NFSv4.1 is a mature and stable protocol with many advantages over NFSv3 in meeting the demands being placed on storage by exploding data growth. Now is the time to plan for a smooth migration. I encourage you to register for our live Webcast on August 28th at http://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/663/52927.

My colleague, Alex McDonald, and I will review what makes NFSv4.1 ideally suited to a wide range of data center and HPC uses. We’ll discuss how careful planning can result in a migration that does not require modification to applications, and that utilizes existing operational infrastructure in its deployment. You’ll see … Read the rest

Our recent Webcast: 10GbE – Key Trends, Drivers and Predictions was very well received and well attended. We thank everyone who was able to make the live event. For those of you who couldn’t make it, it’s now available on demand. Check it out here.

There wasn’t enough time to respond to all of the questions during the Webcast, so we have consolidated answers to all of them in this blog post from the presentation team. Feel free to comment and provide your input.

Question: When implementing VDI (1000 to 5000 users) what are best practices for architecting the … Read the rest

by: Gary Gumanow

Last Wednesday (2/24/11), I hosted an Ethernet Storage Forum iSCSI SIG webinar with representatives from Emulex and NetApp to discuss the benefits of iSCSI storage networks in SQL application environments. You can catch a recording of the webcast on BrightTalk here.

The webinar was well attended, and while we received so many great questions during the webinar we just didn’t have time to answer all of them. Which brings us to this blogpost. We have included answers to these unanswered questions in our blog below.
We’ll be hosting another webinar real soon, so please check back … Read the rest

by Gary Gumanow

Following up from the previous blogpost on iSCSI over DCB, this blogpost highlights just some of the benefits that DCB can deliver. Welcome back.

DCB extends Ethernet by providing a network infrastructure that virtually eliminates packet loss, enabling improved data networking and management within the DCB network environment with features for priority flow control (P802.1Qbb), enhanced transmission selection (P802.1Qaz), congestion notification (P802.1Qau), and discovery. The result is a more deterministic network behavior. DCB is enabled through enhanced switches, server network adapters, and storage targets.

DCB delivers a “lossless” network, and makes the network performance extremely predictable. While … Read the rest

by: Gary Gumanow

EXTENDING NETWORK STANDARDS

10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE), standardized by the IEEE in 2004, delivers ten times the bandwidth of previously available networking technologies, and its availability has prompted the development of new standards for the data center, delivering on the promise of a single networking fabric or technology to connect storage, the LAN, and Inter-Processing Communication, or IPC.

These new IEEE standards go by several names: “Converged Enhanced Ethernet,” “Data Center Ethernet,” and the industry-standard term “Data Center Bridging,” or DCB. In this series of blogpostings we provide an overview of the reasons DCB is being developed … Read the rest