SAN & NAS Protocols

Overview of Fiber Channel

Used as a data transport protocol in SANs

Maps existing interfaces to FC frames for transmission

SCSI-3 (FCP)

Fiber Channel Layers

FC-0

FC-1

FC-2

FC-3

FC-4

Application
Operating System
SCSI

HIPPI ESCON

COMMON SERVICES
FRAMING/FLOW CONTROL
ENCODE/DECODE
PHYSICAL LAYER

ATM

IP

Fiber Channel: FC-0 and FC-1

FC-0
Physical layer of the model
Defines standards
Covers media and drivers

FC-1
Transmission mechanism
8 bit data encoded into 10 bit
transmission characters
Ordered sets define types of
transmission characters
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Fiber Channel: FC-2

Transport mechanism
Data transparent to FC-2
Visible to FC-3 and above

FC-2 components
Frames
Sequences
Exchanges
Buffer credits
Topologies
Classes of services
Ports
Fiber Channel Addressing is defined

in this layer
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Classes of Services and Ports

Classes of Service

Ports

Different types of Topology

Provide the physical

independent services

connectivity

Types of Classes

Port Types

Class 1: Acknowledged

N_Port

connection oriented service.

F_Port

Class 2: Acknowledged

FL_Port

connectionless service

E_Port

Class 3: Unacknowledged

G_Port

connectionless service

Current link speeds: 1, 2

Class 4: Connection Oriented

Fractional Bandwidth

and 4 Gbps

Class F: Inter-switch
communication format

Fiber Channel Addressing

Fiber Channel Address
Used for routing of frames from source to destination
24-bit address
Dynamically assigned
Identifies the location of the device in the switch

World Wide Name (WWN)

Used to identify entities such as ports
64-bit address
Fixed factory assigned or software generated address
Made of WWPN and WWNN

Fiber Channel Topologies

Point-to-Point (P-to-P)
Devices connected directly to each

other

Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL)

Devices attached to a shared

Hub

loop
Analogous to Token Ring

FC-AL

Switched Fabric (FC-SW)

All devices connected to a Fabric

Switch Analogous to an IP

Switch

switch
Initiators have unique dedicated

I/O paths to Targets

FC-SW
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Fiber Channel: FC-3 and FC-4

FC-3
Placeholder for services such as:
Common Services
Data Striping
Mirroring
Multipathing

FC-4
Logical connection between two protocols
(ULP)
Each ULP requires a unique FC-4 mapping

What is a Fabric?
Application

Virtual space used by nodes to

communicate with each other

File System

One switch or group of switches

connected together

O/S

Routes traffic between attached

devices

SWITCH

Login Service

Component identifiers:
Domain ID
Worldwide Name (WWN)

Name Service

Fabric

Fabric Services

Host

Login service
Name service
Fabric controller
Management server

Disk
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Array

The Fabric Login Process

Fabric
Process a

F_Port
N_Port
Fabric
Login
1
Accept

F_Port
N_Port Login

N_Port
2
Fabric Login
Accept

Process x

Process b

Accept

Process y

Process c

Process Login
Accept

Process z

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Overview of iSCSI
iSCSI Initiator (Host)

Serial SCSI-3 over IP

SCSI

SCSI Commands

Block level storage (IPS)

iSCSI

iSCSI PDU

Application transparent

TCP

iSCSI
Sessions
over TCP

Uses TCP (or UDP) over IP

Standard SCSI command set

IP

iSCSI components

FC
FC
SAN
SAN

LINK

iSCSI
Target
(Storage)

Network Entity

Data link
Network Portal
And
Physical
Initiator - Software or HBA
Target - Storage port
iSCSI Node

Portal group

IP
IP
Network
Network

Internet Storage Name Server

(iSNS)
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iSCSI to FC GW

Overview of iSCSI (contd.)

iSCSI Initiators can be
Software based

FC
FC
SAN
SAN

iSCSI Initiator
(Software or ToE or
HBA)

TCP Offload Engine (ToE)

iSCSI Host Bus Adapters

iSCSI
Target

All iSCSI nodes identified by an

iSCSI name or address
IP
IP
Network
Network

iSCSI addressing
iSCSI Qualified Name (iQN)
IEEE Naming convention (EUI)

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iSCSI to FC GW

Other SAN Protocols - FCIP and iFCP

FCIP
Fiber Channel frames
encapsulated in TCP/IP packets
and sent over IP networks
Extends native FC distance
connections using existing IP
networks
Can interconnect FC switches
over TCP/IP to form a single
fabric

FC
attached Host

FC Attached
Storage Array

FC SAN
FC SAN

FC SAN
FC SAN

FCIP or iFCP
gateway

FCIP or iFCP
gateway

iFCP
Wraps FC data in IP packets
Maps IP addresses to individual
FC devices
Allows users to maintain FC
architecture while gaining
benefits of IP networks

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IP-Network
IP-Network

NAS Protocols - NFS

NFS is a Client/Server protocol for File Sharing, most commonly
used on Unix Systems.
Originally based on connectionless User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
Uses machine independent model to represent user data.
Uses Remote Procedure Call (RPC) as a method of inter-process
communications between two computers.
Uses the mount protocols to create a connection between the client
and the remote system to transfer data.
It is a stateless protocol (NFSv3 and earlier), i.e. it does not
maintain any kind of table to store information about open files &
associated pointers.
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NAS Protocols NFS (contd.)

NFS protocols provides a set of RPCs to access a remote File
System for the following operations

Searching Files and Directories

Opening, reading, writing to and closing a File.

Changing File attributes.

Modifying File Links and Directories.

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Versions of NFS Protocol

Three Versions are available:
NFS Version 2 (NFSv2)
Uses UDP to provide a stateless network connection between a client and a server.
Features such as Locking are handled outside the protocol.

NFS Version 3 (NFSv3)

Most commonly used
Uses UDP or TCP
Based on the stateless protocol design.
Includes features like,
64-bit File Size.
Asynchronous write
Additional File attributes to reduce re-fetching.

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Versions of NFS Protocol (contd.)

NFS Version 4 (NFSv4)
Uses TCP
Based on a stateless protocol design.
It offers enhanced security.

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NAS Protocols - CIFS

CIFS is a Client/Server application protocol that enables client program
to make requests for Files and services on remote computers over
TCP/IP.
It is a public/open variation of Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.
Enables remote clients to gain access to files that are on a server.
CIFS enables File Sharing with other clients by using special locks.
File names in CIFS are encoded using Unicode characters.
CIFS is a Stateful protocol; CIFS server maintains connection
information regarding every connected client.

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NAS Protocols CIFS (contd.)

In the event of Network Failure or CIFS server failure, the client
receives a disconnection notification.
User disruption is minimized if the application has embedded
intelligence to restore the connection.
CIFS provides the following features to ensure data integrity
It uses file and record locking to prevent users from over-writing the work of
another user on a file or a record.
It runs over TCP.
Supports fault tolerance and can automatically restore connections and
reopen files that were open prior to interruption.

The fault tolerance features of CIFS depend on whether an

application is written to take advantage of these features.
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NAS I/O Operations

1.

Requestor packages an I/O request into TCP/IP and forwards it through the network stack.
The NAS device receives this request from the network.

2.

NAS device converts the I/O request into an appropriate physical storage request, which is a
block-level I/O and then performs the operation against the physical storage pool.

3.

When the data is returned from the physical storage pool, the NAS device processes and
repackages the data into an appropriate File Protocol response.

4. The NAS device

packages this response
into TCP/IP again and
forward it to the client
through the Network

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Question and Answers

Thank You

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