celerra fundamentals student guide

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Celerra Fundamentals - 1

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Celerra FundamentalsCelerra Fundamentals

Welcome to Celerra Fundamentals.

The AUDIO portion of this course is supplemental to the material and is not a replacement for the student notes accompanying this course.

EMC recommends downloading the Student Resource Guide from the Supporting Materials tab, and reading the notes in their entirety.

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© 2006 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Celerra Fundamentals - 4

Course ObjectivesUpon completion of this course, you should be able to:

Describe the advantages of a NAS solution

Define some of the types of business applications that benefit most from a Celerra solution

Define the components of a Celerra system

Describe EMC platform types

This course will provide you with an understanding of Network Attached Storage, known as NAS, and the benefits it provides. You will also learn about the key components common to all Celerra models, along with many of the advanced features available. The intent of this course is to describe the Celerra family, not the specific models.




NAS SolutionsSome advantages of NAS that will be covered are:

Consolidation

Improved storage utilization

Improved collaboration

Optimized operating environment

Reduced IT costs

Many businesses are deploying NAS solutions for file sharing and other business-critical applications. The IT industry has experienced significant growth in the use of NAS devices. In the following slides, you will learn about the fundamentals of a NAS solution as well as some of the business applications that may benefit most from a NAS implementation.




Consolidation

Advantages of a Dedicated File ServerLess overhead

Simplified management

Storage management productivity

Lower operating and maintenance costs

The purpose of a dedicated file server is to enable clients on a network to read and write files that are stored in a central location over a network infrastructure. By providing shared access on the network, the global sharing and simultaneous access of information becomes feasible. Many IT organizations have diverse operating environments within the corporation which can lead to the existence of diverse islands of information. Some islands are in a UNIX environment and some are in a Windows environment. Celerra is able to share content among different operating environments, while maintaining the data security and permissions relevant to all operating environments.

NAS consolidates distributed data into a large centralized data pool accessible to, and shared by, heterogeneous clients and application servers across the network. Consolidating data from numerous and scattered UNIX and Windows servers onto a Celerra results in less management overhead and simplified management procedures.

Application, database, backup, and network administrators often get involved in storage management. They spend time allocating, protecting, upgrading, and backing up the storage. These tasks are accomplished more productively when done with a single consolidated NAS solution.

Consolidation also lowers operating and maintenance costs. The ongoing operating and maintenance cost for multiple systems typically exceeds the original cost of distributed file server. NAS can provide a more centralized and specialized administrative solution. This can enhance operating efficiencies, resulting in better utilization of resources.




Improved Storage Utilization

Direct Attached Storage

85-95% utilized

Storage is consumed as needed

10-40 % utilized

Cannot be shared

Network Attached Storage

Studies show that storage is typically underutilized on general purpose servers. Utilization rates of 10% to 40% are common. This is because direct attached storage cannot be shared and general purpose servers are usually tasked to perform multiple business functions. To avoid the need to upgrade the storage capacity of a server, fully configured systems are often purchased. However, if the available extra storage is not used on those systems, the result is low utilization.

NAS provides utilization rates of 85% to 95%. Networked storage allows storage capacity and data to be shared from a single pool via a specifically designed operating system and hardware platform. This approach allows storage to be purchased and consumed as needed.




Improved Collaboration – File Sharing

Engineering Specs

Marketing Product Brochures

NAS enables companies to consolidate the information and servemore users on the network

High I/Os transaction and block level

Marketing

Engineering

For a business application, one of the most important characteristics of NAS is the ubiquitous sharing of data.

The key advantage that NAS provides is the ability to share data from a central point on the network. This capability to share across functional departments within an organization enhances employee productivity.

File sharing is extremely common in today’s corporate networks. Up to 50% of all data represents home directories, shared documents, and other unstructured data. NAS enables companies to efficiently consolidate all this information and serve more users on the network.

Celerra’s support for both NFS and CIFS protocols gives both UNIX and Windows clients the ability to share the same files using appropriate access and locking mechanisms. This further enhances the benefit of collaboration as cross platform development tools can be utilized for data access.




