Problem solve

Problem solve

Get help with specific problems with your technologies, process and projects.

• How to consolidate NAS boxes

  By now, we all know that network-attached storage (NAS) can provide benefits for small-midsized businesses (SMBs). However, managing more than a few NAS devices quickly becomes a burden, swapping the value out of NAS simplicity. This tip discusses ... Continue Reading

• Determining the number of drives in a RAID group

  How many drives in a RAID group will it take to give you the performance you need for a database or email or file server, or for that new VMware implementation? Continue Reading

• Five ways to control RAID rebuild times

  Hard disk capacities are rapidly increasing, and so are RAID rebuild times. This article offers five tips for keeping RAID rebuilds reasonable. Continue Reading

• How to create an RFP for NAS

  Creating an RFP will help you boil your NAS vendor choices down to a manageable few. And your NAS RFP should include one technology: thin provisioning. Continue Reading

• Tips for creating LUNs

  LUNs are the cornerstone of a server's relationship with its attending storage platform. This article details what you need to consider when creating LUNs. Continue Reading

• How many bytes for...

  This page provides tables and other information about how many bytes are required (how much computer storage) for various information objects or purposes; it also summarizes some facts that have been gathered about how much information exists in the...Continue Reading

• RAID tutorial: Picking the right RAID level

  While there are multiple variations of RAID available today, only six levels actually matter for SMBs. Marc Staimer discusses how to choose the right RAID level for your business based on the application data type, the criticality of that data and ...Continue Reading

• NAS system planning strategies

  Implementing a NAS environment requires a lot of planning. This tip tells you why location, power and allocation are vital to consider when installing a NAS.Continue Reading

• How to size a SAN

  If your DAS storage infrastructure has reached its limits, or your existing SAN is out of date or just plain end-of-life, your first step will be to know what your storage requirements are.Continue Reading

• Understanding NAS interconnects: Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet

  Understanding interconnects like Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet, which are used to integrate NAS devices into networks, can help you make better decisions on NAS deployments.Continue Reading

• Five steps to calculate data storage capacity requirements

  This tip offers five best practices for controlling storage costs with effective storage capacity planning.Continue Reading

• Why NAS protocols are the language of NAS

  NAS protocols are the language of your NAS system, and understanding how they work is the key to operating a storage network. The main NAS protocols are CIFS and NFS, but iSCSI is gaining ground, and FCoE may be just around the corner.Continue Reading

• How to move from DAS to a SAN

  Here's how to move your data from direct-attached storage to your brand-new storage area network.Continue Reading

• Network File Sharing vs. Common Internet File System

  Storage expert Greg Schulz explains what you need to know when choosing between Network File Sharing and Common Internet File System.Continue Reading

• Leveraging storage replication for VM disaster recovery

  When you're sizing up storage solutions for DR in a virtual environment, you should consider the issues of vendor support; storage architecture; replication options; deduplication; and recovery options.Continue Reading

• SATA vs. SCSI in RAID

  Storage expert Greg Schulz answers a reader's question: "How does SCSI in RAID compare to SATA in RAID?"Continue Reading

• LUN basics

  Greg Schulz outlines what a LUN is and how it is used.Continue Reading

• Comparing different backup strategies

  Review the primary options for backup including direct, network and SAN, and determine which solution is best for your backup strategy.Continue Reading

• Companies try green storage strategies to reduce power consumption

  Storage administrators are trying to mitigate the growing problems of power cost and availability by turning to green storage -- a broad mix of technologies and tactics intended to reduce power consumption not only in the data center but across the ...Continue Reading

• Using global spare drives to increase SAN reliability

  Here's a checklist for storage administrators using global spare drives to create a more reliable SAN.Continue Reading

• How to create a SAN performance baseline

  To understand SAN performance and what is normal SAN behavior, you must have a performance baseline.Continue Reading

• How to integrate iSCSI and Fibre Channel, and make it work

  Although companies of every size are embracing iSCSI SAN technology because of its lower cost and relative simplicity, there are situations where iSCSI and Fibre Channel coexistence makes sense. Here are eight best practices for integrating iSCSI ...Continue Reading

• How data deduplication works

  Chapter one of our data deduplication handbook takes you under the hood to show how data deduplication works so you can maximize the efficiency of this data reduction technology.Continue Reading

• How to calculate available disk space on a RAID 5

  Storage management expert Ashley D'Costa answers a reader's question: "How do I calculate the disk space available on my RAID 5?"Continue Reading

• How to select a storage capacity planning tool

  To select a storage management and capacity planning tool, first calculate how much storage is available and how much of your total storage capacity is actually being used.Continue Reading

• How useful are storage benchmarks?

