Redundancy in Designing Storage Systems: Exploring the Highest Level of Redundancy

Highest Level of Redundancy in Storage System Design

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Which of the following offers the highest level of redundancy in the design of a storage system?

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A. B. C. D.

D.

In the design of a storage system, redundancy is an important aspect to ensure high availability and minimize downtime. The redundancy ensures that if one component fails, another component can take over seamlessly without any loss of data or service interruption.

Out of the four options provided, the option that offers the highest level of redundancy is D. Two Dual Port HBAs connected to a pair of fiber switches.

A Host Bus Adapter (HBA) is a hardware component that connects a server to a storage network such as a Storage Area Network (SAN). HBAs are responsible for transmitting and receiving data between the server and storage devices. HBAs can have one or two ports for connection to the SAN.

In option A, a Dual Port HBA with a pair of Point-To-Point connections to the SAN is being used. This setup provides redundancy in the form of two connections, but both connections are connected to the same SAN. If the SAN fails, both connections will be affected, and there will be no redundancy.

In option B, Two Single Port HBAs are connected to a fiber switch. This setup provides redundancy in the form of two HBAs, but there is only one fiber switch. If the switch fails, both HBAs will be affected, and there will be no redundancy.

In option C, A Dual Port HBA with a Point-To-Point connection to a SAN is being used. This setup provides redundancy in the form of two connections, but both connections are connected to the same SAN. If the SAN fails, both connections will be affected, and there will be no redundancy.

In option D, Two Dual Port HBAs connected to a pair of fiber switches are being used. This setup provides the highest level of redundancy as there are four connections in total. Each HBA has two ports, and each port is connected to a different fiber switch. If one switch or one HBA fails, the other switch and HBA can take over, ensuring that the system remains available.

Therefore, option D, Two Dual Port HBAs connected to a pair of fiber switches, offers the highest level of redundancy in the design of a storage system.