Recently, I just haven’t been able to go a day without reading something about the topic of Thin Provisioning. For those of you unaware of this feature, it’s a technique for providing an application or user a prescribed amount of dedicated storage without actually permanently allocating it. For example, let’s say an application is setup and an admin wants to give it a 100Gbyte volume. Thin provisioning allows the underlying storage system to merely give it what it needs, up to a maximum of 10Gbytes. Microsoft Windows has a feature like this called Dynamic Disks. But it has other names too, like Over Subscription or Sparse File.

On the surface, this can seem like a great thing. Gee, let’s just give the app what it thinks it needs, but fool him in the end because he really doesn’t know what he wants.

Utilizing sparseness isn’t a new thing by any stretch of the imagination. But is it really an End User benefit? Let’s look at some examples of how this underlying feature can be helpful:

1. An application requires 100Gbytes of iSCSI storage, so we go ahead and carve out that space. If that space is provided via a volume manager of some type and 100Gbytes of extents are merely allocated, this process could take only a few seconds to complete. If, however, the space is really a file on a file system, then it could be an entirely different story. The file has to be created and possibly filled in order to ensure that the allocated space deducts from what should be remaining in the pool. But this process could take minutes or longer to complete depending on the size. Keeping the file sparse and merely allocating the proper number of extents by making a file system call can take a couple seconds. The file is still sparse, but creation and allocation process is very quick and the admin can be done with his setup in a jiffy.
2. Another possible usage, as it was recently relayed to me, is when it comes to planning storage growth IT personnel will look at how much storage they have deployed and purchase an appropriate amount of tape and other supporting infrastructure. I was told about how this overallocation leads to propagation of more over allocation. By utilizing Thin Provisioning, one has a “truer” sense of what is used and what needs to be procured for backup and replication. Yeah, okay!
3. Then there’s the case of… lost my thought…

I really am not trying to dismiss the benefits of this technique. But my belief is that it really is just a technique and not a feature. If it is in fact a feature for IT personnel, then CIOs should be very concerned about the organizations they’re building as their personnel are becoming lazy in their responsibilities. The only way the becomes a feature in IT organizations is if it’s tied in on some type of a leasing plan where you only are billed for the amount of storage that is actually consumed. This is much like the processor leasing feature that Sun has utilized in their big enterprise servers where you take a multi-CPU platform and only pay more as you start utilizing more CPUs. But think about that feature for second. Again, it’s a classic case of not knowing how much you really need.

Sparseness has its place and I use it all the time. Whenever I wish to create a new iSCSI or SAS or other type of volume for an application, I always carve it out as a file. But I do this by marking the beginning and the end of the file. The file may look to be 100Gbytes in size when I run an “ls -lah”, but performing a subsequent “df” on my system may reveal I’ve only consumed 100Mbytes. To keep a running tab of what I allocate vs. what’s available, I simply make a file system allocation call to allocate the appropriate number of file system extents as I create the file associated with my virtual block device. Now, my “df” results will coincide with my “ls -lah” results and they system and all my apps are none the wiser.

What’s the benefit to me? Easy to explain. I do not believe in provisioning X% block and Y% file when I deploy storage. First of all, I’m too cheap to simply buy that much storage. Instead, I make my storage 100% file and simply create a block device on top of that file system. Generating sparse files helps me to shorten the formatting time for my block devices from minutes to seconds. And if I later find out that I need more block storage, I can simply append to the existing file or create another file-based block device and do some type of concatenation. Or if I need less block storage, I can truncate the file to something smaller than what I allocated, but greater than what I’ve actually consumed. All of these operations take just seconds to perform.

Rolling these techniques into a product is what I do. Or really, my engineering team does. I just come up with the stupid ideas and the possible prototypes. They make sure I don’t slit my throat But it’s a technique, not a feature. If it is an end user feature, then I fail to see what the benefit is; and I learned a long time ago that “features without benefits don’t sell”.

