For the past several years, many of my colleagues and I have been updating and adding to the EMC Networked Storage Topology Guide. While all of this work has made it a great technical resource (IMHO), it has also grown the topology guide into a 2500 page, 60 MB .pdf “monster” that is somewhat cumbersome to download and use. Another concern with the current topology guide is its searchability. Due to it being available only via powerlink, none of the information contained within it would turn up when a google search was performed for that topic. Despite these limitations, the topology guide is one of the most frequently downloaded EMC publications and we wanted to find a way to make it easier to use.
The solution has taken a group of people many months to implement and the results of our efforts are now available as a new set of EMC TechBooks. These new TechBooks have been broken down by topic and as a result are smaller and easier to download. Also, since the techbooks are now available without the need to login to powerlink, the information contained within is now searchable.
As you will note below, I’ve provided a link to each of the new TechBooks as well as a brief description that was provided by the authors. If you should happen to notice a problem or want to see us provide additional detail on a certain topic, please let us know by sending an email to [email protected].
Backup and Recovery in a SAN TechBook - Provides information on traditional backup and recovery architecture, SAN-based backup and recovery technologies, and disk and tape backup and recovery. Some case studies are included.
Building Secure SANs TechBook - Identifies and exemplifies some common SAN security attacks, presents some built-in and bolt-on mechanisms to enhance SAN security, and provides some insight on how to implement various product-specific security mechanisms.
Extended Distance Technologies TechBook - Provides a basic understanding of distance extension technologies and information to consider when working with extended distance. IP-based distance extension solutions are also included.
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE): Data Center Bridging (DCB) Concepts and Protocols TechBook - Provides a high-level overview of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), the supported configurations and features, and examples for incorporating FCoE into an existing data center. Discussion of Ethernet basics is included. Setup examples for Nexus Series, Virtual PortChannel (vPC), and MP-8000B are provided. EMC RecoverPoint and Celerra MPFS solutions are discussed. Basic troubleshooting techniques are also presented.
Fibre Channel SAN Topologies TechBook - Provides a high-level overview of Fibre Channel SAN topologies, discusses simple and complex Fibre Channel SAN topologies, and provides case studies for Brocade Virtual Fabrics and EMC RecoverPoint. FICON connectivity is also discussed.
iSCSI SAN Topologies TechBook - Provides a high-level overview of iSCSI SAN topologies and includes basic information about TCP/IP technologies and iSCSI solutions.
Networked Storage Concepts and Protocols TechBook - Provides fundamental information about Fibre Channel. It presents fabric design considerations, explains how SAN technology works, and describes IP SAN concepts. Extended distance technologies and solutions are also discussed.
Storage Virtualization and Replication Technologies TechBook - Provides a high-level overview of storage virtualization and replication, including EMC’s Invista, RecoverPoint, and VPLEX. It also provides information for SAN connectivity for Invista and RecoverPoint. Basic information on interswitch link hops, along with examples showing hop counts in four different fabric configurations is included.
WAN Optimization Controller Technologies TechBook - Provides a high-level overview of the WAN Optimization Controller (WOC), including network and deployment topologies, storage and replication application, FCIP configurations, and WAN Optimization Controller appliances.
Thanks for reading!