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Networking Fundamentals · Intermediate

Storage Area Network (SAN)

A dedicated high-speed network that gives servers block-level access to shared storage.

Definition

SANs use Fibre Channel, FCoE or iSCSI and appear to servers as local disks. They support clustering, virtualization and high availability.

Example

ESXi hosts access a shared datastore over an iSCSI SAN.

Exam tip

SAN = block-level storage; NAS = file-level storage.

Don't confuse it with

Related terms