Nexsan E18

Overview:

• Over 54TB of high capacity SATA in 2U
• Over 10TB of high performance SAS in 2U
• 18-disk RAID system with two active drawers
• Single or dual redundant active/active controllers
• High speed cache with both battery and flash backup
• 8Gb Fibre Channel and 1Gb iSCSI host-side ports
• Utilizes multi-path IO for Windows, Linux, VMware, Xen and Hyper-V
• No single-point-of-failure design
• Anti-Vibration Design™ maximizes disk reliability
• Nexsan's exclusive AutoMAID® level 4 technology reduces energy consumption by 85%
• Nexsan's Cool Drive Technology™ utilizes redundant push and pull fans
• Expand with up to 60 additional drives with Nexsan E60X
• Optional 10Gbit iSCSI replaces 8Gb Fibre Channel ports

The Nexsan E18™, a member of the Flexible Storage Platform™, is Nexsan's next generation of high performance, high density and energy-efficient storage solution. Upping the ante over Nexsan's SATA/SASBoy® 14-drive 3U storage system, the E18 is a next-generation, high performance, 18-drive 2U storage system. The E18 supports SATA, SAS and SSD drives to flexibly meet varying storage needs for high performance, high capacity or both. The E18 is designed for applications that require enterprise-class performance at a mid-market price.

The system employs the new Nexsan E-Series RAID controller–available in single or dual controller configurations–and contains up to four 8Gb Fibre Channel ports and up to four 1Gb iSCSI ports to deliver higher bandwidth and path resiliency. Nexsan's Active Drawer Technology™ enables two sliding, active drawers that hold nine drives in each, allowing them to be quickly and easily serviced by one person while remaining online.

The E18 is ideal for transactional applications as well as storage for virtualized environments that utilize Windows, Linux, VMware, Xen or Hyper-V–which access storage randomly, require high performance and require no single-point-of-failure configurations.

Nexsan E18 Elevated Open

About Nexsan E18

The Nexsan E18™ is a block-level RAID storage system, representing a quantum leap in storage performance, density and efficiency with 18 SAS, SATA, or SSD disks in only 2U of rack space. The new Nexsan E-Series™ RAID controller delivers blazing performance and enterprise-class reliability, making the E18 the perfect storage solution for virtualized environments, databases, backup to disk, or general applications demanding high performance and top-tier reliability.

With never-before-seen efficiencies, the E18 allows organizations to add more capacity while lowering overall power, space and cost requirements. Relative to comparable storage systems, the E18 requires only 1/2 of the rack space. Active Drawer Technology™ makes servicing the drives a breeze, and keeps them online when the drawer is open, eliminating the need to power down for maintenance. AutoMAID® level 4 power savings technology places drives into low power states when they are not being accessed, saving up to 85% on power and cooling expenses.

High Performance

Available in single or dual controller configurations, the powerful E-Series controller contains 2GB of battery-backed cache with dual RAID engines to deliver blazing performance. Two 8Gbit FC ports and two 1Gbit iSCSI ports can

Enterprise-Class Reliability

The E18 meets the strictest business continuity demands with high availability features like full redundancy across all active components, including power supplies, ports, controllers, fans and disks. RAID sets can be automatically rebuilt with hot spares. Multi-path architecture ensures no single point of failure. State-of-the-art vibration dampening and air cooling channels ensure leading reliability.

Extreme Density

The E18's unique Active Drawer Technology™ represents the most innovative approach to high density management with two self-contained disk drawers. Each active drawer contains 9 disks and tachometer controlled push and pull fan modules. Specially designed cables enable continuous operation even when a drawer is momentarily pulled out to perform easy disk or fan service.

Unprecedented Energy Saving

Nexsan's exclusive AutoMAID® level 4 technology delivers up to 85% energy savings. Each disk group can easily be assigned a power savings policy with the Web-based management interface. When a disk group is not accessed for a specified time period, it can be put into a lower power-consuming state, saving up to 85% on power and cooling bills. For instance, in scientific computing applications, when workers go home, disks can be powered down. On first access, they are spun up and stay spinning. In backup to disk applications, drives can be powered down when backups are not being performed. No changes to applications or manual intervention is required to get the benefits of AutoMAID level 4.

High Performance Across Both Fibre Channel and ISCSI

E18 gives users the flexibility to utilize Fibre Channel or iSCSI connectivity or both simultaneously. Flexible, scalable and completely OS independent, E18 offers dual function FC and iSCSI connectivity with wire-speed throughput performance.

