Catch the

Wave –
Managing
NVMe-oF™ in
the Enterprise
Richelle Ahlvers, Intel
Curtis Ballard, HPE

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 About the Presenter
Richelle Ahlvers is a Storage Technology Enablement Architect at Intel, where she
promotes and drives enablement of new technologies and standards strategies.
Richelle has spent over 25 years in Enterprise R&D teams in a variety of technical
roles, leading the architecture, design and development of storage array software,
storage management software user experience projects including mobility,
developing new storage industry categories including SAN management, storage
grid and cloud, and storage technology portfolio solutions.

Richelle has been engaged with industry standards initiatives for many years and
is actively engaged with many groups supporting manageability including SNIA,
Richelle Ahlvers DMTF, NVMe, OFA and UCIe. She is Vice-Chair of the SNIA Board of Directors,
Chair of the Storage Management Initiative, leads the SSM Technical Work Group
Storage Technology developing the Swordfish Scalable Storage Management API, and has also served
Enablement Architect, Intel as the SNIA Technical Council Chair and been engaged across a breadth of
technologies ranging from storage management, to solid state storage, to cloud,
to green storage. She also serves on the DMTF Board of Directors as the VP of
Finance and Treasurer.
 About the Presenter
Curtis Ballard is a Distinguished Technologist with Hewlett
Packard Enterprise in the HPE Storage organization. He
works on emerging storage technologies and industry
engagement. Curtis is on the NVM Express Board of
Directors, the SNIA Technical Council, and is the vice-chair
of the INCITS SCSI Storage Interfaces Technical
Committee. Curtis has worked on storage products across
the industry including host drivers, interface ASICS,
Curtis Ballard standalone drives, and complex storage systems.
Strategist, Emerging
Storage Technology,
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Abstract
• The enterprise storage market is rapidly expanding to include NVMe and NVMe-oF products
pervasively. This provides a challenge: how do you manage these as part of your enterprise
datacenter?
• As the NVM Express family of specifications continue to develop, the corresponding Swordfish management capabilities
are also evolving: the SNIA Swordfish specification has expanded to include full NVMe and NVMe-oF enablement and
alignment across DMTF, NVMe, and SNIA for NVMe and NVMe-oF use cases.

In conjunction with Redfish management of servers, Swordfish's capabilities to manage NVMe and NVMe-oF devices in
the enterprise provide a seamless management ecosystem. Dive in and catch up on the latest developments of the SNIA
Swordfish specification:

• This presentation will provide an introduction to managing NVMe and NVMe-oF with Swordfish,
using an example of this functionality introducing the complexity of discovery controllers with the
simplified model presented to Swordfish clients.

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NVMe Subsystem Model
Redfish/Swordfish NVMe

Chassis NVMe Chassis:

1..1 Physical Device
Information

Drive (used for Storage Subsystem M..1

drive FRU) (NVMe) Corresponding
Admin Redfish /
Controller Legend Swordfish
Controller <-----> Equivalent objects Base storage
(Admin/Disc) Controller <-------> Relationship in model model object
I/O Controller
StorageController
(I/O) I/O Controller
(NVMe)
Discovery
<-------> Relationship in model
(NVMe)
Link between objects Corresponding
Controller NVMe Object

Capacity Default
Endurance
Source
StoragePool
StoragePool
Endurance or Endurance
Group
Capacity
Group Group

Default Set
StoragePool Set
StoragePool (0) Set

AllocatedVolumes Namespace Namespace

Volume (NVMe) Namespace
(NVMe)
(NVMe)
 Swordfish and NVMe: Basic Functionality
Subordinate
Service Collection Singleton Resource Singleton
Root Resource Resource Collections Resource

/redfish/v1 ./Storage Storage/<id> Volumes

Volumes Volumes/<id>

“Subsystem” Reference (link) to

Collection Namespace

./StoragePools StoragePools/<id> ./AllocatedVolumes AllocatedVolumes/<id>

./EventService
NVMe Pools Endurance StoragePool
./AccountService Collection Group, NVM Set Collection Namespace
./SessionService

./Controllers Controllers/<id>
…
NVMe IO, Discovery,
Controllers Admin
NVMe Device Usage:
Storage == Subsystem
./Chassis Chassis/<id> Drives Drives/<id>
StorageController == NVMe Controllers (IO,
Chassis
Collection Drives Drive Admin, Discovery)
Volume == Namespace
StoragePool == Endurance Group / NVM Set
/redfish/v1/Registries/AdvertisedFeatures Chassis / Drive == Physical Entity Information
./Registries Features Registry contains the
SwordfishNVMeDrive, v1.0.0
published supported Features.
SwordfishNVMeAdvancedFeatures, v1.0.0
 Adding Network and fabric…
Host ComputerSystem Host Connect:
(Redfish) ComputerSystem Connect Fabric Connect (i.e., Ethernet, FC)
(Redfish) PCIe Root Complex

NVMe-oF Model:
Subsystem Target View

Subsystem Model Corresponding

Redfish /
Swordfish
Base storage
Chassis model object
NVMe Chassis:
Corresponding
Physical Device
Information Redfish /
Swordfish
Storage Subsystem
Fabrics Drive (used for
(NVMe)
1..1 Network model
drive FRU)
object

Network Adapter Corresponding

I/O Controller Redfish /
Controller
StorageController I/O Controller
Endpoints (NVMe)
Switches
(Logical Port)
Zones (NVMe) Swordfish
Fabric model
object
NetworkPort
Capacity Default
Ports StoragePool Endurance
Source StoragePool
Endurance or Endurance
Group
Capacity
Corresponding
Network Device Group Group
Connections NVMe Object
Function
(Allowed Hosts)
Default Set
StoragePool Set
StoragePool (0) Set

