SAN Server Info ??

[Pylie]

I've seen various posts about SAN servers ?

Can any1 tell me why these are used and how they would benefit a company ?

Also - how do they differ to your bulk standard 2003 Server for instance ?

Is the HW different ? - IS there a seperate OS needed ?

Thanks for any info.


Rgds

 

[Chacalinc]

I've seen various posts about SAN servers ?

could you give me an example?

Chacal, Inc.

 

[Pylie]

The Company have heard that SAN servers are widely used.

We need to know how they might benefit us - and what other companies would use theirs for ?

Do they run on their own OS ?

What advantages would they have over a standard Server etc ?

Thanks

P

 

[mbourne2006]

Hi

There are many advantages to implementing a SAN-based solution, but there also some drawbacks.

Perhaps an example would help you?

We recently implemented a dual-fabric SAN solution for email and file-serving using Windows 2003 Server.

The servers are normal Wintel boxes, each with a pair of fibre channel Host Bus Adapters (HBA) - like ethernet NIC's, only for fibre

The "network" part of the SAN comprises a pair of IBM SAN switches, and the "storage" is provided by an IBM DS4300.

If you think of an HBA as broadly equivalent to a SCSI adapter, then you can see immediately how much resilience is built into the solution (failure of cable, HBA, switch, or disk controller is not going to stop anything working) and, with the switches providing connectivity, our ability to scale either the storage or the client base is limited only by the number of ports available.

On the downside, you do need some specialist skills to maintain the solution, and, of course, it's not going to be cheap either.

I guess it all depends on the combination of:

(a) what is it that you're trying to solve/add to your business?

(b) how much of a budget do you have to play with?

HTH

Kind Regards,
Matthew Bourne
"Find a job you love and never do a day's work in your life.

 

[Pylie]

Many thanks ........

When you say specialist skills - how specialist ?