Storage Networking Fundamentals: An Introduction to Storage Devices, Subsystems, Applications, Management, and Filing Systems

Summary

Device technology continues to evolve and is being heavily pushed by the requirements of storage networks. In general, bare devices are not addressed individually in a storage network but are part of larger subsystems that provide centralized management for a larger number of resources.

That said, understanding the capabilities and shortcomings of these devices is important to maintaining a well-run SAN environment—especially where high-performance I/O operations are required. The rotational speed of a drive, its average seek time performance, the relative location of the tracks being used, the number of applications sharing space on the drive, and the amount of buffer memory are all contributing factors that need to be considered for ...