Technorati Tags: Thin Provisioning, 3Par, Storage, Equal Logic

For the most part, I really don’t like reality shows. Anyone who knows me knows this to be the case. The one exception was Combat Missions, a reality show that pitted various special forces and S.W.A.T. teams against each other. But in the end, I really didn’t care for some of the things that went on there. I was actually ashamed of the behavior of some of the SEALs, whom I found to be whiny and bitchy. Just not consistent behavior for most of the SEALs I’ve known.

Anyway, this particular season of Survivor had a contestant by the name of Yau-Man Chan. This mid-50s engineer was quite the surprising competitor. I really figured he’d excel on a number of the puzzle challenges. But on the physical ones? No way. Well, he proved me wrong. I especially liked this one challenge where they had to use a bow and arrow. Some of the other contestants were laughing and dismissing him, which I found quite rude. And another contestant was found bragging about how good he was with the bow. LOL! He looked like an idiot when he shot the ground. Yau-Man, on the other hand, tore it up. He did great. This seemed to be typical for him on other challenges as well.

But none of this is my reason for posting.  I was very impressed by this man’s character and wisdom on this show. He had made a pact with one of the other contestants and sealed it with giving the other guy a brand new Ford F350 pickup. All this other guy had to do was give up the immunity idol if he won it once they got down to the final 4 contestants. Sure, it’s a lot to ask for. But then again, it was a big “what-if” that this other contestant would even be in such a position. After all, Yau-Man was no slouch and he had just won this incredible truck. Well, suffice it to say, the guy won the challenge as Yau-Man had hoped. But what did the other guy do? He kept the idol. This wouldn’t be good TV if he had kept his word.

Where am I going with all of this? Despite all of the contempt for this one individual, and the urgings to sue or to take back the truck, Yau-Man reminded the guy that it was a gift and that he should enjoy it. Regardless of everything else said and done since then, that moved and impressed me. What a remarkable demonstration of forgiveness and grace– two things this world can stand to see more of.

In the last couple of days, I’ve had the privilege of exchanging some emails with Yau-Man. He shared with me how he felt about the whole thing and what his motivation was during the show and especially in light of this betrayal. I won’t post his response without his approval, but suffice it to say he impressed me further.

I’m not too old, I don’t think. I’m 39 and will be 40 in September. But I’ve been around enough to realize that while Yau-Man may have lost the $1M award, he has earned the admiration of respect of millions, which is worth much, much more. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up earning a lot more than what many feel he was entitled to. I wish all the best for him. And for the contestant who showed zero courage, integrity or maturity, I hope he can find the grace and self-forgiveness to live with himself. I don’t think he understood the full significance of his compromise. If he did, he would have handed the idol over to Yau-Man immediately upon receiving it.

Not my usual style of post, I know. But then again, there’s little that really impresses me these days. An exception was certainly called for.

Technorati Tags: Survivor, Yau-Man

I was totally stoked to read this news about Netgear’s most recent acquisition. A couple of my friends and former co-founders of NetAttach joined Infrant six years ago. It’s hard to believe they’ve been there for so long. I thought for sure I could convince a couple of them to join me in my new company. But nope! Now it all comes clear. I think it’s safe to say that I knew something was up. Having been through 4 of these myself, I can get a sense of what’s going on by what’s not being said. Make sense?

Anyway, if I publish their email addresses, do you think ya’ll can spam them about investing? It seems fair don’t you think? After all, I’d do it for them. (Anyone who knows me, knows I may not invest in a company, but I always give to my friends.)

I wish them the best with the merger activities. And my new company’s site is currently under development. I’m excited to see the layout next week. Normally I’d do it myself, but just haven’t the time. In between dealing with attorneys and talking to investors and locking down a customer, I’ve been working on a new filesystem. So, been a little busy. Just ask those around me

And to my friends, “CONGRATULATIONS!!!”

Technorati Tags: Infrant, Netgear, NAS