Category Storage

One Stop Shop for EMC Celerra FAST and CLARiiON FAST docs!

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) Celerra, CLARiiON, emc, FAST, SSD, Storage, Technology

Welcome to Episode 2 in a series around information for you regarding EMC FAST! (Also known as Fully Automated Storage Tiering!)

You may recall from Episode 1 that I said this was something I am extremely excited about – and I thought I made that clear!  

To tell you the truth at first I was mainly excited about the V-MAX FAST, and didn’t even give much thought to the whole "Unified" Celerra FAST or  CLARiiON FAST

That was until I started to delve into the details, find, sort and collect the documents (which I unveil for you to find here!) and not to mention all of the other features above and beyond just FAST! That is what got me excited for FAST beyond the V-MAX!  So I hope this collection of documents gets you going in the right direction so you can become just as excited about FAST for the Celeriion just as I AM :)

I know a lot of you are looking for materials and information regarding FAST – There are numerous questions you have regarding this and since a lot of you are self-starters, I’m going to tell you what information I directly know about today, and where to get it!

Available today on PowerLink are the following documents around Celerra FAST and CLARiiON FAST in the areas of Introduction, Implementation and Solution

The documents below require credentials on EMC’s PowerLink – so please keep that in mind when it comes to accessing the links!

Being that I’ve consolidated Celerra and CLARiiON into a single post, you might be asking “Well, what value do I get from either or both of these?!” Here is a Features and Benefits list!

Celerra Features Celerra Benefits CLARiiON Features CLARiiON Benefits
Robust policy engine Automate storage tiering to lower costs and deliver higher service levels User-defined analysis Simplify storage tiering to lower costs and deliver higher service levels
Intuitive interface Create a policy, define the rules, and then save and enact the policy Intuitive management Leverage software that analyzes data and recommends where it should be migrated
Transparent mobility Access data without changes to users and applications Transparent mobility Move and access data without changes to users and applications
In-the-box tiering Leverage up to three tiers in the same Celerra system User-approved migrations Gain visibility into what is moving, when it moves and where it moves
Outside-the-box tiering Enable Celerra, Centera, or Atmos as the target for third-tier storage Tiered storage support Leverage Flash, Fibre Channel and SATA drive technologies
Storage efficiencies Deduplicate and compress files on Celerra systems    

I know what you’re saying “Wow Christopher, you got those marketing terms down pat!” hee, but seriously, those are quoted verbatim from the links mentioned above.   However, one hard solid benefit of Celerra you need to make sure you’re always aware of is the fact that on its own, Celerra largely reduces your backup window.  Add FAST to Celerra and watch out!

So, I hope you get as much joy and excitement out of this new launch and technology which will revolutionize the way you not only do business but by the way you think about SLA’s and business problems in the future.   I’ll cover specific details of how this has solved real hard business problems for customers so you can enjoy those successes like I have!

I’ve provided these direct links using PowerLink and a Partner account (not employee)  – Please advise if for whatever reason you’re unable to find something and I’ll be sure to get that taken care of and the document in front of you!   Also, if you come across a document I missed and you think should be included, raise the roof and let me know and I’ll be sure to get it featured here! Not to mention if you find a particular document to be overly useful, feel free to comment on that fact, I’d love to know which would be a better doc to re-read or recc’ to others!

I’m really excited about this and your questions are what will make me and the whole community as a whole a lot more knowledgeable around this subject! So Keep em coming!

Be sure to check out my other posts about EMC FAST: One Stop Shop for Symmetrix V-Max Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) docs! and FAST from EMC – Performance meet the quickening!

One Stop Shop for Symmetrix V-Max Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) docs!

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) emc, FAST, SSD, Storage, Symmetrix, V-Max

Welcome to Episode 1 in a series around information for you regarding EMC FAST! (Something I’m extremely excited about)

I know a lot of you are looking for materials and information regarding FAST – There are numerous questions you have regarding this and since a lot of you are self-starters, I’m going to tell you what information I directly know about today, and where to get it!

Available today on PowerLink are the following documents around for V-Max FAST in the areas of Introduction, Implementation and Solution

The documents below require credentials on EMC’s PowerLink – so please keep that in mind when it comes to accessing the links!

