Using Fibre Channel To Reduce SCSI Storage Costs
Download the complete white paper now.
There are two popular methods for connecting storage arrays to servers for block-level access to storage – Direct Attached Storage (DAS) and Storage Area Networking (SAN). Both use the SCSI protocol and appear as local storage to servers. These two methods present contrasting storage architectures.
The most common architecture or method remains DAS, which uses a direct connection between a server and its dedicated SCSI storage system. These connections typically use parallel SCSI technology, which is used internally for disks as well. DAS is simple to deploy yet becomes increasingly difficult to manage as the numbers of DAS systems grow.
A newer method places fibre channel (FC) technology and FC switches between servers and storage to create a Storage Area Network (SAN). The connectivity the switches provide allows the connection of more than one server to a storage system. This reduces the number of storage systems required but substantially increases complexity and cost due to the switches.
Not surprisingly, both methods provide an almost mutually exclusive set of benefits, but an intermediate solution – DAS supporting multiple servers using FC without switches – becomes a sensible and desired alternative. Fortunately, innovative FC-based DAS solutions are now available to fill the void between traditional SCSI-based DAS and FC-based SAN.
This white paper explores how FC DAS solutions apply the benefits of fibre channel to reduce SCSI storage costs without requiring SAN switches.