Storage Area Networks

Storage is no longer an afterthought Expanding volumes of data Make that data accessible throughout the enterprise Data to be managed and made available increasing at 60 percent per annum Enter storage area network

 leading storage infrastructure for the global economy of today simplified storage management, scalability, flexibility, availability improved data access, movement, and backup

What is a Storage Area Network?

primary purpose transfer of data between computer systems and storage elements specialized, high-speed network attaching servers and storage devices allows any-to-any connection across the network Use of routers, gateways, hubs, switches and directors specialized, high-speed network attaching servers and storage devices

WHY CONNECT STORAGE TO A NETWORK?

Universal connectivity, high availability, high performance, advanced function, reduced cost and improved quality of service. Reducing the cost of providing today's information services or providing or enabling new services

For example, in the realm of cost savings: If all online storage is accessible by all computers, then no extra temporary storage is required operational savings in not having to implement and manage procedures for copying data from place to place

 SAN connectivity enables the grouping of computers into cooperative clusters that can recover quickly from equipment or application failures SANs remove high-intensity I/O traffic from the LAN used to service clients A dedicated backup server on a SAN can make more frequent backups possible because it reduces the impact of backup on application servers to almost nothing

SAN Components

SAN storage

storage device not on a particular server bus attaches it directly to the network provides enhanced network availability, data accessibility, and system manageability

Disk systems Disk system is a device in which a number of physical storage disks sit Just A Bunch Of Disks (JBOD) appears as a set of individual storage devices to the device they are attached to

Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) Increased storage through redundancy Tape systems the serial nature of a tape makes it impossible for them to be treated in parallel Tape drives tape drives are the means by which tapes can be connected to other devices

Tape autoloaders Tape autoloaders are autonomous tape drives capable of managing tapes and performing automatic back-up operations. Tape libraries Tape libraries are devices capable of managing multiple tapes simultaneously

SAN connectivity
Connectivity using Fibre Channel. Interconnect the storage interfaces together Lower level layers This section comprises the physical data-link, and the network layers of connectivity. Ethernet interface An Ethernet adapter can reach up to 10 Gbps of data transferred.

Fibre Channel Fibre Channel (FC) is a serial interface (usually implemented with fiber-optic cable, and is the primary architecture for the vast majority of SANs SCSI The Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) is a parallel interface. SCSI devices are connected to form a terminated bus

Middle level layers This section comprises the transport protocol and session layers. FCP The Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) is the interface protocol of SCSI on Fibre Channel iSCSI Internet SCSI (iSCSI) is a transport protocol that carries SCSI commands from an initiator to a target

FCIP Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) is also known as Fibre Channel tunneling or storage tunneling. iFCP Internet Fibre Channel Protocol (iFCP) is a mechanism for transmitting data to and from Fibre Channel storage devices in a SAN, or on the Internet using TCP/IP FICON FICON architecture is an enhancement of, rather than a replacement for, the now relatively old ESCON architecture

Higher level layers This section comprises of the presentation and application layers. Server-attached storage Storage is attached directly to the server bus using an adapter card,and the storage device is dedicated to a single server. Network Attached Storage NAS is a term used to refer to storage elements that connect to a network and provide file access services to computer systems

SAN servers
Mainframe servers In simple terms, a mainframe is a single, monolithic and possibly multi-processor highperformance computer systemux. UNIX-based servers Originally designed for high-performance computer systems Windows-based servers The largest market for SAN solution deployment

benefits:
Improvements to application availability: Storage is independent of applications and accessible through multiple data paths for better reliability, availability, and serviceability. Higher application performance: Storage processing is off-loaded from servers and moved onto a separate network. Centralized and consolidated storage: Simpler management, scalability,flexibility, and availability.

 Data transfer and vaulting to remote sites: Remote copy of data enabled for disaster protection and against malicious attacks. Simplified centralized management: Single image of storage media simplifies management