Storage Basics and

Application Environments
Contents
1. What Is Storage? 4. What Are the Other Basic Storage Concepts?
• Storage Concepts • RAID
• Storage in Data Centers • LUN
• Storage Evolution • Multipathing
• Block Storage • File System
• File Storage • Local File System
• Object Storage • Network File System
2. What Are the Basic Concepts of Storage Hardware (L2)? • CIFS
• Disks (NVMe SCM) • NFS
• Disk Arrays • Storage Performance Indicators
• Controllers 5. What Are the Basic Concepts of Data Protection?
• Controller Enclosures • RPO and RTO
• Disk Enclosures • Backup
• High-Density Enclosures • Disaster Recovery
• I/O Modules and HBAs • Snapshot
3. What Are the Basic Concepts of Storage Protocols? • Remote Replication
• SCSI • Mirroring
• NVMe • Clone
• iSCSI
• Fibre Channel
• SAS

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What Is Storage?
— Storage Is the Media for Storing and Protecting Data
 Storage in a narrow sense  Storage in a broad sense

Server
Multipathing
software

Fibre
Channel
switch Fibre
Channel
link

Controller

CDs, DVDs, Zip drives, tapes, disks ...

1. Storage hardware (disk arrays, controllers, disk enclosures, and tape libraries)
Disk array
2. Storage software (management software, snapshot, replication, and multipathing software)
3. Storage networks (HBAs, Fibre Channel switches, as well as Fibre Channel and SAS cables)
4. Storage solutions (centralized storage, archiving, backup, and disaster recovery)

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Storage Concepts
Storage is to save data to certain storage media in a proper, secure, and effective manner to meet requirements of
different application environments and ensure effective accesses to the data. Specifically:
1. Storage is physical media for temporary or long-term data storage.
2. Storage is a method or behavior for ensuring data integrity and security. Storage combines the two aspects to provide
customers with a data storage solution.

Core of storage — data

 Structured data: Refers to data stored in databases and logically represented by a two-dimensional table structure.
Structured data includes data in databases such as SQL, Oracle, and DB2.
 Unstructured data: Refers to data that cannot be logically represented by a two-dimensional table structure.
Unstructured data includes documents, texts, pictures, XML, HTML, images, as well as audio and video information in
all formats. Storage capacity needs increase mainly due to the rapid growth of unstructured data.

Major storage performance indicators

 IOPS: Indicates the number of I/Os processed by a storage array per second. Generally, the performance of random
reads and writes of small files such as database files depends on the IOPS.
 Bandwidth (MB/s): Indicates the maximum output bandwidth that a storage array can provide per second. The
maximum bandwidth of a storage array generally refers to the sequential read bandwidth of the cache. The
performance of continuous reads and writes of large files such as videos depends on the bandwidth.

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Storage in Data Centers
OceanStor 18500 V5
OceanStor or 18800 V5
OceanStor 6800 V5
OceanStor
5000 series V5
Application 2200 V3 or
(mid-range)
2600 V3
Runtime library

Security and integration

Database
OceanStor
Dorado 8000 V6 or OceanStor
Server 9000 100D
18000 V6

Virtualization
Dorado 6000 V6
Server hardware Dorado 5000 V6

Storage

Network

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 Storage Evolution
External disk array (DAS) Smart disk array (DAS)
SAN NAS
Disks in a server Server
CPU Server CPU Application Application
Multiple
server server
application
Server Arm Arm servers
File system File system
CPU

Arm Disk Disk SAN LAN

RAID SCSI card SCSI card File system

RAID
RAID
Disk
Controller

Just a Bunch of Disk (JBOD)

Limitations JBOD logically connects several A controller provides RAID and large-capacity cache, Resolved issues
• Disks become the system performance physical disks to increase capacity. It enables the disk array to have multiple functions, and • Disks become the system performance
bottleneck. does not provide data protection. is equipped with dedicated management software. bottleneck.
• The number of disk slots is limited, • The number of disk slots is limited,
thereby providing limited capacity. Resolved issues Resolved issues thereby providing limited capacity.
• Data is stored on single disks, and data • The number of disk slots is limited, • Disks become the system performance bottleneck. • Data is stored on single disks, and data
storage is less reliable than expected. thereby providing limited capacity. • The number of disk slots is limited, providing a storage is less reliable than expected.
• Storage space utilization is low. • Data is stored on single disks, and small capacity. • Storage space utilization is low.
• Data is scattered in local storage data storage is less reliable than • Data is stored on single disks, and data storage is • Data is scattered in local storage
systems. expected. less reliable than expected. systems.

