Tips to overcome 3 potential NAS issues

Network attached storage (NAS) is an attractive idea. It is relatively inexpensive and can deliver high performance; but unless managed carefully, with a product like Datacore’s virtualizing SANsymphony-V, it can create its own problems.

Throughput is one. Many companies tend to put all of their data onto a single server. The result is a bottleneck – multiple simultaneous reads and writes to a single device reducing performance for everyone. The solution here is advanced caching. SANsymphony-V uses the underlying processing capacity of the processors on which it runs to reserve up to 1 terabyte of RAM for multi-threaded caching purposes. The result is vastly improved throughput whether the storage device is a basic drive or a top-of-the-range product.

A second problem can come from your own growth: you need more capacity at precisely the time when company budgets are stretched to the limit and the finance man says ‘No’. The only solution here is to get more out of what you’ve already got. SANsymphony-V offers two routes. Firstly, the virtualisation capability pools storage capacity across the boundaries of physical devices eliminating stranded pockets of unused capacity. And secondly, thin provisioning allows large virtual drives that only ever consume the disk space that actually contains written data. Automatic thin provisioning allows more of the physical store to be used, while releasing the administrator from the tedium of continually juggling what is available.

And a third, and potentially disastrous problem for any storage system, is failure. If your servers die and you lose access to your data the consequences could be ruinous for the whole company. The concept is well known, but not always well implemented: business continuity, or high availability. Datacore’s SANsymphony-V can virtualize your storage using different nodes in different rooms – or preferably different buildings – and synchronously mirror virtual disk updates between the two. If one fails, through anything from system problems to power failure and lightning strikes, the other takes over and carries on. It also, of course, makes planned downtime for system maintenance, upgrades, expansion or replacement completely non-disruptive.

All in all, Datacore’s virtualisation software can increase the capacity, improve the efficiency, decrease the cost and maintain the availability of what you’ve already got; while simultaneously future-proofing your storage through virtualisation for further expansion.

BIS is the only Datacore Gold Partner in Greater London, and has a wealth of experience in implementing and supporting Datacore products!

Written by: Kumaran