The Evolution of the Data Centre

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2 10Gb Ethernet Consolidate and Converge Intelligent Ethernet Adapters and Converged Network Adapters LAN Connectivity Optimized for Consolidation Replaces Multiple 1GbE ports with 10GbE port QLogic NPAR Technology for Vendor Neutral and Switch Agnostic NIC Partitioning I/O Convergence Support for Concurrent NIC, FCoE and iscsi Traffc with Hardware Offoads QLogic VMMex Advanced Virtualization Features Increase VM Density Simpliied Management of NIC, FCoE and iscsi Networking with a Single Pane-of-Glass Management SN Rev.A

3 contents 04 Consolidation 07 Virtualization - Optimizing Data Center Resources Many organizations are looking to consolidate their IT infrastructure as a way to simplify management, increase resource utilization, reduce costs and move towards fewer, larger internet data centers which will, eventually, reside in the Cloud. - Increasing resource utilization, availability and agility Most organizations are accelerating server virtualization projects and plan on using the adoption of virtualization as a foundational technology to launch their Cloud Computing initiatives. Server virtualization offers many benefits, but it also presents new challenges to the enterprise Convergence 15 Cloud - A unified data center fabric Driven by the additional costs and ever increasing difficulties of maintaining separate data and storage networks, many organizations are looking to merge, or converge, their dedicated Fibre Channel storage networks onto a common Ethernet network. Computing - Completing the Journey A virtualized, 10 GbE data center provides the foundation for a serviceoriented architecture (SOA) the latest phase in the evolution of IT, otherwise known as Cloud Computing. 15 Focus on the future Consolidation, virtualization, convergence and Cloud Computing all desirable objectives for the next generation data centre, but just how do they fit together, and what challenges do they present along the way? This QLogic supplement is an invaluable guide to the desirable, if daunting, objective of a fully flexible and dynamic enterprise IT infrastructure. Too many vendors gloss over the technical and management complexities that have to be addressed when consolidating and/or virtualizing IT resources, or converging enterprise networks. Over the following pages, you can read a warts and all guide to the processes involved in the journey to the Cloud. As a result, you ll be much better equipped to implement the IT strategy that s right for your business, and it ll be a surprise if QLogic s innovative I/O technology isn t a part of the solution. Philip Alsop, DCS editor 2011 QLogic Corporation. All rights reserved. QLogic, the QLogic Logo, Enterprise Fabric Suite , HyperStack, and QuickTools are registered trademarks or trademarks of QLogic Corporation. All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Information supplied by QLogic is believed to be accurate, and reliable.qlogic Corporation assumes no responsibility for any errors in this brochure. QLogic Corporation reserves the right, without notice, to makes changes in product design or specifications. SN Rev.A 8/11 3

4 Consolidation - Optimizing Data Center Resources While mitigating the challenges associated with migrating toward Cloud Computing Consolidation Overview Many organizations are looking to consolidate their IT infrastructure as a way to simplify management, increase resource utilization and reduce costs. Along with this, enterprise organizations are actively reducing their number of data centers supported by moving branch and regional QLogic NPAR Technology office IT assets into larger internet data centers, which will eventually reside within the Cloud. This type of consolidation effort will not only greatly increase data center networking scale, but more importantly, increase complexities. To avoid potential pitfalls, IT administrators should familiarize themselves with potential Network Interface Virtual Partitions NPAR technology offers flexible bandwidth provisioning of four partitions per port, each sharing a 10 GbE connection with the added ability to run multiple protocols functions (NIC, FCoE, iscsi) simultaneously. NPAR helps consolidation efforts by enabling administrators to split up the total 10Gb bandwidth as small as 100Mb increments to each partition and reallocate bandwidth and resources as needed. NPAR gives IT organizations enhanced flexibility to support multiple protocols and extends capacity, further reducing network cost. Division of Physical Functions Port 1 Port 2 1Gb 1Gb 3Gb 5Gb 1Gb 1Gb 3Gb 5Gb Division of Bandwidth challenges. This paper discusses many of these issues and offers solutions so that consolidation efforts do not result in diminished application performance, directly effecting end-user productivity and offsetting potential consolidation savings. Server Connectivity Today s server adapters are the most flexible and scalable adapters the industry has seen and fit the requirements for today s demanding data center environments. Data center networks are being pushed to their limits. The escalating deployments of servers with multicore processors and demanding applications, such as database clusters, and video-on-demand, are driving the need for 10 Gigabit connections. Customers require flexible and scalable I/O solutions to meet the rigorous requirements of running mission-critical applications in virtualized and unified storage environments. Server adapters address the demanding needs of the next-generation data center by providing unmatched features for virtualization, flexibility and proven, reliable 4

