Nas

Network attached storage
Information moving through businesses today is constantly in flux. Data is created, transmitted, delivered and stored at an astounding rate. This class compares an easy-to-use optimized file server, network attached storage (NAS), to other storage technologies and then covers planning, installing and using a NAS storage solution. A basic knowledge of networking technologies is recommended.

Lessons
1. Is NAS right for your organization? In this lesson, you'll get an overview of NAS and find out how these optimized file servers can help your organization improve its business activities. You’ll also understand the difference between NAS, DAS and SAN solutions. 2. Understanding NAS technology This lesson discusses the basics of NAS technology, including the hardware and software used to deploy these solutions. You'll also get answers to basic questions about NAS challenges and which security issues to be aware of. 3. Planning effective NAS A NAS solution is only as good as it's designed to be. In this lesson, you'll learn how to plan an effective and efficient NAS solution from end to end to meet your organization's business and file storage needs. 4. Installing NAS There's more to installing and configuring NAS than just plugging it in. This lesson walks you through the installation and configuration process for your organization's new NAS solution. A simple troubleshooting guide also helps you solve common problems. 5. Managing NAS After your organization's NAS device is installed and functional, you need to spend some time maintaining it. In this lesson, you'll learn how to manage NAS solutions for the best results over the long term. 6. More about NAS This lesson covers the general NAS landscape. From staying up-to-date on changing technologies to using NAS in conjunction with other types of storage, you'll learn how a NAS solution is a truly dynamic and flexible form of network storage.

Is NAS right for your organization?
In this lesson, you'll get an overview of NAS and find out how these optimized file servers can help your organization improve its business activities. You’ll also understand the difference between NAS, DAS and SAN solutions.

Welcome to network attached storage
The sheer volume of critical information that moves through businesses today can be daunting, and that information is constantly in flux: data is created, transmitted, delivered and stored at an astounding rate. Unstructured data—such as rich media, productivity documents, backup files and other information accessed by end users—are driving modern storage growth. The challenge is to store files effectively so they can be accessed and protected easily and seamlessly.

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NAS file and print solution storage servers

A dedicated and optimized file-sharing solution can consolidate file storage to improve performance, simplify management and increase efficiency. Business disaster recovery is also easier to manage with a more streamlined storage configuration. Some solutions offer print serving capabilities to further enhance product usefulness. Because networked storage is accessible to all computers that can access the network, it's easier to centrally scale, manage and protect.

Network attached storage (NAS) is the common term used to describe easyto-use optimized file server solutions for heterogeneous environments.

This class will give small to medium-size business (SMB) owners and information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for data storage solutions an understanding of how NAS compares to other storage technologies. The class will then lead them through planning, installing and using a NAS server storage solution.

What this class offers
In six lessons, this class introduces you to the basics of NAS. Here's how the lessons break down: Lesson 1: Is NAS right for your organization? This lesson introduces how small office and larger NAS implementations work and their benefits. It also highlights key differences between NAS, direct attached storage (DAS) and storage area network (SAN) solutions. Lesson 2: Understanding NAS technology. Here, you'll move deeper into details of NAS technology, including the hardware and software components involved. You'll learn about important challenges and security considerations when beginning to plan your NAS solution. Lesson 3: Planning effective NAS. This lesson will help you determine your organization's storage and business needs, and plan an end-to-end NAS solution. You'll also pick up some data migration strategy tips among other resources. Lesson 4: Installing NAS. Next, walk through installing and configuring your NAS solution and learn how to troubleshoot common problems when setting up. Lesson 5: Managing NAS. This lesson discusses how to manage your NAS solution over time and addresses what the best practices are for ongoing maintenance. Lesson 6: More about NAS. You'll conclude the class by taking a wider view of the NAS landscape. You'll learn about keeping up with NAS and storage technologies and find out more about integrating NAS with other solutions, including SAN technologies. Each lesson is accompanied by a short assignment and quiz, which are designed to help you more fully understand the numerous concepts covered in this class.

Let's get started with the topics in Lesson 1.

What's networked attached storage?
The massive amounts of digital information available to and generated by today's businesses could hardly have been imagined when computers first took hold in the marketplace. Those early computers had a small fraction of the storage capacity found in modern PCs, which has reached an average size of 250 gigabytes (GB) for desktop PCs and over 2 terabytes (TB) on higher end workstations. Still, it's not enough.

Jargon buster: File and block access
Network storage is typically categorized as file or block, depending on the type of data and the access method. Office productivity applications retrieve data as files (such as .doc and.pdf) on a file system. This is called file access. Applications for databases, virtualization and email can get direct access to blocks of data without the overhead of a file system. This is known as block access.

The lessons in this class will differentiate NAS from other types of storage and familiarize you with the terms and technologies necessary to understand NAS.

The volume of information that businesses capture and manage grows daily. What's more, that information has taken a critical role in business transactions and needs to be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In addition, business applications have become more robust and content-rich, and many other factors contribute to growing storage needs, such as an increase in:

Amount of multimedia content created and shared, such as audio, video and graphics Number and size of creative content applications, such as image, video and Flash editors Size of protection software suites, such as antivirus and antispyware packages Size and number of email attachments Regulations and legislation that dictate long-term storage of digital information, such as digital files or email The replication and backup of files and applications

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HP All-in-One storage solution

Exploring storage options
Historically, the storage of digital information has been handled with DAS: adding disk or tape drives directly to servers, as shown in Figure 1-1. When more storage is needed, another drive or an entire server is added and the problem is solved. This solution, however, is often inefficient. In some cases, adding standard disk hardware or a new general server might solve an issue temporarily, but it's complex and time-consuming to manage and protect. And using a server solely as a storage system leaves resources underutilized.

Figure 1-1: Basic configuration of DAS. The better solution is to add dedicated networked storage. Two ways to add efficient networked storage are: A dedicated file serving (NAS) device A SAN NAS is a type of storage device that serves files to users typically over an Ethernet network, as shown in Figure 1-2. Many NAS solutions also offer print serving capabilities. To optimize efficiency, NAS uses data deduplication technology that reduces the number of redundant files and recovers up to onethird of a disk's capacity.

Figure 1-2: Basic configuration of NAS. A SAN is a high-speed, special-purpose network that's dedicated to transporting data for storage and retrieval. Disk and tape drives, redundant array of independent disk (RAID) subsystems, tape libraries and file and application servers can all be used in a SAN environment. Figure 1-3 shows the basic configuration of a SAN.

SANs often support mission-critical databases and email servers.

Figure 1-3: Basic configuration of a SAN.

Differences between NAS and a SAN
Key differences between a NAS device and a SAN are: File versus block level: A NAS device identifies data at the file level. On a SAN, data is addressed at the block level, which is a more granular level than individual files. Because a SAN is virtually limitless in the amount of block storage it provides, it is the most scalable of all storage solutions. Interconnects: A NAS device typically makes Ethernet and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connections, whereas a SAN uses Fibre Channel or iSCSI. However, technologies are converging. Some SANs are transitioning to IP-based approaches, and some NAS devices support iSCSI and Fibre Channel bridging. Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) over Ethernet is an increasingly common transport protocol for SANs. The iSCSI protocol simulates the availability of a directly attached drive but across an Ethernet network. Ease of deployment: A NAS device is essentially a Plug and Play file serving device that integrates into your organization's existing local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). A SAN is a dedicated network—separate from the LAN or WAN—that requires more complex planning and management of its infrastructure. Another way to look at it is that SANs are mini-networks that are dedicated to storage, whereas a NAS device is a file serving storage subsystem connected to your organization's existing network.

Hybrid devices, also called NAS gateway systems, are available that offer the setup ease of NAS, offer file and print services and include access to a SAN. A NAS gateway is shown in Figure 1-4 connecting a LAN/WAN to a SAN. With that flexibility, an organization can begin to immediately serve its users' pressing file storage needs while laying the groundwork for more robust application storage in the future.

Figure 1-4: A NAS gateway bridges to a SAN. Next, you'll learn how to make a business case for NAS.

Making a business case for NAS
Suppose you're in a quickly growing business environment. Each time your workload increases, you add some hardware to handle the load. For example, you hire five new people, all of whom need computers, and your server is reaching the limits of its capabilities, so you add another server. » The first server you add runs a Microsoft Windows Server operating system. When adding the new server, you realize a Linux-based server, for the different capabilities it provides, might be an even better choice in the future. For a while, the equipment runs smoothly, your business continues to grow and more people are hired. Suddenly, you find that your organization needs even more storage space for the documents and email messages that keep the business functioning properly. You're faced with a choice: either add another server or add storage functionality of some kind, and do it quickly. HP SAN product & solution portfolio

You could add another server and, if you need additional resources such as more programs or software capabilities, that might be the best choice for your business. However, if you just need additional storage space, adding a generalpurpose server is overkill.

You're left with a few choices for adding the storage that you need: DAS: Although DAS appliances aren't terribly difficult or time-consuming to install, they're specific to the server to which they're attached. That may mean adding two DAS devices to cope with the storage needs, and because DAS is server specific, neither of them will be available across the network. SAN: You could add a SAN, but then you're getting into some complex and time-consuming deployment plans. Although SANs add scalability and therefore virtually limitless storage solutions, they're closely tailored to meeting specific needs and require a lot of upfront configuration and attention to detail. NAS: In this scenario (and many more that crop up in SMB environments), NAS is the best solution. NAS is quickly and easily deployed, and it works in mixed environments. A NAS solution supports many different file-sharing protocols, as listed in the following table. Type of network File access protocol

Microsoft Windows Common Internet File System (CIFS)

Server Message Block (SMB)

UNIX and Linux

Network File System (NFS)

Macintosh

Apple File Protocol (AFP)

Novell

NetWare Core Protocol (NCP)

Plug and Play

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)

Network File Transfer

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

Web Access

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)

Secure Web Access

Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS)

Table 1-1: Protocols supported by NAS.

