Filesystems Archives - Page 7 of 15

Tiger Bridge extending NTFS to the cloud

By cfheoh | January 28, 2020 - 8:03 am |January 29, 2020 Appliance, Avere, Backup, Business Continuity, BYOD, CIFS, Cloud, Clusters, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Management, Data Protection, Datacore, Digital Transformation, Disaster Recovery, Fibre Channel, Filesystems, iSCSI, Microsoft, NAS, Nasuni, NetApp, Object Storage, Openstack, Storage Field Day, Storage Tiering, Stornext, Tape storage, Tech Field Day, Tiger Technology, Virtualization

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[Disclosure: I was invited by GestaltIT as a delegate to their Storage Field Day 19 event from Jan 22-24, 2020 in the Silicon Valley USA. My expenses, travel, accommodation and conference fees were covered by GestaltIT, the organizer and I was not obligated to blog or promote the vendors’ technologies to be presented at this event. The content of this blog is of my own opinions and views]

The NTFS File System has been around for more than 3 decades. It has been the most important piece of the Microsoft Windows universe, although Microsoft is already replacing it with ReFS (Resilient File System) since Windows Server 2012. Despite best efforts from Microsoft, issues with ReFS remain and thus, NTFS is still the most reliable and go-to file system in Windows.

First reaction to Tiger Technology

When Tiger Technology was first announced as a sponsor to Storage Field Day 19, I was excited of the company with such a cool name. Soon after, I realized that I have encountered the name before in the media and entertainment space.

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Misplacing Digital Transformation Priorities

By cfheoh | January 20, 2020 - 2:29 pm |January 20, 2020 Backup, Big Data, Business Continuity, BYOD, CIFS, Citrix, Cloud, Data, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Management, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Digital Transformation, Disaster Recovery, Dropbox, Filesystems, FreeNAS, Katana Logic, Microsoft, NAS, NetApp, NFS, Object Storage, QNAP, Reliability, SMB

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[ Note: This article was published on LinkedIn on Jan 20th 2020. Here is the link to the original article ]

Digital Transformation is again a big word for 2020. As more and more organizations becoming digitalized, the opportunity to communicate, interact and collaborate has become easier, faster, more convenient than ever.

File Sharing forever

Working in projects, file sharing is a fundamental activity that underpins communication and collaboration. Network drives via NAS (network attached storage) for file sharing are common within the confines of the company network. The perimeter of the company’s network is further extended via VPN (virtual private network) access, allowing branch offices and remote individuals to access the files from the central NAS server. It is a workable solution albeit poor network performance in delivery, challenges of siloed data management and difficult scalability.

The phenomenon of Dropbox

When Dropbox arrived circa 2008-2009, it took the industry by storm. They practically invented the term BYOD (bring your own device) and capture the imagination of the file sharing market. Gartner recognized this and coined EFSS (enterprise file sync and share) to consolidate the burgeoning file sharing market. Pretenders and challengers flooded the market, and after the shakedown, Box.net, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive and of course, Dropbox, are some of the market leaders today.

A recent report by Markets & Markets listed these companies as players in the EFSS market.

EFSS Players by Markets & Markets October 2019

As the wheels of Digital Transformation turn, EFSS is changing as well. Gartner EFSS is now the CCP (content collaboration platform), releasing their Gartner Content Collaboration Platforms MarketPeer Insights report in April 2019. Continue reading →

Zoned Technologies with Western Digital

By cfheoh | January 14, 2020 - 10:29 am |January 14, 2020 API, Composable Infrastructure, Disks, Drivescale, Dropbox, Filesystems, Flash, IoT, Linux, Liqid, Open Compute Project, Reliability, SATA, SCSI, Seagate, Solid State Devices, Storage Field Day, Tech Field Day, Western Digital

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[Disclosure: I am invited by GestaltIT as a delegate to their Storage Field Day 19 event from Jan 22-24, 2020 in the Silicon Valley USA. My expenses, travel, accommodation and conference fees will be covered by GestaltIT, the organizer and I am not obligated to blog or promote the vendors’ technologies to be presented at this event. The content of this blog is of my own opinions and views]

Storage Field Day 19 is a week away. And one of the vendors presenting is Western Digital, who also presented at Storage Field Day 18 almost a year ago. Here is my blog where I received the full force of Western Digital. In that 10 months or so, Western Digital has sold off their IntelliFlash assets to Data Direct Networks and leaving their ActiveScale object storage platform in limbo.

