7 SAN

Hello All, I am NEWMAN.

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Today we are going to deep dive into SAN or Storage Area Network

Remember Server Data can be stored on 3 types of Storage Devices. DAS, NAS & SAN.

So we are going to see the features of SAN in detail.

In SAN you have a storage array connected to the server via SAN Fabric which is a special network connected via Fibre Optic Cables.

This is how a SAN architecture looks like.

On the right side you see a SAN Storage Array.

It consists of Disk Shelves with disks in it and a Storage Processor or a Storage Controller.

The SAN Storage Array is connected to a special network switch called as Fabric Switch mostly using Fiber Optic Cables.

Remember Ethernet communicates with IP Addresses.
SAN Networks Identify each other and communicate using WWN & WWPN Numbers (World Wide Names).

Lets see how SAN Works.

The SAN Storage Array is administered or managed by through its own Administration Console or Graphical Console or Command Line

Logical Disks are created out of this SAN Box and mounted onto the servers directly.

The File Systems is located on the Server. This means that after mounting the server needs to detect the drive as a locally attached drive and then format it before being able to use it.

Now the Server can store data onto its local hard drive. Like Z Drive or D as in Data Drive.

If we talk about I/O - Only Bits and Bytes travel over the network.

Here are some advantages of SAN.

As SAN uses fiber channel hence it is a dedicated high speed network.

The data is block level access, which is more suitable for database type of application.

The data is managed centrally which makes it easier to back them up, replicate and manage

SAN is highly scale able – The capacity can be increased as per requirement, SAN devices can be cascaded, more disk shelves can be added.

The data is not connected to the Ethernet network, which makes it secure.

We will discuss about SAN Components and Backup Technologies in the coming lessons.