Interpreting obscure storage technology abbreviations

The acronyms related to storage technology have been flying over the past few days, and more new words are emerging every day. Therefore, it is really hard to understand these little things. Today, we often receive emails from readers asking these elusive acronyms and what they mean for network storage. Sometimes it is enough for you to understand the meaning of acronyms, but sometimes it is useless to understand them. Now let's unveil the mysteries of these acronyms. This article describes fcip, IFCP, soip, NDMP, and SMI-s.

Fcip

Spelling fcip completely: fiber channel over IP (IP-based fiber channel), we can understand the meaning of this abbreviation. Fcip embodies two independent technologies to address the needs of storage networks and long-distance networks. The first element is the fiber channel, which is a forming technology suitable for storing data transmission, interoperability, and various applications in the local storage network. The second factor is Internet Protocol (IP, Internet Protocol), which is very mature and can transmit data over the WAN.

Fcip integrates the advantages of Fiber Channel and IP protocol, and connects distributed San. Fcip encapsulates the fiber channel and is transmitted through a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) interface. Fcip is seen as a tunneling protocol because it transparently connects geographically separated San over an IP network to a point-to-point connection. Fcip relies on the TCP/IP Service to establish a Remote SAN connection over a LAN, man, or WAN. TCP/IP is also responsible for managing and controlling network congestion and data error and data loss recovery.

The advantage of fcip is that it can use the TCP/IP protocol for transmission and provide excellent Fiber Channel fabric services, so that enterprises can make full use of existing technology investment, extend the fiber channel fabric on the IP-based link. In most modern network environments, IP infrastructure and specialized technologies for Managing IP components are ready.

IFCP

This abbreviation is often confused with fcip. IFCP indicates the Internet fibre channel protocol, which is different from fcip. IFCP allows enterprises to use TCP/IP to expand the fiber channel storage network on the Internet. In fcip technology, TCP is responsible for managing and controlling network congestion and Fault Detection and recovery.

The difference between the two technologies is obvious. fcip is used to expand the existing fiber channel fabric based on IP Tunnel and allow remote networking. This means that the fcip tunnel is IP-based, but the rest are fiber channel.

On the other hand, IFCP is a promising strategic technology for migrating from the current Fiber Channel San to the future IP San. IFCP gateway is a complementary or alternative product of the existing fiber channel fabrics. The company can create an IP San fabric through IFCP to reduce the number of components in the fiber channel fabric, and maximize the use of enterprise TCP/IP infrastructure.

Soip

Soip (storage over IP, IP-based storage) is another IP address storage technology, which is produced by the combination of Fiber Channel Technology and IP technology. As we mentioned earlier in IFCP and fcip, the convergence of Fiber Channel and IP technology brings about a high-availability long-distance high-performance storage solution. Soip adopts the IP-based standard protocol, including OSPF (Open Shortest Path First, Open Shortest Path First), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol ), and rip (Routing Information Protocol ).

As you imagine, soip is highly compatible with existing Ethernet infrastructure by using common IP protocols. You may want to know what is the difference between soip and other technologies (such as iSCSI). The difference lies in the IP transport protocol used. ISCSI is transmitted over TCP, while soip is over UDP ).

TCP provides connection-oriented (guaranteed) Cross-network data packet transmission, while UDP provides the best transmission mechanism for data packets. Therefore, the management cost is lower and the transmission efficiency is more effective. UDP is a connectionless protocol that does not guarantee the transmission of data packets. It is used to ensure the transmission of data packets without reliable transmission ).

Because UDP is used, soip data transmission is faster than iSCSI, but the reliability is reduced. Like other IP Storage Technologies, soip aims to use existing IP infrastructure to reduce additional hardware costs and maintenance costs.

NDMP

The last two techniques we will talk about here are NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol, Network Data Management Protocol) and SMI-S (Storage Management Initiative specification, Storage Management Plan Specification ). At present, the network environment is becoming more and more heterogeneous. The network is full of hardware and software from many vendors, and the operating system is constantly upgraded, the backup media technologies and devices used in the network have become diverse.

In such an environment, data backup and storage become a nightmare for management personnel, because every software and hardware backup product interacts with various applications in different ways. NDMP aims to simplify these heterogeneous environments and improve interoperability. In a typical backup configuration, a backup occurs from the server to the backup device, and the backup software controls and manages the entire process. Some software vendors also use their own protocols to control the transmission of backup data.

In the NDMP backup configuration, regardless of the backup device or hardware or software configuration, the backup data flows from the server to the backup device through a public interface. NDMP is an open network protocol that effectively standardizes various functional interfaces in backup and Storage Processes.

Based on the client/server architecture, NDMP consists of three independent components: NDMP host, NDMP client, and NDMP server. The NDMP host is the basic device for storing raw data. The NDMP server runs on the NDMP host and controls NDMP operations. The NDMP client controls the Backup management software of the NDMP server.

If you want to learn more about NDMP and NDMP technical indicators, visit the NDMP website www.ndmp.org.

SMI-S

SMI-S is also a relatively new technology, but people think it will become an important part of managing heterogeneous computing environments. SMI-S developed by the Storage Networking Industry Association (snia), based on CIM (common interface model, common interface model) and WBEM (Web-Based Enterprise Management, web-Based Enterprise Management ). The main function of SMI-S is to simplify the management of complex storage network through the integration and interoperability of hardware and software.

The SMI-S manages heterogeneous storage networks from one center without having to manage each device through a separate management system. The advantage is that enhanced interoperability allows companies to buy SMI-S San devices from any vendor without worrying about whether the devices they buy can work with other manufacturers' products.