iSCSI
DNFDefense's iSCSI Products utilize the IP Protocol to enable block level storage cost-effectively.
E Series IPBank Appliance Powered by DynamiX
A full-featured solution to deliver seamlessly integrated network storage services with an embedded Windows Storage Server interface including the aggregation and provisioning of disk to application hosts - including Microsoft® Exchange, Microsoft® SQL Server, and Oracle® - over existing IP networks.
Key Benefits
Seamless integration into Windows Environment
Common Windows Server Interface
Supports Standard Windows Software Applications
Centralized Disk Capacity Management
Aggregates disk capacity and centralizes provisioning over Ethernet
Rapid Recovery from "Soft" or "Hard" Failures
Snapshot Service offers quick recovery from application or human errors
Volume Shadow Copy Hardware Provider creates instant, space efficient snapshots of VSS-enabled volumes with full point-in-time consistency
Mirror Service prevents disk/controller failure
Cluster Service prevents appliance failure
Backup/Restore Consolidation and Acceleration
Backup Enabler facilitates centralized, zero impact backup
Offers cost-effective storage to support the Disk-to-Disk (D2D) option of third party backup software
Intelligent Recovery from Site Failure
Replication Service provides IP-based delta replication of data between primary and disaster recovery site
IT professionals continue to search for a cost-effective SAN infrastructure that can centralize the management and provisioning of legacy as well as advanced storage devices, while delivering industrial strength storage services to hosts attached to a network-attached storage (NAS) network via a file-based protocol (i.e. CIFS, NFS, AFP) or via hosts attached to a storage area network (SAN) via block-based iSCSI protocol.
The IPBank E Series, powered by DynamiX, utilizing a Windows Storage Server 2003 kernel, is a full-featured solution to deliver seamlessly integrated network storage services, including the aggregation and provisioning of iSCSI disks, to application hosts over an existing IP network.
Centralized Disk Capacity Management
The E Series Appliance aggregates integrated or modular disk capacity and provisions iSCSI disk to application hosts, including Microsoft™ Exchange, SQL Server and Oracle, without downtime. As a result, IPBank reduces operating costs by eliminating the need to purchase new servers and simplifying storage management tasks.
Rapid Recovery from Soft or Hard Failure
The E Series Appliance offers a unique delta-based Snapshot Service designed to safeguard against "soft-errors" such as accidental deletions, file corruptions, and virus attacks by creating point-in-time images of data. The E Series Snapshot Service integrates with application hosts running Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, or Oracle applications to ensure that delta changes are replicated with 100% transactional integrity. In addition, the E Series Appliance allows users or applications to request fast, space-efficient delta snapshots via Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) interface, and performs policy-based, automatic delta snapshots of application hosts to significantly reduce potential data loss and ensure business continuity.
To optimize system availability and business productivity, the E Series offers both Mirror and Cluster Services, which enable continuous operation during planned or unplanned outages. The Mirror Service delivers high availability and fault tolerance by transparently recovering from storage controller, cable or disk failures. And, working seamlessly with Microsoft Cluster Services, the Cluster Service increases application server availability by eliminating a single point of failure (SPOF) via a dual network connection to the IP network, as well as a dual I/O channel to each storage device.
Backup/Restore Consolidation and Acceleration
The E Series Backup Enabler facilitates centralized, zero impact backup and allows Administrators to leverage off-the-shelf, 3rd party backup software to centralize the backup and recovery of an application hosts' data at ultra high speed directly to the IPBank E Series Appliance. By centralizing the management of backup operations, the E Series eliminates the need to purchase, deploy, and maintain backup software at each application server, and significantly reduces the administrative overhead associated with managing backup software on the application servers for optimum IT operating efficiency and a greater return on investment. The E Series also offers cost effective storage to support the Disk-to-Disk (D2D) option of a wide variety of third party backup software via unique capacity on demand technology, which optimizes storage usage and capacity based on policy by compressing stale data, and expanding virtual disk as needed.
Intelligent Recovery from Site Failure
In today’s corporate 24x7xForever uptime environment, a practical Disaster Recovery (DR) solution is of critical importance. The E Series Appliance is an essential component of that disaster recovery plan in that it optimizes business continuity in the event of a site failure or rolling disaster. This unique solution offers an advanced delta Replication Service designed to reliably replicate an application hosts’ mission-critical data from a primary site to a disaster recovery site over IP. The IPBank allows an Administrator to select individual replicas to recover based on time and date, and its network-based model imposes zero operating impact on the application servers during replication. The E Series Appliance leverages application-specific (Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and Oracle) snapshot technology to ensure database integrity and facilitates rapid recovery by eliminating the time needed to check or rebuild an application’s database.
Available software configurations include:
E Series Base Edition - extends storage devices using the industry standard iSCSI protocol and leverages an existing IP network to create a cost-effective SAN storage solution. To eliminate single points of failure (SPOF), it can be configured for maximum redundancy, with a dual network connection to the IP network, as well as a dual I/O channel for each storage device. The E Series Base Edition includes the iSNS Server.
E Series Cluster Services - provides continuous data availability, the IPBank Appliance can be deployed in a two-node active-active failover/fail-back cluster configuration to the application host(s) will not be interrupted due to failure of an IPBank system.
E Series Backup Enabler - Enables certified 3rd party backup applications running on Windows Storage Server 2003 to backup/restore the iSCSI disks provisioned to the application host(s). Besides centralizing the backup management, this "zero-impact backup" (ZIB) model also eliminates the backup window and the administrative overhead associated with managing backup software at individual application host. Using the point-in-time snapshot technology, the Backup Enabler allows the backup software to perform file or image-based backup/restore operations. This option integrates with the Snapshot Agents to ensure transactional integrity and point-in-time consistency of active databases and messaging stores during backup.
E Series Mirror Service - Protects against the potential failure of storage device/channel by duplicating the writes in exact order of arrival, between primary and secondary disk in real-time. Should the mirrored pair lose contact with one another (e.g., due to network problems or system maintenance), instead of re-cloning the entire disk, only those blocks that have been changed during the outage will be written to the secondary disk.
E Series Replication Service - Replicates delta changes from the Primary Site to the Disaster Recovery Site over IP. The replication logic invokes the Snapshot Agent automatically to ensure the replica's data integrity. If the Primary site fails, the Administrator can bypass the database consistency check and rapidly mount the replica at the Disaster Recovery site with minimal downtime to ensure optimum availability.
E Series Snapshot Service - Creates delta-based snapshots of designated disks based on an administrator-defined policy. Administrators can quickly recover files or volumes by mounting a delta snapshot as an active volume. Snapshot images can be used to provide immediate access to data by mounting a temporary "view" of the snapshot, or to create a permanent copy of the snapshot. The Snapshot service can be used to offer continuous disk-based backup in an environment with a minimal backup window. The Snapshot service option integrates with the application-specific Snapshot Agents to ensure transactional integrity and point-in-time consistency.
Application Aware Snapshot Agents - integrates with application hosts running Oracle®, Microsoft® SQL Server, Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), or Microsoft Exchange applications to ensure that delta changes are replicated with transactional integrity.
E Series Provider for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service - Used by backup applications to create snapshots of Volume Shadow Copy Service protected volumes.
