Software defined storage, what is software defined storage

Simply put, it's a software-defined way to declare storage mounts. It is different from the traditional storage mounting method. Traditional storage is defined first and is closely related to the storage type.

Software-defined storage is equivalent to adding a virtual layer between the actual storage location and system usage, and the type of storage location is directly related to the storage location.

In 2012, the concept of software-defined storage was first proposed. The software-defined storage product is a solution that abstracts hardware and allows you to easily pool all resources and make them available to consumers through a user-friendly interface (UI) or API. A software-defined storage solution allows you to scale-up or scale-out without adding any effort.

In fact, the definition of SDS has emerged to this day, but there is still no unified standard. It must be met that the platform provides a self-service interface for deploying and managing their virtual storage space. In addition to this, the SDS should include:

Automation: Simplify management and reduce the cost of maintaining a storage infrastructure;

Standard interfaces: Programming interfaces for managing, deploying, and maintaining storage devices and services;

Virtual data paths: provide interfaces for blocks, files, and objects through which applications can write data.

Scalability: Provides seamless scaling of reliability and performance without disrupting applications;

Transparency: Provides storage consumers with visibility and management of storage usage and costs.

The interface of the storage service needs to allow the data owner (storage user) to express the demand for the data and the required service level at the same time. The data requirement is that the SDS is based on the data path (data path) virtualization, and the control path (control path) also needs to be abstracted into storage services. Cloud, data center, and storage systems, or data stewards can be used to deploy this service (referred to as the control path).

The few people downstairs talked about it so complicated, and they made everyone dizzy.

Software-Defined Storage SDS, just like Software-Defined Computing SDC understands how VMware turns servers into computing resources, and how Xsky turns servers into storage resources.

As a carrier, the server itself does not have attributes, and after being defined by software, it becomes a computing resource or a storage resource.

Traditional storage is divided into blocks, files, objects, HDFS, and software-defined storage.

Note the distinction between software-defined storage and distributed storage, which is based on a distributed architecture and defined in a software-defined form, while distributed storage is a broad category, including pure software-defined and vendor-pre-installed (isilon, EQL).

Software-defined storage (SDS) is a type of data storage in which all storage-related control is done only in external software relative to the physical storage hardware. This software is not used as firmware in a storage device, but on a server or as part of an operating system (OS) or hypervisor.

Software-defined storage is a larger industry trend, which also includes software-defined networking (SDN) and software-defined data centers (SDCs). Similar to SDN, software-defined storage (SDV) can ensure that the system's storage access can be managed more flexibly at a precise level.

Software-defined storage is abstracted from hardware storage, which also means that it can be turned into a shared pool that is not limited by physical systems in order to make the most efficient use of resources. It can also be deployed and simplified through software and management, or it can be further simplified early on with automated, policy-based management.

1. The principle of "stored program" is to store the program written according to a specific problem in the computer memory, and then execute the first instruction of the program according to the first address of the stored program in the memory, and then execute other instructions in the prescribed order of the program until the end of the program.

In the year, the American-Hungarian scientist von Neumann proposed the theoretical basis of modern computers. Modern computers have evolved to the fifth generation of Liang Pao, but they still follow this principle.

3. The main point of the storage program and the program control principle is that the program is input into the computer, and the storage is infiltrated in the internal memory (storage principle), and when running, the controller takes out the instructions stored in the internal memory in the order of address (access instructions in order of address), and then analyzes the instructions, executes the function of the instructions, and when encountering the transfer instructions, it is transferred to the transfer address, and then accesses the instructions (program control) in the order of the address.

Software-defined storage is a term that has been used a lot lately. Is this a new product, or is it just an existing technology in a flashy garb? In fact, the technology has a bit of a taste of both.

Let's take a look at the next definition of software-defined storage.

We've always used software to define storage, provided there is still enough storage space. A capacity management program is simply an example of software-defined storage, but the recent vocabulary has clearly taken on a deeper meaning. You can also put storage virtualization in this category, which is actually the case with many virtualized storage vendors.

But for the serious person, the two types of techniques are slightly different. Virtualized storage and software-defined storage abstract storage services from the storage system and can provide storage services to both HDDs and SSDs. However, virtualized storage can only be used on specialized hardware devices.

For many vendors, virtualized storage requires the use of equipment that is tailored to them; Or a piece of software that is loaded on a specific server.

A virtual appliance doesn't mean it doesn't need a device, it just doesn't need hardware to function. This is essentially virtualized storage after virtualization. A virtual storage device can be considered an evolution of a dedicated external device because it has the performance of general storage at the same level as a general virtual device.

This means that software-defined storage is an extended type of storage software within an existing operating system or hypervisor that does not require a specific virtual machine to run. Many operating systems, hypervisors, or third-party services offer features such as thin provisioning, snapshots, cloning, and synchronization. At this level, reliable design and potentially high availability are a must for physical storage devices.

