Bu
usiness and technology
y benefits of
o converge
ed I/O netwo
orking infrastructures
Authoor: Greg Sch
hulz – Sr. Advisor
A
M
March
8, 2011
D
D
This In
ndustry Trend
ds and Perspecctive Solution Brief is Comp
pliments of Cisco
Back
kground and
d Issues
Theree is no such th
hing as a dataa or informattion
recesssion. IT organ
nizations conttinue to be facced
with supporting
s
in
ncreased inforrmation serviices
needss while workiing within buudget limitatioons
withoout comprom
mising Qualiity of Servvice
(QoS)) or Service Level Objecttives (SLOs).. In
order to support demand whhile maintainning
QoS and SLOs in
i a cost efffective mannner,
innovvation is requiired.
P
Value Proposition
Businesss benefits of innovatiing by usinng
convergged networkinng technologiies include:
• Do more
m
with avaiilable resourcces
• Support growth annd enhance seervice deliveryy
• Remoove complexiity and therebby costs
• Optim
mize for speciific QoS and SLOs
• Invesstment preservvation to maxximize TCO
• Selecct servers indeependent of SAN
S
& LANss
• Leverrage industryy standard com
mponents
One form
f
of innov
vation is the use
u of convergged • Preseerve staff skilll sets and proocesses
technoologies that enable thee reduction of • Enable dynamic annd flexible innfrastructures
complexity and, subsequently, cost frrom
der history to see the fu
uture
inform
mation servicces delivery. As an exampple, Consid
w
as an inndustry we arre
conveerged I/O and
a
networkking technoloogy To helpp understand where
w
we havve
bringss together th
he best of trraditional serrver going let’s take a quuick look at where
O
and storage I/O
O connectiviity with LA
AN been. Historically server and storage I/O
connecttivity1 have been
b
separatee from generaal
netwoorking. The business challenge that
t
conveerged I/O nettwork addressses is to remoove purposee LAN and vooice or datacoom networks.
complexity from a technology as well as frrom
managgement and
d acquisitionns perspectiive.
Compplexity adds cost by suppporting multiiple
technoologies that should
s
be com
mplimentary but
are often leveraaged to perform similar
functiions.
mportant aspeect of converggence is to avvoid
An im
introdducing aggraavation in the course of
aggregating or consolidatiing such as
perforrmance bottleenecks or othher QoS issuues.
One of
o the reason
ns for havingg separate LA
AN
and SAN
S
environm
ments in the past
p has beenn to
avoidd intermix of different typees of traffic that
t
couldd result in QoS
S or performaance challengees.
Figure 1 – Server annd storage I/O
O continuum
Converrgence has beeen occurringg over the paast
couple of decadess for serverr storage I/O
O
N networkingg.
interconnnect (Figuree 1) and LAN
Server and storagge I/O connnectivity haas
evolvedd from prooprietary phhysical direcct
connectt or point to point intterconnects to
t
y enabler for the next stepp in storage area networkks (SANs).
As a result, a key
the I/O networking
g convergencce journey is for
solutions that can protect againnst performannce Converrgence has occcurred with the shift from
m
bottleenecks while enabling low
w latency, high
h
early generation
g
proprietary SA
ANs to opeen
availaability with flexibility
f
andd resiliency in a heteroggonous stanndards leverraging Fibrre
cost effective maanner while using indusstry Channeel (FC).
standaard componen
nts.
1
Refer to “R
Resilient Storage Netwoorks: Designing Flexiblee and Scalable Data
Infrastrucctures” (Elsevier) to leaarn more
© Copyright 2011 The Seerver and StorageIO Group (StorageIO
O) All Rights Reserved.
www.sstorageio.com
P.O. Bo
ox 2026 Stillw
water, MN 550822
651-275-15563
1 off 3
info
o@storageio.com
Bu
usiness and technology
y benefits of
o converge
ed I/O netwo
orking infrastructures
FC SANs enabled multiplee upper leevel
protoccols (ULPs) to convergee; for exampple,
open systems (SC
CSI_FCP) annd IBM zSerries
mainfframes FICON
N traffic on the same SA
AN.
has
On thhe LAN netwo
orking side, convergence
c
resultted in a sh
hift from eaarly generattion
propriietary protoco
ols and physiical interfacess to
standaard Ethernet and ULPs inccluding TCP//IP.
In adddition to FC based SANs,, Ethernet based
has
storagge is another area where convergence
c
occurrred over the past decadee, with Network
Attachhed Storage (NAS) suppoorting Windoows
CIFS and NFS file sharing, iSCSI (SC
CSI
t TCP/IP) Fiibre Channel on
protoccol mapped to
IP (FC
CIP) for distaance enablemeent.
Whaat is needed?
?
The soolution
Leveragge convergedd technologyy that supporrts
both sttorage I/O (e.g. SAN) and LAN traffi
fic
withoutt compromisse for either environmennt.
Converrged networkking technoloogies enable a
shift inn focus from
m beyond thhe networkinng
cable too support diffferent protoccols optimizeed
s.
for varrious functioonality and characteristic
c
Flexibillity comes inn the form off being able to
t
redeplooy technologyy to meet channging businesss
and techhnology needds. Shift from
m separate SAN
N
and LA
AN environm
ments with unnique adapterrs,
edge or
o access as well as corre networkinng
switchees to a converged paradigm shown on
o
the righht hand side of Figure 2. From a SAN
N
perspecctive this means mainntaining best
practicees of miniimizing hopps with flaat
networkks however leveraging multi-protocool
convergged switches and adapters. From a LAN
N
perspecctive this meaans moving towards
t
flatteer
networkks also leverraging conveerged adapterrs
and swiitches.