5 performance. The reason that convergence is so intriguing is due to the introduction of new 10Gb Ethernet adapters. With the escalating deployments of servers with multi-core processors and demanding applications are driving the need for 10 Gigabit connections. The introduction of a lossless enhanced Ethernet not only complements this but has the added benefit of offering new Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) capabilities, and can also target iscsi. The goal of enhanced Ethernet is being able to migrate all connectivity to a single physical infrastructure, thereby reducing overall network, port and related management costs associated with a second, storage-only network. QLogic offers two choices for customers requiring flexible and scalable I/O solutions to meet the rigorous requirements of running mission-critical applications in virtualized and unified storage environments; both stand-up and mezzanine adapters for QLogic Offering 8200 Series 10GbE converged network adapters 3200 Series 10GbE intelligent Ethernet adapters rack and blade servers, ensuring a product for your environment. Each QLogic product offers 10GbE line-rate throughput to address the demanding needs of next-generation data centers and offers unmatched features for virtualized data including low CPU utilization to allow for extreme scalability, mobility of VMs and proven, reliable performance. Each product is designed to address the increasing complexities of virtualized data centers and cloud services, while the converged network adapter (CNA) addresses the added benefit of storage traffic, with support for concurrent IP, FCoE and iscsi. The QLogic portfolio addresses future requirements with products that are protocol- and OSagnostic and support exabytelevel scalability to future proof your environment. Fabric Infrastructure One of the most important switch innovations for consolidation is the inclusion of specialized stacking ports to connect multiple switches more efficiently in larger configurations. Stackable switches enable the creation of multiswitch networks with little user disruption and at a much lower cost than traditional non-stacking switches and, therefore, go a long way towards the consolidation of IT infrastructure. It s easy to examine how this occurs. When the number of device ports required exceeds that of a single switch, a second switch can be used to extend the network and accommodate additional devices. Traditionally, the way of growing a switch network was to deploy the user ports themselves as interconnects between switches. For example, with two switches, you connect two user ports on the first switch with two user ports on the second switch. The formula is 2n(n-1), where n is the number of switches. In the two switch example, 4 ports are used. Connecting 5 switches takes 40 5

6 ports, to connect 6 switches in this topology would take 60 ports adding the sixth switch would only provide 4 additional user ports and therefore is not practical or economical. Another disadvantage of this scenario is the disruption it causes when growing, as device ports from one switch are repurposed as ISLs and therefore need to be moved to the newly added switch. When comparing this, stackable switches feature user ports as well as higher performance stacking ports, equivalent to three 8Gb FC ports. Stacking creates a high bandwidth backbone between the switches that is used as the topology grows. By using the stacking ports to connect five switches in a fullmesh topology, the stackable switches deliver 25% more usable ports (100 vs. 80). Stackable switches are a significant improvement over non-stackable switches. The initial cost difference for a small configuration is minimal; however, for a larger configuration stackable switches will usually entail significantly lower costs. Stackable switches offer higher (25%) usable user port counts, easier configuration growth and better inter-switch bandwidth and manageability. Performance is consistent, the network maintains maximum flexibility in connecting servers and storage arrays, maximizes throughput, and minimizes latency. What is Stacking? Stackable switches, long familiar to Ethernet users, were introduced for Fibre Channel by QLogic in Stacking cuts complexity and costs by provided a stable, highly-expandable transport for aggregate ISL traffic-eliminating the disruption, port waste and management hassles associated with using device ports as ISLs. True backbone Value In a stackable architecture, each switch features dedicated ports for inter switch links (ISL); used for connecting to other switches. These ports offer much greater bandwidth than regular data/device ports, and therefore require far fewer connections to achieve specific bandwidth goals. Affordable Now Big Savings Later Lower Initial Cost Out-of-the-box, dual-speed QLogic 5000 Series products provide superior performance at a price-per-port that is competitive with single-speed, non-stacking edge switches. Reduced Expansion Costs Multi-switch QLogic networks require up to 50 percent fewer switches to achieve the same device port counts, and because each stacking port matches the throughput of the true device ports, QLogic ISL connections are far less expensive per unit of bandwidth. For instance, a single 20Gb connection (25.5Gbps actual line rate, 51Gbps full-duplex) saves six 8Gb device ports for devices and eliminates the need for six expensive 8Gb SFPs. Stacking has never made more sense from a budget versus performance perspective! Longer Product and Topology Lifespan Other vendors force customers to take a non-linear rip and replace approach to SAN growth, offering a limited solution at the low end, followed by a radically different architecture as the installation matures. QLogic s modular ISL backbone helps customers pace investments and deployment activities predictably over time, with fewer wrong turns and reversals-even with corporate strategies and direction changes. 6