NAS also alleviates the concern of which operating system to support, because it operates independently of network servers and communicates directly with the user. A NAS appliance provides flexible, manageable and intelligent storage. It reduces disk space allocation time and enables sharing across workstations and operating systems. Most NAS appliances are nondisruptive and are optimized for file sharing.

In a nutshell, NAS meets the following needs: Fast, easy deployment of shared storage Reduced time and personnel needed for management and protection of existing data Consolidation of data from different locations Reduction of underutilized resources Consolidated number of file and print servers Scalability of storage resources Increased effectiveness of IT investments Now that you understand the business case for NAS, learn about the types of environments in which NAS is the storage solution of choice.

Who needs NAS?
You can see NAS offers many advantages over SANs and DAS for SMB environments. However, as with any technology solution, NAS isn't one-sizefits-all. However, most organizations can use NAS even if it's part of a larger solution.

NAS appliances are focused on making files available to users in an easy, intelligent manner. Other situations in which NAS makes sense are: Fast and easy file growth: There's no easier way to add more file storage to your network when you need it. File consolidation: Replace multiple general-purpose servers with a single

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HP Tape, disk-based backup

device (often in an effort to free or reallocate existing resources). Disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) backup: A scalable disk-based backup or replication target can act as a replica or stage for data before you back up to tape. File-serving applications: Access data with applications that have multiple processing engines or end users across the organization. Print services: Most NAS devices have printer servers built in, which streamline user printing over the network. NAS is typically deployed in environments that require access to or push large amounts of file data. For example, software or hardware development environments, computer-aided design (CAD), multimedia, trading floor applications, web applications and call center data records processing are all good candidates for NAS solutions.

To determine if NAS is the right solution for your business environment, answer the following questions: Can the organization save money by consolidating file storage to optimized file serving appliances and freeing up other resources? Does your organization have information spread across the company that needs to be available to multiple users in different departments (or even different regions)? Does your organization have limited staff available to deploy and manage a storage solution? Is your storage solution budget-limited? Is a simplified management console a necessity for your storage solution? If you answered yes to any of these questions, NAS may be the right solution for you.

NAS levels
There are three general levels of NAS implementations, as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 1-5: The three primary levels of NAS. The following list describes each level in more detail: Entry and all-in-one: These are the most basic of NAS installations. Entrylevel and all-in-one NAS solutions are low cost and easily installed, sometimes using only a single drive. Generally, entry-level NAS is used in small offices, departments or remote offices. Mid-range: These are usually deployed when fewer than 100 servers are consolidated to improve access to data and free existing resources for other applications. Mid-range solutions are generally scalable, and include clustering and gateways to SANs. High-end or extreme: When more than 100 servers are being consolidated or storage needs include advanced functionality, critical availability and high performance, the high-end NAS solution fits the bill. High-end NAS includes increased scalability and is designed for seamless integration into a SAN implementation. You should now have a better understanding of business data storage options, and how NAS is a good solution for SMB environments. Later in the class, you'll learn how to customize a NAS implementation to solve your business needs.

Moving on
Now that you understand what NAS is and how it can help your business, you'll take a closer look at NAS technology in Lesson 2. Before you move on, take a few minutes to work through the assignment for this lesson, and then take the quiz to see how much you've learned.

Assignment #1
NAS is one of many storage solutions. So how do you know if it's the right storage solution for your organization's needs?

The best way to determine this is to analyze your organization's current file-serving and storage requirements and make projections for future needs. Answer the following questions to see if NAS is the right solution for your organization: Do you have files in storage that need to be accessed organization-wide? Can your business save money by consolidating existing storage space from general-purpose servers to an optimized file-serving device? Does your IT department have fewer than five people? Is preexisting information within your organization taxing your storage and personnel resources? Do you currently have storage systems from various hardware vendors that would require a vendor-specific storage solution? Are you considering building up to a SAN in incremental steps? Are you looking for an alternative to tape-based data backups, such as disk-to-disk backup? Are you trying to consolidate the number of file and print servers you're currently using? Will you need scalability of storage resources in the future? Is your storage budget limited?

Quiz #1
Question 1: Which type of storage device is connected directly to a server? A) B) C) D) NAS SAN DAS FTP

Question 2:

What are the primary differences between NAS and a SAN? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) D) File versus block level Ease of deployment Interconnects used One is network-based, the other is not

Question 3: Which of the following storage technologies is the most scalable? A) B) C) D) SAN NAS DAS NAS gateway

Question 4: Which of the following protocols does NAS typically support? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) D) SMB CIFS Fibre Channel NFS

Question 5: True or False: Because of the way it's structured, NAS requires a high-end implementation. A) B) True False

Understanding NAS technology
This lesson discusses the basics of NAS technology, including the hardware and software used to deploy these solutions. You'll also get answers to basic questions about NAS challenges and which security issues to be aware of.

Exploring NAS components
Welcome back. You were introduced to three primary types of storage in Lesson 1—DAS, NAS and SANs—and learned why NAS is a popular choice for many organizations. In this lesson, you'll dive into the details of a NAS solution. » NAS devices serve files in heterogeneous environments. The result is efficient access to data, regardless of where you're located in the organization or which devices make up the network. Figure 2-1 illustrates a NAS file serving solution and lists some of the services it provides. NAS file and print solution storage servers

Figure 2-1: A NAS file serving solution. So what's in a NAS solution? A typical system includes: A dedicated server and operating system: Usually a thin server within the storage device, the NAS server has its own network address and enables all of the computers on the network to access the storage device without involving a host server. When the host server is down, users may still access data through the NAS device without being affected by the status of the network. A thin server is a server with just the basic software and hardware to perform a specific function. A network connection: This is usually an Ethernet connection. The connection to the LAN or WAN enables access to data from all points on the network without consideration to where the user making the request actually resides on the network. Software: This provides a range of services. The most typical of those services are access to storage, file serving, RAID, print services, backup/restore capabilities, security, management and monitoring. A NAS solution is connected directly to a network and provides file-level access to data using standard data access protocols, such as SMB/CIFS, NFS and others as outlined in Lesson 1. The data stored in a NAS device is accessible to users and application servers across an organization, as well as to remote servers that have access to the network. The file system the NAS device uses is determined by the location of the data that's requested by the application client and whether it's in a cache or in storage.

For complete efficiency, a NAS device can act as its own node on the network.

In such a configuration, the single device (server) handles all the data storage on the network, taking the load off the application or enterprise server. This provides a high level of file consolidation, streamlines file access and lowers the cost of managing storage.

Additional reductions in cost can be found in the fewer pieces of hardware required. With fewer devices to manage, fewer problems occur, even when multiple NAS devices are needed to accomplish efficient storage.

In Lesson 3, you'll find out how to select a NAS device (or multiple NAS devices) to meet your storage needs.

You've learned the basic attributes that make up a NAS device. In the next section, you'll examine some of the detailed parts of a solution, including components that you may pick and choose to serve your particular needs.

Discovering NAS hardware and software
NAS hardware is fairly straightforward. A NAS device is a self-contained, Plug and Play unit that connects directly to the network and, in most cases, can be installed and configured in minutes. However, there are other advantages to NAS, such as: High availability: Many NAS solutions have fault-tolerance capabilities or clustering functionality built in. Scalability: NAS devices scale easily in both capacity and performance. Universal connectivity: NAS devices can allow for multiple network connections. This enables more users to connect to a common storage element at any given time. Data sharing: The most basic function of NAS is heterogeneous data sharing via the built-in file-sharing capabilities. Storage management: NAS storage management is centralized and administration of system management is simple. One advantage of this simplified management is the increase in capacity that can be managed by each administrator. Most NAS devices also have a set of core software features that power the solutions. Those core features are the operating system, management capabilities and universal connectivity. Although the specifics of these core features differ according to vendor, a basic set of core features comes packaged with most NAS devices.

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HP Storage software portfolio

Operating system
The operating system is preinstalled on a NAS device and can affect how the device is deployed. The most common operating systems are Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008, UNIX/Linux and Sun Solaris. The operating system that you select depends on your organization's preferences and business needs.

Management capabilities
Most NAS devices come with management capabilities, usually accessible via a web browser or management console. A good management tool enables you to manage file shares, storage capacity, security, quotas, alerts, data protection, replication and more from an intuitive interface (see Figure 2-2). NAS management is flexible and can be accomplished from any location with remote access.

Your NAS management tool should also let you manage and provision application storage, if your NAS includes access to a SAN via an iSCSI target. You'll learn about iSCSI targets in Lesson 4.

Figure 2-2: An example of an intuitive management software interface. Enlarge image

Universal connectivity
As covered in Lesson 1, one of the most attractive features of NAS is the ability to access files using a variety of file protocols. This ability means you don't need to acquire any additional seat licenses, and each different server (or even multiple servers with different operating systems) doesn't need its own storage box.

