THE PERSONAL CLOUD GOES TO THE DOGS - Dell EMC...Feb 14, 2012 · that private cloud. The Iomega StorCenter uses an installed client that accesses the Iomega StorCenter device based

THE PERSONAL CLOUD GOES TO THE DOGS

Chad DeMatteisSolutions ArchitectEMC Corporation

2013 EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 2

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 Requirements and Constraints ................................................................................................... 3 Possible Solutions ...................................................................................................................... 6 Compare Solutions .................................................................................................................... 8 Why a Personal Cloud solution? ................................................................................................ 9 Configuring the Iomega .............................................................................................................11 Setting up Cloud .......................................................................................................................12 Adding Users ............................................................................................................................15 Adding Groups ..........................................................................................................................16 Installing Client..........................................................................................................................18 Client Functions ........................................................................................................................21 Issues Encountered ..................................................................................................................22 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................22 Appendix A: References ...........................................................................................................24 Appendix B: Performance App install ........................................................................................24 Appendix C: Copy Job for backups ...........................................................................................26 Appendix D: Mobile App ............................................................................................................27 Disclaimer: The views, processes, or methodologies published in this article are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect EMC Corporation’s views, processes, or methodologies.


Introduction

Gartner describes the personal cloud as “a transformational force that will reshape the

consumer digital landscape. From one perspective, the personal cloud reflect users' expectation

that their content, applications and services will be available to them on any device, at any time,

in any place.”[1] This transformational force is not only limited to an individual consumer level,

but also can enable organizations with finite resources to share content easily and

economically. As a volunteer for Louie’s Legacy[2], a non-profit animal rescue, I had the

opportunity to provide a personal cloud solution hosted on the Iomega StorCenter IX2[3] that

allowed employees and volunteers to manage and share files.

I will review the process I took to evaluate the requirements of the rescue, choose the best file

sharing solution, and implement the solution.

Requirements and Constraints

Louie’s Legacy Animal Rescue (LLAR) is a non-profit organization with a presence in Cincinnati,

OH and Staten Island, NY that rescues animals from “high-kill” shelters. The rescue process

involves pulling animals from shelters and placing them into foster homes or in LLAR’s kennel

until adopted. LLAR provides all medical care for the animal and screens potential adopters

through an application process. The primary method of finding adopters is via online promotion

and adoption events. The organization is funded through adoption fees, donations, fundraisers,

and grants. All of these processes require record keeping and generate data in both paper and

digital formats.

As LLAR grew, so did the data generated; file and data communication were shared via fax,

mail, email, and shared drives. Emily Gear, director of Louie’s Legacy, needed a cost effective

way to centralize storage and sharing of these files. The storage would not only be shared in the

Cincinnati office but also with the rescue in Staten Island and with various volunteers and

employees at remote locations.

Requirements and constraints can be summarized as follows:

Requirements

Share files between PCs in Cincinnati office

Share files between PCs located in multiple geographic locations

File and folder permission management

User management for 5-10 users


Storage for pictures, video, and scanned documents to cover approximately 1000

adoptions per year for the next 3 years.

Storage for pictures, video, and scanned documents to cover 2009, 2010, 2011, and 1st

half of 2012 adoptions and operations.

Constraints

Limited/variable budget

Cincinnati office uses DSL: 5 Mbps download; 768 Kbps upload

Periodic DSL outages

Once the overall goal was identified, a detailed understanding of requirements could be defined.

Storage requirements for the rescue were calculated by determining the number of animal

adoptions and the digital “footprint” generated from a typical adoption. The entire adoption

process requires photos, videos, and scanned medical and adoption documents for each

animal. This includes not only future adoptions but also storing historical data from the

beginning of the rescue. An animal’s digital “footprint” is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1


Along with the adoption digital footprint, there will be documents stored to support LLAR

operations such as financial, tax, and procedural documents up to approximately 350 per month

at 0.5MB each. By adding these amounts to the adoption footprint, combined with the number of

adoptions, we can determine the total storage needed (Figure 2).

Figure 2

The next step was to understand the I/O breakdown, i.e. reads versus writes. The heaviest

writes will be in Cincinnati as that is the headquarters; the remote sites would be about equal on

the number of reads and writes. The I/Os per second on average will be low as there will be

bursts of writes and reads weekly following adoption events and new rescues. The files to be

stored on the shared storage will mostly be static; pictures, scanned images, and video.

