1

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

A&T Advisory BoardEDC Storage Area Network (SAN)

A&T Advisory BoardEDC Storage Area Network (SAN)

April 19, 2004

Ken Gacke, Brian Sauer, Doug Jaton

gacke@usgs.govbsauer@usgs.govdjaton@usgs.gov

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AgendaAgenda

Storage Architecture EDC SAN Architectures

Digital Reproduction SAN Landsat SAN LPDAAC SAN

SAN Reality Check

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Storage ArchitectureStorage Architecture

Linux

Sun

SGI

Direct Attached Storage

Ethernet

•Difficult to reallocate resources•File sharing via Network (NFS, FTP)

•NFS Performance/Security Issues•Duplicate copies of data•I/O Performance/Bandwidth

•Data Availability Concerns•Server failure => no data access

4

Storage TechnologyStorage Technology

Linux

Sun

SGI

Disk Farm SAN Configuration

Ethernet

FibreSwitch

•Hardware Solution•Fibre Channel Switch•Fibre Channel RAID

•Logical Reallocation of Resources•File sharing via Network (NFS, FTP)

•NFS Performance/Security Issues•Duplicate copies of data•I/O Performance/Bandwidth

•Data Availability Concerns•Server failure => no data access

5

Storage TechnologyStorage Technology

Linux

Sun

SGI

Clustered File System SAN Configuration

Ethernet

FibreSwitch

•Hardware/Software Solution•Fibre Channel Switch•Fibre Channel RAID•Sharable File System

•Logical Reallocation of Resources•Direct File Sharing

•Single data copy•Efficient I/O•Scalable Bandwidth

•High Data Availability

SharedFile System

CXFS/CFS

CXFS/CFS

CXFS/CFS

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Storage ArchitectureStorage Architecture

SAN Goals File sharing across multiple servers

Heterogeneous Platform Support (IRIX, Solaris, Linux) Reduce number of file copies Improve I/O efficiency

Reduce I/O requirements on server Reduce Network load Reduce time required to transfer data

Storage Management Increase disk storage utilization Logical reallocation of storage resources

Data Availability Maintain data access when a server fails

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U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Digital Reproduction CR1 SANDigital Reproduction CR1 SANApril 19, 2004

Ken GackeSAIC Contractor

gacke@usgs.gov

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Historical Architecture – No SANHistorical Architecture – No SAN

Product Distribution

Tape Drives 8x9840 2x9940B

Ethernet

Architecture Notes:1) Data transfer via FTP2) Duplicate storage on both servers3) Multiple data file I/O required on both servers4) System bandwidth constrained by Network

UniTree Server

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CR1 SAN TimelineCR1 SAN Timeline

FY2002 – DMF Integration DMF Production Release in December 2001

Fully automated Data Migration process 21TB migrated to DMF within 3 months

Data migration during off hours Full data access through data migration period

FY2003 – CXFS Integration SGI CXFS Certified SAN Configuration

CXFS On Two IRIX Servers, DMF and PDS SGI TP9400 1TB RAID 8 Port Brocade and 16 Port Brocade fibre switches

SGI Installed on 10/8/02 Test DMF/CXFS configuration Performed final CXFS testing

DMF/CXFS released to production on 11/5/02

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CR1 SAN ArchitectureCR1 SAN Architecture

DMF Server

Product Distribution

Tape Drives 8x9840 2x9940B

1Gb Fibre

2Gb Fibre

Disk Cache /dmf/edc 68GB/dmf/doqq 547GB/dmf/guo 50GB/dmf/pds 223GB/dmf/pdsc 1100GB

Ethernet

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CR1 SAN ArchitectureCR1 SAN Architecture

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Ter

abyt

e P

er M

on

th

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

Nearline Monthly Average Data Archive/Retrieve

Data Archived

Data Retrieved

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CR1 SAN SummaryCR1 SAN Summary

Data Storage 2TB Disk Cache storing 67 Terabytes on the backend 2.5 Million Files

2003 Average Monthly Data Throughput Data ingest – 3.5TB Data retrieval – 9.6TB Average data throughput of 8.5MB/sec (includes tape access)

