Product Overview
NexentaStor is a fully featured NAS/SAN software solution that has evolved from its roots as a leading disk to disk and second tier storage solution increasingly into primary tier use cases. The addition of NexentaStor 2.0, including phone support, has accelerated this transition as has the feedback and input of well over 10,000 NexentaStor users and the ongoing progress of the underlying OpenSolaris and Nexenta.org communities, each of which have hundreds of thousands of members.
| Feature | NexentaStor | Legacy | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Unified storage via 'any' protocol
|
YES |
NO |
NexentaStor is able to take virtually any data source (including legacy storage) and share it completely flexibly. Also, you can use NexentaStor replication capabilities like Auto-Sync and Auto-Tier on your pools irrespective of what technology is used on the underlying storage. |
|
Advanced data management
|
YES |
NO |
NexentaStor is built upon the ZFS file system which means there are no practical limits to the number of snapshots or to file size when using NexentaStor. Also, Nexenta has added synchronous replication to ZFS based asynchronous replication. Thin provisioning and compression improve capacity utilization. Also, no need to 'short stroke' your drives to achieve performance as explained below. |
| Finds and corrects silent data corruption |
YES |
NO |
Today's processors can easily handle end to end checksums on every transaction. The processors that existed when legacy file systems were designed could not. Checksuming every transaction end to end means any source of data corruption can be detected. Plus, if you are using NexentaStor software RAID it can automatically correct data corruption. |
| Hybrid storage pools |
YES |
NO |
The underlying ZFS file system was built to exploit cache to improve read and write performance. By adding SSDs you can achieve a dramatic improvement in performance without increasing the number of expensive spinning disks, thereby saving money, footprint, and power and cooling. Other solutions require you to decide which data should be on the flash or SSDs. This can be quite challenging and will never be as efficient in a dynamic environment as the real time algorithms built into the ZFS file system. |
| Enhanced support for virtualized environments |
YES |
Almost |
Nexenta also offers the VM Data Center optional module that allows you to point and click to establish storage policies for your virtualized enviornments. While some legacy storage vendors have jumped on the virtualization bandwagon with a similar value proposition, their aged underpinnings make their solutions harder to use. Specifically, with NexentaStor you NEVER run out of snapshots whereas with legacy solutions you run out fairly quickly, requiring work arounds that take time and increase the risk of service disruption. |
| An end to vendor lock-in |
YES |
Never |
Legacy storage vendors entire business models are based upon locking their clients into long term relationships via the use of proprietary technologies. They want to use ongoing exponential improvements in hardware price/performance to increase their margins instead of passing these savings onto you. |
Savings
In addition to Enterprise Features, NexentaStor offers considerable savings. Here is an EXAMPLE of the savings customers can receive by using NexentaStor instead of legacy hardware based solutions:
| Legacy solution | NexentaStor | |
|---|---|---|
| Software |
Proprietary NAS/iSCSI
|
ZFS based open NAS/iSCSI
|
| Headnode |
|
|
| Disk capacity |
4TB |
12TB |
| Service |
|
|
| Total |
~$45,000 |
$10,748 |
In summary, over 3x the capacity, equivalent support thanks to Nexenta's partners, superior hardware, and superior software for over 75% less than legacy solutions. The $10,748 solution quoted above was from PogoLinux, similar solutions are available from many partners around the world.
The savings are similar or even greater for larger users of storage. For example it is possible to purchase a rack full of NexentaStor managed storage, including NexentaStor, for as little as $.20 per Gb, roughly 1/10th the cost of the lowest prices from legacy storage vendors.
These savings are simply the initial savings. They do not include savings over time from lower total cost of ownership thanks to being able to simply add capacity (just add disks) and performance (just add CPU and RAM) and, even, to simply add new capabilities via the state of the art software packaging and upgrade capabilities discussed below. By freeing yourself from vendor lock-in you not only regain control of your storage -- you also regain control of your storage spending by accessing the gigantic and extremely competitive market for enterprise servers and disk arrays.
Nexenta offers two free versions of NexentaStor and one commercial version. If you are considering putting NexentaStor into production at your organization and would like to trial a version of NexentaStor you should select the Free Trial Edition.
|
Feature |
Developer Edition |
Free Trial Edition |
Enterprise Edition |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Time limitations |
None |
45 days |
None |
|
Storage capacity |
4 TB |
Unlimited |
Unlimited(*) |
| Commercial Plugins | |||
|
HA functionality |
-(**) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Virtualization |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Data Replication |
- | Yes | Yes |
|
Data Security |
- |
Yes |
Yes |
| Support and Upgrades |
|||
|
Technical Support |
- | Yes | Yes |
|
Maintenance Agreement |
- | - | Yes |
|
Storage Upgrades |
- | Yes | Yes |
| Download |
 |
 |
 |
(*) Enterprise Edition uses simple capacity-based licensing. Please consult your Enterprise Edition license for details on available (licensed) capacity and available plugins. For a detailed product feature list, please see NexentaStor User Guide documentation.
