HP MSA Disk Arrays as a Basis for Data Consolidation
Companies of any size, including small and medium-sized businesses, are faced with the task of consolidating data and improving their management, backup and recovery. Before SMB, as well as before a big business, there is a need to purchase a storage system. The limited budget forces to search for inexpensive, but functional decisions.
Equipping each server with a powerful disk array is too wasteful. A single disk array in a dedicated storage area network ( SAN ) based on iSCSI or Fiber Channel improves the speed and reliability of data storage. After all, as a rule, data on a centralized network storage are protected using RAID, simplifies their backup and replication.
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Data consolidation is one of the ways to improve the performance, reliability and manageability of an enterprise information system. Thanks to the transfer of data from the internal disks of servers to external storage, they are available to several servers at once, which allows for various schemes to improve performance and fault tolerance.
The task of the centralized network storage is to consolidate the data of the database, CRM, financial system, shared files, as well as the company's e-mail and workflow systems. In addition to data consolidation, more and more additional functions are assigned to the storage system. Modern storage systems have advanced intellectual capabilities and provide many data management functions, which allows you to create "instant snapshots" and optimize work with data depending on their type.
Meanwhile, small enterprises often do not have qualified IT professionals on their staff, so they need easy-to-operate solutions. It is one of these solutions - the HP disk array of the MSA family, which will be discussed below.
HP currently has a storage lineup that allows enterprises with different numbers of employees to solve a wide range of data storage tasks. These are StoreVirtual 4000 optimized converged systems for virtualization, high-end and middle-end storage for critical tasks 3Par and EVA, software-defined storage systems of the VSA series, backup and archiving solutions, Fiber Channel switches (FC), HBA and CNA adapters for building storage networks, NAS gateways and devices, JBOD disk arrays and MSA entry-level SAN arrays.
In HP, this storage portfolio is divided into two large classes - convergent and traditional storage systems. For example, converged 3Par systems allowed HP to take a leading position among storage vendors in Europe, software-defined virtual storage systems are rapidly developing.
HP MSA disk arrays fall into the category of traditional storage systems. They appeared more than 10 years ago. This is a proven technology over the years. Low-cost MSA dual-drive disk systems are designed specifically for small and medium businesses, where there is a need for an easy-to-use and relatively inexpensive storage system. They can also be used as division level systems in departments and remote offices of large organizations. Such storage is also distinguished by convenient logistics: the customer can receive from the distributor's warehouse the required configuration system in a matter of days. It is the right solution for companies that want to move from server storage to a consolidated storage environment.
The MSA 1040/2040 released over the past year has become an evolutionary development of the storage systems of the previous generation. The fourth-generation HP MSA were the first-in-class systems with high-speed 16 Gb / s FC interfaces, which are already in demand by customers due to the proliferation of flash memory and SSD, which generate significant traffic in storage networks. The cloud model and the almost exponential increase in the volumes of data stored and processed by companies, including those in SMB, and the capacity of traditional disk drives (HDD) continues to grow.
The advantages of MSA are modularity and a large number of options. As with previous generations, the storage design includes chassis, controllers, drives, interfaces, and disk expansion shelves. The four-port converged (CNA) 16Gb FC / 10GbE iSCSI adapter with 4GB cache is compatible with previous generation systems. Storage systems support up to 199 SAS 6 Gb / s disks of the SFF form factor (2.5 ") or up to 96 LFF (3.5") up to seven disk shelves. SATA drives are not supported.
The HP MSA 2040 Chassis Array has two models: with 12 compartments for large form factor drives (LFF) and 24 compartments for small form factor drives (SFF). The array supports up to seven additional expansion shelves - D2700 with 25 SFF and MSA disks with 12 LFF.
The HP MSA series includes two models — a high-performance 2040 and a low-end 1040, with the HP MSA 2040 being one of the fastest entry-level arrays. According to the results of HP testing, the system demonstrates the performance of 85,000 IOPS at random load (read). Given the cost of the system, this is one of the most attractive offers among storage systems of this class. These arrays can be used with a limited budget for the development of storage infrastructure.