Additional software features
In addition to the core software features of NAS devices, most vendors also offer a variety of advanced, value-added capabilities. It's when selecting valueadded features that you begin to differentiate the entry-level NAS solution from the mid-range and high-end NAS installations. Some of the advanced features are: Server clustering: In some cases, you want to configure your storage solution to include more than one NAS device, but you want all of the NAS devices to act as one unit. Server clustering is the capability that enables this feature. You should consider using server clustering if high availability is required. If your data is mission critical, or if having a temporary outage of your organization's NAS device could stop the normal workflow of your business, multiple NAS devices and server clustering are combined to create a redundant solution that assures you'll never have downtime. When clustered, if one NAS device fails, other NAS devices in the cluster pick up the slack. Data replication: This is a protection technology that creates a complete mirror image of all the data located on one NAS device to a second NAS device. After the initial mirroring is completed, only changes to the data are synchronized. If a network failure or outage occurs, a replica of that data can be easily restored. Data snapshots: Occasionally, a user accidentally deletes a file and, in some cases, the IT department (or IT person, as the case may be) has to be called in to recover the deleted data. This situation can be time-consuming, frustrating and costly. However, having the ability to take data snapshots mitigates that expenditure. Data snapshots are point-in-time copies of all data on a NAS device that

are duplicated and stored on another NAS device or other backup media. Snapshots can then be accessed from individual workstations as needed, without getting IT involved.

A NAS solution is pretty straightforward, and that's one of the reasons why it's one of the fastest-growing storage technologies in the United States at this time. However, there are instances in which a single NAS device won't do the job. You'll explore those instances and their solutions (including how many NAS devices you'll need in specific situations) in Lesson 3. Next, it's time to consider which challenges you might face in implementing and securing a NAS solution.

Considering challenges with NAS implementations
Along with the ease of getting started with NAS comes its own particular concerns. As with any technology, there are challenges you should consider before implementing your own NAS solution. And because NAS will be key to maintaining one of your most valuable assets—your data—properly securing NAS should be one of your first concerns. » HP ProLiant Blade systems

NAS challenges
Although it sounds as if everything surrounding NAS is smooth and easy, it might not be the case. A few of the challenges you should be aware of are described in the following sections.

A required network connection
That in itself isn't usually an issue because most businesses today have existing network connections. However, if your network is approaching peak capacity, adding a NAS device can push the limits of the network, creating bottlenecks and slowing the transfer of data.

You need to complete a health checkup of your existing networks before installing a NAS solution. If the network is approaching peak capacity, increase that capacity before moving forward with the deployment of the NAS solution. Failing to do so can cause the NAS solution to slow the network to an unmanageable level.

The problem with storage islands
Deploying multiple NAS devices can sometimes lead to the formation of storage islands or silos, which are repositories of data that can't be managed from a single point of access. In a storage island, administrators can't see all points of storage, and functions such as file permissions, replications and storage allocation must be handled individually.

Challenging data migrations
Most current NAS devices come with management software that enables wizard-driven migration of Oracle, Microsoft Exchange (see Figure 2-3) and Microsoft SQL application data. However, you have to manually migrate userdefined application data to some NAS devices, which can be a time-consuming process. In addition, each time storage is upgraded, the data may need to be migrated again.

Figure 2-3: NAS management software helps you migrate Exchange data with little intervention. Enlarge image

Power and cooling requirements
Power is essential to all electronic devices. Power and cooling are big concerns in IT environments that run a lot of high-powered equipment. Data centers are generally prepared to meet equipment power and cooling needs, and are climate-controlled to remove excess moisture from the air. However, not every company runs a data center. If you plan to install your NAS device in an ordinary office environment (or a closet, as is often the case), ensure that you can provide adequate power when the device is running at its maximum load. You'll need to research NAS device features and talk to vendors before purchase, and possibly upgrade your electrical feed. Your NAS device is likely to start off underutilized but increase in usage over time. You'll spare your users from downtime by ensuring adequate power from the beginning. In addition, be prepared to blow or vent heat buildup out of the area where the NAS device is located, and keep the area as dust-free as possible.

To protect against brownouts and power surges, connect your NAS device to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Look for a UPS that can support your NAS for at least 10 minutes longer than it takes for the NAS to shut down normally.

A note about security
The thing that makes NAS so simple to install and use—that it uses common internet and file transfer protocols—presents its own security challenges. You're wise to approach a new NAS installation the same way you'd approach installing a new general-purpose server: by assuming there are risks you need to examine at installation.

Some of the most common file protocols NAS supports, such as NFS (for UNIX/Linux) and SMB/CIFS (for Windows), have known weaknesses when it comes to authentication, for example, allowing anonymous access if improperly configured or allowing access over unencrypted channels.

Checking your vendor's security offerings
Even if one protocol is tightly secured, as might be common in an office that only uses (and knows how to secure) Windows and CIFS, a savvy attacker might exploit the weaknesses of NFS. They may use lax security to impersonate another user to get past those restrictions and access files, or they may subvert file permissions directly by switching protocols looking for a weakness.

Again, most vendors offer a management solution that addresses these needs; make it one of your key concerns in making a selection.

Consider how your NAS solution of choice authenticates users across all platforms, as well as how it restricts file permissions and users' views of data, and how it logs access and file transactions.

Here, you've learned which pitfalls you might face in implementing and securing your NAS solution and how you might address them. More advanced planning can help you overcome most NAS challenges and security risks.

Moving on
By now, you should be comfortable with the concept of NAS from the basic server to the value-added software features and the challenges you could face during deployment. Now it's time to begin planning your organization's NAS solution. In Lesson 3, you'll find out how to determine your storage needs, find the right NAS solution, and plan the implementation of that solution. Before you move on, do the assignment and take the quiz for this lesson.

Assignment #2
In Lessons 1 and 2, you learned a lot about the capabilities of NAS devices. Now it's time to answer some questions about your specific storage needs. You'll use these answers in Lesson 3 to plan the NAS solution that best suits your needs.

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions—they're simply a way to help you understand your organization's storage requirements. Answer the following questions as completely as you can: Have you conducted a health checkup of your organization's existing network? If so, is there adequate capacity left on the network, or do you need to add capacity to achieve the most efficient NAS solution? How is storage currently used in your organization? Do some departments require more storage than others? Do some departments underutilize available storage resources? Who will control and manage your organization's storage solution? Will more than one person handle control and management? How will the people who control and manage the storage solution access control functions? Who will be responsible for administration and monitoring of storage? How will administration and monitoring be accomplished? Do you have specific security concerns that aren't addressed by your current network security? How would you like to address those concerns—in the NAS solution or on the network as a whole? How much availability is required for your organization's data? If the data is unavailable for a few minutes to an hour, how will that affect your business? Do some departments require higher availability than others? What are your organization's plans for future storage? Is the storage solution you're implementing now going to be sufficient for the next one to two years, or do you see the need for additional storage before then? The purpose of answering these questions is to get you started thinking about the business problem you're trying to solve by implementing a NAS solution. You'll find out more details about which NAS solution is right for which circumstances in Lesson 3.

Quiz #2
Question 1: What are the key components of a NAS solution? (Check all that apply.) A) A dedicated server and operating system

B) C) D)

A network connection Security features Some software features

Question 2: True or False: NAS is a Plug and Play technology. A) B) True False

Question 3: Which of the following operating systems are supported by NAS devices? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) D) Microsoft Windows UNIX Linux Sun Solaris

Question 4: Which of the following are value-added services? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) D) Server clustering Operating system Data snapshots Data replication

Question 5: True or False: Your existing security policies are sufficient to cover a Plug and Play solution such as NAS. A) B) True False

Planning effective NAS
A NAS solution is only as good as it's designed to be. In this lesson, you'll learn how to plan an effective and efficient NAS solution from end to end to meet your organization's business and file storage needs.

Determining your organization's network attached storage needs
In the past, network storage was sometimes treated as an extra feature, or an afterthought. Today, organizations require more than simply enough storage. Sufficient capacity must exist not only for servers and workstations but also for redundancy and replication of vital data. To accomplish this, a storage system needs to be much more than just an afterthought—it needs to be well planned, with all facets of organizational needs considered and an eye toward the future.

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HP All-in-One storage solution

In Lesson 2's assignment, you answered some questions regarding business needs to begin the storage planning stage. Those questions were designed to get you thinking about what your organization has in place, what you need now and what your organization will need in the future.

In addition to those answers, the answers to the following questions will help you determine how much storage your organization needs and which NAS solution meets its specific business needs: What are your organization's current priorities? Your organization's priorities determine which systems you need to focus on and in what order. Priorities also help maximize return on investment (ROI) and ensure storage improvements for the maximum number of users. How fast do you expect the volume of data within your organization to grow? Don't focus solely on your organization's current needs. Instead,

consider and plan for future growth as well. What are your budget constraints? The budget is often the most limiting factor. It does your business no good if you begin implementing a storage solution only to find that your budget won't accommodate your plans. Understand your budget up front. By doing so, you'll eliminate wasted design efforts so you can focus on the most beneficial improvements. Where can you consolidate existing storage? Consolidation reduces management costs, increases allocation efficiency and speeds backup tasks. Be careful when consolidating storage space. Consolidation can increase the risk of being too dependent on fewer servers, meaning that availability of data in storage will be at risk if a server goes down. You need a highly reliable and efficient backup system in place before consolidating storage. How will your organization's storage needs change in the near future? Your organization's storage needs may change steadily or at an explosive rate. Plan your storage system with enough flexibility to meet these additional requirements in the future. What are your organization's backup requirements? How many copies of your data do you need in addition to the primary copy? Backup copies of data might be shadow or replication copies for recovery purposes. You should also consider how frequently you need to do backups, whether they'll be manual or automated backups and when you plan to do them. Whatever your organization's backup plan requires, consider that as you calculate its storage requirements. What are your organization's performance requirements? LAN and WAN capabilities, storage interfaces, data replication and recovery and the speed of backup devices affect the performance of your organization's NAS device. Similarly, your applications' throughput and latency requirements affect the solution. Regardless of your network's capabilities, some applications have a greater need to read and write heavy amounts of data (a throughput demand) or to very quickly read and write small amounts (a network latency requirement ). The nature of your key applications will affect your choice of solution and how you configure it. What are your data migration concerns? Related to the question of server consolidation is the real cost of migrating your data. Once your solution is in place, you'll need to move large volumes of data from where they are now to the new storage solution. Getting a larger single system rather than multiple smaller units may increase consolidation risk but considerably ease your data migration.

