Organizations today are overwhelmed with data. Besides user-created data such as spreadsheets, documents, videos, audio recordings, presentation files, computer-aided design files, schematics, and health and regulatory data, as part of its ongoing management the system creates its own data. Servers and other networking equipment keep logs of activity and events; data is created in aggregate for statistics and reporting, and databases support the applications used by employees every day. Some of this data must be kept confidential, but some of it needs to be available at all times to keep the business running. You, or someone like you, will likely be asked to keep it running.
The Importance of Storage
As more and more data is collected, organizations realize the importance of knowing how to properly manage their data and the systems housing it. Although this skill is not covered in networking or computer hardware courses, it builds upon those disciplines. As shown in Chapter 1, at their most basic level, storage systems consist of storage media, such as a hard drive containing bits and bytes represented by 0s and 1s. This media is connected to the computer through an interface or expansion bus, or from a network resource.
Disk drives have a limited life span measured by metrics such as mean time between failures (MTBF) and annualized failure rate (AFR). Your choice of drive matters because some are less expensive but more prone to failure, whereas others are more costly but more reliable. Drives also differ in their ability to handle concurrent I/O. Chapter 1 describes the electrical and mechanical differences in these drive types so you can make an informed decision on the best drive for your application. Chapter 1 also introduces various forms of combining multiple drives into a RAID set in order to provide higher speeds and protection against drive failure.
To have real value, data on a disk must be accessible when needed. Moreover, in order for data to be accessible, it must be available to the authorized user wherever they are located, including in remote offices and on the road via a smartphone or another mobile device. This is accomplished by attaching storage media to computer systems and networks or by mapping remote, network, or cloud storage to the target. Chapter 2, “Storage Infrastructure,” introduces components that store data on a network or cloud, while Chapter 3, “Storage Networking,” explains the protocols, topologies, and tools used to connect storage devices together to make the data available to a broad range of computers, applications, and users. The topic of storage networking is divided into two sections corresponding with the two storage networking technologies that dominate the market—fibre channel and iSCSI. Chapter 4 builds on this by introducing the cables and devices, such as host bus adapters, network interface cards, switches, directors, and routers, that are used in storage networking. This chapter also explains the available removable storage options including tape, optical, and flash media.
Storage today must be made available to many different types of systems and applications. Chapters 1 through 4 provide the understanding of the underlying storage technologies. Chapter 5 explains how virtualization is used to present storage to systems and applications without the need for applications to understand the underlying technologies. This allows for more flexibility in assigning and managing storage resources. Chapter 6 introduces a way to automate many storage management tasks and a method for granting applications control over their own storage. This concept is known as software-defined storage (SDS). Chapter 6 goes on to explain storage management tasks such as storage provisioning, trending, forecasting, capacity planning, reporting, and alerting. Essentially, it shows how to organize and present storage so that it can be used effectively and how to monitor it so that it performs consistently. As a case in point, a client I worked with deployed a document repository to utilize its searching features in finding process documents. Users saved files wherever they wanted and, shortly after that, searches for documents resulted in many different documents with the same name. Users did not know which version to update, and others followed the wrong process, causing inconsistent results and a higher number of errors.
Configuration management is introduced in Chapter 6 as a way to control the changes made to organizational equipment. Configuration management often results in much greater availability for key systems because modifications to the systems are better evaluated, coordinated, and tested. Furthermore, when problems do arise, technicians and engineers know which changes were made and can use that information to reverse changes and get systems operational faster.
Next, when data is lost, there must be a way to recover it. Effective recovery requires regular backups as well as deliberate and strategic planning. It is important to know that your data can be retrieved in a crisis and within a reasonable timeframe. The backup and recovery planning process identifies the maximum amount of time data can be unavailable, as well as the maximum amount of data that can be lost, along with other business goals and compliance requirements related to data availability. Chapter 7 covers backup and recovery. Based on this, storage professionals can implement backup methods to capture the data and make it available for restoration.
Data must be available, but it also must be secure and this presents a complex balancing act for storage professionals. Chapter 8 explains access control, encryption, and storage visibility concepts that can be used to verify identify, grant access to resources, secure data in transit or at rest, and segment storage.
The connectivity, accessibility, and security needs of data and applications must be addressed in designing storage solutions. This is discussed in Chapter 9. For example, accessibility also relies upon a reasonable response time. The speed of both broadband at home and data plans on cell phones has increased to such a point that most people now expect data to be at their fingertips regardless of where they are presently located. Most users will not wait five minutes to retrieve a document from the company intranet, nor will they be pleased when a shared calendar fails to load. High-speed, on-access response to data requests requires a robust infrastructure capable of retrieving and sending information to users and applications whenever with little latency. These are the business requirements that must be addressed in an effective design. Storage professionals will also need to understand the business value of information and how to manage information over its life span. Some storage may achieve great cost savings through data compression or deduplication while other solutions may utilize content-addressable storage or object-oriented storage. Storage processionals must also manage data so that the organization complies with relevant regulatory and legal requirements such as data retention or preservation for litigation holds.
