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Storage Area Networks Fundamentals

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 Storage Area Network Fundamentals
Vladimir V. Riabov, Rivier College

Introduction 1 Adaptive Network Storage Architecture (ANSA) 11

SAN Overview 1 Storage Resource Management (SRM) 11
What Is a SAN? 1 Standards 11
Benefits of SANs 3 American National Standards Institute (ANSI) 11
SAN Applications 4 Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) 11
SAN Architecture and Infrastructure 4 Storage Systems Standards Working Group
SAN Design and Management Issues 6 (SSSWG) 11
SAN Operating System Software Components 7 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 11
SAN Security Issues 7 Storage Networking Associations, Initiatives,
SAN Technologies and Solutions 7 Forums, and Coalitions 11
Fibre-channel Topologies 8 SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Association) 11
InfiniBand Solutions 9 Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) 12
Crossroads Systems with a Storage Router 9 Fibre Alliance (FA) 12
Brocade’s Configurations 9 Jiro 12
Other Storage Networking Technologies 9 National Storage Industry Consortium (NSIC) 12
VI (Virtual Interface) Architecture 9 The SAN Market, Vendors, and Service Providers 12
Direct Access File System 10 Evolution of the SAN Market 12
IP Storage Technologies 10 SAN Vendors and Service Providers 13
SANs over IP 10 Conclusion 14
Storage over IP (SoIP) 10 Glossary 14
Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF) 10 References 14

INTRODUCTION reliability are critical for a company’s business. Many

enterprise solutions (e.g., ATTO FibreBridge products,
The volume and value of enterprise data have been grow-
rack mount solutions, ATTO FibreCenter3400R/D, host
ing faster than the speed at which traditional backup utili-
bus adapters, the ATTO Diamond array, Compaq Storage
ties’ effectiveness has been increasing. Enterprises have
Works products, EMC Connectrix solutions, LSI Logic
become more dependent on their online systems and can-
E4600 Storage System) are available today. They can be ef-
not ensure the availability of these data by relying only on
fectively used in multiple platform storage-infrastructure
traditional, network-bottlenecked, server-attached storage
solutions for data-intensive applications such as
systems. Solutions to this problem have been offered by
e-commerce, online transaction processing, electronic
storage area network (SAN) technology, which provides
vaulting, data warehousing, data mining, Internet/intranet
enterprises with serverless zero-time-windows backup.
browsing, multimedia audio/video editing, high-definition
In this new backup approach, backed-up data are removed
television (HDTV) streaming, and enterprise database
to a secondary remote storage device, and the enterprise
management applications (Riabov 2004).
server becomes off-loaded, permitting high-performance
This chapter describes fundamentals of storage area
continuous access to both applications and data. The ob-
networks (SANs), their architectural elements (interfaces,
jective of a SAN is to allow multiple servers access to a
interconnects, and fabrics), technologies (fibre-channel-
pool of data storage in which any server can potentially
arbitrated loop transport protocol, Brocade’s configura-
access any storage unit. In this environment, management
tions, InfiniBand switched-fabric architecture, Crossroad
plays a large role in providing security guarantees (with
systems with a storage router, virtual interface architec-
authorization to access particular storage devices) and se-
ture, direct access file system, Internet protocol (IP) stor-
quencing or serialization guarantees (with authorization
age technologies, SANs over IP, fibre channel over IP,
to access a particular device at certain time-point) (Server
Internet fibre-channel protocol, Internet SCSI, storage
Clusters 2003).
over IP, fabric shortest path first protocol, storage resource
A SAN fabric is usually based on fibre-channel technol-
management, and adaptive network storage archi-tecture),
ogy that allows up to 10-km long-distance connections.
solutions, standards, associations, initiatives, forums,
This feature has a significant advantage in a campus envi-
coalitions, vendors, and service providers.
ronment, where reliable backup resources can be shared
among several divisions. For example, fibre-channel SANs
for a health care enterprise allow 24/7 continuous opera-
tion, patient record backup, and medical image archiving
SAN OVERVIEW
(Farley 2001). What Is a SAN?
The SAN becomes a key element of the enterprise en- A SAN (storage area network) is a networked high-speed
vironment in which data availability, serviceability, and infrastructure (subnetwork) that establishes direct access
1

