In a SAN, multiple hosts, using different operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, or UNIX, can access the storage solution at the same time. You can use Selective LUN mapping and portsets to limit data access between the hosts and the storage.

For iSCSI, the network topology between the storage solution and the hosts is referred to as a network. For FC, FC/NVMe and FCoE the network topology between the storage solution and the hosts is referred to as a fabric. To create redundancy, which protects you against loss of data access, you should set up your SAN with HA pairs in a multi-network or multi-fabric configuration. Configurations using single nodes or single networks/fabrics are not fully redundant so are not recommended.

After your SAN is configured, you can provision storage for iSCSI or FC, or you can provision storage for FC/NVMe. Then you can connect to your hosts to begin servicing data.

SAN protocol support varies based on your version of ONTAP, your platform and your configuration. For details on your specific configuration, see the NetApp Interoperability Matrix Tool.