Storage Area Network (SAN) Services
The IST Data Center is a state-of-the art facility for enterprise computing systems infrastructure, designed for maximum operational availability and self-sufficiency, seismic stability and physical security.
The IST SAN builds on these features to provide centralized, highly-available, highly-scalable data storage for a wide range of applications. With more than 800 Terabytes (TB) of capacity, and growing continuously, the SAN supports everything from high-performance mainframe and open-systems OLTP databases through application and file servers to near-line mass storage for imaging and other data repositories.
Availability: Hardware RAID prevents data loss due to disk failure. Redundancy of all SAN components eliminates service disruptions due to maintenance or equipment outage. Automated monitoring and fault notification, together with 24x7 onsite vendor support, insure that in practical terms your storage is always available.
Scalability: On the IST SAN, capacity allocations in most tiers are made in standard increments of 35GB, up to multiple TB per host. Clustered server configurations are supported. Connection of new servers on the SAN is normally completed within three to five business days after an order is processed. Capacity expansions for existing SAN hosts are often performed same-day. Note that individual requests for 1 TB or more of new or expansion storage capacity may require significantly longer lead times.
Performance: Advanced enterprise array technology, with very large amounts of cache and a variety of disk configurations available, enables performance optimization for differing application requirements. Five performance tiers are available: Premium, Enhanced, Standard, Economy and Mass.
- Premium tier storage is for high I/O enterprise systems, such as large OLTP database servers. Campuswide applications like Berkeley Financial System, Student Information System, and BAIRS use premium tier storage. It consists of high-speed, dual-ported Fiber Channel disk, in RAID-5 configuration. With large amounts of dedicated cache, this tier delivers at least 2500 I/Os Per Second (IOPS) per TB. Premium tier storage is priced at $3/GB per month, available as one or more 35 GB blocks.
- Enhanced tier storage is suitable for departmental application and database servers. WebFarm and CalShare use enhanced tier storage. It consists of mid-range, dual-ported Fiber Channel disk, RAID-5, providing at least 1200 IOPS per TB. It's priced at $1.50/GB per month, available as one or more 35 GB blocks.
- Standard tier storage is a good choice for departmental file shares, system monitoring logs and other large-volume, moderate I/O applications. It consists of high-capacity, dual-ported Fiber Channel disk, RAID-5, providing at least 500 IOPS per TB. High throughput for large-block sequential I/O is a characteristic of this tier. It's priced at $0.50/GB per month, available as one or more 35 GB blocks.
- Economy tier storage consists of SATA disk, RAID-5 or RAID-6. It's best for online archives and other high volume, low I/O applications. It's priced at $0.25/GB per month, available as one or more 100 GB blocks.
- Mass tier storage consists of SATA disk, in RAID-10 configuration. It's best for very large datasets with moderate I/O requirements. CalMail and UCBackup use mass tier storage. It's priced at $0.15/GB per month, with a minimum allocation of 5 TB.