Get the Skinny— Save Space with
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BY STEPHEN J. BIGELOW W
ITH SO much emphasis placed on server virtualization, it’s easy to
forget the importance of storage in virtual data centers. Virtualization storage requirements can complicate management, but by using thin provisioning and understanding application demands, you’ll be the storage master of your infrastructure. Consider the varied roles that virtualization storage plays—it holds the applications and application data that help businesses function. It saves backups and disaster recovery content that protects business activities and retains the virtual machine (VM) images that virtual data centers rely on. Virtualization storage requirements have only escalated, driving up costs while raising performance and management concerns.
But relief is out there. Several
technologies and practices can help organizations reduce storage utilization and overcome the hassles of virtualization storage requirements that have plagued IT administrators.
Don’t Purchase What You
Don’t Need Virtualization storage requirements
are often reduced by using thin provisioning—sometimes dubbed dynamic provisioning in a virtual environment. The technology assigns less physical storage than the logical unit number (LUN) is logically created for. As an example, a traditional LUN might assign 100GB to an application, but it might take the application months—even years—to use the entire 100GB.
Because no other application can
use the allocated space, it’s essentially wasted until the application finally uses it. With thin provisioning, the same 100GB LUN can be created but only assigned perhaps 10GB of physical storage to start with. As the application fills the space, a company can add more physical storage over time. The principal advantage here is that
an organization can save tremendous capital expense by buying and assigning less physical storage to a far larger LUN. Consider the expense of a 1TB LUN. Thin provisioning might allocate just 200GB to start with—an initial space savings of 800GB.
Let the
Buyer Beware Although it’s an effective way to
forestall large virtualization storage purchases, there are issues to
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