very nice

This is a great book if you are new to storage networking. As I've went through the first two chapters, the author is clearly good at describing concepts in a neat, precise and easy to understand way. Various pictures demonstrate the structure of storage networks in an even better way, clearing much of my confusions about fundamental concepts in storage subject. This book focuses on the "Storage" part, not on connecting and filing. So far I'm very happy to have this book, as other online resources about storage are not well structured, nor are they clear and precise.

Right now I'm reading through the SCSI chapter, it's really the best material that I found for explaining SCSI architecture and commands. It's not always realistic to read through and understand standard specifications, as many of them are written in geek word. The author did a great job "translating" and explaining the terminology!

I would like to see a newer edition if the author could talk more about SSDs.

This book is a broad overview of all things related to data storage:

* how disk drives work

* how file systems and drivers use disk drives

* direct attached storage (local disk drive)

* SCSI

* RAID

* NAS (network attached storage)

* SAN (storage area network)

* backups and tape technologies

With this much territory to cover, the author had to choose between writing an encyclopedia and keeping things high level. He opted for high level. The book is a good way to get started with these topics but it doesn't take you far enough to be practical. The author strives for vendor neutrality (and achieves it), but of course you can only use products from vendors. Getting a handle on any particular product should be easier once you've read this.

The ordering of the material is not the best. Of the topics covered, most people understand the file system best. This could have been used as the starting point to go deeper into what lays behind the file system. Unfortunately, the file system isn't really discussed until chapter 14.

Storage Networking Fundamentals: An Introduction to Storage Devices, Subsystems, Applications, Management, and File Systems

Reviewer Name: David Hodde

Reviewer Certification(s): CCIE

Rating: **** out of *****

As the name indicates this book is an introduction to all aspects of storage networking. While you think it may just deal with SANs, it does not. Author Marc Farley starts with as he calls it, "The Big Picture of Storage Netorking". These chapters cover basic storage principles and how storage I/O works. He then follows with a discussion of the different storage architectures available and their history. While this may not seem important, for the person entering the storage arena it's valuable information to know where storage has come in the last 20 years.

The next two parts cover data redundancy and storage and data management. Farley gives very good descriptions on the different redundancy options available. He also goes into an analysis of the different advantages and disadvantages of each. While it's not an extensive discussion it does give an administrator a basis for an analysis. Discussions of remote file copy and multipathing, which are very important in storage networking, are described and broken down into terms that the novice storage person can comprehend.

While the first three parts of the book may seem like a review and unnecessary to most. They do provide a good foundation for Parts IV and V, which deal with storage and data management. As Farley points out these two areas are important and should not book overlooked by the storage administrator. With the ever changing legal environment and governmental regulations, data management and retention looks to be the next big evolution in storage management.

As advertised Storage Networking Fundamentals: An Introduction to Storage Devices, Subsystems, Applications, Management, and File Systems provides a good introduction to storage fundamentals for the person new to storage. For the person already familiar with storage it provides details that were either not know or forgotten. At the very least it provides some of the latest information in the storage arena.

I would highly recommend this book for anybody involved with storage administration or storage networking.

This is a good storage book overall but... released under wrong title. If you erase "networking" part out of the title, it will be exactly what the book is about. Author himself emphasize the book is not really about "connecting function". He also introduces some new terms and even though these are quite acceptable for the discussion matter those terms barely might be seen somewhere else.