal, centralized access to the devices in the core Core-edge fabric (hierarchical depiction)
• Increased fabric and switch redundancy with two or more switches
in the core
• Full many-to-many connectivity with evenly distributed bandwidth
• Support for centralized and distributed data access
• The ability to designate an optimally located core switch as the
primary management switch, with direct connections to all switches
Topology data access
Local (one-to-one)
• Data access between a local server and a storage system connected to the same switch
Centralized (many-to-one)
• Data access between multiple, dispersed servers and one centrally located storage system
Distributed (many-to-many)
• Data access between multiple, dispersed servers and storage systems
Data access performance by SAN fabric topology
Topology maximums
• The maximum number of supported switches and ports for specific fabric topologies can vary.
• The number of switches and ports depends on:
− The number of hops in the fabric topology
− The number of ISLs
• Consider the following:

− User ports are for servers and storage.
− It is assumed that you have the minimum number of ISLs.
• If you require more ISLs, this reduces the number of user ports available for server and storage connections.
− If you connect a Storage Management Appliance to the fabric, this further reduces the number of ports
available for server and storage connections.
B-series switch and port topology maximums
C-series switch and port topology maximums
H-series switch and port topology maximums
Data availability
The data availability level required for your SAN environment is based on:
• The administrative requirements
− Examples: Backup schedules, operating procedures, and staffing
• The protection level for applications or data
• The hardware redundancy
Data availability is arranged in 4 levels:

• Level 1: Single-connectivity fabric
• Level 2: Single resilient fabric
• Level 3: Single resilient fabric with multiple device paths
• Level 4: Multiple fabrics and device paths (NSPOF)
Single-connectivity fabric
Level 1
• Maximum connectivity
• No fabric resiliency or redundancy
• Each switch has one path to other switch or fabric
• Each server or storage system has one path to the
fabric
Single resilient fabric
Level 2
• Provides fabric path redundancy by using multiple
ISLs between switches
• Each server and storage system has one path to the
fabric
• There is no interruption in I/O activity in the event of
a switch port or ISL failure
Single resilient fabric with multiple device paths
Level 3
• Provides multiple server and storage system paths to
the fabric to increase availability
• There is no interruption of I/O in the event of a
switch, server HBA, or storage system path failure
IMPORTANT: HP recommends that each server HBA and

each storage system has a path to a different switch to increase
availability.
Multiple fabrics and device paths (NSPOF)
Level 4
• Provides multiple data paths between servers and
storage systems, but the paths connect to physically
separate fabrics
• Provides the highest availability and no single point
of failure (NSPOF) protection
• Minimizes the vulnerability to fabric failures
• Using two fabrics might increase the implementation
costs, but it also increases the total number of
available ports
Data availability level considerations
Thank you

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© Copyright 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

After completing this course, you should be able to:

• A SCSI standard established by ANSI in 1986, but still evolving

• Hot-plug and Native Command Queuing (NCQ) support

• Serial Attached SCSI provides backward compatibility with SATA

What is Native Command Queuing (NCQ)?

• Based on Flash memory technology

Solid State Drive functional diagram

• As the name suggests, SLC Flash stores one bit value

• An MLC cell can represent multiple values

Characteristic SLC MLC

NOTE: MLC is less desirable for use in server

What is wear leveling?

• A disk enclosure is a specialized casing designed to

HP D2700 6Gb Drive Enclosure

Fault-tolerant cabling allows any drive enclosure

Straight-through cabling can sometimes provide

• Enables host visibility of LUNs within the storage

HP 3PAR Storage Virtualization Scheme

HP P2000 MSA 4 PB maximum

Business continuity and availability

• Multiple HBAs to connect to different SAN fabrics

• To communicate with Fibre Channel infrastructure,

• Converged network adapter (CNA) combines:

• Up to four physical functions for each server blade

What is boot from SAN?

• Multipath I/O (MPIO) provides automatic path

• Failover is handled by MPIO, and it is supported via

• Fibre Channel switch ports use a 24-bit address scheme

• A 24-bit port address consist of three parts:

8 bits 8 bits 8 bits

Domain Area Port

239 addresses 256 addresses 256 addresses

Domain Area Port

8 bits 8 bits 2bits 6 bits

Domain Area Port

239 addresses 1024 addresses 64 addresses

• In an arbitrated loop, only one of the three bytes is

• An ordered set is a group of four transmission

Port Arbitration Activity Example

• Fibre Channel defines two types of flow control:

• A method of restricting server access to storage

Zoning by HBA Zoning by OS Zoning by application

• Traffic isolation (TI) allows data paths to be specified

• A Quality of Service (QoS) zone adds traffic-shaping

• A Logical SAN provides device connectivity between

• Built on top of a dedicated or existing Gigabit

• Simple management for virtualized environments

Simple • All-inclusive licensing with enterprise-class storage features

• Nondisruptively scale performance and capacity

• Proven five 9s high availability and reliability

all applications in the enterprise iSCSI clients

• HP StoreVirtual offers storage clustering as a way to:

Start with the current needs Capacity

StoreVirtual Peer Motion

• Physical and virtual platforms

• Creates redundant copies of blocks that reside on

• Every block of data will be written once.

• Network RAID 10 data is striped and mirrored across

• Network RAID 10+1 data is striped and mirrored

• Network RAID 10+2 data is striped and mirrored

• Data is divided into stripes.