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May, 2010
This ESG White Paper was commissioned by Dell EqualLogic, Inc. and is distributed under license from ESG.
2010, Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 Storage Choices ............................................................................................................................................ 3 iSCSI and Server Virtualization on the Rise................................................................................................... 4 ESG Lab: The Voice of Experience................................................................................................................. 6 Dell EqualLogic PS Series iSCSI SAN Solutions .............................................................................................. 6 The Case for Networked Storage .................................................................................................................. 9
Legacy NAS Considerations ...................................................................................................................................... 9 Legacy SAN Considerations .................................................................................................................................... 12
All trademark names are property of their respective companies. Information contained in this publication has been obtained by sources The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) considers to be reliable but is not warranted by ESG. This publication may contain opinions of ESG, which are subject to change from time to time. This publication is copyrighted by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. Any reproduction or redistribution of this publication, in whole or in part, whether in hard-copy format, electronically, or otherwise to persons not authorized to receive it, without the express consent of the Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc., is in violation of U.S. copyright law and will be subject to an action for civil damages and, if applicable, criminal prosecution. Should you have any questions, please contact ESG Client Relations at (508) 482-0188..
Introduction
Server virtualization and consolidation technologies can help organizations struggling with cost containment and continuing information growth. Many have already implemented server virtualization, while others are planning to either start or accelerate virtualization deployments. The reduction in hardware costs is certainly attractive as increased resource utilization and physical serve consolidation keep total cost of ownership (TCO) down. ESGs annual spending survey indicates that key IT priorities for the next 18 months include an increase in server virtualization deployments (see Figure 1). Of 515 surveyed users, 33% selected this as their top priority. Improving data backup and recovery was third, with 27%this remains a perennial favorite as protecting information seems to always be on the minds of IT professionals.1 Figure 1. Top 10 IT Priorities Over the Next 12-18 Months What are your organizations most important IT priorities over the next 12-18 months? (Percent of respondents, N=515, ten responses accepted)
Increase use of server virtualization Information security initiatives Improve data backup and recovery Upgrade network infrastructure Manage data growth Major application deployments or upgrades Data center consolidation Business continuity/disaster recovery programs Large-scale desktop/laptop PC refresh Regulatory compliance initiatives
0% 10%
33% 28%
27%
27% 25% 24% 23% 21% 20% 19%
20% 30% 40%
Storage Choices
One challenge with deploying server virtualization is selecting the right storage infrastructure that will serve as a foundation and scale to meet the challenge of top tier applications. Direct-attached storage (DAS), networkedattached storage (NAS,) and both Fibre Channel (FC) and iSCSI storage area networks (SANs) are viable for server virtualization; however, they are not equal in terms of functionality, ease-of-use, or cost. Direct-attached storage is the term used to define the hard drives inside of, or directly attached to, a server; capacity can be attached using SCSI, SATA, or SAS connections. In contrast, FC SANs, multi-protocol NAS, and iSCSI SANs are connected to servers through a shared storage network. FC SANs provide block-based storage. They connect to servers using FC HBAs on the hosts and FC switches in the network and are traditionally built as modular, dual-controller systems.
Source: ESG Research Report, 2010 IT Spending Intentions Survey, January 2010.
NAS deployments offer file-based storage and connect hosts to storage arrays using an Ethernet LAN, standard Ethernet adapters and switches, and the NFS and CIFS file serving protocols. iSCSI SANs offer block-based storage and use the iSCSI protocol over Ethernet along with Ethernet NICs and switches. These server virtualization storage alternatives are shown in Figure 2. In the DAS deployment, storage resources are not shared; each array is attached only to a single server. SAN and NAS implementations share storage over a network. In recent years, storage vendors have been producing unified storage arrays that offer multiple protocols in a single array; for example, most legacy NAS solutions have evolved to support iSCSI. Unified solutions that have evolved from a legacy NAS heritage typically implement the iSCSI protocol as an additional protocol layer which is used to access data that is ultimately stored in a file system hidden inside the storage. Figure 2. Virtual Server Storage Deployment Options
Source: ESG Research Brief, iSCSI SAN Adoption Update, January 2010.