For IT professionals, it's not just about chewing words. Both technologies have their own characteristics and can bring significant value to the business. As data centers continue to virtualize, software-defined and virtualized storage are becoming ideal for scaling storage capacity and improving the performance of virtual environments.

It is a storage method, and the more well-known companies in China are: ZTE, Huawei, and Yuanhe Cloud.

1. The principle of "stored program" is to store the program written according to the problem of special trust in the computer memory, and then execute the first instruction of the program according to the first address of the stored program in the memory, and then execute other instructions in the prescribed order of the program until the end of the program.

In the same year, the American-Hungarian scientist von Neumann proposed the theoretical basis for modern calculations of the bright fighter aircraft. Modern computers have advanced to the fifth generation, but they still follow this principle.

3. The main point of the storage of the circular program and the principle of program control is that the program is input into the computer and stored in the internal memory (storage principle), and when running, the controller takes out the instructions stored in the internal memory in the order of address (accesses the instructions in order of address), and then analyzes the instructions, executes the function of the instructions, and when encountering the transfer instructions, it is transferred to the transfer address, and then accesses the instructions (program control) in the order of the address.

Before we get to the bottom of this, we first need to understand what software-defined storage and storage virtualization are.

What is software-defined storage

The full name of SDS is Software Defined Storage, which literally translates to Software Defined Storage. For the definition of SDS, please refer to the Global Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), which was officially included in the research object of SINA in 2013.

SINA defines software-defined storage (SDS) as virtualized storage with a service management interface. SDS includes storage pooling capabilities and can define the data service characteristics of the storage pool through the service management interface.

In addition, SINA also proposed that software-defined storage (SDS) should have the following features:

High degree of automation Reduce the operational overhead of your storage infrastructure by simplifying management.

Standard interfaces enable APIs to manage, publish, and operate storage devices and services.

Virtualized Data Path supports a variety of standard protocols that allow applications to write data through block, file, or object storage interfaces.

Scalability Storage architectures provide the ability to scale seamlessly without impacting availability or degrading performance.

Transparency Storage should provide users with the resources and overhead available to manage and monitor storage.

What is storage virtualization

SNIA believes that storage virtualization separates the management of storage or data from the management of applications, servers, and network resources by abstracting, hiding, or isolating the internal functions of storage (sub)systems or storage services, so as to achieve independent management of applications and networks. Virtualizing storage services and devices enables resource consolidation and reduced implementation complexity as the next layer of storage resources scales. Storage virtualization can be implemented at multiple levels of the system.

The storage virtualization model provided by SNIA (as shown in the figure below) consists of three parts:

The difference and connection between software-defined storage and storage virtualization

As can be seen from the above definitions, storage virtualization and software definition are not one-dimensional concepts, but they are strongly related. SDS is a form of storage virtualization, but similar to RAID, virtualization network management, disk partitioning, etc., are actually a form of storage virtualization, in addition, storage virtualization is not necessarily software-defined, hard RAID card is a typical hardware storage virtualization.

Storage is an integral part of a software-defined data center. It's based on virtualization, but it's beyond storage virtualization.

The earliest concept of software-defined storage should be in the software-defined data center, in which an application requires all virtualized storage, network, servers, and security resources to be defined by software and automatically allocated. Storage is an integral part of a software-defined data center. It's based on virtualization, but it's beyond storage virtualization.

Many people may not be able to tell the difference between storage virtualization and software-defined storage, in fact, storage virtualization can also be classified as software-defined storage, in fact, many virtualized storage vendors also do this. But strictly speaking, the two are slightly different, storage virtualization can generally only be used on specialized hardware devices, many have to use specially tailored equipment to carry out storage virtualization, while software-defined storage has no device limitations, and its simple and understandable achievement is a storage management program.

Software-defined storage can be like a combination of existing operating systems and management software, which can fully realize our multiple requirements for the deployment, management, monitoring, and adjustment of storage systems, and can bring flexibility, freedom, and high availability to our storage systems.

For the IT industry to realize this vision, it must move away from the purpose-built systems it relied on and move towards a more open storage architecture. With the advent of the big data era, software-defined storage will be applied to expand the capacity of the storage system, improve storage performance, and ensure system continuity, which is also the biggest advantage of software-defined storage.

Software-defined storage is essentially a server san, server hard disk software, which is equivalent to storage, and if you add computing functions, it is hyper-converged.

Storage virtualization is a gateway-type device, not storage, and if you don't have back-end storage, this device alone can't store data. You can also experiment with server hard disk software.

The main difference is that one is storage, and the other is only a gateway, and V7000, which is both storage and gateway, is not in the scope of discussion.