Basic Concepts of Storage Protocols (II)

Hello, everyone!

What are the basic concepts of storage protocols? In this post, we systematically describe some basic concepts of storage.

RAID

The term RAID was invented by David Patterson, Garth A. Gibson, and Randy Katz at the University of California, Berkeley in 1987. It combines multiple independent physical disks into a virtual logical disk using related algorithms to provide larger capacity, higher performance, and better error tolerance capabilities.

RAID Related Posts:

RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10

https://forum.huawei.com/enterprise/en/raid-0-raid-1-raid-5-raid-6-and-raid-10/thread/689571-891

Basic Knowledge of RAID

https://forum.huawei.com/enterprise/en/basic-knowledge-of-raid/thread/632243-895

What is RAID 2.0+

https://forum.huawei.com/enterprise/en/what-is-raid-2-0/thread/523915-891

LUN

One or multiple logical volumes can be created for RAID based on the specified capacity. A logical volume is identified by logical unit number (LUN).

Multipathing

To prevent single points of failure, the high-reliability system provides redundancy backup for devices that may encounter single points of failure. Path redundancy is also included. 

The multipathing technology can be used to ensure reliable use of redundant paths. This technology automatically and transparently transfers I/O flows to other available paths, ensuring effective and reliable transmission of I/O flows.

File System

File system: refers to a data structure and a data management mode when files are stored on disks. Therefore, it is necessary to correlate sectors so that data on disks can be accessed. In other words, a logical data storage structure must be established. A file system is used to establish such data storage structure. Generally, the process of creating file systems on disks is called formatting.

Local File System

File systems and application programs are on a same server.

Network File System

NFS and CIFS are universal network file systems. These systems can be used to implement file sharing between heterogeneous platforms.

CIFS

The Common Internet File System (CIFS) is a mainstream share file system developed by Microsoft for serving heterogeneous platforms and is mainly applied in Windows. Client systems use the TCP or IP protocol to request file access services from server systems over a network. CIFS share authentication provides two types of shared file access permissions: user and Active Directory Server (ADS). 

The CIFS normal share means that the file system is shared as a directory and all users can access the directory. The CIFS homedir share is a file sharing mode provided by file engines. The CIFS homedir share only allows a user to access the directory named with the user name and each user can only access a directory that belongs to the user's directory.

NFS

Network File System (NFS) is a distributed file system protocol. 

It allows a user on a client computer to access files over a computer network much like local storage is accessed. NFS, like many other protocols, builds on the Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call (ONC RPC) system. The NFS is an open standard defined in a Request for Comments (RFC), allowing anyone to implement the protocol.

IOPS

Input/output operations per second (IOPS), that is, read and write operations (I/Os) per second, is a performance index in evaluating the random access performance of databases. The IOPS is a standard for measuring the performance of a SAN storage system. A larger IOPS indicates better performance.

SPC is an internationally recognized authoritative, third-party, and nonprofit storage performance test organization. Currently, vendors in the storage industry, such as Huawei, IBM, HP, Sun, HDS, and Dell, are important members of SPC. SPC-1 is an industry-recognized storage performance benchmark test standard launched by SPC. SPC-1 simulates database OLTP applications and email system applications to measure the IOPS of SAN storage systems.

OPS

Operations Per Second (OPS) is the number of times that NFS and CIFS are responded to per second. It is mainly used in file system scenarios to measure file access performance. The OPS is a standard for measuring the performance of a SAN storage system. A larger OPS indicates better performance.

SPEC is an international authoritative organization for evaluating system application performance. SPECsfs2008 is a core benchmark released by SPEC for file service applications. It measures the file access throughput and response time and provides a standard evaluation method for comparing the performance of file servers from different vendors. Nearly 20 mainstream NAS manufacturers have verified the performance of core products based on this benchmark.

More information: 

Basic Concepts of Storage Protocols (I)