Whoa, wait a minute – Are you saying there is already a Best Practices guide and solutions already built out for every major application under the sun? (psst, yes I am saying that :))

I’ve provided these direct links using PowerLink and a Partner account (not employee)  – Please advise if for whatever reason you’re unable to find something and I’ll be sure to get that taken care of and the document in front of you!   Also, if you come across a document I missed and you think should be included, raise the roof and let me know and I’ll be sure to get it featured here! Not to mention if you find a particular document to be overly useful, feel free to comment on that fact, I’d love to know which would be a better doc to re-read or recc’ to others!

I’m really excited about this and your questions are what will make me and the whole community as a whole a lot more knowledgeable around this subject! So Keep em coming!

I’m looking forward to producing a similar single point of capture list for Clariion FAST and Celerra FAST as well, so that’ll be coming soon!

FAST from EMC – Performance meet the quickening!

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) Cloud, emc, SSD, Storage

For those of you who know me (and even those who don’t) What is important to know is – I love innovation.  I especially love it when something is introduced which does the right thing while removing the need to think about things which frankly we DON’T need to be thinking about (Though ignorance aside, not making it so we cannot think nor take action on our own – thus action without the nanny effect – which is often seen by some announcements which think you can’t be trusted with your own investment!)

Looking at the particular challenge storage brings us – it’s always been a delicate balance of “What kind of storage do I put my APP on” “How do I meet SLA’s for the peak load” and of course “Whatever decision I make today is locked in stone for the next 3-5 years so I better design appropriately”.    If you disagree that these harp on the extremely delicate balance of App v Infrastructure please let me know you’re feelings :)

Now while I absolutely love to have those design conversations above – The time has finally come where we don’t need to have a doctorate in ‘application layout’ or get religion around IOPS Latency calculation workloads in order to accommodate a mixed application environment.   That has come through the creation of FAST by EMC.     FAST which is an acronym for “Fully Automated Storage Tiering” actually does what it says on the tin!   

Think about it for a moment.  What if I simply laid my applications out on disk and let the workload dictate what kind of storage my app should live on, and unless I have specific requirements, let my SLA’s really run the show.    This would take the complicated work of ‘figuring it out’ which frankly is an arduous task and leave that up to the deep analytics to figure it out – End result means you have more time to work on other projects and you start to give back and perform like never before.

But that is not to say this is infallible – Storage is almost as bad as the Database world, whereby people not only WANT control over what happens, when and why, but DEMAND it!  And this gives you that power.   I somewhat relate FAST to DRS from VMware – Let the system analyze what IS happening, and based upon past performance and utilization, predict what would be a good fit – And if you agree you can APPROVE the change the system has put forth.   Or if you have reached a point of being comfortable that it’s acting in your best interests – Allow it to automatically move data – People usually start off with DRS in a “Manual” approval mode, and then quickly roll into “automated” because if 99 suggestions the system made were good, there’s a good chance that 100th suggestion will be a good fit as well.

But just like DRS for VMware, there are exceptions: And it is in these exceptions that you have a POLICY defined to ensure that your will is enforced and things you don’t want to happen – DONT!

So lets get down to basics!  What does this mean for you and me?  

  • For once in our sad lives, we’ll be able to implement both FLASH and SATA into a traditional FC system and have the right disks spinning for the right apps.
    • Imagine it! Predictable workloads are EASY to assign to the right tier (sort of) but imagine those unpredictable apps, or even Month-end Apps!
      • Whoa! Are you saying I can take my somewhat stable monthly app which hits its Peak for month-end and move it around based upon the applications performance requirements?!   Just think about it – High IOPS, High Throughput, FAST latency response times – all the benefits of FLASH when it’s needed, but the cost of SATA when it isn’t.  
      • Next thing you’re going to tell me, I could be a seasonal business like a retailer or similar and shift my workload over to FLASH disk non-disruptively for the extreme peak workload, and then shift it back off to SATA when it’s not being hit quite so hard. :)
      • Oh and this means so much more, but it’s late and I want to publish this without overflowing you with information ;)

But this is far more than just simply allowing you to manage your dynamic workloads and ensure that the right storage is being used at the right time.  Across the stack this can be an enabler when it comes to times of legal discovery, long term data retention and archival, and fast response in situations of disputes or otherwise.  

