HBA overview:
Host bus adapters (HBAs) are a printed circuit and/or IC adapter that has input/output (I/O) process and physical property between servers and storage devices. As a result of HBAs scale back the burden on the host processor in information storage and retrieval tasks, it will improve server performance. An hba card and a disk system that’s connected thereto are generally referred to as a disk channel.
The overall definition of HBAs:
I/O adapters that connect the host I/O bus and also the storage device system. In line with this definition, just like the video card is connected to the pc and memory, the NIC is connected to the network bus and memory. The port-FC card is connected to the SCSI or FC bus and memory, they must be thought-about HBAs. HBA cards embrace FC-HBA and iSCSI HBAs and different HBA cards within the future, however HBAs are generally employed in SCSI. Adapters (adapters) and NICs are used for FC, and NICs are used for local area network and Token Ring networks.
The 2 buses are connected by a bridging chip or circuit. To relinquish an example, sort of a city, there are two routes, one belongs to the executive district, one belongs to the business area, the center contains a roundabout. The two main roads are connected together, the system bus is just like the main road within the district and I/O bus is just like the route within the business space. System bus and I/O bus information measure units are Gbyte to remember, however it’s obvious that the most main road.
It is easy, we have a tendency to reach to organize the peripherals, connected to the I/O bus! HBA refers to the Host and that i / O BUS directly as an adapter. However. additionally sort of a journeyman usually says “double pass”. The role of HBA is to attain the interior channel protocol PCI or Sbus and fibre Channel protocol conversion between.
The importance of HBAs:
within the early San storage system, the server and also the switch information transmission is thru the fibre. As a result of the server is that the port instruction to the storage device. Can’t take the normal computer network network IP protocol. Therefore the ought to use FC transmission, therefore this San is termed FC-San, and later appeared within the information science protocol package San.
These 2 ways need to do a significant information packet unpacking package operation. So a superior San system needs a network card that’s dedicated to unpacking the server to cut back the burden on the processor. This NIC is called the HBA card, which additionally to the work of the unpack. Of course, can also provide a fibre interface (if the iSCSI HBA card is to supply a standard RJ45 interface) for the corresponding switch connection.
The principle of the HBA:
The common digital communication protocol between servers and storage devices is the IDE, SCSI, and Fibre Channel. To attain communication between the server and also the storage device. An equivalent communication protocol is needed at each end of the communication. A controller is often offered on a storage device, and the controller implements one or a lot of communication protocols. That modify the conversion between storage protocols comparable to IDE, SCSI or Fibre Channel to the operational protocols of physical storage devices.
Therefore, the IDE disk is connected to the IDE connection on the laptop. If the disk solely supports SCSI protocols, the disks can not be directly connected to the PC. You wish to insert a SCSI card on the PC slot and the SCSI disk can be connected to the card. SCSI card permits PC bus to SCSI conversion. This type of SCSI card realizes the function that the host Bus adapter card performs. Once the server is obstructed into the host bus adapter card, it is connected to a Fibre Channel-enabled disk.
Host bus adapter card contains a little CPU, some memory as an information cache and connects the fibre channel and bus affiliation devices. This small electronic equipment is responsible for the conversion of PCI and fibre Channel protocols. It additionally has other functions to initialize the server port connected to the fibre Channel network. Support higher layer protocols comparable to transmission control protocol / IP, SCSI, 8B / 10B secret writing and decoding.
Relationship between fibre Optic Network Interface Card (NICs) and HBAs:
As a result of the various transmission protocols, the network card is divided into 3 kinds. One is local area network card, the opposite is fibre Channel network card and three is the iSCSI network card.
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local area network Network Card:
The name of the local area network Adapter, the transmission protocol, is an information science protocol. Generally connected to a local area network switch through a fibre optic cable or twisted pair. The interface varieties are divided into optical and electrical ports. The present unremarkably used interface sort is RJ45, it’s accustomed to connect with twisted pair. Additionally has an interface with concentrical cable, however currently it is used less.
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FC Network card:
Generally also referred to as fibre optic network card, scientific name Fibre Channel HBA. The transport protocol may be a fibre Channel protocol and is often connected to a Fibre Channel switch through a fibre optic cable. The interface sort is split into optical port and electrical port. The optical interface is usually through the fibre optic cable for information transmission. The interface module is generally SFP (transmission rate 2Gb/s) and GBIC (1Gb/s), the corresponding interface for the SC and LC. The interface variety of the electrical interface is generally DB9 pin or HSSDC.
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ISCSI Network card:
The name of the iSCSI HBA, the Transport iSCSI protocol, and also the interface sort is the same because of the local area network card.
We are saying “fibre-optic network card” generally refers to the FC HBA card, connect the server, auxiliary storage with the fibre switch. Optical local area network card is usually referred to as “fibre local area network card” is additionally inserted within the server. However, it external is that the local area network switch with the optical port.
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