IBM DS5000 User Manual

IBM System Storage™ Digital Media Storage Solution Installation Guide

Selling and Deploying DS3000/DS4000/DS5000 in Mac, Linux, Windows Client, and StorNext Environments

Modular Storage Product Specialist

LSI Corporation

12007 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 325

Reston, VA20191

Cell: 703-867-0012 Tel: 703-262-5418

e-mail:con.rice@lsi.com

Digital Media Storage Solution Installation Guide

Con Rice

Contents

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 4

Mac, Windows and Linux Client Connectivity ......................................................................... 5

StorNext File Sharing Environments ...................................................................................... 5

CURRENT SOLUTIONS ........................................................................................................... 6

Supported Hardware Environments ....................................................................................... 6

Supported File Sharing Environments .................................................................................... 7

Note: A customer seeking connection that has already deployed Apple Xsan MDC will need to transition to a Quantum StorNext MDC running either on Linux or Windows Server. However

the Apple Xsan clients can remain. ........................................................................................... 8

SOLUTION COMPONENT DESCRIPTIONS ........................................................................... 8

SAN Architecture criteria ........................................................................................................ 8

Apple Clients .......................................................................................................................... 8

Windows Clients .................................................................................................................... 8

Windows Server MDCs (Future Support) ............................................................................... 8

Linux StorNext Clients and MDCs .......................................................................................... 9

IBM DS Storage ..................................................................................................................... 9

Solutions .................................................................................................................................. 12

Apple Hardware Connect Only ............................................................................................. 12

Apple Servers and/or clients with no shared filed access ................................................. 12

Apple Homogenous Shared File .......................................................................................... 12

Apple Xsan Clients with Linux MDC (Meta Data Controller) ............................................. 12

Windows Client Hardware Connect Only ............................................................................. 12

Windows clients with no shared filed access .................................................................... 13

Linux Homogenous .............................................................................................................. 13

Linux StorNext Clients with Linux MDC ............................................................................ 13

Heterogeneous .................................................................................................................... 13

Apple Xsan Clients, Linux StorNext Clients, Windows Clients and Linux MDC ................ 13

APPLE, WINDOWS, and STORNEXT SUPPORT MATRIX .................................................... 13

SOLUTION RESTRICTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................... 15

RECOMMENDED RAID CONFIGURATIONS ......................................................................... 16

SOLUTION INSTALLATION .................................................................................................... 17

QUANTUM / APPLE JOINT PRODUCT SUPPORT PROGRAM ............................................ 20

Overview .......................................................................................................................... 20

Xsan Controlled SAN File System .................................................................................... 20

StorNext Controlled SAN File System .............................................................................. 20

Cooperation Effort Between Apple and Quantum ............................................................. 20

Closing a Case ................................................................................................................. 20

MIGRATING FROM XSAN MDC TO STORNEXT MDC ...................................................... 21

ATTO Technology Inc. ............................................................................................................. 22

APPENDIX A: EXAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS ....................................................................... 24

Large Heterogeneous StorNext configuration ...................................................................... 24

Mid to large -sized “MAC Homogenous”StorNext configuration ........................................... 26

Mid-sized “MAC Homogenous”StorNext configuration ......................................................... 27

Small “MAC Homogenous”StorNext configuration ............................................................... 28

Mid to large -sized Heterogeneous StorNext configuration .................................................. 29

Additional Reference Links ...................................................................................................... 31

Notices ..................................................................................................................................... 31

Trademarks ............................................................................................................................. 32



Acknowledgements: Many people contributed to this document including: Ryan A. French, Application Engineer

ATTO Technology, Inc. · 155 CrossPoint Parkway · Amherst, New York 14068 PHONE: 716-691-1999 ext. 188 - FAX: 716-691-9353 EMAIL: rfrench@attotech.com www.attotech.com

Mike Tenhulzen Alliance Marketing Manager LSI Corporation

Will McGrath - Software Alliance Manager Quantum Corp phone: 603.247.0350 email: will.mcgrath@quantum.com

James Latham DS3000/DS4000/DS5000 Product Specialist LSI Corporation T 248-561-7445 Email: jim.latham@lsi.com

www.lsi.com

INTRODUCTION

This paper outlines support of Windows Client (XP, Vista, and Windows 7), Linux (RHEL and SUSE) and Mac (OS X 10.5 – 10.6.x) with IBM DS3000, DS4000, and DS5000 Storage Servers. It also discusses support in StorNext environments. The solutions discussed arose because of customer demand seen in the media and entertainment industry and within the oil and gas industry.

