Designing Storage Area Networks: A Practical Reference for Implementing Fibre Channel and IP SANs, Second Edition

Book description

Designing Storage Area Networks, Second Edition, succinctly captures the key technologies that are driving the storage networking industry. Tom Clark's works are helping to educate the IT community to the benefits and challenges of shared storage and are recommended reading for anyone wishing to understand this exciting new technology."

—Sheila Childs, VP Product Management, Legato Systems Chairperson, SNIA

Fibre Channel SANs have become a mainstay at the backend of the biggest corporations on the planet. The second edition of Designing Storage Area Networks brings the next wave of connection (IP) points and management into context, helping the user to quickly understand all the benefits before them."

—Steve Duplessie, Founder and Senior Analyst, Enterprise Storage Group

Designing Storage Area Networks, Second Edition, provides a practical roadmap through the ever-changing landscape of SAN technology. The new Fibre Channel, IP, and virtualization initiatives covered in this work will enable customers to implement comprehensive shared storage solutions that reduce management overhead and cost."

—John Webster, Founder and SeniorAnalyst, Data Mobility Group

Storage Area Networks (SANs) are now recognized as the preferred solution for fulfilling institutions' and enterprises' critical data-storage needs. Whether powered by Fibre Channel or TCP/IP and Gigabit Ethernet technology, SANs far exceed the capabilities of traditional storage access methods. SANs are quickly becoming the solution of choice for organizations that require high-volume data-handling capacity.

Written for network developers, IT consultants, administrators, and managers, this updated and greatly expanded edition of the best-selling Designing Storage Area Networks goes far beyond a straight description of technical specifications and standards. The text offers practical guidelines for using diverse SAN technologies to solve existing networking problems in large-scale corporate networks. With this book you will learn how the technologies work and how to organize their components into an effective, scalable design. In doing so, you will discover today's best methods for managing storage area networks, including new troubleshooting techniques.

Designing Storage Area Networks, Second Edition, also features detailed case studies that demonstrate how SANs can solve a number of commonly encountered business challenges, including LAN-free and server-free tape backup, server clustering, and disaster recovery. As an information-systems professional, you must keep pace with this powerful, evolving technology.

Key topic coverage includes:

