eqw Spectra Logic’s BlackPearl® NAS Technical Guide Simple, Affordable, Flexible Data Storage Abstract The extended lifespan of data has led to previously unimagined complexities, regulation, use cases, and migration planning scenarios. To address the difficulties stemming from data growth, including minimizing errors that can be introduced as data migrates over the network and across storage technologies, a new kind of mid-tier, secondary storage is required that focuses not only on the cost required to store massive data, but also on protecting that data. September 2019 Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 BlackPearl NAS – Solution Snapshot ............................................................................................................. 5 Data Growth Rates ...................................................................................................................................... 10 Flexible NAS Storage to Meet Data’s Mid-Life Demands ............................................................................ 11 Purpose-Built Storage for Mid-Tier Data .................................................................................................... 11 Disk Technologies ........................................................................................................................................ 11 Drive Types .................................................................................................................................................. 12 Enterprise Drives ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Expansion Nodes ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Data Protection and Reliability ................................................................................................................... 12 Data Mirror and Parity ............................................................................................................................ 12 Triple-Parity – Probability of data loss less than 1 in 1.5 Billion years ................................................... 12 Global Spares .......................................................................................................................................... 13 Rebuild Time ........................................................................................................................................... 13 Continuous Checksum and Data Resiliency ............................................................................................ 14 Replication .............................................................................................................................................. 15 NFI Policies for DR and Archive ............................................................................................................... 16 Other General Features .......................................................................................................................... 17 Internal Data Handling ........................................................................................................................ 17 Copy on Write ..................................................................................................................................... 17 High Availability .......................................................................................................................................... 17 BlackPearl NAS, Single Controller System ............................................................................................... 17 BlackPearl NAS, ColdPair ......................................................................................................................... 18 BlackPearl NAS, HotPair .......................................................................................................................... 19 The Spectra Ecosystem ............................................................................................................................... 19 BlackPearl Object Storage ....................................................................................................................... 19 Using Network File Interface (NFI) .......................................................................................................... 21 BlackPearl NAS Workflow Targets (where to use it, and where not to…) .................................................. 22 Enterprise Drive workflow requirements ............................................................................................... 22 Performance – what to expect ................................................................................................................... 22 Very Wide RAID for performance ........................................................................................................... 22 Typical performance and how to measure ............................................................................................. 22 1 CIFS impact on performance ............................................................................................................... 23 File size implications on performance ................................................................................................ 23 NFS impact on performance ............................................................................................................... 23 ZIL kit – Write Cache Acceleration ...................................................................................................... 24 System CPU and DRAM impact on performance ................................................................................ 24 Network Setup Considerations ................................................................................................................... 25 Configuration .......................................................................................................................................... 25 Link Aggregation Notes ........................................................................................................................... 26 BlackPearl NAS Implementation ................................................................................................................. 27 Theory of Operation ................................................................................................................................ 27 Software Components ........................................................................................................................ 27 Virtualizing Disk using Pools .................................................................................................................... 28 Multiple Pools ..................................................................................................................................... 28 Set Level of Protection ............................................................................................................................ 29 BlackPearl NAS Advantages ................................................................................................................ 29 Balancing Capacity and Performance with Parity ................................................................................... 30 Examples of Array Sizing ......................................................................................................................... 32 Considerations in Setting Protection Levels and Balancing Capacity and Performance ........................ 32 Define Pool Availability to System Network/Protocols .......................................................................... 33 Thin Provisioning ..................................................................................................................................... 33 Oversubscribing .................................................................................................................................. 33 Assign Access to Volumes ....................................................................................................................... 34 Raw vs Usable space ............................................................................................................................... 34 As low as 6¢/GB (USD) – how much capacity is required to get this pricing .......................................... 35 Expansion of Capacity ............................................................................................................................. 35 Physical Buildout Considerations ............................................................................................................ 36 Drive Expansion Node ......................................................................................................................... 36 Cooling considerations ........................................................................................................................ 36 Add-in card options: ............................................................................................................................ 37 Monitoring and Maintenance ....................................................................................................................