I am designing the next evolution of our IT infrastructure. I am considering implementing an iSCSI SAN. My current plan is to connect only our servers to the SAN, and then implement any file sharing to the desktops via network shares using one of the servers as a file server. After more reading, I am wondering if I need to implement a file server at all if I have an iSCSI SAN. Here are my questions:
Would I compromise the performance of the SAN to the servers if I let the SAN traffic run over the whole network, instead of just between the iSCSI target and the servers as clients?
If I create a "disk" on the iSCSI target, can multiple clients access the same "disk"? If so, can this replace network file shares?
I realize that question 1 is a loaded question, since I did not specify the particulars of my network, but I am just looking for general thoughts about heading down that path. Advance thanks for your thoughtful answers.