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"The momentum in data center
virtualization has increased the focus on technologies which contribute
to more effective application provisioning, business continuity, and resource consolidation. Storage virtualization
provides the ability to represent data independently of where and how it is physically stored, thus enabling increased
asset utilization, faster application recovery and reduced space, power and cooling requirements."
Source : NetApp
How to Find the Right Virtualization Solution for You
Virtualization is also known as :
Virtualization,
Virtualization Solutions,
Virtualization Management,
Overcome Virtualization,
Cluster Virtualization,
Road to Virtualization,
Overcome Virtualization Challenges,
Control Virtual Sprawl,
Infrastructure via Virtualization,
X86 Virtualization,
Computing Virtualization,
Virtualization Backup,
Virtualization Recovery,
Adopting Server Virtualization,
Platform Virtualization,
Open Source Virtualization,
Virtualize IT Environment,
Virtualization Process Abstracting,
Virtualization Network,
Virtualization Issues,
Key Virtualization,
Virtualization Software,
Application Virtualization,
Server Virtualization,
Storage Virtualization,
Rovides Virtualization Built,
Virtualization Solutions Overview,
Virtualization Process,
Virtualization Creation,
Manage Virtualization,
Virtualization Downloads,
Virtualization Monitoring,
Enterprise Virtualization,
Manage Virtual Servers,
Strategies for Virtualization.
Abstract
This document discusses the virtual storage solutions that reduce cost, increase storage utilization, increase fault
tolerance, and address the challenges of backing up and restoring VMware ESX Server environments by using
Network Appliance technology.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In recent years, just about every company with an Information Systems department has begun some form of
consolidation and virtualization effort with the goal of increasing asset utilization while reducing management and
infrastructure costs. The virtualization marketplace is filled with solutions from just about every traditional vendor
and a bevy of startups, but the company that is universally acknowledged as a leader in the virtualization space is
VMware.
With the release of the VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.0 Suite, companies can decouple business applications
from physical server hardware, which in turn reduces operational costs and provides a much more flexible and
dynamic infrastructure. By reducing the amount of physical servers, network ports, floor and rack space,
maintenance contracts, and electricity required to run a data center operation, companies can actualize the return
on investment from consolidation efforts within months. Common virtual infrastructure deployments provide
consolidation ratios of 8 to 12 physical servers to a single ESX Server. Multiple ESX Servers are grouped together
to form ESX clusters and data centers hosting upwards of hundreds of virtual machines.
Virtual infrastructures are a fantastic solution to the challenges of a distributed server architecture. However, the
native storage virtualization capabilities shipped with VMware ESX Server do not provide the same benefits and
hardware reductions as those seen in the server space. Many customers have experienced an increase in storage
requirements after implementing their virtual infrastructure. The reasons for this increase are many, including but
not limited to a requirement for a shared storage platform, inefficiencies in the multiple layers of storage
virtualization, overprovisioning, and challenges with backups that can lead to inefficient disk-to-disk backup
solutions.
This technical report demonstrates how integrating Network Appliance technologies in a virtual infrastructure can
solve the unique challenges inherent with ESX deployments in the areas of storage utilization, fault tolerance, and
backups. With Network Appliance virtualized storage and data management solutions, customers can make
dramatic gains in these areas. This report also reviews backup solutions for VMware deployments that are not on
NetApp storage.
PERFORMANCE, DATA PROTECTION, AND STORAGE UTILIZATION
With every consolidation effort, the consolidation platforms must meet a new set of business challenges that are
unique to virtual infrastructures. When considering the acquisition of a storage system, it's important to understand
the impacts on disk I/O performance, data protection, and storage utilization. To begin with, a storage system must
at a minimum provide the aggregated disk I/O performance of the combined distributed platforms being
consolidated. Virtual infrastructures can apply a significant I/O load on disk subsystems. This load is a result of the
VMware default storage design. With VMware VMFS datastore, multiple virtual disks (or VMDK files) are stored,
which means that multiple virtual machines are concurrently accessing the file system. VMFS datastores are
notorious for being extremely random in their read and write requirements. Failure to provide a robust storage
system also has a negative impact in areas outside of serving VM data requests. These negative impacts may be
experienced in areas such as backing up VM data to tape. For details, see the Virtual Infrastructure 3 SAN
Configuration Guide at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_esx_san_cfg.pdf
In addition, a consolidation platform needs to provide a high level of availability, because the business impact of a
failure is magnified in direct proportion to the consolidation factor. Consider a common scenario where a
department has 20 servers. To protect the data stored on each server, RAID 5 has been implemented. One of
these servers incurs a disk drive failure, and during the RAID rebuild a media error is found on one of the surviving
drives. This server's RAID rebuild process fails and data is lost, requiring this data to be restored from a tapebased
backup set. This process usually takes a significant amount of time and effort.