7 Virtualization - Increasing resource utilization, availability and agility Most organizations are accelerating server virtualization projects and plan on using the adoption of virtualization as a foundational technology to launch their Cloud Computing initiatives. Server virtualization offers many benefits; however it also introduces a new virtual access layer to the network, in turn introducing new challenges in control access, segmenting traffic and provides other standard security measures. Benefits of Virtualization The adoption of virtualization technology in the data center has led to an initial wave of tangible benefits by reducing the amount of physical resources that are required in an IT deployment. The raw number of servers needed, the power to run them and the rack space to house them are all reduced when virtualization of the server infrastructure is implemented. A second wave of benefits, which result in logical improvements in the responsiveness, flexibility and agility of IT as a service-oriented operation, can also be achieved with the added benefit of preparing for a continued journey toward Cloud Computing. However, these improved IT capabilities, which are based upon the creation of a highly available, adaptive compute 7

8 According to ESG Research, 61% of large mid-market (i.e employees) and enterprise (i.e. 1,000 employees or more) are now using server virtualization technology in production environments environment with capabilities of scaling to support elastic demands on IT resources, depend upon integrating server virtualization with other virtualization solutions within the networking and storage components of the infrastructure and extending virtualization end-to-end. Challenges of Virtualization Server Virtualization introduces new challenges onto both the data and storage network infrastructure by changing the longstanding relationship between software and hardware on a server. With server virtualization, OS s and applications are no longer tied to a physical server hardware. This decoupling of software and hardware disrupts the mapping that the network infrastructure relied upon to identify each App/ OS/Server combination in order to control access, segment traffic and provide other standard security measures. Further complicating the picture, each virtual machine can be moved from one physical server to another within the data center or even across data centers. To address these issues, QLogic has introduced new virtualization-aware capabilities and advanced virtualization functionality to help you achieve the true vision and benefits of a fully virtualized datacenter. This is addressed by the use of industry standard NPIV and QLogic proprietary NPAR technology which reinstates the granular visibility and extends virtualization end-to-end to address the network complexity issues that are created when implementing server virtualization. QLogic also leverages hypervisor multi-queue network technologies such as VMware NetQueue and Microsoft VMQ to efficiently route packets, offload the CPU, and reduce latencies. This is done by utilizing these queues across an MSI-X interrupt to hyperthread workloads across multiple processors. Additionally, hardware-based Layer 2 switching can sort incoming packets to further reduce latencies. Finally, the CNAs provide stateless offloads such as TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO), TCP/UDP checksum offload, Receive Side Scaling (RSS), Large Receive Offload (LRO) and Header Data Split (HDS) to provide significant performance benefit and remove the processing burden from the operating system or hypervisor CPU (also see Hardware Offload vs Software Initiators section). QLogic adapters with advanced virtualization features are uniquely positioned to address the challenges introduced by virtualization. Integrating QLogic adapters into your hypervisorbased server deployment plan will optimize your data center infrastructure and provide Advanced Virtualization Features Extends I/O virtualization end-to-end CPU offload increases VM scalability Superior CPU efficiency frees CPU cycles Embedded VM to VM lowers inter-vm latencies Enterprise-class interoperability On-chip VM queuing to enhances performance Hardware-Based Acceleration FC and iscsi storage boot capabilities Higher Application Performance Unified management interface for all OSs 8

