Nas device, os, storage.

Network attached storage is a storage solution which provides centralized storage and file sharing over a computer network, together with software for storage management and security. Network-attached storage refers to single hard disk-based devices that connect to a network over Ethernet or TCP/IP, and use file-sharing protocols that allow computers to access their disks as remote volumes. A storage area network is used more in enterprise-level businesses, and consists of a network of Fibre Channel-connected storage devices (usually multiple disk arrays) that communicate with servers as large-scale local disks. NAS OS can be a separate product or available with NAS device. IT providers have started to build their own storage operating systems onto the boxes, sometimes hardwired in ASICs, but more often than not as software running in a kernel operating system or a fully-fledged server OS. Storage software approaches are increasingly preferred because of the ready availability of universal operating system platforms, whether from commercial OS producers such as Microsoft with its Storage Server or from the open source community Linux or BeOS. Therefore, a NAS device is a lot more than simply a box of disk drives. In fact, all storage systems, from the most basic USB-attached or SCSI direct attached storage (DAS) array to the most exclusive storage area network with iSCSI or FC target, most products proffer at least some additional features in their storage servers. This is also the case with NAS OS. Many NAS OSs offer additional benefits. It is possible to store music, movies, and photos on a centralized server and stream content to multiple computers, since there are storage devices with NAS OS which feature media server functionality. NAS OS can provide advanced backup capability through software, a USB port to connect an external hard drive, or RAID support to back up files. For users who want to access the storage drive remotely, there are NAS OS products that offer access over the Internet or FTP.

Effectively managing storage

Storage software is an indispensable part of data storage system. The best storage software centralizes and controls the storage resources, helps reduce the complexity and costs of data storage, provides its efficient management, improves data availability, management of storage devices, monitors and tracks the performance of network storage systems e.g. in Storage Area Network or Network Attached Storage.

One of indisputable advantages of storage software products is that the installation and configuration of most applications takes usually only few minutes. Sometimes, the storage software is pre-configured for immediate use. It consists of several applications, including performance monitoring, file systems, volume management, virtualization software, file, audio, mail and surveillance managers. Its characteristic feature is that it odes not serve for storage of system files but data. The most popular mass storage devices will include tape libraries, RAID systems, hard disk drives, magnetic tape drives, optical disc and magneto-optical disc drives and older floppy disk drives. Storage devices differ from memory devices in that they retain data permanently, even when the computer system is turned off, whereas memory drives such as RAM (random access memory) does not save the data in this case. They can be used in most efficient way only with the dedicated storage software. The applications used for storage management enable a company or a private person to manage their storage system. They usually cover storage resource management (SRM) and network storage management software, performance monitoring, file systems, volume management, virtualization software and security software. Many IT companies for example open-e offer a universal tool for effective storage management. You can also find many trial versions and open source applications. They also include tools which are used for virtualisations and cloud storage. A storage software allow data to elastically grow, shrink or migrate across physical machines in a cluster without downtime, server failures or interruptions.

What is Fiber Channel

Fibre channel is a standard of network technology for data transmissions between computer devices. At first it was used for storage networking - connecting computer servers to shared storage devices and for connecting storage controllers and drives between each other. They can be made of optical fiber cables as well as of copper wires which are twisted. If optical fiber is used a medium, the channel can be very flexible - devices can be as far as ten kilometers apart. For shorter distances the copper cables are used more often. Fibre channel was the first technology to be adopted in storage area networks. Storage area network (SAN) is a network of storage devices that are accessible to servers and allows for resource consolidation and simplifies administration. Fibre channels are faster than SCSI, another type of network technology. They reach gigabyte-speed which is why they have become more common than SCSI in the case of SAN. The SCSI commands can also be transported via fibre channel protocol. Storage area network has been mainly deployed in enterprise storage, which, when compared to the consumer storage, needs higher scalability, higher reliability, better fault tolerance, and requires much more investment.

The large scale of this type of storage involves disaster recovery and advanced backup solutions, which are parts of a large-scale business continuity plan. Fibre channel offers three types of port connections. In limited-connectivity “point to point” topology two devices are connected to each other. “Arbitrated loop” has a set of devices connected to one another in a ring – when one device fails, the whole system is interrupted. The most reliable typology is the “switched fabric”, where all devices are connected to switches which convey the traffic and connection between ports. Here, in the case of one port failure, the functioning of the rest of devices is not affected.

IBM high end tape solutions

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ISCSI target

In network systems, an iSCSI target is a device to which data is being transmitted from another device by means of iSCSI technology.

Generally, the term target in IT means a destination, e.g. a file, device or any other type of location to which data is moved. In more specific terms, the computer copies data from the source which is in this case called the initiator to the destination device – the target. Therefore, an iSCSI target is a device which is connected using a network to other devices, to which data is copied in order to be stored there. In network storage where iSCSI technology is implemented there can be many storage devices. That is why ISCSI target does not have to be a single unit in the whole system. It can describe one of potentially many instances of iSCSI storage nodes running on the specific server. iSCSI target is often a hard disk connected to a dedicated storage network, but it may as well be a general-purpose computer, since as with initiators, the software to provide an iSCSI target is available for most mainstream operating systems. iSCSI targets most commonly are hard disks. However, iSCSI tape and medium-changer targets are popular as well.

Additionally, in the era of cloud computing and virtualisation, iSCSI targets can also be virtualised devices. It is possible to virtualize disk, tape and server targets used for data storage. The underlying implementation can differ drastically from the presented targets also in the case of virtual tape library (VTL) products in which data is written to virtual tapes. In both cases, the standard as well as virtual, the targets can be bridged by iSCSI target software, external bridges, or controllers internal to the device enclosure. There can be two possibilities for a device to achieve a target functionality. It can be built in their operating systems or acquired by means of additional software.

Storage software

Nowadays, it is not possible to survive on the market without storage system. Imagine what advantage an intruder could take of the financial information about the company, its functioning, employees personal data, customers and transactions which are stored in computer systems. The risk of using this confidential data is great that is why all storage systems of professional enterprises and organisations must be well-protected. On the other hand, without a good and efficient management of storage resources and the system, the company may also experience severe losses, e.g. in productivity. This is why the storage resources which are the heart of every business must also be well-managed.

It is not an exaggeration to say that to choose a reliable storage software is even more important than merely buying a capacious and reliable data storage hardware. There are many types of data storage devices for large companies as well as households. Also the market of data storage software offers a wide range of solutions. For example, there are applications used only for cloud storage and virtualised servers and others for network storage solutions for data centers that are physically present at the premises of the enterprise. They are all adapted to the particular hardware solutions and their capacity. The users who have a pre-determined requirements can choose the storage system depending on their needs and budget, but the clients who enjoy more freedom can benefit from a more functional and universal solutions such as DSS.

Generally, the main goals for all types of storage software is assuring high availability of the system and business continuity. These are achieved by storage resource management and network storage management software and security software.

Storage software products include such storage infrastructure management tools which can help the users and customers reduce the complexity of managing their storage environments. This is done by centralizing, simplifying and automating storage tasks associated with storage systems, storage networks, replication services and security management.

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