Taking a closer look at storage network management

An important issue for storage administrators today is not the underlying interfaces between storage devices, or even the protocols used to communicate to these devices, but deploying a central management tool that takes advantage of whatever interfaces and protocols are available, currently and in the near future.

Dion Gerrans, brand manager for storage at Computer Associates Africa, focuses on storage management, but more specifically, SAN management, discussing seven steps that will enable resellers as well as their clients to deploy a solution that optimises the storage infrastructure.

The storage management marketplace has become increasingly important to companies - specifically administrators who now require integrated, enterprise-ready tools that can intelligently manage their storage assets.

Research organisation, The Evaluator Group even goes so far as to state in its Storage Management Report (January 2003) that storage management software is more important than the underlying storage hardware components.

However, as the IT industry continues to mature we`re seeing the lines blur even more between the various elements of storage management, which can be confusing to end-users as well resellers.

It is, therefore, key that companies - guided by their resellers - opt for solutions that rise to the occasion, adhering to the management demands of key storage architectures such as SAN (storage area network).

Seven steps to demystify SAN management tools

Storage network management technology includes topology and other management issues that are very similar to those found in the traditional networking world.

Therefore, a strong SAN management tool needs to discover, visualise, monitor and manage the storage and networking issues of SANs.

Another key element of SAN management is ease-of-use. Some storage management tools are considered easy to use because they use familiar operations, while other feature intuitive functionality.

However, there are solutions that offer both - designed for storage experts as well as those who may not be experts.

Storage network management software must be able to directly manage a variety of SAN hardware devices - all from the same tool. This is typically done by using the API provided by hardware vendors, such as SAN switches, disk arrays.

CA`s BrightStor SAN Manager, for example, enables this while also providing the ability to launch various hardware-vendor supplied tools in context when direct API integration is not available.

Monitoring the health and performance of SAN components is also another important aspect of SAN management. It is, therefore, key that your software gets real-time device status information as well as utilise the paths through the SAN fabric, and then indicate where it might be under-performing.

This is arguably one of the most important features of storage network management software.

Functionality such as business process views, also known as BPVs, enable logical grouping of storage resources by the business process that uses them.

For example, all the SAN resources used by the payroll application will be grouped together and called the "payroll". This grouping will then include the host servers, switch ports and specific LUNs on storage devices.

Significantly, as SANs grow, the ability to manage the logical business functions also becomes increasingly important. BPVs enable administrators to make decisions based on the needs of their business.

Many enterprises today have a combination of types of storage, so SAN management solutions need to discover not only SANs but network-attached storage (NAS) and direct-attached storage (DAS) on the host servers in the SAN.

Again, solutions such as BrighStor SAN Manager discovers all three types of storage, providing a single point of management for all the storage in an enterprise, rather than having different management tools for the various islands of storage.

Importantly, as server and storage consolidation efforts take place, having a single, integrated management solution can indeed reduce the overall cost administering storage across the enterprise.

An ideal SAN management solution integrates with other management solutions, providing a common look and feel.

Integration advantages include coordinated management of service level agreements (SLAs), measuring end-to-end application response time and simple administration of management tool - therefore offering companies integrated products that work as one powerful solution.

Companies such as CA are continuously tightening integration between their solutions. CA is currently for developing automated workflow in BrightStor Portal, which will then integrate with BrightStor SAN Manager to provide dynamic provisioning of storage.

Storage security is seldom given a second thought. In the past, it was based on the isolation of storage components, however, with networked storage the isolation factor is drastically reduced.

In theory, any type of security breach that can occur within an Ethernet network running TCP/IP protocol can also occur on a fibre-based network running SCSI protocol.

SAN management solutions must, therefore, be able to work with security software in order to detect security anomalies or potential malicious activity.

Very few companies are in the position to deploy SANs from the start. Most must deploy SANs in existing environments, which feature a variety of operating systems (OSs) and storage devices.

This is why it is so important that resellers offer the necessary expertise to overcome deployment challenges, while also utilising solutions that not only fit well into the existing environments, but also provide a sensible migration path towards more advanced features that customers can "ease" into.

CA`s South African storage resellers known as Enterprise Storage Partners adhere to stringent company requirements, providing a high level of skills and expertise that will enable South African enterprise proactively and efficiently manage their SANs.