Special Edition Using Storage Area Networks

Understand how storage area networks work to optimize data storage in a heterogeneous environment by externalizing storage from the rest of the network to allow access to data shared across a variety of platforms. Connect servers, workstations, storage devices, and other systems in a storage area network through interfaces. Link the storage resources to the servers by using SAN interconnects. Meet the high data-transfer speed requirements of storage environments with Fibre Channel, the interface that connects the different components of a storage area network. Learn how switched Fibre Channel networks, or fabrics, yield the highest performance by leveraging the benefits of cross-point switching, a low-latency switching system. Design storage area networks to meet your organizations particular data storage requirements. Formulate an implementation plan to optimize the design of your SAN to suit specific backup and high-availability criteria. Plan for disaster recovery and learn how to predict and prevent errors in your SAN. Understand how the Virtual Interface (VI) architecture can improve the performance of SANs. Discover how intranets, extranets, and e-commerce sites work.

A Storage Area Network (SAN) consists of a network that is present between the storage devices and servers. Multiple servers is allowed by SAN in order to access any storage device so that it is helpful in increasing fault tolerance [6]. A block of storage is not taken down whenever a particular server goes down. A SAN has communication infrastructure in order to provide management layer and