Data core makes_ha_nas_practical_20mar12

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Practical High Availability NAS

Cost-effective, non-stop disk access for clustered file shares

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Problem: Cost to achieve necessary redundancy & speed can be prohibitive

Alternative: Extend DataCore storage virtualization servers into high-availability (HA) NAS role

► Couple SANsymphony-V storage hypervisor features with Windows Server 2008 R2 NFS/SMB file sharing & clustering capabilities in Enterprise Edition

► No additional software required► Combine into unified HA storage solution (SAN/NAS)

Availability & performance of file shares has become mission critical

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Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Compelling value

FEATURE

Clustered file shares Synchronous mirroring

w/ automatic non-disruptive failover

Redundant NAS servers up to 100 km apart

Thin provisioning Cache acceleration Remote replication

BENEFIT

• Business continuity & HA

• Avoid storage-related downtime

• Minimize impact of equipment & facility problems

• Maximize space utilization

• Faster performance

• Extend protection for disaster avoidance & recovery

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Windows NAS (a.k.a. File Server)

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filestore

/home/home

Host Host

NFS / SMB

NAS

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

NAS server outage affects everyone

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filestore

/home/home

Host Host

NFS / SMB

NAS

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Clustered servers help, but …

FailoverClustering

/home/home

Host Host

NFS / SMBNFS / SMB

Server 1 Server 2

NAS

Shared disk access remains a single point of failure!

witnessfilestore

Shared disks

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Solution: Full redundancy

FailoverClustering

/home/home

Host Host

NFS / SMBNFS / SMB

Server 1 Server 2

NAS

witnessfilestore witnessfilestore

witnessfilestore

Room 1 Room 2

Shared “virtual” disks

Mirrored copiesPrimary disks

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Non-stop, high-availability NAS

/home

witnessfilestore

SAN

witnessfilestore

CacheCache

/home

NFS / SMBNFS / SMB

Host Host

FailoverClustering

Synchronous Mirroring

NASRoom 1 Room 2

Mirrored copiesPrimary disks

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Non-disruptive failover

/home

witnessfilestore

SAN

witnessfilestore

CacheCache

/home

NFS / SMB

Host Host

FailoverClustering

Synchronous Mirroring

Room 1 Room 2

NFS / SMB

NAS

Mirrored copiesPrimary disks

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Automatic failback

/home

witnessfilestore

SAN

witnessfilestore

CacheCache

/home

NFS / SMBNFS / SMB

Host Host

FailoverClustering

Synchronous Mirroring

NASRoom 1 Room 2

Mirrored copiesPrimary disks

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Plus I/O acceleration

disk drives

Disk Drive 4000 – 6000

DataCore L1 Cache <20

Array L2 Cache 250 – 300

Avg. Response (µS)

High-SpeedLevel 1 Caching

CPU

Up to 1 TB RAM cache per node

CPU CPU

CPU

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VirtualDisks

Outputfrom Cache

Poll for Input

WriteCoalesce

Pre-fetch

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Works for virtual machines (VMs) too

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Virtual iSCSISAN

witness filestore

Hyper-V

VM

Virtual iSCSISAN

witnessfilestore

Hyper-V

VM

FailoverClustering

DiskDrives

D2 D1’

DiskDrives

D2D1’

CacheCache

/home/home NFS / SMBNFS / SMB

iSCSI InitiatoriSCSI Initiator

Synchronous Mirroring

NAS

AppApp

Room 1 Room 2

App

VM

App

VM

Mirrored copiesPrimary disks

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

NAS failover with Hyper-V

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Virtual iSCSISAN

witness filestore

Hyper-V

Virtual iSCSISAN

witnessfilestore

Hyper-V

VM

FailoverClustering

DiskDrives

D2 D1’

DiskDrives

D2D1’

CacheCache

/home/homeNFS / SMB

iSCSI Initiator

Synchronous Mirroring

NAS

AppApp

Room 1 Room 2

App

VM

App

VM

VM

NFS / SMB

iSCSI Initiator

Mirrored copiesPrimary disks

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Co-resident HA SAN/NAS:Compact clustered servers solution

/home

Virtual Disks

DiskDrives witness

filestoreD2 D1’

Initiator

Disks

SAN

Virtual Disks

DiskDriveswitness

filestoreD2D1’

Disks

SAN

CacheCache

/home

NFS / SMBNFS / SMB

Host Host

TargetTargetInitiatoriSCSIiSCSI

FailoverClustering

Synchronous Mirroring

NAS

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

SAN failover

DiskDrives

D1’

DiskDrives

D2D1’

Virtual Disk

CacheCacheSynchronous

Mirroring

Host

Alternate PathMPIO

Preferred Path

D2

Virtual Disk (mirror)

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Expandable to separate NAS & SAN servers

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witness filestorewitnessfilestore

FailoverClustering

DiskDrives

D2 D1’

DiskDrives

D2D1’

CacheCache

/home/home

Host Host

NFS / SMBNFS / SMB

Synchronous Mirroring

Server 1 (NAS) Server 2 (NAS)

Server 3 (SAN) Server 4 (SAN)

NAS

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

Implementation guidelines

DataCore resides on parent partition

Virtualize & cache data drives

Enable thin provisioning

Place NAS servers in different rooms

► Stretch distance between them up to 100 km

Synchronously mirror across nodes

Copyright © 2012 DataCore Software Corp. – All Rights Reserved.

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