6. Storage Basics

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing UNIT - 6: STORAGE BASICS Structure 6.0 Learning Objectives 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Basics of storage 6.3 Basic Administration & Operation 6.4 Storage and Monitoring 6.5 Summary 6.6 Glossary 6.7 References 6.0 Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to • Define Storage • Identify the different types of storage • Recognise the features, vendor, etc. • Relate to the basic Administration & Operation of Storage and Monitoring 6.1 Introduction A storage unit is a part of the computer system which is employed to store the information and instructions to be processed. A storage device is an integral part of the computer hardware which stores information/data to process the result of any computational work. Without a storage device, a computer would not be able to run or even boot up. Or in other words, we can say that a storage device is hardware that is used for storing, porting, or extracting data files. It can also store information/data both temporarily and permanently. As computers advance, the technologies used to store data do too, with higher requirements for storage space. Because people need more and more space, want it faster, cheaper, and want to take it with them, new technologies have to be invented. When new storage devices are designed, as people upgrade to those new devices, the older devices are no longer needed and stop being

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing used. For example, when punch cards were first used in early computers, the magnetic media used for floppy disks was not available. After floppy diskettes were released, they were replaced by CD-ROM drives, which were replaced by DVD drives, which were replaced by flash drives. The first hard disk drive from IBM cost $50,000, was only 5 MB, big, and cumbersome. Today, we have smartphones that have hundreds of times the capacity at a smaller price that we can carry in our pocket. Each advancement of storage devices gives a computer the ability to store more data, and save and access data faster. 6.3 Basics of Storage It is also known as digital storage, storage, storage media, or storage medium, a storage device is any hardware capable of holding information either temporarily or permanently. The picture shows an example of a Drobo, an external secondary mass storage device.There are two types of storage devices used with computers: a primary storage device, such as RAM, and a secondary storage device, such as a hard drive. Secondary storage can be removable, internal, or external. Examples of computer storage-Today, there are three types of media used to store computer data: magnetic storage, optical storage, and solid-state storage. Below is a full list of all computer storage used over the evolution of the computer. Without a storage device, a computer cannot save or remember any settings or information and would be considered a dumb terminal.Although a computer can run with no storage device, it would only be able to view information, unless it was connected to another computer that had storage capabilities. Even a task, such as browsing the Internet, requires information to be stored on your computer. Types of computer storages There are three types of storages • Primary storage • Secondary storage • Tertiary storage Primary storage- It is also referred to as internal memory, is accessed by a computer's central processing unit (CPU). It is usually the fastest and most expensive type of memory in the computer. Primary storage uses random-access memory (RAM), cache memory, or some other specialized hardware to store data while the computer is powered on. When power is removed, RAM is wiped clean. The volatile nature of RAM

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing means that additional storage devices are needed that continue to work when a computer is powered off. Examples: • Read Only Memory (ROM) • Random Access Memory (RAM) • Flash Memory • Cache Memory Primary Storage Secondary storage - A secondary storage device refers to any non-volatile storage device that is internal or external to the computer. It can be any storage device beyond the primary storage that enables permanent data storage. A secondary storage device is also known as an auxiliary storage device, backup storage device, tier 2 storage, or external storage. These devices store virtually all programs and applications on a computer, including the operating system, device drivers, applications and general user data. The Secondary storage media can be fixed or removable. Fixed Storage media is an internal storage medium like a hard disk that is fixed inside the computer. A storage medium that is portable and can be taken outside the computer is termed removable storage media. The main advantage of using secondary storage devices is: • In Secondary storage devices, the stored data might not be under the direct control of the operating system. For example, many organizations store their archival data or critical documents on secondary storage drives, which their main network cannot access to ensure their preservation whenever a data breach occurs. • Since these drives do not interact directly with the main infrastructure and can be situated in a remote or secure site, it is unlikely that a hacker may access these drives unless they're physically stolen. Computers use main memory such as random-access memory (RAM) and cache to hold data that is being processed. However, this type of memory is volatile, and it loses its data when the computer is switched off. General-purpose computers, such as personal computers and tablets, need to store programs and data for later use. Therefore, secondary storage is needed to keep programs and data long term. Secondary storage is non-volatile and able to keep data as long-term storage. They

