SAN vs. NAS

2. More on SAN vs. NAS - FAQs

After I published my article "SAN vs. NAS - What are they and how do you manipulate them in Exchange" (please see here), I received a lot of feedbacks. Most of them are asking for opinions, I can't reply them one by one, so I publish them here: ( Please see other FAQs here)

 II.  Q: I am a Exchange Administrator, I need a expandable space to put my Information Store. The SAN seems a right solution for my need. Can I put my Information Store in the SAN? What's your opinion?

        A: Yes, you can. But, I wouldn't recommend it. 

             At first, SAN seems really the good solution for Information Store - it is expandable, it is fast, it is reliable. The only problem is Microsoft does not explicitly announce to support SAN in its Exchange product. Remember what is SAN, it is a separate Network from your existing network, and as I mentioned in my previous article, it is still under developing. A major software company told me that they would announce a SAN support and management software at earliest in February, 2001. 

             Let's see what Microsoft does to manipulate SAN: they use SAN as on-disk backup and restore device for its Information Stores. 

             This is also my recommendation -- use SAN as your on-disk disaster recovery tool, it is so much faster than tapes.

Go Home