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File Storage
NFS or CIFS

File system • File storage is used to store unstructured data.

Dedicated file systems are added to block storage
devices to implement file sharing.
• Generally, file storage is used to store video, audio,
and image data from TV stations, finance, oil
... exploration, biomedicine, and HPC (big data).

File storage
• Advantages: easy management and
interoperability with applications
• Disadvantages: support for expansion but
with many restrictions
• Application scenarios: enterprises' internal
application integration and file sharing

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Block Storage

iSCSI or Fibre Channel

• Block storage is used to store structured

Protocol data, that is, data is directly read and written
layer by reading or writing one or more addresses
from or into storage space.
Storage
• More generally, block storage stores data of
layer ... databases such as SAP and Oracle,
common office mails (Exchange), tables,
and financial data.

Block storage
• Advantages: direct access, minimized
overhead, and highest efficiency
• Disadvantages: highest cost and poor scalability
• Application scenarios: enterprise databases,
such as Oracle

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Object Storage
HTTP, REST, SOAP, or S3
• Object storage, also known as object-based
storage (OBS), is a network storage
architecture. The difference between OBS
Object
Object Object
Object
and block storage or file storage lies in the
storage Object
interfaces (S3 interfaces) provided by OBS.
Key Data
Object
Object OBS only generates an ID for the metadata
Metadata
Customized
of stored data and stores the ID, regardless
metadata of the data type.
... • This storage architecture is mainly used in
the application scenarios that have low
requirements on performance but high
Object storage requirements on capacity. It is mainly used
• Flat structure and nearly unlimited capacity expansion to meet customers' requirements on large
• More intelligent self-management capacity and low price. The application
• Standard Internet protocols and cross-region transmission scenarios include public cloud, Internet, and
capabilities
• Application scenarios: Internet-oriented storage, archiving,
space leasing.
and backup

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 What Are the Basic Concepts of
Storage Hardware (L2)?

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Disks

• A hard disk drive (HDD) is a traditional hard disk. It consists

of a platter, a head, a platter rotating shaft, a control motor, a
head controller, a data converter, interfaces, and cache.

• A solid-state disk or solid-state drive (SSD) is also called an

electronic disk or a solid-state electronic disk. Different from
HDDs that use mechanical parts such as disk bodies, heads,
and motors, SSDs are composed of control chips and
storage chips (flash or DRAM chips). In other words, SSDs
are made of solid-state electronic storage chip arrays.

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SSDs vs. HDDs
SSD HDD

Storage media Flash chip Magnetic disk

Shockproof and drop resistance High Low

Data storage speed High: hundreds of MB/s Low: dozens of MB/s

Power consumption Low High

Weight Light Heavy

Noise None Yes

Price High: several yuan (RMB) per GB Low: several jiao (RMB) per GB

Capacity Hundreds of GB to several TB Several TB

Service life Short (about several years) Relatively long

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Disk Types

Disk diameters Interface protocols

5.25-inch ATA, IDE
3.5-inch SATA, NL-SAS
2.5-inch SCSI
1.8-inch SAS
Fibre Channel

Media Functions
Desktop level
HDD Disk types Monitoring level
SSD Enterprise level

Desktop-level disks are mainly used for home applications, such as desktop
PCs and laptops. Enterprise-level disks are designed for enterprise
applications, such as servers, disk arrays, and graphics workstations.
Mainstream disk types
HDDs: SATA, NL-SAS, and SAS
SSDs: SATA, SAS, and NVMe

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Disk Types — Serial ATA (SATA)
Advantages
1. SATA is a serial bus interface protocol. During data transmission, the data and signal cables are used
independently, and the embedded clock frequency signal is used. Its rate can reach 30 times that of
Parallel ATA (PATA).
2. Instead of simple PATA improvement, the bus structure is brand new.
3. Control information is scattered in data and transmitted by using a predefined bit.
4. One path is used to transmit data, and the other is used to return a response.
5. SATA has stronger anti-interference capabilities and higher speeds than PATA. The installation is
easier and the number of cables used in the chassis is reduced.
6. The performance of single-thread tasks is good.

