Nexsan The Edge

Overview:

• Greater capacity and improved density - up to 84TB
• More robust reliability with Nexsan enterprise class RAID storage
• FC connected RAID storage for higher performance
• Green benefits with Nexsan's energy saving AutoMAID technology
• Consolidates file and block into a single solution with CIFS, NFS and iSCSI

The Edge is designed for businesses that need to consolidate and centralize all their data and storage needs onto a single centralized solution.

The Edge includes fully integrated, Fibre Channel connecting enterprise class Nexsan SAS and/or SATA RAID storage systems. With Nexsan storage, The Edge offers significant advantages over other commodity NAS products. RAID operations are separate and off-loaded from The Edge NAS server maximizing NAS server CPU and memory performance.

The Edge is based on Microsoft WUDSS. Microsoft WUDSS is a dedicated file and storage server technology designed for dependability, seamless integration and delivers the best value in networked storage. WUDSS integrates with existing infrastructures and supports heterogeneous file serving as well as backup of stored data. Its web-based user interface makes management easy and enterprises can make full use of commonly used network environments and standard management software. Nexsan Edge Management GUI – NEM, provides a single interface to WUDSS services and Nexsan storage.

The Edge includes a complete set of data integrity and protection features. Battery backed RAID cache and multiple RAID levels, including hardware RAID 6, ensure data integrity during power outage or double drive failure. Built-in Microsoft snapshots provide data protection of both file and block storage. Microsoft DFS replication protects site data by replicating files to another location.

Energy Saving NAS
The Edge offers the energy saving benefits of Nexsan's revolutionary AutoMAID™ technology. AutoMAID™ (Massive Array of Idle Disks) allows The Edge SASBoy, SATABoy and SATABeast storage units to place its disk drives into several levels energy savings without compromising application performance. This powerful energy saving capability enables users to lower the cost of owning NAS storage.

Advanced Features:

• 1U compact size with integrated FC storage ports and IP host and client ports
   
• Quad core processor with 4GB of memory and two 80GB drives configured in a mirror
   
• Based on Microsoft WUDSS (Windows Unified Data Storage Server) for simple integration with existing infrastructures and support for heterogeneous file serving as well as backup of stored data
   
• Provides both file and block storage with CIFS / NFS (files) and iSCSI (block/databases). Supports up to 2000 volumes
   
• Up to 84TB of capacity with Nexsan’s fully integrated enterprise class SAS and/or SATA RAID storage systems
   
• Utilizes enterprise class server hardware and fibre channel attached to Nexsan enterprise class storage for increased performance and reliability
   
• RAID processes are off-loaded from The Edge NAS server and performed by the Nexsan storage system therefore maximizing NAS server CPU and memory performance
   
• Create SAS and SATA storage tiers to support different applications
   
• Nexsan boasts enterprise class RAID with battery backed cache and hardware RAID 6 to ensure data integrity during power outage and double drive failure (includes global hot spare drives for automatic rebuilds)
   
• Microsoft snapshots provide data protection of both file and block storage offering 512 snapshots per logical volume for up to 64 logical volumes
   
• Microsoft DFS replication protects site data by replicating files to another location
   
• Find files easily using Microsoft index based search or archive files to Nexsan Assureon CAS Archive
   
• Includes Nexsan SAS and SATA ultra GREEN storage with AutoMAID energy saving technology delivering amazing, energy-efficient NAS storage without compromising application performance

Competitive Edge:

Whether you have 20,000 employees or 20 employees, you have the same needs. You need to consolidate your data and have as much performance, reliability and scalability as your budget allows.

How is Nexsan changing the rules of storage? By delivering NAS at a price to meet your budget with enterprise class features to meet your needs. All of this delivered with industry leading green storage.

Performance

How did we get enterprise class NAS performance in the Edge?

• Fibre Channel connected RAID
• RAID offloaded from NAS CPU & memory
• Dedicated high performance RAID controllers
• Large 2GB cache

Reliability

How did we get enterprise class reliability in The Edge?

