Storage Management- An Introduction
Application
Block Level Access
Database
Server and Operating System
Performance Management System
Storage Resource Management
Network
Storage Array
Active/ Active Storage Array
Active/ Passive Storage Array
Conclusion
References
Storage Management- An Introduction
Storage management is becoming a significant topic with the growing importance of data, the growth of data, and dependence of organizations on digital information. More complex information is being generated on daily basis. It is becoming a challenging task to manage storage environments to maintain complex data. Storage management is considered to be the most important segment in IT (Information Technology) infrastructure. It has a crucial role to play in making the applications work in an effective manner. It impacts applications locally as well as multiple locations. There is a rise in criticality relating to storage. The skilled storage groups are equally skilled for the technology being deployed to manage efficient storage of information (Corporation, Managing information storage: Trends, challenges and options 6). Storage can be of different types like static, dynamic and local storage. Static storage refers to variables whose name is given by declarations. It is carried out through entire execution of the program. Dynamic storage is anonymous. It begins by evaluation of a particular statement and ends by the termination of the program. Local storage is variables and is also named on the basis of declarations. Its life comes to an end with the execution of a function (Silberschatz 143). Tons of information is created daily by millions of people across the world. The Internet is accessed every day by millions of people to generate and fetch information using search engines, social media, emails, video sharing, etc. However, only a few firms manage this information. The businesses are also getting constantly used to information for making business critical decisions. It is achieved through archives of information, emails, web portals, etc. The significance of information upon business increase the challenges involved in managing data storage. Storage system facilitates financial, regulatory and operational benefits for an organization. Storage systems and related technology is evolving at a rapid pace and offers better availability, improved security, performance, and capacity to manage information (Corporation, Information storage and management 4) (GovConnection 3).
Application
The application can be described as a program that provides logic to the computer operations. Applications can be layered on the database that can use operating system services for performing read and write operations to storage devices (Corporation, Information storage, and management 44). It is a computer generated program which allows the computer to make logical operations. It acts as an interface between the user and host computer. The traditional applications which use database have three-tier architecture comprising of application user interface (front end tier); application (mid-tier) and database (back end tier). The application program sends commands to the operating system to perform read and write operations on storage device. The application uses the operating system services for performing read and write operations on storage device. It enables the transaction between application user interface and database. The database can be said to be block level or file level, depending upon the usage of file name or block address to carry out read and write operations on the disk (Corporation, Information storage and management 44).
Block Level Access
Block level access is considered to be the basic mechanism of accessing disk. Under this access, the data is stored in logical block address of a disk. It is also retrieved in the same manner. Block size depicts the basic unit of storage data. Oracle and SQL server defines the size of block to access the data on disk for performing input and output operations (Corporation, Information storage and management 45).
Database
The database can be referred to as a repository of data. Creating and maintaining database is an ongoing activity. Database Management System (DBMS) is considered to be an aggregate of data, users, hardware and software used for managing data. It provides opportunity for users to retrieve data through many methods. It is mostly installed on computer hardware. A query language is used to interact with users and database systems. The major components of query language include data definition and data manipulation concepts. The database is accessed by many users ( both individuals and institutions). The database administrator decides upon the policies, nature of data to be stored, monitor the performance, etc. while creating a database. The users are limited to access rights. The major components of Database Management System are memory manager, query processor and transactions manager (Date 1).
Server and Operating System
Server and Operating System is a computing platform which runs on application and database. The server may be physically similar to desktop computers. It comprises of CPU (Central Processing Units), RAM (Random Access Memory) and hard drives. They are designed keeping in mind heavy duty tasks to be accomplished. The servers are good at running supporting services to desktop applications like database. The operating system acts as an interface between hardware and users. It controls all the aspects related to computing environment. It interfaces between application and physical hardware of the computer. It provides the users with access to data. It can also monitor and respond to the actions of users in the environment. The hardware resources are controlled and allocated by operating system. It also performs basic storage management and security to access the resources (Irwin 1).
Performance Management System
Performance management System is a system which ensures that the parts of computer can produce its optimal operational efficiency. Analysing performance of a system is important as it helps to identify the performance of storage infrastructure components. It confirms the information if the components are meeting desired performance standards. Many performance management tasks are conducted to deploy application or server in the storage infrastructure. Each component must pass the performance capability and service level standards. The performance of end-to-end task should meet perfect standards (Corporation, Information storage and management 376).
Storage Resource Management
Storage Resource Managers (SRM) are middleware functions. Its function is to facilitate dynamic space allocation and management of files to the shared storage components on the grid. It provides storage reservation and information on availability of storage to plan and execute grid tasks. It basically manages two resources namely spaces and files in the system. While managing space, the SRM manages space based upon requesting client and allocates certain space for the files. At the same time managing files makes the SRM allocate files into space. It can also move files from one place to another, pin files, replace files, release files, etc. It optimizes the storage space. SRM can help in sharing of files by defining a set of rules for file sharing. It also performs auto garbage as it collects files which have been unused or met their life expectancy (Arie Shoshani 329).
