HP StorageWorks 9000s NAS 4000s and 9000s Administration Guide - Page 51

Storage Management Overview 3 The NAS server is configured at the factory with default system settings and with the NAS operating system installed. No external addressable storage is included with the NAS device. Storage is based on the SAN infrastructure and is configured using the appropriate tools for the particular SAN storage arrays in use. This chapter defines and discusses physical, logical, and snapshot storage concepts on the HP StorageWorks NAS server. Additional storage management information is included in the following chapters: ■ Chapter 4 discusses disk management procedures. ■ Chapter 5 discusses snapshot (shadow copy) management procedures. ■ Chapter 7 discusses folder and share management procedures. Storage Management Process The lowest level of storage management occurs at the physical drive level. Physical drives are grouped into arrays for better performance and fault tolerance. The arrays are then configured with RAID fault tolerance and presented to the operating system as logical drives or units, which are called LUNs. At the virtual level of storage, the WebUI is used to take the LUNs and create basic or dynamic disks, which can then be broken down into partitions or volumes. Folders, subfolders, and file shares are created on the resulting volumes or partitions to organize, store, and give access to the data. The Shadow Copy support is used to create snapshots of the data at specific times. For organizational and documentation purposes, this administration guide separates physical storage from logical storage. See Figure 23 for an illustration of these storage management elements.The MSA1000 storage and the associated Array Configuration Utility are used in the example. The Array Storage device in use will impact the devices in use and the relevant storage management software required. NAS 4000s and 9000s Administration Guide 51