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NAS uses file-based protocols such as NFS (popular on UNIX systems), SMB/CIFS
(Server Message Block/Common Internet File System) (used with MS Windows
systems), or AFP (used with Apple Macintosh Computers. NAS units rarely limit
clients to a single protocol.
NAS provides both storage and filesystem. This is often contrasted with SAN
(Storage Area Network), which provides only block-based storage and leaves
filesystem concerns on the "client" side. SAN protocols are SCSI, Fibre Channel,
iSCSI, ATA over Ethernet (AoE), or HyperSCSI.
Network attached storage (NAS), in contrast to SAN, uses file-based protocols such
as NFS or SMB/CIFS where it is clear that the storage is remote, and computers
request a portion of an abstract file rather than a disk block.
What is LUN?
A logical unit number or LUN is simply the number assigned to a logical unit. A
logical unit is a SCSI protocol entity, the only one which may be addressed by the
actual input/output (I/O) operations. Each SCSI target provides one or more logical
units, and does not perform I/O as itself, but only on behalf of a specific logical unit.
In SCSI terminology, LUN stands for logical unit number. A LUN represents an
individually addressable (logical) SCSI device that is part of a physical SCSI device
(target). In an iSCSI environment, LUNs are essentially numbered disk drives.
Fiber Channel
Today, the term host bus adapter (HBA) is most often used to refer to a Fibre
Channel interface card. Fibre Channel HBAs are available for all major open systems,
computer architectures, and buses, including PCI and SBus (obsolete today). Each
HBA has a unique World Wide Name (WWN), which is similar to an Ethernet MAC
address in that it uses an OUI assigned by the IEEE. However, WWNs are longer (8
bytes). There are two types of WWNs on a HBA; a node WWN (WWNN), which is
shared by all ports on a host bus adapter, and a port WWN (WWPN), which is unique
to each port. Major HBA manufacturers are Brocade Communications Systems,
Emulex, QLogic, LSI, Sun StorageTek, Agilent Technologies, and ATTO Technology.
There are HBA models of different speeds: 1Gbit/s, 2Gbit/s, 4Gbit/s, 8Gbit/s,
10GBit/s and 20GBit/s.
Fiber Channel uses the term "ports" and defines seven different types of ports:
A World Wide Name, or WWN, is a 64-bit address used in fibre channel networks to
uniquely identify each element in a Fibre Channel network.
The use of World Wide Names for security purposes is inherently insecure, because
the World Wide Name of a device is a user-configurable parameter.
For example, to change the World Wide Name (WWN) of an Emulex HBA, the users
simply needs to run the `elxcfg` command.
SAN zoning is a method of arranging Fibre Channel devices into logical groups over
the physical configuration of the fabric.
Hard zoning is zoning which is implemented in hardware. Soft zoning is zoning which
is implemented in software.
Hard zoning physically blocks access to a zone from any device outside of the zone.
Soft zoning uses filtering implemented in fibre channel switches to prevent ports
from being seen from outside of their assigned zones. The security vulnerability in
soft zoning is that the ports are still accessible if the user in another zone correctly
guesses the fibre channel address.
Port zoning utilizes physical ports to define security zones. A users access to data is
determined by what physical port he or she is connected to.
With port zoning, zone information must be updated every time a user changes
switch ports. In addition, port zoning does not allow zones to overlap.
WWN zoning uses name servers in the switches to either allow or block access to
particular World Wide Names (WWNs) in the fabric.
A major advantage of WWN zoning is the ability to recable the fabric without having
to redo the zone information.
The format of the WWN is defined by the IEEE, The Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers, a global (non-profit) organization responsible for setting and
maintaining a large number of IT standards. You can find full details of the WWN
standard from the IEEE but here’s a quick breakdown.
The specific format of a WWN is defined by the Name Address Authority field value,
which is the first digit of the WWN. The following values are used:
Most commonly seen are options 1, 2 and 5. We will not discuss format 6.
This format is divided into 3 sections. We will use the previous Emulex example
above to illustrate this format.
Section 1
10:00 00:00:c9 22:fc:01
identifies
Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 the WWN
as a
standard format WWN. Only one of the 4 digits is used, the other three must be zero
filled. Section 2 is called the OUI or “company_id” and identifies the vendor (more on
this later). Part 3 is a unique identifier created by the vendor.
