Chapter 2

Presented by:
Anupam Mittal
 Storage Systems Environment: Components
of a Storage System Environment

Storage System Environment -2

Upon completion of this chapter, you will be
able to:
List components of storage system

environment
Host, connectivity and storage
List physical and logical components of hosts
Describe key connectivity options
Describe the physical disk structure
Discuss factors affecting disk drive
performance

Storage System Environment -3

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be
able to:
Describe the three components of storage

system environment
Host, Connectivity and Storage
Detail Host physical and logical components
Describe interface protocol

PCI, IDE/ATA and SCSI

Describe storage options
Tape, optical and disk drives

Storage System Environment -4

 Applications runs on hosts
Hosts can range from
simple laptops to complex
Server
server clusters Laptop

Physical components of
host
CPU LAN
Storage
Disk device and internal
memory Group of Servers

I/O device
Host to host communications
Network Interface Card (NIC)
Host to storage device
communications
Host Bus Adapter (HBA)
Mainframe

Storage System Environment -5

 Fast CPU registers

L1 cache
L2 cache

Speed Magnetic RAM

disk

Optical
Tape
disk
Slow
Low High
Cost
Components of a Host -6
 Human interface
Keyboard
Mouse
Monitor
Computer-computer interface
Network Interface Card (NIC)
Computer-peripheral interface
USB (Universal Serial Bus) port
Host Bus Adapter (HBA)

Components of a Host -7
 Host

Apps

Operating System

DBMS Mgmt Utilities

File System

Volume Management

Multi-pathing Software
Device Drivers
HBA HBA HBA

Components of a Host -8
 Application
Interface between user and the host
Three-tiered architecture
Application UI, computing logic and underlying databases
Application data access can be classifies as:
Block-level access: Data stored and retrieved in blocks,
specifying the LBA
File-level access: Data stored and retrieved by
specifying the name and path of files
Operating system
Resides between the applications and the hardware
Controls the environment

Storage System Environment -9

 Responsible for creating and
controlling host level logical Logical Storage

storage
Physical view of storage is
converted to a logical view by
mapping
Logical data blocks are mapped to
physical data blocks
Usually offered as part of the
operating system or as third party LVM
host software
LVM Components:
Physical Volumes
Volume Groups
Logical Volumes

Physical Storage

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Storage System Environment 10
 One or more Physical
Volumes form a Volume Logical Volume
Group
LVM manages Volume Logical Volume Logical Disk
Block

Groups as a single entity

Physical Volumes can be
added and removed from a
Volume Group as necessary
Physical Volumes are
typically divided into
contiguous equal-sized disk
blocks
A host will always have at Physical Volume 1 Physical Volume 3
Physical Volume 2
least one disk group for the
Operating System Physical
Disk Block
Application and Operating Volume Group

System data maintained in

separate volume groups
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Storage System Environment 11
 Servers

Logical Volume

Physical Volume

Partitioning Concatenation

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Storage System Environment 12
 Device Drivers
Enables operating system to recognize the device
Provides API to access and control devices
Hardware dependent and operating system
specific
File System
File is a collection of related records or data stored
as a unit
File system is hierarchical structure of files
Examples: FAT 32, NTFS, UNIX FS and EXT2/3

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Storage System Environment 13
UNIX (UFS) Windows (NTFS)
File type and permissions Time stamp and link

Number of links count

Owner and group IDs File name

Number of bytes in the Access rights

file File data

Last file access Index information

Last file modification Volume information

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Components of a Host 14
 Improves data integrity and system restart
time over non-journaling file systems
Uses a separate area called a log or journal
May hold all data to be written
May hold only metadata
Disadvantage - slower than other file
systems
Each file system update requires at least 1 extra
write to the log

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Components of a Host 15
 File System
Blocks
Teacher (User)
Course File(s) File System Files

1 2 3

Configures/ Reside in Mapped by a file

Manages system to

Disk Physical
Disk Sectors Extents LVM Logical Extents

6 5 4

Managed by Consisting of Mapped by Residing in

disk storage LVM to
subsystem

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Storage System Environment 16
Key points covered in this module:
Hosts typically have:

Hardware: CPU, memory, buses, disks, ports, and

interfaces
Software: applications, operating systems, file
systems, device drivers, volume managers
Journaling enables:
very fast file system checks in the event of system
crash
provides better integrity for file system structure
HBAs are used to connect hosts to storage
devices

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Components of a Host 17
 Interconnection between hosts or between
a host and any storage devices
Physical Components of Connectivity are:

Bus, port and cable

CPU BUS HBA Cable

Disk

Port

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Storage System Environment 18
 Serial

Serial Bi-directional

Parallel

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Connectivity 19
 System Bus connects CPU to Memory
Local (I/O) Bus carries data to/from

peripheral devices
Bus width measured in bits
Bus speed measured in MHz
Throughput measured in MB/S

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Connectivity 20
 Protocol = a defined format for communication
between sending and receiving devices

