Storage Software

• Seeing Scalability @ work

  Tue. Jul. 01, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  A video showing the process of expanding a volume on a Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN. 

  Its amazingly simple:  First, you expand the volume in the management console, which automatically takes unused capacity from the free pool - including additional space you will need for snapshots. Then you go to the system side and expand the size of the file system. In this case, it shows using DISKPART in Windows.

  And without further ado......
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• Hey! - A Storage Story in the Wall Street Journal Blogs

  Thu. Jun. 26, 2008
  by David Graves, Editor—Inside IT

  WSJ reporter Justin Schreck wrote a post "Dell Looks For Money in Storage." Check it out.

  Money quote:

  "...Dell Inc. has focused on the flashy consumer products, including its “Studio” line of laptops that was formally introduced Thursday and has been a topic of earlier Web leaks. But the company seems to also have high hopes in an area that seems more boring: data storage for small and medium businesses."

  Personally - I don't find storage boring but I'll let it go. I'm winding up the propeller-head hat right now...
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• Amen Brother!

  Wed. Jun. 11, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  Chris Evans writes about keeping things simple, especially storage.
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• Live VMware SRM demo today

  Wed. Jun. 11, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

   

  We have a live demo today of VMware's SRM with Dell EqualLogic's iSCSI storage.  This is a great chance to check out what this new technology is all about. 

  Hosted by Will Urban   ;    Wednesday June 11, 12:00 pm EDT, here

  Other upcoming live demos are listed below:

  Product Features, Functions and Benefits: Thursday, June 12;   3:00 pm EDT ;   Tuesday June 17; 12 pm EDT   and    Thursday June 19;  3:00 EDT
  

  SQL Server Auto Snapshot Manager: Friday, June 13;   1:00 pm EDT 

  Exchange Auto Snapshot Manager:  Wednesday, June 18, 12 pm EDT

  German language product demo:     Friday, June 13;  10:00 am  CEDT   and   Friday, June 20;  10:00 am CEDT

  VMware integration:       Friday, June 20;  1:00 pm EDT
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• Chris Evans on the Danger of Obsolete Bombs

  Mon. Jun. 09, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  Chris Evans, the Storage Architect, had an interesting post last week about how two airports in Europe were closed recently because a couple WWII bombs were found.  He then goes on to discuss data storage "time bombs", one of the biggest threats to archived data.

  Data archiving repositories are probably the best hedge against losing data in the digital dark ages.

  I've thought that archiving services are the best option for most businesses.  Why do this yourself if you don't have to?  I would rather not be responsible for the details if there are others who are going to specialize in it.  Security and privacy concerns have to be addressed as do redundancy and survivability.
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• Cleaning up in iSCSI

  Fri. Jun. 06, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  Dell = 27.7%     Netapp = 20.5%        EMC = 15%

  Everybody else = less than 4.7 % each

  As more people become familiar with the amazing value proposition of Dell EqualLogic storage arrays, this number is going to increase rapidly

   

  Format: flv Duration: 00:52

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• SCSI timeouts on Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN Arrays

  Thu. May. 29, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

   VM Squad posted today about a problem he perceives exists with Dell EqualLogic arrays. Its not a problem, but that's what one of competitors is telling people.  The issue is the time it takes to upgrade firmware in our systems, which is 15 seconds in the systems we are selling today. 

  What's interesting is that Derek Schwab posted about the exact same thing yesterday and how it worked so well. 

  So what's up with that?  

  Systems and storage solve intermittent communication problems through SCSI time outs. If the host system can't communicate, it keeps trying patiently for a long time before giving up. This is a lot longer than 15 seconds.  The amount of time depends on the host system implementation, but it is usually more than a minute and can take five or more minutes (or so I'm told). FWIW, this is the same mechanism that is used for multi-pathing.  After a SCSI timeout, the system tries to re-connect using an alternative path.   

  So a 15 second delay (not an outage) a few times a year is not a very big deal. If you have to, you can schedule it for non-peak hours. Everything will work, applications will stay up and end users will see a short temporary hang - if they see anything at all. 

   
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• Steering wheel cam and DR best practices

  Wed. May. 28, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  Driving with a camera attached to your steering wheel is not exactly a driving best practice.  Not testing your DR plan, as Jon Toigo points, out is not an IT best practice.Failing to make suggestions for improving the situation is not a journalistic best practice.

  The future of DR preparation is going to be tightly coupled with virtual systems and storage.  It is possible to create simulations of many different recovery scenarios in virtual environments. This link takes you to a PDF presentation from the Belgium VMware Users Group that gives a tip of the iceberg view of the value of testing DR with VMware's new SRM product. 

  In time, I expect simulations of disasters will be part of Jon's and other consultants service offerings.   These types of tests will combine reduced exposure with increased learning and skills. That's a win-win, whereas testing DR the old fashioned way is a no-win deal for many IT professionals - who face unrealistic expectations form corporate management.
  

   

  Format: flv Duration: 02:12

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• Customer interview with PCL construction

  Tue. May. 27, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  PCL Construction in Edmonton is one of the largest construction companies in North America - and they are employee owned, which means employees there are always looking for ways to be more efficient. They became EqualLogic customers 3 years ago after having been a Fibre Channel shop prior to that. They can run everything they need to on Dell EqualLogic storage and like the ease of use and flexibility that our advanced virtualization architecture gives them. This previous video  has Derek Knox from PCL talking about doing live data migrations between storage systems during the middle of production operations.

  In this video, Derek and David Howse talk about the simplicity of using Dell EqualLogic storage and SRM. Derek talks about how they get performance equal to that of their Fibre Channel SANs. Some of that comes from having a smart SAN infrastructure, but a lot comes from the design of EqualLogic arrays. FWIW, most of the new systems they are buying today have SAS drives, to give them even more overhead for their high performance applications.

  Format: flv Duration: 04:25

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• Lowe Down Exchange blogger tells his storage story

  Mon. May. 26, 2008
  by Marc Farley, Inside IT Lead Blogger

  The Lowe Down blog has good information for Exchange administrators.  They also say some nice things about Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN storage and have included a couple nice screenshots too.

  They also write about our breakthrough business model of integrating all - and all future storage applications - with the cost of the hardware:

  "I’ve been using Equallogic Peer Storage Arrays for four years already, but they keep adding useful functionality — and at no additional charge!"
  

   
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