{"id":3524,"date":"2026-10-01T18:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T18:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/blog\/storage-area-network-san\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T18:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T18:40:21","slug":"storage-area-network-san","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/blog\/storage-area-network-san\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is a Storage Area Network (SAN)? SAN vs NAS vs DAS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Short answer:<\/strong> a storage area network (SAN) is a separate network that gives servers <em>block-level<\/em> access to shared storage. Each server sees its piece of the SAN, called a LUN, as if it were a local disk, and puts its own file system on it. SANs run over iSCSI, Fibre Channel or NVMe over Fabrics. A NAS is different: it shares <em>files<\/em> over NFS or SMB. And DAS is plain storage inside or directly attached to one server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"452\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/storage-area-network-san-screenshot-1024x452.png\" alt=\"Terminal showing tgtadm creating an iSCSI target with a 1 GB LUN and ss showing TCP port 3260 listening\" class=\"wp-image-3526\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/storage-area-network-san-screenshot-1024x452.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/storage-area-network-san-screenshot-300x133.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/storage-area-network-san-screenshot-768x339.png 768w, https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/storage-area-network-san-screenshot.png 1100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The storage side of an iSCSI SAN on Debian 13: tgt exports a 1 GB file as LUN 1 and listens on TCP port 3260.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How a SAN works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Red Hat sums up the idea well: a SAN provides &#8220;block-level access for hosts that need control over their own storage details (filesystems, etc.), rather than a simple file share like NFS provides&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.redhat.com\/en\/blog\/san-vs-nas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SAN vs NAS<\/a>). A SAN is usually built from several parts rather than one box:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Storage arrays<\/strong> hold the disks and carve them into logical units (LUNs). In iSCSI terms the array is the <em>target<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Servers<\/strong> connect to the LUNs they are allowed to use. In iSCSI terms each server is an <em>initiator<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The storage network<\/strong> links them: Fibre Channel switches, or ordinary Ethernet for iSCSI and NVMe over TCP.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Multipathing<\/strong> gives each server more than one route to the storage. Red Hat describes Device Mapper Multipath as combining &#8220;multiple I\/O paths between server nodes and storage arrays into a single device&#8221;, so one failed cable or switch does not take the disk away.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To the server&#8217;s operating system, a SAN LUN looks like any other disk: it shows up in <code>lsblk<\/code>, you partition it, format it with XFS or ext4 and mount it. The difference is that the data lives on the array, not in the server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SAN protocols<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Protocol<\/th><th>Runs over<\/th><th>Notes<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>iSCSI<\/td><td>TCP\/IP on normal Ethernet<\/td><td>SCSI commands carried over TCP (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfc-editor.org\/rfc\/rfc7143\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RFC 7143<\/a>). Default port TCP 3260. Works with standard Ethernet switches and network cards.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Fibre Channel (FC)<\/td><td>A dedicated Fibre Channel network<\/td><td>Separate host bus adapters and switches. Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) carries it on Ethernet instead.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>NVMe over Fabrics<\/td><td>RDMA, Fibre Channel or TCP<\/td><td>Red Hat describes it as an interface that lets hosts talk to solid-state drives over a network. NVMe\/TCP runs on standard Ethernet.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 lists all three as remote storage options, together with NFS and SMB for network file systems, in its <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.redhat.com\/en\/documentation\/red_hat_enterprise_linux\/9\/html\/managing_storage_devices\/overview-of-available-storage-options_managing-storage-devices\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">storage overview<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SAN vs NAS vs DAS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th><\/th><th>DAS (direct-attached)<\/th><th>NAS (network-attached)<\/th><th>SAN (storage area network)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>What the server gets<\/td><td>Local disks<\/td><td>A shared folder<\/td><td>A disk (LUN) over the network<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Access level<\/td><td>Block<\/td><td>File<\/td><td>Block<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Protocols<\/td><td>SATA, SAS, NVMe inside the server<\/td><td>NFS, SMB<\/td><td>iSCSI, Fibre Channel, NVMe over Fabrics<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Who formats it<\/td><td>The server<\/td><td>The NAS<\/td><td>The server<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Shared by several servers<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>Yes, that is the point<\/td><td>Only with a cluster file system<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Typical use<\/td><td>A single web, game or database server<\/td><td>Team file shares, shared uploads, backups<\/td><td>Virtualisation clusters, large databases, storage that must outlive one server<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Complexity<\/td><td>Low<\/td><td>Medium<\/td><td>High<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Red