Storage Networks Explained: Basics and Application of Fibre Channel SAN, NAS, iSCSI, InfiniBand and FCoE, Second Edition

Book description

All you need to know about Storage Area Networks

The amount of data of an average company doubles every year. Thus, companies who own 1TB of data today will own 32TB in five years. Storage networks help to tame such data quantities and to manage this data growth efficiently. Since stored data and information are the biggest asset of any company, anyone who is involved in the planning or the operation of IT systems requires a basic knowledge of the principle and the use of storage networks.

Storage Networks Explained covers the fundaments, techniques and functions of storage networks such as disk subsystems, Fibre Channel SAN, Internet SCSI (iSCSI), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Network Attached Storage (NAS), file systems, and storage virtualization. Furthermore the authors describe the use of these techniques and how they are designed to achieve high-availability, flexibility, and scalability of data and applications. Additional attention is given to network backup and the management of storage networks. Written by leading experts in the field, this book on storage area networks is updated and fully revised.

Key features:

  • Presents the basic concepts of storage networks, such as I/O techniques, disk subsystems, virtualization, NAS and SAN file systems

  • Covers the design of storage networks which provide flexible, highly-available, and scaleable IT systems

  • Explains the use of storage networks for data sharing, data protection, and digital archiving

  • Discusses management of storage networks using SNMP, SMI-S, and IEEE 1244

This book provides system administrators and system architects, as well as students and decision makers, with the tools needed for optimal selection and cost-effective use of storage networks.

The Linux Journal awarded the first edition with the "Editor's Choice Award 2005" in the category "System Administration Book."

