How datacenter components communicates to each other ?

Communication between datacenter components

Compute to Compute communication

1. NIC (Network inteface card) 

    Connects compute system to network. Each NIC has unique MAC address.

2. Interconnect devices

    Router - Device or software which determines next network point to send the packet

    Switch - Allows communication between nodes of a network

3. Cables

     Twisted pair, Co-axial cables, Optical fiber etc.

Compute to Storage communication

1. HBA (Host bus adaptor)

    An IC board performed I/O interface functions between host and storage

2. CNA (Converged network adaptor)

    Consolidates functionality of NIC card and Fiber Channel HBA into single adaptor

3. NIC (Network inteface card) 

4. Interconnect devices

5. Ports / Cables

Compute to Storage communication - protocols

1. PCI (Peripheral Component interconnect)

    Standard for info exchange between CPU and Network card / Modem.

    PCI bus can be of 32 or 64 bits.

2. IDE (Integrated Device Electronics) / ATA (Advanced Technology Attachement)

    Protocol to connect storage devices - HDD, CD-ROM

     a. Parellel ATA (PATA) or ATA supports 16 bit parallel transfer

     b. Serial ATA (SATA) supports a single-bit serial transmission 
3. SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)

    A parallel transmission protocol preferred in high-end computers.

    It provides improved performance, scalability, and compatibility compared to ATA.

4. TCP / IP

Compute to Storage communication - Network technology protocols

1. Fiber Channel (FC)

    Commonly used in SAN in enterprise storage

    Port types : N_port, E_port, F_port, G_port

    Addressing types : Fibre Channel address , WWN name

2. iSCSI (SCSI over IP)

    Encapsulation of SCSI I/O over IP

3. FCIP (Fiber Channel over IP)

    IP based storage networking technology that combines advantages of fibre channel & IP.

4. FCoE (Fiber Channel over Ethernet)

    Encapsulation of fiber channel frames for transport over enhanced Ethernet networks.

    Main components are : CNA, FCoE switch, Conventional enhanced Ethernet.