Storage solutions may require many devices and components that are often housed in server rooms or data centers. These storage devices require sufficient cooling and power as well as ongoing maintenance to function efficiently. Chapter 10 discusses how to provide for such requirements as well as how to safely install storage equipment. Chapter 11 covers advanced topics such as information lifecycle management, compliance, advanced storage methods, and deduplication and compression. And last, Chapter 12 covers how to troubleshoot common problems with storage networks, hosts, and devices.
Uses of Storage
Enormous amounts of data are created as you go about your day. Just browsing the Internet creates data on your computer as well as various servers around the world. Performing a few searches results in the collection of the search terms used by the search engine along with other data on your connection, while your browser stores the pages in history, caching some of the content. Additionally, some of the content may be cached by servers at your Internet service provider (ISP) or workplace. You may snap pictures with your phone, or record video with a mobile device or webcam, and these may be uploaded to social networking sites where others can view them and make comments. Then there are the most obvious pieces of data you create: documents, spreadsheets, schematics, presentation files, and a host of other content that resides on your computer, in department network shares, attached to e-mails, and within document management systems.
Organizations generally have trouble deleting data for fear that it might prove useful sometime in the future. Moreover, we have found new ways of making use of data by mining it for still more data so others hold onto their data so that they can mine it. Organizations hoard data like a dragon with its gold, while it piles up by the terabytes. Unfortunately, the very existence of so much data creates a host of problems that can diminish its value for organizations, and far too many organizations struggle to manage islands of information, each stored, secured, and managed in different ways. The cost of managing this data must be understood so that it can be associated with the data value. So much business value and day-to-day operations rely on the availability of data that systems must be highly available and have timely backups. Clusters and high-performance systems require increasingly complex storage systems that must meet high demands while being flexible enough to support growing business needs and changing applications.
This is where storage networking professionals enter into the picture. Organizations are in dire need of technologists with a firm grasp on how to implement reliable storage systems that will meet current organizational needs and grow with changing technologies and objectives. This book will help you refine those skills in preparation for the Storage Networking Industry Association’s storage networking foundations exam number S10-100. Passing this exam earns you the SNIA Certified Storage Professional (SCSP) certification, which can be used to validate your skills as a storage professional.
The Storage Networking Industry Association
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a nonprofit standards and certification organization that works to establish standards and best practices, foster innovation in vendor-neutral technologies, educate, and validate skills through certification. SNIA describes their vision as follows:
Be the globally recognized and trusted authority for storage leadership, standards, and technology expertise.
You can find out more at www.snia.org/about/vision-mission.
The SNIA Certified Storage Professional (SCSP) certification is the first of four certifications from SNIA. SNIA organizes its certifications into three tiers. The first tier is called concepts, and this is where the SCSP falls. The next tier is called standards, and there is one certification in this tier called the SNIA Certified Storage Engineer (SCSE). Candidates for the SCSE must first obtain the SCSP. The third and highest tier is called solutions, and SNIA has two certifications in this tier: the SNIA Certified Storage Architect (SCSA) and the SNIA Certified Storage Networking Expert (SCSN-E). The SCSP is the only prerequisite for the SCSA, but the SCSN-E requires both the SCSP and the SCSE before candidates can take it.
SNIA partnered with CompTIA for several years to offer a joint certification known as the Storage+. This certification is no longer offered, but those who hold the certification can use it to fulfill the requirement for the SCSP prerequisite for the SCSE and SCSA exams up until three years from their Storage+ certification date.
The hallmark of SNIA’s certifications is that they are vendor neutral, meaning that they do not teach to a specific vendor’s technology or methodology. The advantage to this approach is that the skills measured by a SNIA exam are useful across a wide variety of technologies and platforms produced by different vendors.
The Examination
The storage networking foundations exam lasts 90 minutes and consists of 65 multiple-choice questions. Candidates must answer 66 percent of the questions correctly in order to pass. The exam costs $200 and is available in both English and Japanese. The SCSP is designed to validate the skill set of individuals filling roles such as storage administrator, storage engineer, cloud storage administrator, backup administrator, system administrator, and IT operations.
Once you have completed this book and are passing the practice test with a comfortable margin, it will be time to schedule the test. I find a comfortable margin to be about 15 percent above the passing score, so I recommend that you score at least 80 percent on the practice test before scheduling the exam, because a new environment, distractions, temperature differences, and nervousness can all have an impact on your exam performance.
The exam can be taken at a Prometric testing center near you. Use the Prometric web site (www.prometric.com) to find local testing locations and to schedule an exam. The exam code will be S10-110. Bring two forms of identification, including at least one photo ID, such as a driver’s license.
