A data storage space virtualization choice lets you reduce the number of physical hardware methods needed to support applications. It is doing this by simply abstracting actual disk and drive components and aggregating all their capacity being a single pool area of storage area available to applications for use. This kind of pool of storage can then be managed with a central gaming console to deliver functional and economic benefits just like faster resource provisioning and devastation recovery capabilities.

The key to storage virtualization is program that intercepts input/output (I/O) requests by physical and virtual hosting space and ways them to the suitable physical position on a distributed pool of storage. To the application, the virtual storage appears being a single, contiguous storage or rational unit quantity (LUN) to accept typical read and write business.

While basic storage gadgets, such as one hard disk drives and basic storage arrays, usually do not provide any kind of kind of virtualization, advanced disk arrays offer a logical to physical abstraction through RAID schemes and a host-based volume administrator. This type of virtualization enables features like snapshots, cloning and replication to be supported around different suppliers.

Network-based safe-keeping virtualization is the most prevalent form of the technology. With this approach, a purpose-built machine connects to all or any the storage hardware in an FC or perhaps iSCSI storage space network (SAN) and positions them being a single pool of safe-keeping. check over here Towards the operating system or perhaps application, the resulting online disks or perhaps LUNs look as though that they reside on a single physical hard disk drive and have total functionality, which includes multi-pathing program.