Tag: netapp product overview

NetApp Product Overview

NetApp Product Overview

Introduction –

NetApp is leading provider of high speed/performance SAN/NAS storage. I’m working on various NetApp Products since past 5+ yrs as Storage Admin.  This article gives overview of NetApp Storage products and Technologies…

* Data ONTAP – NetApp Data ONTAP is Operating System (OS) running on NetApp Storage. “Data ONTAP” supports Cluster Mode and 7-Node (using ONTAP like ONTAP7)

* NetApp SANtricity Storage OS offers a powerful, easy-to-use interface for administering E-series NetApp Storage.

    • Dynamic Disk Pools (DDPs) – greatly simplify traditional storage management with no idle spares to manage or reconfigure when drives are added or fail, thus providing the ability to automatically configure, expand  & scale storage. DDPs enable dynamic rebalancing of drive count changes.

    • Dynamic RAID-level migration changes the RAID level of a volume group on the existing drives without requiring the relocation of data. The software supports DDPs and RAID levels   0, 1, 3, 5, 6, and 10.

    • Dynamic volume expansion (DVE) – allows administrators to expand the capacity of an existing volume by using the free capacity on an existing volume group. DVE combines the new capacity with the original capacity for maximum performance and utilization.

    • Streamlined Performance Efficiency – Intelligent cache tiering, which uses the SANtricity SSD Cache feature, enhances performance and application response time. The SSD Cache feature provides intelligent read caching capability to identify and host the most frequently accessed blocks of data and leverages the superior performance and lower latency of solid-state drives (SSDs). This caching approach works in real time and in a data-driven fashion, and is always on, with no complicated policies to define the trigger for data movement between tiers

• Efficient Storage Provisioning – Thin provisioning delivers significant savings by separating the internal allocation of storage from the external allocation reported to hosts

* NetApp OnCommand System Manager – OnCommand System Manager is the simple yet powerful browser-based management tools that enable administrators to easily configure and manage individual NetApp storage systems or clusters of systems. OnCommand Unified Manager monitors and alerts on the health of your NetApp storage running on clustered Data ONTAP.

* WAFL and RAID-DP – NetApp introduced double-parity RAID, named RAID-DP, in 2003, starting with the Data ONTAP6. Since then it has become the default RAID group type used on NetApp storage. At the most basic layer, RAID-DP adds a second parity disk to each RAID group in an aggregate or traditional volume. A RAID group is an underlying construct that aggregates and traditional volumes are built upon. Each traditional NetApp RAID 4 group has some number of data disks and one parity disk, with aggregates and volumes containing one or more RAID 4 groups. Whereas the parity disk in a RAID 4 volume stores row parity across the disks in a RAID 4 group, the additional RAID-DP parity disk stores. diagonal parity across the disks in a RAID-DP group.

A) Unified Storage Data ONTAP –

Common FAS series NetApp storage Array/filers with NetApp Data ONTAP OS.

B) High Performance SAN Storage E-Series –

The NetApp E5500 data storage system sets new standards for performance efficiency in application-driven environments. The E5500 is equally adept at supporting high-IOPS mixed workloads and databases, high-performance file systems, and bandwidth-intensive streaming applications. NetApp’s patent-pending Dynamic Disk Pools (DDP) simplifies traditional RAID management by distributing data parity information and spare capacity across a pool of drives. The modular flexibility of the E-Series—with three disk drive/controller shelves, multiple drive types, and a complete selection of interfaces—enables custom configurations optimized and able to scale as needed. The maximum storage density of the E5500 reduces rack space by up to 60%, power use by up to 40%, and cooling requirements by up to 39%.

– Maximum RAW Capacity- 28TB,48TB, 240TB to 1.54PB

– Rack Unit 2U (12 or 24 drives) and 4U (60 drives)

– Maximum 16 Shelves or 384 total disk

– 2/3/4TB SAS Disk Drives and 400/800GB SSD Disks (Mixed)

 – 24GB ECC RAM  (ECC which stands for Error Correction Code RAM)

– 8 x 10Gbps iSCSI IO ports, 8 x 8Gb SAS IO ports, 8 x 16Gb FC IO ports

– SANtricity OS 11.10

 

C) NetApp disk shelves

NetApp offers a full range of high-capacity, high-performance, and self-encrypting disk drives plus ultra-high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs). Disk shelf options let you optimize for capacity, performance, or versatility. NetApp Optical SAS interconnects simplify infrastructure while providing industry-leading performance.