This format is divided into 4 sections. Using the Qlogic example, we can illustrate
this:
Section 1
2 0:00 00:e0:8b 05:05:04
identifies
Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 the WWN
as an
extended format WWN. Section 2 is a vendor specific code and can be used to
identify specific ports on a node or to extend the serial number (section 4) of the
WWN. Section 3 identifies the vendor. Section 4 is the unique vendor-supplied serial
number for the device.
Section 1
5 0:06:04:8 1:D6:F3:45:42
identifies
Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 this as a
registered
name WWN. Section 2 identifies the vendor. Section 3 is a vendor-specific generated
code, usually based on the serial number of the device, such as a disk subsystem.
The hardware vendor will use an algorithm to generate the WWN. The EMC algorithm
is quite complex and for disk subsystems is based on the array serial number and
the port number. The code demonstrated above represents a WWN for port 3aa on a
disk frame with serial number 123456789.
Company Ids
All vendors wishing to create WWNs must register for a company ID or OUI
(Organizationally Unique Identifier). These are maintained and published by IEEE,
the current list can be found here.
All company identifiers are six digits in length and used within the WWN. In our
examples, 00-60-48 is the code for EMC, 00-00-C9 is the code for Emulex and 00-
E0-8B is the code for Qlogic.
Storage array
? Historical bit serial interfaces — connect a hard disk drive (HDD) to a hard
disk controller (HDC) with two cables, one for control and one for data. (Each
drive also has an additional cable for power, usually connecting it directly to
the power supply unit). The HDC provided significant functions such as
serial/parallel conversion, data separation, and track formatting, and required
matching to the drive (after formatting) in order to assure reliability. Each
control cable could serve two or more drives, while a dedicated (and smaller)
data cable served each drive.
o ST506 used MFM (Modified Frequency Modulation) for the data
encoding method.
o ST412 was available in either MFM or RLL (Run Length Limited)
encoding variants.
o Enhanced Small Disk Interface (ESDI) was an interface developed by
Maxtor to allow faster communication between the processor and the
disk than MFM or RLL.
? Modern bit serial interfaces — connect a hard disk drive to a host bus
interface adapter (today typically integrated into the "south bridge") with one
data/control cable. (As for historical bit serial interfaces above, each drive
also has an additional power cable, usually direct to the power supply unit.)
o Fibre Channel (FC), is a successor to parallel SCSI interface on
enterprise market. It is a serial protocol. In disk drives usually the
Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) connection topology is used. FC
has much broader usage than mere disk interfaces, it is the
cornerstone of storage area networks (SANs). Recently other protocols
for this field, like iSCSI and ATA over Ethernet have been developed as
well. Confusingly, drives usually use copper twisted-pair cables for
Fibre Channel, not fibre optics. The latter are traditionally reserved for
larger devices, such as servers or disk array controllers.
o Serial ATA (SATA). The SATA data cable has one data pair for
differential transmission of data to the device, and one pair for
differential receiving from the device, just like EIA-422. That requires
that data be transmitted serially. Similar differential signaling system
is used in RS485, LocalTalk, USB, Firewire, and differential SCSI.
o Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). The SAS is a new generation serial
communication protocol for devices designed to allow for much higher
speed data transfers and is compatible with SATA. SAS uses a
mechanically identical data and power connector to standard 3.5"
SATA1/SATA2 HDDs, and many server-oriented SAS RAID controllers
are also capable of addressing SATA hard drives. SAS uses serial
communication instead of the parallel method found in traditional SCSI
devices but still uses SCSI commands.
List of Fibre Channel switches
Major manufacturers of Fibre Channel switches are: Brocade, Cisco, McData and
QLogic.
? Brocade:
o Switches: 5300, 5100, 5000, 4900, 2400, 2800, 3800, 3900, 4100,
300, 200E
o Directors: 12000, 24000, 48000 and DCX Backbone
o More complete list in Brocade Communications Systems article.
? Cisco:
o Switches: Cisco MDS 9016, 9020, 9032, 9112, 9120, 9124, 9124e,
9134, 9140, 9148, 9216, 9216i, 9222i, 9302, 9304, 9308
o Directors: Cisco MDS 9506, 9509, 9513, 9530, 9560 [1]
? QLogic:
o Switches: SANbox 5800, 5600, 5200, 3050, 1400
o Directors / Modular Chassis Switches: SANbox 9000