SEWP ZC446

Data Storage Technologies and

Networks
Purushotham BV
utham74@gmail.com

Storage Technology - An Introduction

File Systems An Introduction

Server Consolidation between different solutions

that are available

H/W OS concepts in storage

Storage media

I/O device drivers

RAID Levels

Storage OS

File Systems An Introduction

What is a file?

A computer file is a resource for storing information, which is

available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind
of durable storage.

What is file System?

A file System is the methods and data structures that an

operating system uses to keep track of files on a disk or partition

Examples of File Systems.

NFS, UFS, CIFS, FAT 32, NTFS, HDFS, DFS

File System Functions

Name space
Access control
Metadata
Locking
Address space management

Address Space

Storing
Storing

Filing
Filing

1 2
10 11
19 20
28 29
37 38
46 .
55 .
64 .
73 .
82 83

12
21
.
.
.
.
.
.
84

13
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
85

6 7

14 15
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
86 87

16
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
88

17
26
35
44
53
62
71
80
89

18
27
36
45
54
63
72
81
90

Think of the storage

address space as a
sequence of storage
locations (a flat address
space)
5

Super Blocks
Superblocks are known addresses used to find
file system roots (and mount the file system)

SB

SB
6

Server Centric IT Architecture and its Limitations

File systems must have a known and dependable
address space
The fine print in scalability - How does the filing function
know about the new storing address space?

1
7
13
19
25
31
37

???
Filing
Filing

Storing
Storing
Storing
Storing

1
6
11
16
21

2
7
12
17
22

2
8
14
20
26
32
38

3
8
13
18
23

3
9
15
21
27
33
39

4
9
14
19
24

4
10
16
22
28
34
40

5
11
17
23
29
35
41

6
12
18
24
30
36
42

5
10
15
20
25

Server Consolidation
In storage terminology, the term consolidation is used mainly to
refer to the concept of centralized storage where resources are
shared among multiple applications and users.
Traditionally, organizations have deployed servers with directattached storage (DAS) as file servers.
However, many organizations are facilitating server
consolidation by deploying network-attached storage (NAS).
NAS provides a single purpose device that can
provide CIFS and NFS connected storage that can scale from
gigabyte to petabytes.

Storage Media
Disk Device Terminology

Flash Media
Compact Flash Cards
Intel Strata Flash
16 Mb in 1 square cm. (.6 mm thick)
100,000 write/erase cycles.
Standby current = 100uA, write = 45mA
Compact Flash 256MB~=$120 512MB~=$542
Transfer @ 3.5MB/s

IBM Microdrive 1G~370

Standby current = 20mA, write = 250mA
Efficiency advertised

in wats/MB

VS. Disks
Nearly instant standby wake-up time
Random access to data stored
Tolerant to shock and vibration (1000G of operating shock)
10

Flash Media (contd.,)

Longitudinal tape uses same technology as hard disk;
tracks its density improvements
Disk head flies above surface, tape head lies on surface
Disk fixed, tape removable
Inherent cost-performance based on geometries: fixed
rotating platters with gaps (random access, limited area, 1
media / reader)
vs.
removable long strips wound on spool (sequential
access, "unlimited" length, multiple / reader)
Helical Scan (VCR, Camcoder, DAT)
Spins head at angle to tape to improve density

11

Drawbacks of Tape Media

Tape wear out:
Helical 100s of passes to 1000s for longitudinal
Head wear out:
2000 hours for helical
Both must be accounted for in economic / reliability
model
Bits stretch
Readers must be compatible with multiple generations of
media
Long rewind, eject, load, spin-up times;
not inherent, just no need in marketplace
Designed for archival
12

I/O Systems

Host Hardware Path Components

Memory

Processor

Memory
Bus

System
I/O Bus

Storage
Adapter
(HBA)

Host Software Path Components

Application
Operating Filing Cache Volume
System System Manager Manager

MultiPathing

Device
Driver

Network Hardware Path Components

Cabling
Fiber optic
Copper

Switches, hubs, routers, bridges,

gatways
Port buffers, processors
Backplane, bus, crossbar, mesh,
memory

The End to End I/O Path Picture

App

Memory

ProcessorOperating
System

Cabling

Cache Volume MultiFiling

System Manager Manager Pathing

Network Systems

Subsystem
Network Poirt

Access
and
Security

Access
and
Security

Cache

Fabric
Services

Resourc
e
Manager

Memory System Device Storage

I/O Bus Driver Adapter
Bus
(HBA)

Routing

Internal Bus
or Network

Flow
Control

Disk
drives

Virtual
Networking

Tape
drives

H/W OS Concepts in Storage

Servers are connected to the connection port of the disk
subsystem using standard I/O techniques such as Small
Computer System Interface (SCSI), Fibre Channel (FC)
or Internet SCSI (iSCSI)

JBOD: Just a Bunch of Disks

Comparing disk subsystems with regard to their
controllers we can differentiate between three levels of
complexity:
no controller
RAID controller
Intelligent controller with additional services such as
instant copy and remote mirroring
If the disk subsystem has no internal controller, it is only
an enclosure full of disks (JBODs)

Why RAID
Performance limitation of disk drive
An individual drive has a certain life expectancy
Measured in MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
Example
If the MTBF of a drive is 750,000 hours, and there are 100 drives in
the array, then the MTBF of the array becomes 750,000 / 100, or
7,500 hours

RAID was introduced to mitigate this problem

RAID provides:
Increase capacity
Higher availability
Increased performance

RAID Array Components

Physical
Array

Logical
Array

RAID
Controller

Hard Disks

Host
RAID Array

RAID Implementations
Hardware (usually a specialized disk controller card)
Controls all drives attached to it
Array(s) appear to host operating system as a regular
disk drive
Provided with administrative software
Software
Runs as part of the operating system
Performance is dependent on CPU workload
Does not support all RAID levels