What is in store from Western D?

I am eager to find out what coming from Western Digital. They have tons of storage technologies that I have yet to encounter, and this anticipation is keeping me excited for the Western D session at Storage Field Day 19.

For a few years I have been keen on a few Western D’s technologies which were moving up the value chain. They are:

Symbotics Design™ (although I think they changed their marketing messaging)
OpenFlex architecture, Fabric devices and enclosures
KingFish™ API for composable infrastructure

In my patch, the signals of the 3 Western D’s technologies have gone weak in the past year. However, there is a lot of momentum right now for Zoned Storage and Zoned Name Space and I believe this could be what is in store for the storage propeller heads like us at Storage Field Day 19.

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NAS is the next Ransomware goldmine

By cfheoh | January 7, 2020 - 5:58 am |January 7, 2020 Algorithm, Analytics, API, Artificial Intelligence, Backup, Business Continuity, CIFS, ClamAV, Cloud, compression, Containers, Data, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Management, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Deep Learning, Disaster Recovery, Filesystems, FreeNAS, iXsystems, Machine Learning, NAS, Object Storage, QNAP, Reliability, Security, SMB, TrueNAS

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I get an email like this almost every day:

It is from one of my FreeNAS customers daily security run logs, emailed to our support@katanalogic.com alias. It is attempting a brute force attack trying to crack the authentication barrier via the exposed SSH port.

Just days after the installation was completed months ago, a bot has been doing IP port scans on our system, and found the SSH port open. (We used it for remote support). It has been trying every since, and we have been observing the source IP addresses.

The new Ransomware attack vector

This is not surprising to me. Ransomware has become more sophisticated and more damaging than ever because the monetary returns from the ransomware are far more effective and lucrative than other cybersecurity threats so far. And the easiest preys are the weakest link in the People, Process and Technology chain. Phishing breaches through social engineering, emails are the most common attack vectors, but there are vhishing (via voicemail) and smshing (via SMS) out there too. Of course, we do not discount other attack vectors such as mal-advertising sites, or exploits and so on. Anything to deliver the ransomware payload.

The new attack vector via NAS (Network Attached Storage) and it is easy to understand why.

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Is General Purpose Object Storage disenfranchised?

By cfheoh | December 23, 2019 - 5:40 pm |January 14, 2020 100Gigabit Ethernet, Amazon Web Services, Analytics, API, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, BYOD, Ceph, Cloud, Cloudian, Clusters, Deep Learning, DellEMC, Docker, Dropbox, Edge Computing, Filesystems, Flash, Gartner, Hadoop, HDS, High Performance Computing, Hitachi Vantara, IDC, Industry 4.0, IoT, Lustre, Machine Learning, Mellanox Technologies, Minio, NetApp, Object Storage, OpenIO, Openstack, Performance Benchmark, Reliability, Scale-out architecture, Software Defined Storage, Storage Field Day, Storage Market Share, swiftstack, Tape storage, Tech Field Day

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This is NOT an advertisement for coloured balls.

This is the license to brag for the vendors in the next 2 weeks or so, as we approach the 2020 new year. This, of course, is the latest 2019 IDC Marketscape for Object-based Storage, released last week.

