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By W. Curtis Preston
February 2002
Pages: 222
ISBN 10: 0-596-00153-3 |
ISBN 13: 9780596001537
(Average of 2 Customer Reviews)
Storage Area Networks (SANs) and Network Attached Storage (NAS) allow organizations to manage and back up huge file systems quickly. W. Curtis Preston's insightful book takes you through the ins and outs of building and managing large data centers using SANs and NAS. Whether you're a seasoned storage administrator or a network administrator charged with taking on this role, you'll find all the information you need to make informed architecture and data management decisions.
Full Description
As a network administrator you're aware that multi-terabyte data stores are common and petabyte data stores are starting to appear. Given this much data, how do you ensure that it is available all the time, that access times and throughput are reasonable, and that the data can be backed up and restored in a timely manner? SANs and NAS provide solutions that help you work through these problems, with special attention to the difficulty of backing up huge data stores.
This book explains the similarities and differences of SANs and NAS to help you determine which, or both, of these complementing technologies are appropriate for your network. Using SANs, for instance, is a way to share multiple devices (tape drives and disk drives) for storage, while NAS is a means for centrally storing files so they can be shared. Preston exams each technology with a vendor neutral approach, starting with the building blocks of a SAN and how they can be assembled for effective storage solutions. He covers day-to-day management and backup and recovery for both SANs and NAS in detail.
Whether you're a seasoned storage administrator or a network administrator charged with taking on this role, you'll find all the information you need to make informed architecture and data management decisions. The book fans out to explore technologies such as RAID and other forms of monitoring that will help complement your data center. With an eye on the future, other technologies that might affect the architecture and management of the data center are explored. This is sure to be an essential volume in any network administrator's or storage administrator's library.
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Book details
First Edition: February 2002
ISBN: 0-596-00153-3
Pages: 222
Average Customer Reviews: (Based on 2 Reviews)
Featured customer reviews
Using SANs and NAS Review, March 13 2002
These book, helps me to build a small SAN with an backup-Solution.
Using SANs and NAS Review, March 12 2002
The most complete treatment of the subject for network administrators that I've found. Better than Tom Clark's "Designing Storage Area Networks" (which is still very good and worth getting), because the information is more hands-on practical.
Author W. Curtis Preston's writing is very clear, and friendly to boot. You get the feeling you're working with an old hand who's showing you the ropes of this technology. Preston's diagrams are first rate, and his comments on industry hype fun to read. The multitude of practical technical tips are priceless.
Preston provides deep coverage of backup and recovery -- issues often glossed over by vendors and other technical treatments. For example, many storage network users are shocked to learn during a catastrophe that their carefully-backed-up data will take hours or days to restore. Preston's careful design advice helps you avoid such pitfalls.
In contrast, Clark's "Designing Storage Area Networks" focuses on the low-level technical details of storage network hardware and protocols, saying little about day-to-day management.
The books are inexpensive; I recommend you buy both. But if you can only buy one, Preston's is it.
Media reviews
"The book takes you through the ins and outs of building and managing large data centers using SANs and NAS."
--www.enterprisestorageforum.com, Feb 2002
"I can say this book is a must for any person engaged in storage administration."
--Virantha Mendes ,news@uk, June 2002
"If you want to know the ins and outs of these two systems, and their respective strengths and weaknesses, 'Using SANS and NAS' is probably the only resource that brings all the necessary information together in one place...very well presented, this is about practical issues and not about programming. An important resource for network and data storage administrators."
--Major Keary, Book News, 2002 No 6
"I would recommend this book to anyone considering purchasing a SAN or NAS solution."
--Lee R. Chikasue, Williamsburg Macromedia User Group, April 30, 2002
"Preston wrote the book as a help for storage administrators, and he has succeeded wonderfully...The book offers a welcome and clear view on a technology that is still subject to a lot of hyped characteristics. Vendors of NAS and SAN solutions are fighting not only for market share, but especially for mindshare. Nevertheless, as Preston's book clearly shows, both technologies have their own merits and should be carefully weighed against each other. And once the choice has been made, managing these environments is not an easy task, either. Preston's book is a good reference for the buying process as well as everything that follows."--Erik Vlietinck, http://it-enquirer.com/, April 2002
"Author W. Curtis Preston has written a delightful book on SAN and NAS that can be read on many levels. It earns the 'delightful' moniker because, unlike most computer books, it is not hard to understand, poorly organized, or geared to a small section of readers presumed to know 90% of what the author fails to say, explain or put into perspective. Even more encouraging is the fact that the author is not a cheerleader for SAN or NAS technologies. Oh sure, he says they're both useful and promising--and step by step tells how to use them--but he also cautions that SANs and NAS carry a lot of new baggage: greater complexities and configuration challenges...In sum, if you need a good guide on how to employ a SAN or NAS, or just what questions to ask the vendors of these products, read 'Using SANs and NAS'."--Storage Magazine, April 2002
