RAM | Reseller Advocate Magazine: Issue 68

By Chris Angelini

Storage servers are a hot topic as of late. Maybe that’s because, in the past, you would have been hearing about them from IBM, HP, and EMC. But now channel friendly vendors like D-Link, Intel, and Supermicro are edging their way onto the scene, creating opportunities for VARs eager for affordable network storage.

NAS hardware is plentiful. Intel, for example, sells the entry-level SS4000-E, ready for a quartet of hard drives. Intel also offers a midrange barebones box bundled with and without SAN software: the SSR212MA and SSR212CC respectively. SMBs more interested in a canned solution have a third option in the SSR212PP—a reseller-accessible storage server based on EMC’s SAN technology. In fact, the SSR212PP is essentially a re-badged AX150 complemented by Intel’s Advanced Warranty Replacement and flexible partner program. If you weren’t able to meet EMC’s stringent program requirements in the past, Intel’s SSR212PP gives you a way around the high-volume demands of tier-ones.

More recently, Intel took the wraps off of its SSR212MC2 storage platform, often called McKay Creek. Available in two different configurations and highly customizable, the SSR212MC2 has enough potential to woo your customers away from those big iron vendors. That CLARiiON AX150 box might sound sweet, with its 500GB hard drives and dual controllers. But you can bet it doesn’t leverage the power of two 5000-series Xeon processors, up to 32GB of system memory, and support for twelve 750GB hard drives in a 2U box. The SSR212MC2 does. You won’t find that much muscle anywhere else, and the box is tailored especially for the channel.

The advantage vendors like EMC have, even in the face of McKay Creek’s tremendous hardware horsepower, is a well-integrated mix of hardware and software. A storage server is nothing more than a pile of metal until you load it up with the right applications. Of course, building the SSR212MC2 into a potent platform is easy, but after that, what comes next?

Intel anticipated this question. Just as the company helped to optimize a number of titles for the older SSR212CC, Intel validated the SSR212MC2 with a handful of operating systems and several third-party storage apps. This time around, Intel partnered with Microsoft, SuSE, Red Hat, FalconStor, Open-E, and Wasabi Systems to help resellers put compelling hardware and software combinations together.

Making Sense of Server Software

Looking at the list of software ready to be dropped onto the SSR212MC2—or any storage server, for that matter—you might find yourself wondering how a Microsoft operating system compares to Wasabi Systems’ Storage Builder for IP-SAN. Each has its own set of advantages. So how do you pick the right offering for your customer’s whitebox storage server?

A quick consultation with Intel’s list of supported operating systems turns up three brand names you’ll definitely recognize. First, Microsoft is on the list with its vanilla Windows Server 2003. There’s also the more specialized Windows Storage Server 2003 and Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003. Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux and SuSE’s Linux Enterprise Server 9.0 are the other two. Like Windows Server, these are operating systems you’d find on any general purpose server. Any of those options can supply the basic functionality needed to get a system up on a network.

A Storage Server Proponent
Claude Lorenson, group product manager for Microsoft’s storage and branch solutions, advocates WUDSS in environments that need NAS and iSCSI SAN support. For pure NAS plays, Windows Storage Server 2003 takes the lead.

When it comes to more specialized work, look to FalconStor’s Continuous Data Protection or VirtualTape Library software appliance kit. Sell Wasabi’s Storage Builder for NAS. Or go for the Open-E Data Storage Server software, which supports file-level NAS storage and block-level SAN through iSCSI from within the same operating system. Not surprisingly, the focus of a specialized storage server package is ease of use. Anyone can install Windows Server and get basic file sharing. You might be surprised that getting an integrated storage platform up and running can also be fairly basic.

Classic Microsoft

There are two titles from Microsoft’s repertoire that you’ll want to know in order to operate in storage servers. One is Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 and the other is Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003. According to Claude Lorenson, group product manager for Microsoft’s storage and branch solutions, the two software packages perform very different tasks.

“Storage Server 2003 is used to create a NAS box on a hardware platform like Intel’s McKay Creek. You’d install Storage Server if a customer needed more file-based capacity for an application. Businesses using large architectural plans or centralized Office documents would want a NAS box based on Windows Storage Server.”

As you probably know already, NAS (network attached storage) comes in many different flavors, from tiny two-drive enclosures priced in the $100-range to full-sized servers costing thousands. Paired to an 8- or 12-drive enclosure, Storage Server 2003 gives you the scalability to delegate and manage terabytes of space. The operating system is easy to deploy thanks to step-by-step guidance. And it offers enhanced functionality, like VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) to transparently create data snapshots, simplifying recovery and even enabling the restoration of overwritten files.

Windows Unified Data Storage Server, or WUDSS, goes a step further to support file-based and block-based storage. Not only is it able to handle the centralization of a business’ important shared documents, but WUDSS is also built to accommodate the SQL Server and Exchange Server databases you’d run at the block level. WUDSS’ flexibility lets you turn your storage servers into database vaults, email stores, or file repositories.

Technically, a storage server running WUDSS can serve both blocks and files, so long as you’re using separate Ethernet cards. Microsoft’s Lorenson cautions about the performance impact on such a configuration. “It really depends on what your customer is looking to do. You probably won’t want to mix an Exchange server containing 4,000 mail boxes with file serving. It’s all workload-dependant.” Thus, WUDSS’ flexibility lets you turn your storage servers into database vaults, email stores, or file repositories.

Delivering Continuous Backup
Running network backups once a week might be enough for some SMBs. But building a storage server with FalconStor’s CDP software ensures data is saved as often as every hour.

