IBM Fusion Access for SAN
IBM Fusion Access for SAN is a cloud‑native solution that helps enterprises transition from traditional virtualization environments to OpenShift® while reusing existing Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure.
IBM Fusion Access for SAN is a solution that provides a scalable clustered file system for enterprise storage, primarily designed to offer access to consolidated, block-level data storage. It presents storage devices, such as disk arrays, to the operating system as if they were direct-attached storage.
This solution supports toward enterprise storage for Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization and uses existing SAN infrastructure. A SAN is a dedicated network of storage devices that is not accessible through the local area network (LAN).
- Easy user experience
- IBM Fusion Access for SAN brings a wizard‑driven user interface that simplifies the installation and configuration of storage clusters, file systems, and storage classes.
- Use existing infrastructure
- You can use your existing SAN investments, including Fibre Channel (FC) and iSCSI technologies, as you transition to or expand with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.
- Scalability
- The storage cluster is designed to scale with OpenShift Container Platform clusters and virtual machine workloads. It can support up to approximately 3000 VMs on 6 bare-metal hosts, with possibilities for further scaling by adding more file systems or using specific storage class parameters.
- Consolidated and shared storage
- SANs enable multiple servers to access a large, shared data storage capacity. This architecture facilitates automatic data backup and monitors the storage and backup processes continuously.
- High-speed data transfer
- By using a dedicated high-speed network for storage, IBM Fusion Access for SAN overcomes the data transfer bottlenecks that can occur over a traditional LAN, especially for large volumes of data.
- File-level access
- Although a SAN primarily operates at the block level, file systems that are built on top of SAN storage can provide file-level access through shared-disk file systems.
- Centralized management
- The underlying SAN software manages servers, storage devices, and the network to ensure that data moves directly between storage devices with minimal server intervention. It also supports centralized management and configuration of SAN components like Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs).
For more information about IBM Fusion Access for SAN, see the FAQ section of IBM Fusion Access for SAN.
To deploy IBM Fusion Access for SAN, see Deploying IBM Fusion Access for SAN.