What is NAS gateway anyway? Is it a front-end NAS device which will be attached to the existing LAN, while it is also connected to the SAN at back-end? Does it create a bridge in between an existing LAN and SAN, in order to be able to access block-level type of data?

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Not exactly but you're close. A NAS gateway is a NAS system in which the storage is not captively attached, but is externally attached -- typically over a Fibre Channel (FC) interface.

The external storage can be a stand-alone storage box that is resource-shared with other servers that may use it for block access or may be connected via the SAN.

In any case, the file serving function is the same, and it appears to clients accessing it as another file system that can be mounted or shared. They cannot tell the difference between a gateway or a standard NAS device.

This was first published in June 2005

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