Figure 3. 2006 vs. 2009 iSCSI SAN Adoption, by Midmarket vs. Enterprise 2006 vs. 2009 iSCSI SAN adoption, by midmarket vs. enterprise. (Percent of respondents)
2006 (N=432)
35% 30%
2009 (N=1,433)
29% 25%
28%
17%
18%
18%
All respondents
Why the increase? Widespread market acceptance of any technology usually only occurs when that technology has both broad capabilities and applicability. The basic value proposition of course must be sound, but broad and increasing adoption signifies a product that can play in multiple markets and segments. iSCSI storage has reached this level and is now commonly found in both midmarket and enterprise organizations supporting not just test and development, but Tier 1 applications.3 Server virtualization deployments are also on the rise according to ESG research conducted in March 2009. In 54% of the enterprise and 32% of the midmarket segments, server virtualization was already in use in production environments. Only in 24% of both groups was virtualization used solely in test environments. Also, 44% of midmarket organizations had not deployed virtualization, while only 23% of enterprise organizations had not yet done so.4 The adoption of iSCSI is tightly correlated with the emergence of server virtualization as a common infrastructure deployment. In a fall 2009 survey, 55% of iSCSI users said they had deployed iSCSI specifically to support server virtualization projects. Server virtualization has helped to move more storage off of DAS and onto the network with Ethernet being so ubiquitous, iSCSI is a logical choice, particularly for block-based applications such as e-mail and databases. Not surprisingly, the top three reasons that users deployed iSCSI SANs were storage consolidation, cost reduction, and server virtualizationall rooted in reducing expenses and improving efficiency.5 The adoption of iSCSI is also being driven by the accelerating adoption of 10 Gigabit Ethernet. An iSCSI storage system accessed over a 10GbE interface has more bandwidth than a system accessed over 8 Gbps Fibre Channel interface. This boost in bandwidth is ideally suited for throughput intensive storage applications including data warehouses, decision support systems and backups. Ethernet can also have a price advantage over Fibre Channel. Virtualization and data center consolidation have led to top-of-rack and aggregation switches in the data center,
3 4
Ibid. Source: ESG Research Brief, Reference Research: x86 Server Virtualization Adoption by Company Size and Number of Servers, March 2009. 5 Source: ESG Research Brief, iSCSI SAN Adoption Update, January 2010.
while increasing network traffic and latency-sensitive content (e.g., video, voice) has driven 10GbE core network switch sales. As a result, the average price-per-port metric has fallen below the psychologically important $1,000 threshold. These trends will continue for the foreseeable future as 48% of respondents to an ESG survey reported that they plan on deploying 10 Gbps Ethernet to connect servers to networked storage system over the next 24 months.6
6 7
Source: ESG 2008 Enterprise Storage Systems Survey, November 2008 See: ESG Lab Report, Dell EqualLogic TCO Analysis, July 2009.
Enterprise-class software functionality is built into every Dell EqualLogic system. As new functionality is developed, it is provided with no additional charge and no additional licenses to manage. Built-in features include: Automatic load-balancing Automatic snapshot management, replication, and volume cloning Online data and volume management Storage virtualization Thin provisioning SAN boot capability Role-based administrative management Historical performance trending and reporting Automatic or manual storage tiering and pooling Multi-group monitoring with SAN Headquarters including performance headroom reporting Automatic RAID placement Asset retirement or re-provisioning that is non-disruptive to applications and non-disruptive to redundancy, snapshot, and replication functions. Integration with VMware vCenter and Site Recovery Manager, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix XenServer Application integration modules for Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server and Windows File Server
complicated management and comes with a high price tag. Dell EqualLogic arrays have integrated virtual server snapshot management capability that enables administrators to ensure virtual machine data protection while simplifying administration, enabling automatic scheduling, and keeping costs down. EqualLogic arrays come with Auto-Snapshot Manager/VMware Edition (ASM/VE) and Auto-Snapshot Manager/Microsoft Editionagain, at no additional cost, of course. These tools are designed to simply create and centrally manage online, point-in-time copies of virtual machines and data stores using PS Series SAN-based snapshots. ASM/VE understands the relationships and locations of virtual machines, VMFS Datastores, and PS Series SAN volumes; the easy-to-use GUI coordinates the creation, recovery, and scheduling of virtual machine snapshots with vCenter and VMwares native snapshot technology. API-based integration with vCenter delivers VMFS-consistent snapshots and VM-aware replication. ASM/VE improves the protection, storage utilization, and performance of VMware-based virtual infrastructures. Auto-Snapshot Manger/Microsoft Edition software from Dell provides the integration between Microsoft VSS and the Dell EqualLogic series of storage arrays. ESG Lab has worked with this valuable utility in the lab. As shown in Figure 5, Auto-snapshot Manager/Microsoft Edition provides a simple, wizard-driven interface which can be used to create a snapshot, clone, or a replica of applications running in a virtual server environment. The same user interface can be used to quickly recover an application or an entire Hyper-V virtual machine. Figure 5. Auto-Snapshot Manager / Microsoft Edition
The Auto-Snapshot Manager/Microsoft Edition allows administrators to safely take snapshots of, backup, and restore Microsoft applications (including Hyper-V virtual machines) with third-party backup software modules by supporting VSS and VDS interfaces. It can run the database integrity checking tools proactively on the snapshots to detect database problems early and to have the integrity checking already done ahead of time. It allows application administrators to perform recoveries using snapshots, leveraging instant restore of the production volumes when appropriate, without needing to know the details of the storage layout. It eliminates the extensive configuration and scripting that other systems require when executing snapshot-based backups.
