DellEMC CX300

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Dell/EMC CX300

• SAN Overview

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Objectives

• Define a Storage Area Network and its theory of
  operation
• Describe the Fibre Channel interface, the
  topologies and the role Fibre Channel plays in a
  SAN
• Describe the concept of redundant disk arrays,
  the relevance of RAID to SAN, and the environment
  each supported RAID level might best support
• Define the hardware and software components of a
  SAN and their role in a SAN
• Describe the Dell/EMC SAN product offerings

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Sections

• SAN Overview
• Basic SAN Components
• Fibre Channel
• RAID Applications
• Dell/EMC SAN Components
• Summary

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SAN Overview

• Textbook SAN definition A Storage Area Network
  (SAN) is a configuration of hosts, storage, and
  interconnecting devices (such as switches)
  employing a protocol called Fibre Channel to
  share storage.

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SAN Benefits

• Easy Management Storage is consolidated into an
  independent subsystem. Much easier to manage than
  numerous distributed storage systems.
• Centralized High Speed Backup Numerous hosts can
  be attached to a single library through a high
  speed connection.
• Support for Multiple Architectures and Operating
  Systems
• Fibre Channel Interface High speed throughput.
• High Data Availability Hardware-based RAID used
  as shared storage for failover clusters.
  Redundant paths attached to devices allowing data
  to be available even when a component fails.

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Sections

• SAN Overview
• Basic SAN Components
• Fibre Channel
• RAID Applications
• Dell/EMC SAN Components
• Summary

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Basic SAN Components

• Interconnecting devices (Switches, bridges, etc)
• Fabric Connection devices (Media Connectors, HBA,
  GBICs, etc)
• Storage Arrays
• Software
• Hosts
• Backup devices

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Interconnecting Devices

• Hubs, Switches, Bridges connect hosts to storage
  devices  

Interconnecting Devices
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Interconnecting Devices
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Switches

• In a SAN, Fibre Channel switches are the primary
  connection point between hosts and storage
  devicescreating a SAN fabric
• Dell Fibre Channel switches usually have 8, 16,
  or 32 ports
• Generally a fabric can be thought of as a set of
  switches sharing Inter-Switch Links (ISLs)
  together with the devices to which they are
  connected. Each ISL is considered a hop. A fabric
  can support multiple hops without performance
  degradation.

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SwitchesSAN Fabric

• A SAN with multiple switches not connected by
  ISLs provides multiple fabrics, which in turn can
  lead to redundancy
• Redundant fabric's purpose is to provide an
  alternate path in case the primary fabric in the
  installation fails

Redundant Connections
Multi Switches
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SwitchesZoning

• Zoning is the ability to set up barriers between
  different devices
• Zones can restrict access to a device within a
  particular zone regardless of proximity
• Devices not included in a particular zone are not
  available to members of that zone
• The number of zones and zone membership are
  unlimited
• Devices can be members of one or more zones
  within a fabric

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SwitchesCascading

• Cascading allows multiple switches in the same
  fabric to be linked together for switch expansion
• Cascading is performed automatically when each
  switch detects an intra-switch ISL
• Zone information specific to the fabric is
  replicated to the new switch

Three separate switches now seen as one switch
with 24 ports
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SwitchesWWN
A zone alias can be created to simplify zone
member entries.
WWNUnique number assigned that identifies a
connection to the network.
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Fabric Connection Devices
Media Connectors Cables and Cable Connectors
(DB-9, HSSDC etc)
Media Converters (HBA GBIC, SFP)
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Media Converters

• Gigabit Interface Converter (GBIC)
• Transceiver that typically resides in a switch,
  used to convert one form of a signal to another
• For example, a GBIC is used to convert cable
  connections from optical signals into copper
  signals
• Small Form-factor Pluggable LC Transceiver (SFP)
• Builds on GBIC technology, typically resides in
  a switch, provides increased data transfer rates
  (up to 2.5 Gb/sec)
• Host Bus Adapter (HBA)
• PCI Card that resides in the host manages and
  transfers information between the host and a
  Fibre Channel device
• Two HBAs provide data transmission redundancy
• Execution Throttle specifies the number of
  commands executing on any one port

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Media Connectors

• Cables
• Copper best suited for short local connections
  (up to 12m)
• Short-wave optical typically used for medium and
  longer distance connections (up to 500m).
• Long-wave optical typically used for distances
  up to 10K between Fibre Channel switches and
  bridges

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Media Connectors

• Cable Connector Types
• DB-9
• HSSDC (High-Speed Serial Data Connector)
• SC
• LC connector

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Storage Arrays
Storage Arrays SP, LCC, HDD

• Storage Array Features
• Storage Processors (SP)
• Processor
• Memory
• Link Control Cards (LCC)
• Storage Expansion
• Hard Disk Drives (HDD)
• Storage
• Auto Rebuild
• Auto Rebuild data after failure
• Auto Failback
• Auto Rebuild of data back onto the repaired drive
  after a failure

