Question

Guardian  |   Mar 22 2006  7:18AM GMT

Like Bob mentioned, my asumption is that you want to go for Database administration (O/S platforms and the the Database that use that particular O/S) You have various databases ( Exchange, AD, SQL, NDS,Pervasive SQL and the like ) it just depends which area you want to specialize in and O/S ( Unix, Novell,MS and others). I don’t know if you man otherwise….

Elaborate further
PS: another area is Server platforms.Just a spec of what is at hand

Almac  |   Mar 22 2006  12:56PM GMT

If you are interested in building a career on storage, I would suggest reading the following article on storage related certifications:
<a href="http://storagemagazine.techtarget.com/magItem/0,291266,sid35_gci949236,00.html" rel="nofollow">http://storagemagazine.techtarget.com/magItem/0,291266,sid35_gci949236,00.html</a>

To learn more about storage I would look for trade journals such as “Storage” published by TechTarget IT Media. Good luck.

Magic8ball  |   Feb 3 2008  7:40AM GMT

Well, there have been some good suggestions here so far. I wish I could tell you some magic way to learn about SAN’s, but you have to fall into it like the rabbit hole from Alice and wonderland. Ironically that is a very true analogy for SANs.

Learning about SAN’s is so difficult because you have to understand such a wide range of operating systems, switches, storage, and applications. It requires understanding all aspects of end-to-end connectivity in a data center. meaning, you need to understand enough about operating systems and systems administration to know what a kernel parameter is and the difference between an HBA and a NIC. Also, it is important to understand what fibre is, and fiber is. Albeita many of us SAN-folk need as much Fiber as we do fibre .. sorry. bad inside joke.

Storage Area networks in a nutshell allows you to present to hosts external disk that acutally LOOKS to the operating system as if it were a local disk. So what does that mean? Big deal eah? Well, it is a big deal. If you throw a JBOD in there you are looking at mounting a disk using NFS which has it’s own set of latency and overhead. In sum, the speed at which you can write to disk is slower. When you are using a fibre cable to connect SAN storage to a host, the speed is virtually as fast as if it were attached to the local disk. i know that may be hard to believe, but it is all in the configuration of the SAN.

Then there is the issue of a switch, and learning the difference between a switch and a hub and a router. You also want to begin understanding why connecting only one path (HBA) to a switch is a bad idea in a SAN environment.

Software wise, there are various management applications that allow you to manage your san and external SAN storage but that is a whole different discussion. It is rather more important to understand about multipathing software such as Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager, or Veritas DMP and why it is is so important in a SAN environment.

If it helps any, when I began in SAN’s many grey hairs ago I had NO idea what I was doing. I came from a solid UNIX administration background but being thrown into the lions den of fibre channel, switches, fabrics, SAN diagrams, managing LUNS, learning what a LUN is, and how to connect a to b to c took over 2 years to even feel comfortable answering basic questions about a SAN.

Now that I have depressed you, let me tell you it is very rewarding and very challenging and I have found you become part of a specialized community of ‘fibre folk’ who are well respected.

Best o luck

:wq!ben