Qlogic SANbox 9200, SANbox 6142, SANbox 9000 Supplementary Manual

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Extending the SAN for SANbox 9000 Core Switches
QLogic Intellegent Storage Routers
Extending the SAN Beyond the Data Center
Executive Summary
A new challenge faces IT professionals, dubbed the corporate “extrastructure.” This includes devices and technologies outside the IT department’s direct control, but are vital to the proper operation of dispersed SANs and data resources. For example, most corporations rely on third-party vendors for the bandwidth and connectivity technology outside of the brick-and-mortar confines. Since implementing a private global WAN would be cost prohibitive, the company needs to bridge data centers without sacrificing the benefits of a single-site operation.
The best way to mitigate the limitations of a decentralized data environment is to create a core-to-core bridging strategy using standard, proven technologies. Core-to-core bridging is the QLogic term for linking the core networks between data centers. Data center switches, such as the SANbox 9200, can access remote SAN islands with the proper deployment of gateway routers. The SANbox 6142 Intelligent Storage Router can bridge core switches across the WAN with fast and efficient Layer 3 routing. The routing can even be easily implemented across core switching technologies from other vendors, for example Brocade and Cisco.
Mission critical applications, such as data migration, replication, and disaster recovery, can now be integrated across multiple sites for better utilization, higher levels of protection, and faster recovery times.
Key Findings
The SANbox product family can implement a cost-effective and efficient data center core-to-core bridging strategy to achieve the following solutions:
Greater resource utilization in SAN islands
Higher data protection levels with off-site migration,
replication, and disaster recovery
Better operational efficiencies
Faster gateway bridging across homogeneous and
heterogeneous SAN fabrics
Easier management of remote data resources
Core-to-core fabrics can be bridged without merging SANs
Extending the SAN for SANbox 9000 Core Switches
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Introduction
The corporate infrastructure has evolved over the past few decades to the point where “infrastructure” no longer provides an adequate definition. With global offices, remote locations, and a dispersed sales force, the computing environment now requires an “extrastructure” to provide data when and where it’s needed. The extrastructure is much different than an infrastructure because so much of the WAN connectivity is beyond the control of the IT professional. This paper looks at best practices for implementing distance connectivity topology that still maintains the requirements for flexibility, speed and management available within the data center.
The standard data center architecture consists of servers at the edge of the Fibre Channel SAN connected to data storage through distribution and core switches. System administrators can easily design, control, and manage this environment. However, when they need to connect multiple data centers, system administrators must investigate and properly evaluate each one with their own edge-to­core topology, new challenges, and criteria. This paper investigates the options for creating core-to-core SAN solutions.
An intelligent storage router can provide SAN-over-WAN connectivity to extend the data center core beyond a single location or campus environment. This can be done while still maintaining all of the data center requirements mentioned above. This allows for a unified business approach to computing needs and data access. Not that all users in all locations gain unlimited access, but the policies and procedures required to run a sound business can be extended
beyond the headquarters or main data center to all users throughout the enterprise.
There are three basic segments to managing the extrastructure:
Capacity allocation approach – Too often, departments and/or
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locations demand storage capacity for the wrong reasons. They “what if” themselves into deploying excess capacity: “What if we grow faster than expected? What if the requirements were under estimated? What if we have a surge in peak demand?” A capacity allocation approach focuses on assigning data storage when and where it’s needed.
Centralized management approach – An IT department spends
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a great deal of time implementing policies and procedures that guard the company against pitfalls of intrusion, collusion, and regulation. However, these safeguards are difficult to manage and enforce across a fractured extrastructure. A centralized management approach focuses on standard management policies across the extrastructure.
Distributed network approach – Even though many companies
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have basic connectivity between remote offices and sites, the capabilities of the global network remain fractured. Each office or data center operates as an independent island within the larger scheme of data management and resource sharing. A distributed network approach focuses on high-speed resource sharing between SAN islands.
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Business Needs within the Extrastructure
Data protection – After keeping applications available to run the business, the most important function of the corporate IT department is to secure and protect the data assets of the institution. Growing data and expanding extrastructure push operating scenarios and data systems to the limit. The opportunity cost of lost data could be catastrophic to the company.
Regulatory compliance - Across the globe, changing regulatory requirements from most governments place greater demands on businesses. The data outlined by these regulations is often outside of the data center, but needs to be protected, secured and accessed globally. US regulations such as SEC 17a-4, Sarbanes Oxley section 404, and HIPAA drive the need for new storage strategies in every organization. This means that those servers, and the storage that supports them, need data protection and management capabilities, often associated with enterprise SANs, traditionally found only in central IT departments.
