SAN : (Storage Area Network) A network of storage disks.

In large enterprises, a
SAN connects multiple servers to a centralized pool of disk storage. Compared t
o managing hundreds of servers, each with their own disks, SANs improve system a
dministration. By treating all the company's storage as a single resource, disk
maintenance and routine backups are easier to schedule and control. In some SANs
, the disks themselves can copy data to other disks for backup without any proce
ssing overhead at the host computers.
image
In the above image you are able to see the basic SAN setup in larger enterprises
. I will explain it now how the connectivity goes between all the devices.
What are the devices that are needed for a SAN setup?
image 1. SAN BOX (San Device)
It contains more number of disks to accommodate re
quired storage to the other servers in the environment.
2. SAN NETWORK SWITCH SAN switches are similar to normal switches but their func
tionality is to process storage traffic.
3. HBA CARD : Host Bus Adapter is an interface card as NIC which resides in the
normal server to initiate storage requests.
4. OPTICAL FIBER CABLES or RJ45 CABLES : For Communication
How the communication goes now?
1. To assign more storage to the server, first it should have the HBA cards inst
alled in it as well as the the storage devices are also comes with HBA cards by
default.
2. These HBA cards are connected to SAN switch using Optical/RJ45 cables from bo
th ends.
3. Storage engineer creates LUN s and allocates them to servers. Those LUN are ide
ntified by the LUN numbers. Before that, every HBA card is having its own WWN (W
orld Wide Number) as MAC address. It is used in giving right/read access to thes
e LUN s. (Logical Unit Numbers) A LUN is created from an array of hard disks. It w
ill be in any of the size.
4. Once the LUN s are visible to the server, they can be mounted on to it in diffe
rent ways because every OS has its own process to mount the LUN s. After mounting
the LUN s they are visible as LOCAL DISKS on the server (but they ar coming from t
he storage area network).
image 5. One important point is, in FC SAN s the data is accessible as BLOCKS with
a max speed of 4MBPS, and in iSCSI SAN s the data is accessible as files with a m
ax speed of 1MBPS.
6. The FC SAN is very costly when compared to iSCSI SAN, because Optical Fiber C
able is used in it instead of RJ45 cable. This is the reason the transfer speed
is very high. One advantage of iSCSI than FC SAN is that, it can be accessible f
rom anywhere in the world as it relies on IP for communication as same as normal
network. And its very difficult to connect the storage boxes across the world u
sing the Fibre Cable. One it is very costly and it doesn t rely upon IP. Even thou
gh the speed is low in iSCSI SAN, but it is the only one that is preferable in W
ide Area Networks.