Chapter 6. IP SAN Technology

New SAN solutions based on IP protocols and Gigabit Ethernet have been introduced to complement and, in some cases, replace traditional Fibre Channel products. Consequently, SAN architects now have additional options for implementing shared storage. As usual, though, separating practical facts from vendor fiction is a necessary first step in designing a viable SAN. This chapter examines the basic features of IP storage protocols and transports and provides a foundation for understanding the capabilities that IP SAN products can offer.

Ethernet and TCP/IP

Mainstream data communications networks are based on Ethernet for physical transport and on TCP/IP for routing of data from source to destination. Ethernet and TCP

Get Designing Storage Area Networks: A Practical Reference for Implementing Fibre Channel and IP SANs, Second Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.