  • Using the SNIA Shared Storage Model

  • Fibre Channel layers and protocols

  • Fabrics and fabric switches

  • Host bus adapters

  • Fibre Channel RAID and Fibre Channel JBODs

  • iSCSI and IP storage protocols and products

  • SAN management and problem isolation techniques

  • Building extended SANs for data center and remote storage access



  • 0321136500B02242003

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Preface
    1. The Organization of This Book
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. 1. Introduction
    1. 1.1. Using the SNIA Shared Storage Model
    2. 1.2. Example: Carlson Companies
    3. 1.3. Text Overview
    4. 1.4. Chapter Summary
  5. 2. Storage and Networking Concepts
    1. 2.1. Networking in front of the Server
      1. 2.1.1. Serial Transport
      2. 2.1.2. Access Method
      3. 2.1.3. Addressing
      4. 2.1.4. Packetizing of Data
      5. 2.1.5. Routing of Packets
      6. 2.1.6. Upper-Layer Protocol Support
    2. 2.2. The SCSI Architecture
    3. 2.3. The Parallel SCSI Bus
    4. 2.4. Network-Attached Storage
    5. 2.5. Networking behind the Server
    6. 2.6. Chapter Summary
  6. 3. Fibre Channel Internals
    1. 3.1. Fibre Channel Layers
    2. 3.2. 1Gbps and 2Gbps Transport
    3. 3.3. Physical Layer Options
    4. 3.4. Data Encoding
    5. 3.5. Ordered Sets
    6. 3.6. Framing Protocol
    7. 3.7. Classes of Service
    8. 3.8. Flow Control
    9. 3.9. Naming and Addressing Conventions
    10. 3.10. Chapter Summary
  7. 4. Fibre Channel SAN Topologies
    1. 4.1. Point-to-Point
    2. 4.2. Arbitrated Loop
      1. 4.2.1. Loop Physical Topology
      2. 4.2.2. Loop Addressing
      3. 4.2.3. Loop Initialization
      4. 4.2.4. Port Login
      5. 4.2.5. Loop Port State Machine
      6. 4.2.6. Arbitration
      7. 4.2.7. The Nonbroadcast Nature of Arbitrated Loop
      8. 4.2.8. Design Considerations for Arbitrated Loop
        1. Types of Devices per Loop Segment
        2. Private and Public Loop Support
        3. Total Number of Loop Devices per Segment
        4. Bandwidth Requirements
        5. Distance Requirements
        6. Managed or Unmanaged Environments
        7. High-Availability Requirements
    3. 4.3. Fabrics
      1. 4.3.1. Fabric Login
      2. 4.3.2. Simple Name Server
      3. 4.3.3. State Change Notification
      4. 4.3.4. Private Loop Support
      5. 4.3.5. Fabric Zoning
    4. 4.4. Building Extended Fabrics
      1. 4.4.1. E_Port Standardization
      2. 4.4.2. Principal Switch Selection
    5. 4.5. Fabrics and Loops
    6. 4.6. Chapter Summary
  8. 5. Fibre Channel Products
    1. 5.1. Transceivers
    2. 5.2. Host Bus Adapters
    3. 5.3. Fibre Channel RAID
    4. 5.4. Fibre Channel JBODs
    5. 5.5. Arbitrated Loop Hubs
      1. 5.5.1. Star Topology for Arbitrated Loop
      2. 5.5.2. Hub Architecture
      3. 5.5.3. Unmanaged Hubs
      4. 5.5.4. Managed Hubs
    6. 5.6. Switching Hubs
    7. 5.7. Fabric Switches
      1. 5.7.1. Departmental Fabric Switches
      2. 5.7.2. Fibre Channel Directors
    8. 5.8. Fibre Channel-to-SCSI Bridges
    9. 5.9. Fibre Channel Extension Products
      1. 5.9.1. Fibre Channel Extension Using DWDM
      2. 5.9.2. Fibre Channel Extension Using IP Tunneling
      3. 5.9.3. Fibre Channel WAN Bridging
    10. 5.10. Chapter Summary
  9. 6. IP SAN Technology
    1. 6.1. Ethernet and TCP/IP
      1. 6.1.1. Gigabit Ethernet Transport
        1. IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation
        2. IEEE 802.3x Flow Control
        3. IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Tagging
        4. IEEE 802.1p/Q Frame Prioritization
      2. 6.1.2. TCP/IP
        1. IP Addressing
        2. Address Resolution Protocol
        3. IP Routing
        4. TCP Session Control
    2. 6.2. Native IP Storage Protocols
      1. 6.2.1. Internet Fibre Channel Protocol
      2. 6.2.2. Internet SCSI (iSCSI)
    3. 6.3. Discovery in IP SANs
      1. 6.3.1. Service Locator Protocol (SLP)
      2. 6.3.2. Internet Storage Name Server (iSNS)
    4. 6.4. Quality of Service for IP SANs
    5. 6.5. Security for IP SANs
    6. 6.6. Wide Area Storage Networking
    7. 6.7. Chapter Summary
  10. 7. IP SAN Products
    1. 7.1. Gigabit Ethernet Switches
    2. 7.2. IP Routers
    3. 7.3. iSCSI Adapter Cards
    4. 7.4. iSCSI Storage Devices
    5. 7.5. IP Storage Gateways
    6. 7.6. iSCSI-to-SCSI Bridges
    7. 7.7. iSNS Servers
    8. 7.8. Chapter Summary
  11. 8. SAN Software Products
    1. 8.1. Server Clustering
    2. 8.2. Tape Backup
    3. 8.3. Data Replication
    4. 8.4. Distributed File Systems and File Sharing
    5. 8.5. Chapter Summary
  12. 9. Problem Isolation in SANs
    1. 9.1. Simple Problem-Isolation Techniques
    2. 9.2. Fibre Channel Analyzers
    3. 9.3. iSCSI Network Analyzers
    4. 9.4. Performance Tools
    5. 9.5. Chapter Summary
  13. 10. Management of SANs
    1. 10.1. Storage Network Management
      1. 10.1.1. In-Band Management
      2. 10.1.2. Out-of-Band Management
      3. 10.1.3. SNMP
      4. 10.1.4. HTTP
      5. 10.1.5. Telnet
      6. 10.1.6. Storage Network Management Issues
    2. 10.2. Storage Resource Management
    3. 10.3. Storage Management
    4. 10.4. Integration of Storage, Systems, and Enterprise Management
    5. 10.5. The Common Information Model (CIM) (Bluefin)
