Nexsan iSeries

Overview:

Data is growing exponentially in size and complexity challenging organizations to improve how they store, manage, access and protect all their data without increasing resources. Nexsan iSeries over comes these challenges by extending enterprise services, performance and continuous access to all your digital assets. Nexsan iSeries features are all included. There are no hidden costs. Scalability is not restricted. It's simple to deploy, and automated management makes it easy to use. Nexsan iSeries delvers ground breaking value by allowing you to reduce your storage and management costs as data grows.

Storage Virtualization & Consolidation

Nexsan iSeries™ is the perfect solution for server virtualization, databases, file storage, data consolidation and multiple data storage requirements where performance and scalability are a must and simple IP deployment is desired.

All storage services are embedded onto the Nexsan iSeries including virtualization, snapshots, replication, mirroring, data migration and more. Users have the ability to create and control 1000s of virtual volumes supporting multiple applications and storage pools simultaneously.

By reliably incorporating SAS and SATA in the same storage system, users no longer have to choose between a performance or capacity driven iSCSI SAN system. Separate storage pools can be created for the needs of different applications from databases to backup.

With an all-inclusive Tier 1 feature set combined with industry leading performance, reliability and energy efficiency, Nexsan iSeries is delivering the iSCSI SAN you need...at a price to meet your budget.

Resilient Architecture

The Nexsan iSeries’s unique multi-path – multi-access architecture provides continuous data access during network, system, connection or component outage. Nexsan iSeries controllers are independent active systems that can form a redundant cluster pair in which one iSeries controller can take over production for another.

All components are redundant and hot swappable for no single point of failure. Additional data protection is provided using RAID 5 or RAID 6.

Integrated Data Protection and Remote Replication

Nexsan iSeries data protection services create an environment where data and sites are protected against loss. Users can create multiple read or read/write snapshots per volume, convert any snapshot into a production volume, recover an existing volume or perform non-disruptive backup.

Nexsan iSeries local mirroring and remote replication features maintain an exact copy of any volume. Local mirroring is designed for fast networks and maintains real-time copies of any volume within the same rack, datacenter or across a campus environment.

Asynchronous replication is the perfect solution for organizations that require disaster recovery and business continuance across a long distance using any IP LAN, MAN or WAN. Nexsan iSeries replication continually replicates volume changes to another iSeries located at a remote site ensuring against damage to local volumes.

Expand Capacity with Performance

Unlike other iSCSI SAN solutions, each Nexsan storage system has its own independent performance engine, which includes up to 4GB of cache and 4 RAID engines. This allows users to increase capacity with performance without having to invest in more SAN appliances. With Nexsan, total cost of ownership will actually decrease as your company’s data needs grow.

Increasing capacity is easy and non-disruptive. Simply attach another Nexsan storage system to the Nexsan iSeries appliance and you can immediately start using the additional capacity.

With an all-inclusive Tier 1 feature set combined with industry leading performance, reliability and energy efficiency, Nexsan iSeries is delivering the iSCSI SAN you need...at a price to meet your budget.

Industry Leading Energy Efficiency

Nexsan’s exclusive technology, AutoMAID™, uniquely delivers ‘Speed with Green’ - the benefits of green without the limitations.

• Cut power and cooling costs up to 60%
• AutoMAID progressively migrates disks to idle state according to customizable periods of inactivity while providing near instantaneous access to data

Advanced Features:

• Complete Storage Services
  All storage services are embedded onto the Nexsan iSeries including virtualization, snapshots, replication, mirroring, data migration and more
   
• Storage Virtualization
  Create 1000s of custom volumes that precisely address the needs of individual applications, eliminating storage waste.
   
• Ease of Use
  Automated management eliminates time consuming administrative tasks. Deploy a complete SAN in minutes instead of hrs. Simple iSCSI connectivity
   
• Low Cost Scalability
  Scale capacity without having to purchase more SAN appliances
   
• Enterprise Performance
  Place data and logs on separate physical RAID sets within the same system optimizing database performance. SAN controllers are independent and active/active.
   
• Scale Capacity with Performance
  Nexsan iSeries adds performance each time additional disks are added. Nexsan iSeries capacity is expanded by adding more Nexsan SAS/SATA storage systems. Each additional Nexsan SAS/SATA storage system has its own performance engine which includes up to 4GB of cache and 4 RAID engines.
   