A good place to start planning the right storage solution for your business is to take a granular look at the storage requirements of users, applications and systems that depend on storage.

User storage requirements
For users, base storage requirements should be calculated on the following: Volume of email: Higher email volumes, or email stored on the desktop, equals higher storage requirements. Documents: Type, number and average size of documents (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, audio, video, photographs, multimedia files, scanned documents and so on) can make a substantial difference in storage requirements. System settings: For users' registry settings, 15 MB (megabytes) is usually sufficient; however, it can fluctuate according to the number of applications

installed for each user. To find the amount of storage that the average user requires, survey several users' desktops. After you know the average per user, multiply that by the number of users in your organization to determine a good starting place for the amount of storage you need.

After you determine average storage usage, add an additional 20 percent to that total for intermediate storage needs. This built-in flexibility compensates for users who require more than the average, or for instances in which a user has temporarily high storage needs.

Other requirements
When you know what your users' storage requirements are, you can look at other factors such as: Application requirements, including uptime, response time, throughput and latency Policy requirements, including security requirements, compliance or regulatory issues, retention policies and any user storage quota policies Administrative requirements, including backup and retention requirements and capacity provisioning When considering your storage requirements, keep in mind that having the latest and the greatest features isn't always necessary. Define the business need for additional storage and stay focused on meeting that need, regardless of how attractive additional features might appear to be.

A few more possible requirements to consider are clustering and the need to avoid a single point of failure to the disk array.

Clustering was covered briefly in Lesson 2. Simply put, clustering is a redundancy strategy for availability requirements that are higher than those built into a single NAS device. By clustering two or more devices so they act as a single unit, you improve the availability of your organization's storage, even if one NAS device fails.

No single point of failure is also a redundancy strategy, and to accomplish this, more than one path to the storage medium is required. In addition, some businesses use multiple storage devices to prevent a single point of failure. In most cases, these two features are requirements in high-end storage architectures.

A summary of NAS considerations is illustrated in Figure 3-1.

Figure 3-1: Summary of NAS considerations. Enlarge image

You should now have a good understanding of how additional storage fits into your organization and what your storage needs are. In the next section, you'll take a closer look at some scenarios that illustrate how to select the right NAS solution to meet your organization's needs.

Finding the right NAS solution
At this point, you should fully understand your organization's storage needs for today and tomorrow. You should also have an understanding of how storage will solve your organization's specific problem, and the ROI a storage solution will provide. Now it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty of selecting the right NAS device to meet those needs.

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NAS file and print solution storage servers

Let's look at a hypothetical situation to determine how much storage will be needed.

Example: Mr. Jim's Gourmet Spice Company
Mr. Jim's Gourmet Spice Company is implementing NAS storage to help combat some of the storage issues that have cropped up in the last year. Mr. Jim's is a small company with only 27 staff members. However, the company generates a lot of graphic-intensive documents, Flash and video files for marketing, and the main means of communication is via email. In addition to the document and email requirements of the company, Mr. Jim's has recently implemented an e-commerce system that's taxing the existing storage system.

The company is planning for rapid growth over the next five to seven years, and needs a storage device that'll be sufficient to add 20 to 50 large clients and as many as 15 more staff members during that period. Mr. Jim's current network includes several general-purpose servers, a file and print server and an email server.

In the preplanning phase of implementing a new storage system, the company performed a network checkup and found that network capacity was more than sufficient to add additional storage devices without decreasing network performance. Additionally, from the initial view, it looked as if adding the right NAS device would enable the company to increase resource utilization by reducing the number of servers currently on the network.

With that step out of the way, the next step was to look at individual storage needs. A survey of seven users (which is about one-fourth of the staff members with different job descriptions and in different departments) revealed that the average person uses about 40 GB of storage. After adding a 20percent buffer, the company determined that the average user needs 48 GB of storage, or a total of 1.3 TB of user storage.

After user storage needs were determined, the company looked at application requirements, administrative requirements and policy requirements. Current needs for those factors equaled 500 GB.

At this point, Mr. Jim's currently needed about 1.8 TB of storage. Next, future needs were taken into consideration. The company expected to add 15 more staff members in the near future, so an additional 720 GB of storage would be needed to meet user requirements. Calculating for future projects, additional clients, backup storage and added applications, the company determined an additional 1.5 TB of storage was needed for future needs.

That brought the total storage capacity need to 4 TB. The following table summarizes the storage needs calculated for Mr. Jim's.

Description

Amount of storage space

Current needs 1,300 GB 27 users @ 48 GB each 500 GB Current application, administrative and policy requirements

Future needs 720 GB Additional 15 users @ 48 GB each 1,500 GB New projects, additional clients, backup storage and additional applications

Total

4,020 GB ≈ 4 TB

Table 3-1: Mr. Jim's current and estimated future storage needs.

Furthermore, on closer examination, the company found that there was no business case for clustering and no single point of failure. For Mr. Jim's, this meant a mid-range, scalable storage solution would be sufficient to meet the company's needs and would provide enough flexibility to continue meeting those needs for at least a few years.

Looking to the future
If Mr. Jim's experiences unexpected growth, the storage system and network bandwidth may become taxed due to heavier user support and the need for an expanded website and upgraded e-commerce system. Its already heavy throughput means that mission-critical applications could be negatively impacted.

These factors would indicate that the company may need to implement a SAN. Its block-level storage is very well suited to addressing the storage needs of mission-critical application servers, such as e-commerce, database and email (as contrasted with users' file serving needs).

The solution
Mr. Jim's chose a scalable NAS solution that allows up to 5.4 TB of raw storage and provides print services. This enabled the company to find another use for the existing file and print server, perhaps to host the e-commerce implementation without the need to purchase additional hardware. Mr. Jim's NAS solution integrates into the existing Mr. Jim's network, provides clustering (if needed) and offers a bridge to iSCSI over Ethernet, which accommodates access to a SAN.

In addition, the NAS device offers tools for simplified data migration from Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008. This solution addresses current Mr. Jim's needs while offering a leg up to a SAN solution that may very soon be more appropriate for the organization.

Additional decision-making resources
Mr. Jim's is just one example of how to determine which storage system will best suit your organization's needs. As you've worked through this class, it has addressed most of the considerations and issues you'll face in planning your organization's storage solution. If you need additional help, consult the HP Simply Storage Consolidation web page. The Storage Product Selector can help you locate a system that suits your unique storage and networking situation.

You've seen how a look at your current storage usage, with an eye to the future, can help you zero in on the right NAS solution for your needs. Next, though, you'll learn about whether a consultant can be the right move for you when planning a solution.

Should you bring in a consultant?
Making the decision about which NAS solution is right for your organization's business needs is no easy task. At some point, you may find yourself asking whether you should bring in a consultant. Every business is different, and therefore each business's needs are different. If you feel you need the expertise of a consultant to guide you through this process, hire one.

» HP StorageWorks modular disk arrays

In most cases, however, skill level is the main determining factor where consultants are concerned. Because NAS is Plug and Play, it doesn't require deeply technical understanding of the device. However, determining how much storage you need may not be as easy.

In that case, the outside view of a third-party might be an added benefit.

Whereas you may be too close to the issue to see the big picture, a storage consultant knows exactly what to look for to determine your organization's needs.

If you decide to hire a consultant, there's a range of them available from which to select. From professional services groups at vendor organizations to large consulting companies and systems integrators, you can easily decide on a consultant who's more than willing to help you.

Usually, the professional services group is the best choice, for two reasons: They're intimately familiar with the products you're considering. However, this requires you to know which vendor you want to use before you begin looking at your storage requirements. They're interested in helping their product succeed. And to do that, you have to succeed. This means the professional services group may work harder for you than an outside consultant would. Regardless of which consultant you select, be sure to do your homework before signing a contract. Questions to ask the consultant should include: Have you consulted on a similar project in the past? Does your company resell products from many manufacturers or a specific manufacturer? What type of user and technical training can you provide? What are your (or your staff's) qualifications? Who are your customers? May I contact them for a reference? Be sure to contact the references you gather before hiring your consultant. Most are accustomed to being asked for this information and readily provide it. If a potential consultant balks at providing references, it's a pretty good indication you've got the wrong consultant.

Moving on
By now you should be able to effectively plan for and select the NAS solution that'll best suit your organization's needs. In Lesson 4, you'll find out how to install the NAS solution you chose. Before you get that far, do the assignment and take the quiz for this lesson.

Assignment #3
Deciding which NAS solution best suits your organization's needs is the hardest part of implementing NAS. The following is an example of how you would select a NAS solution for your business.

Examine the solution, and then decide if your organization would need an entry-level, mid-range or high-end NAS solution to solve the business problem presented.

Motor Carrier Safety Consultants (MCSC)
MCSC is a training, education and recordkeeping company for motor carrier companies. MCSC tracks fuel costs, taxes, driver mileage logs and certifications; conducts safety training, driver interviews and drug testing; and provides a record-keeping service. The record-keeping service includes scanning, auditing and archiving driver mileage logs. The company, the only one of its kind, has 31 staff members and 340 clients.