bid44609_ch147.indd 1 5/11/07 8:56:34 PM

 2 STORAGE AREA NETWORK FUNDAMENTALS
by servers to an interconnected group of heterogeneous
data-storage devices such as optical disks, redundant ar-
rays of inexpensive disks (RAIDs), and tape backups (or
tape libraries). SANs are effective for storing large amounts
of information and backing up data online in e-commerce,
online transaction processing, electronic vaulting, data
warehousing, data mining, multimedia Internet/intranet
browsing, and enterprise-database-managing applica-
tions. SANs provide additional capabilities (fault tolerance,
remote management, clustering, and topological flexibility)
to mission-critical, data-intensive applications (Troppens,
Erkens, and Müeller 2004). A SAN is typically a part of
an enterprise network of computing resources (Sachdev
and Arunkundram 2002). A simple model of the storage
area network as a networked high-speed infrastructure is
shown in Figure 1.
A SAN can be considered as an extended and shared
storage bus within a data center, consisting of various stor-
age devices and specific interfaces (e.g., fibre channel, en-
terprise system connection [ESCON], high-performance
parallel interface [HIPPI], small computer system inter-
face [SCSI], or serial storage architecture [SSA]) rather
than Ethernet (Peterson 1998). In order to be connected
to the enterprise network, the SAN uses technologies sim-
ilar to those of local area networks (LANs) and wide area
networks (WANs): switches, routers, gateways, and hubs
(see Figure 1). WAN carrier technologies, such as asyn-
chronous transfer mode (ATM) or synchronous optical
networks (SONET), can be used for remote archival data
storing and backup. As an important element of modern
Intranet/ Intranet/
campus campus
network network
Load balancer
Server Server
FC-to-IP link
Internet Fibre Channel
switch (FC) switch
SAN fabric
Manager
Tapc Tapc Disk
librarics backups arrays
bid44609_ch147.indd 2
distributed networking architectures of storage-centric
enterprise information processing, SAN technology rep-
resents a significant step toward a fully networked secure
data storage infrastructure that is radically different from
traditional server-attached storage (Clark 2003). In addi-
tion, SANs provide improved options for network storage,
such as a creation of remote or local, dedicated or shared
data storage networks with access capability faster than
network attached storage (NAS) (Preston 2002).
A SAN can be divided into four separate segments
(SAN School 2006): (1) all the hardware (e.g., switches, ca-
bles, disk arrays, tape libraries, etc.), (2) protocols (fibre-
channel arbitrated loop [FC-AL] and fibre-channel switch
fabric [FC-SW]) that are used for communicating between
the hardware parts, (3) hardware and software vendors,
and (4) various computer applications that benefit from
using SAN. A SAN can be viewed as a composition of three
layers (see Figure 1): (1) host layer that includes host bus
adaptors (HBAs), drivers, host operating systems, and
interface software, (2) fabric layer (hubs, switches, fab-
ric operating systems, and cabling, and (3) storage layer
(disks, tapes, and advanced storage software).
SANs are based on the storage-centric information-
processing paradigm, which enables any-to-any connec-
tivity of computers (servers) and storage devices over a
high-speed enterprise network of interconnected fibre-
channel switches that form the SAN fabric. The incidence
of unconnected clusters of information is eliminated or
significantly reduced by SANs. According to this con-
cept, a SAN resides behind the server and provides any
LAN/WAN
client
Load balancer
Server UNIX
UNIX Server
Server
NT Cluster
Hub
Figure 1: Storage area network as a net-
SAN Fibre Channel
Appliance Storage Systems
worked high-speed enterprise infrastructure
(NT ⫽ Windows NT)
5/11/07 8:56:35 PM
 SAN OVERVIEW
users or devices on the enterprise network (“clients”) with
fast access to an array of data-storage devices. Multiple
servers and workstations from various vendors, running
different operating systems, can all be connected to a SAN
by using fiber-optic cabling (either a single or dual con-
nection) and a special fibre-channel card called a “host
bus adaptor” (HBA) (Anderson 2006).
A SAN can be viewed as multihost connected-
and-shared enterprise storage. Adding new storage de-
vices and server elements resolves traditional network
bottlenecks and small-scale problems of interfaces, such
as SCSI and NAS, and can easily expand the scale of the
SAN (Thornburgh and Schoenborn 2001). Another advan-
tage of SAN technology is that backups can be made over
the SAN fibre-channel subnet, and, in this case, backup
traffic is totally removed from the enterprise network.
SANs can offer high availability of operations because
of a fully redundant architecture supported by three build-
ing blocks: server clustering, multipathing, and storage
replication (Anderson 2006). Server clustering, load bal-
ancing, and autorecovering after a primary server failure
are the principal elements of high-availability computing
with a SAN. Multi-pathing uses redundant components to
guard against failure of any connection component (HBA,
switch, cable, or array controller) by rerouting traffic from
one component to the other. Small enterprises widely use
storage replication between servers connected to a SAN
over an IP network. This enables one-to-one, one-to-many,
and many-to-many replication, and data are synchronized
in incremental blocks to minimize network traffic.
The SAN represents a new segment of the information
services industry called storage solution providers (SSP).
However, isolated SANs cannot realize all SSP services,
such as real-time data replication, failover, storage host-
ing, and remote vaulting.
Benefits of SANs
A SAN makes physical storage capacity a single, scalable
resource and allows the flexible allocation of virtualized
storage volumes (e.g., RAIDs, just a bunch of disks/drives
[JBODs], and EMC, Sun, and Dell storage devices). Cen-
tralization of data storage into a single pool allows stor-
age resources and server resources to grow independently,
and allows storage to be dynamically assigned from the
pool. The SAN can manage backup tasks that were a huge
administrative and computer-resource burden under old
storage architectures. Common infrastructure for attach-
ing storage allows a single common management model
for configuration and deployment (Server Clusters 2003).
The storage management cost savings can be higher than
80%. A cost-effective, scalable SAN enhances overall sys-
tem performance. It can integrate legacy SCSI devices,
which allows increasing their systemwide effective usable
capacity by up to 30% (InfraStor 2002).
SANs are an integral part of large financial services en-
terprises, Internet service providers (ISPs), government
organization, research laboratories, electronic publish-
ers, digital video production groups, TV-broadcasting sta-
tions moving to digital services, educational institutions,
or any organization with increasing data storage needs.
bid44609_ch147.indd 3
3
There are several key reasons for implementing a SAN
(InfraStor 2002). The first three concern business issues
of return on the investment in data storage, as well as the
protection of existing investments:
• SANs are cost-effective (reduced cost of storage man-
agement, including backup and recovery; increased
user productivity; cost-effective implementations of
high-availability disaster protection, using remote clus-
ters and remote mirrored arrays).
• SANs reduce business risk (faster disaster recovery;
reduced revenue loss from down-time; reduced lost-
opportunity costs).
• Legacy investments are protected (SANs can be im-
plemented without abandoning existing storage infra-
structures such as devices using SCSI connections).
The next four reasons for using SANs address critical
technical issues that face data-center managers at a time
when the volume of data to be managed and made availa-
ble in many organizations is increasing at an annual rate
of 60% (InfraStor 2002):
• SANs provide scalability (add servers and storage inde-
pendently).
• SANs allow flexibility (reconfigure storage and servers
dynamically without interrupting their services; load
sharing and redistribution); any additional tape or disk
storage subsystems can be added to the SAN fabric
dynamically.
• SANs enhance overall system performance (more ef-
fective use of existing server compute cycles; real-time
backup without impacting LAN/WAN; multiple server-
to-storage paths; networked storage arrays that can
outperform bus-attached storage; compatibility with
parallelized database applications).
• SANs are an integral part of any high-availability plan
(facilitation of shared online spares and remote back-
up or mirroring; reduced down-time requirements;
storage independent of the application and accessible
through alternative data paths such as found in clustered
systems).
With modern SAN architectures, enterprise data are
available from 99.99% of the time to 99.999% of the time.
This translates to down-time ranging from 53 minutes per
year to 5 minutes per year. Also, the SAN implementation
allows performing data replication to remote sites for sig-
nificantly faster recovery in the event of a disaster. With
SANs, data replication can be applied to storage at the
controller, switch, or operating system level; this provides
the capacity to create multiple copies of critical data and
then move those copies to other parts of the SAN, or over
a wide area network for remote protection (Storage Area
Networks 2006).
The implementation of a SAN can realize significant
overall cost savings in data-center operations and can
increase user productivity. The opportunity to avoid es-
calating costs depends on decentralization of data and
applications. A key element in the consolidation of data
5/11/07 8:56:35 PM
 4 STORAGE AREA NETWORK FUNDAMENTALS
storage must include the implementation of a basic
SAN infrastructure in order to provide the following
(InfraStor 2002):
• Bandwidth to service clients\;
• Maintenance of data availability without impacting
LAN bandwidth\;
• Scalability for long-term, rapid growth with protection
of legacy investments
• Flexibility to provide optimal balance of server and
storage capacity
• Manageability for ease of installation and maintain-
ability
• Shared access to data resources for real-time backup
and recovery
• Administrators can support over 40% more storage in
a SAN environment than in direct-attached environ-
ments (Storage Area Networks 2006).
Distributed environments require high-cost maintenance
in terms of staff resources. The consolidation of distrib-
uted NT-based storages to a virtualized SAN-based re-
source can save 80% or more of the costs of management
(InfraStor 2002).
SAN Applications
SAN applications cover the following areas of data trans-
fer (Peterson 1998): (1) externalization of data storage out
of the server—SAN-attached storage (SAS) and NAS-with-
SAN-interconnects network architectures; (2) clustering, a
redundant process that provides failover, high availability,
performance, and scalability through the use of multiple
servers as a data pipe and allows data storage resources
to be shared; (3) data protection solutions for backup, re-
mote clustering, file mirroring, and replicating and jour-
naling file systems by creating data storage redundancy
on a dynamic basis; (4) data vaulting, which is the proc-
ess of transferring archived data to less expensive media;
(5) data interchange from one storage system to another
or between different environments; and (6) disaster recov-
ery, which is similar to data interchange, moving copies
of data offsite, and is built on remote vaulting (backup)
processes or on remote array mirroring or clustering.
Several new applications benefit from 2 Gb/s fibre-
channel SANs (Hammond-Doel 2001): multimedia audio/
video servers that provide the ability to stream higher-
resolution files, medical imaging, prepress that speeds up
design and file preparation, and video editing of uncom-
pressed HDTV data.
The first effective application of SANs has been server-
less backup, which provides enterprises with full-time
information availability. All backup-related tasks have
been relegated to the SAN. Large enterprises can store and
manage huge amounts of information (several terabytes
or more) in the SAN high-performance environment. En-
terprise servers are connected to storage devices (e.g.,
RAIDs) via a high-speed interconnection, such as a fibre
channel. The SAN any-to-any communication principle
provides the ability to share storage resources and alter-
native paths from server to data storage device. A SAN is
bid44609_ch147.indd 4
also able to share the resources among several consoli-
dated servers (Riabov 2004).
A cluster of interconnected servers may be connected
to common storage devices in the SAN environment and
be accessible to all clients. Modern enterprises use this
clustering technology to resolve several challenging appli-
cation problems (Barker and Massiglia 2001, 244)—i.e.,
providing customers, partners, and employees with con-
tinuous application service, even if the enterprise systems
fail, and supporting application performance growth as
demand grows, without service disruption to customers.
Clusters provide load balancing, high availability, and
fault tolerance and support application scaling. In some
implementations, the clustered servers can be managed
from a single console. Clustering methods are effectively
used in e-commerce, online-transaction processing, and
other Web applications, which handle a high volume of
requests.
SAN methods have their roots in two low-cost tech-
nologies: SCSI-based storage and the NAS-based con-
cept. They both successfully implement storage-network
links, but are limited to a low volume of data flows and
rates. SCSI still remains the most popular “bus-attached”
server-storage connection in SAS systems, especially at
the stage of transition from SCSI bus devices to fibre-
channel switches using the SCSI-fiber protocol converter
in a new enterprise storage (“data center”) environment.
In a NAS system, storage elements (i.e., a disk array)
are attached directly to any type of network via a LAN
interface (e.g., Ethernet) and provide file access services to
computer systems. If the NAS elements are connected
to SANs, they can be considered as members of the SAS
system. The stored data may be accessed by a host com-
puter system using file access protocols such as network
file system (NFS) or common Internet file system (CIFS).
SANs provide high-bandwidth block storage access
over long distance via extended fibre-channel links. How-
ever, such links are generally restricted to connections
between data centers. NAS access is less restricted by
physical distance because communications are via TCP/
IP (InfraStor 2001). NAS controls simple access to files
via a standard TCP/IP link. A SAN provides storage access
to client devices, but does not impose any inherent re-
strictions on the operating system or file system that may
be used. For this reason, SANs are well suited to high-
bandwidth storage access by transaction-processing and
database-management system (DBMS) applications that
manage storage access by themselves. NAS, which has the
inherent ability to provide shared file-level access to multi-
ple operating system (OS) environments, is well suited for
requirements such as Web file services, computer-aided
design (CAD) file access by combined WinNT/2000, UNIX,
and LINUX devices, and wide-area streaming video dis-
tribution (InfraStor 2001). A balanced combination of
these approaches will dominate in the future. See more
details in Chapter 149. Also see Chapter XXX.
SAN Architecture and Infrastructure
SAN architectures have been changed evolutionarily,
adapting to new application demands and expanding
capacities. The original fibre-channel-based SANs were
5/11/07 8:56:35 PM
 SAN OVERVIEW 5

