With the December 2021 update for APEX DSS, Dell Technologies has now an option to provide a colocation capability for APEX DSS customers. This article will walk you through this new feature in the following aspects:

• APEX DSS in Colocation: Overview
• APEX DSS in Colocation: Architecture
• APEX DSS in Colocation: Shared responsibility model

APEX DSS in Colocation: Overview

Dell Technologies APEX Data Storage Services is an as-a-Service portfolio of scalable and elastic, outcome-based storage resources delivered so that customers only pay for what they use with the ability to scale up and down, delivered to the service level they need with infrastructure that is owned and maintained by Dell Technologies.

APEX Data Storage Services in colocation are storage services hosted at Dell Technologies’ partners that provide colocation data centers for customers and the deployment is in Dell-managed colocation facilities. Dell Technologies offers leading storage solution services for file, block, and object storage, backed by proven, best-in-class Dell storage technologies. File and Object storage are provided with Dell PowerScale appliances; Block storage is provided with Dell PowerStore appliances.

Storage Services includes a core set of infrastructure management capabilities, from deployment to ongoing monitoring, operations, optimization, and support, plus a clearly defined process for renewals and decommission at the end of service. A self-service portal console, the APEX Console, allows customers to identify, configure, deploy, monitor, and expand the solutions quickly. As non-colo APEX deployment, you can file a service ticket for advanced operations.

APEX DSS in Colocation: Architecture

The following figure shows the overall architecture of the APEX DSS in Colocation.

Dell Technologies data centers host the APEX Console and APEX backend systems. APEX Console is a secure portal for customers to manage and monitor their storage in the APEX Data Storage Services in colocation.

The Management Zone in the colocation is used for managing the service components in the management and customer zones, including availability management, patch management, and logging and monitoring.

The Customer Zone is where the storage appliances reside, and where customer data is stored. Customers have three options for accessing the customer zone and its data:

• (A) From the customer’s own colocation environment
  • Data access to customer’s own colocation environment. Direct connection from a customer provided instance like a bare-metal server or virtual machine in same colocation provider/partner (same provider/partner that Dell Technologies is using); connects with dedicated fabric port and VLAN.
• (B) Through the customer’s cloud service provider (CSP)
  • Data access to customer’s cloud service provider (CSP) – Direct connection from a Cloud (hyperscaler or other cloud connection available in same colocation (same provider that Dell Technologies is using); connects with dedicated fabric port and VLAN.
• (C) From the customer’s on-premises data center
  • Data access to customer’s on-premises data center – on-premises replication over MPLS or Direct Internet; connects into Dell Technologies colocation partner fabric with a dedicated crossconnect.

APEX DSS in Colocation: Shared responsibility model

The security of APEX Data Storage Services in colocation is a shared responsibility between Dell Technologies and the customer:

• Dell Technologies is responsible for securing the data storage service and protecting the infrastructure that runs the service. This infrastructure is composed of hardware, software, networking, and facilities.
• The customer is responsible for securing their data within the storage service. Ensuring data security and maintaining security controls for accessing the data are always the responsibility of the customer.

The following figure shows the areas of responsibility between Dell Technologies and customers.

The overall security of this storage service is achieved through the shared responsibilities of Dell Technologies and customers.

Conclusion

To recap, for customer-owned storage inside a customer’s on-premises datacenter, the whole stack is owned, maintained, and paid for the customer.

The difference is that when consuming Dell APEX Data Services in colocation, many responsibilities are shifted from you to Dell Technologies, relieving you from worrying about the operational burdens of securing your infrastructure.

Author: Vincent Shen

There are all sorts of articles and information on various benefits of Kubernetes and container-based applications. When I first started using Kubernetes (K8s) a couple of years ago I noticed that storage, or Persistent Storage as it is known in K8s, has a new and exciting twist to storage management. Using the Container Storage Interface (CSI), storage provisioning is automated, providing real self-service for storage. Once my storage appliance was set up and my Dell EMC CSI driver was deployed, I was entirely managing my storage provisioning from within K8s!

Self-service realized

Earlier in my career as a SQL Server Database Administrator (DBA), I would have to be very planful about my storage requirements, submit a request to the storage team, listen to them moan and groan as if I asked for their first born child, then ultimately provide half of the storage I requested.  As my data requirements grew, I would have to repeat this process each time I needed more storage. In their defense, this was several years ago before data reduction and thin provisioning were common.

When running stateful applications and database engines, such as Microsoft SQL Server on K8s, the application owner or database administrator no longer needs to involve the storage administrator when provisioning storage. Volume creation, volume deletion, host mapping, and even volume expansion and snapshots are handled through the CSI driver! All the common functions that you need for day-to-day storage management data are provided by the K8s control plane through common commands.

K8s storage management

When Persistent Storage is required in Kubernetes, using the K8s control plane commands, you create a Persistent Volume Claim (PVC). The PVC contains basic information such as the name, storage type, and the size.

To increase the volume size, you simply modify the size in the PVC definition. Want to manage snapshots? That too can also be done through K8s commands. When it’s time to delete the volume, simply delete the PVC.

Because the CSI storage interface is generic, you don’t need to know the details of the storage appliance. Those details are contained in the CSI driver configuration and a storage class that references it. Therefore, the provisioning commands are the same across different storage appliances.

Rethinking storage provisioning

It’s a whole new approach to managing storage for data hungry applications that not only enables application owners but also challenges how storage management is done and the traditional roles in a classic IT organization. With great power comes great responsibility!

For more information, you can find lots of great material and detailed examples for Dell EMC PowerStore here: Databases and Data Analytics | Dell Technologies Info Hub

You can find complete information on all Dell EMC storage products on Dell Technologies Info Hub.

All Dell EMC CSI drivers and complete documentation can be found on GitHub. Complete information on Kubernetes and CSI is also found on GitHub.

Author: Doug Bernhardt

Twitter: @DougBern

www.linkedin.com/in/doug-bernhardt-data