Overview
A Storage Area Network (SAN) is a dedicated network that connects servers to data storage devices, such as tape libraries and disk arrays. It makes these storage devices appear as locally attached drives to the operating system.
Key Benefits
- High Performance: Dedicated bandwidth for storage traffic.
- Scalability: Easy to add storage capacity without disrupting the network.
- Reliability: Redundant paths and high availability features.
Technologies
- Fibre Channel (FC): The traditional high-speed transport for SANs.
- iSCSI: Encapsulates SCSI commands in IP packets for use over Ethernet.
- NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF): For ultra-low latency storage access.