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Why use the new VDS Provider in GigaStor firmware version 1.5.1?

As storage needs grow and change, IT managers at organizations of all sizes have begun to take advantage of the ability of an IP SAN (storage area network using Gigabit Ethernet) to eliminate the need for separate islands of storage at each server. However, if SAN-attached storage arrays are purchased from more than one manufacturer, each one will have a different management interface, potentially adding complexity and higher operating costs.

To simplify the management of SANs, Microsoft has developed a common management interface for SAN storage devices called VDS (Virtual Disk Services). IT managers who use Windows servers can now install new storage systems using the storage vendor's installation Wizard, then configure and manage the new storage using a standard set of OS tools such as Windows DiskRaid. Furthermore, third-party software management tools that support the VDS interface are now becoming available from vendors such as Symantec.

With management tools based on VDS, the IT manager can provision disparate storage resources - setting access control and allocating storage - all in a hardware-independent, virtual storage management engine. However, this is only possible with systems such as the iStor iS325 that support VDS.

Summary of VDS Advantages

• Heterogeneous management of multiple vendor arrays
  iStor can plug & play with other existing storage investments
• Productivity of storage management operational personnel
  iS325 can be managed with operational simplicity under a Microsoft OS environment
• Central point of operational control for open system storage arrays
  iS325 can be managed by a single pane of glass with other storage systems
• Rich set of centralized storage management capabilities
  iS325 device discovery, configuration management

VDS Architecture for Storage Management

The figure below describes how the VDS architecture provides a hardware abstraction layer seamlessly connecting the management tools and storage arrays. There is an "upper" interface that provides a uniform interface to disk management tools, enabling many to configure and manage the networked storage. Similarly, there is a "lower" interface that provides a uniform interface to hardware providers of disk arrays, enabling all storage arrays to be configured and managed by the management tools connected to the upper interface.

For the lower interface, iStor has written a VDS hardware provider that interfaces the iS325 storage array to the lower API of Virtual Disk Service. iStor's hardware provider translates VDS general commands into iS325 specific instructions.

VDS provides an "upper" API for multiple storage management applications to configure, manage and provision the underlying iS325 storage arrays enabled by iStor's hardware provider. Storage Manager for SANs is a graphical utility that discovers devices, provisions storage (creating, extending, deleting LUNs), allocates storage resources to servers, and manages multi-pathing (MPIO) functionality. DiskPart and DiskRaid are command-line applications that allow scripting for complex unattended operations.

One additional piece of the puzzle provided by iStor is the wizard-driven installation applet that adds, removes or configures VDS management connections between the host storage server and the management port of the iS325 storage array.

In a Windows IP SAN environment, VDS is a must-have feature, as it extends the Window's "train once / use multiple" simplicity to SAN management. iStor's new VDS feature in the latest 1.5.1 firmware release is a required element, seamlessly extending the iS325's price/performance benefits into a Windows iSCSI SAN storage management environment without requiring any extra training or storage management tools. There is no charge for this new firmware feature, and it further enhances the exceptional return on investment that the iS325 iSCSI storage system already provides iStor customers.


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