Easy Management

All Nexsan disk arrays come standard with a software suite that provides comprehensive storage management. Nexsan Storage Manager makes management easy with a single, intuitive browser-based interface. All local and remote Nexsan storage products can be easily and securely managed and monitored. Windows users can utilize Microsoft's storage management tools to perform common administrative tasks, thanks to VDS-compliance. Integration with Microsoft Multi-path I/O (MPIO), as well as multi-path for Linux, OS X, the E18 delivers higher performance and fault tolerance. With the Nexsan QuickStart configuration wizard, the disk array can be up and running in under 10 minutes. Customizations are a breeze with the Nexsan Storage Manager GUI.

Features & Benefits:

Features	Benefits
18 Drive Capacity	Populate with up to 18 SAS, SATA, or SSD drives to meet varying needs
Virtual Computing Environment Ready	High speed SAS and SSD drives can be mixed to deliver performance to transactional applications or virtual hosts
Active Drawer Technology™	Allows one person to easily access hot-swappable disks and fans, in any of the two sliding drawers, which remain operational when opened.
High Availability	Can be configured so there is no single-point-of-failure between the servers and storage system, or within the storage system. All power, fans, disks and I/O ports are fully redundant.
Active / Active	Both controllers service storage requests, delivering twice the performance of the active/passive architecture offered by others.
Energy Savings	AutoMAID® is the storage industry's most sophisticated power management system, delivering delivers up to 85% energy savings. When a disk group is not accessed for a specified time period, it can automatically be put into a lower power-consuming state. No changes to applications or manual intervention is required to get the benefits of AutoMAID level 4.
Anti-Vibration Design™	Hard drives are mounted so that all disks are not spinning in the same direction. In addition, the anti-vibration design of the chassis provides unprecedented hard drive MTBFs.
Cool Drive Technology™	The high density chassis is specially designed for uniform airflow that ensures optimal thermal operation. The hot-swappable fans in the front and rear of the active drawers allow proper push/pull airflow.
Fibre Channel and iSCSI SAN Connectivity	Each controller provides two 8Gb Fibre Channel ports and two 1Gb iSCSI connections – all four ports can be used simultaneously in SAN or direct-attached applications to support multiple workloads.
Easy Administration	A built-in Web server utilizes the dedicated 100Mb/s Ethernet port to deliver a management GUI that sets the gold standard for ease-of-use.
2GB Battery-backed Cache per Controller	The two RISC engines on each controller share a 2GB high speed cache which is supplied with enough battery power to permit it to be saved to flash memory in the event of a sudden loss of power.
Hardware RAID	Supports RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 4, 5 and 6 using two dedicated hardware RAID engines per controller. RAID6 protects against the failure of two drives in a RAID set.
Automatic RAID Set Maintenance	In the event of a drive failure, spare drives are automatically added to a RAID set and a RAID set rebuild is run – all without any manual intervention being required. Administrators can receive email alerts, SNMP alerts or monitor the storage system's health remotely.
Flexible Storage Configuration	Supports multiple RAID sets and multiple volumes per set with full LUN security and up to 254 LUNS per system.
Redundant Power	Dual redundant 120V power supplies
Expansion	Expand with E60X for up to 60 additional SSD, SAS, or SATA drives
Rack	Unit fits into 2U of a standard rack. Cable control is internal to the storage system's two active drawers.

AutoMAID™ Energy Saving Technology:

Nexsan offers the first and only high performance, high capacity RAID storage systems to provide the energy saving benefits of MAID (Massive Array of Idle Disks). SATABeast employs Nexsan's revolutionary AutoMAID™ energy saving technology transparently place SATABeast disk drives into an idle state vastly reducing power consumption and operational costs. AutoMAID delivers the cost-saving benefits of MAID (Massive Array of Idle Disks) but without the limitations of slow access times and special host software. Nexsan's AutoMAID is granular to an individual drive or RAID set and offers multiple levels of energy savings enabling users to determine the right level of access speed and energy savings for their environment. AutoMAID is the first MAID architecture that supports VTL (Virtual Tape Libraries), full file format D2D and standard high performance RAID implementations.

By integrating Nexsan's AutoMAID™ technology into our high performance, multipurpose SATA storage arrays, users now have the flexibility to support multiple applications within the same storage subsystem. AutoMAID is user-selectable allowing this feature to be implemented as desired. AutoMAID can be applied selectively by drive units and can be disabled for volumes requiring the very best response time.

Key Points

• E18 with AutoMAID can cool all drives at 100% activity (even with one or two fans failed, even in a hot room)
• MAID reduces operational costs
• Nexsan’s AutoMAID gains the benefits of MAID without the limitations

AutoMAID Defined

• AutoMAID automatically reduces power consumption and heat generation on idle drives
• Trade-off between response times and power savings are user configurable
• AutoMAID behavior happens automatically and transparently to host – no software changesrequired
• AutoMAID is analogous to power saving modes on laptops
• Typical configuration settings:
  • 30% savings – after 5 minutes of idle time, drives are programmed to unload heads and slow down to 4000 RPM. Very fast recovery time.
  • 52% savings – after 5 minutes of idle time, drives are programmed to spin down. Recovery time on the order of 30 seconds.