Suppose that you have deployed the same 20 servers as virtual machines in a virtual infrastructure. The VMs store
their data on a shared storage platform, and the data is protected with RAID 5. The impact of the same failure just
described would be 20 times greater in magnitude, because now all 20 virtual machines have lost data that must
be restored.
The cost of data protection should be considered in two ways. First there is the acquisition cost of the RAID level
being implemented; specifically, how many additional hard drives are required to provide fault tolerance. Second,
this cost must be measured against the cost of impact to business operations if data is lost. The following
paragraphs consider both forms of this question.
The previous paragraphs illustrate the potentially negative side of any consolidation effort if the consolidating
platform is not more reliable than the original distributed platform. It is with this understanding that many
administrators seek to deploy a form of data protection that is more resilient than what their physical servers were
deployed with (typically, RAID 5). Cost, performance, and storage utilization are also considerations when
searching for the appropriate level of data protection for a virtual infrastructure.
Many administrators consider RAID 10 (RAID 1+0), which provides data protection against a double disk failure
and (more likely) protects against encountering a media error during the RAID reconstruction process. RAID 10 is
a nested RAID technology that stripes data over pairs of RAID 1 mirrors. RAID 10 is considered to be one of the
highest performing forms of RAID technologies, because it 10 does not compute parity information when
committing data writes. Even with the value of its data protection and high performance, there is a significant cost
to RAID 10, because this technology requires an additional 100% overhead of physical disk storage (Nx2). This
high cost is counter to a consolidation effort; the use of RAID 10 immediately decreases overall storage
virtualization by 50%. For more information on RAID levels, see Figure 1 and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#RAID_10.
Figure 1 An Example of a RAID 10 Group
In considering emerging technologies to provide fault tolerance that is on a par with RAID 10, administrators may
consider implementing RAID 6 or RAID 50 (RAID 5+0). Both technologies are extensions to RAID 5, which stripes
data and parity information across a set of disks, providing fault tolerance in the event of a single failed disk drive.
RAID 6 extends the data protection of RAID 5 by writing a second set of parity data. RAID 6 provides high storage
utilization, because it requires only a single drive beyond RAID 5 (N+2). RAID 6 provides enhanced data protection
and the cost savings of requiring only one additional drive, but there is a tradeoff in performance. RAID 6 requires
double the number of parity calculations and additional writes associated with RAID 5. Because of the negative
performance impact of these additional calculations and write operations, the storage industry is not seeing many
data center deployments of RAID 6. For more information on RAID levels, see Figure 2 and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#RAID_6.
Figure 2 An Example of a RAID 6 Group
RAID 50 is a nested RAID technology that appears to extend the data protection provided by RAID 5 by striping
data (RAID 0) across RAID 5 groups. On the surface, RAID 50 offers excellent data protection in the event of
multiple drive failures. However, RAID 50 suffers from the same issue as its predecessor: As disk drive densities
increase, the number of physical imperfections increases exponentially. With RAID 50, if two drives fail in a single
RAID 5 group, or more likely a single drive fails and during the RAID reconstruction a media error is encountered,
the data is lost. The impact of this failure goes beyond the data loss of the individual RAID group, because with
RAID 50 the data loss affects the RAID 0 stripes written across all of the RAID 5 groups. For more information on
RAID 50, see Figure 3 and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#RAID_50_.28RAID_5.2B0.29.
Network Appliance RAID-DP uniquely addresses the challenge of providing the highest level of data protection
while requiring a minimal amount of storage. Introduced n 2004, RAID-DP exceeds the fault tolerance of RAID 10
while maintaining the cost savings found with RAID 6 and RAID 50. RAID-DP provides fault tolerance for the
failure of any two disks (data or parity) within a RAID group. In addition, RAID-DP incurs an almost inappreciable
performance penalty. For more information on RAID-DP performance and data protection capabilities, see Figure
4, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#Double_parity, and
http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3298.pdf.
Figure 4 An Example of a RAID-DP Group
Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of each RAID technology. For the storage utilization example, assume that
5TB of usable storage is provisioned. From the data in Table 1, the advantages of RAID-DP are easy to see.
