SNIA Online Dictionary
SNIA Developer Conference September 15-17, 2025 | Santa Clara, CA
| AAA | Acronym for Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting. |
| access control | Prevention of unauthorized use of a resource, including the prevention of use of a resource in an unauthorized manner [ISO/TS 14265:2011] |
| Access Control Entry | A single entry in an Access Control List, which either denies or grants access to a given resource by one principal (a user or a group of users and/or groups). |
| Access Control List | List of entities, together with their access rights, that are authorized to access a resource [ISO/IEC 20944-1:2013] |
| access fairness | A process by which nodes are provided access to a Fibre Channel arbitrated loop independently of other nodes' activity. |
| access method | 1. The means used to access a physical transmission medium in order to transmit data. 2. In IBM Corporation's OS/390 operating system and its precursors, a file organization method, such as sequential, random, indexed, etc., and the operating system software used to implement it. |
| access path | The combination of adapters, addresses and routes through a switching fabric used by a computer to communicate with a storage device. Some configurations support multiple access paths to a single device. See multi-path I/O. |
| account | An established relationship between a principal and a computer, network or service. |
| accountability | 1. The property enabling principals' actions to be attributed to them in such a way that there is little possibility for denying responsibility for those actions. 2. The security goal that generates the requirement for actions of an entity to be traced uniquely to that entity. This supports non-repudiation, deterrence, fault isolation, intrusion detection and prevention, and after-action recovery and legal action. [NIST SP 800-33] |
| ACE | Acronym for Access Control Entry. |
| ACL | Acronym for Access Control List. |
| ACS | Acronym for Automated Cartridge System. |
| active | 1. The state of a Fibre Channel Sequence Initiator between the start of transmission of the first data frame of a sequence and the completion of transmission of the last data frame in the sequence. 2. The state of a Fibre Channel Sequence Recipient between the start of reception of the first data frame of a sequence and the completion of reception of the last data frame in the sequence. |
| Active archive | A long-term data retention system that allows online access to retained file and object data. |
| active component | A system component that requires electrical power to operate, such as a power supply, fan, or controller. |
| active data | Data that is immediately accessible to an application without the need to stage it in from a lower tier of storage. See near-online data. |
| Active Directory | A Microsoft technology for the central and hierarchical administration of large groups of computers, users and groups. |
| active power | The power consumption of a system when powered on and under normal workload. |
| active-active | Synonym for dual active components or controllers. |
| active-active | A pair of components that share a task or class of tasks when both are functioning normally, where one takes on the entire task or tasks when the other component fails. An example is when active-active controllers are connected to the same set of storage devices and improve failure tolerance compared to a single controller. |
| active-passive | Synonym for hot standby components or controllers. |
| actuator | The physical element of an HDD that moves the heads to position them to a particular cylinder on the media. |
| AD | Acronym for Active Directory. |
| adapter | A hardware device, typically an add-in card or specialized component on a system board, that converts the timing and protocol of one bus or interface to another, to enable a computer system's processing hardware to access peripheral devices. A Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter and an Ethernet Network Interface Card are both kinds of adapters. |
| adaptive array | A disk array that is capable of changing its virtual-to-physical location mapping algorithm (e.g., from mirrored to parity RAID) while the array is operating. |
| ADC | 1. Acronym for Analog Digital Converter. 2. Acronym for the INCITS T10 Automation/Drive Interface Commands standards family. |
| address | 1. A fixed length bit pattern that uniquely identifies a block of data stored on a disk or tape. 2. A fixed-length bit pattern that uniquely identifies a location (bit, byte, word, etc.) in a computer memory. 3. An identifier whose value uniquely identifies a SCSI port connected to a SCSI interconnect for purposes of communication. 4. A bit pattern that uniquely identifies a device on a network. |
| address identifier | A 24-bit value used to identify the source or destination of a frame. The source of a frame is identified by an S_ID and the destination of a frame is identified by a D_ID, as specified in the FC-FS standard. The FC-SW standard includes a table of special address identifier values and their meanings. |
| address resolution | The process of determining a MAC address, given a more abstract LAN or WAN address. |
| Address Resolution Protocol | 1. Any protocol used to obtain a mapping from a higher layer address to a lower layer address; when abbreviated as ARP, the Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol (see 2) is most often meant. 2. The protocol used by an IP networking layer to map IP addresses to lower level hardware (i.e., MAC) addresses. |
