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Glossary

This section describes common hardware, software, and iSCSI terms that are used in the SANsurfer iSCSI HBA Manager application.

 

Adapter
See HBA.
 
BIOS
A QLA4xxx HBA's flash PROM contains the code that allows booting from the HBA at startup.
 
Boot device
The boot device is the hard disk that contains the operating system the BIOS uses to boot from when the computer is started.
 
Driver
Driver refers to software that interfaces between the file system and a physical data storage device or network media.

The level structure for Windows 2000/Windows Server 2003 drivers is as follows:

Class Driver. This is the highest driver level. There is a separate class for disk, Ethernet, etc. This level handles all generic aspects of operations for that class.

Port Driver. This is the middle driver level, which handles aspects of the operation specific to the port type; for example, there is a port driver for SCSI.

Miniport Driver. This is the lowest driver level and device specific. This level is usually supplied by the manufacturer as a companion to a physical device.

Monolithic Driver. This level combines the functions of different driver levels in the same driver to increase performance.

Adjunct Driver. This level works along side a driver at the same level to increase performance. In Red Hat/SuSE Linux, the driver layers include:

SCSI Upper Layer. This is the device management layer. It handles device-dependent tasks for devices, such as disks and tapes.

SCSI Middle Layer. This is the SCSI traffic handling layer. It directs requests between the kernel and the SCSI.

SCSI Lower Layer. This is the SCSI host bus adapter driver. It communications directly to the SCSI HBA.

The structure for Solaris SPARC drivers includes:

Nexus Drivers. Nexus drivers provide bus mapping and translation services to subordinate nexus and leaf devices. These include drivers for PCI-to-PCI bridges, PCMCIA adapters, and SCSI HBAs.

Leaf Drivers. Leaf drivers provide the traditional character and block driver interfaces for reading and writing data to storage and communication devices. These include drivers for peripheral devices, including QLA4xxx HBAs, disks, tapes, network adapters, and frame buffers.

 
Fast!UTIL
QLogic FAST!UTIL iSCSI HBA BIOS Utility.
 
HBA
Host bus adapter. An HBA is the board that interfaces between the host system and device. HBA is synonymous with host adapter, adapter, and adapter board. In SANsurfer iSCSI HBA Manager documentation, the term QLA4xxx HBA is used.
 
HBA alias name
HBA port iSCSI alias name. Symbolic name you assign to the HBA port for identification purposes.
 
HBA iSCSI name
HBA port iSCSI name. The QLogic manufacturing default name or a name that you assign.
 
HBA port
An HBA port is port on the HBA.
 
IOCB
IOCB stands for I/O control block. An IOCB is a command structure in QLogic ISP architecture.
 
iSCSI
iSCSI stands for Internet small computer systems interface.
 
JBOD
JBOD stands for just a bunch of disks.
 
LUN
LUN stands for logical unit number, the small integer handle that identifies a portion of disk storage. A LUN can consist of a single physical disk or many physical disks. A physical disk can be broken into multiple LUNs.
 
NIC
NIC stands for network interface controller.
 
NVRAM
NVRAM stands for nonvolatile random access memory. NVRAM configuration settings are stored in NVRAM. You can configure NVRAM settings or restore them from a file. These settings are saved in NVRAM and are retained when power is removed.
 
ONC
ONC stands for open network computing, a remote procedure call developed by Sun Microsystems.
 
Path
A path to a device is a combination of an HBA port and a target port. Note that this is distinct from any internal paths within the network. A network appears to the operating system as an opaque network between the HBA (initiator) and the target port.

Since a path is a combination of an HBA and a target port, a path is distinct from another path if it is accessed through a different HBA and/or it is accessing a different target port. Consequently, when switching from one path to another, the driver might be selecting a different HBA (initiator), a different target port, or both.
 
PDU
PDU stands for protocol data unit.
 
Port
Ports are access points in a device where a link attaches.
 
SAN
SAN stands for storage area network, which consists of multiple storage units and servers connected by networking topology.
 
SCSI
SCSI stands for small computer system interface. The original SCSI specification was a hardware bus specification and a packet-oriented protocol specification for communicating on that bus. SCSI over Fibre Channel uses the packet-oriented protocol to communicate with storage devices on the Fibre Channel.