As iSCSI continues to find its niche in storage environments, users
have a raft of choices when it comes to methods of deploying
iSCSI storage area networks (San), from prepackaged offerings
by legacy vendors to free downloadable target software. Two users
who have rolled their own iSCSI Sans using Linux-based software
from Open-E GmbH said the product is a more affordable alternative
than prepackaged systems and offers better support than free iSCSI
target software.
Shon Nixon, chief, information technology for Midrex
Technologies, which designs iron processing plants, said his
company first began using Open-E's iSCSI target last year as a way
of dipping a toe into the IP storage waters.
Now, Nixon said, the company has around 1 terabyte (Tbyte) of
storage on its Open-E iSCSI San, which is based on a RAID subsystem
from Infortrend Technology Inc. It's currently being used for
disk-based backup of a production EMC Corp. CX3-20 and as a test
bed for virtual machines. The company plans to add Open-E's Data
Storage Server (DSS) to another Fibre Channel Infortrend RAID
system for disaster recovery using Open-E's replication feature.
"Instead of $100,000 to EMC, we're using a low-cost Fibre
Channel array and avoiding replication license costs," Nixon
said.
Open-E's product comes in three flavors: iSCSI, network attached
storage (Nas) and multiprotocol, called iSCSI-R3, Nas-R3 and DSS
respectively. The product, essentially an open source counterpart
to Microsoft's Windows Storage Server software, uses a Linux kernel
embedded on a USB key that attaches to a server to turn its direct
attached storage (DAS) into an iSCSI San, Nas or both. The product
also allows iSCSI access to Fibre Channel disks. The operating
system and drivers for the Open-E software are housed on the USB
flash device and don't require installation on disk.
A license for Nas-R3 costs $995, iSCSI-R3 costs $689 and DSS
costs $1,250. Each initial license contains support for 16 Tbytes
of capacity and includes unlimited free support and software
features, such as snapshots and replication. Future software
features added by Open-E will be offered as free upgrades.
A newly updated version of the software announced July 30 allows
users to expand the initial 16 Tbytes volume using license keys
available in increments of 4 Tbytes, 8 Tbytes, 16 Tbytes, 32 Tbytes
and 64 Tbytes. Storage extensions are priced at $189 (4 Tbytes) to
$2,310 (64 Tbytess).
The fact that the Open-E system doesn't have to be installed
onto disks within the subsystem is also a plus for disaster
recovery, Nixon said. "If my EMC San comes to a screeching halt in
my production environment, I can just point my servers back at the
DSS," he said.
According to Scott Montgomery, network support engineer for
Knight Industries LLC, a fiber board and flooring manufacturer, his
company is using the Open-E iSCSI-R3 product as primary storage for
a 2 Tbytes Exchange database, as well as for 3 Tbytes of storage at
a secondary location. The USB key is mounted on a whitebox RAID 5
server with SCSI disks at the remote location and a Dell Inc.
PowerEdge 2950 server with SATA disks at the company's primary
location.
Like Nixon, Montgomery said he likes not having to install an
operating system or drivers on disk. "It makes it easier to set up
and maintain the system, and if one of my servers fail, I can just
unplug the key from its motherboard and put it onto another one
without having to reinstall the operating system and drivers."
Montgomery also said he found the Linux-based product more
appealing than Windows Storage Server, as he feels Linux is a more
stable operating system. The product is less expensive than
packaged iSCSI San products from LeftHand Networks Inc. and
EqualLogic Corp. but includes free unlimited tech support and more
free features than a free iSCSI target from Nimbus Data Systems
Inc. (Nimbus offers 50 days of free support to users of its free
iSCSI San targets and initiators, and offers an upgrade to its
Breeze iSCSI San product if users want data protection
features.)
Open-E aims higher
Open-E hopes its products will wend their way from the small
business market to broader commercial use, according to Todd
Maxwell, director of global product support services. Originally,
Open-E had three versions of its product, one for prosumers and
small office/home office (SOHO) users, one for small and mid-sized
businesses (SMB) and an enterprise edition. As of this year,
however, the two low-end versions, as well as a version of the
software that used an IDE interface, have been discontinued to
focus on enterprise sales.
But the product has yet to support or has only recently added
software features expected in enterprise products. For example, in
a software update announced yesterday, the product has added access
control for replicated volumes and write-back for asynchronous
replication. Previously, the system included licenses of Symantec
Corp.'s Backup Exec or EMC's Retrospect for backup, but only the
latest release of the software supports tape rewind, delete and
eject. The company claims installations as large as 80 Tbytes, but
before the expansion licensing introduced this week, each system
was limited to 16 Tbytes increments for management.
Meanwhile, Maxwell said other features, including centralized
management and reporting for multiple systems, server failover and
thin provisioning, are on the roadmap for this calendar year.
Open-E had yet to show up on the radar of storage industry
analysts -- few contacted by SearchStorage.com had heard of the
company. Those who had, doubted it has much of an opportunity at
the higher reaches of the market.
"It's cool technology," said Greg Schulz, founder and analyst
with StorageIO Group. "But it's a huge market out there with a lot
of players, including Microsoft, and users can find free versions
of similar technology. 'Cool technology' doesn't necessarily
translate into business."
Another analyst, Stephanie Balaouras, senior analyst with
Forrester Research Inc., said users looking for cheap-to-free
storage products should also consider built-in features from
application vendors, such as Microsoft and Oracle. "Oracle has
always claimed that customers really don't need to go out and buy
expensive high-end storage, that there isn't any functionality they
couldn't provide through Automated Storage Manager (ASM)," she
said. "I think the server-tier vendors [such as] Symantec, Oracle,
Microsoft [and] VMware are [currently] in a much better position to
co-opt storage administration into their consoles … storage and
servers are merging again."