RAID-DP provides the highest level of storage utilization, data protection, and performance of any of the RAID
technologies reviewed in this document.
Table 1) Comparison of RAID technologies.
|
RAID 10 |
RAID 6 |
RAID 50 |
RAID-DP |
| Raw storage |
10000 |
5625 |
5625 |
5625 |
| Useable storage |
5000 |
5000 |
5000 |
5000 |
| Maximum storage utilization |
50% |
88% |
88% |
88% |
| Number of drive Failures with no data loss |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
| RAID performance level |
High |
Low |
Medium |
High |
In summary, it is critical for a consolidation platform to provide high availability, because the impact of a failure is
multiplied when compared to a distributed deployment. When choosing a storage platform for a virtual
infrastructure, it's important to consider the cost associated with the RAID technology and whether the RAID
technology is in line with the virtualization goal of increasing asset utilization. The cost savings, reliability, and
scalability of RAID-DP make it the best form of data protection that can implemented in a consolidation effort.
NetApp is unique in the storage industry in providing all of the requirements of the ideal storage platform for virtual
infrastructures.
STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION: REALIZING THIN PROVISIONING
Storage utilization goes beyond the cost and overhead required to provide fault tolerance or just provisioning
storage. With every host connected to a fabric-attached storage array, there are multiple layers of storage
virtualization and management, which in turn have their own level of utilization. Typical storage environments
include the RAID layer, a volume management layer, and a file system layer. This section reviews storage
provisioning that is specific to a VMware ESX server environment. When using virtual disks with an ESX Server,
the storage administrator has to provision storage to the ESX Server. This provisioned storage is formatted with
the VMware ESX File System (VMFS). The VMFS area represents the volume manager layer inside ESX. At this
layer, the ESX administrator creates and assigns virtual disks to virtual machines (VMs). Virtual disks, or VMDK
files, are flat files that are presented to VMs as SCSI disk drives connected to a local SCSI bus.
To visualize how storage is consumed in this design, consider the next example, which follows common storage
best practices, such as limiting volume usage to 80% of capacity for optimal system performance. Suppose that
you have a number of ESX Servers hosting a total of 100 VMs. The VMFS datastore is 5TB in size and contains
20 virtual disks of 40GB each, for a total of 3.2TB of written data. Table 2 summarizes this design.
Table 2) Example VMware environment.
|
|
| Number of virtual machines |
100 |
| Size of virtual disk (GB) |
40 |
| Data stored per VM (GB) |
32 |
| Total data written to disk (GB) |
3200 |
In the area of storage utilization, NetApp thin provisioning technology provides unmatched efficiencies in advanced
storage virtualization. By using NetApp thin provisioning, customers can dramatically increase their storage
utilization without sacrificing performance. Thin-provisioned storage has been provisioned just like traditional
storage, but it is not consumed until data is written. With traditional models, storage is preallocated, or reserved in
advance of any data actually being written. Once storage has been provisioned, it becomes inflexible and any
excess in the provisioning becomes, in essence, wasted space waiting for data to someday be stored in it.
Consider the example environment, the VMFS datastore that serves 100 virtual disks. All of the RAID solutions
previously described provision 5TB of useable storage to the ESX Servers. However, with NetApp thin provisioning
the actual amount of storage consumed is 3.2TB, which is exactly the amount of data that has been written by the
100 VMs. Implementing NetApp thin provisioning in this example increased storage utilization to levels
unobtainable with other storage technologies. Table 3 compares the details given in the examples, and Figures 5,
6, and 7 present this information graphically.
Table 3) The Impact of Thin Provisioning
|
RAID 10 |
RAID 5, RAID
6, or RAID 50 |
RAID-DP w/ Thin
Provisioning |
| Raw storage |
10000 |
5625 |
3600 |
| Useable storage |
5000 |
5000 |
3200 |
| VMFS storage allocated |
5000 |
5000 |
5000 |
| Space allocated for virtual disks |
4000 |
4000 |
4000 |
| Data stored in virtual disks |
3200 |
3200 |
3200 |
| True storage utilization |
32% |
57% |
89% |
Figure 5) RAID 10 utilization
Figure6) RAID 5, 6, or 50 utilization
Figure 7) RAID-DP utilization with thin provisioning
The VMware ESX Server provides an additional means of provisioning storage to virtual machines, including
datastores and raw device mappings of Fibre Channel SAN and iSCSI LUNs (RDMs). NetApp advanced storage
virtualization technologies, including thin provisioning, apply just as well to these other storage options. Thin
provisioning storage policies can be put into place, enabling the storage to automatically manage its size as the
thin-provisioned storage utilization grows over time.
