IBM SONAS Brochure

IBM Systems and Technology Group System Storage

Smart businesses are turning toIBM Scale Out Network AttachedStorage from IBM

Smart businesses are turning to IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage from IBM2

Welcome to the Petabyte Age in a SmarterPlanetToday’s businesses are operating in a smarter planet, wherebusiness customers are demanding, creating and sharing busi-ness and social digital content and large rich media files over abroadband Internet that reaches to every corner of the globe.Smarter users are creating and using smarter data that isredefining our business and social world in real time.

Unlike traditional IT data, this rich digital content is almostentirely file- or object-based, and it is growing ever larger insize, with highly diverse and unpredictable usage patterns.Innovative IT applications in business analytics, digital media,medical data and cloud storage are creating requirements fordata access rates and response times to individual files thatwere previously unique to high-performance computing environments—and all of this is driving a continuing explosionof business data.

Traditional IT workloads and traditional storage will continueto excel for the traditional applications for which they weredesigned. But these solutions were not intended to scale to thehigh levels and extremely challenging workload characteristicsrequired by today’s Internet-driven, Petabyte Age applications.

Traditional monolithic fibre channel or network attached storage (NAS) arrays were not originally designed as high-bandwidth rich media, constant bit rate, large object file serv-ing, infinitely clustered, dynamically load-balanced, centrallydeployed, petabyte-level storage entities. As a result, they canhave limitations in scalability and numbers of files and objects;and when more capacity is required, additional separatelymanaged traditional arrays have to be installed. This createsstorage management complexity and labor intensity, and thereis still no ability to dynamically balance service delivery andworkloads globally across the storage environment.

IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage(SONAS)SONAS is designed to address the new storage challengesposed by the continuing explosion of data. Leveraging maturetechnology from IBM’s High Performance Computing experi-ence, and based upon IBM’s flagship General Parallel FileSystem (GPFS™), SONAS is an easy-to-install, turnkey,modular, scale out NAS solution that provides the perform-ance, clustered scalability, high availability and functionalitythat are essential to meeting strategic Petabyte Age and cloudstorage requirements.

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Consolidating storage to improveefficiencies The high-density, high-performance SONAS can help yourorganization consolidate and manage data affordably, reducecrowded floor space, and reduce management expense associ-ated with administering an excessive number of disparate storage systems. With its advanced architecture, SONAS virtualizes and consolidates multiple filers into a single, enterprise-wide file system, which can translate into reducedtotal cost of ownership, reduced capital expenditure, andenhanced operational efficiency.

SONAS provides a global namespace that enables your storageinfrastructure to scale to extreme amounts of data, from ter-abytes to petabytes. Within the solution, centralized manage-ment, provisioning, control, and automated informationlife-cycle management (ILM*) are integrated as standard features to provide the foundation for a truly cloud storage-enabled solution.

SONAS provides extreme scale out capability, a globally clustered NAS file system built upon IBM GPFS. The globalnamespace is maintained across the entire global cluster ofmultiple storage pods and multiple interface nodes. All inter-face nodes and all storage nodes share equally in the cluster tobalance workloads dynamically and provide parallel perform-ance to all users and storage, while also assuring high availabil-ity and automated failover.

SONAS supports a full complement of standards-based net-work protocols, including Common Internet File System(CIFS), Network File System (NFS), Secure Copy Protocol*(SCP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol* (HTTP) and FileTransfer Protocol (FTP).

The advanced architecture of SONAS virtualizes and consolidates your filespace into a single, enterprise-wide file system.

Providing infrastructure for cloud storageIBM has designed SONAS to embrace cloud computing byproviding the dynamic scale out capability, centralized deploy-ment and management, security, and service elasticity neces-sary to meet today’s cloud storage requirements.

