SAN and its protocols (now and future) - clarification (noobie)

Hello,
As I understand,SAN most popular protocol today is Fibre Channel.

Less popular are iSCSI Infiniband.

Are there any other protocols apart from these for SAN ?

Is this the situation currently?

Regards,
IB

Yes, Fibre Channel is the only protocol in a dedicated storage area
network. Infiniband hasn't really taken hold in the storage market and
is used more as a server to server interconnect. iSCSI is the
transmission of SCSI protocols across an IP network.

You should also bear in mind NAS - although not a SAN protocol as it is
file based rather than block based, it is another networking protocol.

Regards
Chris M Evans
www.storagewiki.com
storagearchitect.blogspot.com

wrote:
Hello,
As I understand,SAN most popular protocol today is Fibre Channel.

Less popular are iSCSI Infiniband.

Are there any other protocols apart from these for SAN ?

Is this the situation currently?

Regards,
IB

On 27 Jun 2006 15:25:30 -0700, "Chris M Evans"
wrote:

Yes, Fibre Channel is the only protocol in a dedicated storage area
network. Infiniband hasn't really taken hold in the storage market and
is used more as a server to server interconnect. iSCSI is the
transmission of SCSI protocols across an IP network.

You should also bear in mind NAS - although not a SAN protocol as it is
file based rather than block based, it is another networking protocol.

Regards
Chris M Evans
www.storagewiki.com
storagearchitect.blogspot.com

wrote:
Hello,
As I understand,SAN most popular protocol today is Fibre Channel.

Less popular are iSCSI Infiniband.

Are there any other protocols apart from these for SAN ?

Is this the situation currently?

Regards,
IB


Actually, iSCSI is going great guns and is far outpacing FC as a
precentage of growth. FC definitely has the lion's share of the
market but iSCSI is taking chunks of it, not just nibbles.

Infiniband did not catch on in the past but has garnered significantly
more support with the purchase of Topspin by Cisco. Cisco will soon
be marketing an Infiniband blade in their director switches.
Also, Infiniband is great for very high performance requirements.
higher bandwidth than FC or Ethernet and lower latency. It has it's
drawbacks of course but everything does.

These are about the only SAN protocol's in use today. Myrinet is out
there but that's a very small population and not growing from what I
can see.

NAS is not a protocol, just like SAN is not a protocol. NAS uses
protocols like CIFS or NFS, whereas SAN uses FC, iSCSI, and Infiniband
(as you mentioned).
The difference between NAS and SAN is access method, block v. file.
Protocol is not a determining factor of storage network type.

~F

Hello,

Thanks a lot for your detailed answer !

You said:
Also, Infiniband is great for very high performance requirements.
higher bandwidth than FC or Ethernet and lower latency. It has it's
drawbacks of course but everything does.

I will be thankfull if you or anyone else can tell 3-4 sentences (or
more
if you like) regarding the drawbacks Infifnband has.

IB

Faeandar wrote:
On 27 Jun 2006 15:25:30 -0700, "Chris M Evans"
wrote:

Yes, Fibre Channel is the only protocol in a dedicated storage area
network. Infiniband hasn't really taken hold in the storage market and
is used more as a server to server interconnect. iSCSI is the
transmission of SCSI protocols across an IP network.

You should also bear in mind NAS - although not a SAN protocol as it is
file based rather than block based, it is another networking protocol.

Regards
Chris M Evans
www.storagewiki.com
storagearchitect.blogspot.com

wrote:
Hello,
As I understand,SAN most popular protocol today is Fibre Channel.

Less popular are iSCSI Infiniband.

Are there any other protocols apart from these for SAN ?

Is this the situation currently?

Regards,
IB


Actually, iSCSI is going great guns and is far outpacing FC as a
precentage of growth. FC definitely has the lion's share of the
market but iSCSI is taking chunks of it, not just nibbles.

Infiniband did not catch on in the past but has garnered significantly
more support with the purchase of Topspin by Cisco. Cisco will soon
be marketing an Infiniband blade in their director switches.
Also, Infiniband is great for very high performance requirements.
higher bandwidth than FC or Ethernet and lower latency. It has it's
drawbacks of course but everything does.

These are about the only SAN protocol's in use today. Myrinet is out
there but that's a very small population and not growing from what I
can see.

NAS is not a protocol, just like SAN is not a protocol. NAS uses
protocols like CIFS or NFS, whereas SAN uses FC, iSCSI, and Infiniband
(as you mentioned).
The difference between NAS and SAN is access method, block v. file.
Protocol is not a determining factor of storage network type.

~F

On 28 Jun 2006 01:21:21 -0700, wrote:

Hello,

Thanks a lot for your detailed answer !

You said:
Also, Infiniband is great for very high performance requirements.
higher bandwidth than FC or Ethernet and lower latency. It has it's
drawbacks of course but everything does.

I will be thankfull if you or anyone else can tell 3-4 sentences (or
more
if you like) regarding the drawbacks Infifnband has.

1) Expensive.
2) Not yet prevalent (you'd be on the cutting edge so to speak).
3) Not widely supported (kind of the same as 2 but with subtle
differences).

~F



IB

Faeandar wrote:
On 27 Jun 2006 15:25:30 -0700, "Chris M Evans"
wrote:

Yes, Fibre Channel is the only protocol in a dedicated storage area
network. Infiniband hasn't really taken hold in the storage market and
is used more as a server to server interconnect. iSCSI is the
transmission of SCSI protocols across an IP network.

You should also bear in mind NAS - although not a SAN protocol as it is
file based rather than block based, it is another networking protocol.

Regards
Chris M Evans
www.storagewiki.com
storagearchitect.blogspot.com

wrote:
Hello,
As I understand,SAN most popular protocol today is Fibre Channel.

Less popular are iSCSI Infiniband.

Are there any other protocols apart from these for SAN ?

Is this the situation currently?

Regards,
IB


Actually, iSCSI is going great guns and is far outpacing FC as a
precentage of growth. FC definitely has the lion's share of the
market but iSCSI is taking chunks of it, not just nibbles.

Infiniband did not catch on in the past but has garnered significantly
more support with the purchase of Topspin by Cisco. Cisco will soon
be marketing an Infiniband blade in their director switches.
Also, Infiniband is great for very high performance requirements.
higher bandwidth than FC or Ethernet and lower latency. It has it's
drawbacks of course but everything does.

These are about the only SAN protocol's in use today. Myrinet is out
there but that's a very small population and not growing from what I
can see.

NAS is not a protocol, just like SAN is not a protocol. NAS uses
protocols like CIFS or NFS, whereas SAN uses FC, iSCSI, and Infiniband
(as you mentioned).
The difference between NAS and SAN is access method, block v. file.
Protocol is not a determining factor of storage network type.

~F