Software Internals

 QAT is the technology provided by intel to offload CPU intense workloads like Compression, Encryption to QAT hardware. QAT is more efficient than a general-purpose CPU in terms of cost and performance. QAT is a Hardware  Accelerator that can be add on to a card like RAM or inside the CPU.QAT gives higher performance when compared to the traditional compression technique. Some of the benefits of using QAT are as follows A higher compression ratio which increases Physical storage available Improved throughput as CPU  workload is offloaded to QAT Hardware Increased performance as the time taken is very less compared to traditional software techniques CPU time can be utilized for performing some other operations                                                   FIG: QAT Hardware Adapter QAT is open-source and can be consumed either through the QAT library or through a development kit provided by intel for using encryption, decryption, compression, or decompression. QAT supports Cipher ope

 Disk Access / Storage access process occurs when the server is powered on which is connected to SAN fabric. The main components involved at the higher level are Server, SAN Switches, and Storage Array.  Successful completion of the above process will create a link between Server and Storage, which helps in disk access. The steps involved in as follows FLOGI - Fabric LOGIn process : When the server Host Bus Adapter(HBA) power on, it will send its WWNN and WWPN. Using the details shared by the server HBA the switch will assign FCID(Fibre Channel ID) to each HBA and is stored in an internal database. This FCID is used in routing the host request to its storage. This FCID is equivalent to an IP address in the host.  FC NAme Service: Once the FCID is allocated by the initial switch connected to Server in the fabric, will now share this information with all other switches in the same fabric. The database within the switch which stores the FCID to WWN mapping is called the FCNS database. Wit

 Hmmm looks like you want to know and understand the so-called SAN(Storage Area Network). For a better understanding, I'm going to split each topic into section vice and without wasting any further time let's start the series with a brief introduction. In the olden days, storage was available in the form of tape drives, Harddisk, CD, SSD and so on...... As time passes the demand for storage capacity, speed, performance, availability increased and parallelly there was a relevant advancement in the technology. Currently, NVMe is the most widely used technology for storage access. Storage can be accessed in various ways and below are some of them 1. Local Access DAS   - Direct Attached Storage  2. Remote Access SAN - Storage Area Network where the storage is accessed through storage protocol like SCSI, FCoE, FC, iSCSI, NVMe. NAS  - Network-attached storage where the mode of access at the file level.   The main component involved in the SAN is server, san switches, and Storage. Som