Recover Data from a Failed SAN | Crashed SAN Storage Recovery with BLR Tools

Nimmi Terance
3 min readJun 12, 2024

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Crashed SAN Storage Recovery

Basically, Storage Area Network is what SAN stands for. SAN is a way to store data where all the data is put together in one pool that many servers, nodes, or computers can access.

SANs, like everything else in the IT field, can lose data. When this happens, we need to use SAN data recovery solutions, which are talked about later in this article.

On a SAN, each computer or server can get to the data in the SAN pool as if it were stored on local drives that were directly connected to that computer or node. This section goes into a little more detail.

What does SAN stand for?

A storage area network (SAN) is a very specialized, high-speed network that lets you connect to storage drives or other devices that are on the network.

Simply put, SAN works by: The most important parts of a SAN are:

Storage devices, switches, hosts, and accessors (other virtual clients) are the four types.

There is a real mix of topologies and protocols that connect the different parts of a SAN to each other. A SAN can be in more than one place because of the way the technology works.

To the client or host, SANs show storage in a way that makes it look like the storage is attached locally to their machine, not as NAS (network attached storage).

The storage servers use different versions of RAID, which change based on your needs.

SAN data recovery works the same way, no matter what kind of RAID is used.
Fiber Channel Technology (FC) or Internet Small Computing System Interface (ISCSI) is used by SANs. FC is faster but costs more, while ISCSI is cheaper.

This IBM redbook can help you learn more about the basics of setting up a SAN.

You have to read this also: QNAP NAS Data Recovery

Why a SAN is good

In the event of a crash, it is easier to get back data from a SAN because of the following special and unique benefits:

1. Reduces Bandwidth Issues: Because SAN solutions manage a large volume of network traffic simultaneously, they avoid the slowdown that LAN-based storage solutions have after a certain size.

2. Assisted Multichannel Disaster Recovery: Whether the loss was due to malware, a natural disaster, a server crash, or human error, you can effortlessly recover data from a variety of applications with SAN. Using other storage options makes this more difficult to achieve.

3. It is simpler to configure and oversee. Because everything is centralized, the SAN is easier to manage and has a chunked structure that makes it much easier to expand than other networks.

4. Improved application performance: Storage area networks (SANs) divide and relocate application and storage processing to distinct networks. Performance and load times significantly change as a result.

5. By consolidating backups from various locations onto a single server, SANs simplify the process of backing up. Your data is on a different network, so even if something were to happen to your LAN, it would still be safe. This facilitates the use of SAN data recovery solutions as well.

Common Ways That Storage Systems Go Wrong

Today, these ten types of storage system failures happen most often:

Problems with the hard drive: • Failed OS or BIOS; • Slow networks; • Virtualization management; • Server posting errors; • Malware or ransomware attacks; • power supply failures; • Controller problems; • Stripping corruption; • Deleted partitions

It’s easy to solve all of these issues with SAN data recovery software. These can fix problems with databases and losing access to them, email servers, app crashes, and more.

It’s also possible that the type of server used in your SAN deployment solution has problems that make it harder to recover SAN data. For example, posting errors happen more often on HP LeftHand servers than on Dell EMC, Drobo, or NetApp servers.

Notes on ending

It is important to remember that trying to recover your SAN on your own can and often does lead to bigger problems. That is why it is smart to call in the professionals as soon as you notice a problem and let them do the heavy lifting.

In the end, SAN deployment depends on machines, which don’t always work right. Anytime these machines break down, it’s easy to fix; just call the experts.

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