Storage Area Network

 A network whose primary purpose is the transfer of data between computer systems and storage elements and among storage elements. Abbreviated SAN.(SNIA) A high-speed network, comparable to a LAN, that allows the establishment of direct connections between storage devices and processors centralized to the extent supported by the distance of fibre channel.(IBM)

A Server Storage or Area Network. A network linking computing devices to disk or tape arrays and other devices over fibre channel.(BROCADE)

 Network of storage devices Dedicated for carrying storage traffic

Platform integration

Fast access to the information A SAN system allows in practice unlimited number of interconnected units A SAN system facilitates the backup and disaster recovery procedure of a company The SAN systems allow a series of network-based techniques

Client PCs
LAN
UNIX Windows NT/98 SUN AIX

Servers

SAN

Tape Library

Disk array

Tape

Storages
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Client PCs
LAN
Windows NT/98 SUN AIX

UNIX

Servers Switch Storage Systems

Server with HBA JBOD Storages

SAN

SAN- Diagram

GBIC

Disk array

Tape
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Roles of SAN Management Software Implementing and enforcing policies. Performing repetitive actions. Monitoring the usage and performance of storage resources. Producing reports.

Eg: DataCore SAN Symphony, Dell, EMC Navisphere

Pooling of storage devices for better utilization. Increase the availability of storage. Increased backup performance. Increase of operation distance, useful for disaster recovery and remote mirroring.

Difficult to the interoperability of storage devices between OS, database and technologies Complexity - Difficult to manage the systems without powerful software to manage the storage devices. Lack of specialised staff resources Cost considerations, high startup cost for SME Scalability, reliability and data protection affects cost. Too many devices and vendors to enumerate.

Components used for building a SAN are: Bridges, Arbitrated Loop Hub (AL- Hub), Switches Host Bus Adapters (HBA) Cables and Connectors Gigabit Interface Converter(GBIC) Just a bunch of disks (JBOD) Storage Devices

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Bridges A device which converts a data ,signal from one form to another Fibre Channel bridges allow the integration of legacy SCSI devices and protocols in a Fibre Channel network and vice versa Some of the vendors for bridges are : IBM SAN Data Gateways HP Storageworks NSR N1200 ATTO FibreBridge 4500 DELL - PowerVault 35F

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Arbitrated Loop Hubs (AL Hub)

If the topology used is Arbitrated Loop then devices can be connected by using Arbitrated Loop Hub Hubs are typically used in a SAN to attach devices or servers which do not support switched fabrics, but only when using Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) topology.

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Switched Hubs These are a higher version of AL Hubs. This device allows to connect many FC-AL s The loops are interconnected by a switched fabric This allows optimum usage of the Fibre Channel bandwidth

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Switches Large number of devices can be interconnected to each other implementing switched fabric topology. This intelligent device uses the full Fibre Channel Bandwidth by enabling concurrent connections between two ports. The connection path is separate for devices communicating with each other.

Cisco Catalyst

3750 Series

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Switches Switches can be cascaded to build a large enterprise SAN. This also provides high availability and scalable performance.

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Various kinds of switches available are :-

Enterprise Director Switches.

Generally would have 64 or more ports available. They offer

great level of modularity, fault tolerance, expandability. These switches suite the most for mission critical and larger SANs.

Departmental Switches
These are less expensive as compared to Director Switches and

generally have about 32 ports. They are smaller in capacity and offer limited availability. Ideal for smaller SANs

Vendors for Switches :- McData,Brocade, Cisco

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Acts as the interface between server / hosts / storage device and the SAN fabric / FC network. Supports Arbitrated Loop and Switched Fabric. The HBA converts parallel signals into serial signals to pass over the SAN. Some of manufacturers are: Emulex,Qlogic, Adaptec

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Network Interface Card (NIC) relies on the server CPU for entire processing Host Bus Adapters manages entire Input / Output (I/O) with little or no involvement of the server.

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When designing a SAN different types of cables can be considered. While cabling one should consider for cable are: Distance Type of Cable

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Two types of cables :

Copper DB9 or High Speed Serial Data Connectors Connectivity distance up to 25 meters Fibre Optic Subscriber Connectors (SC) Available in two modes Single Mode- Distance up to 10km Used with short wave laser transceivers Multi Mode- Distance up to 175 meters Used with long wave laser devices

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As such no specifications are required for choosing connectors. Choice of connectors available: Lucent Connectors (LC) Subscriber Connectors (SC) Copper Connectors (CC) High Speed Serial Data connectors (HSSDC)

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Subscriber Connectors Duplex. Low loss, Push / Pull fitting connector. Easy to configure and replace.