– Nondisruptive controller upgrades

– Self-managing Virtual Storage Tier technologies, including Flash Pool, optimize data placement on flash for maximum performance

– Supported Disk types- SATA,SAS,SSD and Flash disk

a) DS2246 – 2U Rack units, 24 Drives per enclosure, 12 Drives per rack unit,Optical SAS support

b) DS4246 – 4U Rack units, 24 Drives per enclosure, 6 Drives per rack unit,Optical SAS support, 2TB/3TB/4TB disk drives

c) DS4486 – 4U Rack units, 24 Drives per enclosure, 12 Drives per rack unit,Optical SAS support, 4TB disk drives, Tandem (dual) drives

d) DS4243 – 4U Rack units, 24 Drives per enclosure, 6 Drives per rack unit,Optical SAS support, DS4243 disk shelf is no longer available   in new system shipments.

For details please visit NetApp page- http://www.netapp.com/us/products/storage-systems/disk-shelves-and-storage-media/disk-shelves-tech-specs.aspx

 

D) NetApp Software –

    * NetApp FilerView Administration Tool – GUI tools was used to manage NetApp Filer. However If you plan to run Data ONTAP 8.1 or later software, you need to use OnCommand System Manager software.

* NetApp FlexArray Virtualization Software – FlexArray enables you to connect your existing storage arrays to FAS8000 controllers using your Fibre Channel SAN fabric. Array LUNs are provisioned to the FAS8000 and collected into a storage pool from which NetApp volumes are created and shared out to SAN hosts and NAS clients. The new volumes, managed by the FAS8000. FlexArray has the flexibility to serve both SAN and NAS protocols at the same time without any complex add-on components, making the FAS8000 the ideal storage virtualization platform.

* NetApp DataMotion – DataMotion data migration software lets you move data from one logical or physical storage device to another, without disrupting operations. You can keep your shared storage infrastructure running as you add capacity, refresh infrastructure, and balance performance. You can use DataMotion for vFiler and Volumes.

* NetApp Deduplication and Compression – NetApp data compression is a new feature that compresses data as it is written to NetApp FAS and V-Series storage systems. Like deduplication, NetApp data compression works in both SAN and NAS environments. NetApp data deduplication combines the benefits of granularity, performance, and resiliency to give you a significant advantage in the race to meet ever-increasing storage capacity demands.

* NetApp Flash Pool – is a NetApp Data ONTAP feature (introduced in version 8.1.1) that enables mixing regular HDDs with SSDs at an aggregate level. NetApp Flash Pool, an integral component of the NetApp Virtual Storage Tier, enables automated storage tiering. NetApp Flash Pool lets you mix solid state disk (SSD) technology and hard disk (HDD) technology at the aggregate level, to achieve SSD-like performance at HDD-like prices.

E)  NetApp Protection Software –

* Snapmirror – data replication technology provides disaster recovery protection and simplifies the management of data replication.

* MetroCluster – high-availability and disaster recovery software delivers continuous availability, transparent failover protection, and zero data loss.

* SnapVault – software speeds and simplifies backup and data recovery, protecting data at the block level.

* Open Systems SnapVault(OSSV) – software leverages block-level incremental backup technology to protect Windows, Linux/UNIX, SQL Server and VMware systems running on mixed storage.

* SnapRestore – data recovery software uses stored Data ONTAP Snapshot copies to recover anything from a single file to multi-terabyte volumes, in seconds.

F) NetApp StorageGRID – NetApp StorageGRID object storage software enables secure management of petabyte-scale distributed content repositories. Eliminating the typical constraints of data containers in blocks and files, the StorageGRID application offers secure, intelligent, and scalable data storage and management in a single global namespace. It optimizes metadata management and content placement through a global policy engine with built-in security. StorageGRID software automates the lifecycle of stored content by managing how files and objects are stored, placed, protected, and retrieved.

 

Thank You,
Arun Bagul