AutoMAID Safety Features

• In maximum power saving mode, drive spin up is sequenced to reduce power surges
• Drives automatically wake up for periodic surface scan to ensure data integrity (typically, once a week for a few hours – user configurable)
• AutoMAID feature has no impact on performance if left on in data-intensive server applications – busy systems will never invoke the AutoMAID behavior
• Only two simple configuration settings – "timeout" and "power savings desired"

Technical Specifications:

Front View

Rear View

Nexsan E18 Specifications
Disk Bays	18
Rack U	2U
Controllers	1 Standard Dual RAID Engines per Controller Optional second controller for dual Active/Active
Dual Optional	Active/Active fault-tolerance and increased performance with optional second controller
Supports E60X Expansion	Yes
Storage Expansion Ports for E60X	Two 6Gb SASx4 ports per controller
Battery Protected Cache per Controller	2GB
Host Ports per Controller	2 FC 8Gbit ports & 2 iSCSI 1Gbit ports Optional 2 iSCI 10Gbit ports replace 2 FC 8Gbit ports
Dedicated Management Ports per Controller	1 Ethernet 10/100Mbit port
Drives Supported	1 / 2 / 3TB SATA, 450 / 600GB 15K RPM SAS, 64 / 200 / 400GB SSD
Hardware RAID 6	Included
RAID Levels	0, 1, 1+0, 4, 5, 6
Volumes and LUNs	254 volumes per system / 254 LUNs per port
Power
Power Supplies	Two 1200 Watt 115/240V Auto-sensing are Standard for fault-tolerance
Dimensions and Weight
Height	3.9 inches / 88.1mm (2U)
Width	19 inches / 482.6mm
Depth	31.5 inches / 800mm
Maximum Installed Weight w/ mounting rails, all drives and controllers	151 lbs (with dual controllers and 42 disk drives)
Rack Mount	Fits into a standard 19 inch rack
Environmental
Operating Temperature Range	5ºC to 30ºC (41ºF to 95ºF)
Operating Humidity Range	20% to 80% non-condensing
Operating Altitude	0 to 2,133m (0 to 7,000ft)
Non-operational Altitude	0 to 12,192m (0 to 40,000ft)

Management:

From Anywhere to Anywhere.

That's because–whether you're across town or halfway around the world–you can manage all Nexsan storage products remotely. Our management capabilities are intuitive and easy to use. They require minimal training. And all of our interfaces provide different levels of security to ensure proper authentication and prevent unwanted users from gaining access.

You can configure Nexsan E-Series, Beast and Boy products through our unique, secure and intuitive Web-based GUI tool. The interface uses standard HTML and is compatible with all mainstream browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, etc.) that aren't hardware-, software- or Java™-runtime-specific. The embedded Web-browser GUI operates over the 10/100/1000 port, and supports e-mail alerts and SNMP traps. We also provide a standard serial port for local and direct system configuration.

In addition to the GUI, Nexsan Storage Tools – a comprehensive set of storage management software tools for Windows Server families–make it easy to manage and configure multiple units from a single GUI. Nexsan Storage Tools provide support for Windows Virtual Disk Service (VDS) and Microsoft Management Console (MMC), and include MPIO support for Nexsan RAID storage systems.

Nexsan Storage Tools:

All Nexsan disk arrays, including the SATABoy, SASBoy, SATABeast, SASBeast, and the B-Series come with Nexsan Storage Tools – a comprehensive suite of software, which was purpose-built for mid-sized organizations. Nexsan Storage Tools are available for Windows, Apple OS X, AIX and popular versions of Linux.

Nexsan Storage Tools for Windows

Storage Manager provides a single console from which multiple local and remote Nexsan storage products can be easily and securely managed and monitored. Key features include.

• Management for one or more disk arrays on the LAN or WAN
• Easy to use GUI to configure advanced disk array features
• Red-green-yellow status display of all disk arrays being monitored
• Create and expand volumes
• Use as a stand-alone application or from within Microsoft Management Console (MMC)

Nexsan Data Migration Manager makes it easy to move data onto your new Nexsan disk array or to migrate it from one RAID Disk Set to another – for load balancing, increased storage capacity or any number of other common goals.

