StarWind
iSCSI Target for Win

iSCSI initiator for Mac OS

• Compatible with Mac OS X v10.3.5 or later

• Intuitive GUI-based installation and management

• Compatible with leading Ethernet switches and network interface cards

• Compatible with leading ISV solutions

• Compatible with all ATTO IP Bridges

• iSCSI error handling and recovery

• High performance - capable of supporting multiple streams of uncompressed video !

datasheet

Sol JBOD (SCSI/IDE)

Melio FS is a clustered file system designed specifically for networked storage environments. It provides a solution to presenting shared storage as a single storage pool, enabling horizontal scaling or applications, clustered processing, shared data access, and greatly simplified storage provisioning and management. It provides users with extensive new capability to utilize shared storage hardware, yet is very simple to use. Any user familiar with Windows disk administration tools will quickly be able to utilize the features of Melio FS. An installation on a small SAN can be done in 15 minutes.

Melio FS was initially designed for very large scale clustered processing and file serving in telecom network operation centers. Its architecture is designed to support high availability computing, fast access to both small and large files, and NAS serving ability. Melio FS incorporates a three-dimensional layout, a seven layer locking mechanisms with a B-tree like structure, and advanced transaction managers, which provide performance, stability and reliability in very large storage environments. The distribution of metadata within the file system, symmetrical architecture, and advanced dynamic clustering capability provide both tremendous flexibility and reliability.

Windows technologies such as Active Directory, ACL security, DFS, Network Load Balancing, and MPIO are transparently supported by Melio across the shared storage environment.

Support for Windows Technologies
Sanbolic’s products are designed to transparently support Windows technologies, and to provide an intuitive experience to Windows administrators. Windows technologies supported include:

• DFS

• Network Load balancing

• Active Directory

• ACLs

• Microsoft MPIO

• DiskPart

• Microsoft iSCSI initiator

• Windows Cache Management, Precaching, Prefetch logic

• File system resize / volume expansion Command

• all Microsoft lock types -- NFS / CIFS compliant

Sanbolic products support Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003, including Server 2003 R2.

melio fs: advantages

• Simple to administer—one “pool” of storage instead of dozens or hundreds of “puddles”

• Inherent redundancy—if a server fails, another server can access the data the failed server was using and continue running the application

• Flexibility-all servers can be given access to all data, allowing storage and compute resources to be quickly reassigned among projects - No more storage-server “silos” with low utilization

• Many applications can grow by adding additional small cheap servers instead of moving to a larger, expensive server

• Shared access to data—all servers can directly access the most recent data—no need to make and manage multiple copies

• Security—consistent security protocol that defines which users can access which data across the entire storage pool

• Windows Servers

• Windows Storage Servers

• NAS heads

• A/V Production

• Clustered Diskless Servers

• Web/Email/File Servers
  
  　

[ data sheet ]

• multiple logical units, no sharing

• time consuming file migration

• very complicated version management and control

• work flow control and file management are difficult

• .....

• file sharing on shared storage in mixed operating system environment

• no need to migrate or replicate the files 

• ease the multiple ver management

• anytime, any ver to use

• Melio FS is a 64-bit file system, no limitation on file  size and volume size

• High performance

• Journaling enables fast recovery in the event of hardware failure

• Storage utilization : 90% +

• Adobe - Premier 6.0, Aftereffects, Illustrator

• Avid – ProTools, MC Xpress, Xpress DV 

• Digital Voodoo – Bluefish

• Discreet - Combustion, Edit Paint Effect

• Incite

• Inscriber – eClips

• Leitch – Velocity Q

• Matrox – Digisuite LE

• Media 100 – iFinish

• On-Air Systems - Capture, Studio

• Pinnacle – DV500, TARGA 2000 & 3000, Liquid Blue, Silver, Edition　

Awards for LaScala and Melio FS :

• Millimeter's NAB Pick Hit !