Tightly Directly Network

Connected Attached Connected
Entities Entities Entities

Tightly connected entities such as central processor to RAM,

or storage buffers to controllers (example PCI)
Directly attached entities connected at moderate distances
such as host to storage (example IDE/ATA)
Network connected entities such as networked hosts, NAS or
SAN (example SCSI or FC)

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Storage System Environment 21
 Host

Apps

Operating System

PCI

SCSI or IDE/ATA Device Drivers

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Connectivity 22
 PCI is used for local bus system within a
computer
It is an interconnection between

microprocessor and attached devices

Has Plug and Play functionality
PCI is 32/64 bit
Throughput is 133 MB/sec
PCI Express

Enhanced version of PCI bus with higher throughput

and clock speed
V1: 250MB/s
V2: 500 MB/s
V3: 1 GB/s
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Storage System Environment 23
 Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) / Advanced
Technology Attachment (ATA)
Most popular interface used with modern hard disks
Good performance at low cost
Inexpensive storage interconnect
Used for internal connectivity
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA)
Serial version of the IDE /ATA specification
Hot-pluggable
Enhanced version of bus provides upto 6Gb/s
(revision 3.0)

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Storage System Environment 24
 Parallel SCSI (Small computer system
interface)
Most popular hard disk interface for servers
Supports Plug and Play
Higher cost than IDE/ATA
Supports multiple simultaneous data access

Used primarily in higher end environments

SCSI Ultra provides data transfer speeds of 320 MB/s
Serial SCSI
Supports data transfer rate of 3 Gb/s (SAS 300)

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Storage System Environment 25
 Most popular hard disk interface for servers
Higher cost than IDE/ATA
Supports multiple simultaneous data access
Currently both parallel and serial forms
Used primarily in higher end

environments

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Connectivity 26
 Target
Initiator

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Connectivity 27
 Target LUNs
ID

Initiator
ID

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Connectivity 28
 Initiator ID Target ID LUN

Initiator ID - a number from 0 to 15 with the

most common value being 7.
Target ID - a number from 0 to 15

LUN - a number that specifies a device

addressable through a target.

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Connectivity 29
Host Addressing
Controller
c0 t0 d0
Target
LUN

t0
LUNs
Peripheral
Controller
d0 d1 d2
Target

c0
Controller/
Initiator/HBA Connectivity
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30
 Pros:
Fast transfer speeds, up to
320 megabytes per
second
Reliable, durable
components
Can connect many
devices with a single bus,
more than just HDs
SCSI host cards can be put
in almost any system
Full backwards
compatibility
Cons:
Configuration and setup
specific to one computer
Unlike IDE, few BIOS
support the standard
Overwhelming number of
variations in the standard,
hardware, and connectors
No common software
interfaces and protocol
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Connectivity 31
 Feature IDE/ATA SCSI
Connectivity Market Internal Storage Internal and External
Storage

Speed (MB/sec) 100/133/150 320

Hot Pluggable No Yes

Expandability Easier to set up Very good but very

expensive to set up

Cost/Performance Good High cost/Fast

transfer speed

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Connectivity 32
 Port
Bus
CPU

Host

HBA
Cable

Port

Disk

-
Connectivity 33
 Host

Apps
DBMS Mgmt Utils
File System
LVM
Multipathing Software
Device Drivers
HBA HBA HBA

Fibre Channel

Storage Arrays
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Connectivity 34
 SCSI
Limited distance
Limited device count
Usually limited to single initiator
Single-ported drives
Fibre Channel
Greater distance
High device count in SANs
Multiple initiators
Dual-ported drives

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Connectivity 35
 iSCSI
Transport is over an IP network
SCSI Commands are exchanged over an IP
network
Fibre Channel over Ethernet
Tunnels fibre channel commands over IP

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Connectivity 36
Hosts

Switches Storage

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Connectivity 37
 Magnetic Tape
Low cost solution for long term data storage
Limitations
Sequential data access, Single application access at a time,
Physical wear and tear and Storage/retrieval overheads
Optical Disks
Popularly used as distribution medium in small, single-
user computing environments
Write once and read many (WORM): CD-ROM, DVD-ROM
Limited in capacity and speed
Disk Drive
Most popular storage medium with large storage capacity
Random read/write access
Ideal for performance intensive online application

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Storage System Environment 38
Key points covered in this lesson:
Host components

Physical and Logical

Connectivity options
PCI, IDE/ATA, SCSI
Storage options
Tape, optical and disk drive

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Storage System Environment 39
 Disk drive components, Disk Drive
Performance

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Storage System Environment 40
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able
to:
List and discuss various disk drive components

Platter, spindle, read/write head and actuator arm

assembly
Discuss disk drive geometry
Describe CHS and LBA addressing scheme
Disk drive performance
Seek time, rotational latency and transfer rate
Laws governing disk drive performance
Enterprise flash drive

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Storage System Environment 41
 Controller