Optimized Operating Environment

Better Price / Performance

Dedicated Operating System (DART) for File Sharing

Specialized NAS Device

Celerra

UNIX

General Purpose Operating System

Windows

In general, file serving technologies offer two choices. The first is a general purpose UNIX or Windows server acting as a file server. General purpose servers run operating systems, like Windows or UNIX, which are designed primarily to run applications. The operating systems are not optimized for file sharing. General purpose servers typically carry the lowest initial cost. However, they generally fall behind a specialized NAS device on a price/performance and management basis.

The second option offers a specialized NAS device, such as the Celerra. The Celerra’s operating system DART, is used to perform only the file serving and data pass-through operation and to perform it very efficiently.




Reduced IT CostsCentralization of data and application management

Single way to manage the applications and database

Reduce IT complexity– Reduce number of file servers– Eliminate duplicate information

Backups are simple and more efficient

Continuous availability

Local and remote replications

Server utilization improved

Centralization of data and application management translates into improved efficiency and lower costs. Celerra reduces the administrative burden by providing a single way to manage all structured databases and unstructured data across the organization. This lowers the cost of the total solution. The Celerra solution can also reduce IT complexity. By implementing file services on the Celerra, companies can reduce the number of file servers and eliminate time-consuming synchronization of duplicate information. Celerra allows Windows and UNIX applications to be accessed on any client operating system, making it easy to administer a heterogeneous computing environment.

By separating server and storage assets, each can scale independently. The Celerra offers continuous availability with local and remote replications. Since the information is now consolidated, backups are simpler and more efficient. As result, server utilization is improved, making it possible to reduce the number of general purpose servers that may be required.




Business Application Example - Development

Software Development Challenges– Large projects, many developers– Lack of collaboration – Lack of testing environments– Time consuming source code recovery – System downtime

Celerra Solutions Offer– Improved collaboration– Reduced administration– Improved performance– File system replicas for

development and test environments

Negatively Impacts:Time-to-marketProject quality

NAS Solutions

Software development is a key area for investigation for NAS implementation benefits. Software development exists across all industries, not just within software companies. Large development projects typically require many software developers. A lack of collaboration could impact the project quality. It can also be very time consuming to accomplish source code recovery. Lastly, any downtime directly impacts time-to-market.

The value of a NAS solution in a software development is increased developer productivity through improved collaboration, as well as reduced system administration and downtime. A Celerra solution also provides high speed data transfers and mirroring of the development and test environment. This solution can provide the ability to roll back previous versions of development code rapidly.

A specific software example is a distributed client-server application that manages versions of files and directories by storing them in a database. It allows for the tracking of changes to every file and directory, and maintains histories of source code, test suites, libraries, executables, and documentation.




Celerra ComponentsThe components that will be covered are:

Data Movers

DART

Control Station

Back-end storage

In the following slides, you will be introduced to key components common to all Celerra models.




Data MoversAct as NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, and/or FTP file server

Each Data Mover contains:– Memory– Network ports (Ethernet)– Connection to either

Symmetrix or CLARiiON

No logon capability – The Data Movers are configured

and managed through the Control Station

No internal hard drive

Data Mover

Data Mover

Control Station

EthernetLAN

Celerra

Symmetrixor

CLARiiONBack-end

In a typical corporate network, clients retrieve data from file servers using either NFS file sharing protocol in a UNIX environment, or the CIFS file sharing protocol in a Windows environment. The NFS file server mounts and exports a file system for network access, and the NFS clients mounts the file system for access as though it were local to the client machine. In a windows environment, the file server shares a directory or file, and the CIFS client maps the network drive for data access.

The Celerra Data Mover acts as the NFS and/or CIFS file server. It is responsible for moving data between the storage system and the network client. The Data Movers are housed in a cabinet and act as independent file servers.

All Data Movers are configured and managed via the Control Station. There is no logon capability directly to the Data Mover. Data Movers are high-end servers containing memory, ports for network and storage connectivity, as well as other common server components.

The most common network interface is Ethernet. Each Data Mover also connects to either Symmetrix or CLARiiON back-end storage, typically through Fibre Channel connectivity. The operating environment which runs on each Data Mover is called DART (Data Access in Real Time).

