RAID Storage: Nexsan

The worldwide leader in innovative and secure storage solutions, Nexsan develops and markets secure storage appliances and modular, high capacity disk storage systems for a broad range of applications including fixed content storage and archiving, compliance and litigation support, primary storage, disk-based backup, digital video security, medical imaging, and rich media.

With a complete line of storage systems that offer the ultimate in price/performance, Nexsan is the choice of Fortune Global 500 companies, major governmental agencies, and leading universities worldwide.

More details about Nexsan's innovative and affordable data storage solutions, including the E-Series™, E60™, E60X™, E18™, E18X™, E5000™, SATABeast™, SATABeast Xi™, SATABoy™, SASBeast™, SASBoy™ and iSeries™, can be found below.

Read about Nexsan Assureon here.

Affordable, High Performance NAS Storage System

Nexsan E5000

The Nexsan E5000, a part of Nexsan’s Flexible Storage Platform, is Nexsan’s family of NAS storage systems that have been purpose-built for mid-sized organizations looking for high performance and all the enterprise-class features they need at a price they can afford. The E5000 boasts a robust set of features like snapshots, replication, quotas/thin provisioning and much more.

Whereas competitive NAS offerings are either too pricey or deliver too few features, the Nexsan E5000 uniquely delivers a NAS that is faster, easier, more affordable and fits in a smaller space. A revolutionary GUI streamlines setup and management for the time-constrained IT generalist and has been designed to deploy in under 15 minutes! In addition, the E5000 utilizes all drive types, an SSD cache to deliver blazing-fast I/O, boasts industry-leading storage density and power management, and offers a no single-point-of-failure architecture.

Key Benefits

  • NFS/CIFS shared folders
  • Snapshots
  • Asynchronous Replication
  • Synchronous Replication
  • Quotas and thin provisioning
  • FASTier™ SSD-based cache delivers blazing-fast I/O
  • Enterprise-class reliability and fault tolerance
  • Utilize SSD, NL-SAS, SAS and SATA drives
  • Active Directory and LDAP integration
  • Online capacity expansion
  • Industry-leading efficiencies with 60 disks in 4U storage arrays and up to 85% energy savings

Next Generation of Storage Systems: High Capacity, Small Footprint, Efficient, Reliable, Easy to Use and Affordable

The Nexsan E-Series, a member of Nexsan’s Flexible Storage Platform, represents the next generation of storage systems delivering dramatic enhancements in efficiency and ease-of-use to help mid-market organizations, and the mid-tier of the enterprise, add more capacity while lowering overall power, space and cost requirements.

Innovative ease-of-use functionality makes deploying and managing storage a snap for the resource constrained IT generalist. The Nexsan E-Series is comprised of the E60 storage system (60 drives in 4U), the E60X expansion unit (60 drives in 4U), the E18 storage system (18 drives in 2U) and the E18X expansion unit (18 drives in 2U).

For organizations faced with increasing power or space limitations, the E-Series represents the perfect solution with 15 drives per U in the E60 and E60X, along with up to 85% energy savings. The net is a storage system that is up to 3X as dense as a typical array while consuming a fraction of the power.

Ultimate Density, Highest Performance Storage System

Nexsan E60

The Nexsan E60, a member of the Flexible Storage Platform, is a next generation high-density and energy-efficient storage system, upping the ante over previous generations by delivering a storage solution that accommodates 60 disks. It provides 180TBs in only 4U and, thanks to Nexsan's AutoMAID level 4 technology, reduces energy costs by up to 85% - making it the most energy-efficient, enterprise-class storage system on the market.

The E60 contains four 8Gbit Fibre Channel ports, with the ability in the future to add a second IO card, and two 1Gbit iSCSI ports to deliver more bandwidth and connectivity. The E60 seamlessly combines SATA, SAS, and SSD drives to give IT administrators a high degree of flexibility, and its innovative active drawer technology allows the E60 to be safely serviced by one person while remaining in full production - a significant improvement over competitive systems that typically require several people to replace a single disk or fan.

