# FreeBSD's future direction / SAN support



## anomie (Mar 31, 2011)

I'm opening this thread for two reasons: 

 I am curious to hear from anyone who operates a FreeBSD server with a SAN backend successfully. (Any details you're willing to share would be great.) 
 I am wondering what steps I/we can take to stimulate SAN support improvements. This is key in the data center, where (IMO) FreeBSD really shines.

On point #1, see this ol' thread, which actually generated more questions than answers. FreeBSD support for the common hardware - i.e. QLogic HBAs (and, although the storage particulars are mainly obfuscated away from the OS, EMC and Hitachi SANs) - and crucial technologies like reliable multipathing would be most desirable. 

On point #2, my C-fu and hardware-driver-fu are not strong enough to contribute substantial source code. I can certainly earmark my next (meager, in the scheme of things) donation for SAN support development. I can certainly test and contribute readable documentation to the Handbook if a knowledgeable dev writes and checks in the code. 

Thoughts on this topic?


----------

