VDS
Like VSS, VDS provides a management interface for third-party hardware providers that support volume and disk management on third-party storage devices. For example, consider a situation in which you execute a VSS hardware-based snapshot on a SAN. By using VDS, you could change the snapshot LUN from read-only on the SAN to read-write, unmask the LUN to another server, and perform other volume and disk management operations. Although VDS executes on an attached SAN device, Windows Storage Server initiates all of VDS's functionality. Table 5 lists third-party VDS hardware providers.
You can think of VDS as being like ODBC in its early days. Early versions of ODBC supported only a small subset of the available SQL database engines. After several revisions, however, ODBC (and its successor technologies) now provides access to more than 80 percent of the functionality of most database engines and gives programmers the flexibility to support multiple database engines without changing the underlying application.
Similarly, VDS will develop over time to support most SAN management functionality. Then, Microsoft will be able to develop a standardized Web-based UI that will let administrators control most SAN functionality without having to learn the proprietary management UI that ships with each SAN. When Windows administrators can manage a SAN without having to learn a new technology, they will adopt SANs much more quickly. Ease-of-use, a low learning curve, and the lower cost of iSCSI-based SANs are the ingredients necessary for rapid adoption of mid-to-low-priced SANs.
Good News for Windows Administrators
In January 2004, IDC announced that more than half of all storage devices shipped in the second half of 2003 were networked storage devices. This announcement marked a significant turning point from the dominance of Direct Attached Storage (DAS) servers. And with Windows as the dominant OS for NAS devices, it's only a matter of time before Windows will be the dominant management UI for SANs as well. This is good news for Windows administrators, who can leverage their existing skills to manage tomorrow's future networked storage solutions.
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