Server Farms & SANs

April 20, 2023

Name speaker, function

1

Server Farms & SANs

Carl Davies - Technical Support Team Leader

PinkRoccade - an Anglo Dutch Organisation

Group UKHistory 50 years 30 yearsRevenue €816m £64mStaff 8200 1245Market Position

All Sectors All SectorsTier 1 Tier 1/ Mid-MarketNumber 37 in world largest IT Services companies, 3rd largest % revenue growth Source:

Computer Business Review

- ITIL Education & Consulting Market Leader - Innovator in Shared Services - “Distinctive Managed Services offering (based on ITIL and Prince2 Methodologies) will help set it apart from others servicing the mid market.” Ovum Holway

On-Site and Fully Hosted Support Offerings

Competencies

Applications Management, Development, Integration & Support.

Data Centre, Network Management

Support, Field Services

ITIL Education

Help Desks, Support &

Service Management

Managed Services

PinkRoccade UK Ltd – Customers

Agenda

• What is Server Farm?–What are the Benefits and Disadvantages?

• What is a SAN?–What are the Benefits and Disadvantages?

• Implementation and Support Challenges–Considerations and issues during implementation

– Support Issues

• Questions

Server Farms

• Also known as:-Also known as:-• Server Cluster• Computer FarmComputer Farm• Server RanchServer Ranch

Server FarmsKey Elements

• The server farm is a group of networked serversThe server farm is a group of networked servers• Intercommunication between server• Accessible by users

The server farm streamlines processingThe server farm streamlines processing• By distributing the the workload between individual

components of the farm• Harnesses the power of multiple servers• Load balancing software required

Server FarmsExamplesExamples

User User Logon Logon

RequestsRequestsDomain Controllers

Server FarmsExamplesExamples

Public Network

MS Win 2k servers with MS NLB services

User Requests

SCSI or Fibre Attached Storage

Virtual Server

Server Farms

Benefits–Reduce the Total Cost Of Ownership

Reducing Support Costs

Centralising the infrastructure

Reducing amount of different server builds

Easier to provide “Resilience” and therefore “High Availability”

Ensuring that all servers are equally utilised

Maximising return on investment

Server Farms

DisadvantagesDisadvantages–Development and UAT Environments

May be more expensive to truly reflect production environment and ensure valid results from testing

SAN

Storage RequirementsStorage Requirements• Operating Systems• Applications• User data

DefinitionDefinitionA high speed sub network of shared storage

devices available to all servers on the LAN and WAN.

SANWhat Does a SAN look likeWhat Does a SAN look like

P inkR occade S hared S e rv ices A rch itec tu re

Sun/H itachi L ightening9960

Sun F ire 15kSun F ire 6800Sun F ire 15k

Broccade fibre switchesBroccade fibre switches

c c

SANBasic ConfigurationBasic Configuration

SANFibre Channel FabricFibre Channel Fabric

P inkR occade S hared S e rv ices A rch itec tu re

Sun/H itach i L ighten ing9960

Sun F ire 15kSun F ire 6800Sun F ire 15k

Broccade fib re switchesBroccade fib re switches

c c

Presentation Layer

Switching Layer

Disk & Subsystem Layer

SANPurpose of a SANPurpose of a SAN

• Store data in a central location and make it

available to different operating systems such as:-• Windows• UNIX• Linux• AIX • Mainframe

SANPurpose of a SAN (2)Purpose of a SAN (2)

• Provide flexible disc configuration• Multiple disk sets• Striped disk sets• Mirrored disk sets• RAID 5• Hot stand-by configurations

• Easy, quick and flexible expansion •Add additional disk storage•Deploy disk sets quickly

SANSAN v NAS SolutionsSAN v NAS Solutions

NAS – Suitable for providing user data available across the network.

SAN – Suitable for providing back-office system storage, as well as application and user data.

SANImplementation and Support ConsiderationsImplementation and Support Considerations

Business Issues Should Lead The

Technology Issues

SANImplementation and Support ConsiderationsImplementation and Support Considerations

Business Issues

• SLA Driven• Detail the business criteria that needs to be met• Need to be able to measure the effectiveness of the

solution

• Regulatory and Legislative Compliance• Compliance for different types of data

SANImplementation and Support ConsiderationsImplementation and Support Considerations• Data Lifecycle Management

• Working records Vs Fixed content

• How long do we need to keep data for?

• Does the data always need to be on-line?

Near-line storage

Archiving

• Processes for Data Management• The cost of storage should be accountable

• Policies for managing data

• Quotas

• Billing / Accounting

SANImplementation and Support ConsiderationsImplementation and Support Considerations

• Data Security (Access & Fraud)• How do we prevent our electronic data from being

manipulated.

SANImplementation and Support ConsiderationsImplementation and Support Considerations

Technical Issues

• Production Storage• Appropriate storage for the business need

• Do we need a SAN? Would NAS be better?

• Backup and Restore• “The Killer Application”

• Have we got appropriate backup devices and software?

• Is there an overnight backup window?

• Do we need to configure the SAN for Snapshot / Shadow data

SANImplementation and Support ConsiderationsImplementation and Support Considerations• Disaster Provision

• What is the requirement for DR / Business continuity• Multiple Sites• Data replication / Mirroring• Has the DR provision been fully tested?

• Long Term Viability of Data Medium

• Where are the back- office systems that we want to provide storage for?

• Needs to be a high speed network

• Have we got an appropriate support structure?• SAN technology requires specialist support skills

SANImplementation and Support ConsiderationsImplementation and Support Considerations

• Several support teams will need to communicate H

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Solaris

Win2000

Mainframe

AIX

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SAN Administrator

SANImplementation and Support ConsiderationsImplementation and Support Considerations

Regulatory Issues• SEC - American Securities Regulatory

Body

• Data Protection Act (UK)

• Sarbanes-Oxley Act (USA)

SANImplementation and Support ConsiderationsImplementation and Support Considerations

“Design for Flexibility”

• What are our future storage needs?• Have we checked the business plan / road map?• Over what period?• What type of systems will be connecting?• Can our solution deal with new technologies?

SANWhat can go wrong?What can go wrong?• Generally the same types of issues as any project

• No definition of requirements to implementation parties• Unable to check if installation meets requirements

• Transition to support more difficult

• No thorough investigation of how the new infrastructure will

coexist with the current infrastructure• Issues arise when move into a production environment

• Thorough testing including the DR / Business Continuity

environments before going into production

Questions