what is storage area network

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When I searching about storage I found out something call storage area network(san)

What is the difference between san and nas, when will we use san?

[NelizMastr]

a NAS is a file based storage solution whereas a SAN is a block based storage solution. So on a NAS you create shares with individual files on them and on a SAN you create sets of blocks known as LUNs which can be used as virtual hard drives. SANs are mostly used because of their scalability. A NAS doesn't have provisions for a full rack worth of daisy chained disk shelves (talking like 100+ drives connected to it) or the required power to handle that much throughput.

[NelizMastr]

6 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

so project petabyte is a SAN? o_o

It's a custom rack server, and in it's current state it's a NAS because it only offers file based storage. There's much more to the story than this than I can possibly write up in a forum post, though.

 

Also, for it to be a SAN the disks aren't supposed to have a file system on them. A SAN assigns LUNs bare metal.

[Fleetscut]

the big difference is that a NAS is a single machine that shares files to multiple others on a network. A SAN is often a cluster of multiple machines that can pool thier disks so that filesystems can be more flexible in thier ability to grow, be backed up, etc. A NAS is usually a cheap solution for network storage and is best when you just need a place to store files. SAN's have many more features and are usually considered more stable, however are more complex and expensive. SAN's are generally used when you want to mount a filesystem to a server and be able to run an OS/applications off of it.

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why don't linus make a san for storage instead making a nas