MCSC has a web server, a file and print server, two email servers and three general-purpose servers. Being the only company that offers these services, it expects to continue growing at a steady pace over the next three to five years by:

Adding approximately 50 new customers each year Increasing the number of services to approximately 40 existing clients each year Adding approximately 15 new staff members each year Because of its unique positioning in the market, MCSC's data is mission critical. Downtime would cost the company thousands of dollars each hour and effectively halt business completely. In the event that an outage occurs, the data the company archives would need to be recovered as quickly as possible.

If you were selecting the NAS solution for this company, would you select an entry-level, a mid-range or a high-end solution? Why?

Quiz #3
Question 1: What's often the most limiting factor to implementing a NAS solution? A) B) C) D) Time Technical expertise Policy requirements Budget

Question 2: True or False: Network capabilities affect the performance of your organization's NAS device. A) B) True False

Question 3: Which requirements should you consider when planning for the most-effective NAS solution? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) D) User requirements Administrative requirements Application requirements Marketing requirements

Question 4: Which of the following is not a factor in estimating users' space requirements? A) B) C) D) Type, number and size of user documents, such as multimedia or spreadsheets Network latency Size of registry settings Amount of email stored

Question 5: True or False: You always need a consultant when planning and implementing a storage solution. A) B) True False

Installing NAS
There's more to installing and configuring NAS than just plugging it in. This lesson walks you through the installation and configuration process for your organization's new NAS solution. A simple troubleshooting guide also helps you solve common problems.

Guidelines for installing your organization's NAS solution
After completing Lesson 3, you've selected the right NAS solution to meet your organization's business needs. Now it's time to install the solution and put it to work. For the most part, installation involves plugging the NAS device into a power source, connecting it to the network and navigating through a few

installation and configuration screens. However, there are a few steps that can make this process easier and prevent you from encountering unnecessary challenges along the way.

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HP Storage software portfolio

Many different NAS devices are available from many different manufacturers. It's not possible to address all of the installation specifics in this class. These guidelines are meant to be a general overview of some of the most important considerations. For more precise installation guidelines, review the documentation that comes with your organization's NAS device, contact the device's manufacturer or vendor or contact a consultant.

One of the most attractive features of NAS is that it doesn't require any specialized hardware knowledge to install and operate it. It also doesn't require major server reconfigurations or network downtime. If you can plug in an Ethernet cable, you can install a NAS device. However, having a solid understanding of Ethernet networks is a plus because most of the issues encountered during installation are due to network settings.

Adding NAS to a complex networking environment
Network issues aren't a major problem during most installations. In fact, the majority of the time, after a NAS device is installed, it detects network settings and integrates itself flawlessly with no issues whatsoever. However, when adding NAS to a complex network, you may encounter some challenges. Networks that present the most problems are described in the following sections.

Manually assigned Internet Protocol (IP) addresses
Manufacturers have done a good job of getting NAS devices to integrate fluidly into an existing network. However, manually assigned IP addresses can create problems as the NAS device tries to automatically detect the IP addresses of other devices on the network. If this is the case, it may be necessary for you to manually assign IP addresses through the control or management console of the NAS device.

Internal firewalls
Many NAS devices come with pre-installed firewall applications. An internal firewall may conflict with these applications. To avoid the conflict, you need to configure the firewalls to work in conjunction with one another. Refer to your manufacturer's documentation for information on configuring these firewalls to work together.

A separate firewall issue you may encounter is that remote employees are denied access to the files and information stored on the NAS device. To circumvent this problem, using your manufacturer's documentation, create a demilitarized zone (DMZ) or a virtual private network (VPN) through which remote employees can access the data needed.

Complex routing based on unusual or uncommon protocols
For a more complex network, you may need to purchase a higher-end NAS system. These higher-end systems have more features and capabilities than

lower-end NAS systems, create fewer problems and typically come with better product support. If your network is complex or relies on unusual protocols, the additional support may be a requirement.

Addressing these issues may require some additional technical expertise, or at the very least a little more time for installation and configuration than originally planned for. To mitigate frustration and the risk of missing an implementation deadline, plan for the possibility of difficulties and increased implementation time presented by these three situations.

Where to plug it in
Because NAS is a Plug and Play technology, the temptation is to plug it into any available network jack and forget about it. However, it's not wise to do that. The NAS device needs to be connected at a location on the network where there's sufficient bandwidth to support the traffic the device generates.

For example, the switch to which the NAS device is connected can have a huge impact on the performance of the device. Consider this as a minimum: a 10/100 Ethernet switch has a total throughput of 200 megabits/second (Mb/s). When you take overhead (what it takes to run the switch and associated applications) into consideration, the actual available throughput for that switch might be only 130 Mb/s. If the switch supports 10 ports, the available throughput at each port may be, in reality, only about 13 Mb/s. So, although you might assume that the NAS device is operating at 200 Mb/s, what you'll actually experience is the NAS device operating at 13 Mb/s. This decrease in performance is dramatic.

However, if you connect the NAS appliance at a nonblocking Ethernet switch, you'll see a considerable increase in performance. This is because the nonblocking switch delivers bandwidth to all of the 10 ports simultaneously, meaning the NAS appliance is performing at top speed. You may also consider Gigabit Ethernet technology, which is becoming more mainstream and offers significant performance enhancement over 10/100 Ethernet.

Figure 4-1: NAS connection diagram. Enlarge image

When adding the NAS device to your network, think about security. For increased security, place the device inside the company firewall, closer to users.

Now that you know the basics of installing a NAS solution, read on to learn some configuration techniques.

Guidelines for configuring your organization's NAS solution
After you've decided where to attach the NAS device to the network and connected it, you're ready to start the configuration process. Most NAS devices have a browser-based management tool that walks you through the configuration. (Many are designed without video hardware and thus a display can't be plugged into it; these must be configured over the network via a browser.) » Each different NAS appliance has different configuration steps. Every possibility can't be addressed in this class, so for specifics, consult the documentation that came with your appliance. If you elected to hire a consultant to assist with installation and configuration, that person might handle the entire process for you. HP All-in-One storage solution

In most cases, configuration is a simple process of establishing a network connection; making the storage device accessible to users, regardless of operating system; and then customizing options such as synchronization and protection. Most configuration software walks you through a set of steps, as shown in Figure 4-2.

Figure 4-2: General steps for setting up NAS.

Disk and volume setup
You usually have the opportunity to configure the setup of volumes—in other words, you may have the option of setting up a RAID solution or dictating how partitions are configured on the installed storage media. Backup features like snapshots (point-in-time "pictures" of the file system) are often selectable at

this point and easy to implement on NAS.

It's important to have a plan in place when initially allocating storage. Determine ahead of time the amount of space to devote to business units or departments, leaving some disk space unallocated so you can easily expand to it.

You can increase or reduce the storage allocated to an application component, user-defined application or shared folder after you initially allocate storage, with some caveats: To increase the amount of allocated storage, your management tool must increase the amount of hard drive space allocated to the logical disk that holds the data. Reducing the amount of allocated storage does not reduce the size of the logical disk holding the data. Once you allocate hard drive space to a logical disk, you cannot unallocate it due to the configuration of hard drives. With some NAS systems, reducing storage space can be challenge. Let's say you give the HR department 100 GB of space but only 10 GB is ever used. To reclaim the unused space and allocate it to another business unit, you have to copy the 10 GB of data off of the volume, delete the volume, re-create a new smaller volume and then copy the 10 GB of data to the new volume.

Operating systems
NAS solutions may come with a variety of base operating systems. Many are based on Microsoft Windows or UNIX/Linux. Other vendors provide a proprietary operating system, which is often stripped down to the necessary protocols to provide file services and administrative abilities.

You often have a choice whether to enable support at configuration time for particular access protocols: NFS (file serving protocol for UNIX/Linux) SMB/CIFS (file serving protocols for Windows) AFP for Apple computers Backup-related services such as RSYNC FTP and Secure FTP (SFTP) Particularly on nonproprietary NAS operating systems based on Windows or UNIX/Linux, a wider variety of services might be available. For example, your solution might offer additional functions such as print serving, or file services such as UPnP.

Establishing a network connection should be simple, and essentially depends on the scouting work you did in Lesson 3 and whether you need a manually assigned IP address, for example.

If your device is designed to integrate with SANs, you may also have iSCSI options. For example, you may be able to establish an iSCSI target (essentially a server-side disk offering to clients) or an iSCSI initiator (which enables your device to make iSCSI connections, across a SAN, to disk resources in an array).

Making the device available to users
A standard configuration step is setting storage quotas for users, which enables you to manage user accounts and keep their storage from overwhelming your solution. Your device's quota approach may range from the most basic abilities to more full-featured quota controls.

Allowable files
Allowable files, or a similar name, is an attribute you can set during configuration. This enables you to exercise additional control over storage volumes by dictating which kinds of files are permitted to be stored on the NAS device—for example, whether MP3 files are allowed to be served from the device. When a user attempts to save a blocked file type, a notification is sent to the appropriate person (such as an administrator).

Authentication
User account management also varies widely depending on implementation. Most devices allow for basic user authentication; however, check with your vendor regarding integration into more sophisticated user/domain configurations.

Usually, configuration challenges are limited to network issues, and if you've addressed those issues in the network health checkup, you aren't likely to encounter additional challenges when configuring your organization's NAS. However, if you do, consult the user documentation that came with the NAS device—most issues are addressed in that documentation. Next, learn some troubleshooting tips for dealing with common NAS problems.