  Most storage vendors like to tout how well their gear performed on benchmark tests, but the results may not always be as they first appear. The benchmarking process can be easily manipulated because of the large number of variables that influence ...Continue Reading

• Why does my EMC 45 TB drive yield only 41 TB of usable storage?

  Storage expert Ashley D'Costa answers a reader's question: "When is a 300 GB drive not a 300 GB drive?"Continue Reading

• Choosing a low-end NAS product

  Many low-end NAS products are designed for personal or home office use. However, there are some products on the market suitable for certain SMB or enterprise-level applications. Learn what you need to consider before deploying a low-end NAS product.Continue Reading

• How to reduce response time in a SAN

  When it comes to storage area network (SAN) metrics and measurements, such as bandwith, input/output per second (IOPS) and utilization, more is usually better. However, when it comes to response time and latency (the amount of time it takes to ...Continue Reading

• Tutorial on solid-state disk (SSD) devices

  Solid-state disk (SSD) devices use much less power and produce less heat than hard disks. But until their prices come down, they'll at best be niche devices.Continue Reading

• How to choose an e-discovery tool

  Here is a list of factors to consider when choosing an e-discovery tool.Continue Reading

• What you should know about iSCSI initiators

  Learn about hardware and software iSCSI initiators and when you should choose each.Continue Reading

• Ten reasons storage security is critical

  Storage expert Kevin Beaver outlines 10 reasons you need to step up your storage security game.Continue Reading

• How to write an archiving program RFP

  With so many archiving systems on the market, putting together a request for proposal (RFP) for an archiving program for structured, semistructured or unstructured data is a key step. It's equally important that your team is well-prepared to ...Continue Reading

• How to make the right NAS gateway purchasing decisions

  NAS gateways overcome the inherent limitations of scale and flexibility by utilizing externally connected storage as external standalone disk arrays. NAS storage capacity is typically expanded by simply adding more disks to the appliance, but this ...Continue Reading

• Why you should perform data classification

  Regardless of how daunting a task it may be, understanding the data we store is the first step in addressing data management issues. This tip outlines some of the main reasons why data classification is essential.Continue Reading

• Using SAS and SATA for tiered storage

  This podcast offers detailed information about SAS and SATA so you can strike the right balance between SAS and SATA in a tiered storage environment.Continue Reading

• RAID levels defined

  This tip offers a listing of the RAID levels in use today and details the characteristics and applications of each.Continue Reading

• How to choose the correct RAID level

  This tip offers nine things to consider when deciding which RAID level is right for your organization's needs.Continue Reading

• What to expect from a storage audit

  This tip outlines the three main types of storage audits, what you stand to gain from each type and offers insight into the audit process.Continue Reading

• RAID 4 vs. RAID 5

  Storage management expert Ashley D'Costa discusses RAID 4 vs. RAID 5.Continue Reading

• Choosing a storage virtualization approach

  This tip outlines three approaches to storage virtualization available today, along with some benefits, caveats and some examples of each.Continue Reading

• RAID-5 configuration

  Storage management expert Ashley D'Costa answers a reader's question about RAID-5.Continue Reading

• Storage virtualization: Where and how

  This tip outlines the various locations to implement storage virtualization functionality, the different approaches to storage virtualization and offers suggestions on how to choose the right approach for your environment.Continue Reading

• Storage basics: RAID striping in detail

  How RAID striping improves performance and how parity fits in.Continue Reading

• How data deduplication eases storage requirements

  Storage administrators are struggling to handle spiraling volumes of documents, audio, video, images and large email attachments. Adding storage is not always the best solution, and many companies are turning to data reduction technologies such as ...Continue Reading

• Justifying your storage staffing

  Three things to consider when calculating staffing levels to get beyond staffing per terabyte.Continue Reading

• What is unstructured data and how is it different from structured data in the enterprise?

  Expert Pierre Dorion talks about unstructured data and its impact on the data enterprise.Continue Reading

• How do data classification and file indexing manage unstructured data?