You will not be permitted to bring electronic devices such as smartphones and smartwatches or any recording equipment into the testing area. Some testing centers have lockers or a zone where personal devices can be stored while you are taking the exam, but I find it easier to not even bring personal electronics into the testing center so as to not possibly forget them.
You will need to sign in when presenting your identification, and then the test administrator will show you the testing center rules and require you to sign that you have read the rules, including the SNIA exam security and cheating policy. The testing administrator will then lead you to a room where you can take the exam on a computer. There may be others in the room as well. They may be taking completely different tests than the one you are taking since Prometric centers are used for a variety of tests. The testing administrator will sign into the computer and then you will be allowed to sit for the test.
Verify that your name is displayed on the screen and that the exam number is correct before initiating the exam. You will then be presented with additional exam rules that you must read and accept, and you may see a survey as well. The survey and any instructions do not take away from the 90 minutes of testing time.
Your exam will be recorded, and data on how you take the test is used to identify potential cheating. You will not be allowed to bring in your own writing utensils or paper. However, the testing administrator will give you an erasable sheet and a marker that you will need to return when you complete the exam.
You will have the chance to review questions that you have marked along the way before ending the exam, and then you will have the opportunity to comment on the questions. Comments do not affect your score, but they may be used to improve the exam. Your score will be computed at the conclusion of the test. Your score will also print at the testing administrator station, and you will receive it when you sign out of the testing center.
If you did not pass, find a quiet place and think through the exam immediately and consider the areas where you were less than confident about your answers, and then write down the concept or concepts each question was related to. Do not try to write the question word for word, as this is a violation of the ethical rules. You are simply trying to identify your areas for improvement before the distractions of daily life creep in. You can reference the list you make later as you prepare to retake the exam. Look up each area in this book and focus on those areas, but don’t neglect the other areas. Many certification candidates study the areas they were weak in and then take the test again, only to find that they fail again but in different areas. Your mind will forget information quickly, so it is best to concentrate on your areas of weakness, but also take a general refresher of all the remaining content. Lastly, don’t wait too long before taking the test again. Create an aggressive study plan to address your weaknesses and then try again while the knowledge is still fresh. A week is generally a good time frame, but the timing really depends on how much time you will be able to dedicate to studying between exam dates.
I find it is best to schedule the retake of the exam quickly so that you have a definite target date. Too many candidates study and prepare following a failed exam but never get around to taking the exam again, or they wait too long and realize they forgot some essential elements of what they studied. Keep your momentum and don’t let too much time pass between the test and the retake exam. However, there are some minimum wait times before you can retake the exam. You cannot simply sit back down and take the exam a second time in the same day. You must wait at least 24 hours before retaking the exam the first time, or seven days if you are retaking the exam a second time. After that, candidates must wait 30 days before retaking the exam.
Welcome to this journey toward certification. I am confident that this book will give you the information needed to prepare for the SCSP exam as well as a great deal of knowledge useful for those involved in storage, IT, and other technology roles.
How to Use This Book
The structure of this book follows the SCSP exam objectives from SNIA. It has been organized into 12 chapters, starting with the most conceptual area in the first five chapters, and then focusing on the practical elements that build on these concepts in the remaining chapters.
Each chapter has several components designed to effectively communicate the information you’ll need for the exam.
• The certification objectives covered in each chapter are listed first, right off the bat. These identify the major topics within the chapter and help you to map out your study.
• Sidebars are included in some places to expand upon a topic and are designed to point out information, tips, and stories that will be helpful in your day-today responsibilities. Please note, though, that although these entries provide real-world accounts of interesting pieces of information, they are sometimes used to reinforce testable material. Don’t just discount them as simply “neat”—some of the circumstances and tools described in these sidebars may prove the difference in correctly answering a question or two on the exam.
• Exam Tips are exactly what they sound like. These are included to point out a focus area you need to concentrate on for the exam. No, they are not explicit test answers. Yes, they will help you focus your study.
• Specially called-out Notes are part of this book too. These are interesting tidbits of information that are relevant to the discussion and point out extra information. Just as with the sidebars, don’t discount them.
• The Chapter Review Questions are similar to those found on the actual exam. The answers to these questions, as well as explanations of the correct answer choices, can be found at the end of each chapter. By answering the Chapter Review Questions after completing each chapter, you’ll reinforce what you’ve learned from that chapter while becoming familiar with the structure of the exam questions.
Following Chapter 12, you will find the Appendix, which consists of a practice exam, an answer key, and detailed answer explanations to allow you to gauge your level of readiness for the exam and to provide you with the opportunity to practice what you’ve learned throughout the course of this book.
Objective Map: Exam S10-110
The following table has been constructed to allow you to cross-reference the official exam objectives with the objectives as they are presented and covered in this book. References have been provided for the objective exactly as the exam vendor presents it, the section of the exam guide that covers that objective, and a chapter and page reference. There are also three check boxes labeled Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. Use these to rate your beginning knowledge of each objective. This assessment will help guide you to the areas in which you need to spend more time studying for the exams.