simple loop configurations based on the fibre-channel
arbitrated loop (FC-AP) standard. Low-cost loops are
easily expanded and combined with up to 126 hosts and
devices, but they are difficult to deploy and have signifi-
cant limitations on overall bandwidth. Requirements of
scalability and new functionality had transformed SANs
into fabric-based switching systems (fibre-channel switch
fabric [FC-SW]) that could support up to 16 million hosts
and devices. Numerous vendors offered different proprie-
tary solutions of problems based on fabric switching. As a
result, immature and competing standards created vari-
ous interoperability problems. Homogeneous high-cost
SANs were developed. Ottem (2001) refers to this phase
as the “legacy proprietary fabric switch phase.” The mod-
ern established architectural approach is associated with
a standards-based “Open” 2-Gb fabric switch that pro-
vides all the benefits of fabric switching, but is based on
new industry standards (FC-SW-2) and an interoperabil-
ity architecture that runs at twice the speed of legacy fab-
ric. The standards-based switches provide heterogeneous
capability, fault isolation, and rerouting. The introduc-
tion of industry standards, as a substitute for proprietary
standards, has reduced the price of SAN components and
management costs of running a SAN.
The Open 2-Gb fibre channel allows doubled SAN
speeds, enables greater flexibility in configuring SANs for
a wide range of applications, and is especially useful
for managing 1.5-Gb high-definition video data. In HDTV
applications, a single fiber can carry a full high-definition
video stream without having to cache, buffer, or compress
the data. Other examples (Ottem 2001) include storage
service providers that must deliver block data from and
to users at the highest possible speeds and e-commerce
companies that have to minimize transaction times.
The 2-Gb fibre channel provides the high-speed backbone
capability for fibre-channel networks, which can be used
to interconnect two SAN switches. This configuration in-
creases overall data throughput across the SAN even if
servers and disk subsystems continue to operate via 1-Gb
channels.
The fibre-channel (FC) data-storage industry has be-
gun the transition to the 10-Gbps interface standard. The
Technical Committee T11 of the International Commit-
tee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) has
developed the 10GFC project proposal (also known as
FC-PI-2) that describes the fibre-channel physical layer
for the transport of data at a rate of approximately
10 Gbps (Technical Committee T11 2006).
The new 4-Gbps technology for storage arrays has been
announced (Lyon and Sturgeon 2006). It will significantly
improve the sequential operations, such as database back-
ups, long database loads, and streaming media. SAN im-
plementations that make extensive use of interswitch links
(ISLs) will also benefit from 4-Gbps technology (Business
Brief 2006). It allows reducing the number of ISLs re-
quired and freeing up ports otherwise used for bandwidth
aggregation.
Characteristics of four generations of SANs are sum-
marized in Table 1.
A SAN system consists of software and hardware com-
ponents that establish logical and physical paths between
stored data and applications that request them (Sheldon
2001). The data transforms, which are located on the
paths from storage device to application, are the four
main abstract components (Barker and Massiglia 2001,
128): the disks (viewed through ESCON, FCP, HIPPI,
SCSI, and SSA interfaces as abstract entities), volumes
(logical/virtual disk-like storage entities that provide their
clients with identified storage blocks of persistent/re-
trieved data), file systems, and application-independent

Table 1: Four Generations of SANs

Fabric Main Characteristics Applications

First-Generation SANs
Second-Generation SANs
Third-Generation SANs
Fourth-Generation SANs
1-Gb loop FC-AL protocol; SCSI replacement
1-Gb speed;
enabled first SANs
1-Gb proprietary; FC-SW protocol; LAN-free backup;
legacy fabric 1-Gb speed; high-availability
proprietary switch-to-switch clustering
connections;
expensive
2-Gb open fabric Open FC-SW-2 protocol; Serverless backup;
2-Gb speed; heterogeneous storage
standards-based switch-to-switch consolidation;
connections; high-definition video data;
competition-driven price virtualization
reductions
4–10-Gb fabric 10GFC-IP-2 protocol; Medical imaging;
4–10-Gb speed streaming video;
data mining;
database backups;
long database loads

