SAN VS NAS

GROUP NO13

INTRODUCTION
Data is unquestionably the
lifeline
in
todays
digital
organization. Storage solutions
remain a top priority in IT
budgets precisely because the
integrety,
availability
and
protection of data are vital to
business
productivity
and
success.

EVOLUTION IN STORAGE
ARCHITECTURE

TYPES OF STORAGE TODAY

Direct Attached Storage (DAS)
Storage Area Networks (SAN)
Network Attached Storage (NAS)

DAS - Direct Attached

Storage
DAS is the most basic storage
subsystem that provides blocklevel storage, and it's the
building block for SAN and NAS.
A DAS system is directly
attached to a server or a
workstation, without a storage
network in between.

DAS ARCHITECTURE

ADVANTAGES
Lower cost
Overall simplicity

DISADVANTAGES
Das device is isolated from all others.
Data accessibility becomes difficult in
large business.

SAN
(Storage Area Network)

DEFINITION
The Storage Network Industry
Association (SNIA) defines the
SAN as a network whose primary
purpose is the transfer of data
between computer systems and
storage elements.

WHAT IS A SAN?
A SAN consists of a dedicated network
that interconnects servers and their
applications to storage resources with
the use a switch or hub. (Hubs seldom
seen any more.)
Storage resources usually consists of
disks and tapes.

An adapter card on the server is

connected by fiber optic or copper
cabling to a SAN switch.
Disk arrays and tape devices are also
connected to the switch, which brings all
servers and storage devices into a peerto-peer network.

SAN ARCHITECTURE

SAN CHARACTERISTICS
SANs
are
networked
infrastructures
designed to provide a flexible, highperformance, and highly scalable storage
environment.
SANs accomplish this by enabling many
direct connections between servers and
storage devices such as disk storage
systems and tape libraries.
High-performance Fiber Channel switches
and Fiber Channel network protocols ensure
that device connections are both reliable

SAN TOPOLOGY

THE WIRES & PROTOCOLS

BEING USED:
SAN solutions use Fiber Channel
connections

SAN solutions utilizes Fiber Channel

encapsulated SCSI setups
The dedicated network is usually
fibre channel or iSCSI(Internet small
computer system interface).

SAN INFRASTRUCTURE

SAN TERMINOLOGY
What type of network access does SAN
employ?
Fibre channel
iSCSI
Infiniband
CIM (Common Information Model)
Bluefin (based on CIM)

GENERAL INFORMATION SAN

A SAN is primarily used in a large data
environment for data storage.
It is not
possible to access a SAN without an
intermediary unit (A server/Mainframe)
They are expensive to setup, but easy to
maintain.
SANs also provide a central storage area for
tape backups to be taken from.
SAN Hard drives can be SCSI, ATA, or most
commonly, fiber connection.
ISU currently has two SANs in use. One runs
the primary server cluster, and the other is
used in the Library, as part of the DRP

ADVANTAGES
High availability
Data transfer reliability
Reduced traffic on the primary
network
Configuration flexibility
High performance
High scalability
Centralized management
Multiple vendor offerings

DISADVANTAGES
More expensive

APPLICATIONS
Mission-critical transactionbased database application
processing
Centralized data backup
Disaster
recovery
operations
Storage consolidation

NAS
(Network Attached Storage)

DEFINITION
The Storage Network Industry
Association (SNIA) defines the
NAS as a class of systems that
provide file services to host
computers using file access
protocols

WHAT IS NAS
NAS is shared storage on a network
infrastructure
NAS is network-centric.
NAS provides security and performs all
file and storage services through standard
network protocols, using TCP/IP for data
transfer, Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet for
media access, and CIFS, http, and NFS for
remote file service

NAS ARCHITECTURE
Client
s

NAS
Head

Applicatio
n
Server

Print
Serv
er

Storag
e

NAS
Device

NAS CHARACTERISTICS
NAS solutions are typically configured as
file-serving
appliances
accessed
by
workstations
and servers through a network protocol.
Most NAS connections reside between
workstation clients and the NAS filesharing facility.
NAS enables organizations to quickly and
easily add file storage capacity to their
technology
infrastructure.

NAS TOPOLOGY

THE WIRES & PROTOCOLS

BEING USED:
NAS solutions utilize TCP/IP
based
networks,
such
as
Ethernet, FDDI, or ATM .
ATM NAS solutions use TCP/IP
and
NFS/CIFS/HTTP
based
networks

NAS INFRASTRUCTURE

NAS TERMINOLOGY
The NAS head represents the part of the NAS solution required
for the clients to connect to the IO subsystem. Behind the NAS
head, hundreds or thousands of GB of available IO storage may
exist, but the clients have to access the IO space via the NAS
head. A NAS head is also called a NAS Gateway (a system),
which serves as the actual control function of a NAS
NFS (Network File System) is one of the communications
protocols usually supported by NAS heads (for the
communication with the network clients); particular in UNIX or
Linux based solutions. It has to be pointed out though that NFS
clients are available for just about any operating systems these
days
The CIFS (Common Internet File System) protocol is primarily
responsible for file sharing and communication with Windows
(and Linux-based Samba) servers, and represents another
commonly supported protocol for most NAS heads. Most
Windows clients utilize CIFS to communicate with the NAS head.
Both, NFS and CIFS utilize TCP/IP as the underlying

GENERAL INFORMATION NAS

NAS devices are inexpensive and easy
to setup. Can cause difficulty to
maintain.
Each devices maintains its own IP
address.
There is also no worries about server
crashes.
Windows, MAC, and Unix all support
access to a NAS device one way or

ADVANTAGES
Few distance limitations
Simplified addition of file sharing
capacity

Easy
maintenance

deployment

and

DISADVANTAGES
NAS systems are not 100% compatible
with Microsoft Access Control Lists (ACL).
With the exception of SQL, most database
systems, such as Oracle or Microsoft
Exchange, cannot work with filers, i.e. file
servers,
such
as
NAS
appliances
constitute.
Data backup and replication are only ever
possible on a file basis with NAS devices

APPLICATIONS
Small-block data transfer over long
distances
Limited read-only database access
File sharing and online storage.
Backups
Duplication of images for frequently
used
software
configurations
for
distribution.
Increase online storage at particular
locations for remote offices.

SAN VS NAS

SAN AND NAS DISTINCTIONS

SAN and NAS Distinctions
SAN

NAS

Almost any machine that connects

to a LAN (or is
interconnected to a LAN via a WAN)
may utilize NFS,
CIFS or HTTP protocol to connect to
a NAS

Server class devices that are

equipped with SCSI Fibre Channel
adapters connect to a SAN. A Fibre
Channel based solution has a
distance limit of approximately 6
miles

A NAS identifies the data by file

name and byte offset,
transfers file data or metadata, and
handles security, user
authentication, file locking

A SAN addresses the data by

logical block numbers, and
transfers
the data in (raw) disk blocks.

SAN and NAS Distinctions

SAN

NAS

A NAS allows greater sharing of

information, especially
among different operating
systems

File Sharing is operating system

dependent, and may not exist for
all operating systems that are
being used

File system is managed by the

NAS head unit

The SAN servers manage the file

system

Backups and mirrors are

generated on files, not blocks
(this may save bandwidth and
time)

Backups and mirrors require a

block by block copy operation. A
mirrored system has to be either
identical, or greater in capacity
(compared to the source)

END