RAID Levels
0 Striped array with no fault tolerance
1 Disk mirroring
Nested RAID (i.e., 1 + 0, 0 + 1, etc.)
3 Parallel access array with dedicated parity disk
4 Striped array with independent disks and a dedicated
parity disk
5 Striped array with independent disks and distributed
parity
6 Striped array with independent disks and dual
distributed parity

Data Organization: Stripping

Stripe

Strip

Stripe

Strip 1

Strip 2

Stripe 1
Stripe 2
Strips

Strip 3

RAID 0

1
5
9
RAID
Controller

Host

2
6
10
3
7
11

RAID 1

Block 0
1

Host

RAID
Block 0
1
Controller

Nested RAID 0+1 (Striping and Mirroring)

Data stripingis the technique of segmenting logically
sequential data, such as a file, so that consecutive
segments are stored on different physical storage
devices.
Processing device requests data more quickly than a
single storage device can provide it.

RAID 1

Block 0
Block 2

Block 0
3
2
1

RAID
Controller

RAID 0

Block 1
Host

Block 3

Disk mirroringis the replication of logical disk

volumes onto separate physicalhard disksinreal
timeto ensurecontinuous availability.

Nested RAID 0+1 (Mirroring and Stripping) (Contd.,)

RAID 1

Block 0

Block 0

Block 2

Block 2

RAID
Controller

Host

RAID 0

Block 1

Block 1

Block 3

Block 3

Nested RAID 1+0 (Striping and Mirroring)

RAID 0

Block 1
Block 3

Block 2
0

RAID
Controller

RAID 1

Block 1
Host

Block 3

Nested RAID 1+0 (Striping and Mirroring) (Contd.,)

RAID 0

Block 0

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

RAID
Controller

Host

RAID 1

Block 0

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

RAID Redundancy: Parity

RAID
Controller

The middle drive fails:

Parity calculation 4 + 6 + 1 + 7 = 18

4 + 6 + ? + 7 = 18
? = 18 4 6 7
?=1

1
?

Host

Parity Disk

1
5
9

3
7
11

0123
4567
18

RAID 3

Block 0
3
2
1

Host

RAID0
Block
Controller
Block
Parity1
Generated
Block 2
Block 3
P0123

RAID 5

Block 0
Block 4
Block 1
Block 5

Block 0
4

Parity
RAID4
Block
0
Generated
Controller
P4
05
16
27
3

Block 2
Block 6
Block 3

Host

P4567
P0123
Block 7

RAID 6 Dual Parity RAID

Two disk failures in a RAID set leads to data unavailability
and data loss in single-parity schemes, such as RAID-3,
4, and 5
Increasing number of drives in an array and increasing
drive capacity leads to a higher probability of two disks
failing in a RAID set
RAID-6 protects against two disk failures by maintaining
two parities
Horizontal parity which is the same as RAID-5 parity
Diagonal parity is calculated by taking diagonal sets of
data blocks from the RAID set members
Even-Odd, and Reed-Solomon are two commonly used
algorithms for calculating parity in RAID-6

RAID Comparision
RAID

Min
Disks

Storage
Efficiency %

100

50

(n-1)*100/n
where n=
number of
disks
(n-1)*100/n
where n=
number of
disks

(n-2)*100/n
where n=
number of
disks

1+0
and
0+1

50

Cost

Low

High

Moderate

Moderate

Read Performance

Write Performance

Very good for both

random and sequential
read

Very good

Good
Better than a single disk

Good
Slower than a single
disk, as every write must
be committed to two
disks

Good for random reads

and very good for
sequential reads

Poor to fair for small

random writes
Good for large,
sequential writes

Very good for random

reads
Good for sequential
reads

Fair for random write

Slower due to parity
overhead
Fair to good for
sequential writes

Moderate
but more
than RAID 5

Very good for random

reads
Good for sequential
reads

Good for small, random

writes
(has write penalty)

High

Very good

Good

RAID Impact on Perfromance

RAID Controller

Ep new

= Ep old

Ep new

2 XOR

Ep old

P0

- E4 old

D1

+ E4 new
E4 old

D2

D3

E4 new

D4

Small (less than element size) write on RAID 3 & 5

Ep = E1 + E2 + E3 + E4 (XOR operations)

If parity is valid, then: Ep new = Ep old E4 old + E4 new (XOR operations)

2 disk reads and 2 disk writes

Parity Vs Mirroring

Reading, calculating and writing parity segment introduces penalty to every write operation

Parity RAID penalty manifests due to slower cache flushes

Increased load in writes can cause contention and can cause slower read response times

Hot Spares

RAID
Controller

What do You Think ?

Match the following descriptions to the standard RAID configuration levels.

1. Parallel access array with

dedicated parity disk
2. Striped array with no fault
tolerance
3. Striped array with
independent disks and
distributed parity
4. Disk mirroring
5. Striped array with
independent disks and
dedicated parity disk

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

RAID-0
RAID-1
RAID-2
RAID-3
RAID-4
RAID-5

Storage OS
Unix

Syneto Storage OS

Windows

Enterprise Storage OS
(ESOS)

OS/400
Novell Netware
MacOS

FreeNAS
Open-E
Rising Tide Systems

http://www.infostor.com/nas/58-top-open-source-storage-project-1.html

Summary

File Systems An Introduction

Server Consolidation between different solutions that are

available

H/W OS concepts in storage

Storage media

I/O device drivers

RAID Levels

Storage OS