SAN

STORAGE AREA
NETWORK
Manuel Fernando Cano
Montes
Analista de Servicios IT 2

SAN
This part covers the basics of storage
area networks, including what you
need to know if youre going to buy a
SAN, build one yourself, or have
someone build it for you.

In This Chapter
Understanding storage area networks
(SANs)
Determining whether a SAN is right for you
Looking at SAN layers and protocols
Figuring out which operating systems
benefit from SANs
Discovering which applications can use or
require SANs

Defining a SAN
SAN (Storage Area Network) is a
collection of computers and
storage devices, connected over a
high-speed optical network and
dedicated to the task of storing
and protecting data.

Defining a SAN (II)

Using a network to create a shared pool of
storage devices is what makes a SAN
different.
Various storage devices.
Sharing data between different servers.
Fast connection medium for backing up,
restoring, archiving, and retrieving data.
Can be connected over long distances,
making a SAN very useful to large
companies.

Layers

Defining a SAN (III)

Internet and its protocol. TCP/IP
Differences between fiber-optic computer
networks such as the Internet and a fiberoptic SAN. Protocol and Switches
Fibre Channel was developed to move data
really fast between computers and disk
drives; TCP/IP was developed to move files
over long distances between computers.

How a SAN Makes Computing Different

Mainframes
LAN
Internet
How to share information?
LANs were connected to create the
Internet.

Understanding the Benefits of a SAN

Removes the distance limits of SCSIconnected disks
Greater performance
Increased disk utilization
Higher availability to storage by use of
multiple access paths
Deferred disk procurement
Reduced data center rack/floor space
Disaster-recovery capabilities
Online recovery

Understanding the Benefits of a SAN (II)

Better staff utilization.
Reduction of management costs as a percentage
of storage costs
Improved overall availability.
Reduction of servers.
Improved network performance and fewer
network upgrades.
Increased input/output (I/O) performance and
bulk data movement
Reduced/eliminated backup windows.
Protected critical data.
Nondisruptive scalability

Understanding the Benefits of a SAN (III)

Easier development and testing of applications
Support for server clusters.
Storage on demand.

When is a SAN useful?

More than 16 number of servers.

Database servers
File servers
Backup servers
Voice/video servers
Mail servers
High-performance application servers

Who should not use a SAN?

Web servers.
All desktop PCs.
Servers needing less than 10GB of storage.
Servers that dont need fast access to data.
Servers that have to share files.

Dissecting a SAN (The Four Ps)

The parts: All the hardware you use to create a
SAN; the switches,
cables, disk arrays, and so forth
The protocols: The languages that the parts use
to talk to each other
The players: The folks who build the parts
The platforms: The computer applications that
benefit from using SAN