Summary: A cheatsheet to collect various information regarding storage.
Date: 31 December 2024

Here you can find some information with explanation about some commonly used terms in storage terminology.

Refers to reading or writing data records in sequential order, that is, one record after the other. To read record 10, for example, you would first need to read records 1 through 9. This differs from random access, in which you can read and write records in any order.

Some programming languages and operating systems distinguish between sequential-access data files and random-access data files, allowing you to choose between the two types. Sequential-access files are faster if you always access records in the same order. Random-access files are faster if you need to read or write records in a random order.

Devices can also be classified as sequential access or random access. For example, a tape drive is a sequential-access device because to get to point q on the tape, the drive needs to pass through points a through p. A disk drive, on the other hand, is a random-access device because the drive can access any point on the disk without passing through all intervening points.

Refers to the ability to access data at random. The opposite of random access is sequential access. To go from point A to point Z in a sequential-access system, you must pass through all intervening points. In a random-access system, you can jump directly to point Z. Disks are random access media, whereas tapes are sequential access media.

The terms random access and sequential access are often used to describe data files. A random-access data file enables you to read or write information anywhere in the file. In a sequential-access file, you can only read and write information sequentially, starting from the beginning of the file.

Both types of files have advantages and disadvantages. If you are always accessing information in the same order, a sequential-access file is faster. If you tend to access information randomly, random access is better.

Random access is sometimes called direct access.

In general, the period of time that one component in a system is spinning its wheels waiting for another component. Latency, therefore, is wasted time. For example, in accessing data on a disk, latency is defined as the time it takes to position the proper sector under the read/write head.

For disk drives, the terms seek time and access time are often used interchangeably. Technically speaking, however, the access time is often longer the seek time because it includes a brief latency period.

Access time is also frequently used to describe the speed of disk drives. Disk access times are measured in milliseconds (thousandths of a second), often abbreviated as ms. Fast hard disk drives for personal computers boast access times of about 9 to 15 milliseconds. Note that this is about 200 times slower than average DRAM.

The access time for disk drives includes the time it actually takes for the read/write head to locate a sector on the disk (called the seek time). This is an average time since it depends on how far away the head is from the desired data.

filer01*> sis config
                                              Inline
Path                 Schedule     Compression Compression
-------------------- ------------ ----------- -----------
/vol/SATA_PRD_DEDUP  sun-sat@0    Disabled    Disabled
filer01*> sis config -s - /vol/SATA_PRD_DEDUP
filer01*> sis config
                                              Inline
Path                 Schedule     Compression Compression
-------------------- ------------ ----------- -----------
/vol/SATA_PRD_DEDUP  -            Disabled    Disabled

filer01*> sis config -s sun-sat@0 /vol/SATA_PRD_DEDUP
filer01*> sis config
                                              Inline
Path                 Schedule     Compression Compression
-------------------- ------------ ----------- -----------
/vol/PRD_DEDUP       sun-sat@0    Disabled    Disabled