| addressable capacity | The number of bytes available to be written via a transport protocol. Transport protocols include SCSI and NVMe. Addressable capacity does not include unaddressable space, such as ECC (error correcting code) data, remap areas, and inter-sector gaps. See theoretical capacity. |
| addressing | An algorithm by which areas of fixed disk, removable cartridge media, or computer system main memory are uniquely identified. See block addressing, C-H-S addressing, explicit addressing, implicit addressing. |
| administration host | A computer that manages one or more storage subsystems (e.g., filers, disk array subsystems, tape subsystems, etc.). |
| administrator | A person charged with the installation, configuration, and management of a computer system, network, storage subsystem, database, or application. |
| Advanced Encryption Standard | A cryptographic algorithm designated by NIST [NIST FIPS 197] as a replacement for DES. |
| Advanced Technology Attachment | A standard designed to connect storage devices to computer systems. ATA is also the official name for Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE). |
| adverse inference | Inference that destroyed or missing evidence (data) would have been harmful to a party who failed to provide it. |
| AES | Acronym for Advanced Encryption Standard. |
| AFA | Acronym for All Flash Array. |
| agent | A program that performs one or more services (such as gathering information from the Internet), acting for or as a principal. |
| aggregation | A process related to consolidation, consisting of combining multiple similar and related objects or operations into a single one. |
| AISL | Acronym for Augmented ISL. |
| AISL Set | A set of AISLs that connect the controlling switches that are part of a distributed switch. |
| AIT | Acronym for Advanced Intelligent Tape. |
| algorithmic mapping | Use of an algorithm to translate from one data addressing domain to another. If a volume is algorithmically mapped, the physical location of a block of data may be calculated from its virtual volume address using known characteristics of the volume (e.g., stripe depth and number of member disks). See dynamic mapping, tabular mapping. |
| alias | An alternate name for an entity, sometimes used to create names that are more easily human readable. |
| alias address identifier | One or more address identifiers that may be recognized by an N-Port in addition to its N-Port Identifier, used to form groups of N-Ports so that frames may be addressed to a group rather than to individual N-Ports. See multicast group. |
| All Flash Array | A synonym for all solid state array. |
| all solid state array | A storage subsystem or array where all persistence is provided by Solid State Storage. |
| alternate client restore | The process of restoring files to a different client than the one from which they were backed up. |
| alternate path restore | The process of restoring files to a different directory than the one from which they were backed up. |
| always on | 1. The state of always having power applied (systems) or of being continually active (communication links). 2. A state of an operational link of always being powered on and continually transmitting either data frames, idles or fill words, in contrast to bursty transmissions and listening for a quiet line in earlier 10 and 100 Mbit/sec Ethernet. |
| AL_PA | Acronym for Arbitrated Loop Physical Address. |
| American National Standards Institute | A body that coordinates the development and use of voluntary consensus standards in the United States and represents the needs and views of U.S. stakeholders in international standardization forums around the globe. ANSI accredits both standards certification organizations and standards development organizations. The IEEE Standards Association (which standardizes Ethernet and many other technologies) and INCITS (which standardizes SCSI, Fibre Channel, MPEG, and many other technologies) are two of over 100 ANSI accredited standards organizations. |
| Analog Digital Converter | A device that converts a continuously valued (analog) input to a discretely valued (digital) output. |
| ANSI | Acronym for American National Standards Institute. |
| ANSI T10 | The standards development committee accredited by INCITS to develop SCSI standards for communication between initiators (i.e., host devices) and targets (e.g., storage device controllers). The full name of this committee is the INCITS SCSI Storage Interfaces Technical Committee (INCITS TC T10). |
| ANSI T11 | The standards development committee accredited by INCITS to develop standards related to Fibre Channel, related serial storage interfaces, and certain storage management interfaces. The full name of this committee is the INCITS Fibre Channel Interfaces (T11) Technical Committee (INCITS TC T11). T11.2 (physical) and T11.3 (protocol) are current task groups in ANSI T11. |
| ANSI T13 | The standards development committee accredited by INCITS to develop ATA standards for communication between a host and a storage device. The full name of this committee is the INCITS ATA Storage Interfaces Technical Committee (INCITS TC T13). |
| API | Acronym for Application Programming Interface. |