NAS troubleshooting: Common problems
If you've prepared well for installing and configuring your organization's NAS, you shouldn't encounter problems during the process. NAS is truly a Plug and Play technology and should be straightforward and easy to get up and running. If you've done your homework, the process should take no more than 15 minutes. » However, you might occasionally encounter a problem. If you do, the best approach is to check basic elements, such as the power and network connections. If everything is connected properly and all cables are functioning, review the installation and configuration guides to ensure you haven't overlooked a step. Also check for updated drivers and install them, if necessary. If that doesn't work, it's time to pull out the heavy artillery. HP ProLiant Blade systems

Most NAS installation or reference documentation includes a troubleshooting guide that walks you through some of the most common challenges and their solutions. Despite the general ease of installing NAS, if you do have problems, a few issues may be the likely culprit: If access is a problem, is there a single point of failure (in other words, is there one route to your data that may have failed)? If so, your vendor may have a solution that'll enable your device to switch ports. You may want to reconsider whether you need to step up your solution to clustering. If ports and routes are working and your users can't see the NAS device, you may need to revisit the networking portion of installation; in particular, how IP addresses are assigned. Is a firewall between the user and the NAS? If so, check its setting to ensure the incoming and outgoing connections allow for connectivity between users and the NAS device. If your users and the appliance are based on different operating systems, is all your software up to date (client service packs and appliance protocols)? If you did your network homework, performance shouldn't be an issue. However, if it's suffering, is your infrastructure fast enough (for example, Gigabit Ethernet) to support your demands? Is your device connected to a blocking switch that might limit its throughput? If not, you might need to increase network capacity.

If the troubleshooting guide and preceding tips don't resolve the problem, contact the appliance vendor or the manufacturer. They can answer any questions you might have.

Moving on
Your organization's NAS should be installed and operational after you've completed the steps outlined in the lessons to this point. In Lesson 5, you'll look at some management best practices that'll help you achieve the best results from your storage solution. Before you move on, do the assignment and take the quiz to gauge what you've learned.

Assignment #4
Network settings can present issues when installing NAS. You could experience problems with how your organization's network is configured or even where you want to connect the device to the network.

To get a clear picture of your organization's network and where it would be best to connect the NAS, you need a basic image of your organization's current network layout, as shown in Figure 4-3, and information about its network configuration. With these resources in hand, you should be prepared to handle any issues related to the network that might arise.

Figure 4-3: Basic NAS connection diagram sample. Enlarge image

Your assignment for this lesson is to draw (or sketch) a simplified illustration of your organization's existing network. In the illustration, be sure to include all servers, switches, a representation of the workstations, printers, file servers, print servers and other elements on the network. While examining the network, document network loads. You may even locate existing bottlenecks that could affect the performance of your organization's NAS solution.

Don't feel pressured to make the diagram look professional; just create an accurate state of your existing network environment.

After you complete a sketch of the network, answer the following questions: Are network IP addresses automatically or manually assigned? If they're manually assigned, you may encounter installation problems, and having those IP addresses readily available may help solve those

problems quickly and easily. Does your organization have an internal firewall? And if so, what adjustments do you need to make to the firewall to accommodate the NAS? Firewalls can be complicated, so understanding how NAS will affect the existing firewall before installation and configuration begin can make the process much smoother. Does your network rely on complex routing or uncommon network protocols? Complex routing can be a problem when installing and configuring NAS. Is there any way that you can simplify network routing? If you're using uncommon network protocols, does the NAS device you selected support them? Just as the network illustration has no correct answer, the same is true of these questions. However, answering the questions will force you to look more closely at your organization's network, which may prevent problems during installation and configuration of NAS.

Quiz #4
Question 1: True or False: NAS is a Plug and Play technology, so it's not possible to encounter technical issues when installing a NAS solution. A) B) True False

Question 2: True or False: You should connect a NAS solution to the network in a place where there's sufficient bandwidth to support the increased traffic driven by the device. A) B) True False

Question 3: Which of the following placements are likely to cause performance problems with a NAS device? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) D) Attached to a non-blocking Ethernet switch Outside a local firewall in a DMZ Attached to a blocking Ethernet switch Attached to two IP switches using Gigabit Ethernet

Question 4: True or False: Installing and configuring NAS is a difficult and time-consuming process. A) B) True False

Question 5: Which of the following is the most likely cause of a network access problem in the configuration of your NAS? A) B) C) D) Clients accessing the device through NFS User quotas set too low Network uses manually assigned IP addresses Snapshot capabilities are enabled

Managing NAS
After your organization's NAS device is installed and functional, you need to spend some time maintaining it. In this lesson, you'll learn how to manage NAS solutions for the best results over the long term.

Techniques for managing NAS
Welcome back. Lesson 4 covered NAS installation and configuration, and touched on some troubleshooting issues you might encounter during those phases. Once a NAS device is up and running, you need to know how to

manage it efficiently. That's what this lesson is all about. » Although the price of storage devices continues to decline, the cost of managing storage is accelerating at an estimated rate of about 60 to 70 percent of the hardware costs. That means that implementing NAS might be relatively cost-effective; however, if you don't manage the device or devices for long-term usefulness, your company could end up spending more than necessary. NAS file and print solution storage servers

As NAS has evolved in capabilities, it has become acceptable for handling mission-critical data, but the management issues that surround NAS have evolved as well. A formal management strategy needs to be in place to ensure long-term success with NAS. That management strategy can be based on existing management software or third-party software that meets the specific needs of your organization.

There are many different NAS systems that your organization can put in place, from entry-level systems that include bare-bones management functionality to enterprise-level systems with advanced management functionality. Regardless of the NAS solution you select, you must manage three critical areas: performance, capacity and processing.

Performance
Performance management is probably one of the most addressed management issues where any technology is concerned. For NAS, it's especially important because performance degradation can result in costly and time-consuming issues.

There is a broad range of potential problems that can affect performance, from the physical performance of the NAS devices—such as computing cycles and memory utilization, the number of I/O requests and cache performance—to logical performance metrics such as CIFS and NFS statistics.

Performance management software should include the ability to collect and filter data about performance issues. Using this method, when predefined thresholds are breached, the software initiates intelligent events to alert the system administrator of the breach. In some cases, it can even make adjustments in the system to automatically reallocate resources to handle the breach.

Organizations often address performance management in the service level agreement (SLA). In many organizations, SLAs are an unwritten understanding of what should happen rather than written documentation that outlines service expectations and the consequences of not meeting those expectations. If that's the case, you should establish a written SLA that clearly defines acceptable and unacceptable levels of service, as well as outlines the penalties or rewards that can be expected if service levels aren't met or are exceeded, respectively.

An SLA must have the support of executive management to be useful. If your organization doesn't have SLAs in place for internal processes, take the time to establish, and win, executive support for an SLA. The result will be more realistic, and ultimately more measurable, service expectations for storage and other technology applications.

If you take performance management one step further, you'll find that you also need to manage the events that are triggered by threshold alerts. Event management has the ability to visualize events at a centrally managed console and set thresholds based on user-defined criteria. The criteria are generally something such as a failed disk drive, a power supply failure or an aboveaverage excess of storage allocation. These events should be correlated with the storage infrastructure to escalate troubleshooting and speed correction of the process.

Don't set too many event alerts. If every event results in a warning, the constant state of alarm can lead to overexposure, making it more likely that a critical issue alert will be overlooked.

Capacity
Understanding the capacity of your organization's storage system is essential to successful usage of that storage. Capacity is the who, what and how much of storage, and it's one of the biggest hurdles to effective NAS management. Understanding your storage capacity is inherently difficult because of the distributed nature of NAS.

To understand the capacity of your organization's NAS system, it's essential you keep track of what's being stored on the NAS, by whom and for what purpose. Additionally, tracking how efficiently storage is being used, which department is paying for it and how well SLAs are being met helps you plan for and manage capacity.

In addition to helping to efficiently manage your organization's storage resources, tracking these facets of the NAS solution provides the necessary information for increasing storage capacity. These facts are the support for justifying future investments.

Capacity management includes balancing capacity for copies of data (such as mirrored copies or snapshot copies) and should be heterogeneous to allow the movement of data from expensive platforms to inexpensive platforms, regardless of vendor.

Processing
Another way to think of processing is file management. Straightforward, flexible file management tools are important to maintain an effective NAS solution. Simple features, such as centralized device views, login capabilities and automatic monitoring, are essential to making processing management software useful.

At the file level, access management for the creation and control of file shares should also be simple and intuitive. An aggregate file-level view, shown in Figure 5-1, that gives system administrators flexibility in managing activities such as data migration, replications and establishing new users or new user groups helps maintain an efficient storage system. When these processes become difficult or time-consuming, system administrators often overlook them in the crush of daily crises.

Figure 5-1: An example of an aggregate view in a NAS management tool. Enlarge image

The best file management software for most SMBs is one that's layered over an existing distributed file system (DFS). This results in a drag-and-drop interface, regardless of where data resides on the network.

Now that you've seen the key areas that NAS management addresses, let's take a look at the best practices that have evolved in maintaining NAS solutions.

NAS administration best practices
In many cases, the administration of NAS, like any other technology, is a matter of establishing some guidelines and policies that focus on the health of the application. The following sections include some of the best practices that'll keep NAS operating efficiently for the long term. » HP StorageWorks modular disk arrays

Establishing clear storage requirements
What determines your organization's storage requirements probably involves more than simply how much information it needs to store. In today's world, there are many different facets of storage requirements, and you should perform a requirements analysis to ensure you have sufficient storage capacity to meet all of those requirements.

