compliances , itil , security

ITIL – Storage Infrastructure Redundancy

June 23, 2012

It is assumed that Enterprise service delivery teams have configured the underlying infrastructure to eliminate as many single points of failure as possible. The following best practices and redundancies are assumed to exist in the network, server and storage infrastructures:

1) Redundant fiber-channel and / or Ethernet (for FCoE / iSCSI implementation) switches connected to redundant ports on the storage array.

2) Storage array has redundant processors, ports (SAN and Ethernet), and power supplies.

3) Storage volumes are created on RAID groups that meet recommended performance requirements and are capable and are capable of continuing to function after the loss of one or more hard disks or disk sets.

4) Redundant Ethernet switches and routers for business-critical networks (including WAN networks)

5) Multiple network paths between corporate datacenters and satellite locations (where practical / possible)

6) Servers with redundant power supplies

7) Servers have redundant network and storage network ports / cards (e.g. NIC, SCSI, HBA CAN, etc…)

8) Servers have multiple internal hard disks configured in an appropriate RAID configuration to meet performance requirements and provide protection from the failure of a single drive.

9) Each rack / cabinet should have multiple power feeds from separate and redundant power distribution units (PDU) (where possible).

10) Datacenters should be equipped with redundant power (including generators, UPS system, etc…) sources

11)  Datacenters should have sufficient cooling capacity to allow for the failure of a cooling unit

12)  Multiple WAN providers (where practical / possible)