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organizations already use block-based protocols for e-mail and databases because file-based NAS protocols are not standard for these applications and are often not supported. Think of it this way: if you already have iSCSI for e-mail and databases, you can add server virtualization to it, but if you deploy NAS for server virtualization, youll probably need to add more protocols for your e-mail and database applications. Complexity vs. Ease of Use In ESG Labs experience, a Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN offers industry-leading ease-of-use when compared to legacy multi-protocol NAS and SAN arrays. ESGs July 2009 TCO analysis compared Dell EqualLogic PS Series iSCSI SANs leveraging DAS, FC SAN, and multi-protocol NAS arrays. On each of the four system types, ESG Lab measured the number of mouse clicks and time required to perform typical storage management tasks such as configuring a system from scratch; moving arrays and storage capacity between storage pools; accessing virtual machine volumes; and performing copy, replication, and recovery tasks. In that report, it was noted that, Every step of the way, ESG Lab was impressed with how fast and easy it was to manage a growing pool of EqualLogic storage from a single, intuitive user interface.8 A complicating factor faced by NAS and FC SAN deployments is managing software licensing. Storage array management, replication/snapshot functionality, host-based snapshot management, hypervisor integration, performance analysis, and the like all require individual software licenses that must be managed for each array. Time-consuming and complicated license management is an enormous headache for IT. With the PS Series, all software functionality is included so there are no licenses to track or manage. Upgrades and scalability are also complications with NAS (and FC SAN) arrays. Traditional dual-controller, multiprotocol NAS (and FC SAN) arrays must be sized to meet present and future capacity and performance requirements. They often require controller upgrades along with software and maintenance charges to meet an organizations needs for application responsiveness as controllers often reach their performance limits before their capacity limits. In comparison, EqualLogic arrays offer a virtualized scale out approach in which individual arrays can be added to a shared storage pool non-disruptively to meet ongoing capacity and performance needs dynamically. This pay-as-you-grow model is much less costly and far easier to use than traditional dual controller arrays. Internal file system and protocol overhead can lead to performance issue with traditional NAS arrays. EqualLogic provides advanced block storage functions which are not dependent on an underlying file system inside the storage. Native block format inside the storage can make for more consistent performance, especially for database and e-mail applications with sensitive performance requirements and lots of daily updates. In addition, as capacity is introduced (disks or arrays) to a PS Series SAN, that capacity is automatically added to the shared storage pool and rebalanced across all available resources. As a result, disk drives, controllers, ports, cache, and performance scale linearly with an organizations growth. Simple, non-disruptive growth that virtualizes storage over a pool of controllers and scales in a linear fashion is a key benefit of Dell EqualLogic arrays especially when compared to legacy NAS systems which support only a pair of controllers. Cost As mentioned previously, ESG Lab analyzed the total cost of ownership over five years for multi-protocol NAS, FC SAN, EqualLogic iSCSI SAN, and DAS deployments. Analysis was based on a theoretical customer requiring approximately 80 TB of block-based storage capacity to support common business applications. Acquisition costs for hardware, software, and connectivity; maintenance costs for hardware and software; and the costs of power and cooling over five years were consideredin addition, the cost of management was analyzed based on hands-on testing and conversations with EqualLogic customers. The solutions were configured with three disk tiers and similar functionality (additional configuration details can be found in the report).9
8 9
Source: ESG Lab Report, Dell EqualLogic TCO Analysis, July 2009. See: ESG Lab Report, Dell EqualLogic TCO Analysis, July 2009.
