Tips

Tips

NAS devices

• 5 signs it's time for a NAS or SAN upgrade

  It's easy to tell when it's time to modernize your storage infrastructure if you know the warning signs. Find out what they are and how Liberty Mutual Insurance handled its upgrade.  Continue Reading

• What is SAN zoning and what are the different types of zoning?

  Zoning can be set up according to server, storage and SAN switch. Discover what type of zoning to use, how zone sets extend SAN segmentation and about the various zoning schemas.  Continue Reading

• Object storage devices won't be pushing NAS out just yet

  Object storage is becoming more popular as the default storage choice for enterprises and large organizations. But it may not be time to ditch that NAS system quite yet.  Continue Reading

• NAS applications will change with greater SSD adoption

  As NAS technology changes -- with new software features and faster, all-flash NAS hardware -- its use in organizations has evolved into functions for which it was never suited.  Continue Reading

• Update NAS scale-out systems without a performance hit

  With proper prior planning, it is possible to upgrade existing scale-out network-attached storage without the process having a negative impact on overall performance.  Continue Reading

• How to configure a rack-mounted NAS in 10 easy steps

  Get the most out of your rack-mount NAS appliance by enabling permissions, network access and other advanced options.  Continue Reading

• Top five reasons to choose NAS vs. DAS

  DAS can be useful for specific applications, but NAS is often the better option because it can provide a greater number of storage architecture options.  Continue Reading

• Five LUN management basics

  IT expert Brien Posey discusses five fundamental ideas storage professionals must understand when dealing with LUN management.  Continue Reading

• Five LUN storage questions for pros

  Learn what expert Brien Posey has to say to storage administrators about five questions they have about LUN storage in their environments.  Continue Reading

• Scale-out network-attached storage: Options in today’s market

  Scale-out NAS systems are gaining interest due to rapid growth of file data and “big data” analytics. Here’s a look at the scale-out NAS vendors.  Continue Reading

• Should you bypass the hypervisor for storage I/O?

  Passing storage I/O through a hypervisor can seem inefficient, so does it make sense to bypass the hypervisor and allow virtual machines to mount data storage directly?  Continue Reading

• Using NAS storage devices in a virtualized server environment

  Are NAS storage devices a fit for a virtual server environment? We list factors in choosing these devices, and explain their impact on your storage systems.  Continue Reading

• Design your SAN for high availability

  How, and at what cost.  Continue Reading

• Clustered NAS: How to choose the right clustered NAS system

  Finding the right clustered NAS (or scale-out NAS) system means knowing your storage needs. Learn the questions to ask when evaluating your requirements and the latest offerings.  Continue Reading

• Choosing a NAS filer for small and medium-sized businesses

  Learn what a NAS filer is, if it's suitable for your SMB and how to choose the right one for your data storage environment.  Continue Reading

• Using NAS NFS with VMware ESX: Technology pros and cons

  NAS NFS can be an efficient network storage methodology when dealing with VMware ESX and thousands of virtual machines, but NAS performance can be an issue.  Continue Reading

• Choosing a midrange network-attached storage (NAS) system

  Midrange network-attached storage (NAS) appliances can be an affordable solution for SMBs in today's do-more-with-less economic climate. Learn how to choose the NAS system that best fits your storage environment.  Continue Reading

• How to determine a NAS system's scalability

  This tip covers scalability limitations of a network-attached storage (NAS) system, including maxed managed file limits, IOPS and throughput limits, and capacity limits. It can help you avoid application outages that occur when storage reaches ...  Continue Reading

• Do you really need NAS?

