Multipathing solves two problems: It provides for failover and load balancing between the multiple SCSI or Fibre Channel adapters.
"Many people will not run, say, an Oracle database without multipathing software," says Rahul Mehta, CEO at storage software vendor NuView.
Unix and mainframe operating systems are no strangers to multipathing. Veritas also delivers multipathing capabilities in Volume Manager, as does EMC with PowerPath.
Veritas and EMC are just two of the 23 vendors that have pledged to support MPIO. Why? "They're doing it so they can offer seamless support to the Windows environment, and not have to rely on third-party software," says Rick Walsworth, director of product marketing at Maranti Networks, which is building an MPIO-compliant multiprotocol switch.
Requires Free Membership to View
When you register for SearchStorage.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics, the latest news and the biggest challenges you face as a storage professional today.
Rich Castagna, Editorial DirectorThis was first published in November 2002