Network
The network is the data path which allows communication between clients and server or server and storage. It is a system of computers which are interconnected . The interconnected computer peripherals are also called network. The benefit of network is that the connected devices can share the information among them. The network may be connected through wire or may be wireless as well. It can range from two or more interconnected devices which are connected with the purpose of sharing information and network components. The basic concept of network can be two computers connected to each other for sharing information. It can also be expanded by adding more number of computers to the existing network. In such a case, the first computer will be called local computer. It is used as workstation or a server. As a number of computers are added, the network tends to become stronger. This is because of increased access to resources over the network. It becomes more powerful as the resources of networked computers can be utilized. The networked computers may be in the same location or in different locations. The network can also be intercontinental. It helps in saving and storage of complex business data and facilitates business continuity. The only single step of data updating updates the data across the network. More productivity can be achieved by using fewer resources or shared resources. Creating a network plan is important before networking the computers. It formally represents the components of the network along with the planned connections. It can be helpful in managing various information like where the data is stored, what kind of data, etc. The importance of networking involves sharing of information and resources, assisting in collaboration and centralized management of information.The network can be classified on the basis of geography and role of its components. Based on geography, the network can be classified as Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) and Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). According to the role of components, the network can be classified as Peer-to-peer network, Server based network and Client based network (Sir 3).
Storage Array
Storage arrays are devices which can store data in a persistent manner for subsequent use. It is storage hardware containing hard disk drives for increasing the capacity of storage. The data is generally stored in a disk or disk arrays. Disk arrays are a group of disk devices. They are Storage Area Network (SAN) devices. The variation can be found in capacity, design, performance and related features. It is rare that storage arrays provide direct access to individual drives. It uses RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Drives) for grouping a set of drives. Redundant Array of Independent Drives uses independent drives for facilitating performance and capacity. Several drives are grouped together for providing common storage using complex algorithms. These algorithms define the characters of each grouping. Each RAID group is equivalent to a Logical Unit Number (LUN) which is a single storage unit. It is another kind of storage unit which is accessible. In advanced storage arrays Redundant Array of Independent Drives can have more than one Logical Unit Numbers. These can be accessed by one or more servers. There are basically two types of storage arrays namely, Active/Active and Active/ Passive storage arrays (VMware 6).
Active/ Active Storage Arrays
An active/ active storage array allows accessing the Logical Unit Number using storage processors without impacting its performance. In such an array all paths are active at all the times (VMware 8).
Active/ Passive Storage Arrays
In an active/ passive storage array one storage processor services the Logical Unit Number on active basis. Other service processor acts in background of Logical Unit Number. The command of input or output can be sent only via an active processor. In the process of failure of primary storage processor, the secondary storage processor is automatically activated (VMware 8).
Conclusion
One of the essential aspects to help organizations and individuals are storage management. It helps in centralization of information, manages storage tiers (depending upon service levels), virtualizes the information storage process, store backup, and reports, manages data recovery in case of a disaster, and keeps archived data for meeting compliance standards, analytics and service management. It can also help in locating unused storage spaces which may comprise of applications, file systems, users, and database. The use of storage system can be optimized by using storage reports. Organizations are not only focused on storage management for today but also looking for storage space for coming times. Managing storage infrastructure is expensive and implies huge cost for organizations. It has risen by 40-50% over years. While the organizations use about 20% of its storage capacity (GovConnection 2). The rest of storage space remains unutilized. This evokes the significance of storage management. It can help the organizations in planning and manage data spaces in an effective and cost-efficient manner. With the advent of cloud technology, virtualized storage, and storage efficiency technologies, the organizations can manage their storage in a much more efficient manner.
Works Cited
Arie Shoshani, Alexander Sim, and Junmin Gu. "STORAGE RESOURCE MANAGERS." Arie Shoshani, Alexander Sim, and Junmin Gu. Grid Resource Management. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2004. 321-340.
Corporation, EMC. Information storage and management. Ed. Alok Shrivastava and EMC Education Services G. Somasundaram. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2009.
Managing information storage: Trends, challenges and options. Massachusetts: EMC Corporation, 2011.
GovConnection, Inc. "Storage management." 2010.
Irwin, David E. "AN OPERATING SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR NETWORKED SERVER INFRASTRUCTURE." Duke University, 2008.
Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan. "Storage Management." Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan. Database system concepts. 6th. McGraw-Hill, 2010. 143-165.
VMware. SAN Conceptual and Design Basics. California: VMware, Inc, 2006.
