In virtual computing environments, data can be stored much more efficiently.
The HP P4500 is a system that includes software and hardware components. It provides a scalable storage area network or SAN, while augmenting system virtualization, a technology by which software is able to carry out computing tasks traditionally performed by computer hardware. Before virtualization came to market, a SAN would involve storage devices such as tape or DVD jukeboxes. The data stored on these devices would then be routed through traditional servers to the local area network.
Storage Clustering
Storage Clustering technology aggregates pools of locally stored and accessed data into clusters on the spread over the SAN. These clusters are managed using the full power and storage capacity of the entire SAN at any given time, but are still accessible to every localized point at all times. This greatly increases the capacity available to all local points on the SAN in real time. This is also what makes it possible to ramp up the capacity of the SAN by adding storage nodes at any physical point on the network while the system remains online. The capacity of the new node is automatically added to the aggregate capacity of the SAN and all data is immediately redistributed for optimized efficiency.
Network RAID
RAID stands for redundant array of independent disks. The network RAID technology incorporated in the P4500 uses clusters of storage nodes for this array. Data is both striped and mirrored in multiple copies across this array. Striping spreads the data of a file across various disks in the array and mirroring saves two or more copies of a file in two or more locations simultaneously. Both of these provide backup security that prevents data loss. In the P4500 version of network RAID, the IT administrator gets to choose how important various pools of data are and allocate RAID resources accordingly to provide greater efficiency.
Thin Provisioning
Thin provisioning addresses the lack of accuracy inherent in pre-allocating storage capacity based on projections of how data pools will grow and need to be accessed down the road, which is what IT managers must otherwise rely on. With thin provisioning, pre-allocating becomes unnecessary because the software is able to allocate just the space needed on the fly as data is being written. Snapshots created for backup and restoration are also thin provisioned in the P4500 system.
Hardware
The P4500 hardware features 600 GB, statistical analysis system based disk drives; the basic package has 24 of them with 12 GB of RAM. It also has dual redundant active/active storage controllers for added backup redundancy, as well as redundant power supplies that can be changed out while the system remains online. The system also offers four NIC ports of 1 GB each. A network interface card or NIC is basically a third-party network router/translator. There is also an integrated DVD/CD-ROM.
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