Disadvantages
1. SATA, designed for entry-level applications, is not as powerful as SCSI in terms of big data
throughput or multi-thread transmission.
2. When multiple threads are reading data, the head of a disk swings back and forth, causing the disk to
be overheated.

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Disk Types — Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
1. SCSI is a storage interface protocol specially designed for small computer systems. 50-pin ports are
used. The appearance of a 50-pin port is similar to that of a common disk port. The SCSI disks
support connections to various devices. In addition, each SCSI disk has an independent chip for
data processing. The CPU usage is low, the bandwidth can reach 320 MB/s, and the stability is
good.
2. SAS is a disk connection technology that integrates the advantages of the parallel SCSI and serial
connection technologies.
3. SAS is a point-to-point, full-duplex, and dual-port interface.
4. SAS is compatible with SATA, meeting high-performance requirements of enterprises, achieving
interoperability with SATA, and bringing unprecedented flexibility and benefits to enterprises.
5. SAS features high performance, high reliability, and powerful scalability.

The serial technology is also used, which is better than SCSI in transmission rate and anti-interference.
However, the price is higher.

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Disk Types — Near-Line SAS (NL-SAS)

1. NL-SAS disks integrate SAS interfaces and SATA disks. In other words, NL-SAS disks refer to
SATA disks with SAS interfaces and near-SAS performance.
2. Near-line storage is oriented to applications between online storage and offline storage. Data that
is not frequently used or seldom accessed is stored on the storage devices of which performance
is relatively low. However, these devices must provide fast addressing capabilities and a high
transmission rate.

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Disk Types — SSDs
SSD hardware structure

Backup SSD architecture

power supply

6 Gbit/s Multi-channel
SAS port concurrence

SSD controller Flash

DDR

• No high-speed rotational components, high

performance, and low power consumption
• Concurrent multiple channels, allowing time-
division multiplexing of flash chips in a channel
• TCQ and NCQ, responding to multiple I/O
requests in one response
• Typical response time of less than 0.1 ms

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Comparison of Mainstream Disk Types
• A disk interface is a component connecting a disk and a host, and is used to transmit data between the disk cache and
host memory.
• Different disk interfaces determine the connection speed between disks and computers, which affects the program
running speed and system performance.

Indicator SATA HDD SAS HDD NL-SAS HDD SSD

Rotational speed (rpm) 7200 15,000 or 10,000 7200 N/A
Capacity (TB) 4, 6, 8, 10, or 14 1.2, 1.8, or 2.4 4, 6, 8, 10, or 14 1.92, 3.84, or 7.68
MTBF (h) 1,200,000 1,600,000 1,200,000 2,000,000
SAS disks are designed to meet
NL-SAS disks are enterprise-
enterprises' high performance An SSD is made up of a solid-state
Being developed from ATA class SATA drives with SAS
requirements and are compatible electronic storage chip array. An SSD
disks, SATA 2.0 supports interfaces. They are
with SATA disks. The consists of a control unit and a storage
300 MB/s data transfer, and applicable to tiered storage in
transmission rate ranges from 3.0 unit (flash and DRAM chips). SSD is the
Remarks SATA 3.0 supports up to a disk array, which simplifies
Gbit/s to 6.0 Gbit/s, and will be same as the common disks in the
600 MB/s data transfer. the design of the disk array.
increased to 12.0 Gbit/s in the regulations and definition of interfaces,
The annual failure rate of The annual failure rate of NL-
future. functions, usage, as well as the exterior
SATA disks is about 2%. SAS disks is about 2%.
The annual failure rate of SAS and size.
disks is less than 2%.

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Basic Concepts Related to RAID
Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks or Drives, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) is a data storage
virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for the
purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both.

RAID is classified into different RAID levels based on Two different RAID levels can be combined to form a new
the combination methods. RAID level.

