Capacity planning software specifications
Gauging storage needs over time is one of the biggest challenges faced by IT administrators, and a new generation of capacity planning tools is emerging to help forecast growth and utilisation of storage resources.
Gauging storage needs over time is one of the biggest challenges faced by IT administrators, and a new generation of capacity planning tools is emerging to help forecast growth and utilisation of storage resources, and even perform predictive modeling of the future storage environment based on historical data collected.
Capacity planning tools must include a thorough consideration of your applications while being interoperable across all of your storage systems, while still meeting all of your analytical and reporting requirements.
The product snapshots in this chapter highlight key specifications for a cross-section of popular capacity planning software products. The following products were selected based on input from industry analysts and SearchStorage.com editors, and specifications are current as of February 2007.
The following specifications have been provided by vendors and are periodically updated.
Select the desired product below:
Product Snapshot #1
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Product: Aptare Inc.; StorageConsole software
Storage System Support: SAN, NAS, DAS
Data Analysis: Yes
Key Features: Utilization optimization and predictive analysis
Management Features: Key features include browser-based console, personalized home page, dashboard analytics
Scalability: One server running the specified software can support approximately up to 8,000 clients being backed up
Reporting: Reporting includes backup and restore summary, file level detail, discovery of unprotected data
Simulations: Yes. The software identifies suspect backups and eliminates "false positives" by identifying partial backups that report as successful.
Operating System: Solaris, Red Hat Linux, Windows 2000 or 2003 Server
Standards Support: All information is transmitted via https protocols eliminating any need for proprietary ports. It supports all the popular browsers: Internet Explorer 5.5+, Mozilla Firefox 1.3+, and Netscape 7.1+
System Requirements: Dual processor server with 8Gb memory with 200Gbs of RAID 5 Storage
Implementation: Deploys an agent on the master server, without any code on the clients or media servers. StorageConsole is agnostic to the underlying backup medium.
Interoperability: VERITAS NetBackup, IBM Tivoli, EMC Legato
Vendor Comment: APTARE provides web-based enterprise software that enables storage administrators to achieve maximum data protection across heterogeneous storage environments. The company's flagship product, APTARE StorageConsole, increases the reliability of protecting a company's digital assets by quickly identifying unprotected data, improving capacity planning, increasing performance and providing compliance with audits and legal discovery.
Availability: Currently available
Base Cost: Pricing is on a per unit basis with the average cost being around $100/client.
Detailed Specs: http://www.aptare.com/storageconsole_features.jsp
Vendor URL: www.aptare.com
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Product Snapshot #2
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Product: EMC Corp.; ControlCenter software
Storage System Support: SAN, NAS, DAS, CAS
Data Analysis: Data analysis for databases, backup applications, volume groups, physical disks, hosts, arrays and files
Key Features: Key SRM and reporting solutions in the ControlCenter family include StorageScope for integrated asset utilization reporting across multi-vendor storage infrastructures, StorageScope File Level Reporter for file level monitoring and reporting for improved control, and Performance Manager for end-to-end performance resource management.
Management Features: Management features include ControlCenter StorageScope, ControlCenter StorageScope File Level Reporter, ControlCenter Performance Manager, ControlCenter SAN Manager, ControlCenter SAN Advisor, ControlCenter Automated Resource Manager (ARM), Symmetrix Optimizer, ControlCenter Symmetrix Manager, and ControlCenter NaviSphere Management Suite
Scalability: Managed object size is determined by the number of Managed Object resources (not the total capacity)
Reporting: StorageScope provides extensive reporting for host storage resources (databases, backup applications, volume groups and file systems). Any StorageScope report can be exported for customization; the data can also be accessed via XML or database views. StorageScope reports can compare planned vs. actual storage usage and provide input into the capacity planning process. StorageScope also assists in forecasting future storage needs. From a historical report, users select trend lines and the solution will forecast anticipated needs for a defined period of time and forecast future storage requirements more accurately. StorageScope also reports file-level summary details at the host and file system level allowing users to identify the largest files, directories, and most dormant files.