My object storage mentions

I have written extensively about Object Storage since 2011. With different angles and perspectives, here are some of them:

The Future is Intelligent Objects (2011)
What should be Cloud Storage? (2011)
APIs that stick in Storage (2012)
Has Object Storage become the Everything Store? (2013)
Of Object Storage, Filesystems and Multicloud (2017)
My Dilemma of Stateful Storage Marriage (2018)
The Malaysian Openstack Storage Conundrum (2018)
Sleepless in Malaysia with Object Storage (2019)
The Waning Light of Openstack Swift (2019)

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ZFS Replication and Recovery with FreeNAS

By cfheoh | November 2, 2019 - 9:51 am |November 2, 2019 Appliance, Backup, Business Continuity, CIFS, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Management, Data Protection, Data Security, Disaster Recovery, Disks, Filesystems, FreeNAS, Linux, Microsoft, NAS, NetApp, NFS, Reliability, Snapshots, Virtualization

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We get requests to recover data from a secondary platform all the time. RPO (recovery point objective) of 30 minutes can be challenging to small to medium sized companies, especially if there is an SLA (service level agreement) to meet.

This week, my team and I took some time to create a FreeNAS replication demo for a potential client. I thought I document the whole thing about ZFS replication, the key steps to set it up and show how recovery is done.

ZFS Snapshots

ZFS replication relies on periodic ZFS snapshots. ZFS snapshot is an inherent feature from the ZFS file system, and often used as a point-in-time copy of the existing ZFS file system tree in memory. Once a snapshot has been triggered, either manually or on schedule (periodic), the file system tree and its metadata in the memory are committed to disk to ensure an updated and consistent state of the file system at all times.

To start, a running snapshot policy on a schedule must be in place. This snapshot policy can be on a specific dataset or zvol, or even the entire zpool. Yeah, I am using quite a few ZFS terminology here – zpool, zvol, dataset. You can read more about each of the structures and more here.

Once the ZFS replication task has been setup, every snapshot occurred in the snapshot policy is automatically duplicated and copied to the target ZFS dataset. Usually, the target ZFS dataset is on a secondary FreeNAS storage server, serving as a disaster recovery platform. Sending and receiving data in the snapshots rely on SSH service.

This is the network diagram explaining the FreeNAS ZFS replication setup.

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Brainy Commvault

By cfheoh | October 17, 2019 - 3:40 am |October 17, 2019 Acquisition, Analytics, API, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Business Continuity, Cloud, Commvault, Containers, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Fabric, Data Management, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Deep Learning, Digital Transformation, Disaster Recovery, Filesystems, Hedvig, Hyperconvergence, IoT, Kubernetes, Machine Learning, Object Storage, Scale-out architecture, Software Defined Storage, Software-defined Datacenter, Storage Field Day, Storage Optimization, Storage Tiering, Tech Field Day, Unified Storage, Virtualization

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[Disclosure: I was invited by Commvault as a Media person and Social Ambassador to their Commvault GO 2019 Conference and also a Tech Field Day eXtra delegate from Oct 13-17, 2019 in the Denver CO, USA. My expenses, travel, accommodation and conference fees were covered by Commvault, the organizer and I was not obligated to blog or promote their technologies presented at this event. The content of this blog is of my own opinions and views]

The waltz across the Commvault-Hedvig mine field will not be easy. Commvault will have a lot of open discussions about their acquisition of Hedvig and how Hedvig “primary storage platform” will fit into a “secondary storage framework” of Commvault. The outcome of this consummation is yet to appear as a structured form. The storyline will eventually form as Commvault’s diligence to define their strategy moving forward.

Day 1

Day 1 was my open day at Commvault GO. I was absorbing the first impressions of Commvault again even though this was my third Commvault GO, after Washington DC and Nashville in 2017 and 2018 respectively. There was certainly a “startup” feeling again in Commvault since the appointment of Sanjay Mirchandani as CEO 9 months ago.

A lot of excitement and buzz were generated around the metallic, the Commvault venture into Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The SaaS solution is targeted at the mid-market for organizations with 500-2500 staff count. Its simplicity and pricing were the 2 things which gave me a good feeling all over. There is even a 45-day trial for metallic.

Getting Brainy

My Day 2 itinerary was more specific because my agenda for this trip was to seek answers to the realization of Commvault-Hedvig.

Commvault took the distinction of using the vision of a DataBrain (#databrain) to define their strategy. From the picture below, the left and right hemisphere of the DataBrain forms the Storage Management piece on the left and Data Management on the right.