| appliance | An intelligent device programmed to perform a single well-defined function, such as providing file, web, network or print services. Appliances differ from general purpose computers in that their software is normally customized for the function they perform, pre-loaded by the vendor, and not alterable by the user. See filer. |
| application | A client of a storage system. Applications range from desktop productivity applications to enterprise-wide federated applications spanning multiple databases and file systems. |
| Application Programming Interface | An interface used by an application program to request services. The term API is usually used to denote interfaces between applications and the software components that comprise the operating environment (e.g., operating system, file system, volume manager, device drivers, etc.). |
| Application Response Measurement | An Open Group technical standard, being developed in both The Open Group and the Distributed Management Task Force, which defines function calls for transaction monitoring. |
| Application Specific Integrated Circuit | An integrated circuit designed for a particular application, such as interfacing to a SCSI interconnect. |
| application write request | I/O requests made by storage clients, as distinguished from I/O requests made by a storage subsystem's own control software. |
| arbitrated loop | 1. A Fibre Channel interconnect topology in which each port is connected to the next, forming a loop. At any instant, only one port in a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop can transmit data. Before transmitting data, a port in a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop must participate with all other ports in the loop in an arbitration to gain the right to transmit data. The arbitration logic is distributed among all of a loop's ports. 2. The version of the Fibre Channel protocol used with the arbitrated loop physical topology. |
| Arbitrated Loop Physical Address | An 8-bit value used to identify a participating device in an Arbitrated Loop. |
| arbitration | Any process by which a user of a shared resourcesuch as a port connected to a shared busnegotiates with other users for the (usually temporary) right to use the resource (in the given example, by transmitting data on the bus). |
| archive | 1. A collection of data objects, perhaps with associated metadata, in a storage system whose primary purpose is the long-term preservation and retention of that data. 2. An organization of people and systems that have accepted the responsibility to protect, retain, and preserve information and data and make it available for a Designated Community. (Source: ISO 14721) |
| ARM | 1. Acronym for Application Response Measurement. 2. A common microprocessor architecture, as well as the name of the company that created the architecture. |
| ARP | Acronym for Address Resolution Protocol. |
| array | A storage array, i.e., a disk array or tape array. |
| array configuration | 1. Assignment of the disks and operating parameters for a disk array by setting parameters such as stripe depth, RAID model, cache allowance, spare disk assignments, etc. See configuration, physical configuration. 2. The arrangement of disks and operating parameters that results from such an assignment. |
| ASIC | Acronym for Application Specific Integrated Circuit. |
| ASL | Acronym for A_Port Switch Link. |
| assigned capacity | The amount of space on a system or data container which has been allotted to be written. On thin provisioning systems, an assigned capacity number represents a promise of the amount of space that is available on demand; usable capacity is allocated as the container is written. On fully provisioned systems, usable capacity must be committed at the same time the container is allocated. See thin provisioning. |
| Association ID | A value that uniquely identifies an NVMeoFC association. |
| Association Identifier | A value that uniquely identifies an FC_NVMe association. See FC-NVMe. |
| assurance | A process for demonstrating that the security goals and objectives for an IT product or system are met on a continuing basis. |
| assurance level | The measure of confidence that the security features, practices, procedures, and architecture of an information system accurately mediate and enforce the security policy. |
| asymmetric cryptography | Cryptography that uses an asymmetric cryptosystem. |
| asymmetric cryptosystem | A cryptographic algorithm in which different keys are used to encrypt and decrypt a single message or block of stored information. One of the keys is kept secret and referred to as a private key; the other key can be freely disclosed and is called a public key. |
| asynchronous I/O operation | An I/O operation whose initiator does not await its completion before proceeding with other work, enabling an initiator to have multiple concurrent I/O operations in progress. |
| asynchronous I/O request | A request to perform an asynchronous I/O operation. |
| asynchronous mirroring | Deprecated synonym for asynchronous replication. |
| asynchronous replication | A replication technique in which data must be committed to storage at only the primary site and not the secondary site before the write is acknowledged to the host. Data is then forwarded to the secondary site as the network capabilities permit. |