Simulations: Not provided
Operating System: AIX, HP-UX, Sun, Windows, Linux and Mainframe
Standards Support: EMC does exploit standards such as SMI-S and SNMP, and uses APIs
System Requirements: Not provided
Implementation: Not provided
Interoperability: Refer to the support matrix at http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1/en_US/Offering_Technical/Interoperability_Matrix/DocLib/300-003-704_a05_elccnt_0.pdf?mtcs=ZXZlbnRUeXBlPUttQ2xpY2tDb250ZW50RXZlbnQsZG9jdW1lbnRJZD0wOTAxNDA2NjgwMjBkZmM0LG5hdmVOb2RlPVNvZndhcmVEb3dubG9hZHM_
Vendor Comment: Built on industry leading automation building blocks of model based management (Smarts), application dependency mapping (nLayers Application Discovery Manager), and storage resource management (ControlCenter), this solution enables IT to more effectively deliver services across storage, network, server, and application domains. With this solution set customers can better enable CMDB & ITIL process automation, accelerate data center, server and storage consolidation, unify management of tiered storage, and optimize delivery of next generation IT services.
Availability: EMC ControlCenter 5.2 SP 5 and EMC ControlCenter SAN Advisor 5.3 both currently available
Base Cost: Contact EMC or reseller for pricing
Detailed Specs: http://www.emc.com/products/storage_management/controlcenter.jsp
Vendor URL: www.emc.com
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Product Snapshot #3
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Product: Finisar Corp.; NetWisdom Enterprise SAN solutions
Storage System Support: NetWisdom supports Fibre Channel SAN
Data Analysis: Data analysis provides detail information at host, array and LUN level
Key Features: Provides end-to-end (e2e) bandwidth capacity monitoring and trending. NetWisdom uses dedicated hardware monitoring instead of a software agent that could cause incompatibility and be a taxing system resource.
Management Features: NetWisdom provides alarms based on user configurable rules. Rules can be based on throughput, latency or event within FC SAN.
Scalability: We recommend that our hardware solution be deployed on the storage ports of FC SAN. We can support 1000's of links with an unlimited number for hosts.
Reporting: Reports end-to-end throughput, latency, queue depth and event reports based on point-in-time or trending. Reports can be scheduled or event-driven.
Simulations: We do not have a predictive or simulation feature
Operating System: Our bandwidth capacity planning is OS independent. Our dedicate hardware collects data directly from the physical link.
Standards Support: SNMP and FC
System Requirements: Dual CPU Intel Xeon 2.4 GHz system, Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000 or Windows XP, 4 GB of RAM, 100 Mb/s Ethernet port with TCP/IP configured, CD ROM drive, Administrator rights on the host computer (Portal and Client)
Implementation: Traffic Access Points (TAPs) inserted between storage ports and fabric; TAP output is routed to the ProbeFCX; NetWisdom portal server collects statistical data from ProbeFCX into a self- managed database; User accesses data from the portal server via client software or HTTP web interface.
Interoperability: Supports any storage vendor that adheres to the Fibre Channel standard
Vendor Comment: Finisar NetWisdom Enterprise solutions and services provide deep fabric visibility to quickly diagnose issues and prevent future problems in their SAN infrastructure thus enabling them to ensure critical enterprise applications have uninhibited, unrestricted access to the data, every time.
Availability: Currently available
Base Cost: NetWisdom Express, a software-only, entry-level solution is priced under $13K. NetWisdom Enterprise which includes 4Gb/s Fibre Channel hardware probes in addition to the management and reporting application is priced under $25K for 2-probes, while the full configuration of 8-probes is priced at under $50K.