Minimal System/Ops Administration Single Vendor Solution

SGI Software, RAID, and Fibre Switches CXFS supported on SGI IRIX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, etc

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U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Landsat SANLandsat SANApril 19, 2004

Brian SauerSAIC Contractor

bsauer@usgs.gov

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Landsat SAN GoalsLandsat SAN Goals

Improve Overall Performance (3 Hrs -> 1.5 Hrs) Maximize Disk Storage Through Shared Resources Centralized Management (System Admin, Hardware Eng) Overcome Old SCSI RAID Obsolescence (Ciprico 6900) Utilize Existing Investment in Fibre Channel Storage

Existing Investment in Ciprico NetArrays “Open” Solution

High Performance

Combined throughput of over 240MB/sec High Availability Total Usable Storage over 10TB SGI, Linux and SUN Clients Integrate in Phases as Tasks Become SAN Ready

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Landsat SAN OverviewLandsat SAN Overview

13 TB of Raw Storage Utilizing Ciprico NetArrays Three Brocade Switches Eleven Linux and Six SGI Clients

Data Capture System Database Server (DDS) Landsat Processing System (LPS) Landsat Archive Management System (LAM) Image Assessment System (IAS) Landsat Product Generation System (LPGS)

ADIC StorNext File System Software Shared High Performance File System

Qlogic Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters

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Landsat OLD Data FlowLandsat OLD Data Flow

L7 L0Ra Archive

(LAM)

L7 Raw CC Archive (LAM)

R

C

C

DCS Database Server

(DDS)

R

C

C

R

C

C

L7 Processing System

(LPS)

L

0

R

a

R

C

C

Capture &

Transfer System

(CTS)

R

C

C

R

C

C

24 MinuteTransfer

14 Minute Pass

85 Minutes to Process

24 MinuteTransfer

20 Minute

Transfer

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Landsat SANLandsat SAN

Satellite dish

SAN

LGS

CTS1 CTS2 CTS3

RAID3 RAID3 RAID3

LAMDDS

LPS

Eliminated FTP Transfers Eliminated FTP Transfers

RAW DATA

L0RA DATA

RAW DATA

L0RA DATA

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Landsat SAN SummaryLandsat SAN Summary

Advantages Able to share data in a high performance environment to reduce the

amount of storage necessary Increase in overall performance of the Landsat Ground System Open Solution

Able to utilize existing equipment Currently testing with other vendors

Disk availability for projects during off-peak times e.g. IAS Disadvantages / Challenges

Challenge to integrate an open solution CIPRICO RAID controller failures

Not good for real-time I/O Challenge to integrate into multiple tasks

Own agenda and schedule Individual requirements Difficult to guarantee I/O

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U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

LP DAAC SAN ForumLP DAAC SAN ForumApril 19, 2004

Douglas JatonSAIC Contractor

djaton@usgs.gov

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LP DAAC Data Pool – Phase I SAN GoalsLP DAAC Data Pool – Phase I SAN Goals

Phase I – “Data Pool” Implementation in early FY03 Access/Distribution Method (ftp site): Support increased electronic distribution Reduce need to pull data from archive silos Reduce need for order submissions (and media/shipping costs) Give science and applications users timely, direct access to

data, including machine access Allow users to tailor their data views to more quickly locate the

data they need by providing

“The Data Pool SAN infrastructure effectively acts as a subset archive of the full ECS archive”

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LP DAAC Data Pool (SAN) ConfigurationLP DAAC Data Pool (SAN) Configuration

Data Pools are an additional subset “inventory” of science data (granule, browse, metadata) that reside in a separate inventory database, with their physical files resident on local storage area network (SAN = 44TB)

STK D178 RAID racks with 1 Sun E450 metadata server. Data Pool inventory is managed via 2nd Sybase Inventory database

Data pool contents are populated from the primary ECS archive. Subscriptions can be fully qualified with the population occurring at insert time in

the primary ECS archive (a function of ingest) (forward population) Historical data load from primary ECS archive via query (historical population

capability) in support of science or user requirements. NASA intent is to grow the on-line to be a “working copy” of the most popular data

Dataset “Collections” belong to “Groups” and are configured for “N” days of persistence and are automatically removed at expiration (rolling archive concept)

Data Management of this 2nd archive to keep synchronized to primary has been problematic and has increased O&M costs.