Lastly, the existing infrastructure needed to be reviewed. Figure 3 shows the existing

infrastructure with files shared via fax, mail, email, and files stored on local hard drives on

desktops and laptops. This resulted in files being located in various locations leading to

duplicates and multiple versions.


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Figure 3

Possible Solutions

After documenting the requirements, I began brainstorming solutions such as:

File server accessed via FTP or VPN

Public Cloud-based such as DropBox or Google.

NAS (Network Attached Storage) appliance such as Iomega or D-Link.

The server solution was my first thought, given the number of years I spent working with and

supporting physical servers in larger environments. However, the upfront cost and overhead to

manage a server-based solution would be a poor fit for a small non-profit with limited financial

resources.

The second option—utilizing public cloud storage—seemed like a viable option, given that the

cloud providers offered a user interface, managed the infrastructure, and can be accessed from

any Internet connection. Services such as Dropbox, Box, Google, and Amazon were reviewed;

subscription costs and features are summarized in Table 1.


Table 1

Of the public cloud services, I find Dropbox and Box very straightforward with pricing and

features. Google provides an interface with Google apps and mail but I feel it has a complicated

licensing process. Amazon cloud drive appears strong for personal storage especially around

music, but lacks features for business/team storage management.

A NAS appliance solution also seemed viable; it is cheaper than a server and provides a user

interface for easier management. However, in looking at NAS appliances, most are designed

around local access with limited remote sharing capabilities that require Dynamic DNS service

or Static IP from the Internet provider. I then found Iomega’s line of Cloud Edition StorCenter

devices, in this case, the IX2-200 with 4TB(2TB mirrored). The Cloud Edition StorCenter is

based on the concept of the personal cloud of which I have found several definitions. I

understand the personal cloud to be a hybrid of private and public cloud features. Private, in that

the user owns the physical device but also public since a public access portal is used to get to

that private cloud. The Iomega StorCenter uses an installed client that accesses the Iomega

StorCenter device based on a cloud name registered with Iomega portal service. The

registration on the portal is included in the cost of the device and does not require a static IP.

While the Iomega StorCenter Cloud Edition device was a higher cost than the typical NAS

appliance, it did offer the features of easy secure remote access that NAS did not. It was very

comparable to the public cloud services in terms of access, user management, and file sharing.

Note: Since implementing a solution for the rescue, several other personal cloud devices have

hit the market from companies such as D-Link and Western Digital.


Compare Solutions

Price is a primary requirement when seeking a solution. I charted the costs for public clouds

versus the Iomega device using the storage and user requirements of the rescue to determine

pricing. This assumed historical data would be ready to store on Day 1 of use. I then projected

out three years of costs. The chart and graph below displays the costs for the services based on

a yearly basis. The license cost structure for Google and Amazon do not advertise price points

between 500GB (400GB for Google) and 1TB. It was not clear if those size ranges were

prorated or if customers are forced into the 1TB tier once above 500GB. The chart and graph

assume one must upgrade to 1TB tier after exceeding 500GB.

Chart of Service costs

Service Costs

Time Frame

Storage

(GB) Dropbox Box Google* Amazon* Iomega

Year 1

w/history 428 $1,420 $1,800 $1,068 $250 $365

Year 2 523 $1,420 $1,800 $1,068 $1,000 $0

Year 3 618 $1,420 $1,800 $1,068 $1,000 $0

*Pricing based on one account for bulk of storage and free accounts for end users.


Graph of Service Costs

As can be seen from price comparisons, the Iomega is considerably less, followed by Amazon,

Google, Dropbox, and Box. While 1st year costs for Amazon are less than the cost of the

Iomega, the total costs over time of all the public clouds far exceed the initial purchase of the

Iomega device.

Why a Personal Cloud solution?

Following review of the features and prices of the above services, the choice to use the

personal cloud option from Iomega was made for several reasons:

Cost: although an upfront cost for the hardware, it was one time, not a subscription and

significantly lower than public cloud prices.

Ownership of data: Louie’s Legacy felt more comfortable having the data onsite. There

was concern about getting data back if the rescue decided to cancel the public cloud

subscription.

Internet connectivity: majority of I/O would be local to Cincinnati. The low DSL upload

bandwidth would slow down day-to-day activity to a public cloud. A local attached device

would perform better.

No User fees: although some public clouds included user licenses within the cost,

additional users incurred a license fee. Since the rescue may add or remove several

users over a year’s time, the personal cloud option—which did not charge per user and

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

google dropbox amazon Box iomega

Year 3

Year 2

Year 1


allowed for up to 250 users (recommended up to 10 concurrent sessions)—was

preferred.