| Asynchronous Transfer Mode | A connection-oriented data communications technology based on switching 53 byte fixed-length units of data called cells. ATM transmission rates are multiples of 51.840 Mbits per second. Each cell is dynamically routed. In the United States, a public communications service called SONET uses ATM at transmission rates of 155, 622, 2048, and 9196 Mbits per second. These are called OC-3, OC-12, OC-48, and OC-192 respectively. A similar service called SDH is offered in Europe. ATM is also used as a LAN infrastructure, sometimes with different transmission rates and coding methods than are offered with SONET and SDH. |
| ATA | Acronym for Advanced Technology Attachment. |
| ATM | Acronym for Asynchronous Transfer Mode. |
| atomic operation | An operation that, from an external perspective, occurs either in its entirety or not at all. For example, database management systems that implement the concept of business transactions treat each business transaction as an atomic operation on the database. This means that either all of the database updates that comprise a transaction are performed or none of them are performed; it is never the case that some of them are performed and others not. RAID arrays must implement atomic write operations to properly reproduce single-disk semantics from the perspective of their clients. |
| attack | Attempt to destroy, expose, alter, disable, steal or gain unauthorized access to or make unauthorized use of an asset. [ISO/IEC 27000:2018] |
| attenuation | The power loss between an optical or electrical transmitter and a receiver, typically expressed in units of decibels (dB). |
| audit | Independent review and examination of records and activities to assess the adequacy of controls, to ensure compliance with established policies and operational procedures, and to recommend necessary changes in controls, policies, or procedures. |
| audit log | Synonym for audit trail. |
| audit trail | A chronological record of system activities that enables the reconstruction and examination of a sequence of events and/or changes in a system such as an information system, a communications system or any transfer of sensitive material and/or information. |
| Augmented ISL | An E_Port to E_Port link used by the FC-SW redundancy protocol. |
| authentic | Being genuine, or accurate in representation of facts. [Legal] For evidence, being found by a jury (or trier of fact) to be what it purports to be and thus being worthy of trust, reliance, or belief. |
| authentication | 1. The act of verifying the identity claimed by a party to an interaction. 2. The act of meeting the threshold level for admissibility, but not necessarily of authenticity, of evidence (e.g., ESI). |
| authenticity | 1. Synonym for data integrity. 2. The property of being genuine and being able to be verified and trusted; confidence in the validity of a transmission, a message, or message originator. [NIST SP 800-53] 3. The property, condition, or quality of being worthy of trust, reliance, or belief because the proponent (offeror) has shown enough corroborating evidence to a jury (or trier of fact) to warrant such. |
| authorization | 1. The process of determiningfor example via access controlthat a requestor is allowed to receive a service or perform an operation. 2. The limiting of usage of information system resources to authorized users, programs, processes or other systems, formally described as controlling usage by subjects of objects. |
| auto-swap | Abbreviation for automatic swap. |
| auto-tiering | Synonym for automated storage tiering. |
| Automated Cartridge System | Synonym for tape cartridge handling robot. |
| automated storage tiering | Automatic movement of data between storage tiers based on policy. The tiers may be within a single storage system or may span storage systems, including a cloud storage tier. |
| automatic backup | A backup triggered by an event (e.g., a schedule point, or a threshold reached) rather than by human action. |
| automatic failover | Failover that occurs without human intervention. |
| automatic swap | The substitution of a replacement unit (RU) in a system for a defective one, where the substitution is performed by the system itself while it continues to perform its normal function (possibly at a reduced rate of performance). Automatic swaps are functional rather than physical substitutions, and do not require human intervention. Ultimately, however, defective components must be replaced in a physical hot, warm, or cold swap operation. See cold swap, hot swap, warm swap, hot spare. |
| automatic switchover | Deprecated synonym for automatic failover. |
| autonomic storage management | The ability of a storage system to self-regulate attributes such as capacity, performance, and resiliency based on application demands, without any administrative intervention. |
| availability | 1. The amount of time that a system is available during those time periods when it is expected to be available, often measured as a percentage of an elapsed year. For example, 99.95% availability equates to 4.38 hours of downtime in a year (0.0005 * 365 * 24 = 4.38) for a system that is expected to be available all the time. See data availability, high availability. 2. The property of being accessible and usable upon demand by an authorized entity. [ISO/IEC 27000] |
| available capacity | Synonym for free space. |
| A_Port | A type of port used to communicate within a Fibre Channel distributed switch. |
| A_Port Switch Link | |