Windows VDS Integration and Shell Extensions allow administration of Windows volumes and multiple Nexsan disk arrays directly from Windows management tools. Key features include:

• Seamless integration with Microsoft management tools including: Microsoft Storage Manager for SANs, DISKRAID and DISKPART command-line tools, Microsoft Server Manager and Computer Management, Microsoft Device Manager, Microsoft Disk Management and Windows Explorer
• Create, delete, expand and migrate volumes
• Map LUNs to Windows servers
• Supports both Fibre Channel or iSCSI
• Drill down on all of the Nexsan configuration data from within Microsoft Disk Management

IP Configuration Tool is used to configure Nexsan disk arrays. Features include:

• Automatically detects any Nexsan disk array on the local subnet
• Display status of each disk array (red-green-yellow)
• View and change IP settings
• View and change disk array details such as System name, unique ID and firmware version

Host Identification Tool displays the identifiers of local storage adapters such as Fibre Channel WWPNs and iSCSI IQNs.

MultiSan IO (MSIO) Manager and Drivers provides Multi-path I/O (MPIO) drivers and management software for Windows servers to deliver greater aggregate bandwidth and fault resilience. Features include:

• See detailed information about what paths, target disks and connections the Nexsan DSM (device specific module) has discovered
• Configure the path load balancing policy, path failover strategy and path priorities
• Monitor the health of multipathing, troubleshoot issues and view logs
• Configure alerts, email alerts and other options
• Manage MultiSan IO from a GUI or from a command line

Supports popular versions of Windows including:

• Windows XP (all 32-bit versions)
• Windows Server 2003 (all 32-bit and x64 versions)
• Windows Vista (all 32-bit and x64 versions)
• Windows Server 2008 (all 32-bit and x64 versions)
• Windows 7 (all 32-bit and x64 versions)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (all x64 versions)

See the Nexsan Support site for details

For Linux Nexsan Storage Tools for Linux provides an IP configuration tool to set up the disk array from a Linux system. Nexsan does not need to ship any specific software to enable interoperability and compatibility with Linux. Key features include: IP Configuration Tool is used to configure Nexsan disk arrays Multi-path I/O capabilities built in to Linux delivers greater aggregate bandwidth and fault resilience. No special software is needed Supports popular versions of Linux including Redhat, Centos, SUSE, Fedora, Mandriva, Unbuntu, KNOPPIX, Debian, Linux Mint and Slackware. See the Nexsan Support site for details

For OS X Nexsan Storage Tools for OS X provide an IP configuration tool to set up the disk array from an OS X system. Nexsan does not need to ship any specific software to enable interoperability and compatibility with OS X. Key features include: IP Configuration Tool is used to configure Nexsan disk arrays Multi-path I/O capabilities built in to OS X delivers greater aggregate bandwidth and fault resilience. No special software is needed

For VMware Although Nexsan disk arrays are qualified with VMware, Nexsan does not ship any specific software to enable interoperability and compatibility with VMware ESX. Key features include: Multi-path I/O capabilities built into ESX 4.1 and ESXi 4.1 deliver greater aggregate bandwidth and fault resilience. No special software is needed Map LUNS to Hosts with built-in VMware ESX administration tools

For AIX For AIX, Nexsan provides a Multi-path I/O driver. Key features include: Multi-path I/O drivers leverage the advanced Multi-path I/O capabilities of AIX to deliver greater aggregate bandwidth and fault resilience

Support:

Three Years Advance Replacement Warranty
Nexsan Technologies storage systems are warranted for three full years from the date of shipment. Upon verification of failure, replacement equipment will be shipped out to our customers. Return material authorizations will accompany all equipment shipped and can be issued either by our phone, fax, or email. (warranties are non-transferable without prior consent from Nexsan) Several levels of service upgrades are available for purchase.

Onsite spares Program
For maximum convenience and protection of critical storage devices, this program provides customers with on location spares. This program enables our customers to have in their facility all commonly used spare parts to facilitate rapid restoration of operations. . Along with our optional 24x7 telephone support, customers can now be assured of rapid resolution to any problem. Defective components can then be advance replaced for constant availability.

Next Business Day Onsite
Next Business Day support provides Monday through Friday, 8:00AM – 5:00PM (your local time excluding Nexsan holidays) on-site service with "Next Business Day" response. Replacement parts are shipped via overnight service and if requested, a service representative will be onsite between 8:00AM - 5:00PM the following business day. Software related issues are generally managed remotely from our support center.

24 x 7 x 4hr Onsite
Gain the fastest and most comprehensive level of support, which delivers 24x7 with 4 hour response. Replacement parts are hand delivered with a service representative that will be onsite within 4 hours following diagnosis of hardware failure. Software related issues are generally managed remotely from our support center.

24 x 7 Telephone Support
For your convenience 24 x7 access to the Nexsan technical support team is also available as an upgrade to either the standard warranty or Next Business Day onsite upgrade.

Regulatory Approvals
CE, UL, CUL

Documentation:

Nexsan E18 Datasheet (.PDF)

Nexsan E18 Specification Datasheet (.PDF)