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. About the Authors
  6. Foreword to the Second Edition by Hermann Strass
  7. Preface by the authors
    1. WHAT DOES THIS BOOK DEAL WITH?
    2. WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?
    3. HOW SHOULD THIS BOOK BE READ?
    4. WHO HAS WRITTEN THIS BOOK?
    5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOR THE SECOND EDITION
    6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOR THE FIRST EDITION
  8. List of Figures and Tables
    1. FIGURES
    2. TABLES
  9. 1: Introduction
    1. 1.1 SERVER-CENTRIC IT ARCHITECTURE AND ITS LIMITATIONS
    2. 1.2 STORAGE-CENTRIC IT ARCHITECTURE AND ITS ADVANTAGES
    3. 1.3 CASE STUDY: REPLACING A SERVER WITH STORAGE NETWORKS
    4. 1.4 THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK
  10. Part I: Technologies for Storage Networks
    1. 2: Intelligent Disk Subsystems
      1. 2.1 ARCHITECTURE OF INTELLIGENT DISK SUBSYSTEMS
      2. 2.2 HARD DISKS AND INTERNAL I/O CHANNELS
      3. 2.3 JBOD: JUST A BUNCH OF DISKS
      4. 2.4 STORAGE VIRTUALISATION USING RAID
      5. 2.5 DIFFERENT RAID LEVELS IN DETAIL
      6. 2.6 CACHING: ACCELERATION OF HARD DISK ACCESS
      7. 2.7 INTELLIGENT DISK SUBSYSTEMS
      8. 2.8 AVAILABILITY OF DISK SUBSYSTEMS
      9. 2.9 SUMMARY
    2. 3: I/O Techniques
      1. 3.1 THE PHYSICAL I/O PATH FROM THE CPU TO THE STORAGE SYSTEM
      2. 3.2 SCSI
      3. 3.3 THE FIBRE CHANNEL PROTOCOL STACK
      4. 3.4 FIBRE CHANNEL SAN
      5. 3.5 IP STORAGE
      6. 3.6 INFINIBAND-BASED STORAGE NETWORKS
      7. 3.7 FIBRE CHANNEL OVER ETHERNET (FCoE)
      8. 3.8 SUMMARY
    3. 4: File Systems and Network Attached Storage (NAS)
      1. 4.1 LOCAL FILE SYSTEMS
      2. 4.2 NETWORK FILE SYSTEMS AND FILE SERVERS
      3. 4.3 SHARED DISK FILE SYSTEMS
      4. 4.4 COMPARISON: FIBRE CHANNEL SAN, FCoE SAN, iSCSI SAN AND NAS
      5. 4.5 SUMMARY
    4. 5: Storage Virtualisation
      1. 5.1 ONCE AGAIN: VIRTUALISATION IN THE I/O PATH
      2. 5.2 LIMITATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
      3. 5.3 DEFINITION OF STORAGE VIRTUALISATION
      4. 5.4 IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS
      5. 5.5 STORAGE VIRTUALISATION ON BLOCK OR FILE LEVEL
      6. 5.6 STORAGE VIRTUALISATION ON VARIOUS LEVELS OF THE STORAGE NETWORK
      7. 5.7 SYMMETRIC AND ASYMMETRIC STORAGE VIRTUALISATION IN THE NETWORK
      8. 5.8 SUMMARY
  11. Part II: Application and Management of Storage Networks
    1. 6: Application of Storage Networks
      1. 6.1 DEFINITION OF THE TERM ‘STORAGE NETWORK’
      2. 6.2 STORAGE SHARING
      3. 6.3 AVAILABILITY OF DATA
      4. 6.4 ADAPTABILITY AND SCALABILITY OF IT SYSTEMS
      5. 6.5 SUMMARY
    2. 7: Network Backup
      1. 7.1 GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR BACKUP
      2. 7.2 NETWORK BACKUP SERVICES
      3. 7.3 COMPONENTS OF BACKUP SERVERS
      4. 7.4 BACKUP CLIENTS
      5. 7.5 PERFORMANCE GAINS AS A RESULT OF NETWORK BACKUP
      6. 7.6 PERFORMANCE BOTTLENECKS OF NETWORK BACKUP
      7. 7.7 LIMITED OPPORTUNITIES FOR INCREASING PERFORMANCE
      8. 7.8 NEXT GENERATION BACKUP
      9. 7.9 BACKUP OF FILE SYSTEMS
      10. 7.10 BACKUP OF DATABASES
      11. 7.11 ORGANISATIONAL ASPECTS OF BACKUP
      12. 7.12 SUMMARY
    3. 8: Archiving
      1. 8.1 TERMINOLOGY
      2. 8.2 MOTIVATION, CONDITIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
      3. 8.3 IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS
      4. 8.4 INTERFACES IN ARCHIVE SYSTEMS
      5. 8.5 ARCHIVE SOLUTIONS
      6. 8.6 OPERATIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL ASPECTS
      7. 8.7 SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK
    4. 9: Business Continuity
      1. 9.1 GENERAL CONDITIONS
      2. 9.2 STRATEGIES OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY
      3. 9.3 PARAMETERS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY
      4. 9.4 QUALITY OF SERVICE FOR BUSINESS CONTINUITY
      5. 9.5 BUSINESS CONTINUITY SOLUTIONS
      6. 9.6 SWITCH OF OPERATIONAL LOCATION
      7. 9.7 ORGANISATIONAL ASPECTS
      8. 9.8 SUMMARY
    5. 10: Management of Storage Networks
      1. 10.1 REQUIREMENTS
      2. 10.2 CHARACTERISATION OF MANAGEMENT INTERFACES
      3. 10.3 IN-BAND MANAGEMENT
      4. 10.4 OUT-BAND MANAGEMENT
      5. 10.5 OPERATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE MANAGEMENT OF STORAGE NETWORKS
      6. 10.6 SUMMARY
    6. 11: Removable Media Management
      1. 11.1 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF REMOVABLE MEDIA
      2. 11.2 REMOVABLE MEDIA
      3. 11.3 LIBRARIES AND DRIVES
      4. 11.4 PROBLEMS AND REQUIREMENTS IN RESPECT OF REMOVABLE MEDIA MANAGEMENT
      5. 11.5 THE IEEE 1244 STANDARD FOR REMOVABLE MEDIA MANAGEMENT
      6. 11.6 SUMMARY
    7. 12: The SNIA Shared Storage Model
      1. 12.1 THE MODEL
      2. 12.2 EXAMPLES OF DISK-BASED STORAGE ARCHITECTURES
      3. 12.3 EXTENSION OF THE SNIA SHARED STORAGE MODEL TO TAPE FUNCTIONS
      4. 12.4 EXAMPLES OF TAPE-BASED BACKUP TECHNIQUES AND ARCHITECTURES
      5. 12.5 SUMMARY
    8. 13: Final Note
    9. Glossary
    10. Annotated Bibliography
    11. Appendix A: Proof of Calculation of the Parity Block of RAID 4 and 5
    12. Appendix B: Checklist for the Management of Storage Networks
      1. B.1 APPLICATIONS
      2. B.2 DATA
      3. B.3 RESOURCES
      4. B.4 NETWORK
    13. Index

Product information

  • Title: Storage Networks Explained: Basics and Application of Fibre Channel SAN, NAS, iSCSI, InfiniBand and FCoE, Second Edition
  • Author(s): Wolfgang Müller-Friedt Ulf Troppens Rainer Wolafka, Nils Haustein Rainer Erkens
  • Release date: September 2009
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780470741436