Network Storage Flashcards

1
Q

NAS vs. SAN

A
  • Network Attached Storage (NAS)
    • Connect to a shared storage device across the network
    • File-level access
  • Storage Area Network (SAN)
    • Looks and feels like a local storage device
    • Block-level access
    • Very efficient reading and writing

• Requires a lot of bandwidth
• May use an isolated network and
high-speed network technologies

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2
Q

Jumbo frames

A

• Ethernet frames with more
than 1,500 bytes of payload
• Up to 9,216 bytes (9,000 is the accepted norm)

  • Increases transfer efficiency
    • Per-packet size
    • Fewer packets to switch/route
  • Ethernet devices must support jumbo frames
    • Switches, interface cards
    • Not all devices are compatible with others
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3
Q

Fibre Channel (FC)

A
  • A specialized high-speed topology
    • Connect servers to storage
    • 2-, 4-, 8- and 16-gigabit per second rates
    • Supported over both fiber and copper

• Servers and storage connect to a Fibre Channel switch
• Server (initiator) needs a FC interface
• Storage (target) is commonly referenced by
SCSI, SAS, or SATA commands

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4
Q

Fibre Channel over the data network

A

• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
• Use Fibre Channel over an Ethernet network
• No special networking hardware needed
• Usually integrates with an existing Fibre Channel
infrastructure
• Not routable

• Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP)
  • Encapsulate Fibre Channel data into IP packets
  • Fibre Channel tunneling
  • Geographically separate
the servers from the storage
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5
Q

iSCSI

A
  • Internet Small Computer Systems Interface
    • Send SCSI commands over an IP network
    • Created by IBM and Cisco, now an RFC standard
  • Makes a remote disk look and operate like a local disk
    • Like Fibre Channel
  • Can be managed quite well in software
    • Drivers available for many operating systems
    • No proprietary topologies or hardware needed
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6
Q

InfiniBand

A
  • High-speed switching topology
    • Alternative to Fibre Channel
  • Copper and Fiber options
    • QSFP connectors

• Popular use in research and supercomputers
• Designed for high speeds and low latency
• 100 Gbit/sec and 200 Gbit/sec speeds are common
• Links can be aggregated for higher
throughputs (4x, 8x, 12x links)

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