• Bob Tuner's Making The Cut !

by way of Striping , assign the  LUN to each server , improve the performance

LaScala

LaScala is a host-based volume manager incorporating advanced transaction management, locking, and clustering technology, which simplifies management and improves flexibility and reliability of shared storage environments. Multiple hosts can simultaneously share access to and administer storage volumes, and volumes can span multiple storage controllers. Assignment of host access to specific shared volumes is easily accomplished with native security tools. In conjunction with a shared file system like Melio FS, LaScala provides very high performance shared access to file on volumes striped across large numbers of disks on multiple controllers, without splitting file calls as is typical on Windows systems today

lascala: advantages

• Aggregate storage and performance across multiple FC or iSCSI arrays.

• Supports native block sizes for applications—enabling enhanced performance for bandwidth-intensive uses.

• Stripe sets can now be aligned with controller RAID sets to further increase performance.

• Volumes can span multiple arrays and be non-disruptively expanded.

• Consistent drive Letter and path assignment thorough the cluster.

• Native Windows security permissions can be used to assign access rights to any node.

• Simplifies administration by elevating storage pool management to volume level instead of using zoning and LUN management.

[ data sheet ]

LaScala Disto is an add-on component to LaScala Volume Manager that enables customers to remotely manage the volume structure for their entire SAN. It also provides volume and mount point scalability on top of existing LUNs, and support for Windows Volume Management (LDM) volumes.

LaScala Disto can be installed remotely on a laptop or server accessing the SAN through an Ethernet network or VPN, or locally on any server on the SAN. Administrators can use LaScala Disto to log into any domain or workgroup on the network, and then manage both volume structure and server access profiles to the storage for all servers connected to the SAN. Administrators use an intuitive WMI-based graphical interface to manage volumes.

lascala disto : advantages

• Accessible from any server in the cluster or from a remote terminal over VPN.

• Entire disk structure for each server can be seen, including local
  LDM disks.

• All operations are available for LaScala disks.

• Support for volume configuration for shared data application which use Melio FS, as well as ability to manage their uniquely assigned non-shared application volumes for Exchange, SQL and other single instance applications.

• Support FC, iSCSI and SCSI connectivity, users can flexibly match connectivity with cost and performance requirements.

SILM is a standalone software product that  automatically moves or copies files or volumes based on customer defined policies. As an example, an administrator could establish policies to copy any files created or modified in the past 4 hours to a backup volume, and to move any files not accessed in 30 days to secondary storage.  SILM has universal connectivity support, allowing users to deploy it in mixed storage environments utilizing DAS, NAS, and SAN storage. SILM supports both Microsoft and Sanbolic file systems.

silm advantages

• Administrators can set up tasks to move data to any other drive accessible by the system

• SILM will selective move data based on file type, creation data, or last data accessed

• Tasks can be executed at a defined time, or periodically at a defined interval

• SILM will provide email notification of which file have been moved

typical use cases :

• Move old or unused files off of expensive, high performance storage onto lower cost storage hardware.

• Storage hardware upgrades or lease exchanges where data must be migrated onto new storage arrays. SILM is able to minimize the down time dramatically.

• Copy files with very frequent access onto additional arrays for availability

• Consolidate files onto a single disk for backup, or directly copy files onto near-line storage in disk-to-disk backup environments.  With many backup tools it is important to have a separate copy of the files which are due for a back-up operation in a file sharing environment where files are being modified by multiple sources. SILM can execute data gathering and pre staging of the data in to a “back-up folder” prior to initiating a back-up.

StarWind

StarWind is an advanced, software-only iSCSI Target implementation for Microsoft Windows. StarWind enables anyone to quickly install and configure a complete IP SAN solution that delivers immediate benefits allowing storage to be consolidated, virtualized and centrally managed.

StarWind is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Longhorn. StarWind is tested for compatibility with the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator versions 2.03 or 1.06. StarWind has also been tested for compatibility with various Linux and UNIX software iSCSI initiators, iSCSI HBAs from Adaptec and QLogic and hardware iSCSI accelerators from Alacritech.

• Storage Consolidation: Consolidate all storage in the server room to increase application "up time" and simplify administration. The entire storage pool can be centrally managed eliminating the need to separately maintain "islands" of disks. It's also possible to completely remove all hard disks from client machines (boot from SAN) using an iSCSI HBAs or a software-only iSCSI boot solution, dramatically lowering network TCO and IT administration expenses.