Known as a stripe set or striped volume, it splits data evenly

RAID 0 across two or more disks, without parity information, RAID 01, also called RAID 0+1, is a RAID level using a
redundancy, or fault tolerance. RAID 0+1 mirror of stripes, achieving both replication and sharing
of data between disks.
It consists of an exact copy (or mirror) of a set of data on two
or more disks; a classic RAID 1 mirrored pair contains two
disks. This configuration offers no parity, striping, or spanning
RAID 1
of disk space across multiple disks, since the data is mirrored RAID 10, also called RAID 1+0 and sometimes RAID
on all disks belonging to the array, and the array can only be 1&0, is similar to RAID 01 with an exception that two
RAID 10
as big as the smallest member disk. used standard RAID levels are layered in the opposite
It is rarely used in practice. It consists of byte-level striping order; thus, RAID 10 is a stripe of mirrors.
RAID 3
with a dedicated parity disk.
RAID 5 It consists of block-level striping with distributed parity.
RAID 50, also called RAID 5+0, combines the straight
RAID 6 extends RAID 5 by adding another parity block; thus, it RAID 50 block-level striping of RAID 0 with the distributed parity
RAID 6 uses block-level striping with two parity blocks distributed of RAID 5.
across all member disks.

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SCM — Next-Generation Storage Media
Storage Class Memory (SCM) is a new storage medium High-performance SSDs provide the following
popular in the industry. SCM is similar to storage in its application forms in a storage system:
persistence and to memory in its byte-level access. • Metadata cache: As the metadata cache of
an AFA, SCM SSDs work with DRAM to
The SCM SSD, which uses the NVMe block interface build a memory + SCM SSD two-tier cache,
and is compatible with the native architecture, is the which avoids bottlenecks in memory
primary application form of SCM. Optane P4800X series capacity and supports a larger user
launched by Intel is an example. SCM SSDs have a capacity with stable performance.
negligible impact on the system architecture and • Data cache: SCM SSDs serve as the
provides better performance than flash SSDs. In acceleration layer for user data and
addition, SCM SSDs do not require garbage collection, improve performance in typical application
which prevents performance deterioration similar to that scenarios.
of NAND SSD after long-time running, and curbs latency • Main storage: SCM SSDs serve as the
at an appropriate level. This type of storage products is storage layer for user data and provide
springing up in the industry, and Huawei is also working high-performance storage to meet the
on the R&D of relevant products. performance requirements in some
scenarios.

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Disk Arrays

A disk array consists of multiple disks and is

used as a single disk. Data is stored on
different disks as stripes. When data is
accessed, the related disks in the disk array
work together, which greatly reduces the data
access time and improves the space
utilization.

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Disk Array Composition
Separation of the controller
enclosure and disk enclosure

+ =

Controller enclosure Disk enclosure Disk array

Integration of controllers and

disk enclosure
+ =

Disk enclosure Disk array

Controller module

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Controllers

Controllers are the brain of a storage array. The

main components of a controller are the processor
and cache. A controller implements simple I/O
operations and RAID management. With the
development of technologies, controllers can
provide various data management functions, such
as snapshot, mirroring, and replication.

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Controller Enclosures

I/O module Fan module

Chassis

Power module

Controller module
BBU

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Disk Enclosures
3.5-inch disk enclosure
 24 x 3.5-inch disks
 Support for mainstream SAS

disks, SATA disks, and SSDs

 Independent power-on and

power-off for each disk

Power modules
 2 + 2 redundancy

 90% power conversion

efficiency

Fan modules Expansion modules

 2 x (3 + 1) redundancy  1 + 1 redundancy
 Energy-efficient heat  System power-on and

dissipation power-off through in-band

 Granular fan speed control commands

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High-Density Enclosures

• Huawei uses 4 U 75-slot disk enclosures as

high-density enclosures.
• A high-density enclosure features large
capacity, high bandwidth, low power
consumption, and low TCO.
• It applies to scenarios, such as media assets,
archiving, and backup, where customers
require large capacity.

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I/O Modules and HBAs
• An I/O module connects a storage system to a server or switch for data transmission. It is a field
replaceable unit with several ports.
• HBA is short for Host Bus Adapter. An HBA is a circuit board that provides I/O processing and
physical connections between a server and a storage device.

