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Keeping the acronyms straight….
Can someone out there explain how the following terms relate to one another?
SCSI
iSCSI
Fibre Channel
SASHere is my understanding of things:
SCSI is a standard use to allow computers to communicate with peripheral devices (mainly tape drives and storage, but can also include devices such as scaners, CD-ROM, etc).
iSCSI is is used by a host to communicate with a server, which then communicates with the storage array to retrieve the requested info. This is done over a TCP/IP network.
FC is another protocol that is used by devices in a SAN to communicate with each other via fiber optics.
SAS – not sure what this is, other than “serial attached SCSI”.
Is what I said above accurate?
How do these protocols interoperate/interact with on another? I recall reading something about FC carrying SCSI commands. Does SAS also carry SCSI (or iSCSI) commands?
Are SAS and FC considered “carriers” that proivde some type of transport mechanism for SCSI.
Thanks,
Tom
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1 Reply
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[Tom Elgin] “SCSI
iSCSI
Fibre Channel
SAS”SCSI == Small Computer Systems Interface
iSCSI == Internet Small Computer Systems interface (SCSI being sent over a TCP/IP network)
Fibre Channel (intentionally misspelled to differentiate from “fiber” as in ethernet fiber) == A special super awesome layers 1-3 designed to move SCSI commands better than IP.
SAS == Serial attached scsi. (So you don’t have to have big fat 50 pin centronix connectors anymore)AOE == ata over ethernet. Unlike Fibre Channel (the most expensive protocol over the most expensive network) they attempted to make something that was the cheapest storage protocol over the cheapest network.
FCoE == Fibre channel protocol running over layer 1 and 2 of eithernet with a special layer 3. (so there’s no TCP involved). We have these drivers now and expect targets next quarter.
Steve
Steve Modica
CTO, Small Tree Communications
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