On thhe left side of
o Figure 2 are
a two separrate
SAN and LAN en
nvironments each with thheir
own core
c
networkiing switchingg infrastructurres.
The LAN
L
and SAN
N networkingg infrastructuures
consisst of separatee edge access along with core
c
switchhes, optical transceivers,
t
and diagnosttics Strategies and reccommendattions
and management
m
to
ools as well as
a adapters.
Your initial
i
deployyment may involve usinng
convergged I/O and networking switches in a
traditional LAN andd SAN modes. The next steep
would is to evolvee from treatiing convergeed
networkking switchees as separatte storage I/O
O
and neetworking booxes into plaatforms wherre
LAN and
a
SAN traffic co-exissts. For som
me
environnments, convverged I/O annd networkinng
2
technollogies includiing CNAs andd switches caan
Figuree 2 - I/O and networking continuum
c
be deplloyed initiallyy as access layers
l
for botth
LAN
an
nd
SAN
traff
fic
co-existing
g
with
existinng
The next step in the I//O networkking
infrastr
ructures.
Rega
ardless
of
how
w
you
initiallly
conveergence journ
ney is shown on
o the right side
s
leverag
ge
converge
ed
I/O
and
d
networkin
ng
of Figure
F
2, is convergeed networkking
enviroonment. At the core of figure 2 are technollogies, the objjectives should be to enablle
conveerged netwo
orking (LAN
N and SA
AN) flexibility, scalability, resiliencyy and removve
from
m
acquisition
througgh
switchhes or directo
ors supportingg Fibre Channnel compleexity
deploym
ment.
over Ethernet (FC
CoE) along with traditioonal
Ethernnet TCP/IP traffic. Inn addition to
suppoorting differeent protocolss and comm
mon
physiccal interfacees, convergged networkking
switchhes provide agility andd flexibility for
enabliing dynamic environmentss.
2
Chapteer 9 “I/O and Networking” The Green and Virtual
V
Data Center (C
CRC)
In addition to prepparing from a technologgy
standpooint, it is impoortant to conssider how youur
organizzational struucture, workflow, best
practicees and proocesses are prepared to
t
leveragge the nexxt step in convergencce
networkking technoloogies.
© Copyright 2011 The Seerver and StorageIO Group (StorageIO
O) All Rights Reserved.
www.sstorageio.com
P.O. Bo
ox 2026 Stillw
water, MN 550822
651-275-15563
2 off 3
info
o@storageio.com
Bu
usiness and technology
y benefits of
o converge
ed I/O netwo
orking infrastructures
Closiing commen
nt
The question
q
shoulld not be if, but
b when, wheere,
and hoow converged
d networking is
i in your futuure.
You are
a most likelly already on the convergence
journeey (Figure 3). Now preparee to take the next
n
step inn the I/O nettworking convvergence journney
whichh is centered on FCoE annd DCB enabbled
solutioons. Converged networkking technoloogy
shouldd work you an
nd adapt to yoour needs insttead
of youu working for the technologgy.
Wheree to learn more
m
See thee companion to this Industtry Trends annd
Perspecctive
Soluttion
Brief
“Removinng
organizational
baarriers
for
technologgy
converggence” at storageio.com
s
m/brief. Learrn
more about convverged I/O networkinng
along with assocciated Ciscoo technologgy
tools at
a cisco.com//go/unifiedfaabric.
All trademarrks are the property off their respective companies and owners. The
T
StorageIO Group
G
makes no expressed or implied warrranties in this documeent
relating to thhe use or operation of the products and techhniques described hereein.
The StorageeIO Group in no event shall be liable for any indirect, inconsequential,
special, inciddental or other damagees arising out of or assoociated with any aspectt of
this documeent, its use, reliance upon the information, recommendations, or
inadvertent errors
e
contained herein. Information, opinionns and recommendatioons
made by thee StorageIO Group aree based upon public innformation believed to be
accurate, reliable, and subject to change. This industryy trends and perspecttive
solution brieff is compliments of Ciscco. www.cisco.com
n
inndustry trends
Figuree 3 – I/O and networking
Conveerged I/O and
d networking check list:
9 Intteroperability
y and standardd componentss
o CNAs
C
and on
n board chips or mezzaninees
o Converged
C
acccess and coree switches
9 Ennd to End (E2E) IRM3 mannagement toools
9 Traaining and co
ontinuing education
9 Crross technolog
gy managemeent teams
9 Shhift from cablee to protocol management
m
wever look beefore you leap!!
Don’tt be scared how
3 3IRM
foocuses on managing resources (servers, storaage, and networks) inclluding
backup, data
d
protection, re-tierring, security, optimizaation, provisioning, repporting
and capaccity planning. Refer to “The
“
Green and Virtuall Data Center” (CRC)
© Copyright 2011 The Seerver and StorageIO Group (StorageIO
O) All Rights Reserved.
www.sstorageio.com
P.O. Bo
ox 2026 Stillw
water, MN 550822
651-275-15563
3 off 3
info
o@storageio.com