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Software

• The right software allows you to perform storage
  management such as
• Configuration and Monitoring (SAN Management)
• Resource Allocation (LUN Masking)
• Application/Resource Failover (Failover)

Storage Management Software
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Hosts
Provides clients access to storage

• In a SAN, hosts (servers) provide the attached
  client systems with access to high throughput,
  reliable storage systems
• Hosts also manage the storage systems

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Backup Devices

• Tape Libraries
• Fully automated, multi tape drive
• Robotic arms that move cartridges to and from
  storage cells
• Electronic eye reads bar-coded labels on the
  tapes to identify them
• More effective in a SAN due to greater backup
  capacity
• Autoloaders
• Very similar to a tape library
• Generally, fully automated, single tape drive
• Generally, holds no more than 10 tapes
• Small robotic arm shuffles the tapes around
• Rarely used in a SAN, more effective in non-SAN
  environments

Allow for network data backups
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Basic SAN Components Summary
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Sections

• SAN Overview
• Basic SAN Components
• Fibre Channel
• RAID Applications
• Dell/EMC SAN Components
• Summary

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Fibre Channel

• Fibre Channel is a high performance interface
  that allows communication between workstations,
  servers, mainframes, data storage devices, and
  other devices
• Parallel SCSI was the previous generation data
  transfer standard
• Fibre Channel is newer generation that is faster
  and more reliable than SCSI

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Fibre Channel

• FC was designed to be a serial interface which
  relies on point-to-point network type
  interconnections
• FC is simply a transport vehicle for the
  supported command sets
• SCSI
• Internet Protocol (IP)
• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
• Link Encapsulation
• IEEE 802.2
• FC packs the data into frames and transports the
  information to the appropriate device

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FC Fundamental Elements
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Ports
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Topologies
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Point-to-Point

• Used to directly connect the N_Ports on two
  nodes, allowing a direct connection between a
  host and a storage device or between two hosts
• Advantages
• Disadvantages

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Arbitrated Loop

• Provides scalability, allows up to 127 nodes (126
  loop ports plus one fabric port)
• Total bandwidth of the FC network is shared among
  all of the devices on the loop
• Each device must request control of the loop
  before transmitting data
• Node sends a Primitive signal
• Signal returned to initiating node with an ALPA
• Once the device has successfully arbitrated, it
  has control of the loop for as long as it needs

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Switched Fabric

• A fabric incorporates Fibre Channel switches to
  provide a network with non-shared bandwidth (each
  device within the fabric has its own dedicated
  connection)
• Switches can be cascaded via an inter-switch link
  (ISL) to increase the available number of nodes
• Theoretically, a fabric can support 16 million
  nodes

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Switched Fabric

• Switched Fabric takes advantage of the
  self-discovery and self-configuration features of
  Fibre Channel
• Auto-Configuration
• When a node is connected to a switch, it will
  automatically log in and determine how to
  interoperate in the fabric
• Example Universal ports on FC switches can
  automatically configure themselves as F_Ports,
  FL_Ports, or E_Ports

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Switched Fabric

• Auto-Configuration Details
• Each switch port is assigned a 24-bit address
• When a node's N_Port is connected, it inherits
  the address assigned to the corresponding F_Port
  on the switch
• Of the 128 possible addresses, one is reserved
  for communicating with the switch's FL_Port, and
  one is reserved for the FC-AL loop itself. As a
  result, 126 nodes may be attached to the public
  loop

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Sections

• SAN Overview
• Basic SAN Components
• Fibre Channel
• RAID Applications
• Dell/EMC SAN Components
• Summary

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RAID Overview

• RAID is an acronym that stands for Redundant
  Array of Independent Disks
• RAID enables you to maintain data redundancy and
  choose different methods for organizing data on
  multiple disks
• Methods are called RAID levels, such as RAID 0 or
  RAID 5

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Disk Striping

• Disk Striping
• Storage-system hardware can read from and write
  to multiple disks simultaneously and
  independently
• The amount of information read from or written to
  each disk makes up the stripe element size
• The stripe size is the stripe element size
  multiplied by the number of disks in a group

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Mirroring

• Mirroring
• Maintains a copy of a logical disk image that
  provides continuous access if the original image
  becomes inaccessible
• With a storage system, you can create a hardware
  mirror by binding disks as a RAID 1 mirrored pair
  or a RAID 1/0 Group (a mirrored RAID 0 Group)
  the hardware will then mirror the disks
  automatically
• With a LUN of any RAID type, a storage system can
  maintain a remote copy using the optional
  MirrorView mirroring software

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Implementations

• Hardware RAID uses a RAID controller to mask the
  individual physical drives, striping, and
  redundancy from the rest of the system
• Makes the system and OS see a single large drive
  (also called a logical drive) instead of multiple
  physical hard drives
• The RAID controller on the Dell/EMC storage
  systems is the storage processor (SP) card. There
  are two SPs per DPE.
• With software RAID, the system and the OS
  actually see the individual disks
• RAID configuration and management is performed by
  a software application running on top of the OS

