Managing a SAN storage solution in the best possible mannercan be tough and tricky task. Businesses usually struggle a lot when managing their SAN storage solution for optimal SAN performance. With the tips mentionedin this article, they can do this much easily. So, without further ado, hereare some useful SAN storage management tips for achieving optimal SAN performance.
Update the Drivers
In order to ensure optimal performance, host operatingsystem should be updated with the latest HBA drivers. Also, the HBA firmwareneeds to be updated as well. It is seen many times that performance increasesconsiderably when HBA drivers and firmware are updated. Furthermore, storageconnectivity problems are also resolved by updating HBAs with the latest firmware.
Initiator Zoning
When it comes to initiator zoning, it is recommended toalways perform a single initiator zoning. This means that you should use onceinitiator per zone.
Furthermore, soft zoning should be preferred over hardzoning as change in the fabric of cabling will not result in loss of storageaccess to hosts.
SAN Topology
SAN topology also plays a very important in performance,scalability, resiliency and security of SAN storage. This is why the core edge SAN topology should be considered for building SANs. If there are two switchesconnected by an inter switch link also known as ISL between then, then youshould ensure that there is a minimum of two ISL between them, at least.
RAID Protection
Storage admins must use and deploy RAID 5 protection as itis suitable by most applications. However, in times RAID 5 may not be enough orit may not meet the requirements of applications which require highperformance. So, in such cases it is recommended to use RAID 10 forhigh-performance.
SAN Backup
In case of SAN backups, the HBA version remains consistentacross all the SAN backup clients. Why? Because if changed, there may berecovery problems and backup problems faced by the solution.
So, in such cases, a backup client will be unable to readdata that is backed up. This will result in either delayed recovery or failedrecovery and nobody wants that. So, as a solution, the drivers of HBA on eachbackup hosts must be updated. This may seem a small variable but its effects are great.
Conclusion
Managing a SAN solution can be tough but it doesn’t has to be. With the tips mentioned in this article such as; updating drivers, SAN topology, RAID protection and more, businesses can efficiently manage their SAN storage solutions in order to gain optimal performance.