Common I/O Module Types Common HBAs

 8 Gbit/s Fibre Channel I/O module: 4 ports per  Fibre Channel card
I/O module  FCoE card
 GE I/O module: 4 ports per I/O module  10GE card
 10GE I/O module: 2 ports per I/O module  GE card
 4 x 6 Gbit/s SAS I/O module: 2 ports per I/O  InfiniBand (IB) card
module
 4 Gbit/s Fibre Channel I/O module: 4 ports per
I/O module
 FCoE I/O module; TOE I/O module

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 What Are the Basic Concepts of
Storage Protocols?

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SCSI

Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) is

the most common method for connecting
storage devices to servers.
SCSI was first developed in 1979 and is an
interface technology for mid-range computers.
With the development of computer
technologies, SCSI is now completely
transplanted to ordinary PCs.
SCSI-3 is the basis of all storage protocols,
because all storage protocols use the SCSI
instruction set.

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iSCSI

Internet Small Computer System Interface

(iSCSI) is an Internet Protocol (IP)-based
storage networking standard for linking data
storage facilities. It provides block-level access
to storage devices by carrying SCSI
commands over a TCP/IP network.
Used over the IP-based SAN, the iSCSI
protocol provides quick, cost-effective, and
long-distance storage solutions.
iSCSI encapsulates SCSI commands into a
TCP or IP packet, enabling I/O data blocks to
be transferred over IP networks.

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Fibre Channel

Fibre Channel is a high-speed data transfer protocol

providing in-order, lossless delivery of raw block data.
Fibre Channel is primarily used to connect computer data
storage to servers in storage area networks (SAN) in
commercial data centers. Fibre Channel networks form a
switched fabric because the switches in a network operate
in unison as one big switch. Fibre Channel typically runs
on optical fiber cables within and between data centers,
but can also run on copper cabling.
Fibre Channel is a high-performance serial connection
standard. The interface transmission rate can be 16 Gbit/s
or 32 Gbit/s. The transmission media can be copper cables
or optical fibers. The transmission distance is long and
multiple interconnection topologies are supported.

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SAS

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is the serial

standard of the SCSI bus protocol.
SAS uses the serial technology to achieve
higher transmission rate and better
scalability, and is compatible with SATA
disks.
The transmission rate of SAS reaches 6
Gbit/s and 12 Gbit/s, and SAS supports the
full-duplex mode.

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NVMe

1. NVMe is a controller interface standard developed for enterprises and client

systems that use PCIe SSDs.
2. It is not only a logical protocol interface, but also an instruction standard and
a specified protocol.
3. NVMe covers optimized controller register interfaces, command sets, and
I/O queue management.
4. NVMe features low latency, high IOPS, and low power consumption.

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 What Are the Other Basic
Storage Concepts?

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RAID
The term RAID was invented by David Patterson, Garth A. Gibson and Randy Katz at the
University of California, Berkeley in 1987. It combines multiple independent physical disks
into a virtual logical disk using related algorithms to provide larger capacity, higher
performance, and better error tolerance capabilities.

RAID 0 RAID 5
RAID 1 RAID 6

RAID 10
RAID 50

RAID DP RAID MP
RAID 1E RAID 5EE
RAID 5E RAID ADG

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LUN
One or multiple logical volumes can be created for RAID based on the specified capacity.
A logical volume is identified by logical unit number (LUN).

LUN 1 Logical volume LUN 2 LUN 3

Logical volume

RAID 10 RAID 5

One logical volume is created Two logical volumes are created

on a physical volume. on a physical volume.

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Multipathing

 To prevent single points of

failure, the high-reliability system
provides redundancy backup for
devices that may encounter
single points of failure. Path
redundancy is also included.
 The multipathing technique can
be used to ensure reliable use of
redundant paths. It automatically
and transparently transfers I/O
flows to other available paths,
ensuring effective and reliable
transmission of I/O flows.

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File System

File system: refers to a data structure and a data

management model for files stored on disks.
Therefore, it is necessary to correlate sectors so
that data on disks can be accessed. In other
words, a logical data storage structure must be
established. A file system is used to establish
such data storage structure. Generally, the
process of creating file systems on disks is called
formatting.

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Local File System

File systems and application programs are on the same server.

Local file system Local file system Local file system

Application system Application system Application system

File system File system File system

Storage Storage Storage

Storage silos

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Network File System

Application system Application system Application system Application system

File system client File system client File system client File system client

Network protocol

NFS and CIFS are

File system universal network file
server systems. These systems
can be used to implement
file sharing between
Storage
heterogeneous platforms.

