NetScout Systems has announced software for monitoring
Cisco Systems' virtual storage area networks.
The nGenius probes allow for real-time monitoring of VSans, so
traffic in each area can be analysed and a network's requirements
worked out.
Virtual Sans are a way of partitioning a physical San into
sections and confining any network problems, such as a failed port,
to the confines of the affected virtual San. This allows storage
admins to build more scalable and reliable Sans able to support
multiple applications in a single physical infrastructure.
Up until now there has not been a way of monitoring the
performance of VSans as opposed to the actual physical ports,
switches and links in the physical San.
"NetScout is helping our mutual customers effectively address
the growing challenges of deploying and managing large San
infrastructures," said Cisco director of marketing for storage Bill
Erdman.
"We have introduced VSan and Inter-VSan routing features in the
Cisco MDS 9000 to provide San managers with the means to control
and segment their storage traffic better,"
The addition of switch roving capabilities in the nGenius Fibre
Channel Probes offers a way to troubleshoot Fibre Channel segments
and switches. Connected to a mirror port on a switch, an nGenius
Probe can rove to all ports in the switch, allowing San managers to
troubleshoot under or over-utilisation, identify bandwidth hogs on
a port, or execute a packet capture on a port to perform detailed
analysis.
Nancy Marrone-Hurley, a senior analyst with the Enterprise
Storage Group, is also in favour. "NetScout is providing a level of
visibility into SANs that no other vendor can provide today," she
said.
The nGenius 9800 Fibre Channel Probe can be configured
todiscover and monitor virtual SANs present on Enhanced
Inter-Switch Links (EISL) automatically in Cisco Fibre Channel San
implementations. All the network performance analysis details
provided on Fibre Channel segments are now extended to the
VSans.
As for other San segmentation products, NetScout vice
president of marketing Jim Frey said, "Conversations are going
on with both Brocade and McData. They are a bit behind Cisco in
rolling their technologies out."
NetScout recently announced the bundling of nGenius with a
RedHat Enterprise Linux server, to make installation of the
management software easier. The software itself was revamped in
July.
The latest enhancements are available in nGenius Performance
Manager 2.0.1 Service Pack 1 and nGenius Probe Firmware CDM 2.1 for
nGenius 9800 Fibre Channel Probes at no additional charge.
Chris Mellor writes for Techworld.com