A SAN has the following basic components:
A client that accesses network storage
A storage appliance that provides network storage
A network that links the client to the storage
These three components remain the same regardless of which protocol is used on the network. In some cases, the network may even be a cable between the initiator and the target, but in most cases there is some type of switching involved. The RESTful API SAN service manages four types of SAN resources for each supported protocol.
Initiators - An application or production system end-point that is capable of initiating a SCSI session and sending SCSI commands and I/O requests. Initiators are also identified by unique addressing methods.
Initiator groups - A set of initiators. When an initiator group is associated with a Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs), only initiators from that group can access the LUN.
Targets - A storage system end-point that provides a service of processing SCSI commands and I/O requests from an initiator. A target is created by the storage system administrator, and is identified by unique addressing methods. A target, once configured, consists of zero or more logical units.
Target groups - A set of targets. LUNs are exported over all the targets in one specific target group.