Note: The file servers used by the NSX model are known as X-Blades.




DART – Data Access in Real TimeOperating System running on each Data Mover

Optimizes the movement of data between storage and the network

Separates control and data path

High throughput rates

Maintains responsiveness to user requests

No local login interface

Receives commands from the Control Station via an internal connection

Running on each Data Mover, DART, Data Access in Real Time, is an embedded, real-time, multi-threaded operating system designed for high-performance data movement between storage and the network. DART separates control and data paths, enables high throughput rates, and maintains responsiveness to user requests. DART operates securely in that it does not provide login capability. It receives commands from the Control Station via an internal connection. DART covers all the major areas of functionality associated with data transfer.




DART – Highest Level Components

DART components are designed for high-performance

Kernel

Frameworks

Applications

DART

SNMP NDMP NFS

iSCSI CIFS NIS FTP

File system structure Error Logging - NetworkingDevice drives - I/O handler

Volume ManagementMemory Manager Interrupt Handler

Buffer ManagementScheduler

The highest level components are the kernel, frameworks, and applications. The kernel components take responsibility for such things as the scheduling of processing activity, synchronizing access to shared data structures, physical memory allocation, and buffer cache management.

The framework component encompasses file system structures, error logging, Remote Procedure Calls, and volume management. DART volume management supports the creation of complex volume types such as Slices Volumes, Stripe Volumes, and Meta Volumes from simple basic structures. The Meta Volume is the most important volume structure. Meta Volumes are large capacity volumes which provide expandability through end-to-end concatenation. The Meta Volume is well-suited to accommodate dynamic file systems, since Meta Volumes capacity can be increased by concatenating a new volume to the end of an existing one.

Another framework component is I/O handling. I/O operations to storage device-like disks, or tape, are done in a chunk of data called a block. Block operations include the reading and writing of a block of data. The DART block is 8 kilobytes in size. The block I/O implementation is dependent on the type of device used for storage. The application components we can include are NFS, CIFS, NIS, SNMP, and NDMP.




Control Station Single point to manage all Data Movers

Used to install, manage, and configure DM

Runs EMC enhanced version of Linux

Data Mover

Data Mover

Control StationControl

Station (optional)

Fibre channelswitch

Symmetrixor

CLARiiON

EthernetLAN

All of the Celerra Data Movers are managed from a single point, the Control Station. The Control Station is used to install, manage, and configure Data Movers, and monitor the system environments. When necessary, it will initiate Data Mover failover, and 'call home' if necessary.

The Control Station runs an EMC enhanced version of Linux and provides a secure user interface as a single point of management for all Data Movers within the Celerra cabinet. The Control Station can be accessed locally or remotely. Both Command Line and Graphical User Interfaces are offered.

Since the Celerra architecture separates the data flow through the Data Movers, and the control flow through the Control Station, after the Data Movers are booted, they do not depend on the Control Station for normal operations. In the unlikely event the Control Station fails the Data Movers continue to serve files to clients. There is no ability for Data Mover failover to occur while the Control Station is not available. The Control Station cannot continue to manage or configure the Data Movers.

Either one or two Control Stations can be present, based on Celerra model and customer preference. One Control Station is required. If a second is present, it acts as ready to take over for a failing primary Control Station.




Control Station - Connectivity

Data Mover

Data Mover

Control Station

EthernetLAN

Control Station (optional)

Fibre channelswitch

Symmetrixor

CLARiiON

Can be accessed locally or remotely

User interfaces:– Graphical User interface

Celerra Manager– Command line interface

(CLI)

Can be configured either one or two Control Station

When necessary, initiates DM failover and “call home”if necessary

The Control Station communicates with all of the Data Movers within the Celerra cabinet, the back-end storage, and the corporate network. For example, a Celerra administrator can remotely connect through a secure shell into the Control Station, or access it via a web connection.

The management interfaces include a Command Line Interface, as well as Graphical User Interface options.

The Control Station is also connected to the back-end storage, typically through a fibre channel connection. This back-end storage area network provides for configuration and usage flexibility. Additional storage can easily be added or accessed differently on each of the Data Movers.

