Host Bus Adapter [HBA]

* HBA is an important component of Storage networks, especially in SAN architecture.
* HBA is usually host-side component & can be connected to PCI or PCI-X or PCI-E slots on the host or servers. it provides the crucial connectivity between Hosts-StorageSubsystems in Direct attached setup, provides connectivity between Host-FabricSwitches-StorageSubsystems in SAN environment.
* HBA vendors are very few, some vendors provide HBA management software & drivers along with HBA (ex: Qlogic, Emulex, Brocade etc).
* HBAs available in market may be of Fibre Channel (FC), SCSI, SAS and iSCSI interfaces.
* HBA comes in different priceband and the difference in price band is largely driven by the number of ports. HBAs are available in the market with single port, dual(2) Ports, Quad(4) ports, octa(8) ports etc. Depending on the number of Ports & the type of interfaces, the HBA cost varies from 500$ to 5000$ or even more.