Vserver : What a Vserver is
What a Vserver is
A Vserver is a secure virtual storage server, which supports multiple protocols and unified storage. A Vserver contains data volumes and one or more LIFs through which it serves data to the clients.
A Vserver securely isolates the shared virtualized data storage and network, and appears as a single dedicated server to the clients. Each Vserver has a separate administrator authentication domain and can be managed independently by a Vserver administrator.
A Vserver represents a single file system and a unique global namespace. A global namespace enables the NAS clients to access data without specifying the physical location of the data. Global namespace also enables the cluster and Vserver administrators to manage distributed data storage as a single file system.
The volumes of each Vserver are related through junctions and are mounted on junction paths. The file system of each volume appears to be mounted at the junctions. The root volume of a Vserver is at the top level of the namespace hierarchy; additional volumes are mounted to the Vserver's root volume to extend the global namespace.
A Vserver's data volumes can contain files and LUNs. Vserver provides file-level data access by using NFS and CIFS protocols for the NAS clients, and block-level data access by using iSCSI and Fibre Channel (FC) protocol for SAN hosts.
Next Topic
Vserver management
You must configure the services and protocols for a Vserver to serve data. To delegate the Vserver administration to a Vserver administrator, you must set up a password and unlock the vsadmin user account.
Types of Vservers
A cluster consists of three types of Vservers, which help in managing the cluster and its resources, and the data access to the clients and applications.
Why you use Vservers
Vservers provide data access to clients without regard to physical storage or heterogeneous structure, similar to any storage system. Vservers provide nondisruptive operation, scalability, security and support unified storage.
Was this topic helpful? Send
comments
to NetApp.