HTTPClients

ManagementNode

MultipleInterface Nodes

Horizontally scalableI/O Performance

Horizontally scalablestorage capacity

MultipleInterface Nodes

IP Management Network InfiniBand Clustered Network

NFSClients

CIFSClients

SCPClients

ManagementClients

FTPClients

IP Network

StorageNode

StorageNode

Storage

Storage

Storage Pod Storage Pod

Storage

Storage

StorageNode

StorageNode

Global Namespace

Smart businesses are turning to IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage from IBM4

The clustered architecture of SONAS enables a unified management view.

It is designed to deliver cloud storage at petabyte scale,enabling cloud applications and services to be uncoupled fromthe underlying storage infrastructure, which allows the busi-ness to adjust quickly to change. As a result, SONAS can eas-ily integrate with your organization’s strategies to develop amore dynamic enterprise.

Centrally managed, centrally deployedSONAS enables you to cluster and centrally deploy and man-age a large scale out NAS storage environment, in order togain a unified centralized management capability for security,provisioning and configuration.

The global cluster provides intelligent load balancing,dynamic thin provisioning, geographical distribution, per-formance optimization, and advanced replication—all globallyapplied and centrally managed.

Automated, integrated tiered storage andinformation life-cycle managementWhen file systems grow from terabytes to petabytes and tomillions and billions of files, the task of managing and migrat-ing this scale of data can become an immense challenge.Backup and archive becomes complex, expensive and slowbecause of the large amount of data that must be scanned toidentify what must be backed up. SONAS is designed to solvethese problems by providing extreme scale out capability in asingle global namespace, with automated, integrated policy-driven ILM* and hierarchical storage management built in.

The integrated ILM* capability allows you to manage apetabyte-level global namespace in logical storage poolsinstead of individual disks. The architecture enables easydynamic growth and transparent data migration, supportingthe ability to make changes to your storage infrastructurewithout having to plan weeks in advance. You can centrallyprovision storage nearly instantaneously, on a quota basis, byuser, group or location. Extensive global reporting and globalaccess control capabilities are standard features.

SONAS provides a powerful high-performance scan enginethat makes ILM* possible at the level of petabytes of data withmillions and billions of files. The high-performance scanengine enables fast searches, with ILM* data movement, back-ups, and restores done in parallel by all nodes in the system.

Classic Filers IBM Unified Scalable Storage –Enterprise Edition

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SONAS supports end users across the organization with a comprehensivesuite of storage capabilities, including tiered storage and ILM*.

The clustered architecture means all nodes share in perform-ing the high-performance scan, and all nodes can participatein the transparent movement of ILM* data or backup data toother storage pools or external removable media.

ILM* is performed at the individual file level, thus greatlyoptimizing storage usage while enabling maximum businessflexibility. Physical data movement between pools, or

migration and recall to and from tape, is transparent to theglobal namespace and to the logical user paths, directory loca-tions and applications.

Protecting data and replicating betweensitesSONAS offers data protection through space-efficient snap-shots that protect against accidental deletion or modificationof files and that enable you to restore at the file level. Thesolution also provides for synchronous replication as well asbandwidth-optimized asynchronous* replication.

Leveraging unique capabilities andmodular hardwareIn addition to extreme scale out capability and integratedILM*, SONAS enables your organization to utilize an array ofuniquely scalable, globally clustered hardware capabilities.

The solution is self-tuning, with all data automatically stripedacross all disks in a logical storage pool for high performance.All nodes share equally in the reading and writing of files inparallel from all disks, thus providing intelligent load balanc-ing, eliminating of hot spots, and ensuring very high perform-ance. Storage capacity is only allocated when written,providing dynamic thin provisioning.

The solution is also self-healing, providing automatic failover,failback, and fully dynamic load balancing. The modular con-figuration of interface nodes and storage node building blockscan be upgraded or downgraded dynamically, giving you theability to scale in real time.

Tiered storage DatabasesProtocols

CIFSNFS

HTTPFTPSCP

CentralAdministration

MonitoringFile management

Data migrationReplication

Backup

Management

Availability

High-end workstations

End users

Application servers

Virtualization andconsolidation technology

Automated ILMbetween pools

Smart businesses are turning to IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage from IBM6

SONAS provides high levels of storage performance, scalability, andflexibility.