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing are used for various purposes such as backup data used for future restores or disaster recovery, long-term archiving of data that is not frequently accessed, and storage of non-critical data in lower-performing, less expensive drives. Types of Secondary Storage Device Here are the two types of secondary storage devices, i.e., fixed storage and removable storage. Types of Storages 1. Fixed Storage-Fixed storage is an internal media device used by a computer system to store data. Usually, these are referred to as the fixed disk drives or Hard Drives.Fixed storage devices are not fixed. These can be removed from the system for repairing work, maintenance purposes, and also for an upgrade, etc. But in general, this can not be done without a proper toolkit to open up the computer system to provide physical access, which needs to be done by an engineer. Technically, almost all data, i.e. being processed on a computer system, is stored on some built-in fixed storage device. We have the following types of fixed storage: • Internal flash memory (rare) • SSD (solid-state disk) units • Hard disk drives (HDD) 2. Removable Storage Removable storage is an external media device that is used by a computer system to store data. Usually, these are referred to as the Removable Disks drives or the External Drives. Removable storage is any storage device that can be removed from a computer system while the system is running. Examples of external devices include

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray disk drives, and diskettes and USB drives. Removable storage makes it easier for a user to transfer data from one computer system to another. The main benefit of removable disks in storage factors is that they can provide the fast data transfer rates associated with storage area networks (SANs). We have the following types of Removable Storage: • Optical discs (CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs) • Memory cards • Floppy disks • Magnetic tapes • Disk packs • Paper storage (punched tapes, punched cards) Classification of Secondary Storage Devices The following image shows the classification of commonly used secondary storage devices. Secondary Storage Classification Tertiary storage: Tertiary storage is also known as nearline storage because it is \"near to online “, involves a robotic mechanism that will mount (insert) and dismount removable mass storage media into a storage device according to the system's demands; such data are often copied to secondary storage before use. Typically, it involves a robotic

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing mechanism which will mount (insert) and dismount removable mass storage media into a storage device • It is a comprehensive computer storage system that is usually very slow, so it is usually used to archive data that is not accessed frequently. • This is primarily useful for extraordinarily large data stores, accessed without human operators Examples: • Removable Media Drives • Optical Discs • Cloud Removable Media Drives Examples: • Magnetic Tape • Optical Disc Magnetic Tape • A magnetically coated strip of plastic on which data can be encoded. • Tapes for computers are similar to tapes used to store music. • Tape is much less expensive than other storage mediums but commonly a much slower solution that is commonly used for backup. Optical Disc Optical disc is any storage media that holds content in digital format and is read using a laser assembly is considered optical media. The most common types of optical media are • Blu-ray (BD)

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing • Compact Disc (CD) • Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) Optical Disc Off-line Storage Also known as disconnected storage. • It is a computer data storage on a medium or a device that is not under the control of a processing unit. • It must be inserted or connected by a human operator before a computer can access it again. • It must be inserted or connected by a human operator before a computer can access it again. Examples: • Floppy Disk • Zip diskette • USB Flash drive 6.4 Basic Administration & Operation - Storage and Monitoring Storage Monitoring-Monitoring forms the basis for performing management operations. Monitoring provides the performance and availability status of various infrastructure components and services. It also helps to measure the utilization and consumption of various storage infrastructure resources by the services. This measurement facilitates the metering of services, capacity planning, forecasting, and optimal use of these resources. Monitoring events in the storage infrastructure, such

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing as a change in the performance or availability state of a component or a service, may be used to trigger automated routines or recovery procedures. • Configuration Monitoring • Availability Monitoring • Capacity Monitoring • Performance Monitoring • Security Monitoring Such procedures can reduce downtime due to known infrastructure errors and the level of manual intervention needed to recover from them. Further, monitoring helps in generating reports for service usage and trends. Additionally, monitoring of the data center environment parameters such as heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) helps in tracking any anomaly from their normal status. A storage infrastructure is primarily monitored for Monitoring Configuration-Monitoring configuration involves tracking configuration changes and deployment of storage infrastructure components and services. It also detects configuration errors, non-compliance with configuration policies, and unauthorized configuration changes. Monitoring Availability-Availability refers to the ability of a component or a service to perform its desired function during its specified time of operation. Monitoring availability of hardware components (for example, a port, an HBA, or a storage controller) or software component for example, a database instance or an orchestration software involves checking their availability status by reviewing the alerts generated from the system. For example, a port failure might result in a chain of availability alerts. A storage infrastructure commonly uses redundant components to avoid a single point of failure. Failure of a component might cause an outage that affects service availability, or it might cause performance degradation even though availability is not compromised. Continuous monitoring for expected availability of each component and reporting any deviation help the administrator to identify failing services and plan corrective action to maintain SLA requirements. Monitoring Capacity-Capacity refers to the total amount of storage infrastructure resources available. Inadequate capacity leads to degraded performance or even service unavailability. Monitoring capacity involves examining the amount of storage infrastructure resources used and usable such as the free space available on a file system or a storage pool, the numbers of ports available on a switch, or the utilization of allocated storage space to a service. Monitoring capacity helps an administrator to ensure uninterrupted data availability and scalability by averting outages before they occur. For example, if 90 percent of the ports are utilized in a particular SAN fabric,

