Which type of hardware is required to support Fibre Channel storage?

The correct choice of hardware required to support Fibre Channel storage is a Host Bus Adapter (HBA). An HBA is a dedicated hardware component that connects a server to a storage area network (SAN) over a Fibre Channel interface. Its primary function is to facilitate communication between the server and the storage devices, providing a high-speed connection that is specifically designed for Fibre Channel technology.

Fibre Channel is a specialized protocol used for storage networking that offers several advantages, including low latency and high data throughput, which are necessary for enterprise storage environments. The HBA translates the data between the server's internal bus and the Fibre Channel network, allowing efficient and reliable communication with Fibre Channel-compliant storage devices.

While other hardware types mentioned in the question may be used for connecting to different types of networks or storage solutions, they do not serve the specific purpose of integrating with Fibre Channel storage. For instance, a Network Interface Card (NIC) is intended for Ethernet connections, a Converged Network Adapter (CNA) supports both Fibre Channel and Ethernet, but does not solely focus on Fibre Channel, and an iSCSI adapter is used for connecting to storage via the iSCSI protocol, not Fibre Channel. Therefore, for direct interaction with Fibre Channel storage, an