A reliable and useful storage area network (SAN) was created using two legacy servers and low-cost commodity hardware. Care was taken to create a “reference” implementation for education purposes by using color coded cables, careful cable management, labels, and diagrams. The SAN is intended to support a scalable number of drive-less servers that will host virtual machines. The SAN servers boot from USB to Open Solaris, leaving the hard drives dedicated to SAN use. Comstar iSCSI was used to communicate between the servers, and the Zetta File System (ZFS) with RAIDZ2 was used to protect against drive failure. IOMeter performance measures indicate that the SAN performs as well as a standard direct-attached hard drive, and approaches some local SSDs. The end result is redundant, fast storage using decommissioned and commodity hardware.

Recommended Citation: Loftis T., Kline D., Vetter R., Clark U., (2014). An Implementation of a Green Storage Area Network. UNCW MS CSIS Proceedings. V. 8 , N. 4 .