bid44609_ch147.indd 5 5/11/07 8:56:36 PM

 6 STORAGE AREA NETWORK FUNDAMENTALS
database-management systems. In a system with a stor-
age area network, five different combinations (Barker and
Massiglia 2001) of these data transforms and correspond-
ing transformation paths serve different applications
and system architectures by various physical system ele-
ments. The disk abstraction is actually the physical disk
drive. The abstract volume entity is realized as an exter-
nal or embedded RAID controller, as an out-of-band or
in-band SAN appliance, or as a volume manager serving a
database or an application. Storage servers (such as NAS
devices), database servers, and application servers may
contain the abstract file systems. These devices and servers
can be clustered to increase scaling and application avail-
ability. In that case, their volume file and management
systems should be cluster-aware (Barker and Massiglia
2001).
Any SAN-based client–server system consists of three
architectural components: interfaces, interconnects or
network infrastructure components (switches, hubs, rout-
ers, bridges, gateways, multiplexers, extenders, and direc-
tors), and fabrics. The SAN interfaces are fibre channel,
ESCON, HIPPI, SCSI, and SSA. The SAN interconnects
link these storage interfaces together, making various net-
work configurations.
The SAN infrastructure (fabric) includes the hard-
ware, cabling, and software components that transmit
data within the SAN. Fibre-channel switches and host
bus adapters (HBAs) form the foundation, enabling serv-
ers and other storage devices to connect to one another
(Anderson 2006). Since 1999, most HBAs support both FC-
AL and FC-SW standards. However, HBA’s configuration
is not automatic in many cases, and it is important to ver-
ify from the switch side that the hosts are operating in the
appropriate mode (Server Clusters 2003).
The fundamentally different fibre-channel topologies
(point-to-point, FC-AL, and FC-SW) use different compo-
nents to provide the infrastructure: (1) hubs, (2) switches,
and (3) bridges and routers. Hubs are the simplest form
of fibre-channel devices and are used to connect devices
and hosts into arbitrated loop configurations. Hubs are
typically half-duplex and have four, eight, twelve, or six-
teen ports, allowing up to sixteen devices and hosts to
be attached. However, the bandwidth on a hub is shared
by all devices on the hub (Server Clusters 2003). Because
of these performance constraints, hubs are used in small
and/or low-bandwidth configurations.
Switches increase the overall SAN bandwidth by
connecting system elements for data transmission and
provide the advantages of the centralized storage reposi-
tories with shared applications and central management
(IP Storage Area Networks 2006). A fabric switch pro-
vides the full fibre-channel bandwidth to each port inde-
pendently. Typical switches allow ports to be configured
in either an arbitrated-loop or a switched-mode fabric. In
an arbitrated-loop configuration, the ports are typically
full bandwidth and bidirectional, allowing devices and
hosts to communicate at full fibre-channel speed in both
directions simultaneously. Switches are the basic infra-
structure used for large, point-to-point, switched fabrics.
In this mode, a switch allows any device to communicate
directly with any other device at full fibre-channel speed
(1 Gbps or 2 Gbps) (Server Clusters 2003). Switches
bid44609_ch147.indd 6
typically support 16, 32, 64, or even 128 ports. Switches
can detect failed or congested connections and reroute
data to the correct device. Linked (cascaded) switches
increase the number of available SAN connections. This
provides greater performance and resilience against indi-
vidual connection failures (Anderson 2006).
Routers and bridges perform protocol transformations
in SANs that allow different interconnect technologies to
interoperate. The most common SAN fabrics are switched
fibre channel, switched SCSI, and switched SSA, all of
which physically link the interconnects and determine
the SAN’s performance and scalability (Simitci 2003).
Some fabrics embed operating systems that provide for
SAN security, monitoring, and management. Hosts are
connected to the fibre-channel SAN through HBAs, which
consist of hardware and interface drivers. Fibre-channel
HBAs support negotiation with network-attached devices
and switches and allow the host to minimize its CPU
overhead.
SAN architectures are of two types: (1) “proprietary,”
those that are sourced from a single manufacturer who
serves as the single point of contact for SAN hardware,
software, and services, and (2) “open” architectures that
consist of hardware and software from more than one
manufacturer (Storage Area Networks 2003). Proprietary
SAN architectures are usually limited in flexibility, because
a hardware manufacturer could have limited experience in
some specialized areas, such as tape library, software con-
figuration, or storage management. Open-SAN architec-
tures are more flexible. The issue of SAN integration with
multivendor technologies is critical to ensure functional-
ity, interoperability, and optimal performance. Ensuring
data integrity guarantees and enforcing security policies
for access rights to a particular storage device is a core
part of the infrastructure (Server Clusters 2003).
See more details in Chapter 149.
SAN Design and Management Issues
The main benefit of SANs is that storage can be man-
aged as a centralized pool of resources. The data storage
infrastructure must be designed to provide highly avail-
able access so that the loss of one or more components in
the storage fabric does not lead to servers being unable to
access the application data. This principle is implemented
in the following ways (Server Clusters 2003):
• There is no single point of failure of cables or compo-
nents such as HBAs, switches, or storage controllers.
• Transparent and dynamic path detection and failover are
implemented at the host. These features are supported
by multipath drivers running on the host to present a
single storage view to the application across multiple,
independent HBAs.
• Almost all components (HBAs, switches, and controllers)
have built-in hot-swap and hot-plug utilities for adopt-
ing interface cards, memory, CPUs, and disk drives.
Different SAN designs are based on the following topolo-
gies: (1) multiple independent fabrics, (2) federated fab-
rics, and (3) core backbone (Server Clusters 2003).
5/11/07 8:56:36 PM
 SAN TECHNOLOGIES AND SOLUTIONS
In the case of a multiple fabric configuration, each host
or device is connected to multiple fabrics, but switches
are not linked. In the event of the failure of one fabric,
hosts and devices can communicate using the remaining
fabric. In this configuration, each fabric should have the
same zoning and security information to ensure a consist-
ent view of the fabric regardless of the chosen communi-
cation port. Also, hosts and devices must have multiple
adapters, which are treated as different storage buses. Ad-
ditional multipathing software (e.g., EMC PowerPath™ or
Compaq SecurePath™) is required to ensure that the host
gets a single view of the devices across the two HBAs.
In the case of a federated fabric, individual hosts and
devices are connected to at least two switches, which are
linked together. This configuration has many management
advantages (e.g., only one set of zoning information and
one set of security information is managed; fabric itself
can route around various link failures and switch failures,
etc.). However, a disadvantage of this approach means that
management errors can propagate to the entire fabric.
A core backbone configuration is frequently used
(Server Clusters 2003). The core of the fabric is built us-
ing highly scalable, high-performance switches where the
interswitch connections provide high-performance com-
munication (e.g., 8 to 10 Gbps). Redundant edge switches
can be cascaded from the core infrastructure to provide
high numbers of ports for storage and hosts devices. As
in the two previous configuration cases, additional multi-
pathing software is required to ensure that the host gets
a single view of the devices across the two HBAs. Also,
management errors can propagate to the entire fabric.
SAN Operating System Software
Components
The SAN software plays an important role in providing
an environment for various business and management
applications, called “system applications” (Barker and
Massiglia 2001, 13). These include clustering, data repli-
cation, and data copying. The management applications
(zoning, device discovery, allocation, RAID subsystems,
and others) manage the complex environment of distrib-
uted systems. These applications can significantly reduce
the cost and improve the quality of enterprise information
services.
In particular, SAN management software provides the
following services (Anderson 2006):
• Configuration and optimization of individual compo-
nents of the best setup
• Monitoring of the entire network for performance bot-
tlenecks and areas of potential failure
• Automation of time-consuming tasks such as data
backup
• Management of all available storage system compo-
nents as one virtual pool
• Statistics overview
Microsoft Corp. has launched the Simple SAN Program
(Storage Management 2006) to ensure that customers
deploying Windows Server 2003–based SANs have the
bid44609_ch147.indd 7
7
appropriate tools for a simplified installation and man-
agement experience.
SAN Security Issues
The specific security issue of technology containment as-
sociated with a SAN also has to be addressed (Storage
Area Networks 2003). For example, Windows NT servers
would claim every available logical unit number (LUN)
visible to them. Technology containment keeps servers
from gaining unauthorized or accidental access to un-
designated areas, such as data access and fabric manage-
ment security, within the SAN.
The data access and security methodologies include:
(1) fabric zoning, which provides a fabric port-and-host/
storage-level point of logical partitioning and can help
ensure that different OS types or applications are parti-
tioned on the SAN (Server Clusters 2003); (2) LUN Mask-
ing, which is configured at the RAID storage subsystem
level and helps ensure that only designated hosts assigned
to that single storage port could access the specified RAID
LUN; and (3) persistent binding, which forces a host to
see a specific storage-subsystem port as a particular SCSI
target and helps ensure that a specific storage-subsystem
port on the SAN is always seen as the same SCSI target
ID on the host, across the host and fabric, and through-
out storage configuration changes. The advantages and
disadvantages of these methods are described in Storage
Area Network Security (2003).
The zoning security mechanism and access control are
implemented at the switch level in the fabric. A port (either
a host adapter or a storage controller port) can be config-
ured as part of a zone. Only ports in a given zone can com-
municate with other ports in that zone. At the same time,
the zoning mechanism also limits the traffic flow within a
given SAN environment (Server Clusters 2003).
The fabric protection and management security tech-
nologies include: (1) fabric-to-fabric security technolo-
gies, which allow access control lists (ACLs) to permit
or deny the addition of new switches to the fabric. The
identity of the new switch may be validated by public key
infrastructure (PKI) methods; (2) host-to-fabric security
technologies, which apply ACLs at the port-level on the
fabric, and permit or deny a particular host’s FC HBA to
attach to that port, and prevent an unauthorized intruder
host from attaching to the fabric via any port; (3) man-
agement-to-fabric technologies, which use PKI and other
encryption methods and ensure secure management in
console-to-fabric communication; and (4) configuration
integrity technologies, which ensure that propagated fab-
ric configuration changes only come from one location at
a time, and are correctly propagated to all switches on
the SAN fabric with integrity. SAN security issues are dis-
cussed in Storage Area Network Security (2003) in detail.
SAN TECHNOLOGIES AND
SOLUTIONS
The SAN infrastructures support multiple protocols, such
as SCSI, simple network management protocol (SNMP),
visual interface (VI), enterprise system connection/fiber
connection (ESCON/FICON), TCP/IP, and session security
5/11/07 8:56:36 PM
 8 STORAGE AREA NETWORK FUNDAMENTALS