The HP Storage Management Utility (SMU) management software interface is easy to learn for system administrators who are used to working with HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem.
MSA arrays are characterized by tight integration with existing operating systems and hypervisors, and advanced management tools include CLI, Web-based interface and SMI-S. They are very easy to administer, support centralized management of up to 100 MSA arrays using ProLiant server management tools.
According to HP, 95% of MSA implementations are related to data consolidation or the creation of the first SAN storage network. Typical customers are small and medium-sized businesses ( SMB ) with a limited budget but strict data storage requirements. MSA is attracted by their price-performance ratio, fault tolerance, data copying capabilities of the storage system itself. The junior MSA 1040 model, which does not require in-depth knowledge of the system administrator, is often deployed as the first enterprise storage system.
MSA allows you to solve a variety of tasks. In SMB, these arrays are often used to provide the entire company with various IT services: support for e-mail systems, accounting systems, work with files, etc. Typical MSA applications are Microsoft Exchange, SQL, SAP applications, Oracle.
MSA customers are enterprises with 50–250 employees, x86 servers, and few or no IT staff, who often deploy a non-SAN configuration that includes two to three servers and an MSA array. Another typical category - enterprises with more than 250 employees (manufacturing, supermarkets, outsourcers and hosters with dedicated client infrastructure, universities, public sector) - these storage systems are often used in the infrastructure of head offices and remote offices, in building backup solutions and disaster-resilient (DR) configurations thanks to MSA support for remote asynchronous data replication and the delivery of snapshots of data to a remote system and their subsequent archiving. 25% of implementations are related to the deployment of MSA as a branch-level system.
As a target device in backup systems and low-cost disaster recovery solutions, MSA is often used in conjunction with software tools such as HP Data Protector, Backup Exec, or Veeam software. Finally, HP MSA arrays allow you to upgrade your SAN storage infrastructure.
As already noted, in contrast to previous models that support dual iSCSI / FC adapters, convertible CNA adapters can be used in fourth-generation systems. This makes it possible to flexibly change the port mode by installing GBIC or SFP modules for connecting the system via Ethernet or FC, which is convenient to use to gradually transfer the storage infrastructure from iSCSI to Fiber Channel. This is quite a budget migration option, because the controller or the storage system itself will not need to be changed. In addition, HP MSA allows you to combine the iSCSI infrastructure and FC - this task is also often encountered.
Configuration example with HP MSA 2040 arrays and HP ProLiant servers. Along with the connection through the FC switch, it is possible to directly connect the array to the servers.
Thus, enterprises can first consolidate the storage environment, and then transfer it to FC and scale it. And the scalability is built into the MSA and at the controller level, and at the level of disk drives, and at the software level with virtualization support.
The second most popular task after consolidation is to support virtual environments. According to HP statistics, 60% of MSA deployments occur in a virtual environment. Four times higher MSA performance compared to the previous generation means that the system can support more VMs, there will be less response time in applications.
The HP Insight Control plugin allows you to manage your disk system from VMware vCenter. Thus, MSA can be managed directly from popular virtual environment management systems, for example, in vCenter — to create logical volumes (LUNs), assign them to servers, etc. Support for ODX features in Windows Server 2012 means that you can transfer data between storage systems in a storage network without going through a server (core data path). And thanks to virtualization at the storage level, the Wide Striping feature appeared. It allows volumes to use resources from the storage pool. A virtual disk (vdisk) - a group of disks combined into a RAID group - can be distributed across all HDDs in an array, which improves performance.
The functionality of systems 1040 and 2040 is the same and is determined by microcode, but the younger model has many functions that require the purchase of additional licenses. In addition, the model 2040 can be equipped with SSD and has the appropriate means of support. MSA software supports various data copy options: logical data copies ( LUN copies), volume copy bytes, and remote asynchronous replication. Asynchronous data snapshot replication allows you to create a copy of the LUN for backup or other purposes. The Volume Copy function is used to copy data to another logical drive. These options are included in the configuration.
