New Storage Systems

New Storage Systems

In this section, we describe three recent developments in storage systems that are becoming an integral part of most enterprise’s information system architectures.

1. Storage Area Networks

With the rapid growth of electronic commerce, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that integrate application data across organizations, and data ware-houses that keep historical aggregate information (see Chapter 29), the demand for storage has gone up substantially. For today’s Internet-driven organizations, it has become necessary to move from a static fixed data center-oriented operation to a more flexible and dynamic infrastructure for their information processing requirements. The total cost of managing all data is growing so rapidly that in many instances the cost of managing server-attached storage exceeds the cost of the server itself. Furthermore, the procurement cost of storage is only a small fraction—typically, only 10 to 15 percent of the overall cost of storage management. Many users of RAID systems cannot use the capacity effectively because it has to be attached in a fixed manner to one or more servers. Therefore, most large organizations have moved to a concept called storage area networks (SANs). In a SAN, online storage peripherals are configured as nodes on a high-speed network and can be attached and detached from servers in a very flexible manner. Several companies have emerged as SAN providers and supply their own proprietary topologies. They allow storage systems to be placed at longer distances from the servers and provide differ-ent performance and connectivity options. Existing storage management applications can be ported into SAN configurations using Fiber Channel networks that encapsulate the legacy SCSI protocol. As a result, the SAN-attached devices appear as SCSI devices.

Current architectural alternatives for SAN include the following: point-to-point connections between servers and storage systems via fiber channel; use of a fiber channel switch to connect multiple RAID systems, tape libraries, and so on to servers; and the use of fiber channel hubs and switches to connect servers and storage systems in different configurations. Organizations can slowly move up from simpler topologies to more complex ones by adding servers and storage devices as needed. We do not provide further details here because they vary among SAN ven-dors. The main advantages claimed include:

        Flexible many-to-many connectivity among servers and storage devices using fiber channel hubs and switches

        Up to 10 km separation between a server and a storage system using appropriate fiber optic cables

        Better isolation capabilities allowing nondisruptive addition of new peripherals and servers

SANs are growing very rapidly, but are still faced with many problems, such as combining storage options from multiple vendors and dealing with evolving standards of storage management software and hardware. Most major companies are evaluating SANs as a viable option for database storage.

2. Network-Attached Storage

With the phenomenal growth in digital data, particularly generated from multimedia and other enterprise applications, the need for high-performance storage solutions at low cost has become extremely important. Network-attached storage (NAS) devices are among the storage devices being used for this purpose. These devices are, in fact, servers that do not provide any of the common server services, but simply allow the addition of storage for file sharing. NAS devices allow vast amounts of hard-disk storage space to be added to a network and can make that space available to multiple servers without shutting them down for maintenance and upgrades. NAS devices can reside anywhere on a local area network (LAN) and may be combined in different configurations. A single hardware device, often called the NAS box or NAS head, acts as the interface between the NAS system and net-work clients. These NAS devices require no monitor, keyboard, or mouse. One or more disk or tape drives can be attached to many NAS systems to increase total capacity. Clients connect to the NAS head rather than to the individual storage devices. An NAS can store any data that appears in the form of files, such as e-mail boxes, Web content, remote system backups, and so on. In that sense, NAS devices are being deployed as a replacement for traditional file servers.

NAS systems strive for reliable operation and easy administration. They include built-in features such as secure authentication, or the automatic sending of e-mail alerts in case of error on the device. The NAS devices (or appliances, as some ven-dors refer to them) are being offered with a high degree of scalability, reliability, flexibility, and performance. Such devices typically support RAID levels 0, 1, and 5. Traditional storage area networks (SANs) differ from NAS in several ways. Specifically, SANs often utilize Fiber Channel rather than Ethernet, and a SAN often incorporates multiple network devices or endpoints on a self-contained or private LAN, whereas NAS relies on individual devices connected directly to the existing public LAN. Whereas Windows, UNIX, and NetWare file servers each demand spe-cific protocol support on the client side, NAS systems claim greater operating system independence of clients.

3. iSCSI Storage Systems

A new protocol called iSCSI (Internet SCSI) has been proposed recently. It allows clients (called initiators) to send SCSI commands to SCSI storage devices on remote channels. The main advantage of iSCSI is that it does not require the special cabling needed by Fiber Channel and it can run over longer distances using existing network infrastructure. By carrying SCSI commands over IP networks, iSCSI facilitates data transfers over intranets and manages storage over long distances. It can transfer data over local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), or the Internet.

iSCSI works as follows. When a DBMS needs to access data, the operating system generates the appropriate SCSI commands and data request, which then go through encapsulation and, if necessary, encryption procedures. A packet header is added before the resulting IP packets are transmitted over an Ethernet connection. When a packet is received, it is decrypted (if it was encrypted before transmission) and dis-assembled, separating the SCSI commands and request. The SCSI commands go via the SCSI controller to the SCSI storage device. Because iSCSI is bidirectional, the protocol can also be used to return data in response to the original request. Cisco and IBM have marketed switches and routers based on this technology.

iSCSI storage has mainly impacted small- and medium-sized businesses because of its combination of simplicity, low cost, and the functionality of iSCSI devices. It allows them not to learn the ins and outs of Fiber Channel (FC) technology and instead benefit from their familiarity with the IP protocol and Ethernet hardware. iSCSI implementations in the data centers of very large enterprise businesses are slow in development due to their prior investment in Fiber Channel-based SANs.

iSCSI is one of two main approaches to storage data transmission over IP networks. The other method, Fiber Channel over IP (FCIP), translates Fiber Channel control codes and data into IP packets for transmission between geographically distant Fiber Channel storage area networks. This protocol, known also as Fiber Channel tunneling or storage tunneling, can only be used in conjunction with Fiber Channel technology, whereas iSCSI can run over existing Ethernet networks.

The latest idea to enter the enterprise IP storage race is Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), which can be thought of as iSCSI without the IP. It uses many ele-ments of SCSI and FC (just like iSCSI), but it does not include TCP/IP components. This promises excellent performance, especially on 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE), and is relatively easy for vendors to add to their products.