  There are no short, hard-and-fast rules when it comes to determining if a small to midsized business (SMB) needs network-attached storage (NAS). In this tip, Tory Skyers discusses the advantages and disadvantages of networked storage in an SMB ...  Continue Reading

• Moving from DAS to NAS

  As the volume of data and the number of users in SMBs grow, direct-attached storage (DAS) becomes harder to manage. In this tip, Rick Cook discusses how SMBs can benefit from adding storage to their existing networks in the form of NAS.  Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Troubleshooting your NAS system

  This tip will point out some common sense suggestions and best practices that may help you to create or maintain a more robust and reliable NAS infrastructure.  Continue Reading

• Questions to ask before building a NAS system

  Questions and considerations when building a NAS system.  Continue Reading

• Checklist: Five ways to boost iSCSI performance

  There are several things you can do to boost the performance of your iSCSI storage system -- some are easy, and fairly inexpensive.  Continue Reading

• Checklist: Ten steps to troubleshooting SAN/NAS performance problems

  Learn how to isolate the cause of performance problems in your storage system, fix what's broken and learn from your mistakes.  Continue Reading

• Checklist: How to design LUNs for high performance

  If you want the best performance, you need to design your LUNs so they map effectively onto storage devices.  Continue Reading

• Pros and cons of iSCSI arrays

  ISCSI arrays will save you a pretty penny, but at a slight cost in terms of performance.  Continue Reading

• How to prevent common problems in SATA drives

  Problems in SATA drives generally stem from one of two causes. This tip will tell you how to prevent both.  Continue Reading

• How to document a SAN

  Effective SAN documentation will keep your systems up and running even if your entire staff gets hit by a bus.  Continue Reading

• Six steps to improving disk throughput

  In Windows 2000, while the disk system is the logical suspect in performance degradation, it's not the only possible culprit--it may mean you need more memory.  Continue Reading

• Set up persistent binding on an HBA

  In this Ask the Expert Q&A, SAN expert Chris Poelker gives you the code to set up persistent binding on an HBA for a Unix host.  Continue Reading

• Using NAS for database storage

  This tip takes a look at online yellow page company YP.Net, and shows how their CTO optimized the company's database for high performance, and why he chose NAS storage over SAN.  Continue Reading

• New FC-AL technology ushers in "SBOD"

  New technology puts what amounts to an FC-AL switch and allows the controller to establish point-to-point connections between a storage device and the controller.  Continue Reading

• The SNIA shared storage model

  You need to know about this new standard in the market.  Continue Reading

• How to secure NFS access to NAS devices

  Bits & Bytes: Security expert Vijay Ahuja discusses several approaches to prevent unwarranted user access to NAS devices, when made via the Network File System (NFS).  Continue Reading

• Which SAN cache do you need?

  Beware of data loss in cache.  Continue Reading

• Prepare a tech-support checklist

  What should be on that list.  Continue Reading

• Shared file systems: An overview

  At their core, shared file systems let multiple users access the same files at the same time. Learn about the different products in this space and the categories they fall into.  Continue Reading

• What to consider when evaluating file systems

  Looking to file systems to provide better file management and heterogeneous support for your networked storage resources? Analyst Jamie Gruener shares how to go about your search.  Continue Reading

• Dos and don'ts of SAN cabling

  Fiber optic cable is one of the simplest parts of a SAN and one of the most time-consuming to troubleshoot. Here's how to insall and troubleshoot it.  Continue Reading

• Audit your SAN's security risks

  This tip describes checklists for auditing the security of your storage area networks (SANs).  Continue Reading

• A beginners guide to iSCSI

  SearchStorage.com contributor Simon Gordon answers FAQs about iSCSI.  Continue Reading

• Configuring the SAN: Zoning, HBAs and switches

  Bits & Bytes: SearchStorage.com's newest contributor Arthur Scrimo offers expert advice on working with switches, HBAs and zoning in a SAN.  Continue Reading

• Deal with those saturated links

  This tip explains what saturated links are, how they affect performance and how you can handle them.  Continue Reading

• MB/s or IO/s: Which to measure?

