My EtherealMind» Storage

Internets of Interest:17 Sep 10

bookmarks — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:51:18 +0000

Collection of useful, relevant or inane places on the the Internets for 17 Sep 10:

Why Does HSRP Have the “Standby-Bia” Command ?

Greg Ferro — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:16:13 +0000

Why does HSRP have a "standby-bia" command option ?

Internets of Interest:26 Aug 10

bookmarks — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:00:37 +0000

Collection of useful, relevant or inane places on the the Internets for 26 Aug 10:

Should a Networking Engineer Care About Servers and Storage?

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:54:30 +0000

As you might have noticed, everyone is talking about Data Centers lately and all the new “revolutionary” networking technologies are targeted at this segment. The reason is simple: server virtualization (not to mention the vapor-word) will forever change the networking landscape and the networking engineers might get badly hurt if caught unprepared.

Will the Real FCoE Standards Stand Up ? No, They Can’t.

Greg Ferro — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:38:02 +0000

J Michel Metz attempted a sleight of hand magic trick to astroturf over the lack of progress on the Ethernet standards. Unpleasant.

Blessay: FCoE Is JUST a Transition Technology

Greg Ferro — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:28:09 +0000

Chris Evans believes that "FCoE" will rule the world. Hah. I believe it's just a transition technology that drags Storage out of it's closed, proprietary mindset into the open collaborative world. Data Networks can easily adapt.

Internets of Interest:8 Dec 09

bookmarks — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:01:06 +0000

Collection of useful, relevant or inane places on the the Internets for 8 Dec 09:

Why Does iSCSI Use TCP Instead of IP ?

Greg Ferro — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:33:47 +0000

The iSCSI protocol carries block data from storage array to server. Typically, that is inside a data centre where loss is not a problem. So why use TCP and have all that overhead ?

Storage: Emulex Silicon Will Have iSCSI, TOE, FCoE, RDMA & iWarp in a Single Chip

Greg Ferro — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:34:28 +0000

Buried in this article from the Register is aparagraph detailing Emulex Gen2 chip that does all storage virtualisation in a single chip. The FC boosters will be unhappy, they will have to compete.

Reasons for Using NFS With VMware Virtual Infrastructure

Greg Ferro — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:24:14 +0000

"A lot of companies are using NFS as the preferred protocol to shared storage for VMware Virtual Infrastructure. In my personal experience, The administrative options and convenience of NFS is unmatched, and the virtual machine (VM) performance is surprising."

The Case Against FCoE and Fibrechannel – A Reasonably Complete View

Greg Ferro — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:58:34 +0000

A number of storage bloggers have been questioning the relevance of FCoE and why would you bother with it. Given the size of marketing budgets pushing FCoE and the reality distortion this generates, lets look at the case AGAINST FCoE.

Network Fabric:TRILL for Server and Network People. Welcome RBridges

Greg Ferro — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:34:00 +0000

TRILL is a key network technology for enabling Cloud Computing by allowing for better migrations of VM's, and better utilisation of the network switching fabric and much improved stability of the Data Centre Server Fabric.

5 Things About Cisco Announcement and a Wrap Up[Post Prandial]

Greg Ferro — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:13:50 +0000

So Cisco announced it Intel Servers today. Its kind of exciting if you are into Data Centers and Virtualisation. They have done something very different.

FCoE and the Return of Spanning Tree

Greg Ferro — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:20:37 +0000

One of the most amusing parts about Fibre Channel over Ethernet(FCoE) is that Spanning Tree is making a triumphant comeback. And I am talking a Roman style parade after the gates to the city have been built and the streets lined with gold.

Cisco Is Wishfully Wishing for FCoE Sales ?

Greg Ferro — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:23:29 +0000

Is Omar Sultan from Cisco is wishing that FCoE would actually get some sales ?

Foundry Postpones Vote on Brocade Deal, Stock Plunges – Network World

Greg Ferro — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:19:36 +0000

The path to FCoE is not running smoothly is it? Without Brocade to validate FCoE by bringing it into their portfolio, Cisco will ahve a tough time make FCoE look viable. Recent articles from SNW weren’t completely positive about FCoE and I notice that the CEE standards from the IEEE seem to be running much [...]

Algoryhme by Radia Perlman

Greg Ferro — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:57:18 +0000

Radia Perlman penned this poem while she developed Spanning Tree. Algorhyme I think that I shall never see A graph more lovely than a tree. A tree whose crucial property Is loop-free connectivity. A tree that must be sure to span So packets can reach every LAN. First, the root must be selected. By ID, [...]

Enterprise Cloud Computing – Build Your Own With Cisco VFrame – Why Wait ?

Greg Ferro — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:18:03 +0000

I can see some value in external Cloud Computing, but why not just build your own with Cisco ? Take a bunch of leftover machines, that old storage system and get a demo version and make your own.

Brocade Buys Foundry ? No Great Loss. Storage Switches Ahoy!

Greg Ferro — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:12:58 +0000

Following my post a couple of days ago about Buying Brocade switches it seems that Brocade isn’t going to make their own, they just bought something off the shelf. To be fair, I don’t know much about Brocade, but I know I am not the biggest fan of Foundry equipment. Foundry is an OK product, [...]

Are You Ready to Purchase a Brocade Ethernet Switch ? What ?

Greg Ferro — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:52:13 +0000

One of the more amusing byproducts of the FCoE marketing push, is that Brocade has announced that they will producing FCoE switches for their customers. So, are you ready to buy a Brocade Ethernet switch ? In their report to investors, Brocade announced that “FCoE is Fibre Channel, not legacy Ethernet”(1). Aside from the breathtaking [...]

iSCSI Network Designs: Part 5 – iSCSI Multipathing, Host Bus Adapters, High Availability and Redundancy

Greg Ferro — Fri, 16 May 2008 07:21:54 +0000

In iSCSI Part 3 - Server Side - iSCSI Host Bus Adapters and IP Performance I looked at how server side issues would affect the traffic generated on a per server basis. I recommended that you use iSCSI HBAs for high intensity servers to meet the high levels of performance. The next level is evaluate how the server should connect to the network, specifically, this means how many ethernet ports you need, and what configuration is needed to support them to deliver high availability / redundancy and increased bandwidth.

iSCSI Network Designs: Part 4 – Fibrechannel Integration

Greg Ferro — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:13:43 +0000

Its possible that you would already have some Fibrechannel in your estate. Perhaps the cost of Fibrechannel for some new servers is too much when you calculate the HBA and Fibrechannel switch port costs, or you don't need the complexity of Fibrechannel for a simple server setup. Lets look at options for connecting to the Fibrechannel nteworks.

iSCSI Network Designs: Part 3 – Server Side – iSCSI Host Bus Adapters and IP Performance

Greg Ferro — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:05:37 +0000

I have been researching iSCSI impementations on the server to try and understand the dfference between them and to come to grips with how they work. This article looks to compare the various methods of connecting to a iSCSI network. It seems that many people do not know or understand that the generation and transmission [...]

Data Networks – More Reliable to Than Storage Networks ?

Greg Ferro — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:07:32 +0000

I was participating in a storage design discussion and a Storage person threw up their most common complaint about networking – “we don’t know how to build reliable networks”. Let me take a shot at that. Investment Between networking and storage, there is a large difference in scale and investment. The Storage markets have been [...]