COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

WELCOME TO E-LEARNING
 Unit 2: Intelligent Storage System
Learning Outcomes of this Unit are:
• Describe the key components of an intelligent storage
system
• Describe cache management and protection techniques
• Describe storage provisioning methods
• Describe types of intelligent storage system

Reference: Gnanasundaram S, Shrivastava A, 2012, Information Storage & Management, 2nd

Edition. John Wiley & Sons Inc.

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 2
 Lesson 1: Key Components of an Intelligent
Storage System

This lesson covers the following topics:

• Intelligent storage system overview
• Key components of an intelligent storage system
• Cache management techniques

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 3
 Hard Drive

Source: www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Diagnose-Troubleshoot-and-Maintain-a-Hard-D/
31.4
Redundant Array of Independent Drives (RAID)
• RAID is a technology that is used to increase the performance and/or
reliability of data storage
• Consists of two or more drives working in parallel (HDD/SSD)
• Mainly 5 RAID levels
• RAID 0 – Striping
• RAID 1 – Mirroring
• RAID 5 – Striping with parity
• RAID 6 – Striping with double parity
• RAID 10 - Combining mirroring and striping (1+0)

31.5
RAID Levels (commonly used)

Source: https://www.prepressure.com/library/technology/raid
What is an Intelligent Storage System (ISS)?
Intelligent Storage System
It is a feature-rich RAID array that provides highly optimized I/O processing
capabilities.
• Provides large amount of cache and multiple I/O paths that
enhances the performance
• Has an operating environment that provides
– Intelligent cache management
– Array resource management
– Connectivity to heterogeneous hosts
• Supports flash drive, virtual provisioning, and automated
storage tiering

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 7
Four Key Components of ISS
Intelligent Storage System
Host
Front End Back End

Cache Physical Disks

Connectivity
Storage
Network

• Four key components: Front End, Cache, Back End & Disks
© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 8
Key Components of ISS: Front End

Intelligent Storage System

Host
Front End Back End

Cache Physical Disks

Storage
Network

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Ports Controllers Module: Intelligent Storage System 9
Key Components of ISS: Cache

Intelligent Storage System

Host
Front End Back End

Cache Physical Disks

Storage
Network

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 10
Structure of Cache

(Source: Gnanasundaram S, Shrivastava A, 2012)

Read Operation with Cache

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Write Operation with Cache

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 13
Cache Management: Algorithms
• Least recently used (LRU)
– Discards data that have not been accessed for a long time
• Most recently used (MRU)
– Discards data that have been most recently accessed

New Data

Cache LRU/MRU Data

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 14
Cache Management: Watermarking
• Manages I/O burst through flushing process
– Flushing is the process of committing data from cache to the disk
• Three modes of flushing to manage cache utilization are:
– Idle flushing
– High watermark flushing
– Forced flushing

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 15
Cache Data Protection
• Protects data in the cache against power or cache failures:
– Cache mirroring
• Provides protection to data against cache failure
• Each write to the cache is held in two different memory locations on
two independent memory cards
– Cache vaulting
• Provides protection to data against power failure
• In the event of power failure, uncommitted data is dumped to a
dedicated set of drives called vault drives

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 16
Server Flash-caching Technology
• Uses intelligent caching software and PCIe*
flash card on host
• Dramatically improves application performance
– Provides performance acceleration for read-
intensive workloads
– Avoids network latencies associated with
I/O
access to the storage array

• Intelligently determines data that would benefit

by sitting in server on PCIe flash
• Uses minimal CPU and memory resources
– Flash management is offloaded onto PCIe card
(*PCIe - Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express)

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 17
Key Components of ISS: Back End

Intelligent Storage System

Host
Front End Back End

Cache Physical Disks

Storage
Network

Controllers Ports
© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 18
Key Components of ISS: Physical Disks

Intelligent Storage System

Host
Front End Back End

Cache Physical Disks

Storage
Network

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 19
 Lesson Summary
During this lesson the following topics were covered:
• Key components of an intelligent storage system
• Cache management techniques

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 20
 Lesson 2: Storage Provisioning and ISS
Implementation
This lesson covers the following topics:
• Traditional storage provisioning
• Virtual storage provisioning
• ISS implementation

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 21
Assigning Storage to Host
Storage Provisioning
It is the process of assigning storage resources to hosts based on capacity,
availability, and performance requirements of applications running on the
hosts.

• Can be performed in two ways:

– Traditional storage provisioning
– Virtual storage provisioning

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 22
Traditional Storage Provisioning

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 23
LUN Expansion
MetaLUN
It is a method to expand LUNs that require additional
capacity or performance.

• Created by combining two or more LUNs

• MetaLUNs can either be concatenated or striped
• Concatenated metaLUN
– Provides only additional capacity but no
performance
– Expansion is quick as data is not restriped

• Striped metaLUN
– Provides capacity and performance
– Expansion is slow as data is restriped
© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 20
Virtual Storage Provisioning

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 21
Traditional Provisioning Vs. Virtual Provisioning

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 22
LUN Masking
LUN Masking
It is a process that provides data access control by defining which LUNs a
host can access.

• Implemented on storage array

• Prevents unauthorized or accidental use of LUNs in a shared
environment

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 24
Types of ISS: High-end Storage Systems
• Referred as active-active arrays, and generally
aimed at large enterprise applications
– Performs I/Os to LUNs through all the available
paths

• These arrays provide the following

capabilities:
– Large storage capacity and cache
– Fault tolerant architecture
– Connectivity to mainframe and open systems
– Multiple front-end ports and interface protocols
– Ability to handle large amount of concurrent
I/Os
– Support local and remote data replication

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 25
Types of ISS: Midrange Storage Systems
• Referred as active-passive arrays, and
generally aimed at small and medium-sized
enterprise applications
– Performs I/Os to LUNs only through active
paths

• These arrays typically have two controllers,

each with cache, RAID controllers, and disks
drive interfaces
• Less front-end ports, storage capacity, and
cache as compared to high-end arrays
• Support local and remote data replication

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 26
 Lesson Summary
During this lesson the following topics were covered:
• Traditional storage provisioning
• Virtual storage provisioning
• ISS implementation

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 27
 Unit Summary
Key points covered in this Unit:
• Key components of intelligent storage system
• Cache management and protection techniques
• Storage provisioning methods
• Types of intelligent storage systems

© Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Intelligent Storage System 30