Research And Implementation Of IP SAN Based On ISCSI

With the explosive increase of data in network, SAN (Storage Area Network) has come into the phase of application as one of the important solutions to network storage. The traditional SAN mainly bases on FC (Fibre Channel) protocol, and has some disadvantages such as short distance, high cost and complex design. But now IP protocol has developed fully and reached maturity. Therefore how to utilize IP technology to improve or replace FC is becoming a hot issue in the field of network storage. Constructing IP SAN with iSCSI has been the important solution to network storage.Firstly, the concept of network storage is introduced and the advantages of SAN in the area of network are analyzed in the thesis.Then the iSCSI protocol which works in SAN is studied and analyzed in several aspects, such as the architecture of protocol session management, naming and discovery, PDU, error recovery and security mechanism. Furthermore, two main implementations of the iSCSI protocol by means of software and hardware are introduced and compared. The implementation of the IP SAN by way of software based on the iSCSI is studied according to the above analysis. In addition, the principle and the implement of iSCSI initiator and target in Linux are interpreted in the thesis. The IP SAN is constructed successfully and uses the IPSec technology to assure the security of the system. At last, the function, performance, and the security of IP SAN are tested by IOMeter, the results are analyzed and some ideas are proposed to improve the system.