Many media applications include a mixed environment with Windows clients, Mac clients, and sometimes even Linux clients requiring access to the same file system. Various software packages along the production and distribution chain work best on these disparate platforms. In the oil and gas industry this variety is not as prevalent, and Linux is the dominate operating system. Though even here, some amount of Windows systems may be encountered.

There are two basic aspects to these solutions: One is basic hardware connectivity, the second is the support for file sharing. It’s important not to confuse the two. Connectivity to many Linux hosts is well established and outlined in IBM’s on-line compatibility tool. Basic hardware connectivity to Apple and/or Windows Client hosts is now also outlined on IBM’s online compatibility tool. The second aspect is File sharing with Quantum’s StorNext software. This is also supported, but because of the added complexity requires very specific configurations.

The storage offerings in Apple environments in the past have been poor. The now discontinued Apple X-RAID storage products were never very highly regarded and neither is the current Promise storage. There has long been a desire to have simple and supported deployable solutions with StorNext and IBM DS Series Storage. In particular, there has been a strong demand for support of Apple servers and work stations with IBM DS series storage. IBM DS series now has that capability, through a very specific set of known, quality configurations.

In the Windows realm, IBM Storage has long supported Windows servers. In fact, SQL, Exchange, and many other applications have been a mainstay of our business. However, this support did not extend down to Windows clients like XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Windows clients, it was believed just didn’t need access to the kind of high performing and reliable storage IBM offers. This has now changed. Windows clients are an integral part of the workflow processes within many industries, and support for them was clearly required.

The StorNext File system is a popular “shared” file system that is used for many publishing, oil & gas industry, and media applications. These applications operate in a variety of operating systems environments. Key to recognizing these opportunities is an understanding of the customer environment. Customers will often describe their production systems as a “workflow”. The idea is to use high speed shared access to files to impose various processes. Using StorNext (or in the case of Apple, XSan) allows customers to achieve a high degree of efficiency in collaborative workflows allowing shared access to a virtual pool of storage

Mac, Windows and Linux Client Connectivity

In recent years, the workflow requirements of the video professional is driving the need for more sophisticated, high-end configurations, which require multiple users to share access to large amounts of data while maintaining the high-throughput performance required for the rich media and content applications they serve.

To support these solutions, a SAN-based storage subsystem is needed which supports Mac OS X, Windows Clients such as Windows 7 and Vista and sometimes Linux servers. The solution also needs to facilitate the sharing of common volumes in a resilient (failover and failback) manner. Recently, numerous customers have asked IBM to provide a mid-range option to meet these needs.

The IBM Digital Media Solution combines high-performance IBM System Storage DS3000, DS4000 and DS5000 arrays used in conjunction with ATTO’s Celerity line of quad/dual/single port 8Gb FC HBAs and Quantum’s StorNext File System software to provide the infrastructure needed for content developers and video professionals to easily access, transfer, archive data, with the flexibility to scale performance and capacity to the various workflows.

The new IBM Digital Media solution addresses two common challenges in many of video streaming environments; the need to support Mac OS X, Windows Clients, and the need to provide high-availability storage access.

StorNext File Sharing Environments

Homogenous Linux installations often occur in the Oil and Gas industry for seismic processing and in some scientific computing environments. These environments generally include a pair of Linux servers acting as Meta Data Controllers using Quantum StorNext MDC software and a number of Linux servers and/or work stations using StorNext client software. Clients access files via Fibre channel SAN connections while reading and ask the MDCs for exclusive write control to files while writing.

An alternative configuration is the “storage node” or “Distributed LAN Client” (DLC) configuration. In this configuration, The MDCs maintain control, but LAN Servers act as Gateways to access the information and serve it to StorNext DLC clients via LAN connections. The LAN Gateway servers act as a storage node directly connected to the Fibre Channel or iSCSI DS Series storage and respond to clients over a high speed LAN connection with file access over Ethernet or Infiniband over IP using a high throughput StorNext data transfer protocol. In this case, there will be Quantum StorNext MDC licenses along with Gateway nodes and LAN Client licenses serving in a distributed (and shared) file system deployment.