9 enterprise-class LAN and SAN connectivity for servers today and prepare for the cloud-enabled data center of tomorrow. Standards and Solutions To further address virtualization challenges, vendors such as Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, QLogic and VMware are working within industry standards committees to develop new open standards. Additionally, many OEMs are developing proprietary solutions. While there are only a few OEM solutions available today and many standards related to virtual networking are still in the draft stage, offerings continue to evolve and expand and both can help achieve the true vision and the benefit of a fully virtualized datacenter. However, several problems arise with this type of development; First, FCoE (FC-bb-5) is an ANSI/ INCITS standard and the DCB protocols which allow for lossless Ethernet, priority traffic classes and congestion notification are IEEE standards. might arise when one vendor may opt to implement a software switch as part of the hypervisor and yet another might opt to enable the switching function to be performed by an external switch. While both approaches offer similar advantages, not all vendors will support each option. Choosing a network adapter that supports standards and OEM specific solution within your environment is imperative to the overall success of a virtualization implementation plan. QLogic is an active participant in multiple standard committees to ensure support for the above mentioned industry standards and others such as the PCI-SIG SR-IOV for virtualization of I/O resources. QLogic also extends their relationships with all major OEMs to ensure each OEM virtualization solution is integrated and qualified. Furthermore, the QLogic NPAR solution is switch agnostic so it is not necessary to pair a QLogic adapter with any specific 10GbE switch model to enable partitioning, further extending flexibility and connectivity options. Until vendors settle on virtualization standards, network professionals will have to address these themselves. The challenge then is to adapt a virtualization implementation that supports the wide ecosystem of standards and OEM solutions. Implementing QLogic solutions is your best bet for ensuring full compatibility and assist in migration toward Cloud Computing. Hardware Offload vs Software Initiators When deciding on implementing a converged I/O solution, it is important to understand there are two choices; offload engines and software initiators. Software initiators are a low-cost way for an organization to explore the benefits of FCoE SANs using existing 10GbE NICs in servers. Offload engines are specialized adapters (Converged Network For example, the VN-Tag standard was proposed by Cisco and is the basis of 802.1qbh Bridge Port Extension while the most common way to provide Virtual Machine (VM) switching connectivity is a Virtual Ethernet Bridge (VEB) and is used by VMware. To further confuse this issue, HP is leading the charge for Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregation (VEPA) to become the standard. It s easy to see how compatibility issues Key Differentiator Offloading functions from the CPU is not a novel or risky concept. Consider the popularity of dedicated graphics controllers in the gaming world. Businesses can maximize CPU cycle availability for application or I/O services and address emerging performance and scalability requirements of enterprise data centers 9

10 QLogic 8200 Series Converged Network Adapter Advantages On-chip processing reduces CPU workload Field-proven Fibre Channel driver stack ensures data integrity Fibre Channel storage market leader 10 million ports install base assures widest interoperability and compatibility Principal design for all major OEMs Largest set of OEM server, OS, and storage qualifications Concurrent support for NIC, FCoE, and iscsi Enterprise-class reliability and error recovery Experienced storage and networking support staff Open FCoE Initiative with a 10Gb Ethernet NIC Advantages Low initial cost Adapters) designed for concurrent I/O support, which can conserve precious CPU cycles for applications, services, and virtual server environments. In addition, offload engines can be used to address emerging performance requirements. Besides cost, three other factors-performance, reliability, and scalability-need to be balanced, along with a few other considerations, when determining the proper interconnect to use within a converged data center. The questions many IT professionals will be asking include the following: To achieve I/O consolidation and cost reduction, should I utilize low-cost FCoE software initiators or the more expensive Converged Network Adapters with built-in processors to offload from the CPU? What are the tradeoffs of saving money on a NIC versus a Converged Network Adapter? Operational Efficiencies Moving to a converged infrastructure can provide significant advantages, but relying on server resources to drive a protocol processing requests is a less than optimal solution. If users believe that some applications will require a higher I/O load, and if these applications are to share the IT infrastructure with the rest of applications, moving to a converged infrastructure can provide definite advantages. However, even through Open FCoE, software initiators will use server CPU resources to complete processing of all supported I/O protocol stacks. Many claim that with the low cost of processors today a valid option would be to throw cheap CPU resources at I/O requests. This does not necessarily make sense. IT shops need to evaluate which applications require the advantages of FCoE networks, and which operating systems and applications will be running on them. When doing this, server virtualization appears to come out on top. Server virtualization is an ideal candidate for FCoE because the increased bandwidth of 10GbE can support high throughput from multiple VMs. In addition, mobility of virtual servers, load balancing, and failover will require similarly high throughput, especially when it is being shared by multiple VMs. Herein is the problem with Open FCoE; decreased scalability, increased bottlenecks, and hidden costs. Intelligent Routers for Increased VM Scaling There are a number of applications that can serve to benefit from storage networking; including access to production data, shared array access, security, data protection, and centralized management. While the performance of Fibre Channel may not be a critical requirement for these low-cost commodity servers and their lower tier applications -more often than not it is a cost prohibitive issue. However, by virtualizing these commodity servers, additional value is garnished in consolidation efforts with the 10

