Overview

What This Chapter Will Do For You

This chapter looks at various approaches to managing storage networks. Some of the items you will learn about in this chapter include:

• Improper use of storage virtualization and services can increase cost and management time

• Many storage management tools are really monitoring and reporting mechanisms

• Storage is becoming less expensive, however, the cost of manage storage is increasing

• Are you managing your management tools, or is your storage being managed?

• Identifying and improving simple storage management tasks that demonstrate to management the expertise necessary to take on more advanced projects

11.1 Overview

There are many storage network technologies looking for problems, and there are many storage network problems looking for solutions. Management of storage and storage networking has increased in complexity with the proliferation of technologies and increasing amounts of storage being deployed. While storage itself has become relatively inexpensive, the cost to manage and protect it continues to increase. This chapter covers storage and storage networking management, including common tasks and associated management tools for supporting storage networking environments.

11.2 Storage networking management

Storage networking management addresses all areas of storage networking, including configuration, provisioning (allocation), diagnostics, resource monitoring, data protection, and security. Storage and information needs continue to grow, as does the value of information, while the relative cost to purchase storage continues to decrease as capacities increase. The dilemma is that while the costs of storage itself continue to decrease, the resources to manage storage remain the same, resulting...