• Flexible
  Combine SAS + SATA in the same chassis for the ultimate in application flexibility. Share RAID storage with FC or NAS environments
   
• Highly Available
  Unique multi-path – multi-access architecture provides continuous data access. Fully redundant hot swappable components are designed for 99.999% availability. Ensure continuous access during Nexsan iSeries software upgrades or system outage with active / active independent and redundant Nexsan iSeries appliances. Storage services failover instantaneously and automatically without any service disruption.
   
• Energy Efficient
  Industry leading energy efficiency delivering ‘Speed with Green’ with AutoMAID™ Technology
   
• Affordable
  All storage services included. No hidden costs or license fees

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"

Solutions:
 

	Nexsan iSeries	Other Popular iSCSI SANs
Virtualization
Snapshots
Replication
Automated site failover
99.999 architecture
Single, intuitive interface
Automated integrity checks
Dual active/active SAN controllers
Supports RAID 6
Expandable RAID architecture
AutoMAID energy savings
High speed synch, mirroring
SAS+SATA flexibility
Share storage connectivity with NSA & FC
Database optimization

Storage Services

Storage Virtualization
Create 1000s of custom volumes that precisely address the needs of individual applications, eliminating storage waste.

Storage Consolidation
Combine the capacity of multiple storage systems into a single capacity pool that can grow to 100s of TBs. Manage the entire capacity pool through a single, high speed interface.

Data Migration
Migrate data between storage resources without service disruption. Replace old storage systems with new storage systems while keeping volumes online.

Data Protection

Local & Remote Snapshots
Protect data using time based recovery points. Create multiple, persistent, incremental snapshots to recover deleted or inconsistent data to a previous point in time. Use read only or read/write snapshots for local or remote application testing.

Local Synchronous Mirroring
Maintain an exact, real-time copy of production data and volumes locally across a DWDM or dedicated fibre channel connection to a remote site. Provide for data protection in the event of physical system or site damage.

Asynchronous Replication
Provide disaster recovery by replicating some or all data and volumes to another Nexsan iSeries located at a remote site across an IP LAN, MAN or WAN. Failover production services provided in the event of primary site outage to ensure business continuity and continuous data access.

VSS Support & CLI
Take advantage of Microsoft VSS (Virtual Shadow Service) to make data consistent snapshots of Exchange, SQL and SharePoint on Nexsan iSeries. Nexsan iSeries hardware provider coordinates VSS data quiesing technology with Nexsan iSeries snapshot features. Use Nexsan iSeries CLI to coordinate Nexsan iSeries snapshots with Linux/Unix data consistency backup and recovery tools.

Non-Disruptive Backup
Eliminate the backup window by using snapshots instead of production volumes to backup to tape or disk. Stay in full production while performing full or differential backups to tape or VTLs.

Highly Available

Fully Redundant Appliances
Ensure continuous access during Nexsan iSeries software upgrades or system outage with active / active independent and redundant Nexsan iSeries appliances. Storage services failover instantaneously and automatically without any service disruption.

Redundant Storage Access & RAID 6
Eliminate down time with Nexsan iSeries highly available Nexsan SAS and SATA storage systems equipped with redundant controllers and power supplies. Use any RAID level including RAID 6 to overcome double drive failures.

Scalable

Scale Capacity with Performance
Nexsan iSeries adds performance each time additional disks are added. Nexsan iSeries capacity is expanded by adding more Nexsan SAS/SATA storage systems. Each additional Nexsan SAS/SATA storage system has its own performance engine which includes up to 4GB of cache and 4 RAID engines.

High Density Storage
Optimize datacenter space and reduce power and cooling costs with Nexsan iSeries high density architecture. Nexsan iSeries provides up to 42 disks in 4U of space and can scale to a PB.

Technical Specifications:

iSeries GUI - Configuration and Management:

The Nexsan iSeries management system is simple to learn and use. There is a 'single-pane-of-glass' view into your system. The Nexsan iSeries management system enables administration and monitoring of all storage services for 100 TBs of capacity and 1,000s of volumes and can be accessed across any LAN, MAN or WAN. The user interface is simple, automated and intuitive minimizing the time it takes to perform administrative tasks.

The Nexsan iSeries management system consists of the Nexsan iSeries Management services that can be installed on any Windows platform providing easy, remote access to the Nexsan iSeries - iSCSI SAN appliances. From a central interface, administrators can manage all Nexsan iSeries components and perform all required functions including Nexsan iSeries controllers, storage tiers, volumes, snapshots, replication and recovery

Documentation:

Nexsan iSeries Datsheet (.PDF)