Open-E JovianDSS

Developer’s Description

Open-E JovianDSS
Open-E JovianDSS is a ZFS- and Linux-based Data Storage Software designed for enterprise-sized Software Defined Storage environments. With its features, the product ensures highest data reliability and integrity for optimal data storage, protection and recovery. It addresses the needs of enterprise users seeking a unified NAS and SAN solution with thin provisioning, compression and deduplication. The software uses shared storage for HA storage environments, and is the answer to almost any storage requirement: either as a single node, a virtualized HA setup or a Big Data cluster environment. It delivers a full-service, Software Defined Storage package that can be flexibly customized. Off-site Data Protection is a special feature of Open-E JovianDSS that provides a strategy for Backup, Archiving and Disaster Recovery by enabling asynchronous replication to local sites or co-locations. This way, servers with crucial data can be easily and instantly restored in case of an unexpected disaster. The functionality allows creating consistent snapshots with asynchronous replication of snapshot deltas to local or remote destinations. Additionally, replication tasks can be scheduled according to the specific user requirements for secure archiving. Encryption enhances security even further while buffered data replication significantly increases the efficiency of storage environments with Open-E JovianDSS. The functionality can be managed via the Command Line Interface (CLI). The software also includes VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Array Integration (VAAI) for iSCSI data acceleration. Off-site Data Protection in Open-E JovianDSS effectively prevents data loss and minimizes the recovery time with fast Disaster Recovery, and allows setting up an application-consistent backup with a retention interval as a Disaster Recovery plan for virtual environments based on VMware. The software does not require the installation of any backup agent

Open-E JovianDSS is a ZFS- and Linux-based Data Storage Software designed for businesses of any size, especially for Enterprise Software Defined Storage environments.

Data Storage

Open-E JovianDSS provides unlimited options to architect storage environments with iSCSI, Fibre Channel (FC) and NFS, SMB (CIFS) protocols for companies of any size – from small family businesses through medium companies to large enterprises. The Linux-based architecture provides Open-E JovianDSS with much better hardware compatibility than competing products based on other operating systems. Open-E JovianDSS is a perfect choice for any virtualized storage environment as it supports VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Hyper-V and ProxMox. It can be set up on physical servers or as a virtual storage appliance (e.g. in hyper-converged environments).

Open-E JovianDSS key data storage features and benefits

Data Acceleration

  • Acceleration of random writes with Write Log (ZIL)
  • Hybrid Read Cache with first level in RAM (ARC -Adaptive Replacement Cache) and second Read Cache level on an SSD or NVMe (L2ARC)
  • High cache hit rate by using ARC’s most recently used (MRU) and most frequently used (MFU) Read Cache algorithms
  • Compression for improved performance
  • Data resilvering rebuilding of used space only

Data Accessibility

  • iSCSI,Fibre Channel (FC), NFS, SMB (CIFS)
  • Use of Virtual IPs

Data Availability

  • High-Availability Dual-Controller Clustering
  • Active-Active and Active-Passive HA Cluster
  • Dual Storage (Stretched) Metro HA Cluster and Common Storage Cluster architectures

Data Integrity and Protection

  • Data and metadata check-summing
  • Self-healing to detect and correct silent data errors with Scrub utility
  • Atomic Transaction Writes to keep data consistent
  • Transactional copy-on-write I/O operations eliminate silent data corruption and data fragmentation
  • Storing multiple copies of user data

Data Optimization

  • Inline Compression ( LZ4, LZJB, ZLE, GZIP 1..9 )
  • Inline Deduplication
  • Thick, Thin and Over-Provisioning
  • Lightweight snapshots and clones taking up space once changes are made only

User Authentication

  • Local LDAP users and groups authentication for SMB /CIFS protocol
  • External Active Domain Server

File System & Storage Virtualization

  • 128-bit ZFS file system
  • Pooled storage model
  • Unlimited scalability with storage expansion during production
  • Unlimited file and volume size
  • Unlimited Snapshots and Clones (Copy-On-Write)

System Monitoring

  • SNMP
  • Nagios, Checkmk
  • GUI statistics

High Availability Cluster for SMB, NFS, iSCSI and FC

Open-E JovianDSS includes failover functionality for iSCSI, FC and NFS, SMB (CIFS) enabling you to set up High Availability Load-Balanced Storage Clusters that ensure reliability and redundancy through failover in case of a server crash. By using the Open-E JovianDSS Standard HA Cluster Feature Pack, you can enable High Availability for two server nodes connected to a single storage, and one or more JBODs. It also supports SAS and FC SSD / HDD disks.

Advanced HA cluster management software

The HA cluster management software enables you to quickly access all features related to your cluster setup. Whether for initial configuration or re-configuration after a failover – everything is in one place and guarantees ease of use for the storage administrator.