In publishing and media environments, many applications require support for Apple MacOS. Apple installations typically use a shared file system called Xsan. Xsan enables multiple Mac OSX clients to connect to a single pool of storage and is fully compatible with Quantum’s StorNext File System. StorNext is very popular in the media market because it allows shared block-level file system access while offering integrated archive management. However, Apple offers very limited support outside very specific configurations – with Promise as the RAID provider. A 100% Apple configuration must be used.

There are three components to the basic StorNext solution: Clients, Meta Data Controllers (MDCs), and the storage. There are also ancillary components such as the SAN, the TCP/IP network, and optional archive storage such as tape libraries or second tier disks. However, for selling and support purposes the components are software, support, and implementations services.

StorNext Environment

The announced support for the IBM Digital Media Storage Solution is the result of efforts between ATTO (HBAs), Quantum (StorNext), LSI (Storage Subsystems), and IBM. We have identified a set of hardware, firmware, and configuration parameters that will be supported. The set of configurations will be expanded in a logical manner over the next few months as additional choices are available and tested.

CURRENT SOLUTIONS

Supported Hardware Environments

HBAs Multipathing Software Mac O/S ATTO Celerity

• FC-84EN, Quad Port

• FC-82EN, Dual Port

• FC-81EN, Single Port

Windows 7, Vista, XP ATTO Celerity

• FC-84EN, Quad Port

• FC-82EN, Dual Port

ATTO MultiPath Director

• FC-81EN, Single Port

Windows Servers ATTO (future support), see current compatibility matrix for

alternative solutions

Linux Servers In mixed MacOS and/or

Windows Client (XP, Vista, Windows 7) environments: ATTO Celerity

• FC-84EN, Quad Port

• FC-82EN, Dual Port

• FC-81EN, Single Port

In mixed, environments (those that include MacOS or Windows : ATTO MultiPath Director

In homogenous Linux environments: RDAC or MPP as appropriate for the particular

Linux implemented In homogenous Linux environments, any currently supported HBA and failover:

• QLogics, Emulex, and RDAC

or MPP multipath as appropriate

Using this table, support can be obtained for IBM DS3400, DS3500 (FibreChannel only), DS5020 (FibreChannel only), DS5100 or DS5300 (FibreChannel only). Some legacy systems such as DS4700 can also be supported. These operating systems platforms can share SAN connectivity as can any supported operating systems. Zoning and partitioning tools should be used to separate dedicated access to volumes on the storage systems.

Supported File Sharing Environments

The above hardware configurations will allow you to have Linux, Apple, and Windows client systems share physical access to the same storage systems. When shared access to Files is required, the same basic hardware connectivity table applies. However, a specific set of file sharing mechanisms and SAN topology are required.

The solutions described in this guide are based upon StorNext software from Quantum. Apple Xsan is a SAN files sharing suite sold by Apple. It was developed to be fully compatible with Quantum StorNext (though it offers a very limited sub-set of the optional software add-on products offered by Quantum). Apple supports only a homogenous Apple environment with Xsan MDCs, Xsan clients, and Apple or Promise Disks. But by replacing the Xsan MDCs with StorNext MDCs a much more robust and flexible solution is possible.

Meta Data Controller

MDC

Operating

Supported

Clients

Supported Client

Operating System

Supported Storage

Systems

System

Apple Xsan MDC Quantum MDC

Mac OSX Xsan clients

only Linux (Windows Server future support)

Xsan and/or

StorNext

clients

Mac OSX Only Apple or Promise

Disk Only Mac OSX, Windows Server and Clients (XP, W7, Vista), Linux

Many, including IBM

DS3000, DS4000,

and DS5000

Note: A customer seeking connection that has already deployed Apple Xsan MDC will need to transition to a Quantum StorNext MDC running either on Linux or Windows Server. However the Apple Xsan clients can remain.