Some of the requirements you should consider as you plan for future storage capacity are: Legislative and mandated retention periods Established or implied SLAs Productivity expectations and demands Business continuity requirements Of those storage requirements, current legislation and regulations are the most likely to catch you unprepared. Each piece of legislation means something different to different businesses, and each also means different requirements for each business. Pieces of legislation that might affect your organization's

storage needs include: Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: Corporate responsibility Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act: Consumers' financial information SEC 17a-4: Electronic storage of broker-dealer records FINRA 3110: Record management for securities dealers 21 CFR Part 11: U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations on electronic records Basel II: International banking USA PATRIOT Act: Short for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, covers information sharing HIPAA: Health-related data

Establishing and enforcing storage policies
Many organizations haven't set policies that govern storage usage but instead follow informal practices that are generally agreed upon and accepted. Some regular activities that often fall under the latter category are file-naming conventions and routine cleanup reminders. However, practices don't become policies until they're documented and given executive support.

To be effective management tools, commonly accepted practices and procedures need to be made into policies. To accomplish this:

1. Identify the current practices that apply to your organization's storage resources. 2. Consider the policies that need to be instituted to effectively manage your organization's storage resources.

Use the existing practices, and practices that need to be developed to fill gaps, to determine the most effective storage usage policies for your organization's situation.

1. Document these practices and recruit executive support to establish formal, enforceable policies.

Those policies fall under one of three categories: Written corporate policies: These are legal documents that employees must read and sign, and the signed copy is kept on file, usually in human resources records. A corporate email policy that outlines acceptable use of email is an example of a written corporate policy. Administration policies: These are geared more toward the administrative management of technology implementations. For example, a policy that outlines email box quotas or retention requirements is an administration policy. Usually, these policies are less formal than written corporate policies; however, they're equally important because they help control growth and manage technology requirements. Security policies: These are essential for NAS management because NAS may put all of your organization's data in one place, therefore increasing (to some degree) the amount of risk to that data. Security policies should be layered to provide protection to the data even when one layer of protection fails. You'll look more closely at security on the next lesson page.

Establishing a complete backup and recovery plan
One key risk to important data is the risk of loss that can occur from a variety of sources, including hardware failures and human error. A clear best practice for NAS management lies in creating a solid backup and recovery plan.

Backup and archiving aren't the same things. Backup is temporary storage of information intended to be used in the event that data is lost and needs to be recovered. Archiving is the long-term storage of data or information. The technology and methods used for routine data backup can differ from those used for archiving.

The first step in developing a backup and recovery plan is to decide on a backup medium. A variety of choices are available—whether local or remote—such as cloud storage, disk storage, D2D2T, tape backup only and more.

For example, although business applications usually need to access their data from high-performance drives, data for occasional access (such as backup and recovery) can be stored on less-expensive, lower-performance drives, such as those found in a content-addressed storage (CAS) system. Your budget and needs dictate whether the expense of more drives is necessary; however, that option is increasingly affordable for SMBs.

The tiered approach to data retention moves data that hasn't been accessed for a specified period of time to different types of storage. For example, data that hasn't been accessed for 30 or 60 days is moved from the primary and most-expensive disks (tier 1) to less-expensive disk storage (tier 2). After 120 days, if the data still hasn't been accessed, it's shifted again to long-term storage (tier 3).

Another popular option is virtualization (virtual tape libraries) for speed and redundancy. If you select tape as your backup medium, you should also review time-saving accessories such as an autoloader, which holds several backup tapes and automatically rotates them as they fill with data.

Scheduling backups
After you determine your organization's backup method, create a regular backup schedule. Again, there's no correct time frame in which to back up information. For some, daily backups are necessary. For others, weekly or monthly backups are sufficient.

A few more pointers for your backups are: Always know what's stored on your backup media. Always know the location of the backup media. Determine who's responsible for and has access to backup media. Determine the time frame in which recovery should be completed and who's responsible for initiating recovery. Finally, keep in mind that your organization's backup and recovery plan should be a continually evolving plan. That means that it should be reviewed frequently, documented, tested and revised as the needs of the organization change.

Establishing end-user education
One of the greatest failings of any type of storage is that end users don't realize their own responsibilities and obligations in achieving effective storage management. You need to educate end users about their part in storage management.

Establish an end-user training program using a variety of means—instructor-led

training, online training or even regular reminders from the IT department. Some of the areas in which training should focus include compliance and retention policies, appropriate use of resources, implications of inappropriate usage and security policies.

Now that you've seen some best practices in administering your NAS solution, the next section will examine the importance of keeping it up to date and secure.

Updating and maintaining NAS
Every type of technology needs routine maintenance and occasional updating. Unfortunately, busy IT professionals often overlook updates and maintenance as they battle the daily fires that seem to hit every IT department.

However, if regular maintenance and updates aren't performed, your organization's NAS solution may lose efficiency over time. Therefore, develop a regular schedule to perform these necessary activities.

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One way to stay ahead of the game is to perform regular assessments of the storage system and the storage management system. You should consider the following during your assessments: Which applications consume the most storage? Over time, storage requirements for applications change. An application that was heavily used during one quarter might not be used at all in the next. Tracking and planning for this usage fluctuation helps to achieve the best possible balance of resource usage. How will storage needs change over the next one to three years? Proper planning of upcoming projects can help you keep your system running at peak capacity. Being prepared for future changes also helps to monitor and maintain the capacity that's already in place.

Maintaining your organization's security plan
Finally, one of the most essential elements of updating and maintaining your organization's NAS solution is establishing and reviewing an ongoing protection strategy. NAS technology presents additional security risks because your organization's data is aggregated rather than spread across a network. Although this is an excellent way to manage data, it also means there are fewer locations to which a malicious hacker needs to gain access to get to your organization's data.

For that reason, you need to have a solid, well-documented security plan and security policies in place. When designing your organization's NAS security, overlap the layers of protection so that if one layer fails, the data is still protected. The recommended layers of protection are: A well-defined (and well-distributed) security policy that defines the levels and types of security needed to protect your organization's data. Security policies should also include a plan for response to malicious attacks or breaches of security. A well-defined plan and technologies for user authentication, access authorization and monitoring of network traffic. Authentication, authorization and monitoring help to track what's happening on the network and around the NAS device. If multiple failed access attempts occur, or if suspicious network traffic is apparent, predefined alerts can help prevent or minimize unauthorized access. Data encryption policies, especially for sensitive information.

Virus protection that protects the NAS from viruses, Trojan horses, worms and other threats. Placement of the NAS device behind a corporate firewall, or a NAS device with a separate firewall. The exact configuration depends on how critical the information stored on the NAS solution is. Management software that automates alerts when suspicious activity occurs and eases the burden of security management. For all the simplicity of NAS, keeping its maintenance current—especially when it comes to the ever-shifting area of security—is important to a successful solution.

Moving on
In this lesson, you learned about best practices for managing your organization's NAS solution. In Lesson 6, you'll learn how to change technologies, combine NAS with other storage technologies and expand your organization's storage as it grows. Before you move on, take a few minutes to complete the assignment and take the quiz for this lesson.

Assignment #5
During the installation and deployment of your organization's NAS solution, you learned a lot about how to make storage work for you. Managing your storage solution properly is the key to long-term success.

As with any technology, you should create a checklist that keeps you focused when maintaining your organization's system. The following is a list of questions you should answer about your storage solution. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions. They're designed to help you focus on the management activities that need to be addressed and the time frame in which they should take place. You might want to answer these questions initially as you work your way through the design phase of your organization's storage management program. Then, after you have an established management program in place, review them periodically to ensure your management activities remain on target.

Performance
Are computing cycles sufficient to handle the additional load created by NAS? Does the network have sufficient memory to handle the additional load created by NAS? Does the network have sufficient cache capacity to handle the additional load created by NAS? Have you established SLAs? Are SLA requirements realistic? Are the SLA requirements clear? Which events represent critical issues for your organization? Which event alerts are in place? Which event alerts need to be in place?

Capacity
Who uses the storage solution? What do they use it for? What information is stored on the NAS solution? How are storage requirements divided by department? Is the correct department charged for the correct amount of storage usage? Are SLAs being met consistently?

Processing
Are file management technologies simple and intuitive? Do file management technologies provide access to all the information you need to maintain a healthy storage system? Is file management difficult or time-consuming? Is the file management interface intuitive and easy to use?

Backup and recovery
Do you have a complete backup and recovery plan in place?

Did you gain executive buy-in for the backup and recovery plan? Who is in charge of ensuring proper backup? Where are your backup media located? What's stored on that backup media? Who is responsible for initiating recovery activities? How long has it been since you reviewed your backup and recovery plan? Is your backup and recovery plan well documented? Has your backup and recovery plan been tested? How often do you revise your backup and recovery plan?

Storage requirements
What drives your storage requirements? Have you performed a storage requirement analysis? Are there legislative or other mandated retention requirements driving your organization's need for storage? What established or implied SLAs drive your organization's storage requirements? What are the productivity expectations and demands that drive your organization's storage requirements? What are your organization's critical business continuity requirements? What other continuity requirements drive your organization's storage usage?

Storage policies
Does your organization have well-defined policies regarding storage usage? Did you gain executive buy-in to support these policies? Are there existing practices and procedures you need to revise and shape into formal policies? Does a limit exist to the amount of space allocated for each end user? Do specific requirements exist surrounding access of stored data? Are end users aware of your organization's storage policies? Have end users been educated about their responsibilities and obligations for managing storage? Do you have an end-user training program in place?

Updates and maintenance
Have you established a schedule for routine updates and maintenance of your organization's NAS system? Have you performed a maintenance and update assessment on your organization's NAS system? Which applications consume the most storage? What's the current landscape of storage requirements? How will storage requirements change over the next one to three years? Do you have a plan in place to manage those changing requirements?

