Staying in Control

EMC Corp.s Control Center 5.1.1 shows that the powerful hardware vendor is serious about becoming a legitimate software company—even if that means supporting the products of rival vendors.

EMC Control Center 5.1.1, which started shipping last month, is basically a management framework, to which several EMC tools can connect to add functionality. Control Center 5.1.1 is free with the purchase of any of the applications that plug into it.

These plug-ins, all of which are available now, include two that especially intrigued eWEEK Labs: EMCs ARM (Automatic Resource Manager) application, priced at $5,800, which keeps track of storage resources and automatically provisions additional storage when needed, and the $3,300 StorageScope application, which tracks historical use of network storage.

Also available are Common Array Manager, priced at $1,000, which works on multiple platforms and manages RAID arrays; the $16,000 SAN Manager, which provides comprehensive network management; and WorkLoad Analyzer, a database monitoring tool priced at $6,600.

In some respects, Control Center is more of a family of products than a single offering. Many software vendors sell families of storage products, including applications such as SRM (storage resource management) and storage network management. However, this is the first time weve seen host and database monitoring and management capabilities hooked into a storage management framework.

Using Control Center 5.1.1, we could not only manage and monitor enterprise-class RAID units, but also look after SAN (storage area network) switches and even monitor a wide variety of Unix and Windows hosts and databases (see screen).

In tests, we were impressed by Control Centers array of host- monitoring and management capabilities, which separate it from most of the storage management packages weve seen and put it closer to the enterprise system management market.

Armed and Capable

Armed and Capable

From a storage management standpoint, the frameworks ARM application is one of the most impressive plug-ins we saw in Control Center 5.1.1.

Storage management is no simple automation task, and this products agility in juggling all aspects of it—including the complexity of current SANs and important configuration variables such as zoning, LUN (logical unit number) masking and fabric management—is remarkable. Even more impressive is that ARM works with multiple hosts.

However, the ARM application currently works only with EMCs Symmetrix and Clariion arrays and with Hewlett-Packard Co.s StorageWorks arrays. We believe EMC must add support for other important RAID unit vendors to maximize ARMs market potential. EMC plans to support Hitachi Data Systems Corp. and IBM arrays in the future, officials said.

Once storage usage hits a preset threshold, ARM quickly carves out additional storage from an available array and presents it to the server. ARM automatically communicates with SAN switches (it currently supports switches from Brocade Communications Systems Inc. and McData Corp.) and ensures that servers have network links to the storage arrays.

Should any part of the automated procedure fail (including the RAID configuration or SAN switch configuration), ARM automatically discontinues operations and brings the SAN back to its previous working condition.

We were also very impressed with EMCs StorageScope application. StorageScope allows IT managers to create reports to see resource usage trends and more accurately plan future storage hardware acquisitions.

Like other SRM software weve seen, StorageScope did a good job of pooling data and presenting it in useful reports. Equipped with these reports, an IT manager could track down with relative ease the storage usage of specific users and departments and subsequently could set up chargeback services to justify IT spending.

Within the framework, Control Center 5.1.1 uses programmable response loops to keep things running as smoothly as possible. These loops determine who gets contacted in the event of a failure, such as an application fault, or if storage demand exceeds capacity.

In tests, we easily set up the response loop so that a system administrator would be the first person contacted in an emergency. We could also specify that an e-mail or page be sent to the backup administrator or an IT manager if the administrator didnt respond within a specified amount of time.

Control Center 5.1.1 can push SNMP traps out to other management tools, which is a good feature for organizations that have large investments in management packages such as HPs OpenView.

Control Center 5.1.1 also has some administrative granularity built in to it to help control multiuser access into the management console.

Control Center harnesses Windows 2000 to create and authenticate Control Center users; user and group policies can be created to restrict or expand access to specific EMC tools, such as StorageScope or RAID configuration tools.

We liked the fact that changes are tracked on a user-by-user basis because this is an important capability for auditing purposes.

Control Center 5.1.1 has some auto-discovery capabilities (to detect newly introduced storage units and databases), but dont expect it to discover everything on a SAN. It wont detect all SAN switches, for example, nor will it discover all database elements.

However, as Control Center continues to improve as a management suite, the auto-discovery functions should become more comprehensive.

Executive Summary

: EMC Control Center 5.1.1″>

Executive Summary: EMC Control Center 5.1.1

EMCs upgraded Control Center is a powerful suite that provides an enhanced framework for storage hardware and networking and server management. Currently, much of the suites functionality works only on EMC hardware, but if interoperability improves as expected, Control Center could become a major force in the storage management market.

COST ANALYSIS

Control Center 5.1.1 is designed to reduce management costs, but IT managers should expect to take an initial budget hit for acquisition, implementation and training expenses. The relatively simple interface should make it easy to learn, but it could take weeks or even months to master all the features. In the longer term, Control Centers automation functions should enable IT managers to use less staff to manage ever-expanding storage infrastructure.

(+) Easy to navigate; wide range of management and monitoring capabilities; good reporting and alerting functions.

(-) Currently limited to EMC, HP arrays; limited auto-discovery capabilities.

EVALUATION SHORT LIST

• Fujitsu Software Technology Corp.s Softek Storage Manager
• Veritas Software Corp.s SANPoint Control
• www.emc.com