Network Appliance (NetApp) is the leader in providing network attached storage (NAS) solutions and has been building fast, simple and reliable storage subsystems since 1992. The NetApp Filers are easy to manage, utilize standard and mature network protocols, support multiple operating systems, and are built on a highly reliable and proven platform. NetApp has developed its own file system and sophisticated data management software, the most notable being its snapshot capability.
NetApp has recently added support of the iSCSI protocol across all of their product lines so that nearly every Filer deployed in the field, and all systems being shipped today, can use the block-based SCSI protocol over existing commodity Ethernet networks. As of the writing of this report, NetApp provides their Filer-side iSCSI target license free of charge to customers. NetApp customers can try out and deploy iSCSI on a cost free basis.
The use of iSCSI extends the simplicity and reliability of NetApp Filers to support applications that traditionally use block-based storage (e.g. databases and email). iSCSI support should be particularly compelling to IT organizations that:
- Have concerns around the costs and complexities of deploying and managing Fibre Channel (FC) SANs.
- Haven’t deployed FC SANs.
- Haven’t extended their existing FC SANs to encompass all of their application servers.
- Are evaluating a tiered storage strategy and migrating less important, least access data onto less expensive and easier to manage storage systems.
Why not just store everything using NAS? Why did NetApp bother to support iSCSI and block-based storage? NAS is effective for file sharing but isn’t always the best solution for storing database or email data. NAS is an application that uses highlevel protocols to transfer data while database and email applications use the lower-level block-based SCSI protocol. Storing data onto NAS adds an additional layer that results in simplifying the storage management process. However simplification does not come without a cost ?C and that cost is often a performance hit due to the high-level NAS protocol.
By combining both NAS and block-based storage onto one platform enables the customer to choose which protocol is best-suited for their needs.
NetApp has combined CIFS, NFS, FCP SAN and iSCSI SAN within their Filer products in order to support all applications and data types within one platform. Using the same Filer, Ethernet network, and storage capacity, a customer can have world-class NAS for file sharing and iSCSI SAN support for applications such as databases and email, and manage it all as one system. NetApp has focused on ease of use and integrated management and is in a unique position, since their customers have been using NetApp products for IP storage for over a decade.