Resource limitations – Shrinking IT budgets require that utilization and leveraging of available resources be maximized. Redundancies or over capacity from one SAN island to another can’t be tolerated. Bridging and sharing existing data devices can help ease the burden on equipment and management.
Evaluation Factors for Building the Extrastructure
The next step is to assess the requirements of the SAN-over­WAN application. To help define the requirements of your specific application, consider the following:
Data Targets – The volume of the target data is fundamental
for establishing the performance requirements of the WAN connections.
Availability Requirements – Does the connection need to be a
“best effort” or 24/7? This is key when determining the type of software, equipment, and WAN connection to implement.
Write Transfer Objective – How much time is available to transfer
the data? This is one of the key factors in determining the size and/or number of telecommunication lines needed.
Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) – How fast does the data have
to be recovered? How often do you think you will have to do this recovery?
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Budget – Examine not only the cost of the networking equipment,
extra disk storage, and required software, but also look at ongoing WAN line cost to get a full TCO/ROI analysis.
Data Access Model - What kind of data access is required
asynchronous or synchronous transfers? If asynchronous is acceptable, using it can lower the cost and performance requirements, instead of accommodating peak synchronous demands.
By answering the above questions, you can systematically eliminate or include specific solutions and offerings. For example, by determining that there are varying classes of data being transferred from the SAN over the WAN, it may be discovered that QoS functionality is required within your connecting equipment. Knowing the answers to the above questions, as well as your application availability requirements, places your IT team in the best possible position to narrow down choices between solutions.
Issues with FC Core Bridging
The core of the FC fabric is built around high-end director class switches, such as the QLogic SANbox 9200. This switch provides solid and proven technology for sustaining storage area networks. However, expanding the enterprise usually leads to multiple SAN cores and a patchwork architecture. The investment in the SANbox 9200 should be leveraged for maximum utilization and sharing of SAN resources. An ideal infrastructure would locate all core devices close enough to bridge with standard, short-wave Fibre Channel products; however, this is usually not possible. Although the issues may be diverse, the solutions are straightforward.
Some of the specific issues include:
Long-distance bridging (>10km) of homogeneous cores – So
the IT department was lucky enough to maintain a single-vendor policy for their FC fabric, but SAN islands have developed, causing issues with policy management, utilization, and disaster recovery. Bridging the islands is imperative to maintaining best practices.
Long-distance bridging (>10km) of heterogeneous cores
– The worst-case scenario is usually what hits us in real life, and this situation is no different. Multiple SAN islands have evolved within the organization, requiring that the SANbox 9200 bridge to Brocade/McData or Cisco fabrics. Not only do we have to solve the distance issue, but the compatibility issue as well.
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Bridging Topologies
To achieve higher levels of functionality and better management, vendors usually define proprietary ports, such as E_port, F_Port, G_port, and TE_port. Within those port types, vendors can have their own unique classifications and requirements.
If you need to bridge SAN fabrics across vendors, you must often sacrifice these proprietary features. This requires an intermediary between one core and the other to allow communication and maintain neutrality without merging the SANs.
The best way to bridge SANs without merging them, which forces IT managers to abandon the advanced vendor features, is to use routing based on N_ports. The N_port definition allows routers or other SAN devices to log into a SAN as a native device. It doesn’t cause compatibility issues with the core switches because it does not merge the fabrics.
A long-distance bridge can be created between SANs with a router using N_ports. Each core sees an attached native device, but no direct view of the other switches. SAN management is simplified, without merging the fabrics. The router can also use Ethernet ports to bridge across the WAN to the remote SAN island.
The SANbox 6142 provides this type of routing capability. The QLogic SANbox 6142 Intelligent Storage Router leverages N_ports for simplified connection to the SANbox 9200 switch and gigabit Ethernet ports for communication across the LAN or WAN. The basic topology is shown below.
This network configuration allows SANbox 9200 switches in separate locations to share data resources across the WAN, without having to merge the SANs. See the section below on SmartWrite™ technology for a full description of this technology and the benefits of Layer-3 routing.
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Using a combination of core and distribution switching, very cost­effective strategies can be deployed across the extrastructure. Distribution switches, such as the SANbox 5600, provide flexible and expandable fabric services in locations with medium-duty data traffic. Therefore, various combinations of the SANbox 9200, 5600, and 6142 can meet the changing needs of the corporation, without an over­investment in SAN hardware. The basic concept for a multi-tiered switching topology is shown below.
In this scenario, smaller data centers use distribution switches to create the SAN fabric. The SANbox 5600 provides 10GB ISL backbone ports for expansion, without sacrificing switch ports. Meanwhile, the main data center utilizes the power and cost-efficiency of the core chassis to handle the major switching needs of the enterprise. As shown, each location is connected with the SANbox 6142, allowing for data migration, replication, and disaster recovery, as discussed further below.
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