Dell EMC Networking OS10 Enterprise Edition Storage Overview High-level networking guide for storage technologies and storage networking topologies Abstract This document provides high-level storage networking information for various storage technologies. Detailed deployment instructions are provided through linked documents where available.
Revisions Date Description May 2019 Initial release The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. © 2019 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved.
Table of contents Revisions............................................................................................................................................................................. 2 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 5 2 Storage formats ...........................................................................................................
7 8 9 6.4 NFS ...................................................................................................................................................................14 6.5 SMB ..................................................................................................................................................................14 6.6 CIFS ..............................................................................................................................................
1 Introduction Our vision at Dell EMC is to be the essential infrastructure company in the data center, campus, branch, or office. Dell EMC Networking ensures modernization for today’s applications and the emerging cloud-native world. Dell EMC is committed to disrupting the fundamental economics of the market with an open strategy that gives you the freedom of choice for networking operating systems and top-tier merchant silicon.
2 Storage formats Block, file, and object storage each has a limitation on how data is organized and presented. Block storage chunks data into arbitrarily organized, evenly sized volumes. File storage organizes and represents data as a hierarchy of files in folders. Object storage manages data and links it to associated metadata. 2.1 Block Block storage is the most commonly used storage type for most applications.
3 Storage foundation Elements including the storage hardware, servers, network, and the efficiency of the software, influence the storage system performance. The three main ways of connecting storage to servers are: • • • Direct attached storage (DAS) Network attached storage (NAS) Storage area network (SAN) With DAS, which is the most basic form of the three, the drive connects directly to the server and is often even in the same enclosure.
content, SAN arrays account for most of the money that is spent on external disk storage worldwide. SAN connectivity options were traditionally based around Fibre Channel, but in recent years the broader adoption of 10 GbE has firmly planted iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) as a mainstream choice. Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is another option that has had slow adoption in the market. Virtualization has driven SAN growth in the last 15 years.
4 Storage benefits and limitations The general benefits and limitations of each storage type are outlined in this section. 4.1 Direct attached storage DAS limits the use of shared storage. The benefits of DAS is mainly cost. Cloud providers use a DAS solution to deploy massive farms of storage servers and low-cost JBODs (just a bunch of disks) as an alternative to large dedicated disk arrays.
4.4 Object storage Data is stored as objects and a technology that creates more abstraction, often on top of and across local file systems. Instead of blocks or files, data in the system is managed as objects across a global namespace, with unique metadata for each object. This namespace can span hundreds of servers, enabling easier scaling of capacity than either SAN or NAS models. 4.
5 Dell EMC product sets Dell EMC provides a portfolio of storage and data protection offerings for both modern and legacy applications. The storage solutions are architected for varied datasets, such as structured, semi structured, or unstructured. The different datasets have differing I/O characteristics and service-level agreements that provide flexibility and enable data-driven decision making for the deployment. 5.
Isilon is ideal for data consolidation and include the following benefits: • • • • • 5.6 Simple to manage no matter how large the data becomes Highly efficient with 80% utilization and automated tiering Scales from terabytes to petabytes Offers multiprotocol support for operational flexibility High-density design reduces the size of the system footprint VMAX Extreme performance meets mission-critical applications and scale with Dell EMC VMAX architected for flash storage.
5.12 NX series The Dell EMC NX series family of network attached storage uses Dell EMC PowerEdge servers that are paired with the advantages of Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2016 with NAS gateway support.
6 Storage protocols 6.1 iSCSI Internet Small Computer System Interface, or iSCSI, is a transport layer protocol that uses the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to transport Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) packets, enabling the use of Ethernet-based networking infrastructure as a SAN. The simple, yet powerful technology can help provide a high-speed, low-cost, long-distance storage solution for websites, service providers, enterprises, and other organizations. 6.
6.6 CIFS Common Internet File System (CIFS) is a file-based storage system based on SMB. SMB is a shared storage protocol typically used in Microsoft environments for file sharing. Windows-based file shares rely on CIFS as the transfer protocol of the file level data. File-based storage relies on an underlying files system such as FAT32, XFS, NTFS or otherwise which differs from block-based storage which does not.
7 Data center leaf-spine networks Modern data centers are designed to optimize east-west traffic due to the increase of server-to-server communication and the rising popularity of Software Defined Storage (SDS). Leaf-spine architecture is highly scalable. As administrators add racks to the data center, a pair of leaf switches are added to each new rack. Spine switches may be added as bandwidth requirements increase. In a leaf-spine architecture, the access layer is seen as the leaf layer.
7.2 Layer 3 leaf-spine network In a Layer 3 leaf-spine network, traffic between leaf and spine switches is routed. The Layer 3, Layer 2 boundary is at the leaf switches. This means at the leaf layer and below (leaf switches and hosts), communication is achieved at Layer 2. However, communication at and above the leaf switches is achieved at Layer 3. Spine switches are never connected to each other in a Layer 3 topology.
8 Fibre Channel storage deployment options Fibre Channel is an established technology and solution for many data centers. The advantages of Fibre Channel provide customers with a high performing, stable solution. Dell EMC Networking provides several options to service and transports Fiber Channel storage traffic through the topologies that are detailed in this section. 8.
8.2 FCoE with S4148U-ON in NPG mode The solution in this section uses FCoE and the S4148U-ON in NPG mode to manage storage traffic to a dedicated storage network. Fibre Channel services are managed on a traditional FC switch to which the FC storage arrays are connected. The servers contain FCoE CNAs to pass both storage and data traffic to the S4148U-ON switches deployed as a leaf pair in a traditional leaf-spine network. In NPG mode, the S4148UON provides FCoE to FC bridging for storage traffic.
The combined FC SAN and leaf-spine topology is shown in Figure 5. FCoE to Fibre Channel with S4148U-ON in F_Port mode To obtain the detailed deployment guide with step-by-step configuration of the S4148U-ON switches, see Dell EMC Networking FCoE-to-Fibre Channel Deployment with S4148U-ON in F_port Mode. 8.4 FCoE with FIP snooping bridge The solution that is provided in this section uses two pairs of Dell EMC Networking switches.
FCoE with FIP Snooping Bridge To obtain the detailed deployment guide with step-by-step configuration of S5248-ON and S4148U-ON switches, see Dell EMC Networking OS10EE FCoE Deployment with FSB 21 Dell EMC Networking OS10 Enterprise Edition Storage Overview
9 Ethernet-based storage Ethernet-based storage has the advantage of using the same technology that is established throughout the data center. iSCSI storage technology can be implemented either with a dedicated SAN or through a shared or distributed topology. Advancements in SDS technology allow for great flexibility and scalability through distributed storage with hyper-converged appliances.
9.1.2 Leaf-Spine configuration The data center topology recommended for modern applications to support large amounts of east-west traffic is the leaf-spine topology. Leaf-spine networks are highly scalable and minimize latency by providing all devices no more than one hop to each destination within the data center. For detailed deployment instructions see Dell EMC Networking Layer 3 Leaf-Spine Deployment and Best Practices with OS10. 9.
9.2.3 iSCSI configuration Although iSCSI optimization is globally enabled by default on the OS10EE operating system (release 10.4.1.1 and later), manual configuration is often required. The interface directly connected to the iSCSI storage device must be enabled to support the iSCSI optimization profile. For manual configuration, see the Configure iSCSI optimization section in the latest OS10 Enterprise Edition User Guide.
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