Overview
The rate at which information is produced and shared is growing at an astounding pace. As a result, the size, complexity—and importance—of storage systems has increased dramatically. The implementation of a Storage Area Network (SAN) allows system and storage administrators to ensure the consistent storage and retrieval of data on a network. The multipath nature of a SAN, with its characteristic one-to-many relationships between host and storage devices, provides unmatched configuration flexibility and availability, as well as the load-balancing and increased connectivity essential to the creation of a scalable network.With its unique focus on the nuts and bolts of SAN construction and operation, Practical Storage Area Networking explores the full technology, from the more common Fibre Channel SANs to cutting edge IP SANs, and beyond. This book examines SAN design, integration, maintenance, and security, highlighting best practices for each. Its close attention to the ideal practices of SAN implementation provides SAN builders with an invaluable frame of reference that bridges the gap between concept and deployment.
Among the topics covered in Practical Storage Area Networking you will find:
- SAN project selection, logical layout, and capacity planning
- I/O requirements by SAN type
- Project modeling, including storage sizing and assessment
- Hardware and software component selection
- SAN topologies
- Configuration, zoning, and testing
- Management tools and consoles
- Event and performance monitoring
- Application integration
- Scaperformance, and feature enhancements
Packed with extensive insights and experience-based advice, Practical Storage Area Networking will help you build and deploy a successful SAN on your network.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewEnterprise storage requirements keep soaring, and next-generation applications will make the problem even worse. Often, the best solutions are Storage Area Networks, but SAN technology has traditionally been mystifying at best. In Practical Storage Area Networking, Daniel Pollack clears away the fog, showing how to make the right up-front decisions -- and then design, integrate, deploy, maintain, and secure a SAN that meets its potential.
Pollack, who’s responsible for large-scale storage at AOL, clearly explains both the rationales for SAN technology and the trade-offs. He first shows how to approach SAN design for storage consolidation, NAS replacement, and capacity planning purposes, then how to design experimental SANs and new SANs without legacy considerations. Using detailed graphs -- and shell scripts that capture data from your existing environment -- he shows how to model the I/O behavior of your current systems, reflecting all the tasks your SAN must perform.
Next, he shows how to translate that data into effective design, choose the right hardware, software, and topologies, integrate legacy storage devices, and migrate your data. The book also includes practical overviews of SAN configuration and testing, control and event/performance monitoring via SNMP and vendor-specific tools, and an overview of SAN security (less mature than it should be, so you’d better be vigilant). Finally, Pollack previews emerging technologies such as storage virtualization: technologies that, up until now, have been even more confusing than the rest of the SAN marketplace. Bill Camarda
Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.