Storage Area Network

A Storage Area Network (SAN) is a hardware device that contains a large number of fast disks, such as Solid-State Drives (SSDs), and is isolated from the LAN as it has its own network. A SAN typically has Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) (https://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/host-bus-adapter) and switches (https://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/switch) attached to storage arrays and servers. The disks are set up with some form of redundancy, such as RAID 5 and upward, so that the storage space is redundant. Each switch and storage system on the SAN must be interconnected, and the physical interconnections must support bandwidth levels that can adequately handle peak data activities. There are two connection types:

Figure 16: Storage area network

Each switch and storage system on the SAN must be interconnected, and the physical interconnections...