The Control Stations communicate to all of the Data Movers via dual internal communication links. This communication is required to manage and configure the Data Movers, and the link also provides a heartbeat mechanism which continually monitors the health of all the Data Movers. If a problem is detected, the Control Station will be notified and take appropriate action, i.e. dial home, initiate failover if stand by Data Movers exist, etc.




Back-end Storage – Symmetrix Symmetrix back-end storage can be shared with other hosts with storage requirements

Connectivity provided with a fibre channel switch

Celerra administrator determines the storage capacity requirements of each Data Mover based on business need

Depending on the Celerra model, either Symmetrix or CLARiiON back-end storage is used for storage capacity.

Some Celerra models can access Symmetrix back-end storage. In this type of configuration, the Symmetrix storage can be shared between the Celerra Data Movers and other hosts with storage requirements. It is not necessary to dedicate an entire Symmetrix to the Celerra. A specific Celerra model, the Celerra SE, houses the Celerra components and the Symmetrix hardware in one cabinet. This configuration option includes all of the features of a Celerra and Symmetrix in one footprint.

Connectivity from the Data Mover to the Symmetrix is typically provided with a fibre channel connection through a fibre channel switch. The Celerra administrator determines the storage capacity requirements of each Data Mover based on business need.




Back-end Storage – CLARiiONCelerra can access CLARiiON back-end storage

Some configuration requires that the CLARiiON storage be dedicated to the Celerra

Can be housed within the same cabinet as the Data Movers

Fibre Channel connection between the Data Movers and the CLARiiON back-end storage

All Celerra models can access CLARiiON back-end storage. Some Celerra/CLARiiON configurations require that the CLARiiON storage be dedicated to the Celerra (integrated), and some configurations allow for the sharing of the Storage Area Network with other hosts (Gateway). Integrated models have the CLARiiON disks housed within the same cabinet as the Data Movers. Gateway models would access the backend storage disks in a separate CLARiiON cabinet. Fibre Channel is used for Data Mover to CLARiiON disk connectivity.




Storage Media Protection

Both the Symmetrix and CLARiiON provide methods of media protection

Media protection safeguards against the loss of data

Many types of RAID are supported. RAID 1 mirroring and RAID 5 striping with parity are shown here. The media protection is handled within the storage system.

Both the Symmetrix and CLARiiON provide methods of media protection. Media protection techniques safeguard against the loss of data in case of a disk error or failure. The media protection options, or RAID levels offered, include mirroring, and parity protection options.




EMC NAS Platform - NS and NSX Models

Small to mid-size businesses

1 to 4 Data Movers

CLARiiON, Symmetrix

DART

Enterprise

4 to 8 X-Blades (Data Movers)

CLARiiON, Symmetrix

DART

Celerra NS Series Models Celerra NSX Model

The Celerra family offers a wide range of NAS solutions, from mid-range to high end options. The NS Series models are generally suitable for mid-size businesses. The NSX Model is EMC’s enterprise gateway solution.




EMC NAS Platform – Configuration TypesIntegrated

Disk array is dedicated to the Celerra Network Server

Celerra NS is directly connected to the storage array

Backend must be CLARiiON

Gateway

Storage subsystem can provide storage to other hosts in addition to the Celerra Network Server

Backend can be Symmetrix and/or CLARiiON

There are two types of Celerra configurations.

In an integrated configuration, the entire disk array is dedicated to the Celerra Network Server. The Celerra Data Movers are directly connected to the storage subsystem. Only a CLARiiON storage subsystem can be supported.

In a gateway configuration, the storage subsystem can be used to provide storage to other hosts in addition to the Celerra Network Server. Either a Symmetrix and/or a CLARiiON subsystem can be supported.




Course SummaryKey points covered in this course:

Benefits of a NAS Solution and the business value provided

Components of a Celerra system

EMC NAS platform types

These are the key points covered in this training. Please take a moment to review them.

This concludes the training. In order to receive credit for this course, please proceed to the Course Completion slide to update your transcript and access the Assessment.



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