The HP MSA 2040 Storage System comes standard with a license for 64 snapshots and Volume Copy software to improve data protection, and also provides data replication between arrays using optional Remote Snap software.
For an additional fee, you can increase the number of simultaneous snapshots of data in the system from 64 to 512, or enable the asynchronous remote data mirroring feature. In addition, you can now take snapshots of data — this feature is used by developers and OEMs. Compared to the previous generation of systems, the performance of snapshots has also increased.
The MSA firmware released in December supports dynamic capacity allocation (Thin Provisioning), multi-level storage (automatic transfer of “hot” data blocks to fast media and “cold” to slow) in configuration with SSD, caching on SSD when reading data, improved snapshot creation mechanism data management interface, removed the limit on the number of virtual disks in the system. Thin Provisioning greatly simplifies storage management at the OS and application level, and allows you to effectively allocate storage capacity between applications and free it after deleting files, which ultimately means cost savings.
The MSA system supports three types of drives: SSD, HDD SAS and HDD MDL SAS. The latter are used for tasks with sequential access to data. SSD achieves high system performance. Moreover, it is enough to install SSD in the system - everything else is done automatically. According to HP, reading delays are reduced by up to 80%. When installing an SSD in an array on it is reserved area for caching. SSD supplements the storage controller read cache, and in sequential reads the data is not cached, but read directly from the HDD. To improve the reliability when working with SSD, a system for predicting microcode failures (monitoring I / O errors) is also used.
Efficient use of expensive SSD drives helps to automatically move data through storage levels - the so-called tearing. 4-megabyte “pages” move every 5-10 seconds in response to a change in I / O character. Such a move does not require significant resources: the load on the storage processor increases by about 1%. Previously, such opportunities were offered only in the middle class systems.
Working with this function is also not difficult: just set the storage levels, and the system will do the rest. According to estimates, the movement mechanism on the SSD of actively used (“hot”) data increases the system performance (IOPS when reading and writing) by one or two orders of magnitude, and the so-called archive tiring - the movement of rarely used (“cold”) data to inexpensive carriers - 80% reduced storage cost (dollar / gigabyte).
SSD is used to obtain maximum performance with random access, but the use of solid-state drives requires careful planning, taking into account the load - a specific application. Recommendations for the 2040: at least four SSDs, one mirrored pair per controller.
Small companies that are committed to server hardware virtualization and storage consolidation need reliable, but at the same time inexpensive and easy-to-maintain storage systems. HP offers these customers an entry-level product family — MSA disk arrays.
MSA is one of the most successful series of storage systems for HP. HP's MSA disk array provides high performance, reliability, and ease of management within a limited IT budget. It is well suited for companies representing small and medium businesses. MSA allows you to consolidate diverse IT resources and, in combination with virtualization, increase the efficiency of their use. For quite a bit of money, you can provide centralized data storage on a single platform.
MSA 1040 and 2040 can be offered to those enterprises that already use the previous (third) generation MSA systems and need to be upgraded. In this case, it is enough to replace the old controllers with new ones, without changing the disks installed in the system. After the replacement procedure, the data will be automatically recognized and ready to go. This approach significantly saves the enterprise budget for the development and modernization of the data storage infrastructure, and protects the investments made in it.
Configuration flexibility allows you to select the desired solution, select the desired type of network adapters. Due to the constant availability of HP MSA in distributors' warehouses, delivery to anywhere in Russia takes only a few days. However, before purchasing a system, it is better to take a demo sample from the distributor and test the MSA on a real task. In addition, HP has promotional programs - ready-made kits cost less to buy components separately.
Our previous publications:
» Multivendor corporate network: myths and reality
» Available HP ProLiant server models (10 and 100 series)
» Convergence based on HP Networking. Part 1
» HP ProLiant ML350 Gen9 - server with insane extensibility
Thanks for attention.