It's important to note that most file systems do not immediately reclaim space from deleted files, leaving those
blocks on disk and consuming empty block with new writes. (This is why utilities such as undelete are able to
recover deleted files.) Because of this behavior, thin provisioned LUNs consume more space on the storage
system than is being reported as used by the VM. NetApp offers tools, technologies, and engineering support to
ensure that your thin provisioning strategy conforms to best practices in order to meet your consolidation goals.
Note: Be sure to consult with your NetApp technical representative before implementing thin provisioning.
Although it is an option and not a requirement for VMware deployments, NetApp thin provisioning technology
enables virtual infrastructures to leverage a storage platform that is unique in the storage industry because of its
ability to maximize its storage utilization level. It's easy to compare and align the high virtualization rates available
with NetApp systems to the goals of any VMware deployment.
STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION: EXTENDING BEYOND PHYSICAL STORAGE LIMITS
One of the most exciting capabilities of a virtualized server infrastructure is the ability to quickly deploy virtual
machines for a project that may require server resources only temporarily. Administrators frequently find
themselves in need of physical server resources for such diverse tasks as development and QA environments,
upgrade and patch testing, and disaster recovery exercises. Without a virtual infrastructure, it is typically difficult for
administrators to find resources for these nonproduction environments.
In a virtual infrastructure, it's easy to quickly deploy temporary virtual machines for any number of tasks.
Unfortunately, in a traditional shared environment the cost of deploying the necessary storage for these temporary
resources remains as high as the cost of the permanent storage.
When using NetApp storage technology in a virtual server infrastructure, it's possible to take advantage of NetApp
LUN clone and volume FlexClone technologies to provide temporary storage resources in conjunction with
temporarily provisioned virtual machines. With these technologies, common storage blocks between the temporary
copy of data and the permanent copy consume no additional physical space on the storage system. Only the
actual difference between the two requires its own storage resources.
To describe these capabilities, this section builds on the demonstrations in the previous section. For this example,
suppose that the previously mentioned 100 virtual machines are Microsoft' Windows' 2003 servers performing a
variety of tasks in an organization. A new service pack is released for the server platform, and the system
administrators and application owners want to evaluate the impact of applying this service pack in their
environment before moving forward with it in production.
In a virtual infrastructure with traditional shared storage, it is relatively easy to replicate the existing production
environment and deploy 100 new virtual machines in a nonproduction environment in order to test applying the
new service pack. Although this approach is inexpensive in terms of server resources, it is rather expensive in
terms of storage resources, requiring a further 100% of deployed storage resources in order to make a second
copy of the production virtual machines' virtual disks.
When the virtual infrastructure is used with NetApp storage, it is possible to use the LUN clone or volume
FlexClone technology to deploy temporary storage resources to go along with the temporary virtual machines.
When initially deployed, these temporary copies require no additional physical storage resources in order to exist.
Only as changes are made to the temporary copies is physical storage required in order to store those changes.
Returning to the example cited in the previous sections, assume that, after deploying the temporary environment,
configuration changes and applying the service pack to the virtual machines has generated 2GB of changed data
on each of the temporary virtual machines. When using NetApp storage. only 200GB of new physical storage in
total is required to store those changes, as opposed to the 100% storage overhead required by other storage
technologies, including VMware built-in cloning technologies. See Table 4 for a comparison.
Table 4) The Impact of Flexclones
|
RAID 10 |
RAID 6 |
RAID-DP |
| Raw storage |
20000 |
11250 |
3825 |
| Useable storage |
10000 |
10000 |
3400 |
| VMFS storage allocated |
10000 |
10000 |
10000 |
| Space allocated for virtual disks |
8000 |
8000 |
8000 |
| Data stored in virtual disks |
6400 |
6400 |
6400 |
| Raw storage utilization |
32% |
57% |
167% |
As can be seen, using NetApp LUN clone or volume FlexClone technology in a virtual infrastructure allows
administrators to temporarily experience storage utilization that can greatly exceed even the total physical storage
allocated to the environment. For more information on these technologies, see
http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3347.pdf and http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3348.pdf.