Alright, but what does all of this mean, and why should I care? (read: Why are you so excited about it Christopher? :))

Active ESX Cluster Without FAST Same Cluster with Flash and FAST Policy
Active ESX Cluster without FAST Active ESX Cluster adding FLASH and applying a FAST Policy
384 Fibre Channel Disks
100% FC Disk
Disk resources are ~80% Busy		 368 FC Disks, 16 Flash Disks
96% FC, 4% Flash
68% less disk I/O contention
2.5% faster disk response time

The little chart above is a basic breakdown of what you can very easily realize.  Those little images are called “HEAT Maps” If you can see the little legend on the left, the more RED something is, the more busy it is which means your disks are getting hit pretty hard (Notice how for the most part all of disks are either HOT or very HOT)  

What does this mean for me from an operational perspective? I didn’t have to get in loads of engineers and architects to sit around and say “How do you think we should lay out the data to best most efficient on these new 16 Flash Drives we added?” No.  The system analyzed the workload and over a couple of days came to a conclusion “This LUN will move from FC to Flash” and all of a sudden our performance started to shine, without having to take any outage, any downtime – Hell we didn’t even need to try to figure out what we should do – We could let it collect data and then advise us (since its algorithms know things about the operation of the system we can only guess about!)

What would have been even sweeter is if this example had SATA in the mix as well – Because then we’d have the question of what should get shifted from where to where! Take a look at this pretty straight forward workload chart showing which LUNs are more active than others

image Is this chart a guarantee that all environments look like this? Absolutely not.   I know of one specific heavy SAP environment which has a majority of its disk look like good flash targets and none of them look like a good fit for SATA.  However, a majority of environments DO have some things which likely aren’t on the most ideal of storage – And when you consider consolidation, that story only gets even more compelling.  

So, if you have a dedicated frame which is maxed out for a single app – You definitely want to consider FAST in the equation because it can help determine your best fit for FLASH, and if SATA is a player at all (in v1 of FAST) then excellent.

v2 of FAST will change all the rules

Though what I’m sure you like just as much as I do – is a real live example, so check out this Video, which was delivered at VMworld 2009!

And here we are, in a new era, a new level of sophistication the likes if you has never been seen before (Oh, there have been ‘attempts’ at producing solutions which are effectively ‘features’ but the full picture and depth of what today brings about – There is not a candle in the industry which can hold to this maelstrom!

Also, for reference – Here is the official Press Announcement from Today!

(One more Video!!!)

Life Changing Highlights of the Iomega ix4-200d

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) emc, Iomega, NAS, Reviews

Welcome to the ix4-200d! This single device is a life changer for both the active home user as well as the SOHO business user who wants to take things to the NEXT Level!

Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d NAS Server

If you’re not familiar with this little beast in a box, here are some of the high-lights which this brings to bear!   NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, AFP Support, BitTorrent client, Xbox Media Services, Printer, USB, Rsync, Celerra integration, dual gigabit Ethernet?!   Oh, and did I mention it’s –VMware- Certified out of the box?!?

Now, seriously! Let’s take a tour of this little system which has taken quite a step or integration in my household!

ix4-200d Home Page ix4-200d Dashboard

When I first powered this system up, it sat there for awhile without me doing anything to it.  Why? This thing is SILENT! I forgot I had powered it up, and as a result didn’t even bother to check what the IP address was that it assigned itself!   Well, out of the box, it came with a RAID protection I was fine with! I had options to change it, but I’m comfortable with it!

Iomega Data Protection Settings Parity Disk 2.7TB

Frankly, this covers most of what you need to do with the device and you’re set! –Done!- But that doesn’t mean you need to stop there!

Iomega Settings Iomega Network Services (AFP, Bluetooth, FTP, NFS, rsync, SNMP, CIFS)

Most of the features in this unit can be configured by simply checking a box and poof! You’re done!

