Xiotech and Cortex: The future of API’s or a future of Standards?
Our team has been dealing with storage and storage standards for quite a while and took on the Cortex challenge. Could we actually develop, manage and monitor a Xiotech ISE using a proprietary API and do it quickly? The challenge was incorporating Xiotech’s cortex REST implementation within our systems management application, StorageIM. Could we perform this development with efficiency, a rapid application development paradigm? How would Cortex perform?
For the books, I’m a advocate in storage standards. I’m also an advocate for vendors thinking outside the box and that is exactly what Cortex is about. Cortex, Xiotech’s ‘Embedded’ RESTful storage API for their Intelligent Storage Elements.
For starters Xiotech chose a RESTful web service that has implemented XML as its current mime type and utilizes HTTP methods for monitoring, provisioning and indications. The URI’s implemented for capturing information about the ISE are similar to the SMI-S view concept. As an example, the cortex ‘query’ URI call (localhost/query) looks familiar to the SMI-S Multiple Computer System Profile. The difference is you don’t have to create any association traversals.
Cortex also has a set of XSD’s that we used to dynamically create our client object model. These definitions made it a snap to create a normalized DB schema that performs and scales nicely for trending and utilization.
All of the above being said I also never touched the ISE element manager during development. I provisioned everything through simple http URI posts and would check to ensure endpoints were created, volumes were created through simple http URI gets.
During and after implementing our initial ISE aggregated monitoring solution a question kept creeping up, why are storage standards so complex? Xiotech has completely removed any complexity.
“During and after implementing our initial ISE aggregated monitoring solution a question kept creeping up, why are storage standards so complex?”
I have been asking that for several years now.
Thanks for the response John,
Could it be possible to incorporate REST and a more complete set of views in the world or storage standards? Are there approaches that could be integrated into the current standards that can complement what currently exists?
Kurt
I am not versed enough in the principles of REST designs to comment on that, but it seems like a separate issue to me.
When you say “integrated into the current standards” I assume you mean SMI-S and, from my personal point of view, that is the problem. I feel SMI-S over-complicates the problem, and does not even allow for it’s primary goal… automatic discovery and utilization of storage services (except for the most basic capabilities). And even that is at a very high development and run-time cost.
Please note that these are my personal opinions, and do not necessarily reflect those of my colleagues or my employer.