11 added benefit of centralizing and networking storage. This can be accomplished by implementing an iscsi-to-fc router to scale the number of virtual servers supported on a single disk system. Intelligent storage routers can deliver the best of both worlds: low-cost connectivity for entrylevel servers and or higher priced blade server farms that can benefit from shared storage. Intelligent storage routers can improve the performance, flexibility, and reliability and line up with consolidation efforts. This delivers the best of both worlds: low-cost connectivity, at the data access level and protection benefits of Fibre Channel storage systems. Using the QLogic 6000 Series Intelligent Storage Router (isr) IT professionals can leverage standard 1Gb Ethernet for FC SAN connectivity to reduce FC SAN connectivity costs to under $100 per physical server to support production, test, and development needs in virtualized server environments. An intelligent router would reside between the virtualized physical servers and the storage array. The router would then act as a host proxy to the storage array and allow each of the iscsi initiators on the host to be mapped to Fibre Channel LUNs on the SAN. To the storage processor on the array it would appear as only two hosts were connected while the intelligent storage router could serve up 1024 unique iscsi initiators per blade to the virtual servers. It is this proxy ability to virtualize the iscsi-to- FC mappings that creates the scaling and flexibility capabilities for SAN connectivity. APP APP OS OS Hyp Hyp APP APP OS OS Hyp Hyp APP APP OS OS Hyp Hyp APP APP OS OS Hyp Hyp APP APP OS OS Hyp Hyp 11

12 APP APP OS OS Hyp Hyp APP APP OS OS Hyp Hyp Extending Array limitations in a VM Environment In addition to scaling the number of host connections on individual arrays, intelligent routers can extend practical limits of array controller limitations. Every array has a particular limitation of the number of partitions it can offer out to servers, for example a typical midsize array has a limitation of 64 host connections and each host would need at least one partition, limiting host connectivity to 64 host. However, in a cluster environment or one utilizing migration services this number could easily be half. Each array partition can support up to 256 LUNs. Since the router s two FC ports only require two partitions, one router can virtualize 1024 host connections onto two array connections. The router maps each server into its respective LUNs. Therefore, the capacity of the array would be stretched to 1024LUNs. This solution can still be further stretched if a router was utilized for each array connection. Many mid-size arrays support eight connections so with four routers, one disk system could be extended from only 64 host connections to support up to 4096 host connections. The router maps each server into its respective LUNs. Therefore, the capacity of the array would be stretched to 1024 host connections. This solution can still be further stretched if a router was utilized for each array connection 12

13 Convergence - A unified data center fabric Unified Fabric Driven by the additional costs and ever increasing difficulties to justify separate data and storage networks, many organizations are researching the possibility of merging their dedicated Fibre Channel storage networks onto a common Ethernet network. Further fostering this idea of network convergence is the ubiquitous presence of Ethernet, along with new emerging faster speeds, the added benefit of lossless connectivity and the proven adoption of iscsi as a storage networking technology over Ethernet. Network Convergence To address network convergence, new classes of adapters are being designed to interface with Enhanced Ethernet fabrics. Known as Converged Network Adapters (CNAs), combining the functions of traditional Fibre Channel HBAs and 10Gb Ethernet NICs, a single adapter can now support FCoE and enhanced Ethernet applications simultaneously. CNAs embrace technology standards like Data Center Bridging (DCB) over an enhanced Ethernet. The DCB features offer the ability to deploy a unified data communications fabric for both LAN and storage I/O. These standards are required to enforce common communication protocols that will concurrently support LAN and SAN networks. For instance, ESG reports that 79% of IT professionals responded that they will make Ethernet a standard transport for storage networking when asked if their organization were doing this today, or planned to do so in the future. 13

