BSIT375-T302 Administration of Data Storage (2183-1)

Week One Blog Entry

"The Author"

Hello All,

My name is Troy and I am writing my third blog for a Bellevue University Class. I am a senior in the BSIT Program and hope that you enjoy my blogging. I have a decent understanding of what different types of data storage that is available: Tape, Flash, Platter and Disc. However, I know that the foundation for being a system administrator requires much more than that knowledge. I hope to learn more throughout this course and plan to have fun posting for anyone that stumbles upon this blog!

Thank you 

Week Two Blog Entry

"Is PCIe SSD Storage the way to go for DAS?

Hello all,

Welcome to the second week of blogging with me. This week I will talk about using PCIe Solid State Drive (SSD) for local storage versus traditional DAS style platter solutions of SCSI or SATA.

 The biggest pro to this type of solution is that the microprocessor on the server has direct access with the storage. There is no RAID controller that must interface over a SAS, SCSI or SATA drives and produce more latency.
However, with new technology, comes some negative aspects:

The big downside to implementing this type of storage is costs. The costs of PCIe SSDs is significantly more versus traditional SAS or SCSI platter storage. There are also other shortcomings with incorporating this type of local storage on DAS systems connected to traditional SAN based platter storage. That issue is the PCIe SSD storage will cause the SAN to become a known bottleneck. 

Because of these above issues, PCIe isn’t being adopted as fast as some would like.

References

Crump, G. (2013, October 7). Are PCIe SSDs Breaking your Storage Network? - and how to stop it. Retrieved from http://www.storage-switzerland.com/: http://www.storage-switzerland.com/Articles/Entries/2013/10/7_Are_PCIe_SSDs_Breaking_Your_Storage_Network.html

Vanderburg, E. (2015). CompTIA Storage+. New York  •  Chicago  •  San Francisco : McGraw-Hill Education.

Week Three Blog Entry

"SAN over WAN?

Hello all,

This week I am going to talk about SAN over WAN. How many people know what SAN over WAN and what it is? Most that aren’t in the IT field have no idea.

SAN over WAN is simply a small, medium or large group of hard drives that are connected, and their storage is shared among a network of computers. That network of computers is spread out across Wide Area Networks, or WANs. It allows the company to have a data center in one central location and the storage space at that location is accessible across multiple sites that are sometimes in different states/counties or cities.

 In other words, users at those sites connect to their network drive via the internet.

References

Vanderburg, E. (2015). CompTIA Storage+. New York  •  Chicago  •  San Francisco : McGraw-Hill Education.

Week Four Blog Entry

"Data Storage Cables in a Network Environment?

Hello everyone,

I hope that you all had a great Christmas and a happy New Years with your friends and family. This week I am going to briefly discuss data storage in an enterprise environment. At home you may only have what is called a direct attached storage (DAS) with either a Serial ATA or a PCI-E SSD solution to in your desktop or server. Enterprises will have similar configurations and some more complex ways for users to reach the data over the network. There will be a file server that is likely connected via DAS or NAS (Network Attached Storage) via copper or fiber cables. Some of the same data throughput may even travel through both cable types depending on the client that is requesting the data. A fiber-optic cable will likely connect entire data rooms together; while UTP (Un-shielded Twisted Pair) or STP (Shielded twisted pair) copper cabling is ran between clients/nodes to the data rooms.   

References

Vanderburg, E. (2015). CompTIA Storage+. New York  •  Chicago  •  San Francisco : McGraw-Hill Education.

Week Five Blog Entry

Virtualization for a Storage System

Good evening everyone, I hope that this week has been good for you. This week I will be discussing virtual disks. With a virtual machine (VM), or software server/client; you still have all the normal parts that you would have on a physical machine. Although you still have real disk drives in a server or NAS/DAS setup; those physical drives are put together into a logical storage pool that can be controlled from the VM controller’s management console to define what types of disk and how large those disks are depending on what you want to them to be used on each VM. You can change the virtual disk to expand in size as needed in real time or a be a fixed disk that remains the same size until you go into the management console and resize the disk. Not only can you configure the amount of space used on a virtual disk, but you can configure what type of disk that virtual disk may be; SSD, HDD, tape etc. Virtualized disks have reshaped the IT Infrastructure field into a more complex and dynamic array of tasks.  

Works Cited

Vanderburg, E. (2015). CompTIA Storage+. New York  •  Chicago  •  San Francisco : McGraw-Hill Education.

Week Six Blog Entry

Storage Management System

Hello all! This week I am going to talk about how storage management systems work. With that topic in-mind; I am going to narrow this discussion down to the management protocol of Simple Network Management Protocol or commonly referred to as SNMP, (Vanderburg, 2015). There are four main processes that get driven by SNMP and those areas are: Trap, Set, Get and GetNext. What does SNMP accomplish? Most organizations use this protocol to drive Network Management Tools such as the popular manufactured brands: SolarWinds, Kaseya and AccelOps.

These network management tools talk between the storage devices on the network using the SNMP protocol via the UDP ports of 161 and 162. The network storage devices status is queried over the protocol to let network and system administrators manage the devices without watching them. They can know the state of the devices by email alert; which is beneficial when they are always watching the management tools web user interface (UI).

References

Vanderburg, E. (2015). CompTIA Storage+. New York  •  Chicago  •  San Francisco : McGraw-Hill Education.

