Introduction
to network-attached storage
Network-attached storage along with storage area networks (SANs)
are increasingly important as enterprise storage solutions. SANs are
optimized for high-volume block-oriented data transfers, while NAS
provides storage services for applications that access data at the
file level. Network-attached storage systems include centrally managed
servers and an operating system that is optimized for fast file access
and heterogeneous file sharing over an IP network.
NAS provides
facilities for high availability, rapid recovery, data protection,
ease of management, and data backup and recovery. NAS is typically
implemented for messaging, development applications, business and
regulatory compliance, and general file sharing. NAS is flexible and
extensible, allowing for the addition of storage devices to a network,
as needed.
A NAS system includes a network server, file servers,
and software for configuring and mapping file locations to the network-attached
devices. Each NAS device is attached to a local area network (typically,
an Ethernet network) and assigned an IP address. The storage system
may be a separate back-end system connected either logically or physically
to the NAS system.
A NAS system discovers Control Station as
a host through SNMP and gets information on file servers using HTTP
adapter. A logical entity called NASChassis will PackageSystem host
and fileservers.