Storage Area Networks and the High Performance Storage System

摘要

The High Performance Storage System (HPSS) is a mature Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) system that was developed around a network-centered architecture, with client access to storage provided through third-party controls. Because of this design, HPSS is able to leverage today's Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructures to provide cost effective, large-scale storage systems and high performance global file access for clients. Key attributes of SAN file systems are found in HPSS today, and more complete SAN file system capabilities are being added. This paper traces the HPSS storage network architecture from the original implementation using HIPPI and IPI-3 technology, through today's local area network (LAN) capabilities, and to SAN file system capabilities now in development. At each stage, HPSS capabilities are compared with capabilities generally accepted today as characteristic of storage area networks and SAN file systems.