I have mine configured in the following fashion: AFP for my Macbook to backup, NFS and iSCSI for my ESX Servers, CIFS for local network file access, Media Services to interface with my Xbox360 to stream content and pictures, rsync Server to strangely replicate the box between this ix4 and an ix2 as well as to replicate over to the Celerra VSA :)   (Oh, and the Avamar Virtual Edition running in a VM backing up all of my home machines while taking up far less space with inline deduplication :))

I don’t have Video Surveillance enabled yet, but it’s nice to know the integration is built in there! (Printers also nice, but this lives in a closet, so I’m not sure I want to do that :))

So, hopefully you get the opportunity to play around with this power house in a box, and with the ix2-200d offering the same services (but with less disks and less IOPS) Oh, and if you’re interested in buying one, it’d help if you knew the “retail” costs!

Iomega Pricing

So, that gives you an idea of “retail” cost, now I’d say, go to Fry’s and try not to pay more than $599.99 for the 4TB model (Fry’s is your friend! ;))

For another great review of this, check out Stephen Foskett’s review!

Farewell, but not goodbye! (Transitioning from NetApp to EMC)

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) Christopher Kusek, emc, Friends, NetApp, Storage

September 4th, 2009 was a beautiful yet fateful Friday.   The sky was clear, lunch was good, and it also happened to be my last day working at NetApp.

Yes, it was my last day at NetApp – breaking up is hard to do, and this was a particularly challenging breakup!

I didn’t have the opportunity to send a formal farewell message to folks internally, so this will serve as my farewell (but not goodbye!)NetApp Teamwork Award

For those of you who don’t know, I worked for NetApp in the Chicago District – Yes, this is the very same Chicago district who recently won Teamwork Award across all of the Americas in the hardest Q4 most businesses had to deal with in their entire business!   So, it goes without saying that I had the opportunity of working with a cohesive family which embodied teamwork.

 

Fortunately, I worked with, met and interacted with so many intelligent and passionate individuals, the entire experience of working for Fortune magazine’s #1 best company to work for was an absolutely great, engaging and rewarding experience like no other.    In the short time (2 years) I was with NetApp I have seen extraordinary change, the ecosystem of business and the economy go on a rollercoaster adventure.   Never once did these individuals stray, but instead stepped up to the occasion and became better for their actions.   I know in my stead, this trend will continue and I look forward to seeing the growth within the community over the passage of time.

So, while I will miss you all – this is only farewell, but not goodbye.  Fortunately the community we’re all a part of is a receptive and growing one.  Our paths will cross continually and growth and self-development will always be an agenda we all pursue.   My community involvement will not shrink, and likely will continue to increase.  And my communication back out of offers to the technology community as a whole (whether those be discount vouchers, opportunities, so on and so forth) will continue to flow like a tapped pool of knowledge!

I’m sure given the circumstance many of you may be interested in why I made this particular decision.   Know that through heavy calculation, this was chosen as the best decision for me and my family at this particular stage in my life, and is in no way a reflection of the absolutely amazing organization I am walking away from to the equally amazing organization I am going towards.  

I am particularly excited about the new role I will starting on September 14th, 2009 (My Birthday of all days!)   Yes, while this may read as though it is a rebirth; starting a new job on my birthday, I will be certain to bring the same level of passion, engagement and enthusiasm that every one of you who has ever met me is likely to recall. :)

The next chapter of my life will be living the rock star life of a Senior Technology Consultant at EMC, continuing my trend of raising awareness, education, doing the right thing, evangelizing and informing the Enterprise IT community.     I know what you’re saying “Wow Christopher, you’ve held one consulting role or another for the past 20 years” Damn straight skippy! A consultant is strangely what I grew up knowing and being, and the evangelist side of things is just a further extension of my adopted religion (Re: Facebook Religion status is listed as Technology:))

I will continue to be actively involved in giving back to various technology communities.   Within the Exchange community (there’ll be more to say on that soon ;)), within the Chicago Microsoft space in general (Chicago Windows Users Group), the global Microsoft space (TechEd) and the Training Community (MCT Summits, etc).  I encourage you to reach out to me through any of these avenues, not to mention LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, (vouchers ;)) and any number of random Security, Cloud and Virtualization events as they come up! (Oh, email is fine too :))

So, I wish every one of you I’ve had the opportunity to work with, customers, partners and colleagues alike the best! Do keep in touch and let me know how things are with you, and I’m glad to help in the various ways I can and do help within the community!    And to my future customers, partners and colleagues – I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!

Best of luck, I appreciate all of the encouragement and continue to look for good things from me… :)