authentication and initialization protocol (SSAIP), over
a single physical connection. This unique capability pro-
vides the SAN system with the coupled functionality of an
interface to storage devices and a server interconnect.
In the early 1990s, fibre channel was developed by
the Fibre channel Systems Initiative (FCSI) and adopted
later by the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI) X3T11 Committee as a high-speed interface for
connecting storage devices to servers and other network
configurations. These interconnect standards (FC-PH
2001) provide SANs with the vital properties of connec-
tivity, bandwidth, interconnectivity, protocol efficiency,
distance range, recoverability, failure tolerance, and cost
options. The fibre-channel standards specify electrical
and optical transmission media as well as conventions
for signaling and transmission/functional protocols. Op-
tical media (with SC, LC, and mechanical transfer regis-
tered jack [MT-RJ] connectors) support reliable signaling
over long distances. Fibre channel provides data rates in
the range from 133 Mbps to 4 Gbps over low-cost copper
cabling (shielded twisted-pair wire or coaxial cable with
serial communications d-shell connector, 9 pins [DB-9]
and high-speed serial data connector [HSSDC]) or higher-
cost multimode fiber-optic cable. Fibre-channel fabrics
have transceivers, called “gigabit interface converters”
(GBICs), which convert optical to electrical signals to
cable connectors. Fibre-channel technology supports dis-
tances up to 10 km (see Table 2).
Optical and copper media are used in various SAN
fibre-channel infrastructure applications (FCIA Roadmap
2006) including Inter Switch Links, SAN Edge Links,
Back End Links, and Inter Device Links (see Table 3).
Fibre-channel Topologies
Fibre-channel methods have the means to implement
three topologies: (1) point-to-point links, (2) shared band-
width loop circuits known as fibre-channel arbitrated

Table 2: Maximum Distance for Fibre-channel Media Types

Data rate, MBps 12.5 25 50 100 200 400

Nominal signaling rate, Gbaut 0.133 0.266 0.531 1.063 2.126 4.252
T11 Specification completed, Year 1994 1994 1994 1996 2000 2003
Market availability, Year 1994 1994 1995 1997 2001 2005
9-␮m single-mode fiber – – – 10 km 10 km 10 km
50-␮m multimode fiber 1.5 km 1.5 km 500 m 500 m 300 m 150 m
62.5-␮m multimode fiber 1.5 km 1.5 km 350 m 300 m 150 m 70 m
Video coaxial cable 100 m 100 m 71 m 50 m – –
Miniature coaxial cable 42 m 28 m 19 m 14 m – –
Shielded twisted pair 80 m 57 m 46 m 28 m – –
Twinax 93 m 66 m 46 m 33 m – –

Sources: FC-PH (2001) and Stallings (2000).

Table 3: Fibre-channel Infrastructure Applications

Interswitch SAN Edge Back-End Interdevice

Market Length Link Link Link Link
Metropolitan 5 km and up ⫹
Area Network [Fiber]
Multi Building (campus) 300 m–5 km ⫹
[Fiber]
Single Building (Local) 30 m–5 km ⫹
[Fiber]
Datacenter or Rack 0 m–100 m ⫹ ⫹ ⫹
[Fiber]
Datacenter or Rack 0 m–15 m ⫹ ⫹ ⫹
[Copper]
Backplane [Copper] 0.6 m ⫹

Source: FCIA Roadmap (2006).

