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CPU Utilization and Memory Utilization
Workflow Management
Workflow management is probably the least understood and yet most important aspect of
a storage stack today. This forms the basis of background task scheduling and thereby
ensuring that the system maintains good I/O performance. System and I/O activities are
continuously monitored and recorded. This information comes in very handy when
selecting a time to schedule background tasks like Information Lifecycle Management
(ILM) and capacity expansion balancing.
Backup and Restoration Management
Backup and Restoration Management fall into two categories. The first is to manage
space effectively when numerous snapshots are being created for backup and recovery.
StorTrends, with Tiered Storage and three-level space mapping, ensures that snapshots
are maintained in the most capacity-optimized manner. The next is to ensure that the so-
called Recovery Images are indeed consistent and good.
Today, recovery management is more important than backups. Statistics show that a
significant fraction of all recoveries fail (for various reasons). StorTrends offers various
features to ensure the consistency and validity of your Recovery Image. At the NAS-level,
snapshots are mounted and checked for accuracy using fsck. At the SAN-level, external
agents perform scheduled chkdsk chores on snapshots to assure their accuracy.
In replication environments, background tasks are scheduled to check for the integrity of
snapshots by creating and comparing CRCC checksums of images. This method does not
put any burden on the communication links.
Chapter Seven : Managing the Storage Appliance 195
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