NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MIKE KARP ON STORAGE IN THE ENTERPRISE 10/26/04 Today's focus: Logical partitioning: A whole new kettle of fish
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * What is logical partitioning? * Links related to Storage in the Enterprise * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Seagate Technologies Free White Paper From Seagate Technologies Increasing storage requirements are driving data center growth not only in terms of petabyte capacities, processing capability, and IT hardware, but also in terms of expensive square footage. New small form factor (2.5-inch) enterprise-class drives enable IT managers to meet data management needs with improved computing power in less space. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=85310 _______________________________________________________________ Announcing a Powerful New Resource for Small Businesses from NW Fusion and PC World! Find Small Business resources, tools, and advice on Security, Broadband, Networking, Hardware, Software and Wireless & Mobile Technology at: http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=85506 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Logical partitioning: A whole new kettle of fish By Mike Karp IBM's recent announcement of its TotalStorage DS6000 and DS8000 storage arrays is a pretty good indicator that Big Blue is serious about refreshing its storage offerings. Especially interesting about this announcement is IBM's introduction of logical partitioning (LPAR) technology on some of its high-end DS8000 models. EMC, Hitachi and IBM have been separating I/O workloads on their high-end devices for several years now, assigning I/O pathways to physical assets such as arrays, HBAs, ports and cache. Of course, even at the desktop level we have been physically partitioning individual disks since the 1980s. But logical partitioning is a whole new kettle of fish. Physical devices, once their storage has been virtualized into a single large storage pool, can be partitioned and repartitioned logically. But why would you want to do this? There are several reasons, all of them good. It is important to note that the LPARs allow each partition to exist independently of the others within the box. So as they like to say in Las Vegas, what happens there stays there. Isolation such as this can be important when operations within a partition are potentially harmful to other data or processes running elsewhere. Extreme examples might the need to ensure that a security violation affecting one data set cannot have an effect on adjacent data, that the vagaries of an R&D system don't impact data servicing production systems, or the imperative that, should one part of a storage system crash, it doesn't bring everything else down with it. A more mundane example might involve moving some planned process - necessary to the business but known to suck the cycles out of a CPU - to an isolated partition so that its operations don't degrade performance of other operations. Think of how your own operations might improve if you could replicate data to an isolated partition and then run your database reports or backups from the replica. Production systems would be untouched and business processes accessing the original data would not be degraded. Of course, another way to isolate data is to physically split it off to other machines. A reasonably good analogy of this lies in a comparison of LPARs and storage-area networks (SAN). SANs typically offer greatest value when the storage pool they represent is as large as possible, but in order to isolate problems and to keep them from cascading across the storage network many managers are forced to run multiple SANs. The good news is that the data is isolated. The bad news is that there are now two networks to manage, and the physical assets may be widely distributed. In the future, IBM plans to add capability for running applications on an LPAR (requiring, naturally, that the application has been ported to IBM's Power processor and its AIX-based operating system.) Today, managers have the option of configuring the DS8000 as a monolithic storage pool or, using LPARs, as multiple storage systems. Using LPARs should add efficiency in several management areas, and is also likely to help rein in floor space, power and cooling requirements. RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS IBM supersizes storage arrays Network World, 10/11/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/101104ibmstorage.html Users look to ease SAN adoption Network World, 10/25/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/102504firstsan.html _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Mike Karp Mike Karp is senior analyst with Enterprise Management Associates, focusing on storage, storage management and the methodology that brings these issues into the marketplace. He has spent more than 20 years in storage, systems management and telecommunications. Mike can be reached via e-mail <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Veritas IDC White Paper, Distributed Applications Performance Management Performance management of distributed applications continues to grow in complexity, keeping pace with this constantly changing environment is a challenge for IT and performance management software vendors alike. Learn how the Veritas i3 Approach can be the foundation for your organization's Application Performance Management strategy. Download this IDC White Paper now http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=85638 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Archive of the Storage newsletter: http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/stor/index.html Breaking storage news and analysis: http://www.nwfusion.com/topics/storage.html _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE NW FUSION'S LIVING BUYER'S GUIDES Updated constantly, NW Fusion's Buyer's Guides give you the latest information on product capabilities, features, requirements, pricing and more. Check out NW Fusion's Buyer's Guides on security, instant messaging, enterprise routers, anti-spam, NAS Appliances and more at: <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/bg.html> _______________________________________________________________ May We Send You a Free Print Subscription? You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered at your fingertips each day. Now, extend your knowledge by receiving 51 FREE issues to our print publication. Apply today at http://www.subscribenw.com/nl2 International subscribers click here : http://nww1.com/go/circ_promo.html _______________________________________________________________ SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World e-mail newsletters, go to: <http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/Changes.aspx> To unsubscribe from promotional e-mail go to: <http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/Preferences.aspx> To change your e-mail address, go to: <http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/ChangeMail.aspx> Subscription questions? Contact Customer Service by replying to this message. This message was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please use this address when modifying your subscription. _______________________________________________________________ Have editorial comments? Write Jeff Caruso, Newsletter Editor, at: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Inquiries to: NL Customer Service, Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 For advertising information, write Kevin Normandeau, V.P. of Online Development, at: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Copyright Network World, Inc., 2004 ------------------------ This message was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