• Disaster Recovery and Backups: Microsoft VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Services) compatible dynamic volume snapshots and automatic incremental backups make disaster recovery and backup initiatives a breeze, completely eliminating the need for manual backup activities. Now you can perfectly "roll-back" any volume any time.

• Leverage Existing Storage: StarWind can leverage existing direct attached storage (Serial and Parallel ATA and SCSI, Fibre Channel, USB and FireWire) making it available as iSCSI storage.

• Create Mirrored Fail-Safe SAN Volumes: StarWind can perfectly maintain a RAID-1 (mirror) over different physical hard disks. There's no need for an expensive RAID controller or dedicated software RAID volume configuration.

• Automatic Replication: Replicate mission-critical data to another site over a low-bandwidth connection.

• Share Physical Devices: Tape drives and ultra-modern high-capacity Blu-Ray and HD-DVD burners can be shared over a standard IP network, leveraging existing tape backup and CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD burning applications allowing backups to a remotely located tape or optical media drive.

• Regulatory Compliance: Reduce complexity and simplify data retention, backup and disaster recovery for compliance with regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA.

• Create Media Libraries: Standard ISO images can be mounted to virtual iSCSI DVD-ROM drives creating media libraries exported via IP SAN, eliminating the need to handle physical CD/DVDs.

• Outstanding Performance: StarWind iSCSI Target has a matching "domestic" iSCSI Initiator called StarPort. This combination provides unbeatable performance compared to the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator and third-party iSCSI targets.

• Features :

  • Point-in-time snapshots, volume cloning, and auto-magic incremental backups.

  • Supports Shared Volumes for clustering services (MS Cluster), network file systems (Dataplow SAN FS), and clustered file system (Sanbolic Melio FS)

  • Software Mirror (RAID 1)

  • iSCSI Replication

  • Supports mapping SCSI HDD, CD/DVD, Tape drives etc. as iSCSI device

  • No restrictions on disk Capacity

  • IPv4 and IPv6 support

  • iSNS integration

  • IPSec encryption

  • CHAP authentication

  • MPIO support (multi-path I/O)

StarPort

StarPort iSCSI and ATA-over-Ethernet Initiator

Connect any Microsoft Windows machine to Storage Area Network (SAN)

• iSCSI Initiator

• AoE (ATA-over-Ethernet) Initiator

• RAM disk and DVD-ROM emulator

StarPort fully implements iSCSI and ATA-over-Ethernet client side protocols enabling you to connect to remote storage appliances such as disk arrays, tape drives, DVD-ROM image libraries and so on. StarPort connects to iSCSI or AoE (ATA-over-Ethernet) storage in the server room or creates a virtual DVD-ROM drive locally to watch movies in a home theatre extending your computing infrastructure.

• iSCSI Support: Enables connectivity to both local and remote devices over a standard IP network, regardless of where the device resides; in the next room or on another continent.
  　
• AoE (ATA-over-Ethernet) Support: Provides the same functionality as iSCSI in those environments where ATA-over-Ethernet technology is used.
  　
• Flexibility: Format a remote hard drive with any file system you wish, burn to a remote CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD burner, implement automatic backup procedures from a remote hard drive to a remote tape drive, access remote storage devices connected through Serial and Parallel ATA and SCSI, Fibre Channel, USB and FireWire interfaces and more.

  • Eliminate presence of quite expensive local tape drives or modern Blu-Ray or HD-DVD burners on each client machine.

  • ISO and MDS images of CD-ROM and DVD-ROM media can be exposed to client machines using the StarWind iSCSI Target, presenting an emulated DVD-ROM from which data and applications can be accessed as though the DVD drive was local.

  • Collections of DVD's or high-capacity Blu-Ray or HD-DVD media can be stored on servers, eliminating the need for a physical DVD or Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive on each client machine.

  • Local RAM disk drive emulation can be used as ultra-fast temporary data storage (for example, Internet Explorer cache pages) bringing application performance to the next level.