Week Seven Blog Entry

The High Risk of Valuing Data

Good evening everyone, here is Week Seven’s Blog for All Things in Storage. This week we are going to talk about our growing desire for instant data access, whether it be on smart phones, computers or tablets. Have you ever been watching an episode on Netflix or Hulu and encountered an error code or a show that would not play anymore? You likely experienced some type of data loss or connectivity issue between your device client to the server or there was a service interruption that came from the server that you were streaming from. We could examine the OSI or TCP/IP models all day long to figure it out a possible resolution; or just accept the fact that technology is not going to reach more than 99.99% up-time; you will not see 100% of up-time these days. At least, not yet. Normally, a person will encounter the errors above and first restart the application or even the device; reconnect the device to the LAN/WLAN network and if it still doesn’t work; that person will likely then reboot their home router/switch or modem. The big lesson that a person will learn from this situation is how much we have grown accustomed to the need for instant data access and that it’s a part of our lives now. We just don’t realize how much we value it until it's not accessible.

References

Vanderburg, E. (2015). CompTIA Storage+. New York  •  Chicago  •  San Francisco : McGraw-Hill Education.

Week Eight Blog Entry

Best Network Storage Vendors

There are four levels of file-folder permissions that govern most data access on a domain or workgroup. They are: full control, read-write, read-only and deny. Most people can guess what the deny permission allows; nothing at all. You cannot read or write to data and will not have the ability to open folders where your assigned deny permissions.  

The most commonly used permission is undoubtedly read only. Since it’s the lowest tier of “allow” access that you can get for files and folders. With read only permissions; you may look, but you may not make or save changes to what you did to the data.  The next permission is read-write; where you can open, view and edit files. After that permission is the highest level of permission; called full control. Full control allows you to read files/folders; write and save to files/folders and delete files/folders.  The biggest right that you have with full control is the ability to change, add or remove access rights of another user. Generally, the IT department of an organization is fitted to role of granting or revoking access to files and folders.

References

Vanderburg, E. (2015). CompTIA Storage+. New York  •  Chicago  •  San Francisco : McGraw-Hill Education.

Week Nine Blog Entry

Best NAS Vendors

Hello all! Here is another week of All things in Storage. This week, I will talk a bit about NAS vendors on both the consumer and enterprise sides. I looked at reviews by PCMAG and Storagecraft. According to PCMAG, the best NAS’s for your bang and buck are from the Vendor’s QNAP and Synology. Both units are rack mounted support RAID. However, they are not both equipped with the same connection type. The QNAP is equipped with USB 2.0, 3.0 and Ethernet, while the Synology is only capable of SATA connections. The above solutions run only a few hundred dollars and are more aimed at consumers, not businesses. Some vendors that make enterprise NAS solutions are Exablox, Dell and NetApp. The major difference from the enterprise solutions is the processing power and the connection types. The enterprise solutions are measured up to 10GbE for connections as well. The enterprise solutions also advertise compatibility with enterprise grade SSD storage.

References

Domingo, J. S. (2017, Nov 20). The Best NAS (Network Attached Storage) Devices of 2018. Retrieved from www.pcmag.com: https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401086,00.asp

Nordquist, B. (n.d.). The Best Enterprise NAS Products. Retrieved from www.storagecraft.com: https://www.storagecraft.com/blog/the-best-enterprise-nas-products/

Vanderburg, E. (2015). CompTIA Storage+. New York  •  Chicago  •  San Francisco : McGraw-Hill Education.

Week Ten Blog Entry

Keep it Cool Where Data Resides

Hello all! Here is another week of All things in Storage. This week, I will talk a bit about server room HVAC systems and the importance of monitoring where your enterprise data resides. In an enterprise, you have lots of important data that is floating around the network. All that data has to sit somewhere, usually in a data center or a server room. Whichever location that it might be requires a proper ventilation for the racks of equipment and a good HVAC system to keep it cool in the room or center. Every system component has a maximum operating temperature and you want to aim to cool the area so that the component that requires the coolest environment is not going to go past it’s maximum safe operating temperature. Since one component that fails can cause other components to fail thereafter. One way to ensure that a room or center is always monitored even after hours, is to incorporate SNMP monitoring of hardware and also a room weather monitoring device, such as the brand SuperGoose.

References

Vanderburg, E. (2015). CompTIA Storage+. New York  •  Chicago  •  San Francisco : McGraw-Hill Education.

Week Eleven Blog Entry

What is PCI Compliance

Hello all! Here is another week of All things in Storage. This week, I will talk a bit about PCI Compliance is about. To start, here is the history of PCI: "the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, (PCI FAQs, n.d.)”, was created in 2006 to make sure that every transaction-oriented company keeps a safe and secure data environment for their customers. The only spin-off on this is that the compliance is not enforced by the above-mentioned council. The payment companies such as Visa, American Express, MasterCard and Discover are responsible for ensuring that these standards are fulfilled when their cards are swiped at businesses, (PCI FAQs, n.d.). To be labeled as compliant, these businesses must pass penetration tests or vulnerability scans by a PCI DSS approved scanner, on an annual basis. The transaction-accepting company must be aware of whom is able to access the data and strong access controls need to be implemented to ensure that only authorized individuals can see the sensitive financial data.

References

PCI FAQs. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.pcicomplianceguide.org: https://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/faq/#1

Week Twelve FINAL Blog Posting

Hello all! This weekly blog for of ‘All things in Storage’ will be my last. To wrap it up, I am going to talk about a variety of topics from:

Types of storage disks

Storage controllers

Storage management systems

Storage on Point-Of-Sale Systems

Data room HVAC Configurations

Network Storage Vendors

I chose to write on the above topics because they interest me. For sources, I obtained a mixture of material online and some content came from the class book. Often, I gained material from both external sources and from the book, combined.

I could see some of my material as being used by someone whom is looking for sources of their own. However, I would consider it more of a summary of my sources than a detailed analysis.

Thank you for reading my blog and I wish you all a great rest of your week.