Enterprise data storage performance bottlenecks that can clog disk drives, controllers and the ports into arrays can be addressed by a mix of storage-related tools. Storage administrators can address performance bottlenecks by turning to one or more of the following options:
1. Application tools that are built into applications. These include Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange Server and SQL Server and Oracle Corp.'s database servers.
2. Operating system tools. In a Windows environment, Perfmon can be used, while iostat or sar can be used in a Unix/Linux environment.
3. Element managers for the storage arrays and the switches.
4. Storage resource management (SRM) software, such as:
- EMC Corp. ControlCenter
- Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co. Storage Essentials
- IBM Corp. Tivoli Storage Productivity Center (TPC)
- Symantec Corp. Veritas CommandCentral Storage
5. SAN
monitoring applications, including:
- Brocade Communications Systems Inc. Data Center Fabric Manager
- Dell Inc. EqualLogic SAN HQ
- NetApp Inc. SANscreen
6. Specialized storage performance monitoring tools from vendors such as Akorri, Tek-Tools and Virtual Instruments Corp.
These tools generally work by sending commands to the element managers, talking to a storage device's APIs or command-line interfaces. They can also work by using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) put out by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA).
Learn more about Troubleshooting and identifying data storage performance bottlenecks.
This was first published in September 2009