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Storage Area Network (SAN)
InStor iSCSI Storage Area Networking Appliance
A few years ago it was uncommon to find a small or medium business with more than one or two servers. These tended to have internal storage devoted to the few key functions that the server was designed to perform. Offsite storage meant backing data up to a removable tape and having someone carry it home or to a safe deposit box. Now it is not uncommon to see businesses of all sizes with four, or six or even more servers and hundreds and hundreds of gigabytes of data. Just backing it up has become a huge challenge, much less getting it offsite for protection from disasters. In addition it is not uncommon for one server to be out of space while another has plenty of free space.
There has to be a better way…
What is a Storage Area Network?
A Storage Area Network, or SAN, allows you to have one central pool of disk storage and provision out pieces of it to any server that needs it. Each server’s storage can be grown and shrunk dynamically to adjust for changing needs and conditions. No more will your servers represent Islands of storage, fixed in size and utility. Now free space can be leveraged wherever you need it most.
In addition SAN storage is measure in Terabytes rather than Gigabytes, with each Terabyte representing 1000 Gigabytes. As your needs grow additional storage can be added to keep pace with your growing business.
Not Just for Fortune 1000 Anymore
SAN Solutions used to be the domain of only the largest of companies. Using esoteric technologies like Fibre Channel, just operating and maintaining a SAN took specially trained high level engineers and simple operations required careful planning and implementation that could take days or weeks.
InStor is different, leveraging the latest iSCSI technologies and a Windows Based platform, InStor provides a simple and familiar administrative interface with drag and drop functionality. This combined with the fact that iSCSI utilizes simple familiar gigabit Ethernet connectivity and switching ensures that you won’t require weeks of specialized training to be able to make the most of your investment.
Unique Value Beyond the Basics
InStor does much more than simply provide centralized storage. Building from its standards based platform and technologies; InStor is able to provide many compelling additional capabilities through the addition of optional software modules. Cluster two InStor units for complete protection from hardware failure and to ensure complete availability of your data. Automatically send your data to a remote site, as it changes, automatically over your broadband Internet connection for safety and protection. Protect your key servers by automatically backing them up to the InStor unit on the fly as they change. Establish Snapshots of your data, allowing you to roll back to an earlier point in time, minutes or even days ago with a few simple mouse clicks.
You’ve never had this kind of security, accessibility, and protection for your business critical data.
InStor 100
The InStor 100 is the entry level member of the InStor family but it is not short of features or capability. Supporting eight drives and up to 3 Terabytes of Internal Storage, and hundreds more via storage expansion chassis, the InStor 100 has more than enough space for most growing businesses. With support of up to 16 servers you can share all this storage across your entire network with ease. In addition the InStor 100 supports the full complement of InStor options, with the exception of clustering.
InStor 200
The InStor 200 is the workhorse of the InStor family. With support for 24 drives and up to 10 Terabytes of Internal Storage, not to mention hundreds more via storage expansion chassis, the InStor 200 has enough space for even the most storage intensive businesses. In addition the InStor 200 is built for a higher level of redundancy and manageability, offering triple redundant power supplies and a comprehensive light’s out remote management solution built right in.
InStor 300
The InStor 300 is built for high availability. The InStor 300 comes with an integrated InStor 700 storage array supporting up to 16 drives and up to 6 Terabytes of storage. Additional storage can be added by simply adding more InStor 700 units, and when you want high availability you can add a second InStor 300 and run them in Cluster mode. The InStor 300 offers all the same remote management and monitoring capabilities of the InStor 200.
InStor 600 & 700
The InStor 600 and 700 Storage Expansion Chassis offer up to 16 Drives and 6 Terabytes of storage in each unit. They are built for rock solid reliability with fully redundant power supplies and hot spare drive units. The InStor 600 provides a 320 MB per Second Interface for High Capacity, Lower Demand Scenarios, while the InStor 700 offers a 1 GB per Second Interface for the most demanding and disk intensive applications.
InStor 800
The InStor 800 8 Port Storage Switch allows the connection of more than two InStor 700 Storage Expansion Units, and is also required to enable cluster mode.
Options
Summit 400-24T
For Optimum Performance InStor requires a high performance, jumbo frame enabled gigabit Ethernet switch that is designed to tackle the demands of moving 800+ MB per second of traffic. The Extreme Networks Summit 400-24T fills the bill with 24 ports of wire speed Gigabit Ethernet performance. Optionally if the customer has a appropriate switch infrastructure this option can be omitted.
High Availability Clustering
With this option, two InStor 300 units run in parallel. In the case of a hardware failure of either the InStor unit itself or the storage, the standby unit picks up where the failed unit left off, allowing you to keep functioning at full performance until the primary unit can be repaired.
Asynchronous Replication
With this option and two InStor units, you can replicate your data from one location to another, across your LAN or WAN or the Internet, as it changes automatically in the background. This ensures that you always have a current copy of the data at a remote site for disaster recovery or regulatory requirements. If more data needs to be moved than there is available bandwidth, data will be queued until it can be moved during a lower utilization period. This option requires approximately 10% of the SAN’s capacity for working space.
Timemark Snapshot
With this option, you can save Snapshots of your data as it was at any interval of time from minutes to days. If data is lost, or corrupted, the SAN can either roll the system back to the state it was in at the time of the snapshot, or even more uniquely, allow you to mount the snapshot data as another drive and copy off the data you need, all without even taking the primary volume offline. This option requires space to save the changed data for the snapshots and typically consumes approximately 20% of the SAN’s capacity, although this amount will change based on the number and type of snapshots kept.
Server Replication
With this option loaded onto one or more of your file or application servers, data can be replicated as it changes from the primary server’s local storage to the SAN for backup purposes. Imagine a complete up to the minute copy of your critical business data, that can be mounted on any other server in your network, and you will begin to understand the power of this option. Please note that this option is purchased on a per server basis.
Replication or Snapshot Agent
When performing snapshots or replication, you have to ensure that you are getting a complete usable copy of the target data. This is complicated when running real time applications like SQL, Oracle, Exchange, or even some line of business applications that constantly maintain open files. With this agent installed the snapshot or replication is able to freeze the system in time, and perform a complete safe snapshot of the data for storage or replication.
For more information about InLine's storage solutions, please contact our Storage Specialist:
Brian Collier
205-278-8123
BCollier@InLine.com
