SAN refers to the regional storage network, which needs to be connected by optical fiber, and the operation mode of the SAN mainly depends on the hardware. The structure of the SAN allows any server to connect to any storage array so that the server can directly access the data it needs no matter where it is located. Due to the optical fiber interface, the SAN also has a higher bandwidth.

The SAN solution is to separate the storage function from the basic function, so there is no need to consider their impact on the overall performance of the network to run the backup operation. The SAN solution also simplifies management and centralized control, especially when all storage devices are clustered together. Next, ETU-LINK will introduce how to use 8G SFP+ FC optical modules to build a SAN storage network.

The composition of a SAN network is mainly composed of servers, Fibre Channel switches, storage devices, and transmission carriers. The SAN network adopts Fibre Channel technology, which is connected to the storage array and server host through optical switches to establish a dedicated data storage area network. If multiple servers and storage arrays are not involved, you can directly connect the server to the storage device.

The server has an extended PCI-E bus interface. We need to insert an 8G HBA fiber optic network card in the PCI-E slot, and then insert 8G FC SFP+ optical modules into the HBA fiber optic network card and the fiber channel switch, and then use duplex LC Fiber optic patch cords to connect the devices at both ends. The connection diagram is shown below:

Because the SAN network uses optical fiber transmission, it can realize long-distance device interconnection. At this time, we can select the corresponding optical module according to the approximate transmission distance of the device. The 8G FC SFP+ optical module of ETU-Link can support 300m, 2km, 10km, 40km, 80km. The 8G optical module with a transmission distance of 300m needs to be used with OM3 multimode fiber patch cords, while the 8G optical module with a transmission distance of 2km-80km needs to be used with OS2 single-mode fiber patch cords.

The advantage of using a SAN network is that the transmission speed is fast, and it can be backed up and archived for multiple or remote sites, which makes it very easy to realize physically separated storage that is not in the computer room.