Also known as a host controller, a host bus adapter is used to connect different networks and storage devices. Generally these are connected to SCSI, eSATA as well as USB, FireWire and other ports. Host bus adapters are quite useful in building up an iSCSI Storage Area Network but are they really needed?
There are some older models that still use Host Bus Adapters because the performance of the storage area networks will be poor without them. Actually they would have problems in booting. So, if the SAN model is an older variety then there is a use for HBAs. Also a HBA has a TCP Offload Engine. This is actually processor that wraps and unwraps the SCSI information in the Ethernet frames. The wrapping and unwrapping can take up about 20% of the CPU usage and so those SANs that do not have HBAs show a downturn in performance. However, in recent times there has been a tremendous increase in the speed of CPUs and so more and more businesses are shifting towards servers that use powerful CPUs. As a result some CPU speed can be spared to make up for the loss of wrapping and unwrapping.
Earlier, systems that did not use HBAs had to boot from a hard drive that has been directly attached. This was because the system needs to be up and running before it can handle iSCSI packets. But nowadays, some software can make a copy of the boot volume of the system and store it in the iSCSI array. Then with the help of bootstrap loader the boot files are loaded from the SAN at startup.
In earlier times Fiber Channel SANs were replaced by iSCSI SANs. Justifiably they did not perform as well as the Fiber Channels because they lacked the throughput of the Fiber Channels. Nowadays it has become a trend to go for powerful servers but the utility of HBAs cannot be overlooked. There must be some very careful analysis of the performance of the system and also some testing is required to determine if the system can go without an HBA. Presently, the majority are Host Bus Adapters as upgrading systems is not that easy.
The QLE2560 Host Bus Adapter with single port 8 Gb Fiber Channel, 1600 Mbps throughput, Class 2 and 3 service and FCP-3-SCSI protocol make it a good product. Moreover, for enhanced Virtualization performance there are 256 Queue Pairs.
Businesses may also consider the qla2344 which is also a very good Host Bus Adapter.












