Introduction

Module 1
33072-rev0702

2007 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice

Objectives

What is a SAN?

Why the need for SAN?

DAS

NAS

SAN

Tiered Storage

SAN hardware components

Power-On sequence for SAN components

Introduction to
SAN

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What is a SAN?

Introduction to
SAN

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Definition of a SAN
Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA)
statement:
SNIA defines a SAN as "A network whose primary purpose
is the transfer of data between computer systems and
storage elements, and among storage elements. A SAN
consists of a communication infrastructure which provides
physical connections, and a management layer which
organizes the connections, storage elements, and
computer systems so that data transfer is secure and
robust."

Introduction to
SAN

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Why a SAN?

Establish different physical storage topologies

Reduced costs and easier management of capital

assets

Cost-effective expansion

Any-to-any connectivity

Open systems

Centralized management

Introduction to
SAN

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SAN Considerations

Scalability of design

Connectivity number of ports

Storage capacity

Availability:
Fabric
Systems
Data
Backup
Business continuity
Disaster planning and recovery

Topology and performance

Introduction to
SAN

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Storage consolidation and

expansion
Distributed storage
SCSI

SCSI

Consolidated storage

SAN

Introduction to
SAN

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Efficiency improvements

Better disk capacity utilization than DAS

More efficient storage growth with storage consolida

95% Used 40% Used

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Introduction to
SAN

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60% Used

High availability

High Availability=
clustered systems +
redundant fabrics +
bullet-proof disk array

Introduction to
SAN

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High-speed backup

Server

Server

SAN
Disk
system

Backup
library

Serverless
backup
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Introduction to
SAN

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Clustering
Used to support critical business applications
Provide a redundant, fail-safe installation that can
tolerate
Equipment failure
Software failure
Network failures
It will continue running with as little impact on
business as possible
Primary advantages
Connectivity
Scalability
Reliability

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Introduction to
SAN

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DAS, NAS, and SAN

Clients

NAS

DAS
SAN

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Introduction to
SAN

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DAS versus NAS versus SAN

Direct
Attached
Storage

Network
Attached
Storage

Ethernet

Storage
Area
Network

File I/O
Fibre
Channel

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Introduction to
SAN

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Block I/O

Direct Attached Storage (DAS)

Engineering

Finance

SCSI

Distributed Storage
Fibre Channel
SAS

Sales
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Introduction to
SAN

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Warehouse

Network Attached Storage (NAS)

Application
server

Application
server

NAS appliance

Windows clients

UNIX clients

Internal, SCSI or SAN

attached storage
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Introduction to
SAN

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Fabrics and the SAN

Dual redundant fabrics
essentially double the
maximum size of a SAN
Any devices can realize
double the potential
bandwidth if it is

dual attached
capable of supporting an
active-active dual path

16

Bit error rate 10-12 at

1Gb/s

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SAN

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Comparing SAN and NAS

SAN

Open-systems servers
Network infrastructure
components
Value-added software

NAS
Server
Storage
Operating system
Application

SAN
NAS
SAN and NAS coexist in the enterprise
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Introduction to
SAN

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Comparison by purpose
DAS

NAS

Any

File serving

Storage for application

servers

General purpose

Optimized

General purpose

Storage devices

Internal or external
dedicated

External direct-attached

External shared

Management

Labor intensive

Centralized

Centralized

Data centers

Workgroup or
departmental

Workgroup or
departmental

Small workgroup to
enterprise data centers

Network traffic

Increased network
performance

Higher bandwidth

Distance

None

Limited distances

Greater distances

Speed

Bottlenecks

Improved bottlenecks

Greater speeds

Limited

Limited

Offers no-single-point-offailure storage and data path

protection

Low cost

Affordable

Higher cost, but greater

benefits

Applications
Server and
operating
systems

Performance

High availability

Cost

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SAN

Introduction to
SAN

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Tiered storage

Performance and cost

e
s
a
y-b
c
i
l
Po

Tier 4
Nearline
1 year active, file
recovery, off-site
recovery

on
i
t
a
igr
m
a
dat

Tier 3
Reference Information.
Searchable, indexed
online archive

Tier 2
Near-online
3 to 6 months active,
faster recovery,
infrequently accessed
data

Scalability and availability

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Introduction to
SAN

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Tier 1
Online
3 months active data
mirroring, instant
recovery

SAN components

Switches
Create the fabric of the SAN
Enable scalability

Routers, bridges, and gateways

Enable device sharing, multi-protocol
technologies, and fault isolation
Extend the SAN over long distances

Storage devices
Can be integrated among multiple types
Can be configured as RAID or JBOD

Servers
Connect to the SAN with HBAs
Can be of any variety

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Cabling and connectors Can be fiber

optic or copper
Introduction to
SAN

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Fibre Channel
switch
Router

Tape
library

Server
Cable

Host (initiator)
Characteristics:

OS flexibility within the SAN

File system independence for SAN based

LUNs

Multiple Fibre Channel Host Bus

Adaptors for multi-fabric connection

Local, stretch and geo-, multi-node

cluster support

Multi Path IO with option of load

balancing

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Introduction to
SAN

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Disk array (target)

Characteristics:

Multiple port connections for improved throughput and

enhanced availability

Battery backed controller cache for protected write-back

caching

Up to 99.999% uptime with cache de-staging battery backup

options

Virtualised storage management for ease of use management

Remote, controller based, replication for

data integrity and disaster recovery

Snapshot and cloning capability

Fibre Channel internal architecture

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Introduction to
SAN

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Interconnect devices
Characteristics:

Provide switching function and routing

Fibre Channel to SCSI or IP routing

Provide fabric services to nodes

Enforce security within the fabric

May be highly available

Allow remote administration

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Introduction to
SAN

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Power on Sequence
1. Switch (let the switch fully boot or it may hold off Fabric Login attempts)
2. Storage Array (allow all disk array ports to log in to the fabric before you proceed)
3. Host (the host will log in to the fabric and then go to look for target devices)

3
Run

Attention
Fault

Remote
SPPr esent

StandbyPower
Power

h p Integrity rx8640

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Introduction to
SAN

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Learning
check

25

Introduction to
SAN

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Introduction to
SAN

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