As with all Nexsan solutions, the E60 is built for enterprise-class applications, providing tier-1 full redundancy and high performance at tier- 2 prices. It's very easy to install and use. And the E60 includes technologies that provide a combination of cost-effective high density, space efficiency and Nexsan's AutoMAID (Massive Array of Idle Disks) level 4 energy-saving technology, which enables the E60 to save up to 85% in energy costs.

Key Benefits

  • 60-disk RAID system
  • 180TB capacity in 4U
  • Three active drawers for easy servicing
  • Combines SAS, SATA and SSD disks in the same system
  • Anti-vibration design maximizes disk reliability
  • AutoMAID level 4 reduces energy consumption by 85%
  • Horizontal mid-plane maximizes airflow and cooling
  • Future proof design allows for upgrading IO port types
  • Expand with up to 60 additional drives with Nexsan E60X
  • Optional 10Gbit iSCSI replaces 8Gb Fibre Channel ports

Scalable Enterprise-Class Storage Expansion

The E60X™, a member of the Flexible Storage Platform, delivers the latest high-capacity expansion chassis, uniquely offering 60 drive bays in only 4U of rack space to give IT professionals the most storage capacity in the smallest footprint, with enterprise-class reliability and stellar ease of use. By attaching the E60X expansion chassis to Nexsan's SATABeast, SASBeast, E18 or E60 storage systems, organizations can achieve new levels of efficiency with the ability to add more capacity while reducing power, space and cost.

When compared to other systems, the E60X delivers three times the capacity, takes up one third of the space and – thanks to Nexsan's AutoMAID level 4 technology – consumes up to 85% less energy. Three self-contained active drawers contain 20 SAS/SATA disk bays in each along with tachometer-controlled push and pull fan modules. The entire drawer can be extended for easy servicing while remaining in full production. The E60X connects to the SATABeast or SASBeast via the expansion ports available on the new 8Gbit fibre channel Beast controllers.

The E60X 120TB expansion solution does not require special tools or downtime to add capacity; IT professionals need only to plug the required disk drives into any unused disk bay. In addition, the chassis is managed completely by the SASBeast, SATABeast, E18 or E60 Web-based management interface.

Key Benefits

  • Offers SATA, SAS or SSD disk combinations
  • Highest density per rack inch with 60 disks in a 4U chassis
  • 180TB capacity in 4U
  • Three active drawers for easy servicing
  • Anti-vibration design maximizes disk reliability
  • AutoMAID level 4 reduces energy consumption by 85%
  • Horizontal mid-plane maximizes airflow and cooling

High Density, Highest Performance Storage System

Nexsan E18

The Nexsan E18, a member of the Flexible Storage Platform, is Nexsan's next generation of high performance, high density and energy-efficient storage solution. Upping the ante over Nexsan's SATA/SASBoy 14-drive 3U storage system, the E18 is a next-generation, high performance, 18-drive 2U storage system. The E18 supports SATA, SAS and SSD drives to flexibly meet varying storage needs for high performance, high capacity or both. The E18 is designed for applications that require enterprise-class performance at a mid-market price.

The system employs the new Nexsan E-Series RAID controller–available in single or dual controller configurations–and contains up to four 8Gb Fibre Channel ports and up to four 1Gb iSCSI ports to deliver higher bandwidth and path resiliency. Nexsan's Active Drawer Technology enables two sliding, active drawers that hold nine drives in each, allowing them to be quickly and easily serviced by one person while remaining online.

The E18 is ideal for transactional applications as well as storage for virtualized environments that utilize Windows, Linux, VMware, Xen or Hyper-V–which access storage randomly, require high performance and require no single-point-of-failure configurations.

