File System Inventory Summary Report

Transcription

1 File System Inventory Summary Report File Storage Usage for Company ABC* October 1, 2008 * This is an excerpt of a file system inventory recently performed for a mid-size technology company. All identifiable customer information has been removed.

2 Important Note: This is an excerpt of a file system inventory recently performed for a mid-size technology company using F5 Data Manager software. All identifiable customer information has been removed. A brief analysis of the data has been added to the bottom of each page. This information was provided by an F5 Networks expert who reviewed the final file system inventory report to help Company ABC understand what Data Manager had uncovered and what corrective action, if any, was required. Background Company ABC is a fast-growing, mid-size technology enterprise. Their IT organization was struggling to cope with storage growth rates that exceeded 70 percent annually, which was causing a series of problems: Users and applications were frequently hitting the capacity limits on their network shares, requiring constant IT firefighting. Manually balancing capacity required constant IT attention, typically during non-business hours, to avoid impacting users. Storage provisioning was disruptive to the business and often created a backlash from users. File migrations were time and resource intensive. Backups were growing increasingly cumbersome and costly. Storage and storage management costs were increasing annually and pressuring IT s storage budget. Company ABC was considering implementing a file virtualization solution to resolve these issues. However, the IT organization wanted to first understand their own file storage environment better and identify particular areas of need. Process The company used F5 Data Manager, a Microsoft Windows-based software solution, to inventory its file system. Data Manager autodiscovers key attributes about a file storage environment, including volumes, shares, exports, security settings, and file system settings. The reporting and capacity forecasting capabilities helped the IT team identify key trends or problem areas that could be improved with file virtualization. The charts and data, which are included on the following pages, are only a subset of the information available through Data Manager. These metrics were generated during the company s initial test of Data Manager on a single NAS filer. 2

3 File Storage Usage for Company ABC Capacity Disk Capacity Information Total Space 1.6 TB Free Space 52.5 GB Used Space 1.5 TB Percent Used 97% Capacity Inventoried 1.5 TB Percent Inventoried 96.6% Analysis Data Manager s inventory of the file share revealed that the device was almost at full capacity. Impact Company ABC had no flexibility to absorb future growth. Unless corrective action was taken, users and business operations would have been disrupted when the server ran out of disk space. Action Company ABC virtualized the file storage environment and implemented automated data management policies that could adapt to client demand, resource capacity, and network conditions in real time. This enabled IT to: - Provision new storage seamlessly. - Dynamically migrate files from the full disk to the new disk without ever impacting user access. - Create a unified storage pool and automated policies that distribute storage capacity across many systems. In addition, virtualizing the storage environment enabled Company ABC to address a number of additional problems uncovered in the inventory, as detailed in the analysis that follows. 3

4 File Storage Usage for Company ABC File Modification Age Modify Time Total Files Total Capacity <6 months 55, GB 6-12 months 37, GB >12 months 992, GB Analysis Nearly 70 percent of all capacity more than 1,000,000 files had not been accessed in six months or more. Impact Unused data was consuming the company s expensive, high performance primary storage and driving the need to purchase more capacity. This static data was also being backed up regularly, unnecessarily lengthening the backup times and consuming excessive backup media. Action The company augmented its primary storage tier with more cost effective-storage SATA storage, then implemented a tiering policy that enables it to: - Automatically move aged data to the more cost-effective secondary storage tier without affecting user access to the data. - Reduce backup time and backup media costs by establishing separate backup practices for each storage tier. 4