HDA Interface

Power -
Connector
Storage System Environment 42
 01010100111010101010
00110100111010101010
00110100111010101010
10110101011010101010

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Physical Disks 43
 Spindle

Platters

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Physical Disks 44
 -
Physical Disks 45
Spindle

Actuator

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Physical Disks 46
 R/W Head

R/W Head

Actuator

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Physical Disks 47
 Controller

Interface
HDA

Power
Connector

Bottom View of Disk Drive

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Physical Disks 48
 Sector

Track

Platter

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Physical Disks 49
 Sector

Track

Platter Without Zones Platter With Zones

Physical Disks
Cylinder

Tracks, Cylinders and Sectors -

Physical Disks 51
 Sector

Cylinder
Block 0
Head
Block 8
(lower surface)

Block 16

Block 32

Block 48

Physical Address = CHS Logical Block Address = Block #

Physical Disks
 A

A
B D
C
Partitioning -
Concatenation -
Multiple Logical Volumes
One
PhysicalLogical
Disks Volume -
53
Key points covered in this lesson:
Physical drives are made up of:

HDA
Platters connected via a spindle
Read/write heads which are positioned by an actuator
Controller
Controls power, communication, positioning, and
optimization
Data is structured on a drive using tracks,
sectors, and cylinders
The geometry of a disk impacts how data is
recorded on a platter

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Physical Disks 54
 Disk Drive Performance
Logical Components

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Storage System Environment 55
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be
able to:
Describe the factors that impact the

performance of a drive
Describe how drive reliability is measured

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Physical Disks 56
 Seek time is the time for
read/write heads to move
between tracks
Seek time specifications
include:
Full stroke
Average
Track-to-track

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Physical Disks 57
 -
Physical Disks 58
 Without Command Queuing

Request 1
Request 2 2
4 3 2 1
1
Request 3
3
Request 4 4

With Command Queuing

Request 1
Request 2 2
4 2 3 1
1
Request 3
3
Request 4 4

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Physical Disks 59
 External transfer rate Internal transfer rate
measured here measured here

HBA Interface Buffer

Disk Drive

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Physical Disks 60
 Mean Time Between Failure
Amount of time that one can anticipate a
device to work before an incapacitating
malfunction occurs
Based on averages
Measured in hours
Determined by artificially aging the product

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Physical Disks 61
 Knee of curve: disks at
about 70% utilization

Low Queue Size

0% Utilization 70% 100%

Consider a disk I/O system in which an I/O request arrives at

a rate of 100 I/Os per second. The service time, RS, is 4 ms.
Utilization of I/O controller (U=a Rs)
Total response time (R=Rs /1-U)
Calculate the same with service time is doubled
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Storage System Environment 63
Conventional disk drive
Mechanical Delay associated Highest possible throughput
with conventional drive
Seek time
Rotational latency
More power consumption
due to mechanical
operations
Low Mean Time Between
Failure
Enterprise flash drive
per drive
No Spinning magnetic media
No Mechanical movement
which causes seek and
latency
Solid State enables
consistent I/O performance
Very low latency per I/O
Energy efficient storage
design
Lower power requirement per
GB of storage
Lower power requirement per
IOPS
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Storage System Environment 64
 Drive is based on Flash Solid State memory
technology
High performance and low latency
Non volatile memory
Uses single layer cell (SLC) or Multi Level cell (MLC)
to store data
Enterprise Flash Drives use a 4Gb FC interface

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Storage System Environment 65
 Faster performance
Up to 30 times greater 1@15K 10@15K
Fibre
30@15K
Fibre
Fibre
IOPS (benchmarked) Channel
drive
Channel
drives
Channel
drives

Typical applications: 8

Response Time
12X
Less than 1 millisecond
service time
More energy efficient
38 percent less per 1 Flash drive

terabyte IO per second

98 percent less per IO

Better reliability
No moving parts
Faster RAID rebuilds -
Storage System Environment 66
 Position Enterprise Flash Drives as the high-
performance option in demanding environments
Low latency applications, also known as Tier-0
applications
Standard form-factor and capacity design allows
for easier integration
High performance, low power for a Green
initiative
Target Customer/Market Segments:
High performance solutions coupled with low power
Specifically target Oracle database customers initially
Financial trading
OLTP databases

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Storage System Environment 67
Key points covered in this lesson:
Disk drive components and geometry
Disk drive addressing scheme
Disk drive performance
Convention drive Vs Enterprise Flash Drives
Enterprise Flash Drives for high

performance and low power storage

solution

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Storage System Environment 68
Key points covered in this chapter:
Storage system environment components:

Host, connectivity and storage

Physical disk structure and addressing
Factors affecting disk performance
Flash drives benefits

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Storage System Environment 71

What are some examples of hosts?
What are the physical and logical

components of a host?
What are the common connectivity

protocols used in computing environments?

What is the difference between seek time

and rotational latency?

What is the difference between internal and

external data transfer rates?

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Storage System Environment 72