Generally, NAS devices are used for file
server storage, not any sort of transactional database system.
CHAPTER 10 n HARDWARE CONSIDERATIONS 254
I would personally only involve a NAS device in a backup process, probably just to
store backup files. If they are on the same network backbone as your database server,
they will hopefully have a reliable network connection. I would never use a NAS device to
actually house active database files. Perhaps it is paranoia on my part, but I??™ve run into
one too many SQL Server databases that failed due to a network hiccup between them
and the NAS devices.
SAN
In almost every large organization, all critical data is stored on a SAN device. Even midsized
and smaller businesses are able to afford entry- and mid-level SAN hardware. You
may wonder, what is a SAN device anyway? A SAN is a centrally administered storage
server shared across a network of one or more application or database servers, as illustrated
in Figure 10-10.
Figure 10-10. Generally, all SAN devices have a complex infrastructure around them.
CHAPTER 10 n HARDWARE CONSIDERATIONS 255
A SAN is a complete storage system with highly tuned disk processing and high levels
of memory cache.
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