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing this could indicate that a new switch might be required if more servers and storage systems need to be attached to the same fabric. Monitoring usually leverages analytical tools to perform capacity trend analysis. These trends help to understand future resource requirements and provide an estimation of the time required to deploy them. Monitoring Security-Monitoring a storage infrastructure for security includes tracking unauthorized access, whether accidental or malicious, and unauthorized configuration changes. For example, monitoring tracks and reports the initial zoning configuration performed and all the subsequent changes. Another example of monitoring security is to track login failures and unauthorized access to switches for performing administrative changes. IT organizations typically comply with various information security policies that may be specific to government regulations, organizational rules, or deployed services. Monitoring detects all operations and data movement that deviate from predefined security policies. Monitoring also detects unavailability of information and services to authorized users due to security breach. Further, physical security of a storage infrastructure can also be continuously monitored using badge readers, biometric scans, or video cameras. 2) Storage Alerting An alert is a system-to-user notification that provides information about events or impending threats or issues. Alerting of events is an integral part of monitoring. Alerting keeps administrators informed about the status of various components and processes. For example, conditions such as failure of power, storage drives, memory, switches, or availability zone, which can impact the availability of services and require immediate administrative attention. Other conditions, such as a file system reaching a capacity threshold, an operation breaching a configuration policy, or a soft media error on storage drives, are considered warning signs and may also require administrative attention. Monitoring tools enable administrators to define various alerted conditions and assign different severity levels for these conditions based on the impact of the conditions. Whenever a condition with a particular severity level occurs, an alert is sent to the administrator, an orchestrated operation is triggered, or an incident ticket is opened to initiate a corrective action. Alert classifications can range from information alerts to fatal alerts. Information alerts provide useful information but do not require any intervention by the administrator. The creation of a zone or LUN is an example of an information alert. Warning alerts require administrative attention so that the alerted condition is contained and does not affect service availability. For example, if an alert indicates that a storage pool is approaching a predefined threshold value, the administrator can decide whether additional storage

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing drives need to be added to the pool. Fatal alerts require immediate attention because the condition might affect the overall performance or availability. For example, if a service fails, the administrator must ensure that it is returned quickly. As every IT environment is unique, most monitoring systems require initial set-up and configuration, including defining what types of alerts should be classified as informational, warning, and fatal. Whenever possible, an organization should limit the number of truly critical alerts so that important events are not lost amidst informational messages. Continuous monitoring, with automated alerting, enables administrators to respond to failures quickly and proactively. Alerting provides information that helps administrators prioritize their response to events. 3) Storage Reporting-Like alerting, reporting is also associated with monitoring. Reporting on a storage infrastructure involves keeping track and gathering information from various components and processes that are monitored. The gathered information is compiled to generate reports for trend analysis, capacity planning, chargeback, performance, and security breaches. Capacity planning reports contain current and historic information about the utilization of storage, file systems, database tablespace, ports, etc. Configuration and asset management reports include details about device allocation, local or remote replicas, and fabric configuration. This report also lists all the equipment, with details, such as their purchase date, lease status, and maintenance records. Chargeback reports contain information about the allocation or utilization of storage infrastructure resources by various users or user groups. Performance reports provide current and historical information about the performance of various storage infrastructure components and services as well as their compliance with agreed service levels. Security breach reports provide details on the security violations, duration of breach and its impact. Reports are commonly displayed like a digital dashboard, which provide real time tabular or graphical views of gathered information. Dashboard reporting helps administrators to make instantaneous and informed decisions on resource procurement, plans for modifications in the existing infrastructure, policy enforcement, and improvements in management processes. 6.5 Summary • Storage unit is a part of the computer system which is employed to store the information and instructions to be processed. • Storage device is an integral part of the computer hardware which stores information/data to process the result of any computational work. • Storage in computer are of primary and secondary storages