Key Benefits

  • Over 10TB of high performance SAS in 2U OR over 54TB of high capacity SATA in 2U
  • 18-disk RAID system with two active drawers
  • Single or dual redundant active/active controllers
  • High speed cache with both battery and flash backup
  • 8Gb Fibre Channel and 1Gb iSCSI host-side ports
  • Utilizes multi-path IO for Windows, Linux, VMware, Xen and Hyper-V
  • No single-point-of-failure design
  • Anti-Vibration Design maximizes disk reliability
  • AutoMAID level 4 technology reduces energy consumption by 85%
  • Cool Drive Technology utilizes redundant push and pull fans
  • Expand with up to 60 additional drives with Nexsan E60X
  • Optional 10Gbit iSCSI replaces 8Gb Fibre Channel ports

Capacity Expansion

Attach the E18X expansion unit (18 drives in 2U) to either the E60 or E18 storage systems via up to four 6Gb/s SASx4 (24Gb) connectors for uncompromising performance and resilience against any single point-of-failure.

High Capacity Disk Storage Array with Revolutionary Power Saving Technology

Nexsan SATABeast

Unleash the power of the SATABeast extreme density storage array from Nexsan Technologies. Designed from the ground up to set new standards for high-capacity storage systems, SATABeast delivers the industry's best performance and cost-effectiveness in a scalable disk solution. With unparalleled density, availability and energy efficiency, SATABeast maximizes the return on your storage hardware investment.

  • Highest storage density in the industry - up to 42 TB in only 4U
  • Nexsan's revolutionary AutoMAID energy saving technology greatly reduces power consumption and operating costs
  • Full enterprise class performance and reliability
  • Dual function Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity with wire-speed performance
  • Flexible, scalable and completely OS independent; easily supports a broad range of storage infrastructures

Primary Storage
Designed for enterprise class environments where reliability is an absolute, SATABeast's high availability architecture features full redundancy across all active components. Blazing wire-speed read/write throughput and high IOPS performance make SATABeast the perfect choice for data-intensive applications.

Secondary Storage and Disk to Disk Backup
Online access to data means superior business continuity. The SATABeast provides the speed, fault tolerance and high availability to deliver superior data protection while its unmatched capacity easily handles enormous volumes of files. SATABeast enables unprecedented amounts of data to be cost-effectively stored and instantly accessed.

High Density Storage for Xserve and Mac Pro Systems

SATABeast Xi is the first high density, energy efficient storage solution built for the Xserve and Mac Pro markets, delivering 42 drives and dual RAID controllers in only 4U of rack space. SATABeast Xi complements Xserve and Mac Pro environments in physical look and feel including a GUI that is visually compatible with Leopard. While optimized for Apple environments, SATABeast Xi is flexible, scalable and completely OS independent to easily support a broad range of computing infrastructures.

Nexsan SATABeast Xi

Based on the proven technology of Nexsan's award-winning SATABeast, the SATABeast Xi provides the Apple market with a high density, plug and play solution that is complementary to Xserve's existing storage options. SATABeast Xi delivers high end performance at the same exceptional price point as current SATABeast solutions, including the energy efficiency features and software licenses to allow SATABeast Xi to operate out of the box without expensive add-ons.

With unparalleled density, availability and energy efficiency, SATABeast Xi is the perfect fit for Mac storage.

High Performance SATA Storage

SATABoy provides organizations with unparalleled storage flexibility to meet real world business objectives. The highly scalable SATABoy enables cost-effective storage of large amounts of information online, while its exceptional performance ensures faster response times for mission critical applications.

Nexsan SATABoy

SATABoy is equally capable of delivering high IOPS for transactional applications and sustaining maximum MB/s throughput for high bandwidth applications such as streaming media. SATABoy also offers the energy saving benefits of Nexsan’s revolutionary AutoMAID technology. SATABoy’s unique combination of high performance with energy saving capabilities enables users to maximize the total return on their storage hardware investment.

  • High capacity - up to 14 TB in only 3U
  • Nexsan's revolutionary AutoMAID energy saving technology greatly reduces power consumption and operating costs
  • Enterprise class performance and reliability
  • Fibre Channel, SAS and iSCSI connectivity with wire-speed performance
  • New added support for SSD drives

Enterprise Class SAS Storage for the Broadest Range of Requirements

Two big needs. One small solution. Conquer transaction performance and high capacity in the same storage system. Whether you need high performance (for Exchange) or high capacity (for disk to disk backup, file servers or storing large amounts of content), SASBeast provides the speed and capacity to meet the broadest range of storage requirements.

