Understanding Boot-From-SAN Technology

Booting servers from storage area networks (SANs) can provide significant benefits in today's complex data center environments. One of the driving forces behind SANs is the need to deliver mission-critical data quickly, at any time, without interruptions or delays. This white paper explains boot from SAN, discusses its systems management benefits, and describes some of the challenges associated with today's implementations. The paper continues with a proposed architecture for boot-from-SAN implementations that uses an out-of-band Boot SAN Manager and takes advantage of current and future industry standards.