SAN: paths, access, and operations

Objectives and progression

A technical course with six modules and fictional APS scenarios. Learn to reconcile identities, separate zoning and mapping, diagnose iSCSI sessions, interpret multipathing, and prepare changes with recovery. Includes selected RHEL 9 and ONTAP 9 examples, primary references, and an internal assessment of 24 decisions in 60 minutes.

Audience: APS L2/L3, Linux administration, infrastructure, storage teams, and technical managers.

Prerequisites: Storage, Linux, and TCP/IP fundamentals; examples state relevant conditions.

300 estimated study minutes

• Relate application, host, initiator, paths, and LUN without confusing local names.
• Separate zoning, mapping, and path independence.
• Diagnose connectivity, discovery, login, identity, and startup in stages.
• Interpret maps, aliases, optimization, and queue policies.
• Distinguish degradation, access loss, and write authority.
• Plan growth, maintenance, and removal with criteria per layer and host.

Modules

1. Topology and identity
2. Fibre Channel and LUN access
3. iSCSI: sessions and security
4. Multipathing and path states
5. Diagnosis and resilience
6. Changes and RUN handover

Continue learning

Technical assessments

• Storage
• Linux Administration
• TCP/IP
• Application Production Support

References and version

DR SAN 2026-09; selected RHEL 9, ONTAP 9 and iSCSI behavior

• RHEL 9 DM Multipath: topology, identity, queue policy, resize and safe removal · 2026-09-30
• RHEL 9 iSCSI target, ACL, LUN and CHAP · 2026-09-30
• ONTAP initiator groups and LUN access · 2026-09-30
• ONTAP iSCSI LUN visibility troubleshooting · 2026-09-30
• ONTAP SAN provisioning · 2026-09-30
• ONTAP FC and FCoE zoning concepts · 2026-09-30
• ONTAP recommended FC zoning configuration · 2026-09-30
• RFC 7143 consolidated iSCSI protocol: naming, sessions and security · 2026-09-30
• RHEL 9 iSCSI discovery, login, boot and session inspection · 2026-09-30
• ONTAP SAN multipath and version-specific automatic LIF failover · 2026-09-30
• ONTAP ALUA, reporting nodes and path management · 2026-09-30
• Linux block-layer persistent reservations · 2026-09-30