Storage Standards Supported by the Solaris OS

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Imagine if you had to buy your storage array and server from the same manufacturer. Those of you who have been in the industry for a while remember when that was the case – you bought a computer system, server, storage, peripherals, all from one company (probably one of those three-letter companies). If you wanted to move your application to a different company's server, you had to throw out the corresponding storage array and buy a new server and storage unit.

Gradually, customers started demanding storage based on standards. This enabled a customer to find the best server and then the best storage device, and it was likely that the two would talk.

Sun has a tradition of supporting standards in all areas, including storage. In storage standards, Sun is best known for developing the Network File System (NFS), but Sun has both developed storage standards and implemented other standards in many areas.

Sun and the OpenSolaris community developers are implementing many of the new standards in the open source world on the OpenSolaris web site, which also includes implementations of most of the existing standards.

So, what standards does the Solaris OS support? While the following list doesn't include every standard, it does provide the highlights.

SCSI – Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) is a family of industry standards for communicating with peripheral devices. As of this writing, the Solaris OS supports disk, tape, CD/DVD, media changer, SCSI enclosure services (SES), and object storage device (OSD) device types. SCSI is standardized at the T10 Technical Committee web site.

Sun Common SCSI Architecture (SCSA) is the Solaris kernel programming interface to support SCSI devices. Through SCSA, third parties can support other device types, or replace Sun's support. Additionally, through SCSA, third parties can write device drivers to support new HBAs.

Fibre Channel – Fibre Channel (FC) is the dominant SCSI transport for enterprise customers. The Solaris OS includes a FC initiator in the Sun StorEdge SAN Foundation Software, commonly known as Leadville. Fibre Channel is standardized at the T11 Technical Committee web site.

iSCSI – iSCSI (Internet SCSI) is an IP-based storage networking standard that runs SCSI over TCP/IP as a transport. The Solaris OS includes an iSCSI target (an OpenSolaris project) and initiator. iSCSI is an IETF standard.

OSD – Object storage device (OSD) is a SCSI device type that allows objects to be stored. Objects may have variable length, unlike standard SCSI block devices. They may also have attributes. The OSD driver is available on OpenSolaris. OSD is standardized at the T10 Technical Committee web site.

XAM – Extensible Access Method (XAM) is an interface used especially for fixed content-aware storage. Sun is participating in developing the XAM standard with the Sun StorageTek 5800 Storage System (known as Honeycomb). XAM is standardized by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA).

NFS – Sun invented the Network File System in 1984 and currently supports NFS V4 as part of the Solaris OS. The Solaris NFS V4.1 implementation is being developed as an OpenSolaris project. NFS V4 is an IETF standard.

CIFS – Common Internet File System (CIFS) is a file sharing protocol used in Windows. A new kernel CIFS client implementation is being done as an OpenSolaris project.

MMA – Multipath Management API (MMA) is an interface that allows management applications to get status and configure multipath status. For redundancy and performance, it's useful to have more than one path to a disk. MMA is part of the Solaris OS. MMA is standardized by SNIA.

FC HBA API – This is an API that allows applications to obtain information about the Fibre Channel Host Based Adapters (HBAs) in a system. The FC HBA API, which is part of the Solaris OS, is standardized by the T10 Technical Committee.

iSNS – Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) is a name service, especially for iSCSI, that allows device access and status to be managed in one place in a SAN. The functionality is analogous to the zoning functions done by Fibre Channel switches. The Solaris iSCSI initiator currently supports iSNS, and support for this standard is planned for the iSCSI target. Sun is working on an iSNS server as an OpenSolaris project. iSNS is standardized by the IETF.

NDMP – Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) is an industry standard method for backup applications to access NAS to back up data. NDMP is implemented in the Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance. NDMP is standardized at the NDMP web site.