VMWARE VIRTUAL MACHINE BACKUPS AND DISASTER RECOVERY
Completing backups of virtual infrastructures can be a major challenge for many customers. Backups were the
main topic addressed in numerous presentations at VMworld 2005 (http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vmworld). In
summary, the challenges are due to the disproportionate ratio of data to physical bandwidth, which is created by
consolidating physical servers to a single virtual server. With ESX there are several methods to complete a
backup. However, it is important to note that each solution provides its own set of pros and cons. In order to
determine the best backup strategy for your environment, it is critical to identify your company's backup and
recovery goals to determine which solution best aligns with those goals.
Although VMware provides several methods of backing up the data served in each virtual machine, this paper
focuses on the choices available in the area of completing a "hot" or "operational" backup. A hot backup is defined
as a backup process that is completed while the VM is up and servicing requests. This paper does not address
"cold" or "offline" backups, which are rare in comparison to hot backups.
This section considers the following backup methodologies: traditional file based, storage based, and consolidated
backup server. It also describes how NetApp functionality can extend the capabilities of these technologies.
Traditional File-Based Backups
A traditional backup (also known as a file-based backup) is one in which each VM is backed up and restored as if it
were a physical server. Backing up each VM in this manner is ideal from an operations standpoint, because
procedurally no changes are required. Virtual machines are handled exactly like the physical servers in the
environment. The challenge with this method is that, by its nature, the lowest level of granularity of a traditional
backup is at the file level. In addition, traditional backups are very redundant in their function. This type of backup
process typically attempts to complete a full backup of the entire infrastructure on some schedule, usually once a
week.
Because of the disproportionate amount of data being addressed by each individual ESX Server, the ability to back
up all of the data stored in an operational backup window is difficult at best. Many customers have found that the
only way to meet their backup window is to implement alternative backup solutions such as Storage Based
Backups or VMware's Consolidated Backup.
Storage-Based Backups
Many administrators who have experienced the challenges of backing up VMs as physical servers have elected to
backup their VMware environment by backing up the files that make up the VM (the virtual disk files and
configuration files). Backing up this data directly to tape drives results in the same challenges as those described
for traditional file-based backups. There is generally too much data behind each physical server to back up in a
traditional backup window.
To maintain high utilization ratios, many customers have asked their storage vendors to implement some form of
storage-based backup for their virtual infrastructure. With this method the virtual machines are placed in a hot
backup mode; the virtual disks are locked and all new data is written to temporary log files. Once in this state, the
virtual disks are backed up. When the virtual disks have been successfully backed up, the locks are released and
the contents of the temporary files are flushed back into the virtual disks.
Disk-based backup practices include copying the VMDK file from the production disk to a second set of disks, or-
for customers who want a faster operation-some form of split mirror backup technology. Although both of these
solutions provide a much faster backup than backing up directly from the production system to tape, both solutions
require 100% additional storage for every backup, and that storage needs to be completed and kept online. This
requirement for additional storage is so counter to the utilization goals associated with VMware deployments that it
should not be considered. Some storage vendors offer copy-out snapshot technologies as alternatives to the 100%
additional storage required with split mirror technologies. The I/O overhead required with copy-out snapshot
technologies, and the subsequent performance impact, prevent these solutions from being implemented.
The inherent negative features of traditional disk-based backups do not apply to the NetApp patented Snapshot
technology. With NetApp technology there is no performance penalty for taking Snapshots copies, because the
data is never moved, as it is with copy-out technologies. The cost for Snapshot copies is only at the rate of block
level changes, not 100% for each backup as with mirror copies. By combining NetApp Snapshot technology with
VMware ESX server, administrators can back up their entire virtual infrastructure in seconds and open up a
number of other data management possibilities. The NetApp Snapshot copies can be backed up to tape and/or replicated to another facility with NetApp SnapMirror' or SnapVault, VMs can be restored almost instantly,
individual files can be quickly and easily recovered, and clones can be instantly provisioned for test and
development environments. OSSV can be incorporated along with Snapshot copies for a very robust solution. For
more information on NetApp Snapshot technology, see http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3001.pdf and
http://www.netapp.com/library/ar/ar1038.pdf.
Consolidated Backups
The VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.0 suite introduced an additional method of backup, in which the workload of
backups is moved from the production ESX Server to a standalone Windows server whose sole purpose is to
connect to storage-based backups and back up their contents to tape. This solution is called a VMware
consolidated backup (VCB). The problem of not being able to complete the back up of all VM data within a
designated backup window is solved with a consolidated backup, because with this solution a nonproduction
server can send the backup data to tape, taking as long as needed. Note that although the I/O load is no longer
affecting the production ESX Servers, the backups are being drawn from and will still affect the production disk
subsystem. Therefore you should take the time to properly size your storage solution.
