Dell S4148U-ON EMC Networking OS10 Enterprise Edition Storage Overview - Page 7

3 3.1 3.2 3.3 Storage foundation Elements including the storage hardware, servers, network, and the efficiency of the software, influence the storage system performance. The three main ways of connecting storage to servers are: • Direct attached storage (DAS) • Network attached storage (NAS) • Storage area network (SAN) With DAS, which is the most basic form of the three, the drive connects directly to the server and is often even in the same enclosure. SANs and NAS both separate data storage from servers which enables servers to share those resources. NAS devices have their own file system, so they work best as file servers. SANs give block-level access and appear to computers as normal drives, so they work better for applications such as databases. Direct attached storage DAS is storage that is directly attached to the computer accessing it, as opposed to storage that a NAS accesses. Hard drives, solid-state drives, optical disc drives, and storage on external drives are examples of DAS devices. A typical DAS consists of a data storage enclosure that holds several hard disk drives connected directly to a computer through a network adapter. There are no network devices like a hub, switch, or router between the two points. The main protocols that are used for DAS connections are: • ATA • SATA • NVMe • SCSI • SAS • USB • IEEE 1394 • Fibre Channel Network attached storage NAS is a dedicated networked appliance. NAS uses its own operating system, integrated hardware, and software components to provide distributed file storage to other devices on an IP network. NAS provides access to files using network file sharing protocols such as SMB or CIFS for Microsoft Windows, NFS for Linux, and AFP for Apple. The benefits of dedicated a NAS, compared to general purpose servers also serving files, include faster data access, easier administration, and simpler configuration. Today, most storage capacity sold worldwide is shipped in support of file level or unstructured data. Filebased information that does not fit efficiently in a column-and-row database, is an example of unstructured data. If you cannot fit the information neatly in a database, a file system is needed to make order sitting above the low-level disk operations. Storage area network SAN is a computer network that provides access to consolidated, block-level data storage. A SAN enhances the accessibility of storage devices, such as disk arrays and tape libraries, to servers so that the operating system recognizes the devices as locally attached devices. With the rise in unstructured data growth and file 7 Dell EMC Networking OS10 Enterprise Edition Storage Overview