    6. 10.6. Chapter Summary
  14. 11. Storage Virtualization
    1. 11.1. What Is Storage Virtualization?
    2. 11.2. In-Band and Out-of-Band Virtualization
    3. 11.3. Host-Based Storage Virtualization
    4. 11.4. SAN Interconnect-Based Storage Virtualization
    5. 11.5. Storage-Based Virtualization
    6. 11.6. Multivendor Storage Virtualization
    7. 11.7. File System and NAS Virtualization
    8. 11.8. Tape Virtualization
    9. 11.9. Virtualization and the Data Storage Utility
    10. 11.10. Chapter Summary
  15. 12. Application Studies
    1. 12.1. Post-Production Video Editing
    2. 12.2. Prepress Operations
    3. 12.3. LAN-Free and Server-Free Tape Backup
    4. 12.4. Server Clustering
    5. 12.5. Storage Consolidation
    6. 12.6. Internet Service Providers
    7. 12.7. Campus Storage Networks
    8. 12.8. Remote Tape Vaulting
    9. 12.9. Disaster Recovery
    10. 12.10. Chapter Summary
  16. 13. SAN Issues
    1. 13.1. Standardization
    2. 13.2. Interoperability
    3. 13.3. Management
    4. 13.4. Convergence
    5. 13.5. Chapter Summary
  17. 14. The Future of SAN
    1. 14.1. Integration of SANs into Mainstream Networking
    2. 14.2. Ubiquity of Shared Storage
    3. 14.3. Virtualization
    4. 14.4. Human Factors
    5. 14.5. Contributing Technologies
    6. 14.6. Chapter Summary
  18. A. SAN Resources
    1. A.1. Standards and Proposals
      1. A.1.1. SCSI and Fibre Channel Standards
      2. A.1.2. IETF Requests for Comments
      3. A.1.3. IETF IP Storage Internet Drafts
      4. A.1.4. Gigabit Ethernet
      5. A.1.5. InfiniBand
    2. A.2. Fibre Channel Technical and Marketing
    3. A.3. IP Storage Technical and Marketing
    4. A.4. Related Web Resources
  19. B. SAN and Related Vendors
    1. B.1. SAN System Vendors
    2. B.2. SAN Storage and Tape Vendors
    3. B.3. Fibre Channel Products
    4. B.4. IP SAN Products
    5. B.5. SAN Extension
    6. B.6. SAN Management and Virtualization
    7. B.7. Gigabit Ethernet Vendors
    8. B.8. Test Equipment and Verification Labs
  20. C. The Standardization Process
  21. D. The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)
    1. D.1. Board of Directors
    2. D.2. Executive Director and Staff
      1. D.2.1. Board Advisors
      2. D.2.2. Technical Council
      3. D.2.3. Technical Director
      4. D.2.4. Technical Center Director
    3. D.3. SNIA Technology Center
    4. D.4. Customer Councils
    5. D.5. Committees
    6. D.6. Technical Workgroups
    7. D.7. Industry Forums
      1. D.7.1. SNIA IP Storage Industry Forum
      2. D.7.2. SNIA Supported Solutions Forum
      3. D.7.3. SNIA DAFS Forum
      4. D.7.4. SNIA Storage Security Industry Forum
      5. D.7.5. SNIA Europe Forum
      6. D.7.6. SNIA Japan Forum
    8. D.8. SNIA and Other Industry Associations
    9. D.9. Summary
  22. E. The SNIA Shared Storage Model
    1. Revision history
    2. Usage terms
    3. Executive summary
    4. Acknowledgments
    5. The shared storage vision
      1. Why shared storage?
      2. The potential
    6. Why a model for shared storage?
      1. Benefits of the model
      2. A note on the graphical conventions used in the model
    7. The SNIA Shared Storage Model
      1. Storage system components
      2. The layering scheme of the SNIA Shared Storage Model
      3. The file/record layer
    8. Where can it be done?
      1. The block layer
        1. Block aggregation
        2. Where can it be done?
        3. How is it done?
        4. Sample architectures
      2. Putting it all together—combining the block and file/record layers
        1. Access paths
        2. Caching
        3. Access control
    9. The services subsystem
    10. Additional topics
      1. Clustering
      2. Data versus storage
      3. Sharing of resources and data
        1. Resource sharing
        2. Data sharing
        3. Modular systems
      4. Storage networks
        1. “SAN” versus “NAS”?
        2. A challenge
    11. Some common storage architectures
      1. Direct-attached block storage
      2. Storage network-attached block storage
    12. Block storage aggregation in a storage network (“SAN appliance”)
      1. Storage network-attached block storage with metadata server (“asymmetric block service”)
      2. Multi-site block storage
      3. File server
      4. File server controller (“NAS head”)
      5. NAS/file server metadata manager (“asymmetric file service”)
      6. Object-based Storage Device (OSD), CMU NASD
    13. Summary and conclusions
      1. Status
  23. F. The SNIA Dictionary of Storage Networking Terminology
  24. G. SAN Essays
    1. SAN Customers and SAN Vendors
    2. Standardization and Storage Networking Technologies
    3. Standards Compliance versus Interoperability
    4. Storage Resource Management
    5. Going the Distance with Storage Data
    6. Shared Storage for the Masses
    7. SAN Security
    8. Infrastructures and Applications
    9. Disaster Recovery in an Uncertain World
    10. Enabling iSCSI Migration
  25. Bibliography

Product information

  • Title: Designing Storage Area Networks: A Practical Reference for Implementing Fibre Channel and IP SANs, Second Edition
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: March 2003
  • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
  • ISBN: 9780321136503