• Hardware RAID 6 protecting against dual drive failure
• Battery-backed cache ensures data integrity in case of power loss
• Dual redundant power supplies guarantees continuous operation during power supply or power connection failure

Enterprise Class Scalability

How did we get enterprise class scalability in The Edge?

• High density - up to 84 TBs in only 9U of space
• Tiered storage using SAS & SATA storage
• Largest NAS in class (up to 84TBs)

Enterprise Class Reliability

• Multiple RAID levels 0,1, 1+0, 4, 5, 6
• Guard against dual drive outage with hardware RAID 6
• Battery protected write cache ensures data consistency
• Global hot spare drives rebuild without user intervention
• All components are redundant and hot swappable
• Microsoft snapshot data protection
• Microsoft DFS file level replication

Enterprise Class Scalable

• Scale from a few TBs all the way to 84TBs
• Tiered storage using Nexsan SASBoy, SATABoy and SATABeast
• Expand capacity while remaining online
• iSCSI MPIO ensures continuous server access to The Edge iSCSI block storage
• Increase performance using SASBoy
• Expand capacity using SATABoy or SATABeast

Enterprise Class Performance

• High performance dedicated RAID controllers delivering 400MB/sec to 800MB/sec
• RAID processing is separated from the NAS server to maximize NAS CPU and memory performance
• Reliable high speed RAID set rebuilds occur without impacting performance
• Integrated with high speed Fibre Channel
• Full redundant hot-pluggable components provide continuous access

Industry Leading Green Storage

• Energy saving AutoMAID reduces energy costs by up to 60%
• All the benefits of green without the limitations - near instantaneous response form idle state
• Flexible levels of power saving allow you to determine exactly how green you want to be

AutoMAID™ Energy Saving Technology:

Nexsan's evolutionary AutoMAID (Automatic Massive Array of Idle Disks) energy saving technology transparently places disk drives into an idle state to vastly reduce power and cooling costs. AutoMAID delivers the cost-effecdtive benefits of MAID 2.0 without the limitations of slow access times and special host software.

AutoMAID is granular to an individual drive or RAID set and offers multiple levels of energy savings. AutoMAID is user selectable enabling users to determine the right level of response time performance to energy savings. AutoMAID is the first MAID 2.0 architecture that supports VTL, full file format D2D and standard high performance RAID implementations.

Key Points

• AutoMAID reduces power and cooling costs
• Nexsan’s AutoMAID delivers the benefits of MAID without the limitations
• Available on Nexsan Assureon, SATABoy, SATABeast, and SATABeast Xi

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 changes required
• Typical configuration settings:
  • Level 1: Heads Unloaded
    • 15% to 20% savings
    • Sub-second recovery time
  • Level 2: Heads Unloaded, slows to 4000 RPM
    • 35% to 45% savings
    • 15 second recovery time
  • Level 3: Stops spinning (sleep mode; powered on)
    • 60% to 70% savings
    • 30 to 45 second recovery time

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 (user configurable)
• AutoMAID has no impact on performance if left on in data-intensive server applications
• Only two simple configuration settings – "timeout" and "power savings desired"

Technical Specifications:

The Edge GUI - Configuration and Management:

Nexsan Edge Management – NEM™ – provides a unified interface to Microsoft WUDSS management services and Nexsan storage system management. The Edge management system is simple to learn and use and offers a single-pane-of-glass view into your Edge system.

The Edge management system enables administration and monitoring of all WUDDS services and storage for terabytes of capacity and 100’s of volumes. It can be accessed across any LAN, MAN or WAN. The user interface is simple, automated, and intuitive. It greatly reduces the time it takes to perform administrative tasks.

In addition to NEM, the native Microsoft WUDDS management interface and services can be used to administer the entire NAS server. User authentication for The Edge include: Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 Active Directory® service, Kerberos, Windows NT Domains, NTLM, and Apple User Account Management (AUM), NIS.

Sample Nexsan Edge Management

Documentation:

Nexsan The Edge Dataheet (.PDF)