A comparative analysis of Ethernet, TCP/IP, and Fibre Channel in the context of SCSI Introduces network administrators to the requirements of storage protocols Explains the operation of network protocols to storage administrators Compares and contrasts the functionality of Ethernet, TCP/IP, and Fibre Channel Documents the details of the major protocol suites, explains how they operate, and identifies common misunderstandings References the original standards and specifications so you can get a complete understanding of each protocol Helps you understand the implications of network design choices Discusses advanced network functionality such as QoS, security, management, and protocol analysis Corporations increasingly depend on computer and communication technologies to remain competitive in the global economy. Customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, and e-mail are a few of the many applications that generate new data every day. Effectively storing, managing, and accessing that data is a primary business challenge in the information age. Storage networking is a crucial component of the solution to meet that challenge. Written for both storage administrators who need to learn more about networking and network administrators who need to learn more about storage, Storage Networking Protocol Fundamentals is a concise introduction to storage networking protocols. The book picks up where Storage Networking Fundamentals left off by focusing on the networking protocols that underlie modern open systems: block-oriented storage networks. The first part of the book introduces you to the field of storage networking and the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model. The second part compares networked storage technologies, including iSCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface over IP) and Fibre Channel. It also examines in detail each of the major protocol suites layer-by-layer within the OSI reference model. The third part discusses advanced functionalities of these technologies, such as quality of service (QoS), load-balancing functions, security, management, and protocol analysis. You can read this book cover to cover or use it as a reference, directly accessing the particular topics of interest to you. "Storage networking is a critical concept for today's businesses, and this book provides a unique and helpful way to better understand it. Storage networking is also continuously evolving, and as such this book may be seen as an introduction to the information technology infrastructures of the future." --from the foreword by Claudio DeSanti, vice-chairman of the ANSI INCITS T11 Technical Committee

IP Storage Networking: Straight to the Core is your complete blueprint for planning, deploying, managing, and maximizing the business value of enterprise storage. Gary Orenstein introduces IP storage, iSCSI, and related technologies; then shows how to integrate them into an overall storage strategy for maximizing availability and business agility. Coverage includes: architecture; software infrastructure; virtualization; security; storage policies; outsourcing; and measuring ROI on enterprise storage investments.

Unlike networking technology, where there is already a great deal of literature available, many professionals still need to understand the basic building blocks of storage networking. This book provides vendor-neutral, independent analysis and terminology.

IP SANS is a technical overview of the new IP-based storage area network solutions for the explosive growth in data storage requirements faced by today's modern businesses.

The superabundance of data that is created by today's businesses is making storage a strategic investment priority for companies of all sizes. As storage takes precedence, the following major initiatives emerge: Flatten and converge your network: IBM® takes an open, standards-based approach to implement the latest advances in the flat, converged data center network designs of today. IBM Storage solutions enable clients to deploy a high-speed, low-latency Unified Fabric Architecture. Optimize and automate virtualization: Advanced virtualization awareness reduces the cost and complexity of deploying physical and virtual data center infrastructure. Simplify management: IBM data center networks are easy to deploy, maintain, scale, and virtualize, delivering the foundation of consolidated operations for dynamic infrastructure management. Storage is no longer an afterthought. Too much is at stake. Companies are searching for more ways to efficiently manage expanding volumes of data, and to make that data accessible throughout the enterprise. This demand is propelling the move of storage into the network. Also, the increasing complexity of managing large numbers of storage devices and vast amounts of data is driving greater business value into software and services. With current estimates of the amount of data to be managed and made available increasing at 60% each year, this outlook is where a storage area network (SAN) enters the arena. SANs are the leading storage infrastructure for the global economy of today. SANs offer simplified storage management, scalability, flexibility, and availability; and improved data access, movement, and backup. Welcome to the cognitive era. The smarter data center with the improved economics of IT can be achieved by connecting servers and storage with a high-speed and intelligent network fabric. A smarter data center that hosts IBM Storage solutions can provide an environment that is smarter, faster, greener, open, and easy to manage. This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides an introduction to SAN and Ethernet networking, and how these networks help to achieve a smarter data center. This book is intended for people who are not very familiar with IT, or who are just starting out in the IT world.

