Server Storage Flashcards
storage technologies
- storage device dimensions/form factors have to be considered
- 3.5 in large form factor (LFF) hard drives are common
- SFF disks = 2.5 in
- storage capacity
- read/write speed
HDDs
- magnetic disk drives
- vacuum sealed
- contain multiple platters
- spinning disks
- read/write heads on actuator arm for each platter
RPMs (HDDs)
- faster disk spins
- quicker read/write times
- norm for desktop disks = 7200
- norm for laptop disks = 5400
- faster server HDDs = 15000
seek time (HDDs)
position of the read/write head over the disk platter determines time to locate data on disk
rotational latency
- disk platter must spin to correct position to read/write before data is transferred
- usually measured in fractions of a second
bus width (HDDs)
- amount of bits that can be transferred simultaneously
- fast disk transmission technologies often use serial rather than parallel transmission schemes
IOPS (HDDs)
- input/output operations per second
- how often a disk can perform I/O operations depends on the specific workload
- generally more IOPS is better
transfer rate (HDDs)
per second rate at which data is moved into/out of disks indicates the speed of data transfer
SSDs
- solid state drives
- no moving parts
- more expensive than HDDs
SATA
- serial advanced technology attachment interface
- used to connect both SSDs and HDDs
SSDs in cloud
- premium pricing when SSD is used
- opting for disk with higher IOPS value
SSHDs
- hybrid drives
- combination of hard disk/solid state
- spinning platters and faster flash memory
- cache frequently accessed data on flash memory
storage tiers
- valuable data should be quickly accessible
- storage tier policies to determine which type of data will be stored on which specific storage media
- hierarchical storage management (HSM)
- place tiered storage capabilities in front of SAN storage
SAS (disk interface)
- serial-attached SCSI
- serial bit transmission
- hot-pluggable
- newer iteration of older SCSI standard
- more expensive than SATA
- smaller storage capacity than SATA
- designed for constant use
- often used for servers
SATA (disk interface)
- serial ATA
- serial bit transmission
- not designed for constant use
- used often in personal workstations
eSATA (disk interface)
- similar to SATA
- interface connector is external to the device
- some devices have built in eSATA port
SCSI (disk interface)
- small computer system interface
- parallel bit transmission
- used often for servers
USB (disk interface)
- universal serial bus
- serial bit transmission
- convenient external connectivity
- used often in personal workstations
FC (disk interface)
- fibre channel
- used in SANs
- host bus adapters are required in server to access SAN storage
- used often for servers
serial bit transmission
sends data bits one after another over a single channel
parallel bit transmission
sends multiple data bits simultaneously over multiple channels
optical drives
- CD/Blu-ray/DVD
- write once ready many (WORM) media
- server may require optical drive to boot from for recovery purposes/install OS
cloud storage
- can provision/deprovision storage instantly
- only pay for the storage needed
- legal/regulatory restrictions on public cloud storage
- on-premise storage can back up to cloud
DAS
- direct attached storage
- storage disks are housed inside the server chassis
- storage disks only available locally to that server
NAS
- network attached storage
- SMB (Windows)
- NFS (Linux)
- CIFS
- use of higher layer protocols distinguishes NAS from SANs
- servers connect to NAS storage over standard network equipment/using standard protocols
- SANs = highly specialized high-speed networks designed to transmit disk I/O traffic using protocols designed for this use
- NAS can be hardware appliances/servers configured for this purpose
CIFS
- common internet file system
- specific implementation of SMB
iSCI
- internet small computer system interface
- makes storage accessible to hosts over standard TCP/IP network on a small scale
- less expensive
- slower
- less reliable
- requires separate network segment/VLAN
iSCSI initiators
- can be implemented as hardware/software
- hardware initiators support enhanced options i.e. server booting the OS over network
- initiator needs network address/port to contact target
- specify logical unit number (LUN) using iSCSI qualified name (IQN) after connection is established