Your organization can take advantage of numerous flexible,modular, hardware configuration possibilities. The initial ver-sions of SONAS will support any combination of up to 30 interface nodes and 30 storage pods, flexibly configured to

suit your requirements. Storage pods range from 4 to 16 U insize. Each pod can provide reliable storage from 27 to 480 ter-abytes of data. Storage pods and interface nodes can be com-bined into one globally clustered scale out NAS system,storing up to 14.4 petabytes of data. This provides extremeflexibility in configuring, adding and subtracting interfacenodes and storage nodes in any way your workload requires.For example, a system for archival might be configured with 2 interface nodes and 20 storage pods, whereas a system for e-mail might be configured with 20 interface nodes and 2 storage pods.

SONAS provides extreme high density storage, and exploitsleading-edge technology such as InfiniBand.

Driving a dynamic infrastructureOrganizations in every industry can gain significant competi-tive advantages by implementing dynamic infrastructures thatenable them to improve service, reduce cost and manage risk.IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) fromIBM is designed to serve as a highly dynamic, flexible, elasticstorage element of your infrastructure, driving greater levelsof responsiveness through consolidation, resiliency and scalability.

Global namespace

Storage pod Storage pod Storage pod

Logical storage pools

Interface nodes

Storage nodes

Clustered NAS services

CIFS SCP NFS HTTPS FTP

InfiniBand switches for node cluster,data transfer 1 GbE switch for

management nodes

Physical disk storage

Managementnodes

External IPnetwork

LDAPActive Directory

All interface nodes and storagenodes can directly access all

storage and all files

Interface nodes

Two storagenodes per

storage pod

Scalable to largenumbers of interface

nodes

Scalable to largenumbers

of storage pods

IBM Scale OutNetwork Attached

Storage

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Reaping the benefits of scale out NASBy implementing IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage(SONAS) from IBM, your organization can gain significantcost savings due to less wasted disk space, and less administra-tive effort required to manage fewer file systems and authorizations. The solution helps improve productivity byproviding automated ILM*, automatic storage allocation, usermanagement by storage quota, and universal reporting andperformance management. With these integrated tools,SONAS can help improve your business processes, reducingerrors associated with file system management, out-of-spaceconditions, and performance tuning and out-of-date copies ofdata. It minimizes time to access data across the WAN, and itcan increase your ability to scan all data in a single search. It provides the ideal infrastructure for a cloud storage environment.

A solution for the most demandingindustriesIBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) fromIBM can help optimize storage environments, save costs, andimprove efficiencies in a wide range of industries. IBM’s scaleout NAS solution has been developed to support:

● Medical imaging for active data and archive.● Digital simulations in pharmaceutical, automotive, and aero-

space applications.● Rich content records in insurance, construction, and realty.● Video capture for security, process management, and

education.● Media and entertainment content distribution.● Web 2.0 and social networking.● Financial services analytics.

SONAS supports the most dynamic infrastructures, including remote officeand disaster recovery infrastructures.

Tens of thousands of users

Global Namespace

IBM Scale Out NetworkAttached Storage

Remote officelocation

Disasterrecovery location

Application cluster

High-speed

High-speed

Please Recycle

Implementing and managing a scale outNAS systemCorrectly designing and implementing a strategic scale outNAS solution at high scalability—that is, at the level of hun-dreds of terabytes, or even at the petabyte level—can demandexperience with high-end server environments and multipleoperating system platforms, in addition to storage design andmanagement expertise. This is expertise that many organiza-tions may not have in-house.

IBM offers broad expertise in these areas to help you quicklyimplement SONAS, providing you with access to IBM’s broadbase of highly skilled professionals and expertise in large scaleout NAS, digital media, high-performance computing andcloud storage.

For more informationTo learn more about how IBM Scale Out Network AttachedStorage can centralize your storage management, provide costsavings and improve efficiencies in your organization, contactyour IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visitibm.com/storage

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