STORAGE MANAGEMENT GETTING STARTED Storage Management 101 Everything

STORAGE MANAGEMENT/ GETTING STARTED: Storage Management 101 Everything you always wanted to know about Storage Management (but were afraid to ask) Stephen Foskett Practice Manager Glass. House Technologies

Agenda l The utility model l Building a storage management team l Break l Storage management processes l Storage management tools

The basics l IT is made up of people, process and technology l Mature processes enable strategic IT: • • • Leverage “utility” concepts • Select tools to enable consistency and streamline processes Build an effective storage management group Use “maturity” concept to drive process improvements

The utility model l Utilities offer fixed centralized services to consumers l Benefits of the utility model: • • Reduced costs through resource sharing • Alignment of service and requirements through SLAs Improved service through specialization and standardization

Systems Administrators Hardware Policies Software Policies Configuration Processes Business Analysts Policies Requirements Analysis Service Level Agreements Operations Standard Procedures Monitoring Escalation IT Management Metrics Cost Modeling Chargeback

Getting started 1. Create a centralized storage group 2. Develop strategic policies and standard architecture 3. Say no to ad-hoc purchases 4. Migrate and consolidate what you have 5. Proactively develop SLAs and begin reporting

Building a storage management group l Requirements: • • • Dedicated focused resources Ownership of infrastructure Empowerment to control purchases l Start with the people and architecture already in place

Align resources with requirements l Most storage groups are under-staffed l Risks abound: • • • Lack of technology coverage (vacations, nights) Lack of focus (storage, backup, operations) Failure to align technology with business l Define roles/responsibilities and boundaries

Debunking the TB per admin metric l Problems with TB/Admin: • • Ignores complexity - Heterogeneous/homogenous • No indication of effectiveness – I can manage 1 PB for one day! • No defined “best practice” – Analysts say. 5, 1. 25, 1. 5; Vendors say 5, 7, 10 • Usually a quick-fix or scapegoat metric; No relation to the real world Ignores other skill sets - operations, cost accounting, business analysis, management

Members of the team l Resources: • 1+ Manager: High-level metrics • 1+ Analyst: Business/technology alignment, SLAs • 2+ Engineers: Storage and backup experts • 4+ Operators: 24 x 7 monitoring, escalation l 1 Engineer per 3 technologies or 10 systems l Share operations with other groups

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STORAGE MANAGEMENT/ GETTING STARTED: Storage Management 101, part 2 Everything you always wanted to know about Storage Management (but were afraid to ask) Stephen Foskett Practice Manager Glass. House Technologies

Understanding process and procedure l Mature management processes is one “leg” of the utility model l Ad hoc process becomes Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) through maturity l ITIL and Glass. House SMLSM are frameworks for understanding processes

International IT standards l ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) • • Europe – Wide acceptance in the UK, spreading worldwide Task framework – Focused delivery of IT services l COBIT (Control Objectives for IT) • • Canada/US – IT Governance Institute Control – Focused on processes and governance l COSO (the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission) • • US - Gaining traction for Sarbanes/Oxley auditing Auditing - Focused on process assessment

The ITIL framework (SS) Service Support (BP) Business Perspective 1. 2. 3. 4. Business continuity Partnerships and outsourcing Surviving change Transformation of business practice 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Service desk Incident management Problem management Configuration management Change management Release management Application Management (SD) Service Delivery (IM) Infrastructure Management 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Capacity management Financial management Availability management Service level management Service continuity management Network service management Operations management Management of local processors Computer installation and acceptance Systems management

Pla n Impleme nt Operate

Assessing process maturity l Maturity is a hard metric for a soft area l Leverage the CMU capability maturity model l Where are you? Where should you be? l Each process can be at a different level – not all should be at level 5! Level Name Description 1 Initial Ad-hoc, reactive, “firefighting” 2 Repeatable 3 Defined 4 Managed Metrics for deliverables and processes 5 Optimizing Continuous improvement with feedback Proactive, trained people Documented, standardized products and procedures

Processes and tools l Outline your management processes – leverage ITIL or Glass. House SML l Understand what you need to do – which processes need automation? l Buy tools to support critical processes

Tool confusion l There are no standard category names: • Storage Resource Management (SRM) usually analyzes host storage contents (number, type, attributes of files) but not always • Different storage management suites have different functions l Suites are lacking: • Many “suites” do not offer SRM or device management functionality • Hardware vendors dominate management suite business

Package-based approach l Software packages are purchased arbitrarily: • • • Hardware vendor’s suggestion Giveaways Media coverage/Advertising l Hit or miss coverage of business needs

Selecting storage management software l Look for software offering just what you need l Minimize number of tools: • • Lack of integration options Complexity = Confusion l Look beyond “suites”

Commonly needed management tools l Enterprise backup – Essential l Backup reporting – Success rate, failures, needs customization l Utilization reporting – Who is using what resources, needs customization l Architecture visualization – Enables engineers to understand environment l SNMP framework – Send traps to operations

Rarely used management tools l Traditional SRM – One-shot wonder l Automated provisioning – Requires mature processes, saves little time l Automated cost accounting – Needs massive customization l Process/Policy automation – Are you ready?