Foundation Course on Information Technology Outsourcing 6.6 Glossary • SSD: The SSD reads and writes data using flash memory • Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be moved between two pieces of hardware in a given period of time. • Bus: A path in a computer used to move data. A data bus is described in terms of its width (in bits) and its speed (in megahertz). • Cache: A type of memory that holds recently accessed data, which is designed to speed up subsequent access to the same data. 6.6 References • https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/storage • https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/computer-storage- devices • https://www.dummies.com/article/technology/computers/basic- skills/computer-storage-202126 • https://testbook.com/learn/computer-storage-devices/

Foundation Course in Information Technology Outsourcing: Storage Basics of storage infrastructure can also be continuously monitored using badge readers, biometric scans, or video cameras. Storage Alerting A system-to-user notification that provides information about events or impending threats or issues is referred to as an alert. An integral part of monitoring is Alerting. Alerting keeps informing the administrators about the status of various processes and components. For example, conditions like storage drives, memory, failure of power, switches, or availability zone can require immediate administrative attention and impact the availability of services. Other conditions like an operation breaching a configuration policy, a file system reaching a capacity threshold, or a soft media error on storage drives, are understood as warning signs and there are chances that it might need administrative attention. Administrators to define various alerting conditions and assign different severity levels for these conditions based on the impact of the conditions are enabled by monitoring tools. Whenever a condition with a particular severity level occurs, an alert is sent to the administrator, an orchestrated operation is triggered, or an incident ticket is opened to initiate corrective action. From information alerts to fatal alerts, alert classifications can range. Data alarms give valuable information however it doesn't need any interference from the administrator. The formation of a zone or LUN is an illustration of an information alert. Warning alerts require administrative attention so that the alerting condition is contained and does not affect service availability. For example, Alert will tell that a storage pool is reaching a predefined threshold value, the administrator can take decide whether additional storage drives require to be added to the pool or not. The condition might affect the overall performance or availability which is why Fatal alerts require immediate attention. For example, a service fails, the administrator should ensure that it is returned as soon as possible. As every IT environment is unique, most monitoring systems require initial setup and configuration, including defining what types of alerts should be Page 12 of 14 All Rights Reserved. Vol. TLE001/03-2022

Foundation Course in Information Technology Outsourcing: Storage Basics classified as informational, warning, and fatal. Whenever it is possible, a company must limit the number of truly important alerts so that important events are not missed between informational messages. Continuous monitoring along with automated alerting enables administrators to quickly respond to failures and proactively. Information that helps administrators prioritize their response to events is provided by alerting. 3) Storage Reporting – Similar to alerting, reporting is also associated with monitoring. Reporting on a storage infrastructure includes keeping track of processes that are monitored and information gathering from various components. Trend analysis, capacity planning, chargeback, performance, and security breaches the gathered information is compiled to generate reports for such activities. Capacity planning reports contain historic and current data about storage usage, file systems, database tablespace, ports, etc. Device allocation, local or remote replicas, and fabric configuration details are included in reports of configuration and asset management. Apart from this, this report also lists down all the equipment, with details like their lease status, purchase date, and maintenance records. Utilization of storage infrastructure resources or Information about the allocation by various user groups or users is contained in Chargeback reports. Current and historical information about the performance of various storage infrastructure components and services as well as their compliance with agreed service levels are provided in performance reports. Security breach reports provide details on the security violations, the duration of the breach, and its impact. Reports are commonly displayed like a digital dashboard, which provides real-time tabular or graphical views of gathered information. Dashboard reporting helps administrators to make immediate and informed decisions on resource procurement, policy enforcement, improvements in management processes, and plans for modifications in the existing infrastructure. Page 13 of 14 All Rights Reserved. Vol. TLE001/03-2022

Foundation Course in Information Technology Outsourcing: Storage Basics 6.4 SUMMARY ● A storage unit is a piece of the computer system which is utilized to store the data and guidelines to be handled. ● Storage device is an integral part of the computer hardware which stores information/data to process the result of any computational work. ● Storage in the computer is of primary and secondary storage. 6.5 GLOSSARY ● SSD: The SSD reads and writes data using flash memory ● Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be moved between two pieces of hardware in a given period. ● Bus: A data bus is well known for its speed (in megahertz) and width (in bits). It’s a path that is used to move data in the computer. ● Cache: To speed up subsequent access to the same data that is recently accessed this type of memory was designed. 6.6 REFERENCES ● https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/storage ● https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/computer- storage-devices ● https://www.dummies.com/article/technology/computers/basic- skills/computer-storage-202126 ● https://testbook.com/learn/computer-storage-devices/ Page 14 of 14 All Rights Reserved. Vol. TLE001/03-2022