Top 10 SAN/NAS technical tips of 2004

By SearchStorage.com editorial staff 17 Dec 2004 | SearchStorage.com

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Top 10 SAN/NAS technical tips of 2004

1. How to document a SAN

By Rick Cook

If you and your entire staff get hit by a bus tomorrow, a storage professional completely unfamiliar with your system should be able to come in and replicate it using the documentation. That's a high standard, but meeting it will save you and your successors a lot of work.

2. A beginner's guide to iSCSI

By Simon Gordon

After five years of working with Fibre Channel storage area networks (SANs), I have personally been quite confused about iSCSI, about exactly what it really does and more importantly how it works and how we can actually use it to solve real customer problems. So here, after a busy few months talking to a lot of people on the subject, are a few of my own views.

3. Learning guide to SAN-based backups

By Michele Hope

While SANs can provide a world of benefits, backing up a myriad of servers to a SAN can be tricky if not approached correctly.

4. Building a SAN from A to Z

By Robyn Lorusso

To begin architecting your SAN, a variety of elements need to be considered: How large a SAN can or should you build? What overriding framework will you use to manage the SAN? Which type of switch and HBA driver is best for your environment? Should you consider a SAN/NAS hybrid? To help answer these and other SAN architecture questions, we've compiled the following collection of expert advice, tips and white papers.

5. SAN topologies, part 1: Know your switch options

By Simon Gordon

Storage area network (SAN) topologies are vital to choosing a switch vendor: When do you use big switches (directors or core switches), when do you use small switches (edge or departmental switches) and should you use a mixture (core-edge design)? Part 1 of this series helps you first determine what size switch is needed.

6. SAN topologies, part 2: How to design your SAN

By Simon Gordon

There is one aspect of SAN design that is in many ways vital when choosing a switch vendor -- SAN topologies. When do you use big switches (directors or core switches), when do you use small switches (edge or departmental switches), and should you use a mixture (core-edge design)? Part 1 of this series helped you determine what size switch is needed. Part 2 discusses how to design your network using different SAN topologies.

7. Zoning, part 1: An overview of zoning

By Simon Gordon

Now that you've read about storage area network topologies and switches, you'll probably turn your attention to zoning. Zoning becomes quite important once your SAN has more than a couple dozen devices.

8. Zoning, part 2: Hard zoning vs. soft zoning

By Simon Gordon

There are a number of terms people use and abuse to identify different zoning approaches and demonstrate advanced functionality. The first thing I must highlight is that, using the definitions I am going to use, hard zoning is not the same as port zoning, and soft zoning is not the same as WWN zoning.

9. Zoning, part 3: Zoning schemas

By Simon Gordon

Now that we understand zoning and how it works to stop servers from mounting all the LUNs it can see in a fabric, lets quickly wrap up by identifying common zoning schemas.

10. Next-generation NAS

By Jerome M. Wendt

For companies trying to enter the network-attached storage (NAS) market, issues such as cost and ease of deployment come into play. For organizations that already have NAS installations, factors such as increasing utilization, backing up data and upgrading management tools will weigh more heavily.

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