Security
What are the security requirements of the data stored in your organization's NAS solution? Are well-documented, well-established security policies in place? Are end users aware of your organization's security policies and procedures? Does your security plan include a plan of action to take place during an attack? Does your security plan include a plan of action for recovery from an attack? Has the plan been tested? Does your security plan include multiple layers of protection? Which layers of protection are in place? Are your security policies and procedures reviewed and updated regularly? There may be some aspects of managing a NAS solution that are not included in this checklist. Because the needs of every organization differ, it's impossible to address every possibility. However, this checklist is a good starting point, and you should add additional requirements on a case-by-case basis.

Quiz #5
Question 1: Which of the following issues should be part of a regular NAS management program? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) Capacity Security Backup

D)

Performance

Question 2: Which of the following can affect NAS physical or logical performance? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) D) Computing cycles Memory utilization CIFS statistics SLAs

Question 3: Which of the following considerations is most likely to catch an organization unprepared when planning for capacity? A) B) C) D) Legislation and regulations SLAs Productivity expectations Business continuity requirements

Question 4: True or False: NAS has no additional security requirements. A) B) True False

Question 5: True or False: End-user education is essential to successful storage management. A) B) True False

More about NAS
This lesson covers the general NAS landscape. From staying up-to-date on changing technologies to using NAS in conjunction with other types of storage, you'll learn how a NAS solution is a truly dynamic and flexible form of network storage.

NAS and changing technologies
Technology changes rapidly. Often, just as you become comfortable with a particular technology, it begins to change. Network attached storage is no exception. Just a few years ago, NAS was a relatively new and unproven technology. Today, it's one of the most viable solutions to the storage conundrums that many SMBs face. » Wireless technology is another good example. Some companies now offer wireless NAS appliances. However, as with all technology, the most important thing to remember is that it's not always best to be at the top of the technology curve. HP Storage software portfolio

Where wireless NAS is concerned, adding wireless capability may only be useful in specific situations. A wireless NAS device is basically an access point (AP) with built-in storage and the necessary software to function as NAS. These devices, however, inherit the same transfer speed limitations as any wireless solution—and so they may lack the file-serving performance that many users require.

Still, you might find wireless NAS useful in some situations, as follows: Where conventional network cabling is extremely expensive or impossible to achieve, a wireless NAS device negates the need for physical cabling. Where a large-scale disaster or remodeling project requires that you move to a temporary office, wireless NAS makes settling in quick and hassle-free,

without the need to run network cabling. Where your office environment includes numerous laptop or handheld computers that connect over a wireless network, the wireless NAS device provides a combination of access point and storage space. So, unless you face one of these requirements, plan your organization's storage solution with an eye to the future, but remember the warning about features mentioned earlier in this class. Just because a technology is the latest and greatest, or has the most bells and whistles, doesn't mean that you'll need it.

Investing in more technology than you need, or a solution that's hot but not useful, only cuts further into an already tight budget.

Technologies will change, and you should stay abreast of those changes. Regardless, as long as your selected solution provides the performance that your organization needs, don't feel pressured to change simply because technology changes.

In the next section, you'll look at the possibilities created by integrating NAS into a wider solution, involving other storage technologies.

Combining NAS with other storage technologies
It's no secret that in most organizations today, information is the most important asset. As a result, managing that information is the biggest challenge. For many organizations, the best response to that challenge is to combine storage technologies to achieve the results with the least amount of investment and the biggest return on that investment. » One such combination of storage technologies is an ever-increasing movement toward combining NAS and SANs. Recall that NAS is one or more dedicated file storage and/or print serving devices directly attached to a network. A SAN, on the other hand, is a separate network, away from the LAN or WAN (see Figure 6-1), that's specifically configured to allow block-level communication between servers and storage arrays, usually using Fibre Channel or iSCSI connectivity. HP Tape, disk-based backup

Figure 6-1: A SAN network. The two technologies were at one time considered competing technologies. Although many differences exist between NAS and SAN, as shown in the following table, as storage demands and information access needs have grown, the combination of the intelligence of NAS and the disk capabilities of SAN has become more appealing.

NAS

SAN

Provides file Provides block data access via a Small Computer System access Interface (SCSI) block protocol, such as Fibre Channel Protocol services via (FCP), Internet FCP (iFCP) or iSCSI protocols such as NFS or SMB/CIFS

Provides Provides limited access to stored data, depending on the access to specific operating system stored data regardless of operating system

Identifies and Identifies and transfers data by disk block number transfers data by file name

Handles Is dependent on network security and user authentication security, user authentication and file locking

Backs up files, saving bandwidth and time

Backs up via block-by-block copy (even empty blocks), which requires more bandwidth and time

Table 6-1: Differences between NAS and SAN.

Some of the advantages of combined NAS and SAN technologies include: Scalability: Most SANs are built over Fibre Channel, which provides a highly scalable, high-performance network. The NAS/SAN combination results in higher levels of scalability and performance. Availability: By their very nature, SANs provide more complete backup and recovery abilities. When combined with the faster file-access capabilities and mature network topologies of NAS, the result is multiple layers of connection, performance and availability. Increased utilization: SANs provide economies of scale, but when combined with the NAS file systems, storage networks are more completely utilized, meaning that resources don't go to waste. Over time, it's become obvious that a blending of NAS and SAN technology provides a highly scalable, usable storage system. The most attractive features of NAS (and the ones that draw the most attention) are cost and ease of deployment. However, if your organization already has NAS installations and is looking to increase utilization, improve backup capabilities or upgrade management tools, integrating NAS and SAN is something to consider. The cost of implementing SANs has decreased to the point of making it accessible to even small businesses. However, not every business requires the capabilities of both technologies.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to the question of which storage method and equipment is best. Instead, your organization's current storage situation combined with its existing workflow environment determine which solution (or combination of solutions) best meet its needs.

If you're unsure whether your organization needs NAS, SAN or a combination of the two, HP hosts other classes that address storage networking and SAN implementations. Consider taking those classes before you make a decision.

Other combinations
NAS can also be combined with DAS. In fact, in many cases, NAS is used for file access while DAS is used for backups and archives. Again, whether your organization needs to combine the two technologies depends on its specific situation.

What works for your organization may be different from what works for other organizations. If you have a storage consultant, that person can help you determine which, if any, other storage technology combined with NAS best suits your organization's needs. If you don't have a consultant, your organization's NAS vendor might be able to help you make that determination.

Either way, NAS is an excellent storage solution for most needs and can be combined with other technologies or used as a stepping stone toward building a more complex storage solution as your business grows.

Now that you've seen that selecting NAS doesn't mean you can't benefit from additional storage methods and technologies, read on to consider how future needs and expectations might influence your choice of solution.

Storage that grows with your organization
One last consideration worth mentioning is installing a storage solution that can grow as your organization grows. Throughout the class, there have been references to planning for future storage needs. It's essential you keep the future in mind when adding storage to your organization's existing network.

Plan for one to three years in the future by looking at upcoming projects and modeling the projected storage needs to accomplish those projects. Considerations include: How will your organization's storage needs increase in the near future? Will the increase be dramatic enough that you need to put additional storage in place now, or will the increase be gradual enough that you can add additional storage in the future? Will additional NAS capabilities meet your organization's business needs, or do you need to begin planning to add a SAN in the future? The emergence of hybrid storage products has added many flexible options for organizations to select from. For example, some all-in-one NAS solutions serve files to your users but also support iSCSI for application server block-level storage. This means that while some drives or volumes are supporting users' file storage needs, others can be dedicated as targets for a secondary storage network, such as an iSCSI-based SAN, to handle high-performance storage for critical applications.

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As mentioned in the last section, NAS is an excellent storage choice because it can be combined with other storage technologies or used as a starting point for building a more complex storage solution. Furthermore, the addition of more NAS appliances makes NAS a highly scalable storage solution. In short, NAS can grow and mature as your organization grows and matures.

You should now have a good understanding of network attached storage, how it works, how it can benefit your organization, and which options you have for combining NAS with other technologies. NAS is an inexpensive, scalable

technology that can help your organization gain the file storage it needs.

Moving on
To complete this class, do the assignment and take the quiz for this lesson. Thank you for participating in the class, and please provide any feedback you feel would help improve this class in the future.

Assignment #6
Staying up to date with technology of any kind can be a full-time job. However, staying current with storage technologies is increasingly important as your organization's storage needs grow and change. One way to make that process easier is to gather all of your information in one place. If you take a few minutes each week to learn what's new, you'll ultimately save yourself hours of time researching the changes in the industry when it's time to upgrade your storage solution or increase your capacity.

The following are online resources that provide a full range of storage information, from the basics to emerging technologies. Some websites offer weekly updates via email, making it easier for you to stay abreast of the technology. Take a few minutes to read through the information on these websites, and then spend a few minutes weekly to stay up to date. When you need to add to or change your storage organization's solution, you'll already be armed with the right information: HP NAS Systems HP Servers & Storage expertise center HP StorageWorks Products HP ProLiant Storage Server NAS File and Print Solutions Network Computing TechTarget SearchStorage Good luck with your organization's NAS solution, and happy reading.

Quiz #6
Question 1: Which of the following is the most likely drawback to using a wireless NAS device? A) B) C) D) No support for UNIX Runs only on Fibre Channel protocol No support for iSCSI Limited wireless data transfer speeds

Question 2: True or False: NAS and SAN are competing technologies. A) B) True False

Question 3: Which of the following technologies can be combined with NAS to increase storage capabilities? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) D) DAS SANs Other NAS devices DNS

Question 4: Which of the following protocols are used for block transport in SANs? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) CIFS iSCSI DHCP

D)

Fibre Channel

Question 5: True or False: The separate networks of SANs and NAS must travel through separate hardware. A) B) True False

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