Title: Planning and Building Tiered Storage
1Planning and Building Tiered Storage
- Brad ONeill
- Senior Analyst and Consultant
- Taneja Group, Inc.
2Agenda
- What is Tiered Storage
- A Planning Strategy for Tiered Storage
- Example Deployment Scenarios
- Conclusions
- QA
3 A Definition of Tiered Storage
- The deployment of two or more classes of disk
storage within a primary or secondary storage
environment, wherein the residence of data across
these classes of storage is determined by
business-driven variables. - Sounds Complex, But
4Tiered Storage Is Straightforward
- 1. You deploy multiple classes of storage
- FC, SCSI, SATA, TAPE
- 2. You might move data from various apps across
those storage classes, or, just originate your
data assets on the right class - Online migration, disk archiving, disk backup
- 3. You do this to create efficiencies in time,
money or other resources - Improve operations, boost ROI, increase
productivity -
5The Net-Net on Tiered Storage
- Forget all buzzwords. Its about data placement
on cost/performance appropriate storage. - Largely manual, not automated
- 50 of tiered storage originate on the right
platform - Yes, future ILM dreams will leverage the storage
classes we create today - What really kicked-off this trend? ATA/SATA.
- To reduce primary and secondary storage costs
- To increase recovery and data protection measures
- Critical mass of vendor announcements
- 53 of surveyed users intend to deploy disk by
2005!
6Something the industry forgot to mention
7Tiered Storage MANAGEMENT!
- BEFORE you deploy, you need a tiered storage
management strategy! - BEFORE you evaluate vendors, you need a tiered
storage management strategy! - BEFORE you even think about devices, you need a
tiered storage management strategy!
8 Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail!
- Our first tiered storage deployment wasnt
planned as such. We jumped at the cost savings.
We bought ATA arrays and started loading up If I
could do it over, I would have spent a lot more
time on planning. - Director of Storage, Retail,
California
9YOUR STRATEGY WILL DETERMINE SUCCESS!
1
105 Planning Steps for Tiered Storage
- Define your business drivers Why do this?
- Define storage asset classes and traits
- Evaluate architectural choices
- Go out and whip your vendors
- Deploy your plan
111. Define Your Business Drivers
- Do you seek to improve data protection?
- (RTO, RPO, Availability, Backup windows)
- Are you solving compliance requirements?
- (disk-based archives, tape archives,
accessibility) - Are you aiming to reduce capital outlays?
- (Footprint control, utilization improvements)
- Can you need human management efficiencies?
- (Few heads, higher managed capacities,
wider roles)
125 Planning Steps for Tiered Storage
- Define your business drivers Why do this?
- Define storage asset classes and traits
- Evaluate architectural choices
- Go out and whip your vendors
- Deploy your plan
132. Create Asset Groups and Traits
- ID the data assets against descriptive groups.
- Make these grouping more specific or less
specific as required! - BUSINESS-CRITICAL
- (Primary data. Traditional 5 9s, High
availability) - BUSINESS-OPERATIONS
- (Primary data. Share-intensive, reference data,
aging data) - PROTECTION and ARCHIVAL
- (Primary or Secondary data. Reference, copies
and protection) - LONG-TERM ARCHIVAL
- (Secondary data. No day-to-day use, long-term
retention)
14Assign All Your Storage Using
Resources To Asset Groups!
Biz Critical
Biz Ops
Protection/Archival
Long-Term
15 EXAMPLE ASSET GROUPINGS
- BUSINESS-CRITICAL
- My Oracle databases
- Our ERP data all of it
- BUSINESS-OPERATIONS
- Our MS Exchange
- Departmental Files
- PROTECTION and ARCHIVAL
- Copies of SQL Server data sets
- Completed trade contracts
- All compliance information
- LONG-TERM ARCHIVAL
- Stuff we dont use but have to keep
- Our last ditch DR bucket
162. Create Asset Groups and Traits
- ID concrete STORAGE TRAITS for each ASSET GROUP
- Uptime Goals
- Performance requirements
- Protection needs
- Mirrors/Snapshots/Other SW reqs
- Security and access
- Fully Loaded Target Price/Managed TB
- Asset Groups Storage Traits Storage Tiers
172. Create Asset Groups and Traits
- How Did We Get Our Tier Definitions?
- All data assets are assigned to groups
- The traits of each group were defined
- As a Result, We Then Know
- The expected service level from each storage tier
- The desired price-points for each storage tier
- Therefore, We Have A Tiered Storage Plan!
18Asset Groups Drive Your Tier Choices
1
Biz Critical
Biz Ops
Protect/Archival
Long-Term
195 Planning Steps for Tiered Storage
- Define your business drivers Why do this?