  Well, data classification itself is not really a technology, but rather a policy-driven practice of data categorization based on an understanding of the data on hand...Continue Reading

• Offsite vs. onsite storage

  Storage expert Greg Schulz discusses offsite vs. onsite storage.Continue Reading

• RAID configuration with three hard drives

  Storage expert Greg Schulz discusses the possibility of configuring a RAID-1 with 3 total hard drives.Continue Reading

• Double drive failures in a RAID-10 configuration

  Storage expert Greg Schulz discusses the possibility of recovering data after a double drive failure.Continue Reading

• SATA controllers

  Storage expert Greg Schulz answers a reader's question: "Is a dual-channel SATA controller the same as a two-port SATA controller?"Continue Reading

• Will SAS and SATA replace SCSI technology?

  Learn where to use SCSI, SAS and SATA drives.Continue Reading

• NAS vs. PC-based file server

  Business continuity expert Pierre Dorion discusses NAS vs. a PC-based file server.Continue Reading

• FC-AL topology in a SAN environment

  SAN expert Greg Schulz describes the FC-AL topology in a SAN environment.Continue Reading

• SATA port multiplier vs. SATA multilane

  What is the difference between a SATA port multiplier and SATA multilane?Continue Reading

• Difference between parity groups

  SAN expert Greg Schulz discusses the differences between parity groups.Continue Reading

• Block and file access unite with multiprotocol storage

  This tip looks at the pros and cons, as well as when and where to deploy multiprotocol storage, which is also referred to as "unified" storage.Continue Reading

• How does IP storage differ from iSCSI, NAS and Fibre Channel?

  Generically, IP storage involves any storage functionality that is leveraging TCP/IP as a network transport...Continue Reading

• Storage security and the firewall DMZ problem

  Firewalls are often relied upon too much for network security -- especially when it comes to locking down the storage environment. Learn how this firewall demilitarized zone (DMZ) security misconception unnecessarily exposes many critical storage ...Continue Reading

• Hard zoning vs. soft zoning

  SAN expert Greg Schulz explains the difference between hard and soft zoning.Continue Reading

• Migrating data in NAS gateway configurations

  There are four approaches for migrating data between NAS gateway systems. For storage administrators, the problem is how to maintain data availability during the migration.Continue Reading

• Connecting a hard drive to NAS

  Our NAS expert Randy Kerns answers this question, posed by one of our readers: "How would I take an ordinary hard drive and create a network attached storage (NAS) hard drive instead of buying an external hard drive?"Continue Reading

• How to compare Fibre Channel (FC) and SCSI

  Storage expert Greg Schulz offers advice on how to compare Fibre Channel (FC) and SCSI technology.Continue Reading

• Multipath I/O: Guarantee redundancy during HBA failure (almost!)

  Microsoft's Multipath I/O (MPIO) is designed to mitigate the effects of a HBA failure, by providing an alternate data path between devices. Learn why MPIO doesn't completely eliminate the possibility of problems if an HBA fails and what you can do ...Continue Reading

• Keep end-user storage under control

  With free email services offering up to 2 GB of storage, it's tough to convince corporate email users that mailbox limits are needed. But companies are realizing that user storage quotas are a necessary evil.Continue Reading

• Capacity planning: Reclaim orphaned storage

  This tip takes a look at how to maximize your storage capacity utilization by finding orphaned data and storage that can in turn be re-allocated for another productive use.Continue Reading

• Director vs. switch

  Storage expert Greg Schulz outlines things to consider when choosing switches for a SAN.Continue Reading

• Five must-have storage security testing tools

  You know that your storage systems need to be secured and there are plenty of tools to find general security vulnerabilities. But, what about tools that look specifically at storage security vulnerabilities? There are a handful of these tools that ...Continue Reading

• Five ways to add capacity to a NAS system

  NAS expert Randy Kerns offers some actions to take in order to find more space on your NAS system.Continue Reading

• How to improve SAN utilization

  Improve the utilization of your SAN in terms of performance, capacity and availability. These tips can be applied in principal to FC, iSCSI or InfiniBand block-based SANs, as well as NFS or CIFS file-based NAS environments.Continue Reading

• Multipath I/O and failover: The differences

  Storage expert Rick Cook discusses the major differences between failover and multipath I/O and clears up common misconceptions about each.Continue Reading

• The rising cost of cheap storage

  The commoditization of storage has been driving acquisition cost down for quite some time. However, hidden costs are now starting to surface as organizations struggle to manage hundreds of terabytes of data. This tip discusses the some of the ...Continue Reading

• ISCSI network configuration, design and optimization

  It's a must to consider more than just cabling when designing an iSCSI-based storage network. Learn to look at the bigger picture when configuring or optimizing an iSCSI-based storage network.Continue Reading