Backups: although the public cloud offered data backups, the personal cloud provided

the option to use 3rd party clouds for backups, portable external hard drives, as well as

the ability to copy to a second personal cloud device for disaster recovery. Since the

existing data on the shared storage would change little, an external drive with periodic

backups would suffice.

Protected storage: Although public clouds do have high uptime due to fault tolerance

and high availability technology, the personal cloud device is able to mirror drives,

avoiding single point of failure at the drive level.

It can be argued that the price comparison between personal and public clouds is not “apples to

apples” due to the extensive infrastructure behind the public cloud. In terms of this scenario,

with its specific requirements, I think it’s valid to compare the two. I am not suggesting the

personal cloud is better than a public cloud; only better in this situation.

It is possible to add additional protection to a personal cloud to be somewhat near the

infrastructure capabilities of a public cloud service, if desired. The additions could still come in at

a lower price than public cloud subscription costs over the three year period.

To demonstrate, I updated an earlier graph to include:

A second 2TB usable Iomega IX2-200 device for disaster recovery ($365)

An external 2TB hard drive for backups ($135)

An intelligent UPS ($150)


Graph of Prices with add-ons for StorCenter

Configuring the Iomega

The initial setup involved simply plugging the ix2-200 into the router with DHCP enabled. The

included CD-ROM contains a setup wizard which, once launched from a PC sharing the same

subnet, will search the local network for the ix2-200. Once found, the wizard will walk through

the steps to set up an administrator account and password and bring you to the setup page.

This process was straight forward and well documented in the Quick Start Guide listed in the

reference section.

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

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google dropbox amazon Box iomega w/add ons

Year 3

Year 2

Year 1


On the setup page, I assigned the device name, enabled email notifications, enabled security

(SSL), and set up a Windows workgroup. Port 50500 was forwarded on the router and on the

DSL modem to allow for the cloud connection through the firewall.

Setting up Cloud

To set up the personal cloud, click on the “Cloud Services” icon on the left side of the

configuration console; in the main window, select “Personal cloud”.

The personal cloud configuration screen allows the user to configure the device as its own cloud

or to add to an existing personal cloud. The screen also indicates status of the connection

to the Internet and will post notification if either the port is closed or Internet is down.


Example of port closed:

To configure the personal cloud click on “Settings” to bring up the settings screen. As seen

below, the cloud name is displayed as well as settings for Administration email address, port

number, and secure communication. There is an option to allow remote users Internet access to

files and media without going through the cloud. Note: media server requires port 50599 to be

open on the firewall.


Once the settings are applied, the cloud connection should show “green” checks as seen below.

Once the cloud is configured, cloud members can be added. In personal cloud screen, the

“membership” tab will reveal existing members and allow you to add/delete members. To add,

click on the “Add a member” plus sign (+).

The new member screen will appear where a description and member email addresses can be

entered. The address will be where the cloud invite is sent.


Once the member is created, they will show in the membership list. The account can be

enabled/disabled, deleted, or invite sent to join the cloud. The access code can be entered into

the iomega client to allow access to the cloud. If the user is connected, an IP adress will be

assigned as well as the name of the client computer name in the “name” field.

Note: The access code doesn’t allow access to the user/group owned data, merely access to

log into the ix2-200 Storcenter. User credentials must still be entered to get to the protected

share data.

Adding Users

One of the most useful features of the personal cloud device is the ability to add users without

concern for user licenses. The Storcenter interface provides an intuitive process to manage user

accounts. The screen layout is consistent with other management functions and provides pop

up information and overview screens to help novice users.

As seen below, the user management interface is opened with the “users” icon in the “common”

tab.

The user interface allows for setting user as an administrator and assigning a personal share

folder.


Folder access permissions can be granted for individual users by selecting the “Access

Permissions” tab.

Add share permissions for user

Adding Groups

Adding groups on the Ix2-200 is similar to adding users. Select the “groups” icon from the

common tab.


Click on “add a group” and enter group name.

Users can be added by clicking on “add users” and selecting the users to add to a newly

created group.


Folder permissions can then be added to the group and its members.

Installing Client

The personal cloud invite sent by the cloud administrator will provide a link to the download

page found at http://portal.iomegacloud.com; clients for Linux, Mac, and PC are available.

Note: The install will also by default install Twonkey media server software and Quickprotect

backup software. These can be opted out in the custom install process. In the case of the

Louie’s Legacy setup these products were not used and media server was disabled.


