HPE SAN Storage

SAN (storage area network) is a common storage networking architecture that delivers a high throughput and low latency for business-critical applications.

A storage area network commonly stores an organization’s vital customer data across segregated devices and servers on a virtual network. SANs off-load storage function to improve efficiency and isolate failures should they occur. Organizations also use a SAN to enhance business-critical application performance, making the applications more readily available and improving utilization rates.

SANs store data in blocks, dividing them into separate tiers in a high-speed architecture with consistent security practices across the network. This provides more effective data storage and improved data protection and security.

SANs connect servers to their logical disk units (LUNs), or blocks of storage, which present to the server as a logical disk. The server then partitions and formats these, often as all-flash storage, capitalizing on its high performance and low latency. Users access data and devices stored on a SAN just as if they were housed on a local area network (LAN).

SANs use four common protocols to transport data:

::  Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) – Widely adopted, FCP uses the fibre channel network to send SCSI commands. It provides high-speed delivery of raw block data with no losses between computer storage and servers.

::  Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) – Used by about a tenth of enterprises, iSCSI has a lower cost than FCP. iSCSI maps block-oriented storage data using SCSI commands inside an Ethernet frame and then uses a standard TCP/IP Ethernet network for transport.

::  Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) – FCoE essentially places the FCP on a new physical link—an Ethernet link. Because of that simple switch, a SAN can use less hardware and cabling, with easier installation and management than traditional protocols. It is a standards-based protocol that also eliminates the need to run separate LAN and SAN networks.

::  Non-Volatile Memory Express Over Fibre Channel (FC-NVMe) – FC-NVMe is an interface protocol for accessing flash storage via a PCI Express (PCIe) bus. FC-NVMe offers vast performance improvements over traditional all-flash architectures (AHCI). While AHCI are limited to a single, serial command queue, NVMe can handle tens of thousands of parallel queues, each managing tens of thousands of simultaneous commands.