14 Mezzanine and expansion modules exist for connectivity to blade servers, complementing these, QLogic also develops intelligent switching technology for many blade server manufacturers Ethernet must be made lossless -one of the capabilities of DCB. Also, the Fibre Channel protocol must be compatible with DCB. This compatibility is now being delivered in the form of the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) standard. For all of the same reasons previously mentioned, when implementing a network convergence plan, it is important to leverage a technology partner that will prepare you for a successful implementation. QLogic is seen as a technology partner to all An industry application service provider for the healthcare industry Case Study The Challenge Upgrade storage infrastructure to handle 12-fold increase in customer data, improve storage manageability, speed response time, and cut costs. The Solution Upgrading its proprietary Web-based application, to a converged network running QLogic Converged Network Adapters and implement an enhanced 10-Gigabit Ethernet physical transport to provide more options for SAN connectivity and networking to leverage existing storage systems. Benefits Increased maximum throughput from 200MB to 1.5GB; Saved 30% to 50% on network fabric costs; Increased storage efficiency; Extended useful life of existing storage arrays, eliminated need to purchase disks, saving $60,000. the large OEMs, bringing to market a unique set of standard, mezzanine and expansion module converge network adapters, reducing the number of adapters simplifies server configuration and conserves expansion slots. As well, total cost of ownership (TCO) savings can be significant. This also reduces server-to-switch cabling which eliminates costly cable bundles, and aggregation of adapter ports, means fewer switch ports are required. Mezzanine and expansion modules exist for connectivity to blade servers, complementing these, QLogic also develops intelligent switching technology for many blade server manufacturers; multi-protocol switches, and intelligent pass-thru modules that converge traffic inside enclosures and directly connect to LANs and SANs. With this state of-the-art, end-to-end connectivity solution, data center managers are able to pick and choose best fit solutions based upon QLogic or QLogic OEM d technology from server manufactures that address open standards as well as OEM specific solution requirements. Solutions that leverage both existing Fibre Channel, as well as next generation Ethernet fabric technologies, with the ability to interoperate between them. This approach ensures the promise of converged storage and data networks that reduce network clutter while answering the new demands placed on network I/O technology. As adoption of a single unified fabric increase, solutions that solve design issues of migrating from separate data and storage networking infrastructures are important for early types of adopters. Utilizing a technology leader such as QLogic will allow for a phased migration approach that won t mandate a rip and replace scenario. Transitional solutions like QLogic s start by leveraging technologies that are already available and build upon the new solutions of tomorrow, ensuring backward compatibility in addition to future proofing. 14

15 Could Computing - Completing the Journey Journey to the cloud The virtualized 10 GbE data center also provides the foundation for a service oriented architecture (SOA), the latest major phase in the evolution of IT, otherwise known as, Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing gives organizations their next path to greater efficiencies. These transitions are already happening and in 2012 we ll see the transition accelerate from early adopters and shift to majority adopters as organizations continue to consolidate data centers, adopt server virtualization, and deploy cloud-ready applications. All of these simultaneous trends may seem daunting to CIOs, however, QLogic technology allows you to implement subtle network changes, rather than implementing expensive new data center network architectures. With the QLogic strategy, data centers can mature and scale from consolidation, through virtualization onto a converged network. IT budget dollars saved as a result, can then be applied to other priorities like implementing a public- or private-based cloud delivery model, and completing your journey to the cloud. QLogic UK Sales Office Quatro House, Lyon Way Frimley, Camberley Surrey, GU16 7ER, UK Tel: +44 (0) QLogic Germany Sales Office Terminalstr. Mitte München Germany Tel: +49 (0) QLogic France Sales Office c/o Multiburo 7c Place du Dôme, Immeuble Elysées la Défense Paris la Défense cedex, France Tel: +33 (0)

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