March 2013 Dell EqualLogic Configuration Guide v14.1 10-104
10.1 FS Series architecture
The FS Series appliance connects to an EqualLogic PS Series SAN via standard iSCSI connection paths
with iSCSI based block level I/O taking place between the FS Series appliance initiators and the target
volumes on the PS Series arrays. The FS Series controllers host the FluidFS based NAS file system and
all front-end client protocol connection management and load balancing, as well as manage all back-
end data protection and high-availability functions.
Figure 32 illustrates the EqualLogic Unified Storage Architecture.
• It is a unified solution because the system is providing both block and file level storage.
• The storage pool shows a single pool that contains a NAS Reserve (managed by the NAS
Appliance) plus other volumes that are providing block I/O storage targets not used by the FS
NAS appliance. To emphasize this flexibility, we show a group of servers connected to the NAS
Appliance through the LAN Switches (acting as CIFS/NFS clients) and connecting directly to
the iSCSI SAN switches for block I/O.
• The EqualLogic Group Manager provides a single user interface for configuring and managing
PS Series and FS Series functions.
Figure 32 EqualLogic Unified Storage architecture
10.1.1 FS Series solution for file only storage
In a file only scenario the initiators on the FS Series appliance are the only iSCSI clients connecting to
the PS Series arrays. The pools and volumes in the arrays provide storage for FS Series appliance file
I/O only. This scenario is shown in Figure 33.
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