When I downloaded the Virtualizations/Applications tutorial, though, I hoped for a simple explanation, preferably a video with one-syllable words, of the benefits of dynamic provisioning. Instead I found three PowerPoint presentations full of sophisticated network-speak.
So I did what any writer would do. I wrote down the phrases that appealed to me. Here they are:
- Heuristic shifting
- Transparent on-the-fly reconfiguration
- Virtual disks
- Switch-based fabric topology is preferable to appliance-based failover mechanisms
- A smart switch comprises a metadata controller and a data controller
- A full block copy is better than a live volume
- Volume updates replicate to remote servers
- "Do not rely on only one network-based appliance or intelligent switch only"
- You use two redundant volumes, one active and one passive, stored in a mirrored backend. The passive one has host-based multipathing software
- Policy-based service level management handles error-prone administrative tasks such as storage provisioning. In fact, policy-based service must have no user interaction. This one made me think of Vonnegut's Player Piano.
- " Map storage to server volume(s) (online)!!" This one is obviously important because it has two exclamation marks
- Hypervisor This is a new word to me, and I like it.
Finally, slide 21 of Trends in Application Recovery by Andreas Schwegman makes it all worthwhile. So grab some popcorn and download those tutorials.
