Global Delivery Center Argentina

NAS Fundamentals
IBM System Storage

v Team
v
GDC Argentina Storage
Systems and SAN

DAS/SAN review
What is NAS
NAS / IP Networks
FTP/HTTP/NFS/CIFS
Differences NFS/CIFS
Diferences NAS/SAN

May 2008 | IBM Confidential

2008 IBM Corporation

We discussed in SAN Fundamentals I :

Fibre Channel subsystem- DS3000 and DS4000
Fibre Channel

Server
HBA

Fibre Channel

Controller

HBA

Fibre Channel

Controller

Ethernet to Client
workstations

IBM Confidential

Fibre Channel

RAID

Dual independent controllers with automatic fail-over for

continuous availability in case one controller or one fiber link
fails.

2007 IBM Corporation

NAS Fundamentals
DAS/SAN review
What is NAS
NAS / IP Networks
FTP/HTTP/NFS/CIFS
Differemces NFS/CIFS
Diferences NAS/SAN

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

We discussed in SAN Fundamentals 2

Servers

RAID
AB

Switch

AB

AB

Storage Area Network

Switch

AB

(SAN)
Switch

AB

AB

Switch

Storage subsystem

AB

Network Attached Storage

N
A
S

N
A
S

N
A
S

Servers

(NAS)

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

Distributed Information

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

Centralizing Information

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

Centralizing Information = Value

Unused storage capacity may be easily allocated to servers as need.

Distributed Storage

IBM Confidential

Centralized Storage

2007 IBM Corporation

Today ask our self: What is Network Attached Storage

(NAS)?

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

What is NAS?
Network Attached Storage
A device that is dedicated to network file sharing.
NAS is not a network!
NAS uses LAN or WAN protocols i.e. TCP/IP
A NAS device can exist anywhere in a LAN or
WAN.
Supported Protocols include CIFS, NFS and HTTP
NAS does not provide any of the activities that a
server in a server-centric system typically
provides, i.e. e-mail.
Quick Reference
Local Area Network (LAN)
Wide Area Network (WAN)
Common Internet File System (CIFS)
Network File System (NFS)
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

It takes advantage of IP Networks ( 1 / 4)

IP Networks client/server infrastructure and
services :
File transfer
ftp

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

It takes advantage of IP Networks ( 2 / 4)

IP Networks client/server infrastructure and
services :
File transfer
Hipertext Transfer Protocol
( HTTP)
http

Hipertext Transfer Protocol

( HTTP)

Internet

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

It takes advantage of IP Networks ( 3 / 4)

IP Networks client/server infrastructure and services :
File share
NFS

NFS SERVER

File systems are exported

from nfs server and
imported to App server

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

NFS features
A remote file system exported by server and imported by clients
Server and client functions to share data
Improved interoperability with other system platforms, increasing
overallnetwork utilization and user productivity
Easy access to files for the end-user of the NFS client system
Uses industry standard TCP/IP protocols
Automounter support, which allows automatic NFS mounting, while the
accessing file system is unmounted from the client, to enhance the network load
User authentication, provided by means of RPC use of the data
encryptionstandard
Support of access control lists between UNIX systems

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

It takes advantage of IP Networks ( 4 / 4)

IP Networks client/server infrastructure and services :
File share
CIFS

CIFS SERVER

File systems are exported

from nfs server and
imported to App server

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

CIFS Features
Integrity and concurrency
Performance and scalability
Security
Performance and scalability
Server and client functions to share data
Remote files are exported to clients sharing environment
Global file names

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

Differences NFS and CIFS

NFS was designed by Sun Microsystems to be machineindependent,operating system-independent, and transport protocolindependent.
CIFS was designed by Microsoft to work on Windows workstations.
NFS servers make their file systems available to other systems in the
network by exporting directories and files over the network. An NFS client
mounts a remote file system from the exported directory location.
CIFS systems create file shares which are accessible by authorized users.
CIFS authorizes users at the server level.
For directory and file level security, NFS uses UNIX concepts of User,
Groups (sets of users sharing a common ID)
CIFS, however, uses access control lists that are associated with the shares,
directories, and files

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

Main differences SAN and NAS

SAN does not use TCP/IP for data transfers, it is based on
fiber hbas, FC switches, need a specific infrastructure
(despite it can be extended in FC-IP router)

NAS is based on TCP/IP services for data transfers, it can be

built on the existing IP Network, using NIC cards already
installed.

CAUTION:
Network traffic bottlenecks can be caused by use of NAS if
network has high user traffic, and is not improved to handle
new NAS traffic.

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

Storage Models for NAS

Application
Server

Application
Server

Application
Server

File-level access
Appliance
Appliance

Appliance

Motherboard

Motherboard

SW

HA

Motherboard
HA

HA
Controllers

External disks
(JBOD) connected
via host adapter

External disks
(JBOD) connected
via host adapter

External storage
system connected
via host adapter

Software RAID

Host adapter-based

Controller-based
RAID

RAID
IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

Advantages of NAS
Leverage current networking infrastructure
Heterogeneous data-sharing environments
Relatively easy to install and maintain
Native OS permissions and file locking
maintained
Good performance

Disadvantages of NAS
A single NAS server can lead to I/O
bottlenecks
Performance penalties

IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation

Thanks ! ! !

Storage Systems & SAN

Team
IBM Confidential

2007 IBM Corporation