iSCSI or FC- experts opinion

We all have read articles about the dilema - iSCSI or FC. Now is the time to ask the source. Let's take a look at the opinion of experts.

Tom / IT Support Team

FC is less susceptible to electromagnetic interference - it's because it uses fiber optics. I.e. even if there is a potential difference between the buildings, we won't feel any negative consequences. Generally, implementation of the FC solution is expensive, but definitely more reliable.

Peter / Research Department

FC or iSCSI? The answer is FC. iSCSI - it's only a group of SCSI commands put in a frame of TCP/IP. FC is more stable and reliable - primarily because it provides coverage on a lower level.

George / QA Department

iSCSI - is cheaper, easy to implement, it is also possible to use existing Ethernet infrastructure.

Steve / IT Support Team

If I had access to the existing Ethernet (1GbE or 10GbE) infrastructure, but a limited budget, I would use iSCSI. If the budget wouldn't be a problem and the implementation would be dedicated for a bank or a provider's service... only FC.

Lukas / QA Department

I'll paraphrase sentence I have found on the network once: FC is like a train - a very expensive vehicle that moves on tracks, quickly and confidently. iSCSI is like a sport car - fast, but requires attention and effort when driving.

And what is your opinion?

Iceland recquires an open source software

In Iceland originated a program which aim is to transfer all public institutions from proprietary software to open source software. All ministries, capital city hall in Reykjavik and national hospital are the first on the list. Education in this country is already transfering into the open source software.

Two new high schools began to use only a free and open software during the school year 2011/2012. This indicates that already 5 out of 32 schools in Iceland does not use a proprietary software. To cheer you up have a look on this hilarious Iceland team goal celebrations:

Open NAS review

Network attached storage (NAS) is a very common and cost-effective storage system. Also, by expanding the group of target users, it needs to be modernized and upgraded constantly. NAS servers are representing a large and promising market. Although this market is today dominated by large storage companies using proprietary solutions or licenses, there are several projects which aim at designing an open NAS product.

Although NAS may function with many popular operating systems, open NAS Linux operating system. Linux, due to its large platforms and file systems support, is a natural candidate to build a new generation of open NAS server, using only open source tools and inexpensive hardware, like standard PCs. An ideal open source NAS solution can be built associated with strategies where the operating system runs from solid states devices, like pendrives or compact flash cards.

Open NAS gives an opportunity for the system to develop, not only by a group of specialists employed in one company. This is in compliance with the principle and practice of open source which is based on peer production by collaboration and cooperation. The outcome of open source practices including final product, source-material and documentation is available the public for free.

There are two basic project aims for open NAS systems. The first was to define general procedures and programs for generating a live version of the system, which boots from solid state devices, starting from a running system. The scripts were modified to support Debian Linux and to generate bootable pendrives.

The second goal was to create web interfaces for open NAS administration. This is carried out by re-using known technologies. The interfaces simplify the configuration work, defining good metaphors for complex administration tasks like RAID setup, partitioning and file system exporting.

These two aims, associated with a particular PC hardware, defines the basis of an open NAS solution. For instance, there is a solution using a PC motherboard with RAID 0 or 1, USB booting and four standard 256GB IDE disks which can provide a NAS system with 512GB (RAID 1) or even 1TB (RAID 0). Obviously, better hardware platforms using e.g. SATA disks improve performance and add hot swap capability to the system.

Some open NAS projects have been accomplished, but many of them are at the design or modification phase, to improve system performance, availability and to add new functionalities.

Nas software

Network attached storage is an attractive solution for small business and private use storage. The NAS server is already equipped with operation system which contains storage for implementing NAS . However, the NAS software is also available separately and allows for quick installation on the popular operating systems.

NAS software solutions vary from the simplest applications offering basic NAS services to most comprehensive software.

These complex NAS software products do not only provides NAS services but also support SAN’s iSCSI functionality and the possibility of future upgrades and storage capacity expansion. NAS/SAN software packages also allow to transform standard hardware into a NAS/SAN type device.

NAS applications create an environment for high-speed data transfer between network devices and data storage and backup for heterogeneous clients. They provide the functionality of iSCSI targets and initiators for NAS users and allow for quick access to the data. Depending on the product, the access type can be only file level, or both file as well as block level.

NAS software is an indispensible tool for network storage management. It relieves the responsibility and saves a lot of workload to IT network administrators. The applications provide most advanced storage security system and data protection, with data reduplication, disaster recovery and automatic failover solutions. NAS allows the data to be l available on the network and accessible by clients. Fault tolerant measures such as RAID, can additionally be used to make sure that the NAS device does not become a point of failure.

NAS technology with dedicated software enables effective management and high availability of the company’s IT system, ensures business continuity and successful functioning of the enterprise at a lower cost.

Little something about SAN

In order to manager your storage area network successfully, a professional SAN software is indispensable. SANs can be very complex systems and their administrations is often a complicated and difficult task. For this reason, IT producers have been elaborating on more innovative solutions for SAN software which simplifies this task. It allows you to build your own high availability SAN easily and quickly The prices , due to an increasing competition on the market are also more and more attractive. You can choose between solutions based on Fibre Channels as well as iSCSI protocols.
     
SAN software products vary from less complex and basic applications to most comprehensive systems. Usually, when you have got a SAN software product, there is no requirement to purchase any proprietary servers, storage or any additional networking hardware. It saves your cabling and switches cost hence effectively reducing the total storage cost. With SAN software you can convert your server into a SAN device. Of course, if you want to, you can buy a SAN device which has an operating system for SAN already installed.
  
 SAN software allows for centralization of all storage resources in the network, as well as securing the data which is stored there. Independent disk array structures, advanced backup solutions, security management applications and various updates are standards for SAN software.
  
 Many SAN systems are in the form of applications which allow for virtualization of storage resources. Here, the costs are even more reduced and you can share the benefits which are the same as provided by a physical SAN. The software can transform server disk drives and external storage into a virtual iSCSI SAN. Not only cost, but also complexity is minimized.
 
  With SAN software which guarantees business continuity and success of your enterprise, you can build a reliable source of shared storage for all your server applications.

High availability- explanation

High availability is a term used to describe a system or a service which is ready to be used, therefore “available”, almost all the time. Availability refers to the situation when a user has access to and can use the resources of a system, service or a device, either to work, add new elements or use the databases. If user cannot do any of those, it is said they are unavailable.

The time when system is not available is also called downtime. High availability ensures that the required level of operational performance is met. There is a scale of availability listing the percentage of overall times when the system is unavailable. In the case of high availability this “almost” is a matter of about 5 minutes a year when the system is unavailable. This is 99,999 percentage (five nines) of availability. There are two types of the periods when a system is unavailable. One is scheduled and the other unscheduled downtime. The first occurs when e.g. a new software is installed and a configuration changes or system reboots are necessary. During these, the system is also unavailable, but they are planned actions, that is why they are called scheduled downtime. The unscheduled downtime is caused by accidents, such as software and hardware failures or blackouts. The damages and losses caused by those unscheduled downtimes can multiply when unavailability increases. Whereas, the scheduled downtime for some systems will not impact the functioning of the whole systems, for example when in an office they occur at night, because the people working there are at home and do not use the system. Also, there is a relation between complexity of a system and its availability. The systems that consist of fewer components tend to have higher availability than the more complex ones. This is because there are more elements that are threatened by potential failures.

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