Home > Workload Solutions > SQL Server > Guides > Design Guide—SQL Server 2022 Database Solution with Object Storage on Dell Hardware Stack > Terminology
The following table provides definitions for some key terms used in this document.
Term | Definition |
Data Virtualization | Data virtualization allows applications to retrieve and manipulate data without requiring the data source’s format and physical location. |
C & I (Client and Infrastructure) Node | The Client and Infrastructure node is used to manage different solution components that clusters do not handle. This node provides client machines and essential technologies such as domain name services, domain controller services, NTP services, and benchmarking. |
CSAH (Cluster System Admin Host) Node | The Cluster System Admin Host node is not a part of the cluster, but it is required for OpenShift cluster administration. The authentication tokens needed to administer an OpenShift cluster are installed on the CSAH node as part of the deployment process, whereas OpenShift CLI administration tools are deployed onto the control-plane nodes. Dell strongly discourages managing clusters through control-plane nodes. |
Dell Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) | Elastic Cloud Storage is an on-premises software-defined object storage platform that is an alternative to public cloud solutions offering scalability, flexibility, and resiliency. ECS empowers organizations to capture, store, protect, and manage unstructured data at a scale that matches the public cloud, behind an enterprise’s firewall. ECS provides a flat, scale-out architecture and maintains strong global consistency, enabling organizations to lower total data ownership costs. ECS enables management of globally distributed storage infrastructure with a single global namespace, providing users access to critical business data through S3, Atmos, CAS, Swift, NFSv3, and HDFS. |
Namespace | Namespaces provide a way to organize or group items in isolated storage spaces for different business purposes. |
Bucket | A bucket is a container for objects. Buckets can be assigned to namespaces and can have metadata associated with them. |
Dell PowerStore | A storage appliance that offers all flash storage and supports the NVMe communication protocol. Dell PowerStore supports VMware vVols. PowerStore and can be scaled up and out. |
vVol | Virtual disk containers, otherwise known as Virtual Volumes, are defined by VMware vVols and operate independently of underlying physical storage representation. These virtual disks eliminate pre-allocated LUNs/Volumes by serving as the primary unit of data management. |
Logical Unit Number (LUN) | A LUN is defined by SCSI standards to uniquely identify an individual or collection of physical or virtual storage devices. |
Container | Containers are lightweight applications decoupled from underlying host infrastructure. |
Dell Container Storage Interface (CSI) | Dell Container Storage Interface allows containers to communicate with storage volumes (LUN) and abstract them into persistent volumes (PV). |
High Availability | This is the ability for a system to constantly provide service despite potential failures of the underlying components. |
Load Balancer | A load balancer is used to manage the traffic within a system and to ensure that requests are sent to the appropriate available nodes. |
Microservice | Microservices follow a software architectural design pattern that allows for larger applications to be made up of smaller services that are kept independent as highly cohesive subcomponents. These services communicate through APIs and can be scaled using container orchestrators such as Kubernetes/OpenShift. |
Virtualization | Virtualization allows a computer’s resources to be abstracted and shared by virtual machines. |
Secure Socket Layer and Transport Layer Security (SSL/TSL) | SSL is a protocol for establishing secure links between networked computers. SSL is deprecated and its successor is TSL, however it is still often referred to as SSL/TSL. |