Hat&#8217;s rule of thumb: if a group of users needs a place to store and share files, a NAS is probably the right answer; if a workload needs lower-level block access, a SAN is the better fit, and a SAN is usually easier to grow than a NAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The shared-disk trap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Shared storage&#8221; sounds as if several servers can simply mount the same LUN. They cannot, not safely with an ordinary file system. Red Hat describes XFS and ext4 as <em>local<\/em> file systems that run on a single server. Two servers writing to one XFS volume at the same time do not know about each other&#8217;s changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If several servers really need the same block device, you need a cluster file system such as GFS2, which Red Hat describes as a file system that &#8220;manages coherency between multiple nodes sharing a common block device&#8221;. It depends on cluster software, and Red Hat warns that shared storage file systems are complex to set up and maintain. For most &#8220;several servers need the same files&#8221; cases, an NFS share is the simpler answer. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/clients\/knowledgebase\/1235\/Beginners-Guide-to-NFS-Set-Up-an-NFS-Server-and-Client-on-Linux.html\">how to set up an NFS server and client<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What iSCSI looks like from a Linux server<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the open-iscsi tools, a server finds the targets on a storage address and logs in to one. These are the two commands you will meet first:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code># List the targets that a storage address offers\nsudo iscsiadm -m discovery -t sendtargets -p 192.0.2.10\n\n# Log in to one target; its LUNs then appear as new disks\nsudo iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2001-04.com.example:storage.lun1 -p 192.0.2.10 --login\nlsblk<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We checked this with <code>iscsiadm<\/code> 2.1.11 in a Debian 13 container against a test target served by <code>tgt<\/code>, which listened on TCP 3260 as the standard says. The container could not finish the login because it cannot load the <code>iscsi_tcp<\/code> kernel module, so for the full procedure, including making logins survive a reboot, follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/clients\/knowledgebase\/1308\/Understanding-the-iscsiadm-Utility-Discover-Log-In-and-Manage-iSCSI-Disks.html\">understanding the iscsiadm utility<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/clients\/knowledgebase\/1294\/How-to-configure-DM-Multipath-from-an-iSCSI-initiator-to-an-iSCSI-target-in-CentOS-or-RHEL.html\">DM-Multipath with iSCSI<\/a>. When a LUN is no longer needed, remove it cleanly: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/clients\/knowledgebase\/1489\/How-to-Remove-a-SAN-Disk-or-LUN-from-a-Linux-Server-Safely.html\">how to remove a SAN disk or LUN safely<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Security basics for iSCSI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Keep storage traffic on its own network.<\/strong> Never expose port 3260 to the internet.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Use CHAP authentication with long random secrets.<\/strong> RFC 7143 makes CHAP mandatory to implement and strongly recommends in-band authentication. It also warns that CHAP over an unencrypted link is open to offline dictionary attacks, and requires support for random secrets of up to 128 bits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Encrypt links you do not control.<\/strong> iSCSI relies on IPsec for packet protection, which the standard makes optional; RFC 7143 gives the example of VPN gateways between data centres.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Limit which initiators see which LUNs<\/strong> on the array, so a server can only reach its own disks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Do you need a SAN?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Probably, if you run a cluster of virtualisation hosts that should be able to move virtual machines between them, or a large database that needs more storage than one chassis holds, or if storage must stay available when a server is replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Probably not, if you run one or a few servers. Local NVMe or SSD disks in a RAID array are faster to set up, have fewer parts to fail and cost less. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/clients\/knowledgebase\/9272\/RAID-Levels-Explained-RAID-0-1-5-6-and-10-for-Servers.html\">RAID levels explained<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/blog\/nvme-vs-ssd-exploring-the-differences-in-storage-technologies\/\">NVMe vs SSD<\/a>. For shared files between a few servers, NFS is usually enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whichever you choose, a SAN, NAS or RAID array protects you against a failed disk, not against deleted files or ransomware. Keep separate backups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Planning storage for a new setup? Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/dedicated-servers\">dedicated servers<\/a> come with local disks you can arrange in RAID, and our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucartz.com\/server-management-services\">server management team<\/a> can set up NFS shares, iSCSI initiators and multipathing on servers you already run.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What a storage area network is, how SANs use iSCSI, Fibre Channel and NVMe over Fabrics, and how SAN compares with NAS and direct-attached storage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[585,237,389],"tags":[955,954,953,951,956,952],"class_list":["post-3524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dedicated-server","category-networking","category-server","tag-fibre-channel","tag-iscsi","tag-nas","tag-san","tag-server-storage","tag-storage-area-network"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Is a Storage Area Network (SAN)? 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