ETERNUS VS900 article
November 15, 2005
Information management is having to run fast to keep up with rapid storage capacity growth as digital data expands.
System administrators are required to ensure the required data volumes are properly allocated, on time and too budget, as information storage grows. However the availability of administrators is not keeping up with the growth in managed information. The result is administrative workloads and cost are ever increasing.
The technique of 'Virtualization' is used here to remove complexity from larger scale data management. In particular it reduces the systems administration workload. The Fujitsu "ETERNUS VS900 Virtualization Switch," in conjunction with Fujitsu's autonomic software, virtualizes the multitude of disk arrays in your environment, to significantly reduce system complexity. In doing so it provides a range of administration and cost benefits that enable you to manage growth with your existing administrators.
Benefits of ETERNUS VS900
How ETERNUS VS900 simplifies storage management is best shown by example:
The following three system examples use four 400GB capacity disks.
E-mail, Web, file and DB data are stored in each disk, and their status is as follows.
1. A sudden request of 400GB of new space
The Situation
- The development division has requested new storage space for system development.
- They require 400GB of exclusive space.
With existing configuration
- Although 560GB of spare space is available across the whole system only 300GB of contiguous space is available (on the Web Disk).
- The only way to provide the 400GB of space required would be to provide them with multiple space.
After ETERNUS VS900 installed
- All space can now be organize independently of physical location.
- The total 560GB of spare space now appears as a contiguous area, making it simple to allocate 400GB to system development.
2. 100GB increase to a specific process
The Situation
- The E-mail system is running out of space. Only 10GB is left on the E-mail disk.
- The E-Mail disk space needs to be urgently increased by 100GB to 490GB.
With existing configuration
- Impossible to generate 490GB of space as the physical disk size is only 400GB.
After ETERNUS VS900 installed
- VS900 enables the flexible allocation of additional space from the total virtualized disk space.
- Simply by changing the E-Mail space allocation to 490GB, the system provides an extra 100GB from the 560GB of free space, for E-mail use.
3. Add disk immediately to manage the rapid data growth
The Situation
- Due to an organizational change, data growth has increased.
- In order to cope with this situation a new disk is required to be added immediately.
With existing configuration
- To add any new disk, server reconfiguration/setup and driver installation are required
- In addition considerable time and effort is required in preparing LUN definition and capacity setup
After ETERNUS VS900 installed
- VS900 enables the addition of the new disk even while system is running
- No preparation or additional driver installation required (uses existing driver).
As you can see VS900 quickly handles capacity variations, reallocation of disk resources and the addition of new capacity with minimum administrative effort.
ETERNUS VS900 switch provides the innovation that maximizes the flexibility of your disk system while reducing the workload of your system administrators.
Features of ETERNUS VS900
1. Efficient Open Space Utilization
ETERNUS VS900 creates a virtual storage pool from all connected disk arrays. It then manages the allocation of volumes to server applications, as virtual disks, from any part of the pool. The space management provided by ETERNUS VS900 does not depend on the storage system specifications or configuration. All unused space is collectively and efficiently managed and avoids storage fragmentation.
2. Space Allocation during Business Operations
ETERNUS VS900 enables the dynamic addition of virtual disk space from the virtual storage pool as individual server applications dictate, without service halts.
3. Easy Addition of Devices
Because ETERNUS VS900 virtualizes all connected storage systems, it is able to provide virtualized disks as logical volumes to any transaction server. Even when adding new storage systems, ETERNUS VS900 disk virtualization enables the creation of virtual volumes regardless of the specifications or physical configuration of the disk arrays. This means ETERNUS VS900 enables easy addition of storage space without need to change server settings or install new drivers.
4. Data Migration during Business Operations
ETERNUS VS900 enables data to be migrated between connected disk arrays. This data migration can occur in parallel with virtualization so no operational downtime is necessary. In addition ETERNUS VS900 does not require the use of any server resources for this function.
5. Data Backup between Virtualized Disks
Use of ETERNUS VS900, in collaboration ETERNUS SF AdvancedCopy Manager (previous Softek AdvancedCopy Manager) back up software, enables data to be copied between virtualized disks in ETERNUS disk arrays without any interface changes. This function works even if the ETERNUS disk arrays do not support advanced copy functions. This makes server independent backup operations possible during normal business operations without effect on transaction server operation.
Further ETERNUS VS900 Product Information
- Report: "Fujitsu's new ETERNUS VS900 Virtualization Switch enables efficient Storage Resource use for improved System Manageability and ROI."
- Overview
- Specifications
- Features
- WhitePaper
