Performance Support

Storage: Network Attached Storage (NAS)

Transcript
Network Attached Storage or NAS is the topic of our discussion. What is a NAS? At a high level NAS is a file level data storage device connected directly to a TCP/ P co!puter network for the purpose of providing data access and file storage to one or a group of co!puters. NAS effectively replaces one or !ore file servers "y providing the central storage locations for user data. NAS devices are !anufactured as co!puter appliances. They#re speciali$ed co!puter syste!s specifically "uilt for storing and serving files. The NAS device is !ade up of speciali$ed co!puter and one or !ore disk drives typically tens or even hundreds. As of %&'& NAS devices are gaining popularity as a convenient !ethod of sharing files a!ong !ultiple co!puters. When co!pared to file servers NAS typically provides faster data access( easier ad!inistration( and si!ple configuration. )et*s take a closer look at NAS. +irst of all( a NAS is not a network itself( "ut is si!ply a device that connects to an e,isting co!puter network. )ike any client co!puter or server that we want to co!!unicate with( accessing data storage fro! NAS is done over the P network using file level protocols. So the co!puters and servers do not appear to have the data storage availa"le to the! locally( "ut instead they access the data as a file share. )ike shown in the diagra! here( where you*ve got a Windows !achine and a !ap drive to an apps device which is the NAS. n the diagra! here( we clarify this concept a "it further. +irst let*s start off with what we understand as a )ocal Area Network or )AN. We connect our co!puters and servers with patch ca"les to -thernet switches to connect over the network. Now let*s add the NAS storage devices that we want to access fro! the servers. n NAS we do not re.uire any further co!ponents to e,pand or separate the network( the NAS devices connect like all of the other co!puters to the sa!e network. /y creating file shares on the NAS devices the!selves co!puters are a"le to !ount and connect to shares and read and write data. NAS syste!s are network storage appliances which contain one or !ore hard drives often arranged into logical redundant storage containers array groups. Network attached storage re!oves the responsi"ility of file serving fro! other servers on the network. All of the processing and storage is handled "y the NAS device itself. They typically provide access to files using network file sharing protocols such as N+S( C +S( or others. That is Network Attached Storage( thanks for watching.

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