The client install wizard is fairly straightforward. Upon completion of all of the steps, the client

will automatically start where a link to connect to the cloud is provided.

The cloud name and access code can be manually entered into the cloud settings portion of the

Iomega Storage Manager.


Once connected to the cloud, the status should show “green” check marks as well as an

assigned IP address from the personal cloud as seen below.


Client Functions

The Storage Manager software provides several functions in accessing and managing the

personal cloud. The Storage Manager icon will appear in the task bar as seen below.

Right clicking on the Storage Manager icon will bring up a list of functions; browsing folders on

the share, setting password, saving configurations, and mapping shares to drive letters.

I have found the drive mapping feature to be one of Storage Manager’s best functions. This

made interfacing to the personal cloud shares much easier for end users. It also avoided the

need to use a browser-based file management tool and simply use Windows-based file

management that is familiar to users. As seen below, the mapped share is simply a network

mapped drive:


Issues Encountered

Here are a few of the issues encountered with implementing the personal cloud and solutions I

found:

Dealing with double firewall: The DSL modem was owned by the Internet provider and

would periodically get upgraded and reset to factory default enabling its firewall and

deleting port forwarding for the personal cloud. The workaround is to save off the

personal cloud configuration and when the modem is reset, reload that configuration file.

Performance issues with IX2-200: The IX2-200 interface would hang and shares would respond slowly. This was resolved by disabling the media server as it was scanning

media files, which in the case of the animal rescue, were sizable. Also, upgrading the

firmware to v3.2.6.21659 helped a great deal with interface issues.

Drive mappings would disappear: Early on, the drive mappings to the IX2-200 would

disappear. Once Storage Manager was restarted on the client they would reappear. The

problem seems to have been resolved with upgrade to v1.3.4.28700

Conclusion

With the personal cloud, Louie’s Legacy Animal Rescue can now eliminate having files—both

paper and digital—located in multiple locations and having to share those files through fax,

email, and mail. As seen in the following diagram, the personal cloud allows the rescue to still

have physical possession of the data but utilize a portal service for remote users.


The use of the Iomega personal cloud eliminates the need for subscription costs with just the

one-time purchase of the device while still providing the needed services. The rescue does not

have to worry about budgeting costs every year to maintain its information management on a

public cloud and risk losing the service (and access to critical data). This in turn allows Louie’s

to keep administrative costs low so that it can focus on its mission; saving animals.


Appendix A: References

[1] “Consumers and the Personal Cloud”, Andrew Chetham ,Jason Chapman, Andrew Johnson, Michael Gartenberg Gartner, February 14 2012 [2] http://www.louieslegacy.org/home/ [3] http://iomega.com/resources/pdf/pdf_12.pdf [4] “Frequently Asked Questions Iomega Personal Cloud on StorCenter Devices” ,Iomega, http://iomega-personal-cloud.com [5] “Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 User Guide”, Iomega, http://iomega-personal-cloud.com [6] “The coming Personal Cloud: The cloud Storage for the Rest of Us” , Brian Gruttadauria, 2010 [7] http://lifelineapps.com [8] “Iomega Link Usage Guide” http://download.iomega.com/manuals/iomegalink/IomegaLinkQSG-en.pdf Appendix B: Performance App install

Iomega provides applications—found at Lifelineapps.com—that can be added to the IX2-200.

One useful application is the “Resource Monitor” which, as seen on the following screen shots,

can be downloaded from lifelineapps.com and installed using the “Application Manager” found

on the IX2-200 management console.


Once installed, the Resource Monitor can be launched from the “systems tab”.

The Resource Monitor will show real time Memory, CPU, and I/O stats.


Appendix C: Copy Job for backups

Copy Jobs can be created and scheduled to copy from or to any device registered in the

personal cloud. This can include another IX2-200, external hard drive, or client system. Copy

protocol can be rsync or Windows share. The following screen shots show “Copy job” setup.


Appendix D: Mobile App

Iomega provides a mobile application, “Iomega Link”[8], free to download that provides access

to the personal cloud via iPhone or Android device. Iomega link allows for upload and download

of files as well as streaming and viewing. I’ve included some screen shots from an Android

phone connected to Louie’s IX2-200. It responded well on 3G for smaller files and was easy to

set up.

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” EMC CORPORATION MAKES NO RESPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

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THE PERSONAL CLOUD GOES TO THE DOGS - Dell EMC...Feb 14, 2012 · that private cloud. The Iomega StorCenter uses an installed client that accesses the Iomega StorCenter device based