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Lucent Connectors

Smaller form Factor Duplex

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Copper Connectors 9 pin D-Type Connector is most popular Used for twisted pair connections Other connectors are Threaded Neill-Concelman(TNC) and Bayonet Neill-Concelman (BNC)

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High Speed Serial Data Connectors Fitted directly through adapter plate. Operates at 2.5 Gbps for current applications.

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GBICs converts electric signals to optical signals for transmission over Fibre Channel media. Input / Output devices plugged into switches or HBAs Hot - Swappable and laser - based devices Cost effective data transmission

Short Wave Laser / Multimode Up to 500 meters Long Wave Laser / Single Mode Up to 10 km Extended Long Wave Laser Up to 100 km

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A bunch of disks in a storage container JBOD is not an intelligent device Vendors of JBOD are : DotHill RaidTec

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Storage devices such as disk and tape are attached to the storage fabric using a storage controller. Storage devices are mass storage systems holding massive amounts of data. Provides heterogeneous attachment to various server platforms. Redundant components, high scalability and performance. Facilitates storage consolidation and disaster recovery Vendors:- EMC Symmetrix , IBM Shark, Compaq Storage Works.

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EMC Symmetrix

Compaq Storage Works

IBM Shark
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Network Area Storage

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 Storage subsystem that connects directly to the LAN. Has a processor and an operating system. NAS lives in front of the server, it is also called appliance

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Windows Workstations

LAN
NFS

Unix Workstations

CIFS

Windows NT Server

Network Attached Storage Device

Unix Server

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 NAS Appliances are specialized file servers designed for attachment to the LAN. File oriented data access. Any user running any operating system can address the storage device by a common access protocol, eg.NFS Backup to tape can also be performed across the LAN, enabling sharing of expensive resources between multiple servers. NAS solution is best suited to handle cross platform direct access application

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Streamlined architecture Reduced server I/O bottleneck Data availability, Data sharing Efficient allocation and use of resources Simplicity Increased productivity

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Storage traffic travels across the messaging network, So Network performance is impacted. Need protocol (NFS, CIFS etc.) support, can not work in block level. Sharing data is only in file level, can not share resource in storage device level.

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LAN

Clients

Client

Clients

NAS Servers

NAS
Intelligent File Sharing Server

SAN

FC Switch

Tape Library Disk Array Tape Library

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HP StorageWorks NAS 8000 EMC Clariion Cx700

IBM NAS 300G(dual node)

NetApp FAS 980c/980

Sun StorEdge 5310 NAS Appliance

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File Level request

LAN Clients

Block level request

NAS Device

SCSI

Direct Attached Storage

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File I/O Higher-level type of request which specifies the file to be accessed, an offset into the file, and the number of bytes to read or write beginning at that offset. File I/O request does not contain information about disk volumes or disk sectors. CIFS and NFS are specialized file-level I/O protocols for file access and file sharing. Block I/O Used by DAS and SANs. SCSI often called block I/O because SCSI commands specify block locations on a specific disk.
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Overheads

Block I/O has less overhead as compared to File I/O. Block I/O allows connectivity to data disk without going through the file system. This enhances performance.

Applications
File I/O will work for NAS device as it transfers the file request over LAN. Block I/O will work for applications like databases because they do their own buffering of data and yield better performance.

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NFS Network File System

Introduced by SUN and is a de facto standard for file sharing and printers in UNIX systems.File system is mounted for accessing by clients. Open standard for file sharing. Each write operation must be completed before another can begin.

CIFS Common Internet File System

Introduced by Microsoft, allowing file and print sharing among network users. File sharing support with file locking mechanisms.Remote file

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NAS Application File sharing application

SAN Storage for applicaton servers

Access I/O

File

Block

Data Transfer

Directly attached to LAN

Indirectly attached to LAN via Application servers

Client Client Storage Subsystem

NAS

Application server Fiber Channel Switch

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Storage Strategy - connectivity, security, performance, capacity, storage devices, administration, archiving, storage networking, etc. LAN free backup, Server-free backup. High availability solution.

High performance solution to build high throughput, high bandwidth for data intensive service environmental.
High connectivity, for share storage between storage islands. High Scalability allows you to add servers, features, capacity, and performance without replacing items.

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Using NAS will cause the LAN traffic get more heavy and reduce LAN performance. If this is not a issue, can consider use NAS to scalable the storage, because overall cost is cheaper and NAS is easy to implement. NAS can not be used in block level, but can be used or sharing data in file level, for normal application: file level data backup, ISPs, search engines and e-mail, CAD file access and wide-area streaming video distribution can consider to use NAS.

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