SAN-Aware Operating Systems Enable Server-Based Storage Provisioning

COFFEE BREAK
SAN-AWARE OPERATING SYSTEMS ENABLE SERVER-BASEDSTORAGE PROVISIONING
With "Virtual disk" technologies In the past few years, advances that make storage easier to use, manage, and growyou'll be able to increase a have provided tremendous benefits. Storage consolidation was a launching point formailbox size from within your various new technologies delivering advanced functionality. The next generational shiftmessaging application, or that is in process will free storage administrators from handling storage provisioning forincrease a table size from with- applications - instead, applications will be able to request and provision storage forin the database application. themselves. While today multiple tools are required to add storage to your database,soon the database will be able to take care of that itself.
ENABLING TECHNOLOGYIn a previous Coffee Break we talked about operating systems becoming SAN aware, and®how SAN-aware snapshots using technologies like Microsoft Volume Shadow CopyService (VSS) dramatically improve backup operations. Now, with technologies such asTMicrosoft's Virtual Disk Service (VDS) in Windows Server 2003 R2, operating systemshave become aware of basic storage provisioning. Simply put, an application can determine if it needs additional capacity and then request the additional storage directly.
For example, your e-mail and database applications will be written with storage provi-sioning capabilities that plug into VDS - if they are implemented with VDS-integratedstorage, they will be able to add capacity on their own. The administrator can ask®Microsoft Exchange to increase a mailbox size, and then the storage array, Windows OS,and Exchange application will automatically work together to accomplish that. A DBA can®ask the Oracle database to increase the size of a table, and it's done automatically. If there isn't enough disk space to do the job, Oracle will inform the administrator of that.
THE OLD WAY - NOT WORTH THE EFFORTWhile it is possible today to provision storage for an application, it's an awkward andunwieldy solution. The process involves multiple time-consuming steps, requiring individual tools to be installed by the administrator. The administrator must configure thestorage array to make additional LUNS available to the operating system, then enablethe operating system to recognize the new capacity, then enable the application to recognize the capacity, and then tell the application to adjust to it. It is not surprising withthis tedious and usually downtime-dependent process that many administrators try toavoid it by over-provisioning storage to servers and applications up front. While theymust endure poor utilization and higher than necessary costs, at least they suffer lessapplication downtime. This new "virtual disk" technology does not require the appli- OS EVOLUTION OFFERS HOLISTIC BENEFITScation to be omnipotent; it simply requires each layer to be VSS enabled an easier backup method that ensured dataintegrated with the virtual disk plug-in. Once the operating consistency and better protection; similarly, VDS opens up asystem creates a SAN-aware mechanism with plug-ins for new style of application-level provisioning that makes manag-applications and storage, the application and storage vendors ing capacity much simpler and more user-friendly. By creatingsimply build integration into that API for a holistic storage this infrastructure, operating system designers have shiftedprovisioning process. This enables a completely featured, SAN integration from IT administrators or vendor professionaldynamic, flexible storage environment. services back to the system and storage vendors - resultingin easily deployable and repeatable solutions. Customers getWindows Server 2003 R2 provides these capabilities and the the ability to add capacity to applications easily, and applica-tools to use them. Storage Manager for SANs (SMfS) tion and storage vendors get the benefit of differentiating theirprovides a GUI interface for not only viewing available storage products with minimal effort and expense. resources in a SAN, but also for adding storage to existingLUNs and creating new LUNs online. The same mechanisms SIMPLIFYING NETWORKED STORAGEused by SMfS are available to any application, providing a EqualLogic... [download for more]