Virtualwisdom nas performance probe
Should it keep the capability closed and develop its own performance analytics tools or should it open it up so third parties with deep experience can participate? Cisco choose the path of partnering, which gives it access to the deep expertise from companies like Virtual Instruments, who was exclusively promoted in the Cisco announcement. Once delivering the capability, Cisco had a choice to make. This is what Cisco has done with its SAN Telemetry offload ASIC. Introducing SAN TelemetryĪn alternative is for the network switch to provide extra processing power so that real time data can be captured without impacting performance. It is similar to reading every other page of a book.
The longer the time between samples, the less impact there will be on performance, but also the more details that will be missed. Without a TAP, information about SAN performance and configuration needs to be captured in periodic samples so performance is not impacted – typically 1 to 5 minutes. TAP installation is not difficult and it is non disruptive, but it does require planning and it does involve taking one side of the SAN down and then the other. The problem is they are akin to a routine, but invasive surgery and the thought of a TAP gives IT professionals unfamiliar with their value pause. The value is that problems can be detected before they are noticed outside of the data center. The Pros and Cons of TAPsĪ TAP is a passive device installed in the network that captures real time data from it and feeds that information back to an analytics engine. Cisco recently introduced telemetry streaming into its MDS storage switches, which vendors like Virtual Instruments can take advantage of to eliminate the need for network TAPs but still capture real time information. The problem is IT professionals are at times hesitant to embed a TAP into their network so they risk their business and tolerate the less accurate sampling approach to collecting data. A TAP enables information to be captured without impacting network performance. The problem is capturing information in real time typically involves using TAPs. However, the rapid adoption of flash technology makes it even more critical. Capturing real time analytics from the storage area network is important to optimizing the network.