5 File Storage Usage for Company ABC Top File Extensions by Capacity Extensions Total Files Total Capacity.BKF GB.PST 2, GB.SPARSEIMAGE GB.PPT 15, GB.ISO GB.XLS 46, GB.VMDK GB.PDF 25, GB.RAR GB.BAK 1, GB Analysis Backup (.BKF) and (.PST) files were consuming 78 percent of available storage capacity on this file server. Impact.BKF and.pst files do not need to reside on expensive Tier 1 storage because they rarely change. In addition to quickly pushing the server to full capacity, storing these files on Tier 1 was contributing to the company s backup problems. Solution By virtualizing the file storage environment and investing in lower-cost storage to serve as a secondary storage tier for non-critical files, Company ABC was able to: - Easily migrate existing.bkf and.pst files to the secondary tier and establish policies that will move any new backup or files from the primary tier automatically, without impacting user access. - Postpone or eliminate the need to purchase additional high-performance disk capacity. - Cut backup windows and costs dramatically by establishing separate backup policies for each storage tier. 5

6 File Storage Usage for Company ABC Top Owners by Capacity Index Owner Total Total Files Capacity 1 BUILTIN\Administrators 445, GB 2 SIERRA\Jordan 17, GB 3 SIERRA\Jones GB 4 SIERRA\Smith GB 5 SIERRA\Anderson GB 6 SIERRA\Hall GB 7 SIERRA\Singh GB 8 SIERRA\Lopez 5, GB 9 SIERRA\Wall GB 10 SIERRA\Munster 7, GB Analysis The top two users consume 26 percent of all capacity on this file server. The next eight users also place a heavy demand on available capacity (21 percent), requiring nearly 324 GB of space. Impact Placing many high-demand storage users on a single server was causing utilization rates to quickly skyrocket, requiring frequent IT intervention to ensure enough space was always available for all users. (Note: Data Manager can also provide this level of detail across multiple file systems.) Solution Company ABC implemented automated data placement policies in its virtualized storage environment which: - Created a unified storage pool that allows all servers to share the load. - Places or moves files to various storage tiers based on various characteristics, including user, file age, last modification date, and file type. 6

7 In addition to the charts on the preceding pages, Data Manager provided Company ABC with data on the areas listed below. The following charts and tables have been removed from this sample report for brevity. File System Structure Files per Directory Level Directories per Directory Level Average Directory Fan-out per Directory Level Leaf Directories per Directory Level Leaf Directory Files per Directory Level Capacity per Directory Level File Access Age File Counts by Access Time Capacity by Access Time File Modification Age File Counts by Modify Time Capacity by Modify Time File Size File Counts by Size Capacity by File Size Top File Extensions by Total Files Top File Extensions by Capacity Top Owners by Total Files Top Owners by Capacity Top File System Paths by Total Files Top File System Paths by Capacity 7

8 Inventory Your File System with the Data Manager 45-Day Trial F5 Data Manager is an extensible storage management platform that helps you better monitor multiple file storage resources. Data Manager gives you a detailed understanding of your unique file storage structure and enables you to identify areas that can be improved with file virtualization. For a detailed look at your file storage environment, download your Data Manager 45-Day Trial or call us at and we ll have one of our experts assist you. Data Manager 45-Day Trial Download Instructions: 1. Go to downloads.f5.com and log in. 2. If you do not have a user account, click Register for an Account, follow the instructions, and log in. 3. Click on the Find a Download button. 4. Click on Data Manager in the F5 product line. On the next page, select the latest version and then click on the product container. 5. Read the End User Software License Agreement and click I Accept. 6. Click on the Data Manager Trial file to initiate the download. Be sure to download the Installation Guide and User Guide for detailed instructions. For more information on Data Manager or on how F5 ARX file virtualization solutions can help you simplify data management and get storage costs under control, visit or call F5 Networks, Inc. Corporate Headquarters 401 Elliott Avenue West Seattle, WA Phone (888) 88BIGIP Toll-free Fax info@f5.com F5 Networks Asia-Pacific Phone Fax info.asia@f5.com F5 Networks Ltd. Europe/Middle-East/Africa +44 (0) Phone +44 (0) Fax emeainfo@f5.com F5 Networks Japan K.K Phone Fax info@f5networks.co.jp File System Inventory Report 10/ F5 Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. F5, F5 Networks, the F5 logo, BIG-IP, FirePass, and icontrol are trademarks or registered trademarks of F5 Networks, Inc. in the U.S. and in certain other countries. 8