Data Pool Web client(s) and/or anonymous ftp site access are used to navigate contents, browse, access, and download data products. Directory structure is used:

/datapool/<mode>/<collect grp>/<esdt.version_id>/<acq date> e.g. /datapool/ops/astt/ast_l1b.001/1999.12.31

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LP DAAC Data Pool Contents & AccessLP DAAC Data Pool Contents & Access

Science Data: ASTER L1B Group (TERRA)

ASTER collection over U.S. States and Territories (no billing!) MODIS Group (TERRA & AQUA)

8 day rolling archive of daily data for MODIS 12 months of data for higher level products

Most 8-day, 16-day, and 96-day products

Access Methods: Anonymous FTP Site Web Client interface(s) to navigate & browse data holdings via Sybase

inventory database Public Access:

http://lpdaac.usgs.gov/datapool/datapool.asp

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LP DAAC Data Pool – Phase II SAN GoalsLP DAAC Data Pool – Phase II SAN Goals

Phase II FY04 – Optimize System Throughput (systemic resource): Maximize Disk Storage Through Shared Resources Centralized Management (System Admin, Hardware Engr) of disk High Performance fibre channel connections

SGI, Linux and SUN Clients Decrease turn-around time for production and distribution orders. Integrate SAN into ECS subsystems in Phases as tasks become SAN

ready/capable Granules will be served from SAN (Data Pool) if available, rather than

staging from tape. Less thrashing of the archives for popular datasets. Effectively allows for more ingest bandwidth as less archive drive contention Trick here is to maintain rule sets for popular data to minimize silo thrashing

Less copying of data – no need for dedicated read only caches across ingest, archive staging, production, media (PDS), distribution (ftp push & pull)

“Fully Utilize the SAN infrastructure effectively across the sub-systems of the full ECS archive”

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LP DAAC SAN OverviewLP DAAC SAN Overview

Data Pool Storage

ECSCache

FTP PullArea

OrderManager

ProductDistribution

System

PhysicalMedia

ECSArchives

ShipMedia User Orders from Data Pool or ECS

FTP Pull fromData Pool

Stage(If not yet

In Data Pool)

BrowseProducts Metadata

WriteData OrderTo Media

Science & Application Users

EDG OrderInterface

Machine-to-MachineGateway

Data PoolWeb

Orders

Data PoolFTP

Interface

FTP Push

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U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

SAN Reality CheckSAN Reality CheckApril 19, 2004

Brian SauerSAIC Contractor

bsauer@usgs.gov

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EDC SAN ExperienceEDC SAN Experience

Technology Infusion TSSC Understands this new technology. Bring it in at right level and at the right time to satisfy USGS

programmatic requirements. SAN technology is not a one size fits all solution set. Need to balance complexity vs. benefits.

Project Requirements Differ Size of SAN (Storage, Number Clients, etc) Open System Versus Single Vendor

Experiences Gained Provides high performance shared storage access Provides better manageability and utilization Provides flexibility in reallocating resources Requires trained Storage Engineers Complex architecture, especially as number of nodes increases

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EDC SAN Reality CheckEDC SAN Reality Check

SAN Issues Vendors typically oversell SAN architecture

Infrastructure costs Hardware – Switches, HBAs, Fibre Infrastructure Software Maintenance

Hardware/Software maintenance Labor Disk maintenance higher than tape

Power & cooling of disk vs. tape Complex Architecture

Requires additional/stronger System Engineering Requires highly skilled System Administration

Lifecycle is significantly shorter with disk vs. tape.

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EDC SAN Reality CheckEDC SAN Reality Check

SAN Issues Difficult to share resources among projects in an enterprise

environment Ability to fund large shared infrastructure historically been

problematic for EDC Ability to allocate and guarantee performance to projects

(storage, bandwidth, security, peak vs. sustained) Scheduling among multiple projects would be challenging

Not all projects require a SAN SAN will not replace the Tape Archive(s) anytime soon Direct attached storage may be sufficient for many projects