Equipping each server with a powerful disk array is too wasteful. A single disk array in a dedicated storage area network ( SAN ) based on iSCSI or Fiber Channel improves the speed and reliability of data storage. After all, as a rule, data on a centralized network storage are protected using RAID, simplifies their backup and replication.
')
Consolidation task
Data consolidation is one of the ways to improve the performance, reliability and manageability of an enterprise information system. Thanks to the transfer of data from the internal disks of servers to external storage, they are available to several servers at once, which allows for various schemes to improve performance and fault tolerance.
The task of the centralized network storage is to consolidate the data of the database, CRM, financial system, shared files, as well as the company's e-mail and workflow systems. In addition to data consolidation, more and more additional functions are assigned to the storage system. Modern storage systems have advanced intellectual capabilities and provide many data management functions, which allows you to create "instant snapshots" and optimize work with data depending on their type.
Meanwhile, small enterprises often do not have qualified IT professionals on their staff, so they need easy-to-operate solutions. It is one of these solutions - the HP disk array of the MSA family, which will be discussed below.
HP currently has a storage lineup that allows enterprises with different numbers of employees to solve a wide range of data storage tasks. These are StoreVirtual 4000 optimized converged systems for virtualization, high-end and middle-end storage for critical tasks 3Par and EVA, software-defined storage systems of the VSA series, backup and archiving solutions, Fiber Channel switches (FC), HBA and CNA adapters for building storage networks, NAS gateways and devices, JBOD disk arrays and MSA entry-level SAN arrays.
In HP, this storage portfolio is divided into two large classes - convergent and traditional storage systems. For example, converged 3Par systems allowed HP to take a leading position among storage vendors in Europe, software-defined virtual storage systems are rapidly developing.
Tradition and Innovation
HP MSA disk arrays fall into the category of traditional storage systems. They appeared more than 10 years ago. This is a proven technology over the years. Low-cost MSA dual-drive disk systems are designed specifically for small and medium businesses, where there is a need for an easy-to-use and relatively inexpensive storage system. They can also be used as division level systems in departments and remote offices of large organizations. Such storage is also distinguished by convenient logistics: the customer can receive from the distributor's warehouse the required configuration system in a matter of days. It is the right solution for companies that want to move from server storage to a consolidated storage environment.
The MSA 1040/2040 released over the past year has become an evolutionary development of the storage systems of the previous generation. The fourth-generation HP MSA were the first-in-class systems with high-speed 16 Gb / s FC interfaces, which are already in demand by customers due to the proliferation of flash memory and SSD, which generate significant traffic in storage networks. The cloud model and the almost exponential increase in the volumes of data stored and processed by companies, including those in SMB, and the capacity of traditional disk drives (HDD) continues to grow.
The advantages of MSA are modularity and a large number of options. As with previous generations, the storage design includes chassis, controllers, drives, interfaces, and disk expansion shelves. The four-port converged (CNA) 16Gb FC / 10GbE iSCSI adapter with 4GB cache is compatible with previous generation systems. Storage systems support up to 199 SAS 6 Gb / s disks of the SFF form factor (2.5 ") or up to 96 LFF (3.5") up to seven disk shelves. SATA drives are not supported.
The HP MSA 2040 Chassis Array has two models: with 12 compartments for large form factor drives (LFF) and 24 compartments for small form factor drives (SFF). The array supports up to seven additional expansion shelves - D2700 with 25 SFF and MSA disks with 12 LFF.
The HP MSA series includes two models — a high-performance 2040 and a low-end 1040, with the HP MSA 2040 being one of the fastest entry-level arrays. According to the results of HP testing, the system demonstrates the performance of 85,000 IOPS at random load (read). Given the cost of the system, this is one of the most attractive offers among storage systems of this class. These arrays can be used with a limited budget for the development of storage infrastructure.
The HP Storage Management Utility (SMU) management software interface is easy to learn for system administrators who are used to working with HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem.
