Designing Storage Area Networks: A Practical Reference for Implementing Fibre Channel and IP SANs (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Tom Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0321136500 | ISBN-13: 978-0321136503 | Edition: 2

This is a fully updated revision of Designing Storage Area Networks. It collapses or removes dated material from the original edition and adds new content, particularly in the area of Fibre Channel fabrics, IP SANs and storage virtualization. Storage area networks are now recognized as the preferred solution for fulfilling a wide range of critical data storage needs for institutions and enterprises. The success of SANs in establishing real end-user value is affirmed by the adoption of the technology by all major solution providers as their flagship server and storage offerings. IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun, Dell and others now provide certified SAN configurations for performance, high availability and backup of storage data, while storage vendors such as EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, XIOtech and others offer SAN interfaces on their premier products. While the current market penetration of SAN-based solutions is only 20% of the total storage market, SANs are expected to capture the majority of the market within a few years.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Designing Storage Area Networks, Second Edition, succinctly captures the key technologies that are driving the storage networking industry. Tom Clark's works are helping to educate the IT community to the benefits and challenges of shared storage and are recommended reading for anyone wishing to understand this exciting new technology."

—Sheila Childs, VP Product Management, Legato Systems Chairperson, SNIA

Fibre Channel SANs have become a mainstay at the backend of the biggest corporations on the planet. The second edition of Designing Storage Area Networks brings the next wave of connection (IP) points and management into context, helping the user to quickly understand all the benefits before them."

—Steve Duplessie, Founder and Senior Analyst, Enterprise Storage Group

Designing Storage Area Networks, Second Edition, provides a practical roadmap through the ever-changing landscape of SAN technology. The new Fibre Channel, IP, and virtualization initiatives covered in this work will enable customers to implement comprehensive shared storage solutions that reduce management overhead and cost."

—John Webster, Founder and SeniorAnalyst, Data Mobility Group

Storage Area Networks (SANs) are now recognized as the preferred solution for fulfilling institutions' and enterprises' critical data-storage needs. Whether powered by Fibre Channel or TCP/IP and Gigabit Ethernet technology, SANs far exceed the capabilities of traditional storage access methods. SANs are quickly becoming the solution of choice for organizations that require high-volume data-handling capacity.

Written for network developers, IT consultants, administrators, and managers, this updated and greatly expanded edition of the best-selling Designing Storage Area Networks goes far beyond a straight description of technical specifications and standards. The text offers practical guidelines for using diverse SAN technologies to solve existing networking problems in large-scale corporate networks. With this book you will learn how the technologies work and how to organize their components into an effective, scalable design. In doing so, you will discover today's best methods for managing storage area networks, including new troubleshooting techniques.

Designing Storage Area Networks, Second Edition, also features detailed case studies that demonstrate how SANs can solve a number of commonly encountered business challenges, including LAN-free and server-free tape backup, server clustering, and disaster recovery. As an information-systems professional, you must keep pace with this powerful, evolving technology.

Key topic coverage includes:

Using the SNIA Shared Storage Model

Fibre Channel layers and protocols

Fabrics and fabric switches

Host bus adapters

Fibre Channel RAID and Fibre Channel JBODs

iSCSI and IP storage protocols and products

SAN management and problem isolation techniques

Building extended SANs for data center and remote storage access

0321136500B02242003

About the Author

Tom Clark is Director of Technical Marketing for Vixel Corporation, a manufacturer of Fibre Channel transceivers, hubs, fabric switches, and SAN management software. During his 15-year career in system engineering, he has gained extensive experience in data communications and internetworking, has published numerous articles on Fibre Channel technology, and has presented papers at several conferences, including Fibre Channel Technologies Conference and Expo.

0321136500AB12242002

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (March 31, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321136500
• ISBN-13: 978-0321136503
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Computers & Technology > Hardware > Microprocessors & System Design
  • #75 in Books > Computers & Technology > Hardware > Design & Architecture

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very detailed description of SAN technology, November 16, 2003

By 

mikem0218 "mikem0218" (Cortlandt Manor, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Designing Storage Area Networks: A Practical Reference for Implementing Fibre Channel and IP SANs (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This was a very good overview of the many varied components and technologies that make up a storage area network. It goes into a lot of detail about things like standards, protocols, speeds, etc. If you want to understand the differences between iSCSI and FCIP, for example, this is the book for you. The word "Reference" in the subtitle is accurate. It's not a guide on how to administer a SAN day-to-day in the real-world; it's about the concepts and details of what a SAN really is. The writing style is a little dry, but I didn't expect it to be a page-turner. My only disappointment was when I realized that over 1/4 of the book is devoted to appendices, glossary and index instead of written content.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understand technology behind without reading T11 standards, March 4, 2005

By 

V. G. Done "[e-mail]" (The Hague. The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Designing Storage Area Networks: A Practical Reference for Implementing Fibre Channel and IP SANs (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This book is quite dry, no question about that, but not as dry as the standards published by organizations in charge with Fibre Channel standards. Yet, as a SAN designer or SAN administrator you can find in it all the information you need to understand the inner details of a Loop Insertion Primitive or how an Alternate buffer-to-buffer credit model works. Compared with other books on the subject is remarcably error free and I was nicely impressed by Mr. Clark's considerations upon what should be the customer' role in steering vendors in developing products that are more open and interoperate better.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed and well written yet still consice and compact, December 22, 2009

By 

madc - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Designing Storage Area Networks: A Practical Reference for Implementing Fibre Channel and IP SANs (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This is the kind of book that will give a solid foundation on storage concepts like iSCSI, iFCP, FCIP, SAN. It's not super detailed like reading standards documents. What I really liked on this book is the way it was written, it is very clear and easy to understand especially for a beginner or an IP network guy like me.