• The problem with unstructured information

  Information security expert Kevin Beaver highlights the problem of managing unstructured information and what you can do to keep your organization on the right track to storage security and out of hot water.Continue Reading

• How to count the cost of storage

  The cost of each gigabyte of storage is declining rapidly in every segment of the market. Enterprise storage today costs what desktop storage did less than a decade ago. So why are overall costs increasing?Continue Reading

• SAN performance: Five tips in five minutes

  Answers to frequently asked questions about how to improve SAN performance.Continue Reading

• Kerberos and its place in NAS authentication

  Kerberos security has been around since the 1980s, but many people are still unfamiliar with how it works. Storage expert Christopher Poelker explains how NAS environments can benefit from the use of Kerberos.Continue Reading

• Active/active vs. active/passive arrays

  Storage expert Greg Schulz outlines the pros and cons of active/active and active/passive arrays.Continue Reading

• Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop or switched disk?

  Storage expert Greg Schulz offers advice to a reader considering buying high-end storage from two different vendors -- one uses Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop technology and one uses a switched-disk interface.Continue Reading

• Testing iSCSI SAN performance with Iometer

  Iometer, a performance test tool for tuning Windows environments, can also be used to tune performance in iSCSI SANs. The tool lets you simulate the SAN's performance by setting many of the parameters and running tests. Repeated runs with different ...Continue Reading

• NICs in NAS systems

  NAS expert Randy Kerns answers the question: "Is it typical, when using a NAS appliance, that a host/server would have 2xNICs installed?"Continue Reading

• NAS: How does a client access files?

  NAS expert Randy Kerns offers advice to a reader who asked: "How does NAS appear to machines accessing files from it?"Continue Reading

• Storage compatibility: Be sure your equipment works together

  Ensuring compatibility between storage products can be tricky. This tip outlines eight things you need to consider when integrating a new storage product into your environment.Continue Reading

• HBAs: Are dual HBAs worth the investment?

  Storage networking expert Greg Schulz offers advice to a reader debating whether to invest in dual HBAs for their SAN.Continue Reading

• SAN fine tuning: Get the most from your storage

  The way key SAN components, principally HBAs and switches, are configured will determine overall SAN performance. If you know what to look for and how to make adjustments, performance problems can be greatly reduced.Continue Reading

• Creating NAS partitions

  NAS expert Randy Kerns offers important advice about creating partitions in a NetApp NAS system.Continue Reading

• iSCSI, iFCP and FCIP: How do they stack up?

  iSCSI, iFCP and FCIP are compared in this Q&A.Continue Reading

• FATA vs. FC disk drives

  Storage expert Greg Schulz compares FATA and FC disk drives.Continue Reading

• NAS permissions

  NAS expert Randy Kerns offers advice to a reader who asked: "How are permissions controlled on NAS?"Continue Reading

• NAS appliance vs. homegrown file server

  NAS expert Randy Kerns outlines why he believes purchasing a vendor offering of a NAS product has advantages over rolling your own file server.Continue Reading

• NAS checkpoints for NFS and CIFS file systems

  NAS expert Randy Kerns discusses NAS checkpoint best practices for NFS and CIFS file systems.Continue Reading

• Is storage automation right for you?

  This tip covers what storage automation is, and what it is not, and what it means to you. Also, you will learn why you should, or should not implement a storage automation product.Continue Reading

• SATA drives: Four worst practices

  SATA drives have a few gotchas. Read about the four common SATA drive mistakes to avoid in your storage environment.Continue Reading

• Thirteen data retention mistakes to avoid

  Information security expert Kevin Beaver outlines 13 data retention mistakes storage administrators frequently make, and what you can do to avoid them.Continue Reading

• FC vs. iSCSI: Five tips in five minutes

  Recently, there has been a buzz among storage pros about how FC and iSCSI stack up. Check out this expert advice, so you can decide what is right for your organization.Continue Reading

• Five tips in five minutes: A guide to cost management

  The following tips offer quick and easy advice on how to keep costs low while maintaining a prolific storage system.Continue Reading

• Decreasing I/O latency in RAID array

  Greg Schulz offers troubleshooting advice for a reader looking to decrease I/O latency in a RAID-5 array.Continue Reading

• Backing up a LUN snapshot

  SAN expert Marc Staimer offers a detailed description of what you need to consider when making a snapshot of a LUN and then performing a backup.Continue Reading