Nexsan SASBeast

Nexsan's SASBeast delivers the industry’s best value by combining enterprise SAS and SSD performance with the density, reliability, affordability and energy efficiency Nexsan is known for throughout the world.

  • High speed – blazing SAS and SSD IOPS and read/write throughput performance
  • High density – 42 drive bays in only 4U providing up to 25.2TB of SAS capacity
  • Flexible – combine SAS, SSD and SATA drives in the same chassis for separate storage tiers
  • Reliable – enterprise-class quality with fully redundant components
  • Energy Efficiency – Nexsan's AutoMAID ultra green technology delivering up to 60% in energy savings

High Performance SAS Storage

SASBoy provides organizations with exceptional performance and unparalleled energy savings in a compact package to meet real world business needs. The highly flexible SASBoy features FC, SAS and iSCSI connectivity to enable cost-effective high performance access to large amounts of information ensuring faster response times for business critical applications. SASBoy is equally capable of delivering high IOPS for transactional applications and sustaining maximum MB/s throughput for high bandwidth applications.

Nexsan SASBoy

By reliably mixing SAS, SSD and SATA disks in the same SASBoy chassis, users can address both performance and capacity requirements in a single system+. Use the SAS and SSD storage tier for performance intensive applications and the SATA storage tier for capacity intensive applications. By doing so, Nexsan uniquely delivers the flexibility to meet the broadest range of storage requirements in a single chassis.

  • High transaction performance
  • Nexsan's revolutionary AutoMAID energy saving technology greatly reduces power consumption and operating costs
  • High capacity – up to 8.4 TB in only 3U
  • Fibre Channel, SAS and iSCSI connectivity with wire-speed performance

iSCSI SAN

Nexsan iSeries is the perfect solution for server virtualization, databases, file storage, data consolidation and multiple data storage requirements where performance and scalability are a must and simple IP deployment is desired.

Nexsan iSeries

All storage services are embedded onto the Nexsan iSeries including virtualization, snapshots, replication, mirroring, data migration and more. Users have the ability to create and control thousands of virtual volumes supporting multiple applications and storage pools simultaneously.

By reliably incorporating SAS and SATA in the same storage system, users no longer have to choose between a performance or capacity driven iSCSI SAN system. Separate storage pools can be created for the needs of different applications from databases to backup.

With an all-inclusive Tier 1 feature set combined with industry leading performance, reliability and energy efficiency, Nexsan iSeries is delivering the iSCSI SAN you need ... at a price to meet your budget.

AutoMAID Energy Saving Technology
Nexsan's revolutionary AutoMAID™ energy saving technology transparently places SATABeast, SATABoy and SATABlade disk drives into an idle state, vastly reducing power consumption and operational costs.

AutoMAID delivers these benefits without the limitations of slow access times and special host software. AutoMAID is granular to an individual drive or RAID set and offers multiple levels of energy savings, enabling users to determine the right level of access speed and energy savings for their environment. AutoMAID is the first MAID architecture that supports VTL (Virtual Tape Libraries), full file format D2D and standard high performance RAID implementations.

By integrating Nexsan's AutoMAID technology into their high performance, multipurpose SATA storage arrays, users now have the flexibility to support multiple applications within the same storage subsystem. AutoMAID can be applied selectively by drive units and can be disabled for volumes requiring the very best response time.

Additional Information

ESeries Data Sheet ( 253 KB )
ESeries Spec Sheet ( 287 KB )
E5000 Data Sheet ( 497 KB )
SATABeast Data Sheet ( 358 KB )
SATABeast Xi Data Sheet ( 731 KB )
SATABoy Data Sheet ( 307 KB )
SASBeast Data Sheet ( 439 KB )
SASBoy Data Sheet ( 317 KB )
ISeries Data Sheet ( 683 KB )
Video - About Nexsan ( view )
Video - E5000 NAS UI Walkthrough ( view )
Video - E60 Product Overview ( view )
Video - E18 Product Overview ( view )

 

For more information on Nexsan RAID storage technology, please contact the experts at LH Computer Services.