bid44609_ch147.indd 8 5/11/07 8:56:36 PM

 OTHER STORAGE NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES
loops (FC-ALs), and (3) bandwidth-switched fibre-channel
fabrics (FC-SW) that provide SANs with the ability to
do bandwidth multiplexing by supporting simultaneous
data transmission between various pairs of devices. Any
storage device on the loop can be accessed through a
fibre-channel switch (FC-SW) or hub. The fibre-channel
switch can support entry-level (8 to 16 ports) to enter-
prise-level (64 to 128 ports) systems. Under ANSI X3T11
standards, up to 126 storage devices (nodes) can be
linked in the fibre-channel arbitrated loop (FC-AL) con-
figuration, with the storage interface bandwidth about
100 Mbps for transferring large files. More than seventy
companies, including industry-leading vendors of disk
arrays and computer and networking systems, support the
FC-AL voluntary standards. FC-AL topology is used pri-
marily to connect disk arrays and FC devices. Originally
developed as the high-speed serial technology of choice
for server-storage connectivity, the FC-AL method is ex-
tended to the FC-SL standard that supports isochronous
and time-deterministic services, including methods of
managing loop operational parameters and quality-of-
service (QoS) definitions, as well as control. The FC-VI
regulation establishes a fibre channel-virtual interface ar-
chitecture (FC-VIA) mapping standard. See Chapter 148
for more information about various implementations of
the technology in various network configurations, includ-
ing SANs.
Because of the high cost of the FC interconnect com-
ponents and separation of storage and servers at the wide
area network scale (resulting in slow capabilities of WAN-
SANs with fibre channel), alternatives to FC technologies
have been developed. The ipStorage technology (Barker
and Massiglia 2001, 187) uses TCP/IP as a storage inter-
connect. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has
proposed the iSCSI (Internet SCSI) standards (Hufferd
2002) that address the issues of long distances (WAN-
scale), reducing the interconnect cost, high security, and
complex storage network topologies. The iSCSI is layered
on top of the TCP/IP protocol hierarchy and can instantly
access all modern transmission media and topologies.
TCP/IP and related protocols have been implemented in
the server-based systems that allow the most general stor-
age networks to be constructed with the iSCSI method
(iSCSI and IP-SAN Solutions 2006). The main challenge
is a reduction of the iSCSI processor overhead of operat-
ing iSCSI packets below the fibre-channel overhead level.
See more details in Chapter 149.
InfiniBand Solutions
InfiniBand is a new emerging interconnect technology,
developed by the standards of the InfiniBand Trade As-
sociation (founded by Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard,
IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems) that of-
fers the most general low-cost server system topologies
(InfiniBand Trade Association 2006). It is expected that In-
finiBand interfaces will be embedded into all Intel-based
servers (Barker and Massiglia 2001, 188–92; Intel Infini-
Band Architecture 2006) and will allow Windows and
Linux servers to be available for resolving complex prob-
lems of data centers by adopting clusters and multiple-
host enterprise RAID subsystems. InfiniBand technology
bid44609_ch147.indd 9
9
implements a switched-fabric architecture with the
packet-switching communication protocol (PSCP) that
relates to the virtual interface (VI) architecture method.
SANs, parallel processing systems, and systems area
networks can effectively use InfiniBand as a high-
performance/low-latency interconnect. See Chapter XXX.
Crossroads Systems with a Storage Router
InfiniBand technology has been successfully implemented
by Crossroads Systems, Inc., which promotes storage so-
lutions based on protocol-independent connectivity at
speeds of gigabit per second and unparalleled manage-
ability for various storage devices. Crossroads’ storage
routers (e.g., Crossroads™ 10000) support peer opera-
tions between storage devices and multiprotocol servers
on fibre-channel storage networks.
Brocade’s Configurations
Brocade Communication Systems, Inc., has developed
an intelligent fabric services architecture that creates a
scalable and secure environment for enterprise mission-
critical storage applications such as data backup and busi-
ness continuity. The Brocade SANs (SilkWorm™ family
of fabric switches and software) provide enterprises with
any-server-to-any-storage-device connectivity and con-
solidate storage resources and servers, as well as sharing
backup resources (Beauchamp, Judd, and Kuo 2002).
OTHER STORAGE NETWORKING
TECHNOLOGIES
The following emerging technologies introduce new
system architectural approaches in storage networking.
SAN developers and users are trying to adapt them to
a new enterprise environment that is characterized by
host-level heterogeneous complexity, management flex-
ibility, new TCP/IP network communication services, file-
access-protocol developments, and the repartitioning of
the functionality of file management systems.
VI (Virtual Interface) Architecture
The virtual interface (VI) architecture is a midlayer pro-
tocol specification that regulates virtual intercommunica-
tion between applications running on different remote
servers (i.e., in a cluster). This method significantly re-
duces the latency and the volume of the system input/
output (I/O) operations by using message and data buffer
pools that are insensitive to the heterogeneous operating
environment or other applications. The reduction of the
I/O-related interrupts increases the CPUs’ time for process-
ing various other system tasks. Developers of the VIA
technology (Compaq, Intel, Microsoft, etc.) use this ar-
chitecture as an efficient way of message communication
between the SAN nodes at the application level, creating
only a small overhead of intercommunication between
the remote applications. This method has been success-
fully implemented in database managers and NAS de-
vices (Barker and Massiglia 2001, 189–90). Several efforts
(i.e., the direct access file system and network file system
5/11/07 8:56:36 PM
 10 STORAGE AREA NETWORK FUNDAMENTALS
initiatives) have been made to improve file system per-
formance by using VIA-type advanced transport protocol
features. The Emulex Corporation promotes the GN9000/
VI™ 1 Gbps VI/IP PCI host bus adapter, which is based on
the virtual interface (version 1.0) architecture, supports
standard TCP/IP-reliable data delivery, IP routing, and the
direct access file system standard, and speeds data access
over standard Gigabit Ethernet networks.
Direct Access File System
The direct access file system (DAFS) is a new file access/
transfer protocol that is based on CIFS/NFS characteris-
tics and VIA-type transport protocol features. DAFS/VIA
technology supports direct file transfer between the stor-
age system and clients. In a SAN environment, data can
be directly transferred among a number of servers.
IP Storage Technologies
Another block-mode data mechanism has been used by the
IETF IP Storage Working Group in developing standards
for a new IP-based transport-through-network technol-
ogy that encapsulates fibre-channel and SCSI high-speed
interfaces and provides direct access to data on disks,
tapes, and optical storage devices. IP storage technology
allows embedding low-cost SANs into IP-based enterprise
infrastructures over existing Gigabit Ethernet networks.
See Chapter XXX.
SANs over IP
To avoid the distance limitation of the fibre-channel in-
terconnects, enterprises build remote SANs that can be
interconnected by means of the SAN-over-IP technology
originally developed by the Computer Network Technol-
ogy Corporation. The distant SANs appear as local storage
entities. This technology improves enterprise management
and data access, disaster recovery, business continuity, disk
mirroring, electronic tape vaulting, and wide area cluster-
ing. The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)
offers three technologies for integrating fibre-channel
SANs into the IP backbone. These methods include fibre
channel over IP (FCIP), Internet fibre channel over IP
(iFCP), and Internet SCSI (iSCSI). The FCIP, iFCP, and
iSCSI transport protocol descriptions are presented in
Clark (2002).
Fibre channel over IP (FCIP)
FCIP is the simplest point-to-point IP tunneling solution
for intercommunicating remote SANs with fibre-channel
fabrics. The FCIP gateways establish TCP/IP connections
over a WAN path to transport the fibre-channel encap-
sulated frames. A typical discrepancy in data commu-
nication rates between an FCIP-attached WAN link and
fibre-channel fabric generates various flow control issues
that can be resolved by TCP sliding-window algorithms.
Several FC-FCIP management issues cannot be prop-
erly determined for the FCIP pipes because the TCP/IP
transport component ends at the external nodes of
the fibre-channel network. These problems have been
bid44609_ch147.indd 10
addressed and successfully resolved in the iFCP and iSCSI
approaches.
Internet Fibre-channel Protocol (iFCP)
The gateway-to-gateway iFCP supports a means of inte-
grating fibre-channel end devices into a single IP SAN. By
using iFCP, the fibre-channel fabric services can be pro-
vided to the remote FC devices over a TCP/IP network. The
iFCP IP storage switches can directly connect fibre-channel
storage arrays, HBAs, hubs, switches, and routers. The
iFCP is a protocol stack that can be implemented in an
IP storage controller interface or integrated into Gigabit
Ethernet IP storage network interface card (NIC) (known
as ANSI X3T10 and X3T11 Standards) (Clark 2002, 126–
39). It supports any-to-any IP routing of storage data.
A mismatch in data communication rates between an
iFCP-attached WAN link and fibre-channel fabric gener-
ates various flow-control issues that can be resolved by TCP
sliding-window algorithms. The Internet protocol security
(IPSec), public or private keys, and zoning methods can
provide security across the Internet. One of the important
applications of the iFCP technology is the support of
multiple TCP/IP connections for concurrent storage
transactions.
Internet SCSI (iSCSI)
In contrast to the FCIP concept, the iSCSI method, which
follows the SCSI client/server model, is based on the imple-
mentation of a light-switch technology in IP storage net-
working (Clark 2002, 139–49) and excludes fibre-channel
elements. The iSCSI servers (targets) are present in disk
arrays and client nodes (initiators) that occupy host plat-
forms. The iSCSI protocol over the TCP/IP layer is used
for block data transport between these entities over the
IP network. Data can be directly written into application
memory through a steering and data synchronization
layer located below the iSCSI sublayer. IPSec, Keyberos
authentication, public key, and other methods can provide
security across the Internet. SANs use the iSCSI adapters
with TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) to minimize processing
overhead and realize high-performance features of the
iSCSI technology. The enterprise solutions with IP SANs
can also support Gigabit and faster Ethernet on iSCSI-
switch infrastructures (IP SAN Appliances 2006).
Storage over IP (SoIP)
Based on the SoIP remote storage technology, the Nishan
Systems Corporation developed IP Storage switches of
the IPS 4000 Series™ and a suite of storage management
software that allows configuration and monitoring of
large-scale storage networks.
Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF)
FSPF is the open shortest path first (OSPF)-based stand-
ard routing protocol for fibre channel that determines the
next shortest route for data traffic, updates the routing
table, and detects the failed routes (Vacca 2002, 152). Op-
tical, link, or switch failures can be effectively handled by
FSPF with minimal impact on the interconnected devices
in the FC/SAN environment.
5/11/07 8:56:37 PM
 STORAGE NETWORKING ASSOCIATIONS, INITIATIVES, FORUMS, AND COALITIONS
Adaptive Network Storage Architecture
(ANSA)
The Procom Technology Corporation has developed
the ANSA approach, which delivers both block-level and
file-level access to data. Procom’s NetFORCE 3000™ Se-
ries provides filer functionality (together with advanced
features of security, high stability, backup, and recovery)
to enterprise storage that can result in high-performance
information-management systems. The ANSA technology
has been successfully applied to database management,
data warehousing, e-mail delivering, and 24/7 rich-media
applications.
Storage Resource Management (SRM)
The SRM technology provides applications for manag-
ing logical and physical storage-system resources (virtual
devices, disk volumes, file resources, storage devices and
elements, and appliances). SRM tools allow storage-
system administrators to configure and monitor SANs and
other storage resources. During the administrative moni-
toring, the transport or storage data remain unchanged.
Vendors of the SRM tools, products, and services include
SUN Microsystems (Sun StorEdge™), HighGround Sys-
tems, Inc. (Storage Resource Manager, Media Mirror), and
Storage Computer Corp. (Storage Administrator) (Toigo
2001).
STANDARDS
American National Standards Institute
(ANSI)
ANSI coordinates SAN voluntary standards (ANSI 2006).
The ANSI X3T10 and X3T11 working committees are as-
sociated with storage networking issues, including SCSI
I/O interface standards (X3T10) and fibre-channel inter-
face standards (X3T11). The first set of fibre-channel stand-
ards (ANSI X.3230–1994) (Vacca 2002, 75–8) describes
standards for a switch fabric (FC-SW2), the interconnect
that supports high volumes of throughput and bandwidth
for disk output and input, as well as a management in-
formation base (MIB) management standard that permits
fibre-channel devices (switches) to be managed by any
vendor’s software, which includes an implementation of
the simple network management protocol (SNMP). SAN
users can find a brief description of other X3T11 fibre-
channel standards in Barker and Massiglia (2001, 384–6).
Several FC SAN equipment vendors, including Brocade
Communications Systems, have refined SAN standards
in the areas of management, discovery, data transport,
and WAN connectivity. This allows the fibre-channel SAN
to become an integral part of the enterprise framework
(Vacca 2002, 78–9).
Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF)
The DMTF has introduced management standards for
computer systems and enterprise environment (DMTF
2006). The SAN-related management standards (Barker
and Massiglia 2001, 386–7) cover a set of the Web-based en-
terprise management (WBEM) XML-based technologies.
They support an object-oriented approach in developing
bid44609_ch147.indd 11
11
a business’s management environment, using the Com-
mon Information Model; architectures and frameworks
for desktop, laptop, and server management (desktop
management interface); standard data models for a net-
work, its elements, policies, and rules (directory-enabled
networks); and functional calls for transaction monitor-
ing (known as the application response measurement
[ARM] standard).
Storage Systems Standards Working
Group (SSSWG)
As a division of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE), the SSSWG develops models and ar-
chitectures of storage systems, including SANs (SSSWG
2006). The SSSWG project authorization requests (Barker
and Massiglia 2001, 387–8) include the “Guide to Stor-
age System Design”; media management system (MMS)
architecture; session security, authentication, initializa-
tion protocol (SSAIP) of the MMS; media management
protocol (MMP) for both client and administrative appli-
cations; drive management protocol (DMP) of the MMS;
library management protocol (LMP) of the MMS; the me-
dia manager interchange protocol (MMIP) for informa-
tion exchange between autonomous media managers; the
media manager control interface protocol (MMCIP);
the C language procedural interface for implementation
of the MMS’s components; MMS User mount commands
for establishing “command line interfaces” (CLI); MMS
standard administrative and operational commands for
administering and operating an MMS; and “MOVER”
specifications of a storage system data mover architecture
and its interfaces.
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
The IETF defines a variety of the transmission control pro-
tocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) standards that are widely
used in the enterprise environment with SANs (IETF
2006). The IETF standards related to storage network-
ing (Barker and Massiglia 2001, 388) include the simple
network management protocol (SNMP) for managing and
monitoring devices and systems in a network; the Internet
protocol over fibre channel (IPoFC); and a policy for
quality of services (QoS).
STORAGE NETWORKING
ASSOCIATIONS, INITIATIVES,
FORUMS, AND COALITIONS
The organizations discussed below promote storage net-
working technologies and products, develop standards,
undertake marketing activities in information technology
industry, educate, train, and create the knowledge base
for implementing SAN technology:
SNIA (Storage Networking Industry
Association)
The SNIA, an international association of developers
of storage and networking products, is focusing on the
creation of a forum of IT companies, system integrators,
5/11/07 8:56:37 PM
 12 STORAGE AREA NETWORK FUNDAMENTALS
and application vendors for delivering architectures, edu-
cation, and services in storage networking, as well as defin-
ing the specifications and infrastructures, and proposing
standards for storage networking systems, including
SANs, SAN-attached storage (SAS), and network-attached
storage (NAS) (SNIA 2006).
Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA)
The FCIA is an international organization of manufac-
turers, systems integrators, developers, systems vendors,
industry professionals, and end users. In June 2002, this
organization included more than 190 members and affili-
ates in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The FCIA is
committed to delivering a broad base of fibre-channel in-
frastructure to support a wide array of industry applica-
tions within the mass storage and IT-based arenas. FCIA
working groups focus on specific aspects of the technology
that target markets, which include data storage network-
ing and SAN management. The overview of fibre chan-
nel’s SAN and networking applications and examples of
fibre-channel solutions for high-performance networks
of heterogeneous storage, server, and workstation re-
sources can be found on the “technology” section of the
FCIA Web site (FCIA 2006).
Fibre Alliance (FA)
The FA is the networking industry consortium originally
founded by a group of storage networking companies,
including EMC Corporation, to develop and implement
standards for managing heterogeneous fibre-channel-
based SANs. In collaboration with the IETF, this group
develops the definition of simple network management
protocol management information bases (SNMP MIB)
for storage network and device management (Fibre
Alliance 2006).
JIRO
Jiro is a Sun Microsystems technology that delivers intel-
ligent management services for networked devices. Using
the principles of Java and Jini platform-independent
application development interfaces (Jini 2006), Jiro tech-
nology provides the architecture for connecting and man-
aging complex distributed environments such as storage
area networks. The Jiro technology brings higher levels of
interoperability, adaptability, and manageability to enter-
prise networks with storage resources (Jiro 2002).
National Storage Industry Consortium (NSIC)
Since April 1991, the NSIC has consolidated the efforts
of over fifty corporations, universities, and national labs
in the field of digital information storage. The corporate
members are major information storage manufacturers
and companies from the storage industry infrastruc-
ture, including SANs. As a nonprofit organization, NSIC
supports precompetitive joint research projects, involv-
ing collaboration among users and integrators of stor-
age systems, storage system and device manufacturers,
storage component and media manufacturers, suppliers,
universities and national laboratories (National Storage
Industry Consortium 2006).
bid44609_ch147.indd 12
THE SAN MARKET, VENDORS,
AND SERVICE PROVIDERS
Data storage management has become the primary issue
for businesses in the past ten years. According to the In-
ternational Data Corporation (IDC), the redundant array
of independent disks (RAID) shipped in 2003 exceeded
250 ⫻ 1015 bytes (Storage Area Networks 2003). Data-rich
businesses continue to seek effective data storage and
management solutions to handle this data growth. SAN
technologies allow existing enterprises to effectively man-
age more transactions, customers, suppliers, and services.
Company operations are significantly improved by provid-
ing continuous high availability through uninterruptible
access to data, increasing scalability through multiple-
channel data transmission, and reducing the network and
server’s CPU overhead. Additional opportunities for the IT
enterprises are also associated with the Internet, which
allows them to increase the volume of data and rates of
their transmission.
Evolution of the SAN Market
According to the Gartner’s research study (Couture et al.
2006), the worldwide storage service market will grow
from more than $23 billion in 2004 to more than $31 bil-
lion in 2009. The study conducted by the market research
firm iSuppli Corporation (Gardner 2004) shows that the
SAN enterprise market has been growing at an annual
rate of 30% and promises to maintain that pace over the
next five years. Among others, two growth factors will
dominate: rapidly dropping prices on SAN solutions and
better record-keeping practices mandated by federal leg-
islation. By 2004, practically all large enterprises have
installed SANs. Nowadays, SANs are being deployed by
a growing number of midsized and smaller companies,
including about 10% of enterprises with revenues of
between $100 million and $300 million (Gardner 2004).
Microsoft and other software providers have long viewed
this market as a major growth opportunity, particularly for
regulatory-compliant software packages that help protect
confidentiality of patient records under the Health Insur-
ance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which
was introduced in April 2005 and requires the establish-
ment of an IT infrastructure. Another factor of the future
growing in the SAN installations is the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act, which regulates how data are managed, archived,
retrieved, and authenticated.
According to the Jupiter Media Metrix Corporation
(Market Forecast Report 2002), the growth in Internet
commerce is attributed to the increase in the U.S. online
population by nearly 50%, from 141.5 million in 2001 to
210.8 million by 2006, as well as to the growth of U.S. on-
line retail sales from $47.8 billion in 2002 to an estimated
$130.3 billion in 2006. SANs have revolutionized the IT
enterprise’s infrastructure and improved its e-business
applications, including e-commerce, e-mail, online trans-
action processing, data replication, and enterprise
database management. Global continuous delivery of
multimedia secured information has become the main
service of modern e-business enterprises.
By adding networking and intelligence features to
data storage, fibre-channel SAN switches enable the
5/11/07 8:56:37 PM
 THE SAN MARKET, VENDORS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS 13