Detailed Specs: http://www.finisar.com/index.php?file=product&var=product÷_id=smenu3≤vel=C⊂_sub_cat=6&dlink=NetWisdom
Vendor URL: www.finisar.com
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Product Snapshot #4
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Product: IBM; TotalStorage Productivity Center for Data
Storage System Support: Supports SAN, NAS and DAS in addition to being able to view IBM 3584/3500 tape library assets
Data Analysis: Designed to help improve capacity utilization of file systems, databases, arrays, and tape libraries and to add intelligence to data protection and retention practices. It is also extremely useful in helping perform data classification/categorization for ILM purposes and Storage Assessment purposes. It may also be used to help with governmental regulation compliance.
Key Features: Improves storage utilization by identifying storage capacity allocated in storage subsystems that is not assigned to any server; highlighting areas where allocated capacity significantly exceeds used capacity; enabling redistribution of capacity; proactively monitoring and enforcing storage usage policies; archiving and space managing files; identifying inappropriate data; identifying orphaned data; identifying duplicate data
Management Features: IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center's new Topology Viewer employs progressive information disclosure allowing a layered drill-down that greatly simplifies daily administrative tasks. Detailing all storage resources in context, the topology viewer includes overlays that can show the health and performance of storage resources via color-coded indications and a mini-map in the corner of the screen showing where the topology that is being viewed resides in relation to the rest of the storage infrastructure.
Scalability: A single instance of IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center can handle over 50 storage arrays, approximately 85 switches representing several thousand switch, host and array ports and dozens of logical fabrics, and approximately 2500 host agents collecting file system and file-level reporting information.
Reporting: Provides over 300 enterprise-wide reports, monitoring and alerts, policy-based action and file system capacity automation in a heterogeneous environment. Data may also be downloaded in .csv file format to spreadsheets for further analysis. Key capacity analysis data may be consolidated in weekly, monthly or yearly aggregations for long term usage and other data (i.e. daily) may be discarded.
Simulations: Yes; The capacity information collected can be stored for historic reporting and used for automatic growth analysis. This predictive capacity analysis can be charted based on file system, server, group, or enterprise level.
Operating System: Supports AIX, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, Windows, Red Hat Linux, United Linux, SuSe Linux and 18 different file systems
Standards Support: Supports SMI-S
System Requirements: For requirements, see http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=1133&context=SS8JB5&context=SSWQP2&dc=DB500&uid=ssg1S1002815&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8⟨=en
Implementation: Host Data Agents can be pushed and automatically updated from the IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center server.
Interoperability: See the compatibility matrix at http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=597&uid=ssg1S1003019
Vendor Comment: Not provided
Availability: Version is 3.2 is currently available
Base Cost: Tiered pricing; contact IBM or a reseller for more information
Detailed Specs: https://www-03.ibm.com/servers/storage/software/center/index.html
Vendor URL: www.ibm.com
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Product Snapshot #5
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Product: Microsoft Corp.; System Center Capacity Planner 2006
Storage System Support: Supports SAN
Data Analysis: Capacity Planner is not a database or storage optimization tool, but it does recommend the storage required for an Exchange or Microsoft Operations Manager implementation.
Key Features: Efficiently plan deployments for Exchange 2003 and Microsoft Operations Manger 2005; Provide guidance for system sizing and architecture; Provide "What-if" analysis capability: hardware, software, topology.
Management Features: Supports infrastructure planning and optimization, proactive performance planning, and performance analysis and predictive reporting
Scalability: The only limits are in the topology: 95 branch sites and 50,000 users in the central site.
Reporting: Provides integrated reports showing the recommended hardware for the deployment, in a topology diagram. This diagram is interactive, and can be used to refine and further optimize the recommendations. It also provides reports on the effects of running the specified Exchange or Microsoft Operations Manager workload on the recommended topology, such as server utilization and end user response time. These reports can be exported to Excel or Visio.
Simulations: Yes
Operating System: Microsoft Windows – It is deployed as a standalone application on a Windows desktop machine.
Standards Support: N/A
System Requirements: .NET Framework 2.0
Implementation: It is deployed as a standalone application on a Windows desktop machine.
