Q: Can you describe the steps that a single byte takes when going from memory to a spinning spindle and back again?

A: For this question, I've borrowed from my book, Building Storage Networks, Second Edition. Start at the top and read down.

  • Application
  • Kernel (interface)
  • File system
  • File system memory cache
  • Kernel
  • Volume manager or virtualization agent
  • Abstraction layer storing device driver (storage command interpreter mostly)
  • Low-level device driver (physical connectivity)
  • System memory bus
  • System I/O bus
  • Host adapter controller wiring, (bus or network) including any virtualization operators in the path
  • Subsystem controller
  • Subsystem cache (optional)
  • Subsystem internal connectivity
  • Device controller
  • Device buffer memory
  • Device media

Additional Questions:
May 2003:

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What trends do you see in open-systems backup and recovery environments?
Apr 2003: What tools can we use to replicate domestic and overseas databases to one another?
Mar 2003: We're building an HSM solution to which we'll write 100GB+/month and store it for seven years. Do you think we should use CD, DVD or tape?
Feb 2003: I want to consolidate 10TB+ of files onto one system. Would you recommend products from EMC, NetApp or one based on Microsoft's SAK?
Jan 2003: I'm out of disk space on my Sun server running Oracle. Is NAS a good choice?
Dec 2002: File server cluster vs. network load balanced vs. DFS: What's the best method for file server HA?
Nov 2002: What are the pros and cons of storing user files on a RAID array with either ATA or SCSI drives?
Oct 2002: Can you do a LAN-free data transfer by giving an IP address to a FC adapter? Does it decrease the speed of data transfers to LAN speeds?
Sep 2002: What is the average amount of hosts for a centralized system to backup at one time?
Aug 2002: Why doesn't my mail client software create a lock for e-mail files if it's reading it off a NAS device?
Which non-EMC NAS devices provide a gateway to connect to an EMC Symmetrix SAN?
July 2002: What does storage pooling mean? What do you think of it?
May 2002: What is the difference between a NAS gateway and a SAN appliance?
Is tape still the best for archiving media files? Does it offer a lower TCO than disk?
Apr 2002: In terms of feed speed, what does that measurement refer to? Is it from the primary storage to the secondary storage? Does it stop at the write speed on the tape drive?
Mar 2002: How can you use solid-state disk (SSD) to accelerate SAN performance?

This was first published in June 2003

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