Simply put, NAS devices are highly tuned and optimized file storage devices. HP's NAS devices have been developed to be installed in minutes and to share files with most clients straight out of the box using standard protocols, services, and file systems. These client devices simply access the additional shared disk space on the NAS appliance through any existing network connection.
Many refer to NAS systems as ready-to-run storage because all of the necessary software and drivers are pre-installed, eliminating the need for all but basic setup during installation.
Sometimes, NAS can be confused with SAN (or Storage Area Networks). A SAN solution provides an organization with the ability to pool storage and allocate it according to the storage requirements of the servers participating in that pool. This pooling provides a great deal of flexibility, such as allocating storage where it is needed rather than buying more devices. It also involves a sound understanding of storage growth and management requirements as well as a dedicated storage network.
NAS, on the other hand, can be used on existing networks to provide access to shared storage to clients and servers. Clients will typically store file information like images, documents, and spreadsheets that many will want to access and share. Servers utilize NAS primarily for housing backups, storing patches/updates, and for other data that may not be accessed continually.
NAS versus SAN
As highlighted earlier, SAN storage typically provides for applications' capacity and performance requirements running on a dedicated infrastructure versus NAS functionality designed to optimize clients' file sharing
The following table includes an at-a-glance comparison of the two:
NAS
SAN
Type of data
Shared files
Block level data: e.g., databases
Cabling used
Existing Ethernet LAN
Dedicated Fibre Channel, iSCSI, SATA
Primary Users
End-use clients
Application servers
Disk access
Through NAS appliance
Direct access
For most businesses, NAS solutions consolidate extended storage for application servers and the data they manage, as well as for networked clients. Many IT environments deploy both SAN and NAS solutions together. You will learn more about the benefits and characteristics of NAS/SAN combinations later in this guide.
Is NAS right for you?
NAS solutions can deliver immediate benefits to those organizations that:
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Need to share images, documents, multimedia files, and spreadsheets
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Seek to reduce time and staffing requirements for deploying, managing, monitoring shared storage requirements especially associated with file and print serving needs
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Need to consolidate your DAS solution from disparate locations that are under-utilizing capacities or performance
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Use systems from multiple vendors but who wish to stop adding storage for each one separately
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Require flexible and scalable storage that can grow to meet business requirements
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Want to increase the effectiveness of your IT investments
Components of a NAS solution
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Three core features define a NAS solution and provide basic functionality:
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The operating system: A crucial element of any NAS system, the operating system directly affects the NAS performance and ease of deployment. All HP NAS solutions run on trusted Microsoft Windows Storage Server and are tuned and pre-configured to increased cost-effective file-sharing.
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User interface and management: You can manage any of HP's NAS solutions from any standard Web browser. You can also turn your server on or off using Integrated Lights Out (iLo) with the HP iLo Advanced Pack, allowing you to perform basic management tasks like rebooting a server from anywhere. HP NAS also includes tools for setting directory quotas content filtering and reporting to ensure the proper data access for the proper users.
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Universal protocol support: All HP NAS solutions come pre-configured to communicate via many file protocols like those from Windows, NetWare, Linux/Unix, and Apple clients, all without any hidden software licensing requirements or additional setup. The appliances include native support for WebDAV, HTTP, and FTP, for access from the Internet, as well as on the LAN.
HP's NAS solutions deliver these three areas of functionality simply, affordably and reliably. Later in this guide, you will learn how to build your NAS solution with HP as your partner.
NAS solutions have distinct advantages. They offer better performance than Direct Attached Storage, they are simple and economical, they work well in a multi-OS environment, and they provide on-demand assignment of storage to clients. If you build on an open standard, NAS scales up easily from small business on through the enterprise, and you'll experience a lower TCO.
Combining NAS and SAN
In some organizations that have rapidly growing data requirements or desire the benefits that SAN technology can offer, it is possible to combine the two technologies and gain the advantage of both. A typical NAS/SAN hybrid solution is a NAS gateway with a SAN. The SAN stores file data and provide access to that data via a NAS gateway. The gateway has no on-board storage of its own; but instead it connects to a SAN and acts as a translator between the file-level NAS protocols, such as NFS and CIFS, and the block-level SAN protocols like Fibre Channel and iSCSI. This hybrid combines the advantages of both technologies including
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Combine superior performance and reliability of a SAN with simplicity of a NAS
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Enables re-allocating storage needs between NAS and SAN for true 'shared storage' across the IT infrastructure
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Allows backing up NAS applications through the SAN gateway
However, in building a combined NAS/SAN infrastructure, there will be more complexity and management to ensure your organization is getting the most out of its investment. Many organizations will assign the storage management duties to team members that are trained in this more complicated configuration.
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