Qlogic SANblade QLA2300 Supplementary Manual

Brand: Qlogic

Model: SANblade QLA2300

Type: Supplementary Manual

This manual is also suitable for

SANbox2 SANbox2-64

C A S E S T U D Y

IP Tech AG

QLogic Switches and HBAs Make

Light Work of Heavy Data Load

Problem

Data levels exceed existing storage capacity, restricting

business performance, and leaving network vulnerable

to downtime

Solution

2 SANbox2 16-port switches

13 SANblade QLA2300 Series host bus adapters

SAN Components

2 SANbox2 16-port switches

13 SANblade QLA2300 Series host bus adapters

Dot Hill SANnet 7280 storage system

Applications

Clients: Rat Hat Linux 7.3

Storage Pool: Sistina GFS 5.1.1

Result

A SAN providing the capacity to grow in line with

increasing business demands

•

IP Tech AG is one of the top ﬁve Internet service providers in Switzerland. The

company hosts more than 30,000 web domains, 15,000 mail domains and

over 1,000 databases. The increase in the volume of customers resulted in a

dramatic rise of data throughput, which the existing network-attached storage

(NAS) infrastructure could not cope with effectively. IP Tech AG was left unable

to deliver the necessary services to its customers in times of heavy usage, and

the existing NAS and local area network (LAN) were vulnerable to complete

shutdown if a single point of failure occurred. A storage area network (SAN) -

based on QLogic® SANbox2™ 16-port switches and SANblade™ QLA®2300

host bus adapters (HBAs) - was introduced to provide IP Tech with the failover

and low-latency throughput capabilities it required.

It had soon become apparent to IP Tech AG that its existing infrastructure was

incapable of providing the company with the capacity needed to service its own

growing customer base to the desired level of quality. Performance demands were

outstripping actual storage capacity and the increase in data throughput showed

no signs of abating. The infrastructure began to show signs of vulnerability with

the whole system likely to fail in the event of a single malfunction. This was a

major, business-critical issue that had to be addressed.

“Our existing solution was exceeding its capacity in terms of operational

levels and CPU load,” comments Kilian Looser, co-partner of IP Tech AG. “We

quickly realized we needed to evaluate our existing solution and address

its weaknesses in order to be able to fully support our customers. We pride

ourselves on the quality of service we provide in terms of performance,

scalability, availability and data protection. Our incumbent system was just

not up to the job.”

A SAN was deemed the best solution to meet IP Tech’s needs. Replacing

the NAS infrastructure, the SAN connects the existing LAN with a cluster ﬁle

system and utilizes two QLogic SANbox2™ 16-port switches. The beneﬁt

of this is that if one component fails, the other can automatically take over,

eliminating any downtime.

“We decided to use the SANbox2 switches because they meet the exacting, current and fu-

ture mission-critical demands that an organization of IP Tech’s size has. QLogic’s switches

are extremely reliable and scalable. Benchmark tests indicate that QLogic currently offers

the industry’s best throughput rates and lowest latency, even when network trafﬁc is at its

peak. QLogic’s commitment to interoperability guarantees that the investment IP Tech has

made in both hardware and software is protected.”

– Marc Grimme, managing director, ATIX GmbH, the German

consulting organization in charge of the project

Corporate Headquarters QLogic Corporation 26650 Aliso Viejo Parkway Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 949.389.6000 www.qlogic.com

Europe Headquarters QLogic (UK) LTD. Surrey Technology Centre 40 Occam Road Guildford Surrey GU2 7YG UK +44 (0)1483 295825

C A S E S T U D Y

Marc Grimme, managing director, ATIX GmbH, the German consulting

organization in charge of the project, comments, “We decided to use

the SANbox2 switches because they meet the exacting, current and

future mission-critical demands that an organization of IP Tech’s

size has. QLogic’s switches are extremely reliable and scalable.

Benchmark tests indicate that QLogic currently offers the industry’s

best throughput rates and lowest latency, even when network trafﬁc

is at its peak.” He continues, “QLogic’s commitment to interoperability

guarantees that the investment IP Tech has made in both hardware

and software is protected.

” The SAN acts as an interface between the LAN and storage pool,

which consists of thirteen servers, all equipped with QLogic SANblade

2300 Series HBAs. The servers are connected by a thirteen-node

Linux cluster and are grouped into three logical units:

Apache Web server

qmail email server

MySQL database server

•

On top of these sits a GFS cluster ﬁle system from software vendor

Sistina, ensuring that all servers can share and access the same data.

An IP Director helps avoid bottlenecks by allocating the load according

to the monitored CPU strains of the single server. In addition, all paths

have been designed redundantly to ensure transparent failover in

case of server failure. A single point of control has been set up for

conﬁguration, monitoring and management to simplify administration.

The two-dimensional cluster system is separated from the storage

layer, allowing additional CPU power to be added instantly if required. “

Our new SAN solution has gone beyond simply meeting our

expectations,” comments Killian Looser. “The cluster system is now

stable, successfully eliminating the problems we used to face. The

server load has been reduced by 15 to 20 percent following the

deployment of the low-latency SAN. The overall result is that we are

better able to serve our client base and have the capacity to meet

future demands.”

IP Tech AG

©2003 QLogic Corporation. All rights reserved. QLogic, the QLogic logo, Powered by QLogic, the Powered by QLogic logo, QLA and SANbox are registered trademarks of QLogic Corporation. SANbox2 is a trademark of QLogic Corporation, which may be

registered in some jurisdictions. All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Information supplied by QLogic Corporation is believed to be accurate and reliable. QLogic Corporation assumes no

responsibility for any errors in this brochure. QLogic Corporation reserves the right, without notice, to make changes in product design or speciﬁcations.

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