Intel Modular Server

1
Intel Modular Server
Understanding the Storage
MFSYS35
MFSYS25
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Storage Pools

• Storage Pools are created from physical disks.
• You select how many disks go into a Storage Pool.
• You can create multiple Storage Pools
• Storage Pools can be expanded
• More disks more performance!

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Virtual Drives

• Virtual Drives (LUNs) are carved out of the
  storage pool
• You define the size and the RAID level
• You can have multiple Virtual Drives in a storage
  pool
• Virtual Drives can be expanded
• Virtual Drives are assigned to any of the 6
  servers in the system
• Virtual Drives can be assigned or reassigned on
  the fly!

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Slot Based LUN Mapping
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Slot Based LUN Mapping

• With Slot Based LUN Mapping, the Virtual Drives
  are assigned to the server slot
• If you replace a server in a particular slot, all
  the virtual drives will be automatically
  connected to the new server
• You can reassign Virtual Drives if you encounter
  a server failure or if you proactively want to
  move operations to a different physical server

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Configuration Guide

• One of the most common questions asked is How
  should I lay it out?
• Should I create 1 large Storage Pool?
• Should I have multiple Storage Pools?

With Multiple Servers, you should create multiple
pools which you can segregate by application
workload
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Configuration Guide

• Create Storage Pools based on application types
  for example
• Operating Systems
• Databases
• Log Files
• Build on this foundation as you add servers into
  the system

This way your physical disks will be dedicated to
particular types of applications OS, DB, Logs,
etc And should provide the best performance
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Configuration Guide Summary

• Multiple Storage Pools will yield better
  performance in a multiple compute module
  configuration
• Group applications together based on type in
  Storage Pools, such as 1 pool for all your
  Operating Systems, 1 pool for Databases etc.
• Treat the Modular Server System as a SAN, and
  consult SAN application guides, such as those for
  Exchange, SQL, Oracle etc.