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As shown in Figure 6, the TCO of the NAS system is significantly higher than the Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN. In ESG Labs analysis, every cost area except connectivity was more expensive in the NAS system, while power and cooling costs were very similar for these two configurations. Overall, the multi-protocol NAS solution costs 167% more. Figure 6. TCO Comparison: NAS and Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN
From the start, hardware acquisition costs are higher for the NAS system. Each storage technology was configured to support remote replication for disaster recovery in the multi-protocol NAS (and FC SAN) solutions. This required the addition of a second pair of storage controllers and disk drives at the remote site as well as a pair of remote replication software licenses. In contrast, remote replication is built into the EqualLogic solutions array at no additional charge. Since individual EqualLogic arrays have their own controllers, they can be deployed locally or remotely without additional investment in replication software licensing. The costs of purchasing and maintaining software are key differentiators for EqualLogic. Storage management and data protection services are included with each PS Series array, while NAS solutions tend to incur additional charges for advanced management and data protection. As shown, software cost is nonexistent on the EqualLogic side of the chart. Maintenance costs are also much higher on the NAS side in part because with the PS Series, no software maintenance charges are incurred. In terms of management, ESG Lab calculated the time and effort required to complete numerous tasks on each system. Tasks included monitoring, planning, provisioning, expanding, setting up and recovering snapshots, setting up and testing disaster recovery, and configuring storage tiers. ESG Lab calculated the number of hours required to manage each solution over five years and then calculated the cost of paying a storage administrator based on the hours required. All told, managing the NAS Solution over five years would cost about $187,000, while managing the Dell EqualLogic solution costs about $105,000. In summary, the five-year TCO of a multi-protocol NAS system is 2.5 times higher than the TCO for the Dell EqualLogic solution. ESG hands-on testing and analysis indicates that PS Series arrays are easier to manage, work well in virtual server environments and cost less.
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10
Source: ESG Lab Report, Dell EqualLogic TCO Analysis, July 2009.
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Based on this evaluation, ESG believes that the Dell EqualLogic PS Series offers a distinct advantage for virtual server environments. As Figure 8 demonstrates, DAS may initially cost less for small virtual server deployments, but it lacks flexibility and high availability. Cost and complexity will increase exponentially as the number of virtual machines grows. At some point, managing many islands of storage makes the solution cost prohibitive. Networked
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modular Fibre Channel and NAS solutions reduce costs as the number of virtual machines increases, but the need to add new dual controllers to accommodate growth increases cost and complexity in steps. In contrast, our analysis has proven that the Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SANs offer the lowest TCO. Dell EqualLogic PS Series arrays are easy to use and affordable, avoid the step increases in cost and complexity, and are less than half the cost of NAS for the 75 TB solution analyzed by ESG. Last, but not least, note that as the number of virtual machines continues to grow, Dell EqualLogic widens the gap and accelerates the savings with on-demand expansion and easy management. While its been shown that iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and NAS systems are all viable options in a virtual server environment, it should be noted that iSCSI is quickly becoming the interface of choice. ESG recently asked 318 North America-based IT professionals within enterprise and midmarket organizations which storage technologies they currently use to support their virtual sever environment: 73% reported using iSCSI compared to 52% for FC, 38% for DAS, and 37% for NAS.11 From ESGs perspective, the message is clear. If you are considering a storage solution for your virtual server environment, do your own analysis. Be aware that some vendors are pushing NAS for virtual server environments and touting its benefits: consolidating and sharing storage; higher utilization and lower cost; and the flexibility, mobility, and performance to take full advantage of server virtualization. Be cognizant of the fact that those benefits are the same for any networked storage solution. NAS is not necessary for server virtualizationiSCSI, Fibre Channel, and NAS will all work and even DAS is possible. And since most organizations need block-based storage for other applications anyway, NAS on its own may not be able to meet all of your storage needs in a virtual server environment. An iSCSI or FC SAN may be needed as well. Dont get hung up on the particular protocol or featureconsider the whole storage solution and then schedule an evaluation of the Dell EqualLogic PS Series. Youll be glad you did.
11
Source: ESG Research Report, iSCSI SAN Usage in Virtual Server Environments, December 2009.
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