  There are two common methods of measuring performance in a storage network, but which do you measure? According to this tip, it depends on what you're doing.  Continue Reading

• Fibre Channel, part 2: Calculating data speed over distance

  An overview of the basic components of Fibre Channel, how it works and some basic math for running FC over long distances.  Continue Reading

• Fibre Channel, part 1: Going the distance with SANs

  Techniques for establishing fast, long-distance storage area networks.  Continue Reading

• Hard zoning vs. soft zoning explained

  What is hard zoning and soft zoning? In this tip, learn about hard zoning vs. soft zoning and get the definition for each.  Continue Reading

• Storage zoning and zoning schemas

  Our expert identifies common SAN zoning schemas -- including common host, single target multiple initiator, single initiator multiple target and single initiator single target -- and discusses when to use each.  Continue Reading

• Next-generation NAS

  Next-generation NAS  Continue Reading

• SAN topologies, part 2: How to design your SAN

  How to build a SAN using various topologies.  Continue Reading

• SAN topologies, part 1: Know your switch options

  What size switch to use when designing a SAN.  Continue Reading

• How do you manage your SAN?

  Centralize for better management.  Continue Reading

• The big three of SAN QoS

  Description of the components of QoS for SANs.  Continue Reading

• Solid-state disk gives SANs performance

  Why you can use them somewhat cost-effictively.  Continue Reading

• Zone with zone sets

  A discussion of zone sets.  Continue Reading

• Symmetrical and asymmetrical SANs

  The differences and what each is good for.  Continue Reading

• Mixing arbitrated loop and fabric

  Why you would want to do it, and how.  Continue Reading

• Masking and zoning for SAN security

  How they work to enhance security.  Continue Reading

• SAN approaches to LUN security

  Different ways to help manage security of data on a SAN.  Continue Reading

• Use a NAS server for bare-metal restore

  How you can speed restore after a disaster by backing up on a NAS server.  Continue Reading

• Understand SPC-1

  Discussion of a new standard for SAN performance.  Continue Reading

• Certification for SAN professionals

  Which SAN certification is best to help you meet your goals?  Continue Reading

• Integrating SAN and NAS

  A guide to where to find info on current storage architectures.  Continue Reading

• Considerations for SAN extension

  Extending SAN connections over long distances is getting easier with new IP storage products, but look before you leap.  Continue Reading

• Ping to test your SAN

  Proactive testing is the ticket for optimum SAN performance.  Continue Reading

• SAN switch design considerations

  Do you need a large number of ISLs in order to build a single FC fabric? This user suggests probably not.  Continue Reading

• DWDM for long-distance SANs

  Discussion of optical multiplexing technique that allows for SANs over greater distances.  Continue Reading

• Core-edge SAN switch architecture

  A discussion of the most scalable and fastest of the popular SAN switch architectures.  Continue Reading

• Cascaded SAN switch architectures

  A discussion of the simplest of the SAN switch connection schemes  Continue Reading

• Test your SAN aggressively

  Storage consulting company Imation's Storage Professional Services Group relates their experiences with building SANs.  Continue Reading

• How to tell your NAS from your SAN

  Many server and storage vendors from Sun to Compaq are offering more SAN and NAS choices for their customers.  Continue Reading

• Sun Microsystems' N8400 and N8600 NAS products offer higher capacity and performance

  Sun Microsystems announce two new models of the scalable NAS storage family called the Sun StorEdge N8000 Filers.  Continue Reading

• Names in NAS

  Rick Cook gives some 'gotchas' you should be aware of when it comes to installing a NAS device.  Continue Reading

• Copper for Fibre Channel SANs

  How copper cable can be used for Fibre Channel connections.  Continue Reading

• Fault tolerance for network-attached storage

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• Choosing a class of SAN service: Class 3

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• Choosing a class of SAN service: Class 1

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• Redundancy means security in SAN fabrics

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• Service classes in Fibre Channel SANs

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• What's the difference: Fibre Channel Fabric vs. Arbitrated Loop

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• Cable lengths for Fibre Channel SANs

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