Few basic things about san iscsi storage that you should know

In the world of computing ISCSI storage i.e. Internet Small Computer System Interface – which is actually anIP or internet protocol based storage networking standard serving the purpose of linking up multiple data storage facilities. Using SCSI commands carried over multiple IP networks, it felicitate intranet data transfer and even makes it possible to manage storages from a long distance. Apart from enabling data storage and retrieval independent of their location ISCSI network storage device can also be used for transmitting data over local area and wide area networks and also on the internet.

Allowing the clients or the initiators to transmit SCSI commands to target storage devices located on the remote servers –helps client organizations consolidating their data center storage to storage arrays. It also provides the hosts that are the database and web servers with the illusion of disks as locally attached. It is also categorized as a storage area network protocol or SAN protocol.

As a matter of fact, the concept behind ISCSI storage is to allow hosts negotiate on exchanging SCSI commands and uses IP networks or internet protocol networks for the purpose. Under normal conditions, popular and high performance bus used for local storage is taken by ISCSI and then emulated over a wide range of network for creating a SAN or a Storage Area Network. Unlike some other popular storage area network protocols – no dedicated cabling is necessary for ISCSI as it can run on any already existing internet protocol infrastructure. Though this is often considered as a more acceptable alternative to FCoE or Fiber Channel over Ethernetbut still for best quality performance an ISCSI SAN network storage device should run on a dedicated LAN or VLAN subnets or networks and otherwise there is a high chance of its performance is getting degraded by a considerable degree.

It is possible for ISCSI to communicate with any arbitrary type of SCSI device but still it is almost always used by system administrators to allow database servers to access the disk volumes on the storage arrays. ISCSI storage area network servers normally serve two basic purposes – storage consolidation and disaster recovery. Inside a storage area network environment it is possible to allocate a server to a completely new disc volume without any required change in cabling and hardware. This also results in better efficiency in storage allocation as there is no particular server to which the storage is tied with.

For a number of reasons like better and well documented storage management, lowering down of cross-over points and low implementation cost, organizations are migrating from DAS (Direct-attached storage) and NAS (Network-attached Storage) to SAN storage devices. But before SAN architecture is implemented it is important that one truly understands the prominently existing differences between these different storage approaches. It is only unfortunate that the difference between these different types of storage area network is not always well understood and they are often considered as competing technologies, though in reality all three of them – SAN, DAS and NAS have distinct application enterprise standard information technology environment.

Those who want to know more about SAN storage and the various options available may visit the website http://www.digiliant.com/.

About The Author

Reyna Adams is considered to be an authority when it comes to network storage server and solutions and likes to share his experiences from the field in the many informative articles that he writes on the topic. He recommends Digiliant.com as the best place to find high storage area network solutions and devices for all kinds of needs.