Re: Hosting a data file on a SAN

"scott.marlowe" <scott.marlowe@ihs.com> writes:

> On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, victor moran wrote:

> > Can someone here help me find out whether or not I can run postgresql 7.2.3
> > while keeping its data files on a SAN device across a Fibre Channel link?

> That said, storing your data on a SAN/NAS presents some issues.
>
> (If someone else is reading and doesn't know what they mean:
> NAS=Network Attached Storage, SAN = Storage Area Network)

SAN and NAS are not the same.  NAS is a fancy name for "dedicated
NFS/SMB server".  SAN means SCSI over some kind of switched fabric,
usually Fibre Channel.  The main difference is that SAN devices look
like disks to the OS, while NAS looks like one or more network
filesystems.

Running a database on NAS may be an issue; running on a SAN shouldn't
be, as long as the overlying filesystem has the right semantics.

-Doug