Here’s a comprehensive list of storage-related terms that cover various aspects of data storage, management, and performance. These terms are widely used in the context of storage solutions, from traditional file systems to advanced distributed storage systems.

General Storage Terms

1. File System:
   • A system used by operating systems to manage files and directories on storage devices.
   • Examples: ext4, NTFS, ZFS, XFS.
2. Block Storage:
   • A type of storage where data is stored in fixed-size blocks. Often used in SAN (Storage Area Networks).
   • Examples: iSCSI, Fibre Channel.
3. Object Storage:
   • A method for storing data as objects, which include the data, metadata, and a unique identifier.
   • Examples: Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift.
4. NAS (Network Attached Storage):
   • A storage device that provides file-level access to data over a network.
   • Example: A file server using NFS or SMB protocols.
5. SAN (Storage Area Network):
   • A high-speed network that provides block-level access to storage. It connects servers to storage devices.
   • Example: Fibre Channel SAN.
6. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks):
   • A method for combining multiple physical disks into a single logical unit to provide redundancy and improve performance.
   • Types: RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10.
7. LVM (Logical Volume Management):
   • A system that provides flexible disk management, allowing you to manage physical storage as logical volumes.
   • Commonly used in Linux.
8. Volume:
   • A logical unit of storage, which can consist of multiple disks or partitions.
   • Examples: LVM volumes, ZFS volumes.
9. Snapshot:
   • A point-in-time copy of data, often used for backups or recovery.
   • Examples: ZFS snapshots, LVM snapshots.
10. Thin Provisioning:
    • A method where storage is allocated dynamically as needed rather than upfront.
    • Used in virtualized storage environments.
11. Thick Provisioning:
    • A method where the entire allocated storage is reserved upfront, regardless of the actual usage.
12. Tiered Storage:
    • A storage method where data is stored on different types of storage media depending on its access patterns or importance.
    • Example: Frequently accessed data on SSDs, archival data on HDDs.
13. Storage Pool:
    • A collection of storage devices or volumes managed as a single entity.
    • Examples: ZFS pools, Ceph pools.

Data Redundancy and Performance Terms

14. Replication:
    • The process of copying data from one location to another to ensure redundancy and fault tolerance.
    • Examples: MySQL replication, GlusterFS replication.
15. Mirroring:
    • A type of replication where data is duplicated exactly on another disk or system.
    • Example: RAID 1.
16. Striping:
    • A method of writing data across multiple disks to improve performance.
    • Example: RAID 0.
17. Erasure Coding:
    • A data protection method that splits data into fragments and adds parity for fault tolerance. It is more storage-efficient than replication.
    • Example: Ceph erasure coding.
18. I/O (Input/Output):
    • Refers to the data transfer between a system and its storage devices. I/O performance is crucial for storage system speed.
19. IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second):
    • A measure of how many read/write operations a storage system can handle per second.
20. Latency:
    • The time it takes to process a read or write request in a storage system.
21. Throughput:
    • The amount of data that can be processed by a system over a specific period, typically measured in MB/s or GB/s.
22. Cache:
    • Temporary storage used to speed up data access by storing frequently accessed data.
    • Example: SSD caching.
23. Write-back Cache:
    • Data is written to cache first and then asynchronously written to the main storage.
24. Write-through Cache:
    • Data is written to both the cache and the main storage simultaneously for higher reliability.

Data Protection Terms

25. Backup:
    • The process of creating a copy of data to protect against data loss.
    • Types: Full backup, incremental backup, differential backup.
26. Incremental Backup:
    • Only the data that has changed since the last backup is copied.
27. Differential Backup:
    • Copies all data that has changed since the last full backup.
28. Disaster Recovery (DR):
    • A strategy and set of procedures for recovering from major failures, such as data loss or system outages.
29. Snapshot:
    • A read-only copy of data at a specific point in time, used for backups or disaster recovery.
30. Retention Policy:
    • The rules governing how long backups or snapshots are kept before they are deleted.

Cloud and Virtualization Storage Terms

31. Cloud Storage:
    • A service where data is stored and accessed over the internet. It can be object storage, file storage, or block storage.
    • Example: Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage.
32. S3 (Simple Storage Service):
    • A cloud object storage service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
33. OpenStack Swift:
    • An open-source object storage system for cloud environments.
34. Persistent Storage:
    • Storage that retains data across reboots or system failures, typically used in cloud and containerized environments.
35. Virtual Disk:
    • A disk image file used by virtual machines to simulate a physical disk.
36. RBD (RADOS Block Device):
    • A block storage solution provided by Ceph, which allows virtual machines and cloud environments to access distributed storage.
37. CephFS:
    • A distributed file system provided by Ceph, allowing multiple nodes to share data.
38. Storage Virtualization:
    • The abstraction of physical storage devices into a virtual pool of storage that can be managed more flexibly.
    • Example: VMware vSAN, LVM.
39. VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure):
    • A virtualization technology where desktop environments are hosted on a centralized server and accessed over a network.

Advanced Storage and Distributed Systems Terms

40. Distributed File System:
    • A file system that allows data to be stored across multiple servers while appearing as a single storage entity.
    • Example: GlusterFS, CephFS.
41. CRUSH Algorithm:
    • The algorithm used by Ceph to distribute data across a cluster based on configurable rules, ensuring high availability and data distribution.
42. PG (Placement Group):
    • A logical collection of objects in Ceph that map data to OSDs (Object Storage Daemons).
43. Object Storage Daemon (OSD):
    • A component in Ceph that stores data on the disk and handles read/write requests.
44. Metadata Server (MDS):
    • A server in Ceph that handles the metadata operations for CephFS (Ceph File System).
45. RADOS (Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store):
    • The underlying storage platform used by Ceph for handling objects, blocks, and files.
46. ZFS:
    • A highly reliable and scalable file system and volume manager with support for snapshots, replication, and data integrity verification.
47. Btrfs (B-Tree File System):
    • A Linux file system with advanced features such as snapshots, compression, and subvolumes.
48. Storage Gateway:
    • A service or device that bridges on-premises storage to cloud storage.
    • Example: AWS Storage Gateway.
49. Write Amplification:
    • A phenomenon where the actual amount of data written to storage is more than the original amount of data intended to be written, often seen in SSDs.
50. Journaling:
    • A technique used in file systems to ensure data integrity by keeping a log (journal) of changes before they are committed to the main file system.
    • Example: ext4 journaling.