NAS gateway specifications

Rather than relying on the internal (captive) storage found in a NAS appliance, a NAS gateway offers file-based accesses to external storage on a disk array -- or a SAN, where users can take advantage of superior performance and reliability while maintaining a level of simplicity. Since storage is moved off of the NAS device, interoperability and connectivity are crucial issues, and virtualization is increasingly important for superior scaling and utilization of the storage resources. The product snapshots in this chapter highlight key specifications for a cross section of major NAS gateway products. The following products were selected based on input from industry analysts and SearchStorage.com editors, and specifications are current as of December 2006. The following specifications have been provided by vendors and are periodically updated. Vendors are welcome to submit their updates and new product specifications to [email protected]. Go to the first product snapshot, or select the desired product below: EMC Corp.; EMC Corp.; Celerra NS40G/NS80G NAS gateway EMC Corp.; EMC Corp.; Celerra NSX NAS gateway Hewlett-Packard Co.; HP StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway IBM; N5000 Gateway IBM; N7000 Gateway Neopath Networks Inc.; File Director 220 gateway Neopath Networks Inc.; File Director 7200 gateway Network Appliance Inc.; V-Series NAS gateway ONStor, Inc.; ONStor, Inc.; Bobcat Series NAS Gateway Sun Microsystems Inc.; StorageTek 5320 NAS Gateway Return to the beginning Product Snapshot #1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: EMC Corp.; Celerra NS40G/NS80G NAS gateway Internal Storage: The EMC Celerra gateway systems exclusively use external storage via a SAN connection to an EMC CLARiiON and Symmetrix storage systems. External Storage: The NS40G supports up to 32 TB usable capacity per system. The NS80G supports up to 60 TB usable per system. Data Throughput: Maximum data throughput is dependent on system configuration and operating environment. For specific configuration and performance information, see the EMC systems listed on www.spec.org. RAID Support: The Celerra gateway systems provide multiple RAID levels and disk types in a single array, and support RAID levels 1, 3, 5 and 10, depending on the storage platform. Onboard Cache: The NS40G has up to 8 GB of cache; the NS80G has up to 24 GB Management Tools: The Celerra gateway systems can be managed using EMC Celerra Manager and a standard browser, which ships with all Celerra systems, by using Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins, or by using a Command Line Interface (CLI). Backup Features: Backup is through support of the standard NDMP protocol, or network backups via multiple commercially available backup products, such as EMC NetWorker, Symantec NetBackup, CommVault Galaxy, HP OpenView, Atempo Time Navigator, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) and many others. Replication is supported as part of the back end CLARiiON and Symmetrix storage systems. Operating System: The Celerra products support NAS and iSCSI access from clients running UNIX, Windows, Linux, Novell (iSCSI only), Mac (NAS only) File Systems Supported: The Celerra system ships with a proprietary filesystem which supports multi-protocol access. From a client perspective, the filesystem appears to be native Windows (CIFS) or UNIX/Linux (NFS) Network Protocols Supported: NFS v2, v3, v4, CIFS, FTP, SNMP, NDMP, NTP, SNTP, TFTP, iSCSI Connectivity: NS40G: 4 Copper Gigabit Ethernet ports per blade or 2 Copper and 2 Optical GigE per blade, maximum 8 ports; NS80G: 6 Copper and 2 Optical Gigabit Ethernet ports per blade, maximum 32 ports. Form Factor: NS40G: 1U, fitting into a standard 19-inch NEMA cabinet; NS80G: 8U, fitting into a standard 19-inch NEMA cabinet Vendor Comment: The Celerra gateways are high-performance, full-function IP-storage platforms which deliver NAS and iSCSI capabilities to consolidate application storage and file servers. The Celerra gateway, SAN-connected to CLARiiON and Symmetrix storage, is the most cost-effective way to leverage EMC SAN environments. Availability: Currently available Base Cost: U.S. list pricing for EMC Celerra Gateways begins at $33,000 USD Detailed Specs: http://www.emc.com/products/networking/servers/ns_series_gateway/index.jsp Vendor URL: www.emc.com Go to beginning ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product Snapshot #2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: EMC Corp.; Celerra NSX NAS gateway Internal Storage: The EMC Celerra gateway systems exclusively use external storage via a SAN connection to an EMC CLARiiON and Symmetrix storage systems. External Storage: The NSX supports up to 168 TB usable per system Data Throughput: Maximum data throughput is dependent on system configuration and operating environment. For specific configuration and performance information, see the EMC systems listed on www.spec.org. RAID Support: The Celerra gateway systems provide multiple RAID levels and disk types in a single array, and support RAID levels 1, 3, 5 and 10, depending on the storage platform. Onboard Cache: The NSX has up to 28 GB Management Tools: The Celerra gateway systems can be managed using EMC Celerra Manager and a standard browser, which ships with all Celerra systems, by using Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins, or by using a Command Line Interface (CLI). Backup Features: Backup is through support of the standard NDMP protocol, or network backups via multiple commercially available backup products, such as EMC