Storage Area Network Technology

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One of the newest technologies for server data storage has the potential to greatly improve the backup and recovery process. This technology is called storage area network. A SAN is a high-speed subnetwork of shared storage devices—machines that contain only disks for storing data. These devices are connected by an ultra high-speed network (called the fabric). This fabric consists of Fibre Channel hubs, bridges, or switches designed to enable many-to-many access between storage and servers. Figure E-1 shows a diagram of a SAN implementation.

A SAN-based storage infrastructure has the potential to provide higher levels of business continuity. Today, many corporations are faced with backup windows that are steadily creeping into operational windows. A Fibre Channel fabric allows access to the higher bandwidth available on SANs (up to 100-200 MB/sec), translating into shorter backup windows. Fibre Channel also provides greater distances between servers and storage devices, enabling an open path to remote electronic vaulting.

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Figure E-1. A SAN implementation.

While SANs are attractive for these reasons, they also make storage more complex (and more expensive), and they add new categories of storage resources that need to be monitored and managed: bridges, hubs, switches, switched fabrics, and Fibre Channel components. They also present a number of deployment challenges to IT managers, including the following issues:

  • How much tape capacity will have to be added to back up the SAN?
  • How will the health of the SAN be monitored once deployed?
  • How much capacity is needed now? In the future?
  • How will you partition the SAN disks?
  • Which servers and workstations will have access to which SAN partitions?
  • Which RAID systems, tape libraries, and other storage resources need to be included in the SAN?

One hurdle that remains in the deployment of SANS is the lack of industry standards for interoperability and management. Unfortunately, many devices from various SAN vendors don't work with each other.



Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Administrator's Companion, Vol. 1
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Administrators Companion (IT-Administrators Companion)
ISBN: 1572318198
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2000
Pages: 366

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