# NAS/SAN emulation

## Adel Ahmed

I work in Backup and recovery, I would like to implement the following for educational purpose:

- NAS storage

- SAN storage

what software is out there to help me emulate the above? if there is no s/w, what is the cheapest way to implement?

for example, I wnated to work on tape libraries, so I got VTL software, what can I do for the above?

thanks

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## ct85711

well, the NAS part is easy enough by it's self, as that can be done through samba, or through nfs.

SAN on the other hand could maybe be emulated  through a series of VM's, but I am unsure of any packages that would do the manager side right off hand.  Big thing to note, is emulating a SAN is not going to be a easy task, nor will you see the proper performance like an actual one.  Here's a crude representation of a SAN...

```

            Main Network

                    | 

             San Manager

                    |

             SAN Storage Array (multiple NAS arrayed together)

```

The key being is the SAN Manager/controller is the only one that has access to the SAN storage, and all requests have to go through the controller.

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## szatox

SAN is also easy.

You will find initiator's code in kernel's sources. You need some CLI to let you control it (e.g. open-iscsi) and target daemon backing your virtual drive created by initiator with some actual storage.

There is iscsitarget in portage, though it requires some ancient kernel. I'm pretty sure there is more up-to-date daemon as well. 

This set is going to make a fine start. You can use it in a virtual environment on top of your own box.

The primary difference between SAN and NAS is that SAN provides block-level access (usually via SCSI tuneled over some transport layer), and NAS provides file level access (usually with both NFS and CIFS). NAS working with copper and SAN working with fiber is just a minor implementation detail.

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## Adel Ahmed

I apreciate your responses, thanks.

I was looking for the minor implementation details to go through my backup documentation, I work as a TSM technical specialist and I wanted to implement backup for SAN storage(FC is important here) and for NAS via the NDMP protocol.

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