NetWorker, Symantec NetBackup, CommVault Galaxy, HP OpenView, Atempo Time Navigator, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) and many others. Replication is supported as part of the back end CLARiiON and Symmetrix storage systems. Operating System: The Celerra products support NAS and iSCSI access from clients running UNIX, Windows, Linux, Novell (iSCSI only), Mac (NAS only) File Systems Supported: The Celerra system ships with a proprietary filesystem which supports multi-protocol access. From a client perspective, the filesystem appears to be native Windows (CIFS) or UNIX/Linux (NFS) Network Protocols Supported: NFS v2, v3, v4, CIFS, FTP, SNMP, NDMP, NTP, SNTP, TFTP, iSCSI Connectivity: NSX: 6 Copper and 2 Optical Gigabit Ethernet ports per blade and 1 10 GigE Optical, maximum 72 ports Form Factor: NSX: Comes with cabinet, 75 in. height, 24 in. width, 41.5 in. depth Vendor Comment: The Celerra gateways are high-performance, full-function IP-storage platforms which deliver NAS and iSCSI capabilities to consolidate application storage and file servers. The Celerra gateway, SAN-connected to CLARiiON and Symmetrix storage, is the most cost-effective way to leverage EMC SAN environments. Availability: Currently available Base Cost: U.S. list pricing for EMC Celerra Gateways begins at $33,000 USD Detailed Specs: http://www.emc.com/products/networking/servers/nsx/index.jsp Vendor URL: www.emc.com Go to beginning ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product Snapshot #3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: Hewlett-Packard Co.; HP StorageWorks EFS Clustered Gateway Internal Storage: Up to 2.4 TB using 8 300 GB SAS disks External Storage: Over 1000TB of external SAN storage. The EFS Clustered Gateway is compatible with any SAN storage. Data Throughput: Up to 6 GB/s RAID Support: Yes; Supported RAID Levels: 0, 1, 5, 1+0 Onboard Cache: 4 MB Management Tools: HP Systems Insight Manager, HP Storage Essentials Backup Features: Snapshots, replication, remote copy. The EFS Clustered Gateway is also supported by every major backup software vendor. Operating System: Windows Server 2003R2, Windows Storage Server 2003R2, Suse Linux 9 File Systems Supported: PolyServe File System Network Protocols Supported: FTP, NFS, CIFS, HTTP Connectivity: 1Ge, 10Ge, 4 Gb Fibre Channel Form Factor: 2U Vendor Comment: The HP EFS Clustered Gateway is a high performance file server gateway that provides high availability and scalable performance. It leverages existing and new heterogeneous SAN storage or iSCSI storage for either Linux or Windows. Availability: Currently available Base Cost: $30,000 USD Detailed Specs: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/efs/index.html Vendor URL: www.hp.com Go to beginning ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product Snapshot #4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: IBM; N5000 Gateway Internal Storage: No internal storage other than cache, all storage is external. External Storage: Up to 84 TB Data Throughput: Not provided RAID Support: RAID levels depend on capabilities of attached external storage Onboard Cache: Up to 8 GB Management Tools: SecureAdmin, FilerView, FlexVol, AutoSupport, FlexShare, reports into major higher level management products Backup Features: SnapVault, SnapMirror, NDMP/NFS/CIFS/iSCSI Operating System: Data ONTAP File Systems Supported: WAFL (Write Anywhere File Layout) Network Protocols Supported: NFS V2/V3/V4 over UDP or TCP; PCNFSD V1/V2 for (PC) NFS client authentication; CIFS; VLD; FTP; HTTP 1.0, HTTP 1.1 virtual hosts Connectivity: Up to 8 2Gb Fibre Channel (4 Gbps available) and 8 1Gb Ethernet Form Factor: 19" rackable, 3U or 6U depending on model Vendor Comment: The IBM System Storage N5200 and N5600 storage controller gateways each include have a Model G10, a single-node base unit, and the Model G20, a clustered, high-availability, dual-node base unit. They are designed to support entry-level and midrange customers requiring Network Attached Storage (NAS), Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) and Fiber Channel Protocol (FCP) attach. Availability: Currently available Base Cost: US list $34,650 to $54,450 depending on model and number of nodes Detailed Specs: https://www-03.ibm.com/systems/storage/network/n5000/gateway/ Vendor URL: www.ibm.com Go to beginning ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product Snapshot #5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product: IBM; N7000 Gateway Internal Storage: No internal storage other than cache, all storage is external External Storage: Up to 504 TB Data Throughput: Not provided RAID Support: RAID levels are provided by the attached external storage Onboard Cache: Up to 4 GB Management Tools: SecureAdmin, FilerView, FlexVol, AutoSupport, FlexShare, reports into major higher level management products Backup Features: SnapVault, SnapMirror, NDMP/NFS/CIFS/iSCSI Operating System: Data ONTAP File Systems Supported: WAFL (Write Anywhere File Layout) Network Protocols Supported: NFS V2/V3/V4 over UDP or TCP; PCNFSD V1/V2 for (PC) NFS client authentication; CIFS; VLD; FTP; HTTP 1.0, HTTP 1.1 virtual hosts Connectivity: Up to 16 2Gb Fibre Channel (4 Gbps available) and 12 1Gb Ethernet Form Factor: 19" rackable, 6U or 12U depending on model Vendor Comment: The IBM System Storage N7600 and N7800 storage controller gateways each include have a Model G10, a single-node base unit, and the Model G20, a clustered, high-availability, dual-node base unit. All models are designed to provide fast data access, simultaneous multiprotocol support, expandability,