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RAID Levels

• RAID 0 Disk Striping
• RAID 1 Disk Mirroring
• RAID 3 Disk Striping with a dedicated parity
  disk requires 3 hard drives
• RAID 5 Disk Striping with distributed parity
  (parity distributed across all disks in the
  array) requires 3 hard drives
• Combined RAID Levels
• RAID 10 Data is mirrored then striped
• RAID 01 Data is striped then mirrored

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Suggested Uses
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Sections

• SAN Overview
• Basic SAN Components
• Fibre Channel
• RAID Applications
• Dell/EMC SAN Components
• Summary

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Dell/EMC Enclosures

• The Dell/EMC Fibre Channel storage products are
  designed for applications that require highly
  available and scalable storage
• Features include
• Dual Fibre Channel loops
• Redundant cooling fan modules and power supplies
• Hot-swappable dual-ported Fibre Channel drives
• Optional, redundant dual-active RAID controllers

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Dell/EMC CX Series Enclosures
CX600
CX200
CX400

• Up to 15 attached hosts
• Direct Connection of up to 2 hosts
• 4.4 TB max per storage
• system using 73GB drives
• RAID levels 0, 1, 1/0, 3, 5
• 25,000 I/Os per second,
• 200 MB/s throughput

• Up to 128 attached hosts
• Direct Connection of up to 4 hosts
• 4.4 TB capacity using
• 73GB drives
• RAID levels 0, 1, 1/0, 3, 5
• Over 60,000 cached
• I/Os 680 MB/s

• Up to 128 attached hosts
• Direct connection of up to 8 hosts
• 17.5 TB capacity using
• 73GB drives
• RAID levels 0, 1, 1/0, 3, 5
• Over 150,000 cached
• I/Os, 1300 MB/s

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Switches

• Dell/EMC Fibre Channel switches
• Branded McData and Brocade
• Provide high-bandwidth connectivity
• Non-disruptive device removal and insertion
• All switches come fully populated with Short Wave
  optical GBICs or SW with 2 Long Wave optical
  GBICs
• Long Wave GBIC configurations available with 2 LW
  GBICs pre-installed
• A maximum of 256 ports are available per fabric
  for 8 and 16 port switches
• Four storage subsystems per host are allowed

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Switches

• Common availability and serviceability
• N1 hot-swappable power supply and fan
• Core-to-edge flexibility
• Dell/EMC DS-xB2
• 2GB Fibre Channel switch
• Support for switch, private and public loop
• Hot swappable GBICs
• Max 256 ports per fabric
• Dell/EMC DS-xM2
• 2GB Fibre Channel switch
• High-density packaging, 16 LC ports/1U and 32 LC
  ports/ 1.5U
• Max 256 ports per fabric

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Dell/EMC Software

• From a single management workstation, the
  Navisphere family of products enables you to
• Monitor
• Configure
• Tune
• Plan

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Dell/EMC Software

• SAN Management Software
• Navisphere Manager - complete configuration,
  management and event notification
• Navisphere Event Monitor - automatically notifies
  administrators when failures or status changes
  occur on the Dell/EMC systems
• Navisphere Agent / CLI - issues commands to an
  array requesting array status, and recording
  commands and the resulting output

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Dell/EMC Software

• SAN Management OPTIONAL Software
• Access Logix - data protection, shared storage
  access, and security for heterogeneous SAN
  resources
• MirrorView - remote synchronous mirroring of data
• SnapView - point-in-time view of information for
  non-disruptive backup
• Navisphere Analyzer - comprehensive performance,
  management and trends analysis

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Dell/EMC Software

• Failover Software
• PowerPath
• Delivers automatic re-routing of SCSI or Fibre
  Channel I/O traffic in the event of a
  host-to-storage path failure and provides for
  load balancing between paths

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Dell/EMC Software

• LUN Masking Software
• Access Logix
• Storage-based LUN Masking software
• Enables multiple hosts to connect to the Dell/EMC
  storage arrays
• Ensures hosts receive appropriate volume access
  
• Synchronous Data Mirroring Software
• Navisphere MirrorView
• Provides synchronous mirroring of critical data
  between two Dell/EMC systems
• Point-in-Time Copy Software
• Navisphere SnapView
• Captures a point-in-time snapshot image of a file
  system
• Retains the image independently of subsequent
  changes to the files

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Sections

• SAN Overview
• Basic SAN Components
• Fibre Channel
• RAID Applications
• Dell/EMC SAN Components
• Summary

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Summary

• What are the basic SAN components and what
  purpose do they serve in a SAN?
• What is Fibre Channel? What is the significance
  of Fiber Channel Topologies? Differentiate the
  Fibre Channel Topologies.
• Define the supported RAID levels match the
  supported RAID levels with their suggested uses.
  
• Differentiate the Dell/EMC enclosures.
• Differentiate the software items in the Dell/EMC
  Navisphere suite (standard and optional).
• How does PowerPath Failover software differ from
  Application Transfer Failover software?