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iSCSI vs. FC for Meeting Mission Critical Requirements
Introduction
Mission
Critical Data is just what its name says: critical to the
core functioning of an enterprise. Mission critical data must be
available 24x7 and fully backed up for immediate recovery in the
event of disaster. Enterprises are constantly seeking more
reliable, more efficient, more convenient and more affordable
ways of meeting these needs. SANRAD's V-Switch 3000 uses Iscsi
technology to centrally consolidate, manage, backup and
restore mission critical data at a fraction of the cost, in
capital and human resources, of existing FC SAN technologies
Mission Critical Requirements and SANRAD's Solutions
Storage Area Networks (SANs) are used to manage mission critical
data and, as they have developed, storage and network
administrators have identified three main requirements on a SAN
to manage this critical data:
* High Availability: Storage systems and their mission
critical data must be available 24x7. There is no leeway for
downtime. Every minute of downtime equals a loss of revenues and
credibility for an enterprise.
* Remote Backup and Recovery: Data must be backed up off
site to enable remote recovery in the event of disaster. Experts
estimate that 30% of companies could not recover from a
catastrophic loss of data and having backups on premises is of
no use if the premises are destroyed.
* Manageability: A SAN management system must be able to
be centrally managed and provide a consolidated storage solution
accommodating different storage subsystems and infrastructures.
In addition, the SAN management must not exert added strain on
the network and storage administration staff.
* Dynamic Expandability: Storage networks must be able to
grow with an enterprise. Systems cannot be taken offline to
accommodate this growth and no one wants to search for new
storage management solutions every time there is a growth spurt.
SANRAD has taken these requirements and provided comprehensive
solutions in a single centrally managed platform using iSCSI
technology.
* SANRAD's High Availability: The V-Switch 3000 hardware
is fully redundant to weather power, processor and fan failures.
The V-Switch 3000 configuration database is written to both
flash and compact flash memory. The software IP-based SAN
configuration provides automatic V-Switch 3000 failover and
failback as well as data mirroring. No single point of failure
ensures high availability.
* SANRAD's Remote Backup and Recovery: The V-Switch 3000
can create global IPbased storage networks to allow mission
critical data transfer to remote sites within the IP SAN. For
more information on Disaster Recovery applications, see SANRAD's
White Paper: Continuous Data Availability Solutions using
SANRAD's iSCSI Virtualization Switch.
* SANRAD's Manageability: The V-Switch 3000 enables
storage pooling across multiple platforms and infrastructures
and eliminates the need for host agents. The V-Switch 3000
functions at the network layer and is therefore independent of
host OS and storage vendors. The V-Switch 3000 provides storage
virtualization and precise LUN carving of the pooled storage,
supporting volume concatenation, mirroring and striping. The
locally accessed GUI-based Storage Pro management server is used
to centrally configure volumes, monitor status and manage the
storage pool.
* SANRAD's Dynamic Expandability: The V-Switch 3000 uses
existing adapters, network and disk subsystems to form a
sophisticated SAN solution ranging from 72 GB to 16 TB. New
storage devices can be added dynamically and their volumes
virtualized in real time without taking the system offline or
impacting on functioning volume performance. Two V-Switch 3000s
can be combined in a SAN to form a cluster to provide
inter-V-Switch 3000 load balancing and failover.
Benefits of iSCSI SAN over FC SAN
When creating a SAN, enterprises find that the traditional
answer is FC SAN. However, the investment required to implement
an FC SAN is often beyond the means of a young enterprise. As a
result, growing enterprises may find themselves delaying the
inevitable upgrade to a SAN and, therefore, gambling with their
mission critical data store.
The FC investment comes from four fronts:
* Infrastructure: An FC network demands FC switches, hubs
and bridges along with specific GBICs and
cabling. In addition,
each host requires dedicated FC HBAs.
* Storage Devices: The storage devices must be costly FC
RAID arrays. If an enterprise wants to maintain its JBOD stores,
it must purchase virtualization appliances to convert the JBODs
for use in an FC SAN.
* Software: A variety of software tools is needed to
manage all of this new equipment as well as the dedicated FC
HBAs.
* Human Resources: dedicated group of FC storage and
networking IT administrators is needed to manage all of this.
For a growing enterprise, this represents a sizable investment
in capital and human resources to acquire, implement and manage
only one aspect of the enterprise's data flow.
SANRAD's V-Switch 3000 provides a single integrated
hardware/software solution to SAN management:
* Infrastructure: The V-Switch 3000 uses an enterprise's
existing IP infrastructure including existing Ethernet switches,
cabling, GBICs and SFPs. A host's existing NIC is all that is
needed to connect to the SAN.
* Storage Devices: The V-Switch 3000 supports existing
legacy storage devices, both FC & SCSI, RAID & JBOD, so there is
no need to purchase new storage devices. Due to the V-Switch
3000's storage pooling capabilities, enterprises may have an
increase in usable storage space.
* Software: The V-Switch 3000 has both hardware and a
software component. There is no need for additional software
beyond the included Storage Pro storage management tool.
* Human Resources: Because the V-Switch 3000 operates
over the enterprise's existing Internet network, minimal
additional knowledge or training is needed to implement or
manage the SAN. The existing network or storage administrator is
readily qualified to manage SANRAD's Iscsi SAN.
Business Case: V-Switch 3000 vs. FC
Typical SAN topographies can be divided into 5 groups according
to the number of servers accessing the SAN and the net storage
capacity of the SAN.
* Small: 8 servers accessing a net capacity of 500GB.
* Small - Medium: 12 servers accessing a net capacity of 1TB.
* Medium: 16 servers accessing a net capacity of 1.5TB.
* Medium - High: 24 servers accessing a net capacity of 2TB.
* High: 32 servers accessing a net capacity of 3TB.
To best understand the budgetary impact of implementing an FC
SAN compared to a SANRAD iSCSI SAN, consider the costs of each
for a medium enterprise with sixteen hosts accessing a storage
pool of 1.5TB.
In an FC SAN, this would require two FC switches. Upstream of
the FC switches there are five server clusters, including
Exchange, SQL and file servers, plus six individual servers.
Each server requires FC software and each server has two HBAs,
each connected to a different switch for a total of thirty-two
HBAs. Downstream of the FC switches is a RAID system with RAID 5
and hot spare capabilities and a net capacity of 1.5TB.
In a SANRAD V-Switch 3000 SAN, this would also require two
V-Switch 3000s. Upstream of the V-Switch 3000s there are two
multi-Gbit switches but no special host software or HBAs are
required. Downstream of the V-Switch 3000s are the legacy SCSI
or FC JBODs with a net mirrored capacity of 1.5TB. The cost of
For a medium enterprise, implementing an FC SAN for Mission
Critical Data is more than two times as expensive as a
SANRAD iSCSI SAN. This expense does not take into consideration
the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), e.g. FC cabling installation
costs; cost of human resources to regularly upgrade FC software
and maintain two separate networks or the cost of replacing an
FC RAID unit compared to a JBOD disk. As the size of an
enterprise grows, the cost par between FC and iSCSI SAN grows.
Conclusion
SANRAD iSCSI SAN provides all of the key SAN requirements needed
to manage, backup and restore mission critical data with added
benefits over FC SAN. SANRAD's V-Switch 3000 represents a single
integrated hardware/software solution to SAN management,
including storage pooling, virtualization, mirroring, striping
and remote backup. The IP-based iSCSI SAN permits remote storage
access and provides greater flexibility in the location of
network and storage components within an enterprise and it does
so at a fraction of the cost of an FC SAN.
About the author:
None
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