(**) indicates not available/applicable.
Comparison Table
NexentaStor uses the open source NexentaOS operating system as its foundation. Following is a table that compares the NexentaOS and NexentaStor Enterprise Edition:
| Feature | NexentaOS | NexentaStor |
|---|---|---|
| ZFS | Yes | Yes |
| Management Server | no | Yes |
| Management Console | no | Yes |
| Management Web Interface | no | Yes |
| Centralized (single-point and single-login) management | no | Yes |
| Group management of multiple nodes | no | Yes |
| Integrated iSCSI management | no | Yes |
Integrated file and directory sharing via:
|
no | Yes |
| Integrated User Management | no | Yes |
| Integrated Access Control List (ACL) Management | no | Yes |
| Safe transactional upgrades and system checkpoints | Yes(3) | Yes |
| Integrated Fault Management | no | Yes |
| Integrated Statistics Collection | no | Yes |
| Integrated LDAP | no | Yes |
| Integrated Active Directory | no | Yes |
| 2nd tier storage services | no | Yes |
| Continuous data protection4 | no | Yes |
| Daily and weekly reports | no | Yes |
| Graphical statistics (network and storage) | no | Yes |
| Public and documented Storage Appliance API (SA-API) | no | Yes |
| Built-in Search Engine, to index and search NexentaStor archives | no | Yes |
| Customizable Fault and Performance Management plugins | no | Yes |
| Command batching and scripting | no | Yes |
| I/O and network performance benchmarks5 | no | Yes |
| Ajax based remote console | no | Yes |
| Wizard-guided initial configuration | no | Yes |
| Pluggable extensions: API browser, benchmarks, graphical stats, and more | no | Yes |
| VM DataCenter plugin: integrated ESX/NexentaStor management | no | Yes |
| HA (simple-failover) plugin: semi-automated failover in a group of N (N>=2) appliances | no | Yes |
| WORM (Write Once, Read Many) plugin | no | Yes |
| Ease of use | no | Yes |
3 The option exists but is not integrated with the rest of management functionality.
4 Is distributed as a separate pluggable module (plugin)
5 Available as plugins
NexentaStor supports 10/100/1000 Base-T and all major 10GE Ethernet solutions directly, as well as aggregation (802.3ad) and multi-path I/O. For most installations, we recommend at least aggregated 100Mbps Ethernet.
Native CIFS and NFS v4/v3 are supported. WebDAV is yet another option for easy access from Windows. NexentaStor also makes use of rsync, ssh, and zfs send/receive, as well as CIFS and NFS transports for tiering and replication. In addition, synchronous replication (remote mirroring) is available as the Auto CDP plug-in. LDAP support includes support for UID mapping, netgroups, X.509 certificate based client authentication, and other directory service based options that are included in a primary tier NAS. Specific Active Directory support is also included. A full feature list can be found in NexentaStor documentation.
NexentaStor also leverages a wide variety of disk technologies, such as local SCSI, SAS, SATA and similar directly attached technologies as well as the flexibility of iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and newer interconnected storage such as Infiniband-based SAS solutions.
NexentaStor solves data replication challenges with ‘best-in-class’ ease of use and performance. NexentaStor can pull or push data regularly at arbitrary intervals, transferring only the periodic changes seen. Therefore NexentaStor is ideal for both large tiering as well as replication needs or even for mirroring data across the WAN.
Following is at-a-glance view of storage services deployed on one of our servers (that is currently providing storage for a number of ESX 3.5 Virtual Machines):
NexentaStor provides a complete range of data replication capabilities:
-
Auto-Tier - "Auto-tier" (or simply, tiering), makes use of snapshots and user definable source and destination points to regularly replicate a single copy of a file system to another storage pool, whether local or remote. By using snapshots on the target, this tiered copy may have arbitrarily different retention and expiration policies and can be administered separately from the source file system. Auto-tier runs on a variety of transports, and can even use snapshots as its source. Auto-tier will outperform older disk-to-disk backup solutions and is not limited to the first two tiers, as tertiary tiering for more critical data is increasingly common. Also, in conjunction with NexentaStor WORM capabilities, auto-tier can also enforce regulatory and compliance policies.
-
Auto-Sync - "Auto-sync" (or simply, syncing) maintains a fully synchronized copy of a given volume, file system, or emulated block device (a. k. a. zvol) on another NAS. Where as tiering provides a copy, auto-sync provides a true mirror inclusive of all snapshots and file system properties. This allows central mapping of multiple snapshots of a file system onto remote storage, all the while maintaining control of the retention and expiration of that data at the replication source. Syncing is often used for full disaster recovery.