There are some limitations to this design. First, VM data will have a separate backup and recovery process from
the physical infrastructure. Second, your backup software must not utilize the archive bit as a method for
computing incremental backups, and at the time this paper was published only Fibre Channel connectivity and
Windows VMs were supported. For more information on VMware consolidated backups, see
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_consolidated_backup.pdf.
Administrators who find the features of consolidated backups desirable and who would like to expand on the
solution provided by VMware should consider that NetApp SnapDrive' software can provide consolidated backup
solutions for RDMs, which can be fully accessed via Fibre Channel or iSCSI.
Disaster Recovery of a Virtual Infrastructure Using NetApp Replication Technology
As virtual infrastructure implementations mature, and more mission-critical applications are run on virtual
machines, site disaster recovery becomes a larger issue in the VI backup and recovery space. The limitations of
the tape medium can cause difficulty in a disaster recovery scenario, because the limitations of tape device data
transfer speeds and the physical distance between a primary data center and its DR equivalent can mean
extended service outages in the event of a site disaster.
Administrators who are storing their VMware virtual machines on a NetApp storage system can use NetApp
SnapMirror replication technology to dramatically reduce the impact of a site disaster on business processes. With
SnapMirror technology, a virtual infrastructure can be easily replicated over the wire to a remote data center. With
this technology, recovering a virtual machine affected by a site disaster can be completed in minutes instead of the
hours or days required by other storage solutions. Customers can leverage the replicated copy of their virtual
infrastructure for uses such as test and development or tape archiving. For more information on SnapMirror
technology, see http://www.netapp.com/products/software/snapmirror.html and
http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3446.pdf.
SUMMARY
Many enterprises are in some stage of either upgrading their existing storage or migrating to a virtual
infrastructure. Network Appliance provides advanced storage virtualization technologies and storage solutions in
the areas of advanced fault tolerance, thin provisioning, instantaneous storage cloning, and advanced backup and
recovery solutions. NetApp systems are the ideal storage platform for a virtual infrastructure, providing solutions to
VMware challenges that are unparalleled in the storage market.
As products that support virtual infrastructures mature, customers will inevitably begin to leverage and require
support for additional storage technologies such as NAS, iSCSI, and SATA. As a market leader in these spaces,
NetApp will continue to offer unique and innovative solutions in the virtual infrastructure market.
This paper is not intended to be a definitive implementation or solutions guide. Many factors are not addressed in
this document. Also, expertise is required to solve user-specific deployments. Contact your local Network
Appliance representative to speak with one of our VMware solutions experts.
Comments on this technical report are welcome. Please contact the authors here.
REFERENCES
TR3428 Network Appliance and VMware ESX Server
Instantaneous Backup and Recovery, Including Single File Restoration with NetApp Snapshot Technology
http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3428.pdf
TR3466 Open Systems SnapVault (OSSV) Best Practices Guide
http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3466.pdf
TR3347 FlexClone Volumes: A Thorough Introduction
http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3347.pdf
TR3348 Block Management with Data ONTAP 7G: FlexVol, FlexClone, and Space Guarantees
http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3348.pdf
SnapMirror Software Overview
http://www.netapp.com/products/software/snapmirror.html
TR3446 SnapMirror Best Practices Guide
http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3446.pdf
TR3001 A Storage Network Appliance
http://www.netapp.com/library/tr/3001.pdf
Total Cost Comparison: IT Decision-Maker Perspectives on EMC and Network Appliance Storage Solutions in
Enterprise Database Environments
http://www.netapp.com/library/ar/ar1038.pdf
VMware Introduction to Virtual Infrastructure
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_intro_vi.pdf
VMware Server Configuration Guide
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_server_config.pdf
VMware SAN Configuration Guide
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_esx_san_cfg.pdf
VMware Virtual Machine Backup Guide
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vm_backup.pdf
VMware VMworld Conference Sessions Overview
http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vmworld
ESX Server 3.X Systems
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_esx_vmdesched.pdf
Wikipedia RAID Definitions and Explanations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Executive Summary
- Performance, Data Protection, and Storage Utilization
- Storage Virtualization: Realizing Thin Provisioning
- Storage Virtualization: Extending Beyond Physical Storage Limits
- Summary
- References