Planning for SAN Deployment

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

If your organizational and application requirements can best be satisfied by using a SAN, you need to follow the steps in this section to adequately plan for your SAN implementation. Several new or enhanced storage features are included with Windows Server 2003 to better support storage devices located on a SAN. Planning for optimal SAN deployment in a Windows Server 2003 network includes careful consideration of these SAN-related features so that you can seamlessly integrate your SAN with your Windows network. You can then plan how to configure Windows for your specific SAN implementation, and how to integrate additional storage technologies from other vendors. The process of planning for SAN deployment in a Windows network is shown in Figure 1.7.

Figure 1.7   Planning for SAN Deployment