Emerging Standards Impact on Storage Networks

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Emerging Standards Impact on Storage Networks

• John Webster
• Senior Analyst and Founder
• Data Mobility Group

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Emerging Standards Impact on Storage Networks

• Fabric wars - Cisco battles the established
  players. How do you win?
• CIM for storage - When will you see it? What will
  it do for you? Will you be better off choosing
  CIM-compliant storage?
• Single vendor support for multi-vendor, storage
  networks vs. vendor consortiums - Which is
  better? What is the SSF and can it help you?
• IP Storage - The hype says no interoperability
  issues here. Are there problems lurking in the
  underbrush?

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Why Multi-Fabric Interoperability?

• Disaster Recovery
• On-demand Resource Sharing
• Content Sharing
• Grid Computing

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The Road to Multi-vendor Fabric Extension

• FC-SW-2
• Long road to adoption
• Backward compatibility requirements result in
  proprietary vs. open systems modes
• Fabric extension consequences
• Large layer 2 network
• More of the fabric exposed to error conditions
• FSPF-BB to the rescue?
• Proposed standard for creation of autonomous
  regions

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Bridging SAN Islands FCIP vs. iFCP

• FCIP
• Uses tunneling
• Fault isolation can be an issue
• iFCP
• Uses conversion
• Achieves problem isolation but potentially
  exposes SAN to network administrators
• Nishan now seeing major spike in demand for iFCP

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Assessing the Impact of Cisco

• Its a high stakes chess game
• The Winner could dominate more than storage
  networking
• Will VSANs rule?

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What is SMI-S?

• The Storage Management Initiative Specification
  (SMI-S)
• F.k.a. Bluefin, a.k.a CIM for storage
• Lives within the SNIAs Storage Management Forum
  (SMF)
• SNIA working to become accredited ANSI Standards
  Developer

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What is SMI-S?
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What is SMI-S?

• Platform Independent
• Distributed
• Automated Discovery
• Security Features
• Locking Mechanisms
• Recognizes vendor-unique functions
• More robust than SNMP

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SMI-S Reference Model
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Vendors Currently Demonstrating SMI-S Providers

• Brocade
• Cisco
• EMC
• Hitachi Data Systems
• HP
• IBM
• INRANGE

• LSI Logic Storage Systems
• McDATA
• Network Appliance
• QLogic
• StorageTek
• Sun
• VERITAS

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SMI-S Deliverables V 1.0

• Arrays and Virtualization Platforms
• Read device configuration (physical and logical)
• Monitor health (operational status) of systems
  and volumes
• Create and delete volumes
• Perform LUN Mapping and Masking
• Set-up and perform copy services
• Snapshots
• Synchronous and asynchronous mirrors
• Storage Media Libraries
• Gather information on major components
• Monitor heath
• Receive asynchronous events/alerts for problems
  and status changes

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SMI-S Deliverables V 1.0

• Fabric
• Discovery and topology of the fabric and SAN
  devices
• Switch device configuration and control
• Switch performance statistics
• Zoning and configuration control
• HBA configuration and control
• HBA performance statistics
• Delivery End of Q202
• NAS included in V 1.1 (YE03)

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The CIM/WBEM End-Game
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Can SMI-S Succeed?

• No
• Vendors wont cooperate
• Progress will be too slow
• Result will be of marginal value (i.e. its vendor
  hype)
• Yes
• Its in the commodity realm and commodities win
• Users will perceive value in a common management
  interface standard
• It makes life easier for vendors too
• Its up to you

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SNIA Supported Solutions Forum (SSF)

• Configuration and testing of multi-vendor
  registered solutions
• Presently 8 registered solution sets
• Multi-vendor Support Agreements
• Cooperative support for tested solutions
• Contact information and problem escalation
  procedures known to and endorsed by all members
• Support available 24x7, world wide.

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iSCSI No Interop Issues Here .Right?

• Recommendations
• Stay tuned to the Microsoft channel for iSCSI
  certification if you plan heavy iSCSI
  deployment in MS application environments
• Monitor the progress of the iSCSI Management API
  (IMA) standard

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Can Interoperability and Security Co-exist?

• IEEE Searching for a standard encryption method
• Proposed solutions now on the table
• One method use open source-developed code with
  unique user-created keys to unlock the data

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Can Interoperability and Security Co-exist?

• Recommendations
• Investigate potential conflicts with existing SAN
  security features (i.e. Zoning and Masking)
• Investigate impact on data life cycle management
  infrastructure and strategy (i.e. exposure to
  data loss long term)
• Investigate potential for vendor lock-ins
• Whatever you do, dont lose the keys

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Interoperability and Standards Compliance Testing

• FCIA SANmark Qualified Program
• SNIA Interoperability Conformance Testing Program
  (ICTP)
• SMI-S V1.0 compliance testing
• IMA compliance testing
• More to come

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Reading the Fine Print

• Recommendation Understand What These Terms
  Mean
• Compatibility
• Qualification
• Conformance
• Compliance
• Certification

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Ultimately, Its Up to You

• Making your voice heard
• The RFP process
• The SNIAs Customer Executive and Customer
  Advisory Councils
• Local Storage Networking User Groups (SNUGs)
• Watch for StorageNetworking.org later this year