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CIFS

The Common Internet File System (CIFS) is a mainstream

shared file system developed by Microsoft for serving
heterogeneous platforms and is mainly used in Windows.
Clients use the TCP or IP protocol to request file access
services from servers over a network.
CIFS share authentication provides two types of shared file
access permissions: user and Active Directory Server (ADS).
The CIFS normal share means that the file system is shared
as a directory and all users can access the directory.
The CIFS homedir share is a file sharing mode provided by
file engines. The CIFS homedir share only allows a user to
access the directory named with the user name and each
user can only access a directory that belongs to the user's
directory.

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NFS

Network File System (NFS) is a distributed file

system protocol.
It allows a user on a client computer to access files
over a computer network much like local storage is
accessed. NFS, like many other protocols, builds on
the Open Network Computing Remote Procedure
Call (ONC RPC) system. The NFS is an open
standard defined in a Request for Comments (RFC),
allowing anyone to implement the protocol.

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IOPS

SPC is an internationally recognized

Input/output operations per second authoritative, third-party, and non-
(IOPS), that is, read and write operations profit storage performance test
(I/Os) per second, is a performance index organization. Currently, vendors in the
in evaluating the random access storage industry, such as Huawei,
performance of databases. IBM, HP, Sun, HDS, and Dell, are
important members of SPC. SPC-1 is
IOPS is a standard for measuring the an industry-recognized storage
performance of a SAN storage system. A performance benchmark test standard
larger IOPS indicates better performance. launched by SPC. SPC-1 simulates
database OLTP applications and
email system applications to measure
the IOPS of SAN storage systems.

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OPS

SPEC is an international authoritative

Operations Per Second (OPS) is the organization for evaluating system
number of times that an NFS or CIFS application performance. SPECsfs2008 is
a core benchmark released by SPEC for
share responds per second. It is mainly
file service applications. It measures the
used in file system scenarios to measure file access throughput and response time
file access performance. and provides a standard evaluation
OPS is a standard for measuring the method for comparing the performance of
performance of a SAN storage system. A file servers from different vendors. Nearly
larger OPS indicates better performance. 20 mainstream NAS manufacturers have
verified the performance of core products
based on this benchmark.

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Performance Indicators and Evaluation Methods of
Storage Devices
Performance indicators
IOPS is the number of I/Os that can be processed by a storage device per second. It is used to measure the response capability of a
storage device. IOPS is the most important measurement indicator for a large number of small I/Os.
Bandwidth is also called throughput that indicates the total amount of data that can be processed per second. It is used to measure the
storage throughput. Bandwidth is useful for measuring large I/Os, especially for measuring the time required to process a large amount
of data.
Bandwidth = IOPS x Average I/O size
Latency refers to the time consumed for processing I/Os. It is used to measure the processing speed of storage devices. Latency is
classified into host latency and storage latency. The storage latency refers to the period from the time when I/Os arrive at a storage
device to the time when the storage device returns a processing completion message to the host. The host latency is the sum of the
storage latency, link transmission time, and host queuing time. Users focus on the host latency.
IOPS = Number of concurrent requests/Average latency

Performance evaluation
IOPS and bandwidth are the two most important indicators for performance evaluation.
IOPS evaluation focuses on the I/O sequence, cache hit ratio, and IOPS of a single disk. The major bottleneck of the maximum IOPS
of a storage system is the CPU processing capability.
Bandwidth evaluation focuses on the I/O size, bandwidth of a single disk, and storage hardware bandwidth. For the maximum
bandwidth of a storage system, the major bottleneck is the front-end and back-end channel bandwidth and mirroring bandwidth.

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 What Are the Basic Concepts of
Data Protection?

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Backup
Online application information is extracted to create one or more copies based on certain
policies, and the copies are stored on preset storage media for recovery in case of an online
system fault.

Protectable faults Protection data types Types of backup media

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Three Elements of a Backup System

RPO
Backup Backup Point in time An error or Recovery Recovery Application
started completed to which data disaster occurs. startup completed recovery
is recovered
12:00

BW + RTO
00:00 = Economic loss
06:00

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Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery is a higher-level data protection.

