Design and implementation of a new special storage server

To improve I/O speed and system performance of network storage devices, a special storage server that is an iSCSI-based network-attached storage server (iSCSI-based network-attached storage server, for short iNAS) is designed. The iNAS can provide both the file I/O and the block I/O services by an iSCSI module, and it converges with the NAS and the SAN (storage area network). The iNAS improves the I/O speed by the direct data access (zero copy) between the RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) controller and the user-level memory. The iNAS integrates the multi-RAID for a single storage pool by a multi-stage stripping device driver, and it implements the storage virtualization. In the experiments, the iNAS has ultra-high-throughput for both the file I/O requests and the block I/O requests.

NAS应用生机勃勃

在数字化信息的时代,商业数据能否安然无恙地畅通于网络,关系着企业发展的命脉。如果数据出现“短路”,那简直就是灾难降临。轻者损失几十万,重者则企业倒闭。数据存储的详与简、精与劣将影响企业的良性发展,数据已经是取得竞争优势的战略性资产的一部分。随着网络的不断深入,设备不断增多,网络存储日益成为人们必不可少的产品,它将与网络安全一样,成为网络的最核心部分。