Here’s where things get cool. Microsoft won’t draw this parallel, but you can easily compare the SMB benefits of Small Business Server 2003 to what the company has done with WUDSS. The two operating systems are specialized by nature, combining core elements of Windows Server and more customized features that do a particular job well. Customers already familiar with SBS 2003’s small business feature set should be able to see the same qualities in WUDSS. Right off the bat, a single configuration utility guides green VARs through the initial storage configuration. After that, one interface links to the other tools, much like SBS’ management console, which you didn’t get in Windows Server. And because the underlying operating system is still Windows Server, you can add third-party applications on top of WUDSS to handle backup, security, and management.

Microsoft’s familiar interface and ease of use aren’t the only reasons to go WUDSS. Part of supporting block transfers means the operating system is ready for use in a SAN environment, and iSCSI is decidedly the more popular SMB SAN technology. The ability to act as an iSCSI target is what lets a storage server running WUDSS function as an Exchange Server’s or SQL Server’s storage space.

Best of all, WUDSS has been designated an OEM only product by Microsoft. A handful of tier-ones have adopted the operating system for select servers (Dell and HP each have one mixed NAS/SAN box). But the package is far from mainstream, leaving plenty of room for resellers to turn SMBs onto WUDSS. If you’re looking for a distributor offering the operating system, Bell Micro has the drop.

FalconStor: Creating Storage Server Appliances

Eager to help customers get the most from McKay Creek, Intel certified its latest platform with several software environments. In addition to the standard Microsoft Windows Server offerings and more general-purpose enterprise Linux builds, you also have a choice from a couple of other storage packages.

FalconStor sells three SAKs, or software appliance kits, that give the SSR212MC2 a trio of different abilities. One enables continuous data protection. A second emulates a tape library, leveraging the significantly better performance and reliability of magnetic disk storage to archive data. The third is similar to WUDSS in that it provides an infrastructure for both NAS and SAN through iSCSI.

“The first thing you do is sit down with your client to figure out what it is you want to achieve with a storage server,” says Camberley Bates, chief marketing officer at FalconStor. “After going through some level of data assessment, figuring out what the backup requirements include, what recovery points are needed, maximum recovery time, and so on, configuring the software appliance kits isn’t terribly complex, but you still need to have that conversation because a storage server does a lot more than your ordinary push-button USB hard drive.”

If your customer wants to use a new storage server to deliver continuous protection for critical systems on the network, FalconStor’s SAK turns that machine into a dedicated continuous data protection (CDP) appliance using a Linux-based foundation and automatic installation procedure. Once it’s up and running, a process FalconStor says takes no longer than getting a cup of coffee, the CDP software runs full system backups as often as once every hour. Of course, the job doesn’t take very long since FalconStor’s software only saves changed data. Should an important Word document be accidentally overwritten, careful version saving lets you go back in time and recover the right file. In the event of a complete failure—say a RAID array on an application server craters—bare metal recovery facilitates booting straight from backup, even while the server’s drives are down.

In more of an archival role, you can use a new storage server to replace tape. The SSR212MC2 crams twelve 3.5” hard drives into a 2U chassis. Load the box down with 1TB or 750GB drives and you’re talking a lot of capacity. FalconStor’s VirtualTape appliance kit transforms Intel’s platform into a virtual tape library, adding performance and reliability to a process once handled by a technology more prone to failure. Tape’s one significant advantage, off-site protection against disasters, is counterbalanced by FalconStor’s support for off-site replication of virtual tapes.

Finally, there’s the Network Storage Server appliance kit. An SSR212MC2 running the FalconStor NSS features NAS and SAN provisioning from one console. Data on the server is protected with a few basic features like mirroring and off-site replication. In the face of WUDSS, NSS might be a difficult sale. But bear in mind that FalconStor’s kits create appliances—hardware and software integrated to perform a specific function. Creating a CDP system or a virtual tape library using those specialized packages helps save money. WUDSS is more general-purpose, excelling at offering lots of functionality.

Say Goodbye To CDS?
There’s no waiting for a lengthy installation with Open-E’s DSS. The software comes on a flash-based USB module, which plugs into an internal port on your storage server.

Open-E and Wasabi Options

Software vendors Open-E and Wasabi Systems sell storage solutions similar to FalconStor’s NSS and Microsoft’s WUDSS. But both packages are compact enough that the two companies distribute them on flash media rather than CDs. Open-E’s Data Storage Server ships on an internal USB dongle. Wasabi’s Storage Builder suite is delivered through a bootable DOM (Disk on Module).

Compact installations detract nothing from either storage server solution. Open-E offers one iSCSI-based SAN package, one NAS suite, and a third with both components integrated. They’re all certified on Intel’s SSR212MC2 and purportedly easy to administer. Wasabi Systems has two: Storage Builder for IP-SAN and Storage Builder for NAS. Both run independently of the other operating systems on your customer’s network and can be easily managed through a browser-based console.

Know Your Software

Platforms like McKay Creek make it easy to build very powerful storage servers. The only thing missing is software. Intel’s list of certified titles is a great place for you to start familiarizing yourself with the storage market. After all, you can take any app from that list, drop it into the 2U box, and know it’ll turn a few standard hardware components into a specialized appliance.

Sit down with your customers, dig into their storage needs, and pick the application best suited for the job. From Microsoft’s very-flexible Windows Server-based WUDSS to Wasabi Systems’ more specialized NAS/SAN Storage Builder products, you’ll find plenty of options out there.