SAN Management
SAN Management is the top layer. It is responsible for
assigning the required access for each server to each storage
device. The unit of storage is the LUN (Logical Unit Number)
which acts the same as a single disk directly attached to the
server. In reality, a LUN is made up of portions of a number of
disks under the direction of a RAID controller in the storage
device. SAN Management typically requires a process running
on each managed server communicating with the manager
running on the administering station.
Storage Management
The Storage Management layer, or RAID manager, is the layer
that communicates with the RAID controllers on the storage
device. This is the layer used to create, modify or delete LUNs.
The Storage Management layer may provide SAN Management
functions, but only for the specific storage device being
managed. Storage management typically runs on a server
attached to the storage device (in-band) but may also run over a
network (out-of-band).
Path Management
Path Management includes a variety of software for managing
the various fibre channel components such as HBAs (Host Bus
Adapters), hubs and switches. It is used to display path status
and allow control over multiple paths between servers and
storage. To avoid having to access a large number of unrelated
software interfaces, integration of the various Path Management
components is usually done using a management tool
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