IP SANs: A Guide to iSCSI, iFCP, and FCIP Protocols for Storage Area Networks

9.3. Chapter Summary

Discovery

• Discovery refers to the detection of targets by initiators to establish storage sessions.

• Discovery in direct-attached storage occurs by simple polling of the server's SCSI bus.

• Discovery in storage networks requires mechanisms to identify potential targets that may be dispersed throughout the network.

• The discovery process is closely bound to the concept of ownership of storage resources by specific initiators.

Discovery in Fibre Channel

• Discovery in Fibre Channel loop may be accomplished by polling through the loop address space of 126 possible addresses.

• Discovery in Fibre Channel fabrics requires a name service for targets within an address space spanning 15.5 million possible addresses.

• The Fibre Channel SNS is ...