
32 Using the IBM System Storage N Series with Databases
Figure 2-1 Data ONTAP
2.1.1 The network interface driver
A network interface driver within Data ONTAP is responsible for receiving all incoming NFS,
CIFS, FCP, iSCSI, HTTP, and FTP requests. As each request is received, it is logged in
non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), an acknowledgement is immediately sent back to the requestor,
and any processing needed to satisfy the request is initiated. After initiated, this processing
runs uninterrupted (and continuously), as long as possible. This approach differs from that of
traditional file servers, which employ separate processes for handling the network ...