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Commvault coming all together

By cfheoh | October 15, 2019 - 2:58 pm |October 15, 2019 Acquisition, Analytics, Appliance, Artificial Intelligence, Backup, Big Data, Business Continuity, Cloud, Clusters, Commvault, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Fabric, Data Management, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Deduplication, Digital Transformation, Disaster Recovery, Edge Computing, eDiscovery, Filesystems, Forrester, Gartner, Hyperconvergence, Industry 4.0, Machine Learning, NAS, Object Storage, SAP, Scale-out architecture, Software Defined Storage, Software-defined Datacenter, Storage Optimization, Storage Tiering, Tech Field Day, Unified Storage, Virtualization

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This trip to the Commvault GO conference was pretty much a mission to find answers to their Hedvig acquisition just a month ago. It was an unprecedented move for Commvault and I, as an industry observer and pundit, took the news positively. I wrote in my blog about Commvault’s big bet and I liked their boldness in their approach.

But the news did not bode well back here in Malaysia. The local technology news portal, Data Storage Asean picked up the news in a rather unconvinced way. 2 long time Commvault partners I spoke to were obviously unhappy because the acquisition made little sense to them on the back of closing of the Commvault Malaysia office just weeks before this with more unsettling rumours of the Commvault team in Asia Pacific. The broken trust and the fear of what the future held for the Commvault customers in Malaysia and in the region were riding along with me on this trip.

But I have seen the beginning of the Commvault transformation from the Commvault GO conferences I have attended since 2017. This is my 3rd Commvault GO and I ended Day 1 with good vibes.

Here were some of my highlights in the first day. Continue reading →

Commvault big bet

By cfheoh | September 12, 2019 - 9:03 pm |September 12, 2019 Acquisition, Analytics, API, Appliance, Big Data, Business Continuity, Cisco, Cloud, Cohesity, Commvault, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Fabric, Data Management, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Deep Learning, Digital Transformation, Filesystems, Hadoop, Hadoop Clusters, Hedvig, Hitachi Vantara, Hyperconvergence, ILM, Infrascale, Machine Learning, MapReduce, Minio, NAS, NetApp, Object Storage, Scale-out architecture, Software Defined Storage, Software-defined Datacenter, Storage Field Day, Storage Tiering, Tape storage, Tech Field Day, Unified Storage, Veeam, Veritas, Zerto

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I woke up at 2.59am in the morning of Sept 5th morning, a bit discombobulated and quickly jumped into the Commvault call. The damn alarm rang and I slept through it, but I got up just in time for the 3am call.

As I was going through the motion of getting onto UberConference, organized by GestaltIT, I was already sensing something big. In the call, Commvault was acquiring Hedvig and it hit me. My drowsy self centered to the big news. And I saw a few guys from Veritas and Cohesity on my social media group making gestures about the acquisition.

I spent the rest of the week thinking about the acquisition. What is good? What is bad? How is Commvault going to move forward? This is at pressing against the stark background from the rumour mill here in South Asia, just a week before this acquisition news, where I heard that the entire Commvault teams in Malaysia and Asia Pacific were released. I couldn’t confirm the news in Asia Pacific, but the source of the news coming from Malaysia was strong and a reliable one.

What is good?

It is a big win for Hedvig. Nestled among several scale-out primary storage vendors and little competitive differentiation, this Commvault acquisition is Hedvig’s pay day.

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The waning light of OpenStack Swift

By cfheoh | August 17, 2019 - 4:11 pm |August 17, 2019 API, Ceph, Cloud, Clusters, Containers, Data Management, Edge Computing, Filesystems, iSCSI, Kubernetes, Linux, NAS, NFS, Object Storage, Openstack, Redhat, Software Defined Storage, swiftstack, Unified Storage

The writing is on the wall

Through the storage lens, I already griped about the conundrum of OpenStack storage in Malaysia in last year’s 8th anniversary. And at the thick of this conundrum is OpenStack Swift. The granddaddy of OpenStack storage has not gotten much attention from technology vendors and service providers alike. For one, storage vendors have their own object storage offering, and has little incentive to place OpenStack Swift into their technology development. Continue reading →

Category Archives: Filesystems