SOLUTION COMPONENT DESCRIPTIONS

SAN Architecture criteria

• Limit number of paths for Xsan/StorNext clients to four

• This is to limit both complexity and the amount of time required to initialize clients on the SAN

• Redundant Meshed FibreChannel SAN (cross-connected)

• Some IBM documentation may seem to preclude this, but those documents are based on an old multipathing methodology

• Limits cause for failover to Controller failure

• Specific Firmware, software, and Operating System Levels

Apple Clients

• Apple connection without StorNext/Xsan support, or

• May use StorNext for shared SAN access o Apple Xsan Client software licensed from Apple on the Mac clients

 Note: For this solution, you cannot use Apple servers as the Meta Data

Controllers (MDCs). The reason is - if you use the Xsan clients and Xsan Meta Data Controller (MDC), then your primary support for the shared file system comes from Apple and the hardware solution described in this guide are NOT supported. However, if you use the StorNext MDC from Quantum, then Quantum will support the solution including the ability to connect Xsan clients on the shared SAN to non-Apple SAN hardware. As you can see, this is a much more flexible solution.

o Must use Linux or Windows StorNext Meta Data Controllers licensed from

Quantum

o Must use supported ATTO HBA and MultiPath Director driver purchased from

ATTO or ATTO Resellers

Windows Clients

• Windows client (XP, Vista, Windows 7) connection without StorNext Client software or

• May use StorNext software for shared SAN access o Must use Linux or Windows StorNext Meta Data Controllers with StorNext

licensed from Quantum

o Must use supported ATTO HBA and MultiPath Director driver purchased from

ATTO or ATTO Resellers

Windows Server MDCs (Future Support)

• Must buy Quantum StorNext software

• Must buy StorNext Installation services from Quantum

• Must buy StorNext Gold or Silver support contract from Quantum

• Must use supported ATTO HBA and MultiPath Director driver purchased from ATTO or

ATTO Resellers

Linux StorNext Clients and MDCs

• Must buy Quantum StorNext software

• Must buy StorNext Installation services from Quantum

• Must buy StorNext Gold or Silver support contract from Quantum

• If the environment includes MacOS and/or Winows Clients (XP, Vista, or Windows 7)

Must use supported ATTO HBA and MultiPath Director driver purchased from ATTO or ATTO Resellers

• If the environment is homogenous Linux, refer to the list of currently supported HBA’s

and multipath drives available for the operating system. This will include QLogic and Emulex HBA’s.

IBM System

• IBM DS5020/DS5100/DS53 00

• IBM DS3400/DS3500

• IBM DS4700

IBM DS Storage

• DS5100/DS5300

• DS5020

• DS4700 (Legacy)

ATTO Celerity 8Gb FC HBAs

• FC-84EN, Quad Port

• , FC-82EN, Dual Port

• FC-81EN, Single Port

• MultiPath Driver with

Load Balancing

StorNext File

• Quantum StorNext 3.5 x

or 4.0or 4.0

• License, Implementation Service

• Support: 9x5 Silver, 7x24 Gold

• DS3400

• DS3500

• Future

DS5020

DS3500

• FC, SAS, iSCSI

connectivity

DS5100, DS5300

• FC, iSCSI connectivity

• (480) SSD, FC, SED,

• FC, iSCSI connectivity

•

DS3200, DS3300, DS3400

• FC, SAS, iSCSI connectivity

Burst I/O rate cache reads (IOPS)

Sustained I/O rate disk reads

Sustained I/O rate disk writes

Drives

DS3400 DS3500

110,000

21,000

4,500

SAS-1 /SATA

SAS-2 / NL-

SAS / SED

DS3500

Turbo

140,000 174,000 200,000 650,000 700,000

30,000 35,000 50,000 76,000 170,000

7,500 11,000 9,500 20,000 38,000

SAS-2 /

NL-SAS /

SED

DS5020

112

FC/SATA/

FDE

DS5100

base

performance

448

FC/SATA/

FDE

DS5300

448

FC/SATA/FDE

/SSD*

(480) SATA*

Burst throughput cache read (MB/s)

DS3400 DS3500

1,600

2,500 6,000 3,700 1,600 6,400

DS3500

Turbo

DS5020

DS5100

base

performance

DS5300

+ 22 hidden pages

IBM DS5000 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual