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Table Of Contents

Storage Concepts and Technologies

Network Attached Storage (NAS)

The term network-attached storage (NAS) refers to a storage device that is connected to a

network (usually TCP/IP) and provides remote file access service. The end hosts access the

files stored on the NAS device using common file access protocols such as NFS or CISF. To

an end host, a NAS device appears as a NFS or a Windows file server.

A NAS device is a collection of multiple physical disk drives organized into one or more

logical (potentially redundant) storage units or RAID (Redundant Array of Independent

Disks) arrays that perform as network accessible storage on the LAN.

While direct-attached storage (DAS) works well in environments with an individual server

or a limited number of servers, the situation becomes unmanageable if there are dozens of

servers or significant data growth. Storage for each server must be managed separately and

cannot be shared with DAS. Performance and scalability are often limited, and storage

resources cannot be efficiently allocated.

NAS is the most mature networked storage solution, and the type of networked storage that

allows data sharing by connected host systems. The advantage is that everyone on the

network can store files on the NAS system. Linksys NSS is a NAS system that delivers

several other ‘business-grade’ advantages, including improved scalability, reliability,

availability, and performance. The Linksys NSS device consists of an engine that implements

remote file services (NFS/CISF server) and manages all the drives on which data is stored.

LAN Infrastructure

Because throughput for a NAS system is gated by the disk read/write performance, a single

active Gigabit Ethernet link typically provides sufficient throughput capacity to address

most business requirements. However, heavy data transfers can overwhelm a LAN if

multiple systems are in use. You should understand the implications of LAN traffic on the

intended network segment, and plan to accommodate upgrades or network infrastructure

changes that might be needed to achieve best performance.

The recommended LAN infrastructure for a storage solution is to enable redundant

connections to the network so that there is no single point of failure (Figure 4):

• Connect the ports to different switches and

• Set the configuration on the NSS for “primary and backup” link operation.

NSS6xxx/4xxx

CIFS or NFS Sessions

“Network Drives”

Backup Link

No single point of failure

Primary Link

Carries active traffic