solution of several challenging e-business storage prob-
lems, such as linking high-performance workstation clus-
ters, connecting high-performance tape storage on disk
farms, giving server farms a high-speed data-transmission
pipe, clustering disk farms, and linking Ethernet, fiber
distributed data interface (FDDI), asynchronous transfer
mode (ATM), and token ring LANs to the backbone. Intel-
ligent SAN systems allow improving enterprise perform-
ance significantly, decreasing latency, supporting direct
access to the storage shared by multiple servers, reducing
network traffic on the front-end network, and removing
storage management tasks from servers.
A new SAN market is open for small to medium busi-
nesses (SMBs) that need flexible and scalable storage sys-
tems to ensure critical data that can be accessed quickly,
securely, and cost effectively (Storage Management 2006).
According to New York–based market research firm Ac-
cess Markets International (AMI) Partners Inc., SMBs in
the United States spent $443 million on SANs in 2003,
and this figure is expected to grow to $1.5 billion by 2008.
Microsoft Corporation, together with business partners,
has developed the Simple SAN Program that supports the
iSCSI protocol, which allows SANs to be accessed over
IP-based networks. New storage management capabili-
ties have been built into Windows Server 2003 (Storage
Management 2006).
SAN Vendors and Service Providers
Table 4 shows a list of SAN vendors, storage-networking
service providers, and their products. The complete list of
SAN deployment companies can be found in (Vacca 2002,