 Differences from backup
 Backup focuses on data availability.
 Disaster recovery focuses on data security.
 Backup is used to prevent logical faults from damaging the production system.
 Disaster recovery is used to prevent physical faults from damaging the production system.
 Generally, the RPO and RTO values of a disaster recovery system are smaller than those of a
backup system.

 Relationship with backup

 Both disaster recovery and backup belong to data protection.
 A backup system can also be used to construct some cost-effective disaster recovery solutions.
 They complement each other.

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Disaster Recovery and Its Tiers
Disaster recovery refers to establishing a systematic data emergency response model in advance by using scientific technical means and
methods to cope with disasters. The content includes data and system backup, business continuity planning, personnel architecture,
communication assurance, crisis management, disaster recovery planning, disaster recovery schemes, business recovery schemes, emergency
response, third-party cooperation organizations, and supply chain crisis management. The disaster recovery levels range from the module level
to system-level and solution-level.
SHARE's seven tiers of disaster recovery released in 1992, were updated in 2012 by IBM as an eight-tier model.
(Generally, data backup is usually applied to tier 1 to tier 4, and data disaster recovery is usually applied to tier 4 to tier 7.)

TCO
Tier 7: highly automated, business-integrated solution

Tier 6: zero or little data loss

Tier 5: transaction integrity

Tier 4: point-in-time copies

Tier 3: electronic vaulting

Tier 2: data backup with hot site
Tier 1: data backup with no hot site

15 1 to 4 4 to 8 8 to 12 12 to 16 24 hours Days Weeks RTO

minutes hours hours hours hours
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
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Remote Replication (HyperReplication)
Remote replication enables data copies to be maintained at two or
more sites in a distance from the source data site to prevent data loss
upon a disaster.

There are various remote replication technologies, among which

synchronous remote replication and asynchronous remote replication
are most widely used in the storage industry.

Synchronous remote replication

Asynchronous remote replication

Production array Disaster recovery array

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Active-Active Storage (HyperMetro)
In the active-active data centers solution, both data centers are running and can carry production
services. The overall service capabilities and system resource usage of the data centers are high.

Data centers can work in either

active-passive mode or active-
active mode.

In active-passive mode, some

services run in data center A,
with data center B as the hot
backup, while other services run
in data center B, with data center
A as the hot backup. This
achieves approximate active-
active effects.

In active-active mode, all I/O

paths can access active-active
LUNs to achieve load balancing
and seamless failover.

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Snapshot (HyperSnap)

a b c a b c Function
Snapshot Snapshot is used for online data backup and
08:00 am d e f d e f
restoration. If an application fault or file
g h i g h i damage occurs on a storage device, data can
j k l j k l be quickly restored to the state at an available
point in time.

Benefits
a b c a b c A data copy that is consistent with the source
d m f file can be quickly obtained without interrupting
09:00 am d e f services. Therefore, the snapshot technique
g h n g h i can be used to solve problems with online
j k l j k l backup, data analysis, and application testing.

Source data Data snapshot

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Mirroring (HyperMirror)
1. Function: Data is stored concurrently in two independent storage areas (typically,
logical volumes) through the same I/O operations.
2. Benefits
• The two mirror volumes are identified by the host or storage array as the same
production volume. Services can be switched between the two volumes to
improve system reliability.
• Concurrent operations on mirror volumes can improve system performance.

I/O
LUN 1 LUN 2

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Clone (HyperClone)
A clone is a copy or multiple copies of source data at a specific point in time.
A snapshot is similar to a stereotyped shadow at a certain point in time, while a clone is
a stereotyped entity at a certain point in time.

4
2
1 3
Implementation process Primary LUN Secondary LUN Primary LUN Secondary LUN

11 22 33 44
Enable the clone function. After data synchronization After splitting is complete, The secondary LUN can
Start data synchronization. is complete, the primary the primary and secondary be mapped to a host and
and secondary LUNs LUNs become used for data analysis and
maintain the same data. independent of each other. query.

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All Rights Reserved.

The information in this document may contain predictive

statements including, without limitation, statements regarding
the future financial and operating results, future product

Thank You portfolio, new technology, etc. There are a number of factors
that could cause actual results and developments to differ
materially from those expressed or implied in the predictive
statements. Therefore, such information is provided for
reference purpose only and constitutes neither an offer nor
an acceptance. Huawei may change the information at any
time without notice.