MSA arrays are characterized by tight integration with existing operating systems and hypervisors, and advanced management tools include CLI, Web-based interface and SMI-S. They are very easy to administer, support centralized management of up to 100 MSA arrays using ProLiant server management tools.
Where and for what is HP MSA used?
According to HP, 95% of MSA implementations are related to data consolidation or the creation of the first SAN storage network. Typical customers are small and medium-sized businesses ( SMB ) with a limited budget but strict data storage requirements. MSA is attracted by their price-performance ratio, fault tolerance, data copying capabilities of the storage system itself. The junior MSA 1040 model, which does not require in-depth knowledge of the system administrator, is often deployed as the first enterprise storage system.
MSA allows you to solve a variety of tasks. In SMB, these arrays are often used to provide the entire company with various IT services: support for e-mail systems, accounting systems, work with files, etc. Typical MSA applications are Microsoft Exchange, SQL, SAP applications, Oracle.
MSA customers are enterprises with 50–250 employees, x86 servers, and few or no IT staff, who often deploy a non-SAN configuration that includes two to three servers and an MSA array. Another typical category - enterprises with more than 250 employees (manufacturing, supermarkets, outsourcers and hosters with dedicated client infrastructure, universities, public sector) - these storage systems are often used in the infrastructure of head offices and remote offices, in building backup solutions and disaster-resilient (DR) configurations thanks to MSA support for remote asynchronous data replication and the delivery of snapshots of data to a remote system and their subsequent archiving. 25% of implementations are related to the deployment of MSA as a branch-level system.
As a target device in backup systems and low-cost disaster recovery solutions, MSA is often used in conjunction with software tools such as HP Data Protector, Backup Exec, or Veeam software. Finally, HP MSA arrays allow you to upgrade your SAN storage infrastructure.
ISCSI to Fiber Channel
As already noted, in contrast to previous models that support dual iSCSI / FC adapters, convertible CNA adapters can be used in fourth-generation systems. This makes it possible to flexibly change the port mode by installing GBIC or SFP modules for connecting the system via Ethernet or FC, which is convenient to use to gradually transfer the storage infrastructure from iSCSI to Fiber Channel. This is quite a budget migration option, because the controller or the storage system itself will not need to be changed. In addition, HP MSA allows you to combine the iSCSI infrastructure and FC - this task is also often encountered.
Configuration example with HP MSA 2040 arrays and HP ProLiant servers. Along with the connection through the FC switch, it is possible to directly connect the array to the servers.
Thus, enterprises can first consolidate the storage environment, and then transfer it to FC and scale it. And the scalability is built into the MSA and at the controller level, and at the level of disk drives, and at the software level with virtualization support.
HP MSA and Virtualization
The second most popular task after consolidation is to support virtual environments. According to HP statistics, 60% of MSA deployments occur in a virtual environment. Four times higher MSA performance compared to the previous generation means that the system can support more VMs, there will be less response time in applications.
The HP Insight Control plugin allows you to manage your disk system from VMware vCenter. Thus, MSA can be managed directly from popular virtual environment management systems, for example, in vCenter — to create logical volumes (LUNs), assign them to servers, etc. Support for ODX features in Windows Server 2012 means that you can transfer data between storage systems in a storage network without going through a server (core data path). And thanks to virtualization at the storage level, the Wide Striping feature appeared. It allows volumes to use resources from the storage pool. A virtual disk (vdisk) - a group of disks combined into a RAID group - can be distributed across all HDDs in an array, which improves performance.
Extended features
The functionality of systems 1040 and 2040 is the same and is determined by microcode, but the younger model has many functions that require the purchase of additional licenses. In addition, the model 2040 can be equipped with SSD and has the appropriate means of support. MSA software supports various data copy options: logical data copies ( LUN copies), volume copy bytes, and remote asynchronous replication. Asynchronous data snapshot replication allows you to create a copy of the LUN for backup or other purposes. The Volume Copy function is used to copy data to another logical drive. These options are included in the configuration.
