What is a storage virtualization?
Computer data is stored on discs and in solid status media for availability within days, months or years. In small systems such as a personal computer, there is a CPU and one or two hard drives. When the disk fails or comes from space, another disk must be added manually and the data must be placed on this disc. There may be hundreds of discs and digital storage systems in large systems and the complexity of information management increases significantly. Storage virtualization is a grouping of storage devices so that it seems to be one large storage device.
In a simple system, whenever the program needs access to the file, it requires an operating system. The operating system maps it to a specific disk location. If it has a disk, say, 10 capacity gigabytes, then the disc cannot process data beyond this size. With the virtualization of the storage, the request for space larger than the disk size is automatically routed behind the scenes to another disk.
Storage virtualization can be processed with hardware or software or a combination of these two. It has many advantages. The data can be moved from one device to another behind the scenes, while the system brings requirements, and the request is automatically routed to a new location. If the storage device must be added or removed, this can be done without reducing the system. This increases the availability of the system for final users.
In virtualization of storage, information can be intelligently managed; For example, data that is accessible less frequently can be moved to a slower device. The use of storage space can be improved. Each storage device in itself may have unused space, but this unused space can be too small to be used for one file that the operating system wants to place. With virtualization of storage, unused space on multiple deviations is automatically "accumulated" because parts of the file can be saved on separate cutsOutněch.
The physical group of storage devices is considered to be one device in terms of the operating system. As a result, the operating system does not have to track multiple devices and how to approach them. As a result, storage equipment can be used smoothly from multiple manufacturers, provided they support the virtualization of the storage. Data is often replicated to protect against data loss. Such replication is also smoothly processed.
The storage virtualization provides the storage system it needs without being blocked by restrictions on individual devices. Now, of course, a large amount of information has been virtualized. It is very important that this information is maintained in a way resistant to failure, usually by storing them in multiple places.