© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage Module 2.5

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 2 Module Objectives Upon completion of this module, you will be able to:  Describe CAS, fixed content and archives, traditional storage solutions for archive  Describe the features and benefits of a CAS based storage strategy  List the physical and logical elements of CAS  Describe the storage and retrieval process for CAS data objects  Describe the best suited operational environments for CAS solutions

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 3 Lesson: CAS Overview Upon completion of this lesson, you be able to:  Define Content Addressed Storage (CAS)  Describe traditional archival solutions and its shortcoming  List benefits of CAS

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 4 What is Content Addressed Storage (CAS)  CAS is a solution for fixed content  Object-oriented, location-independent approach to data storage  Repository for the “Objects”  Access mechanism to interface with repository  Globally unique identifiers provide access to objects

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 5 What are Fixed Content and Archives Electronic Documents Contracts, claims, etc. and attachments Financial spread sheets CAD/CAM designs Presentations Digital Records Documents – Checks, securities trades – Historical preservation Photographs – Personal / professional Surveys – Seismic, astronomic, geographic Digital Assets Retained For Active Reference And Value Leverage Historical Value Improve Service Levels Generate New Revenues Rich Media Medical – X-rays, MRIs, CTI Video – News / media, movies – Security surveillance Audio – Voic – Radio

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 6 Challenges of Storing Fixed Content  Fixed content is growing at more than 90% annually – Significant amount of newly created information falls into this category – New regulations require retention and data protection  Often, long-term preservation is required (years-decades)  Simultaneous multi-user online access is preferable to offline storage  Need faster access to fixed content  Need for location independent data, enabling technology refresh and migration  Traditional storage methods are inadequate

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 7 Traditional storage solutions for Archive  Three categories of archival solution are: – Online, nearline, and offline based on the means of access  Traditional archival solution were offline – Traditional archival process used optical disks and tapes as media for archival – An archive is often stored on a Write Once Read Many (WORM) device, such as a CD-ROM

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 8 Shortcomings of Traditional Archiving Solutions  Tape is slow, and standards are always changing  Optical is expensive, and requires vast amounts of media  Recovering files from tape and optical is often time consuming  Data on tape and optical is subject to media degradation  Both solution require sophisticated media management CAS has emerged as an alternative to traditional archiving solutions

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 9 Benefits of CAS  Content authenticity  Content integrity  Location independence  Single-instance storage (SiS)  Retention enforcement  Record-level protection and disposition  Technology independence  Fast record retrieval

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 10 Benefits of CAS  Content authenticity  Content integrity  Location independence  Single-instance storage (SiS)  Retention enforcement  Record-level protection and disposition  Technology independence  Fast record retrieval

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 11 Lesson Summary Key points covered in this lesson:  CAS Definition  Challenges of Storing Fixed Content  Shortcomings of Traditional Archiving Solutions  Benefits of CAS

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 12 Lesson: CAS Architecture Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:  Describe CAS architecture  Describe Physical and logical elements of CAS  Describe data storage and retrieval process in CAS environment  CAS examples

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 13 Physical Elements of CAS  Storage devices (CAS Based)  Servers (to which storage devices get connected)  Client Server Private LAN Storage Nodes Access Nodes CAS System IP API

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 14 CAS Terminology  Application Programming Interface (API) – A set of function calls that enables communication between applications or between an application and an operating system  Access Profile – Used by access applications to authenticate CAS Cluster, and by CAS Clusters to authenticate themselves to each other  Virtual Pools – Enable a single logical cluster to be broken up into multiple logical groupings of data  BLOB – The Distinct Bit Sequence (DBS) of user data represents the actual content of a file and is independent of the filename and physical location Pool 1 Profiles API

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 15 CAS Terminology (Cont)  C-Clip – A package containing the user's data and associated metadata – C-Clip ID (C-Clip handle or C-Clip reference) is the CA that the system returns to the client application  Content Address (CA) – An identifier that uniquely addresses the content of a file and not its location. Unlike location-based addresses, content addresses are inherently stable and, once calculated, they never change and always refer to the same content  C-Clip Descriptor File (CDF) – The additional XML file that the system creates when making a C-Clip. This file includes the content addresses for all referenced BLOBs and associated metadata

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 16 How CAS Stores a Data Object Application Server Client CAS Client presents data to API to be archived 1 Unique Content Address is calculated 2 Object is sent to CAS via CAS API over IP 3 CAS authenticates the Content Address and stores the object 4 Acknowledgement returned to application 5 Object-ID is retained and stored for future use 6 API Object ID

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 17 Application Server Client CAS Object is needed by an application 1 CAS authenticates the request and delivers the object 4 Application finds Content Address of object to be retrieved 2 Retrieval request is sent to the CAS via CAS API over IP 3 How CAS Retrieves a Data Object API Object ID

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 18 CAS Features  Features available with most CAS systems are: – Integrity checking – Data protection  Local replication  Remote replication – Load balancing – Scalability – Self-diagnosis and repair – Report generation and event notification – Fault tolerance – Audit trails

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 19 Example 1: CAS Healthcare Solution  Each X-ray image ranges from about 15MB to over 1GB  Patient record is stored online for a period of days  Beyond 90 days patient records are archived Data Stored on CAS Patient Studies Stored locally for Short-Term Use (60 Days) Hospital CAS System Application Server API

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 20 Example 2: CAS Financial Solution  Check image size is about 25KB  Check imaging service provider may process 50–90 million check images per month  Checks are stored online for a period of 60 days  Beyond 60 days data is archived Bank CAS System Application Server API

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 21 Lesson Summary Key points covered in this lesson:  CAS architecture  Physical and logical elements of CAS  CAS storage and retrieval process  CAS solution examples

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 22 Module Summary Key points covered in this module:  Benefits of CAS based storage strategy  Overview of physical and logical elements of CAS  Storing and retrieving data from CAS  CAS application examples

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 23 Concept in Practice – EMC Centera  Centera Architecture – Based on RAIN (Redundant Array of Independent Node)  Access Node  Storage Node Access/Storage Nodes Private LAN Storage Nodes ContentMirrored Content Power Rails Ethernet Switch Ethernet Switch LAN To Server

© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Content Addressed Storage - 24 Check Your Knowledge  What are the key features of a CAS implementation?  What are the benefits of a CAS Storage Strategy?  What are 2 business applications that would benefit from CAS technology?  What are the logical elements of a CAS system?  How does data get stored in a CAS environment?