The HP MSA 2040 Storage System comes standard with a license for 64 snapshots and Volume Copy software to improve data protection, and also provides data replication between arrays using optional Remote Snap software.
For an additional fee, you can increase the number of simultaneous snapshots of data in the system from 64 to 512, or enable the asynchronous remote data mirroring feature. In addition, you can now take snapshots of data — this feature is used by developers and OEMs. Compared to the previous generation of systems, the performance of snapshots has also increased.
The MSA firmware released in December supports dynamic capacity allocation (Thin Provisioning), multi-level storage (automatic transfer of “hot” data blocks to fast media and “cold” to slow) in configuration with SSD, caching on SSD when reading data, improved snapshot creation mechanism data management interface, removed the limit on the number of virtual disks in the system. Thin Provisioning greatly simplifies storage management at the OS and application level, and allows you to effectively allocate storage capacity between applications and free it after deleting files, which ultimately means cost savings.
SSD Drives: Caching and Tiered Storage
The MSA system supports three types of drives: SSD, HDD SAS and HDD MDL SAS. The latter are used for tasks with sequential access to data. SSD achieves high system performance. Moreover, it is enough to install SSD in the system - everything else is done automatically. According to HP, reading delays are reduced by up to 80%. When installing an SSD in an array on it is reserved area for caching. SSD supplements the storage controller read cache, and in sequential reads the data is not cached, but read directly from the HDD. To improve the reliability when working with SSD, a system for predicting microcode failures (monitoring I / O errors) is also used.
Efficient use of expensive SSD drives helps to automatically move data through storage levels - the so-called tearing. 4-megabyte “pages” move every 5-10 seconds in response to a change in I / O character. Such a move does not require significant resources: the load on the storage processor increases by about 1%. Previously, such opportunities were offered only in the middle class systems.
Working with this function is also not difficult: just set the storage levels, and the system will do the rest. According to estimates, the movement mechanism on the SSD of actively used (“hot”) data increases the system performance (IOPS when reading and writing) by one or two orders of magnitude, and the so-called archive tiring - the movement of rarely used (“cold”) data to inexpensive carriers - 80% reduced storage cost (dollar / gigabyte).
SSD is used to obtain maximum performance with random access, but the use of solid-state drives requires careful planning, taking into account the load - a specific application. Recommendations for the 2040: at least four SSDs, one mirrored pair per controller.
findings
Small companies that are committed to server hardware virtualization and storage consolidation need reliable, but at the same time inexpensive and easy-to-maintain storage systems. HP offers these customers an entry-level product family — MSA disk arrays.
MSA is one of the most successful series of storage systems for HP. HP's MSA disk array provides high performance, reliability, and ease of management within a limited IT budget. It is well suited for companies representing small and medium businesses. MSA allows you to consolidate diverse IT resources and, in combination with virtualization, increase the efficiency of their use. For quite a bit of money, you can provide centralized data storage on a single platform.
MSA 1040 and 2040 can be offered to those enterprises that already use the previous (third) generation MSA systems and need to be upgraded. In this case, it is enough to replace the old controllers with new ones, without changing the disks installed in the system. After the replacement procedure, the data will be automatically recognized and ready to go. This approach significantly saves the enterprise budget for the development and modernization of the data storage infrastructure, and protects the investments made in it.
Configuration flexibility allows you to select the desired solution, select the desired type of network adapters. Due to the constant availability of HP MSA in distributors' warehouses, delivery to anywhere in Russia takes only a few days. However, before purchasing a system, it is better to take a demo sample from the distributor and test the MSA on a real task. In addition, HP has promotional programs - ready-made kits cost less to buy components separately.
Our previous publications:
» Multivendor corporate network: myths and reality
» Available HP ProLiant server models (10 and 100 series)
» Convergence based on HP Networking. Part 1
» HP ProLiant ML350 Gen9 - server with insane extensibility
Thanks for attention.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/252149/
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