New in Open-E JovianDSS

This update is a special one, as it is not only about new features. Update 18 contains the Data Migration Tool, a special migration mechanism that enables an easy transfer from your old Open-E DSS V7 – or any other storage management software – to the enterprise-class Open-E JovianDSS. Among other various improvements we can enumerate:

  • Disk Multipathing support
  • Software RAID support for bootable mediums
  • System management via RESTful API
  • VMware ESX Auto Storage Rescan
  • maxView Storage Manager
  • Customizable alert thresholds

Disk Multipathing is a technique in computer strage that increases the fault tolerance, improves Data Integrity and enhances the performance, as it determines multiple physical paths between a system’s CPU and the hardware used for storage (e.g. bridges, switches etc. that connect the system with a server). Software RAID support for bootable mediums improves High Availability and security, while managing your system via RESTful API guarantees superior flexibility. Alert thresholds are sets of rules that are supposed to monitor various activities, and can be customized according to your needs. The maxView Storage Manager in turn simplifies the monitoring and maintenance process, and enables a configuration of storage controllers in a system built on Microsemi Adaptec HBA or RAID adapters.

What’s new?

In up27 we included the following new features:

  • Local LDAP users and groups authentication for SMB /CIFS protocol

Open-E JovianDSS contains LDAP database. Such database gives users the opportunity to create their own users and groups for SMB protocol directly in the product. Before this update, having  authorization for SMB shares required connecting to the external Windows Active Directory user base.

  • Support for NVMe disks in High Availability Metro Cluster (Cluster over Ethernet)

Option of using NVMe disks to build a Cluster over Ethernet (Metro Cluster) for a significantly better cluster performance, due to robustness of the NVMe drives.

  • Support for three ZFS pools in High availability cluster

Support for up to three ZFS pools in High Availability cluster.So far users could configure an Open-E High Availability cluster with only two pools.

  • File-IO write-back and write-through modes for iSCSI volumes

New File-IO mode with write-back and write-through options for iSCSI volumes. The File-IO mode provides much better performance, especially in regards to write-back option as it provides additional data caching layer  in RAM.

  • Block-IO mode for Fibre Channel volumes

Possibility of using a Block-IO mode for Fibre Channel volumes. Until now, the software had only File-IO which means that up27 provides even greater choice and flexibility.

  • Additional system tuning option in TUI

Possibility of changing the sysctl settings. This is a system tool that enables configuring different low level kernel parameters related to eg. network, filesystem.

  • Emergency option to disable ZFS pools import during system start

With up 27 it is possible to run the system without ZFS automatic pools import (without the whole storage). This option can be very useful in some emergency situations.

  • Additional system log for  optimization report for Mellanox Ethernet/Infiniband Adapters

If a server has a Mellanox card, this tool will add information (card stability,  state of the system and processor, firmware update requirements, and other tuning tips)  at system logs download.

  • Support for Broadcom BCM573xx and Broadcom BCM574xx controllers (bnxt v.1.8.54)

Broadcom BCM573xx and Broadcom BCM574xx controllers are fully featured Ethernet LAN controllers for data centers and clouds which enhance efficiency and performance. Such adapters support 100G/50G/40G/25G/10G/1G in single-port configurations, as well as in dual-port ones.

  • Password modification for Adaptec MaxView and Broadcom MSM tools (System console -> Ctrl+Alt+r -> Storage controller tools)

Option of changing the password for Adaptec MaxView and Broadcom MSM tools which are used to manage RAID and HBA controllers of Adaptec and Broadcom.Previously it was not possible to change the password so easily and with up27 users can set up and freely manage their passwords for Adaptec and Broadcom whenever there is such need.

Open-E JovianDSS is a ZFS- and Linux-based Data Storage Software designed especially for enterprise-sized storage environments, ensuring highest data reliability and integrity for optimal data storage, protection and recovery.

Open-E Jovian Data Storage Software (JovianDSS) Publisher’s Description

Open-E JovianDSS is a ZFS- and Linux-based Data Storage Software designed for enterprise-sized Software Defined Storage environments. With its features, the product ensures highest data reliability and integrity for optimal data storage, protection and recovery. It addresses the needs of enterprise users seeking a unified NAS and SAN solution with thin provisioning, compression and deduplication. The software uses shared storage for HA storage environments, and is the answer to almost any storage requirement: either as a single node, a virtualized HA setup or a Big Data cluster environment. It delivers a full-service, Software Defined Storage package that can be flexibly customized. Off-site Data Protection is a special feature of Open-E JovianDSS that provides a strategy for Backup, Archiving and Disaster Recovery by enabling asynchronous replication to local sites or co-locations. This way, servers with crucial data can be easily and instantly restored in case of an unexpected disaster. The functionality allows creating consistent snapshots with asynchronous replication of snapshot deltas to local or remote destinations. Additionally, replication tasks can be scheduled according to the specific user requirements for secure archiving. Encryption enhances security even further while buffered data replication significantly increases the efficiency of storage environments with Open-E JovianDSS. The functionality can be managed via the Command Line Interface (CLI). The software also includes VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Array Integration (VAAI) for iSCSI data acceleration. Off-site Data Protection in Open-E JovianDSS effectively prevents data loss and minimizes the recovery time with fast Disaster Recovery, and allows setting up an application-consistent backup with a retention interval as a Disaster Recovery plan for virtual environments based on VMware. The software does not require the installation of any backup agent.

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