Interoperability: Works out-of-the box with a all common SCSI, SATA, ATA and RAID array configurations. Any custom configuration can be modeled, by using the hardware editor to customize specifications.
Vendor Comment: System Center Capacity Planner is Microsoft's recommended solution for planning new implementations of Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Operations Manager. It can also be used to optimize existing implementations, and run what-if scenarios to model changes to the environment.
Availability: System Center Capacity Planner (SCCP) 2006 is currently available
Base Cost: Available through TechNet Plus and MSDN subscription. List price for TechNet Plus Direct subscription is $349
Detailed Specs: http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/sccp/overview/default.mspx
Vendor URL: www.microsoft.com
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Product Snapshot #6
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Product: TeamQuest Corp.; TeamQuest Model software
Specifications are not currently available
Detailed Specs: http://www.teamquest.com/solutions-products/products/model/index.htm
Vendor URL: www.teamquest.com
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Product Snapshot #7
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Product: Tek-Tools Inc.; StorageProfiler software
Storage System Support: Profiler is able to monitor and report on all SAN, NAS, and DAS devices with added features for EMC, NetApp, IBM, HP, HDS, Sun/STK, Xiotech, SGI, Fujitsu, Teradata. In addition, Profiler provides monitoring and reporting for a wide array of backup software vendors.
Data Analysis: Profiler provides complete data analysis on hosts, arrays, databases, file systems, with information on file types, file sizes, file ages, file ownership, etc.
Key Features: Automates file analysis, capacity planning, and performance monitoring across file systems. Proactively monitors, alerts, and acts on storage utilization levels to avoid system outages and ensure data usage polices are properly followed. Reporting is done in both real time and historically to manage and forecast storage growth. Profiler supports multiple arrays in heterogeneous environments, and gathers data from the entire storage stack, presenting it in a single "pane-of-glass" view. Custom grouping of assets, arrays, hosts, and file systems create a unique interface that maps technology to business structure.
Management Features: Provides a full range of storage management reports detailing how storage is being utilized. In addition, Profiler offers lightweight ILM features for active management functions such as move, delete, and copy.
Scalability: To date, Profiler has not hit a ceiling on the amount of data it can report on.
Reporting: Provides a full range of reporting features including more than 250 pre-defined reports as well as a fully customizable reporting engine. Reports can be scheduled and automatically delivered. Key reports for storage and capacity planning include: capacity, RAID group configuration and usage, LUN configuration and mapping, and performance statistics for the array, controller, LUN, and disk. Key reports for servers include: volume usage trending and forecasting, volume change over time, and file classification by user, type and age.
Simulations: Provides sophisticated forecasting and trending for load balancing and capacity management. Data is gathered, and stored, and then analyzed historically for trending and predictive management.
Operating System: Profiler server runs on Windows, Linux, or Solaris. Profiler agents can monitor all major OSs.
Standards Support: Profiler supports SMI-S, SNMP, HTTP, HTTPS
System Requirements: Profiler server requires 1 GB of memory, 1 GB of disk space, and runs on Windows, Solaris, or Linux. The Profiler agent requires 64-256 MB of memory, 150 MB of disk space, and utilizes 1-3% of CPU.
Implementation: Profiler has a server-agent architecture, so it requires a location to install the Profiler server (Windows, Solaris, Linux) and then agents can be deployed onto the desired servers (Windows, Solaris, Linux, AIX, HPUX, Tru64 and Netware). The agents will monitor the server and also serve as a platform to monitor other devices (arrays, switches, etc.), and applications (backups, E-mail, databases, DNS, etc.) without requiring an agent install on that device.
Interoperability: Refer to the online compatibility matrix for detailed information
Vendor Comment: Not provided
Availability: Currently available
Base Cost: An entry-level package would likely run $10,000-$15,000
Detailed Specs: http://www.tek-tools.com/jsp/storage.jsp
Vendor URL: www.tek-tools.com
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