- Define storage asset classes and traits
- Evaluate architectural choices
- Go out and whip your vendors
- Deploy your plan
203. Evaluate Architecture Choices
- Guidelines Weve Heard From Your Ranks
- Do Not Create Net-New Management
- Look beyond array pricing alone
- Take an infrastructure-wide approach
- Execute your tier strategy in stages
21 So, Where To Begin?
- Your Tier 1 Business Critical Storage Sets The
Pace. - Your Crown Jewel Assets
- Most Expensive Storage Investment
- Disruption and Change Management are painful
- Your High Bar for Storage Management practices
- 95 of Tiering Strategy centers on Tiers 2 and 3
Business Operations and Protection/Archiving
Tiers - How Do We Improve our Tier One ROI?
- How Do We Get Less Critical Data on
Cost-Appropriate Storage? - How do we leverage disk to improve data
protection?
22 Key Points For Tier 2 Evals Business
Operations Storage
- SATA pricing is still all over the map! Examine
best of breed approaches vs. your asset groups - From under 4000 to 15,000 per TB!
- Protection matters. What do you need?
- RAID support in SATA typically 0,5
- Given asset groups, how much performance?
- SATA performance gains are real and coming fast
- Smaller cache sizes in most SATA arrays
- How much capacity growth?
- Can you maintain existing management framework?
23 Key Points For Tier 2 Evals Business
Operations Storage
- Decide if you need a Stand-Alone array or
disk-space in a unified platform. - Multi-disk Systems
- Mix FC and SATA trays in the same array
- Example vendors EMC, HDS, 3Par, BlueArc, Pillar
- Stand-alone SATA arrays
- Plethora of players from entry-level to
enterprise - Example vendors NetApp, IBM, NexSan, Candera
- Of course, Pros and Cons To Both Approaches!
-
24Key Points for Tier 3 Evals Protection and
Archival
- What asset you archive or protect drives your
choices - Standard SATA array
- Online copies of data
- CAS Software or Appliance
- Online archiving of reference information
- Virtual Tape Software or Appliance
- Fast disk-based data protection
- Traditional BU/R Software to Disk
- Fast disk-based data protection
-
255 Planning Steps for Tiered Storage
- Define your business drivers Why do this?
- Define storage asset classes and traits
- Evaluate architectural choices
- Go out and whip your vendors
- Deploy your plan
26Choosing The Right Solutions
- Sage End User Comments
- Look wider than you usually do.
- Resist temptation to roll with your existing
trusted vendor - Tiered Storage Has Many Purchasing Impacts
- Tier One Potential footprint impact from
offloading - Tier Two unique requirements for primary
- Tier Three backup or archiving requirements
driven by higher tiers - If you go best of breed, ensure management
commonalities across tiers - You can create more problems than you solve.
272 Key Questions For All Vendors
- How will I move and place my data?
- Volume-level copy/snapshots
- File-level copy
- Application-integrated/controlled
- Can I use my existing management tools?
- Discovery, partitioning, provisioning
- Capacity management, device-level management
- Drill the emerging vendors on these points
28Who Are Some Worthy Players?
- In Tier 2 Business Operations
- EMC, NetApp, HDS, IBM, STK
- NetApp, BlueArc, 3Par
- Candera, NexSan
- In Tier 3 Protection and Archiving
- STK, ADIC, Quantum
- Diligent
- EMC Centera, Permabit, DCT, Archivas
29 Deployment Example
- Company 1 Financial Services, East Coast
- 220 TB primary storage on Tier One
- Wants to reduce Tier 1 footprint growth by 50
- Deploys combination of two SATA vendors for Tier
Two assets. Uses existing SM tools for migration. - Has a disk-backup appliance at Tier Three,
exploring CAS for compliance archiving. - Maintains tape libraries, exploring CAS for
long-term disk.
30Deployment Example
- Company 2 Online/Store Retailer,
California - 10 TB primary storage on SAN. 5 TB on Tier One
storage. - Happily w/ deployed disk backup for Tier 3.
- In 2005, will deploy Tier 2 on SATA.
- Goal is to reduce total amount of storage in Tier
1 by 3 TB via migrating less critical SQL Server
and MS Exchange to SATA - Will use existing volume management software
31Conclusions on Tiered Storage
- Plan before you leap. Think deeply in terms of
asset groups and storage traits. - Move in steps. Resolve for key business drivers
first. You have plenty of time. - Look at all the vendors. Choices abound!
- Preserve your existing management investments
32Conclusions on Tiered Storage
- Call us if you need help or input!
- Taneja Group works with dozens of end users on
RFPs and general questions - Info_at_tanejagroup.com
- Brad_at_tanejagroup.com
- 925.417.0329
33 Questions!