iSCSI: The Universal Storage Connection is an informative overview and in-depth guide to the emerging iSCSI standard, the technology that enables data storage, access, and management over networks, intranets, and the Internet. The iSCSI protocol reduces the total cost of ownership of shared storage solutions and enables an organization to tie together disparate systems and data, including both server class systems and laptop and desktop systems. Numerous leading technology companies, including IBM®, Cisco Systems®, and Intel®, are currently supporting iSCSI initiatives. Written for network and data storage professionals, this comprehensive book introduces iSCSI and explores its growing role within the data storage industry. It describes each element of the technology in detail—from session establishment through error handling—and examines the relationship between iSCSI and the SCSI protocol from which it evolved. Specific topics discussed include: iSCSI's use in small office, midrange, and high-end settings TCP/IP fundamentals, and how they apply to iSCSI The importance of data integrity New hardware that addresses bandwidth and latency issues iSCSI naming conventions The establishment of a communication path between the host system and storage controller Commands and data sequencing Control of the flow of commands Task management Error handling Companion technologies, including discovery and security processes Backup and disaster preparation iSCSI performance issues In addition, the book includes an explanation of the technologies that hardware vendors are implementing to permit direct memory placement of iSCSI messages without additional main processor involvement. A helpful icon appears throughout the book, mapping out appropriate reading tracks based on your technical level. Comprehensive, clearly written, and organized for easy access, this iSCSI handbook serves as both an excellent starting point for those involved in data storage solutions and a guide to understanding the technically detailed Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) iSCSI Standards document.

High-speed I/O workloads are moving away from the SAN to Ethernet and IBM® Spectrum Scale is pushing the network limits. The IBM Spectrum® Scale team discovered that many infrastructure Ethernet networks that were used for years to support various applications are not designed to provide a high-performance data path concurrently to many clients from many servers. IBM Spectrum Scale is not the first product to use Ethernet for storage access. Technologies, such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), scale out NAS, and IP connected storage (iSCSI and others) use Ethernet though IBM Spectrum Scale as the leader in parallel I/O performance, which provides the best performance and value when used on a high-performance network. This IBM Redpaper publication is based on lessons that were learned in the field by deploying IBM Spectrum Scale on Ethernet and InfiniBand networks. This IBM Redpaper® publication answers several questions, such as, "How can I prepare my network for high performance storage?", "How do I know when I am ready?", and "How can I tell what is wrong?" when deploying IBM Spectrum Scale and IBM Elastic Storage® Server (ESS). This document can help IT architects get the design correct from the beginning of the process. It also can help the IBM Spectrum Scale administrator work effectively with the networking team to quickly resolve issues.

"This book covers a wide spectrum of topics relevant to implementing and managing a modern data center. The chapters are comprehensive and the flow of concepts is easy to understand." -Cisco reviewer Gain a practical knowledge of data center concepts To create a well-designed data center (including storage and network architecture, VoIP implementation, and server consolidation) you must understand a variety of key concepts and technologies. This book explains those factors in a way that smoothes the path to implementation and management. Whether you need an introduction to the technologies, a refresher course for IT managers and data center personnel, or an additional resource for advanced study, you'll find these guidelines and solutions provide a solid foundation for building reliable designs and secure data center policies. * Understand the common causes and high costs of service outages * Learn how to measure high availability and achieve maximum levels * Design a data center using optimum physical, environmental, and technological elements * Explore a modular design for cabling, Points of Distribution, and WAN connections from ISPs * See what must be considered when consolidating data center resources * Expand your knowledge of best practices and security * Create a data center environment that is user- and manager-friendly * Learn how high availability, clustering, and disaster recovery solutions can be deployed to protect critical information * Find out how to use a single network infrastructure for IP data, voice, and storage

* The emphasis of this book will be on detailed practicality. Most of the SAN books provide a theoretical treatment of the technology from a top-down perspective. This book will be written from the perspective of "from the ground up". * Relates specific technology offerings to particular application areas. Email stores, Image stores, Video Production and RDBMS disk are used as specific case studies to show how the hardware, firmware, and interconnects are set up and used. * SAN technology is ready to move out of the glass house and large scale storage is becoming applicable to even dedicated purposes. This represents an increase in the potential audience for a book on SANs and, of course, remains highly useful for the administrators and centralized technical staff responsible for backups, recoverability, and availability.

The amount of data being generated, processed, and stored has reached unprecedented levels. Even during the recent economic crisis, there has been no slow down or information recession. Instead, the need to process, move, and store data has only increased. Consequently, IT organizations are looking to do more with what they have while supporting gr