Volume Namespace Namespace

Volume Namespace
(NVMe) (NVMe)
(NVMe)

©2023 Flash Memory Summit. All Rights

Redfish/Swordfish NVMe
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 Redfish/Swordfish Hierarchy: Managing Extended
Connectivity
Service Collection Singleton Singleton
Root Resource Resource Resource

/redfish/v1 ./Storage Storage/<id> Volumes

Volumes Volumes/<id>

Collection Reference (link) to Volume

./StoragePools StoragePools/<id> ./AllocatedVolumes AllocatedVolumes/<id>

Collection Volume (Namespace)

Collection
Instance

./Controllers Controllers/<id>
StorageControllers
Collection

./Switches Switches/<id>

Collection
./Fabrics Fabrics/<id>

Collection ./Endpoints Endpoints/<id> Fabric representation for connectivity:

Switch / Endpoint / Zone
Collection

./Zones Zones/<id>

Collection
 Redfish/Swordfish Hierarchy: Adding Multi-System
Access Management
Subordinate
Service Collection Singleton Resource Singleton
Root Resource Resource Collections Resource

/redfish/v1 ./Storage Storage/<id> Volumes

Volumes Volumes/<id>

Collection Reference (link) to Volume

./StoragePools StoragePools/<id> ./AllocatedVolumes AllocatedVolumes/<id>

Collection Volume (Namespace)

Collection
Instance

./Controllers Controllers/<id>
StorageControllers
Collection

./Connections Connections/<id>

Collection
./Fabrics Fabrics/<id> Access Management
Collection ./Endpoints Endpoints/<id> Connections / Endpoints
Collection
Example
• Let’s look at an example of a complex NVMe-oF
concept, and how it is modeled in Swordfish and
presented to end users and clients.
NVMe-oF™ Storage Device Discovery
Host A Host A Host N

• NVMe-oF storage
device discovery uses
Discovery Controllers Ethernet Ports
Discovery Information

• Two types Subsystems Discovery Log Page

Discovery Log Entry:
Discovery Log Entry
Transport Type
Discovery Subsystem
• Direct Discovery
NVM Subsystem 1
Address Family
Discovery Log Entry:
Subsystem Type
NVM Subsystem 2
NVM Subsystem 1
Controller
Transport Requirements
Discovery Log Entry:
NVM Subsystem 3 Port ID
NVM Subsystem 2 Controller ID

• Centralized Discovery
Discovery Log Entry:
NVM Subsystem 4 Admin Max SQ Size
NVM Subsystem 3
Discovery Log Entry: Transport Service Identifier

Controller NVM Subsystem 4 NVM Subsystem 5

Discovery Log Entry:
NVM Subsystem Qualified Name
Transport Address

(Next slide)
NVM Subsystem 6
NVM Subsystem 5 Transport Specific Address Subsyte

NVM Subsystem 6

NVMe Storage System

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Centralized Discovery Controller
• A Centralized Discovery Host A Host A Host N

Controller aggregates
discovery information Aggregated
from several NVMe™ Discovery
Information
storage systems to report Centralized
discovery information for Discovery
Controller
the full fabric.

NVMe Storage System NVMe Storage System NVMe Storage System NVMe Storage System NVMe Storage System

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Swordfish Representation of Discovery
Controllers ServiceRoot

• Discovery Controllers require no

configuration by the end user /
client. Storage

• So, we have created an

extremely simplified, read-only NVMe-1
NVMe-2 NVMe-3
model with information in two Controllers
places: Discovery NVMeIO
• 1. Subsystems. Controller Controller Controllers

• Subsystems have pointers to NVMeIO

Controllers

subsystems which contain Volumes Controller

NVMeIO
discovery controllers Volumes Controller

• 2. Discovery Controllers. Logical

Namespace1
Volumes

• Discovery controllers have pointers Logical

to the subsystems they have Namespace1
Logical
discovered Namespace1
collection resource
singleton resource
Subordinate object
Navigation Link (odata.id)
Mockup of Subsystem
Mockup of Discovery Controller
Where to find more info…
SNIA Swordfish™
• Swordfish Standards
• Schemas, Specs, Mockups, User and Practical Guide`s, …
https://www.snia.org/swordfish
• Swordfish Specification Forum
• Ask and answer questions about Swordfish
• http://swordfishforum.com/
• Scalable Storage Management (SSM) TWG Open Fabric Management Framework
• Technical Work Group that defines Swordfish • OFMF Working Group (OFMFWG)
• Influence the next generation of the Swordfish standard • Description & Links https://www.openfabrics.org/working-
• Join SNIA & participate: https://www.snia.org/member_com/join- groups/
SNIA
• OFMFWG mailing list subscription
• Join the SNIA Storage Management Initiative • https://lists.openfabrics.org/mailman/listinfo/ofmfwg
• Unifies the storage industry to develop and standardize
interoperable storage management technologies • Join the Open Fabrics Alliance
• https://www.snia.org/forums/smi/about/join • https://www.openfabrics.org/membership-how-to-join/
DMTF Redfish™ NVM Express
• Redfish Standards • Specifications https://nvmexpress.org/developers/
• Specifications, whitepapers, guides,…
https://www.dmtf.org/standards/redfish • Join: https://nvmexpress.org/join-nvme/