IP SAN - From iSCSI to IP-Addressable Ethernet Disks

The initial iSCSI products provide a means to connect FC SAN islands across IP networks. This paper describes the implementation of an IP-SAN where the disk subsystem is a virtual array of individually Ethernet attached IP-addressable disks. By replacing the conventional peripheral bus and loop interconnects with a switched Gigabit Ethernet network, the virtual disk array scales continually and dynamically with the simple addition of Ethernet switches and disks, as well as system-wide disk sparing and inherent high availability. In fully exploiting the IP and Ethernet technologies and user knowledge, this architecture pushes the IP SAN evolution toward a truly scalable, manageable, yet flexible and cost-effective data storage system that will be a seamless part of the networked infrastructure.