SNIA SMI-S Conformance Test Enhancements in Version 1.4

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced the availability of the Conformance Testing Program (CTP) for the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI–S) version 1.4, making the selection of standards–based storage solutions more straightforward for end users.

"As the SMI specification continues to evolve and become integrated into an increasing number of storage products, SMI has focused on increasing the functionality of CTP for end users," said Paul von Behren, chair of the Storage Management Initiative. "Version 1.4 now assists end users to better evaluate their storage purchase options by helping them determine whether a product simply provides basic discovery and monitoring or whether it allows for configuration management via SMI-S."

CTP for SMI-S 1.4 features:

• Easy-to-understand CTP reports
• Delivery of event notifications
• Identification of tested management tasks using business-oriented terms

CTP for SMI-S 1.4 also includes expanded functionality tests like thin provisioning, remote copy services, host RAID controllers, virtual fabrics and partitioned fabric switches. And to help end users align their specific requirements with vendors’ capabilities, the CTP results pages now provide information on optional configuration functions such as LUN creation and mapping/masking.

2010 SMI–S Plugfest Announced
In addition to new conformance tests, the SNIA has launched a new series of plugfests at the SNIA Technology Center in Colorado Springs, CO. SMI plugfests improve multi–vendor interoperability and consistent implementation of the SMI–S standard for both storage systems and devices along with storage management software. This is accomplished though debugging of CTP test cases and deep–dive interoperability topics. The 2010 SMI–S plugfests are scheduled for February, June, August, and November.

Founding members of the CSI representing both new and existing SNIA members across a variety of segments of the IT industry include Actifio, Bycast, EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, LSI Corporation, NetApp, Olocity Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Symantec Corp. and Xiotech Corporation.