Table 4: SAN Vendors and Services

Company Product Type Source

ADVA Optical Storage Fiber Service Platform (FSP); DWDM (ADVA 2006)
Networking Technologies system
ATTO Technology, Inc. Fibre channel hub; Fibre channel, SCSI (ATTO 2006)
and IP storage solutions
Broadcom Corporation SAN system core logic input/output chips (Broadcom 2006)
Brocade Communication Systems, Inc. Fabric switches; SAN solutions (Brocade 2006)
Crossroads Systems, Inc. Modular storage router (Crossroads 2006)
Cutting Edge Clustered failover; IP SAN solutions (Cutting Edge 2006)
Dell Computer Enterprise storage solutions; RAIDs (Dell 2006)
EMC Corporation Networked storage solutions (EMC 2006)
Emulex Corporation VI/IP PCI host bus adapters; SAN (Emulex 2006)
storage switchers
FalconStor Software, Inc. Storage software; SAN infrastructure (FalconStor 2006)
Fujitsu Ltd. RAIDs (Fujitsu 2006)
Hewlett-Packard SAN management tools; storage systems (Hewlett-Packard 2006)
Hitachi Data Systems/GST SAN solutions (Hitachi 2006)
IBM Enterprise storage server; RAIDs; tape (IBM 2006)
libraries; storage software
Intel Corporation iSCSI HBAs; GBICs; RAID controllers (Intel Corporation 2006)
LSI Logic Storage Systems, Inc. SAN solutions; RAID adapters (LSI 2006)
McDATA Enterprise FC management tools (McDATA 2006)
Media Integration Fibre channel SAN; iSCSI backup (Media Integration 2006)
Microsoft Corporation SAN management and backup software (Microsoft 2006)
NEC Corporation SAN support products (NEC Corporation 2006)
Nishan Systems IP storage switches (Nishan Systems 2006)
QLogic Corp. SAN management software; HBAs (QLogic 2006)
SANRAD iSCSI-SAN and IP-SAN solutions (SANRAD 2006)
SUN Microsystems Storage systems; RAIDs; disk backup (Sun Microsystems 2006)
Unisys SAN solutions (Unisys 2006)
Xyratex RAID systems (Xyratex 2006)

bid44609_ch147.indd 13 5/11/07 8:56:37 PM

 14 STORAGE AREA NETWORK FUNDAMENTALS
Others, 3%
Dell, 6%
Sun Microsystems, 7%
LSI Storage, 7%
Hitachi, 8%
Hewlett-Packard , 25%
IBM, 18%
495–7) and on the Network Buyers Guide Web site (Net-
work Buyers Guide 2006).
The iSuppli survey (Gardner 2004) identifies seven
leading providers of SAN solutions: EMC (26% of all
shares), Hewlett-Packard (25%), IBM (18%), Hitachi (8%),
LSI Storage (7%), Sun Microsystems (7%), and Dell (6%)
(see Figure 2). The additional information (based on the
revenue analyses) about the top 10 largest storage com-
panies for the period from 1999 to 2005 can be found in
(Kerekes 2005).
CONCLUSION
SANs, networked high-speed infrastructures, enable
e-business enterprises to significantly improve their 24/7
continuous scalable services. They have become a critical
part of the enterprise network infrastructure. The above-
considered technologies and effective SAN solutions
allow companies to shift their focus from numerous IT
infrastructure problems to the successful performance of
their businesses and services.
GLOSSARY
CIFS: Common Internet file system, also known as the
Microsoft server message block protocol; a network
file system access protocol that is primarily used by
Windows clients to communicate file access requests
to Windows servers.
CIM: Common information model; an object-oriented
description of entities and relationships in the enter-
prise management environment.
DWDM: Dense wavelength division multiplexing; a
method that allows more wavelengths to use the same
fiber.
FC-AL: Fibre channel-arbitrated loop transport
protocol.
FCSW: Fibre-channel switch.
FC-VIA: Fibre channel–virtual interface architecture.
bid44609_ch147.indd 14
EMC, 26%
Figure 2: Shares of leading companies
in the SAN market (Gardner 2004)
FSPF: Fabric shortest path first; a routing protocol used
by fibre-channel switches.
IPoFC: Internet protocol over fibre channel.
iSCSI: Internet small computer systems interface.
JBOD: Just a bunch of disks; a term for a collection of
disks configured as an arbitrated loop segment in a
single chassis.
LC Connector: A small form-factor fiber-optic connec-
tor, which resembles a small SC connector. Lucent
Technologies developed the LC connector for use in
telecommunication environments. The LC connector
has been standardized as FOCIS 10 (Fiber Optic Con-
nector Intermateability Standards) in EIA/TIA-604-10.
NAS: Network-attached storage.
RAID: Redundant arrays of inexpensive disks; a tech-
nology for managing multiple disks.
SAN: Storage area network.
SAS: SAN-attached storage.
SC Connector: A fiber-optic connector with a push-pull
latching mechanism that provides for quick insertion
and removal while also ensuring a positive connection.
The SC connector has been standardized as FOCIS 3
(Fiber Optic Connector Intermateability Standards) in
EIA/TIA-604-03.
SoIP: Storage over IP; a storage technology developed
by the Nishan Systems Corporation.
SSA: Serial storage architecture.
VI: Virtual interface architecture; a midlayer protocol
specification.
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