Storage Networking World
April 6-9, 2009 at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida

Maximize your experience at SNW -- additional programs offer cutting edge perspectives and hands-on learning

SNW Hands-On Lab
A popular program offered at SNW, the Hands-On Lab provides the IT end-user attendee the opportunity to test-drive the latest technologies in a classroom setting that raises skill levels through personal discovery and hands-on experience. Organized in conjunction with the SNIA End User Council, SNIA Forums and participating SNW sponsors/exhibitors, the Hands-On Lab presents you with the rare opportunity to truly "try before you buy." During these two-hour sessions, attendees are guided through a series of exercises with representatives of participating vendor companies.

Hands-on Lab registration is available only to IT end users registered to attend SNW and will open approximately 60 days prior to the conference. All end user registrants will be notified by email of the Hands-on Lab schedules and options.

Sponsor companies provide products used in the Hands-on Labs and help to develop content as part of the curriculum. For more information on how vendor companies can participate in this "in-depth" program that engages users one-to-one contact: Amy McLellan at 508-820-8518 (amy_mclellan@computerworld.com)

Hands-On Lab Descriptions

Configuring IP SANs Hands-On Lab

Participating Companies – Dell, DoubleTake, HP, Microsoft, QLogic

This Lab guides students through the steps required to quickly setup and configure a fully featured Internet Protocol (IP) Storage Area Network (SAN).  Upon completion, attendees will better understand IP based SAN strategies and current capabilities and usage of IP Storage solutions.

Students will learn how to setup and configure a simple iSCSI SAN environment.  Students will also learn how to boot from an iSCSI SAN volume and setup and configure a high availability IP SAN using MPIO.  They will be able to setup and configure a network boot environment for iSCSI initiators.

Establishing a Virtualized Storage Environment Hands-On Lab

Participating Companies – Dell, EMC, IBM, ONStor

This Lab guides students through the steps required to establish a virtualized storage environment.  Upon completion, students will have a good basic understanding of how to set up and configure a block and file system virtualized storage environment with fault-tolerant protection.

Exercises will include basic file and block provisioning, data migration, volume expansion, and data protection.  Students will understand how to set up and take advantage of advanced virtualization features in a heterogeneous storage environment, including dynamic expansion and allocation of resources, replication, and data migration.

Managing Storage and Data Resources Hands-On Lab

Participating Companies – HP, SMI Initiative, Sun, Symantec, XAM Initiative

This Lab guides students through the steps required to discover and manage storage and data  resources.  Upon completion, attendees will have a good basic understanding of how to use Storage Resource Management (SRM) applications in SAN environments to efficiently manage standards-enabled storage area networking (SAN) resources, and how applications take advantage of the eXtensible Access Method (XAM) for data query and retention.

Each session begins with a short presentation on the current capabilities of the Storage Management Initiative standard and its roadmap.  Students then learn about automated SAN discovery, topology rendering and reporting, SAN health and utilization monitoring, capacity management, and switch zoning.  They will also understand how to implement storage system LUN mapping and masking in a standardized platform independent multi–vendor storage resource management environment.  Students will participate in email and database archiving exercises based on the SNIA XAM specification that illustrate how to relocate data across diverse hardware platforms without compromising data integrity.

Securing and Protecting Your Environment Hands-On Lab

Participating Companies –Data Domain, HP, LSI, Microsoft, NetApp

This Lab focuses on data protection and storage security, and guides students through activities that help protect their environment and minimize risk. Upon completion, attendees will better understand the steps involved in data encryption, key management, remote laptop security, building archival systems, data backup and data deduplication.

Students will gain knowledge of software- and hardware-based encryption methods and transparent distribution of keys.  They will learn how to encrypt backup data, send encrypted backup jobs to disk and tape, and recover files. Exercises will illustrate remote authentication key recovery.  Students will learn how to consolidate backups and protect servers as a single unit. Students will complete exercises in data duplication of storage systems targeted for backup archive and replication capabilities.

Server Virtualization Hands-On Lab

Participating Companies – Data Domain, HP, Intel, Microsoft, NetApp, Quantum, QLogic, VMware

This new Lab for SNW Fall 2008 guides students through techniques to manage shared storage (NAS, FC-SAN, IP-SAN) in a virtual host environment.   Upon completion, students will have an understanding of the benefits of a utility-based computing model and the advantages of host virtualization with shared storage.

Students will learn how to perform initial server virtualization tasks including creating virtual disks, installing the operating system, and virtual machine migration.  Additional exercises include backup and recovery using data de-duplication, accelerating performance, increasing availability, load balancing, identifying associations between storage and virtual machines, NPIV, and booting from shared storage. 

Zero to FC SAN and Beyond Hands-On Lab

Participating Companies – Cisco, HP, Intel, Microsoft, NetApp, QLogic

This Lab guides students through the steps required to set up a simple Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Area Network (SAN) and a high availability (HA) FC-SAN.  Students can then go beyond to learn about additional capabilities and technologies associated with FC networks.  Upon completion, attendees will better understand a variety of SAN components and their interaction.

Students will learn about Fibre Channel concepts, host bus adapters (HBAs), logical unit number (LUN) access on storage, and more.  They will create both a simple and a high availability Fibre Channel SAN from the ground up with the interconnection of host switches, storage to switches, and hosts to storage. Students will configure and deploy Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) applications. 

To see the Hands-On Lab topic class reference sheet, please click here.

SNW on the Tech-Edge