-
Hybrid-tier/sync - NexentaStor also includes a hybrid tiering-syncing capablities that retains a history of changes on the tiering destination. Unlike regular backup solutions with only the latest copy available on the backup target, this solution retains both "the latest copy" and a configurable number of previous copies in accordance with the retention policy.
-
Auto-CDP - Continuous Data Protection, or remote mirroring. Replicates NexentaStor volumes remotely, in real time, at a block level. Conceptually, the service performs a function similar to local disk mirroring scheme of RAID 1 except that in case of Auto-CDP this is done over an IP network.
NexentaStor users are finding the bredth of replication capabilities offered by NexentaStor to be extremely useful in managing the boom in data stored. The amount of data to backup is increasingly difficult to somehow restore from tape within a backup window, and the low costs of capacity of commodity disk drives and arrays makes it feasible to build online backups out of disk subsystems using NexentaStor. Disk to disk backup and even digital archiving are now cost effective alternatives to increasingly outdated tape based approaches thanks to NexentaStor.
NexentaStor can even be used just as a tool or conduit, providing all the data replication services when both the source and targets are remote.
For more (and the most recent) information on NexentaStor data replication services, please see:
- What is the difference between 'auto-sync' and 'auto-tier' storage services?
- For NexentaStor Automatic Continuous Data Protection (CDP) extension, please see AutoCDP.
Fault Management and High Availability
NexentaStor is designed and built to provide reliable 24/7/365 availability. To that end, NexentaStor provides a rich set of fault management and HA features. For example, the appliance comes with a number of standard "runners" – pluggable modules that perform essential fault management, performance monitoring and reporting functions.
Other high availability (HA) and fault correction functionality includes ZFS self-healing, advanced data protection, ZFS hotplug, and other enterprise-grade features.
In addition, each appliance monitors other appliances on the network (including both ssh-bound hosts and dynamically discovered NexentaStor appliances).
The appliance's unique upgrade/checkpointing facility utilizes snapshots and provides multiple system checkpoints. Please read more below to learn how this can save you time and improve the security of your upgrades.
In addition there is the Simple HA plug-in, which you can learn more about elsewhere on this site.
Centralized Management
NexentaStor provides both enhanced command line and web interfaces to configure and monitor all facets of your storage. Also, single-login of all NexentaStor instances running on the network is included. In addition to centralized log-in, you can also run management operation(s) on all appliances in the group from a single NexentaStor instance.
Public API
All client management applications (including management console and management GUI, fault triggers and storage services, etc.) use Nexenta Storage Appliance public API (SA-API) to communicate. This architecture ensures a consistent view of the appliance from all clients and guarantees the transactional behavior of all management administrative and monitoring operations. The SA-API also opens possibilities for third-party integrations.
For more information, see NexentaStor API and SDKs.
Optional Modules for Additional Capabilities
NexentaStor extension modules (plugins) deliver optional capabilities with only a few clicks or commands from the end user.
When installed, plugins integrate themself with NexentaStor's core software. Adding a plugin usually means that new menus, toolbars, commands, and man pages will automatically appear in the GUI and CLI. All components of NexentaStor are designed from ground up to be extensible with plugins.
For the list of available pluggable modules, descriptions and "getting started" instructions, please refer to NexentaStor plugins pages.
Software Upgrade
NexentaStor is built upon advanced software upgrade and system checkpointing functionality. These capabilities allow uninterrupted, safe, and timely delivery of security fixes, new features and extensions.
When an upgrade is available, a small yellow “you've got mail” icon appears on the top right of the interface. After the appliance is upgraded, this icon disappears
Two types of upgrades are supported:
- safe upgrade, via cloning a system folder
- in-place (live) upgrades
If the “safe” option is not specified, NexentaStor automatically detects whether the upgrade will require reboot; if a reboot is determined to be required the active system folder is automatically cloned and the software upgrade is performed within this clone. A user can then choose when to switch into the new (upgraded) system folder.
Live upgrades, as the name implies, happen in-place on the running system without reboot. Each NexentaStor upgrade has a start (atomic creation of a new system checkpoint), and an end (activation of upgraded system folder). This means that upgrades can be completely rolled back, thus resetting appliance to an exact system state (checkpoint) in the past. The appliance supports multiple system checkpoints – the number is configurable. The upgrades are fast and easy to manage. And most importantly, the upgrades are safe and they retain the running system at all time.
These enterprise class high availability upgrades are critical to the value of NexentaStor because a major difference between NexentaStor and legacy storage solutions is that Nexenta is a platform that can safely be upgraded and enhanced with Nexenta and non-Nexenta software without putting at risk operations.
For more information, please see the following F.A.Q. articles:
