The Ethernet Fabric - Brocades answer to FCoE

Yesterday I read a white-paper by Brocade on their new technology concept called the "Ethernet Fabric". This technology allows FC protocol frames to travel within Ethernet packets (FCoE).

Fantastic!!! But what does this mean?

Currently the Fibre Channel protocol which is commonly used in SAN environments is "only" capable of speeds up to 8Ggps however its neighboring Ethernet protocol can now produce speeds of up to 10Gbps.

That's all well and good but you may be asking what the right solution is for you FCoE or iSCSI at 10Gbps?

Ultimately, this will depend on current infrastructure within the business along with what white-papers your technical architect has been exposed to. I believe the technology still needs time to mature as the capital expenses for a re-fit like this would be substantial, however the cost savings of only only maintaining one set of network architecture going forward are a big selling point.

To date I have worked with numerous iSCSI & Fibre Channel connected storage arrays and over the years have seen each protocol shine as the preferred solution for SAN connectivity. Personally my bets are on FCoE as most technology movements these days are based around integration, single console management and of course speed.

In today's market place there are two "main" vendors playing in the FCoE space - Cisco Nexus & Brocade VDX

The VDX series by Brocade comes loaded with their new Virtual Cluster Switching firmware, which allows up to 10 switches to be clustered together (fabric) and managed under a single interface.
With this firmware supporting the ability to use multiple ISL's (inter switch links) at once using self aggregation, the effective bandwidth is scalable to 600 10Gbit/sec.

In typical layer 2 switched Ethernet environments, 2 x protocols are required to ensure consistency and performance. These are: STP (Spanning tree Protocol) which is required to prevent switching loops along multiple ISL's and LAG's (link aggregation groups) to help achieve higher bandwidth between ISL's by pooling links together. All of this is left in the dust with "Ethernet Fabric" where almost any topology is supported.. Mesh, Ring, tree or core/edge!

The days of complete physical separation between LAN & SAN networks are numbered!

Brocade Fabric Changes via the GUI = null

The other day whilst making zoning changes on fabrics at a client, I encountered an issue where by any fabric changes would receive a "null" upon enabling the configuration (aliases + zoning groups).

The issue was quickly found within the Java Control Panel within my Windows control panel.

The root however was related to the clients local proxy settings.

Open the Java Control Panel and ensure that Direct Connection is enabled.

Navigation: General Tab to Network Settings Button to Direct Connection check box

HTC legend - Review

A little over a month ago I purchased an HTC Legend running Android 2.1 and now cant go without it. Not only was it a great deal ($49 per month over 12months with $550 value + 1.5GB data and the phone free) but the phone itself is great! 

These days it seems that if you don't own an iPhone there's something wrong with you and its just that attitude that pushes me to defy its trend setting ways. (Having said that I do own an iTouch so you could say my apple appetite has been served... excuse the pun)

From the moment I picked up the HTC box I noticed a change that closely follows the lead of Apple... cosmetically pleasing and streamlined packaging - its surprising how effective this is in marketing a product!

Next it was time to put the phone together (battery, SIM & included 2GB micro SD card) and straight away the phone feels great to hold. The combination
of aluminum casing which might I add is made from just one peice of aluminum + the ergonomic shaping/design doesn't make it feel like your holding a fragile glass brick. I wish I could say the same about the iPhone 4 but I cant.

The boot time is impressive where from power-off to making a call is around 30 seconds. The menu layout is excellent, although it does take a little
while to get used to some aspects - the most notable time saving GUI feature is the drop down bar to quickly view emails/txts/tweets whilst in the middle of anything.


My only quirks with this phone are:

*The lack of a front facing camera for taking advantage of apps such as Skype
*The limited "on-board" memory

Some great apps I've found so far using Android Market:

* 3G watchdog (monitor and set your data quotas)
* Angry Birds (extremely addictive but great for passing time)
* ColorNote (great for storing reminders/notes)
* Facebook for Android (I very rarely touch a computer for Facebook now)

Overall a great phone with no real regrets albeit the risk was low with a max commitment of $600 across the year. To aid me in making my decision I
used my favourite review site www.cnet.com.au

Now I need to decide whether I will delve into FroYo 2.2 for my handset, however I'm not yet convinced yet as many people to date are complaining about performance...watch this space though as I'm sure it'll get the better of me!

For more information on the HTC legend:
http://www.htc.com/www/product/legend/overview.html

For more reviews on the HTC Legend:

http://www.cnet.com.au/htc-legend-339301189.htm

Symantec Enterprise Vault

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with two representatives from Symantec to talk about their Enterprise Vault archiving product.

As paper based systems slowly meet their demise, storage requirements and the need for scalable archiving have boomed within businesses both large and small.

Currently I am working on a large account that employs no means of file/email level archiving.

The solution is simply to buy more disk which in turns pushes the backup window out over the edge it is already clinging to.

Welcome Symantec to the stage!

Having already seen numerous software archiving solutions such as EMC Disk Xtender & CommVault/Simpana I wasn’t expecting to be dazzled by the technology however I did leave the meeting suitably impressed by their offering.

The product is driven via a 32bit application which can exist either as single node or as part of a cluster and is referred to as the Enterprise Vault server. This server will have access to different tiers of storage which are used to archive emails or files and ultimately reduce the physical disk requirement on the servers hosting the application data/functionality.

Security and policies are integrated with active directory so logical groupings are easily achieved and managed E.g. individual & group archives to mimic departmental structures.

The first item covered was Email archiving. This came in the form of a roll-out desktop client (Approx 4Mb .msi) which integrates itself with Outlook; connectivity is achieved through MAPI so there is no need for changes to the Exchange Server itself and syncing is done via a secret message within the users mailbox.

Interesting points:

*For mobile users a local cache of the Vault servers user contents is kept on the laptop

*Ability to search at multiple layers within Email: Message Body to Attachment to Sub Attachment (.zip contents)

*Attachments are kept as pointers within the message and automatically retrieved from Vault server storage at the request/double click of the user

*Has the ability to assist in email version migrations (e.g. Exchange 2007 --> 2010) by creating a transparent archive.

*“.PST search and destroy”... well not quite, but it can automatically go out and search/recover sprawled .PST files and consolidate in to the vault without interrupting the end-user experience.

The next was file archiving which was much simpler in comparison but used the same policy based retentions mechanisms. These retentions can be set at an organisation, group or individual level depending on compliance requirements of the business.

Interesting points:

*At the file system, files can be viewed as their actual size or pointer size when viewing the properties of the selected file.

*Ability to deliver files direct to the desktop or inflate on the server with a policy re-run required for delivery back to the vault.

*Restrictions can be placed on vault contents such as elimination of .mp3 files.

Recommendation for Single Node Deployment in virtual environment:

*Win 2KXXX

*2 x vCPU

*4Gb RAM (32bit limitation)

*Microsoft SQL backend for metadata

*SAS disk for index & SATA for archive (approx. 12% of archive is equal to the index size)

In summary I found Symantec Enterprise Vault to be a simple solution to an often complicated problem, with smooth integration and little of no interruption/training for the end user. When the project comes to fruition I will be sure to post my experiences here and provide a more in-depth review. 

For further information, please see the following data-sheet: http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/fact_sheets/b-ev9_archiving_DS_20465026-1.en-us.pdf

In The Beginning...

After 6 years in the IT industry I've decided to start sharing my thoughts and experiences with technology. Even in this short time the IT landscape has changed dramatically with the upsurge of social media technologies such as Facebook and Twitter to the vast adoption of virtualization technologies such as VMware. Each of these technologies will forever change the way we use computers.

I still remember my first job in IT (*queue harp music to take us back in time*).

It was March 2004 and I was sitting in a computer lab working through my 2nd year University papers..CCNA curriculum if I remember rightly, when a lecturer handed out a job opportunity at the local council. Being more interested in drinking beer and living the student life I didn't think much of it and put it to the side. Later that night after a few quiet beers, something came over me and I decided to apply.

Two weeks later I had a floppy disk in my hand refurbishing old PC's and installing Windows 98 ready for local donations. After this stint I quickly moved to production PC builds and helpdesk fill-ins. A year later I was finishing my final exams and was offered a full time role as an "Information Technologist". Thanks to Steve and Peter for taking a chance on a scruffy IT student!

Now working as a consultant specialising in storage and infrastructure technologies I hope to provide some interesting and helpful insights in to the technology I deal with day to day.... Watch this space!