by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 23 February 2010
Basic Network Attached Storage (NAS) for use in corporate organizations consists of a standard x86 server running a modified form of Linux or Microsoft’s WSS (Windows Storage Server). The server can have its own self-contained storage capability or external storage capability, which resides in its own enclosure outside of the server itself. In most cases, organizations also choose to have a secondary server to act as a fail over server in the event of server failure, and typically some form of RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is established on the system of at least RAID level 3 (data striping across disks) or RAID 4 (striping with dedicated parity) to offer redundancy (Apicella, 2006).
NAS and especially clustered NAS offers flexibility to many corporate entities by providing expanded storage capacities for ever-expanding data needs and access. Clustering of NAS improves NAS performance and scalability in most cases and is preferable (Apicella, 2006). NAS offers unified storage solutions for corporate organizations through its offering of a common storage location for file systems and Storage Area Network (SAN) systems.
A big issue that a lot of companies have that may not be totally satisfied by NAS is the need to handle very large files across large volumes in an efficient and fast manner. As mentioned in Apicella (2006) when files grow beyond 16TB, they often must then be split up across several file systems, which introduces complexity and data vulnerability into the mix. One solution to this problem is the development of file systems that can handle larger files and access larger volumes. Apicella introduced the file storage system called IQ (developed by IQ Storage Data Management), which is designed to handle file systems 20 to 50 times larger and 15 to 20 times faster than most NAS solutions. Also, the OneFS was mentioned as a distributed network file system developed by Isilon Systems for handling of thousands of TB of data via the IQ storage framework.
In support of NAS, however, the development of file systems that can handle larger files and access larger volumes so that files don’t have to be split up across multiple file systems and volumes offers a viable solution for NAS to provide an equivalent data storage solution to most corporations at reduced costs. One such file system is ZFS (Zetabyte File System) designed by Sun Microsystems, Inc., a subsidiary of Oracle, that is both a combined distributed network file system and logical volume manager all-in-one with the capability of handling much larger files and ability to access much larger volumes. ZFS is a 128-bit file system, which is capable of handling 1.84 X 10 19 or approximately 18 quadrillion times the data of current 64-bit file systems. This file system was designed such that its limitation would never be encountered in the physical world (“Sun Open Storage,” 2010). Use of a file system like ZFS would be a solution to the current limitations of NAS and would see NAS as being capable of providing future storage even in today’s IT world.
References:
Mario Apicella. (2006, June 19). The New NAS: Fast Cheap & Scalable. InfoWorld, 28(25), 31-34. Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.library.capella.edu/pqdweb?did=1074492511&sid=1&Fmt=4&clientId=62763&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Sun Open Storage. (2010). Sun Open Storage. Retrieved February 22, 2010, from http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/storage/open-storage/index.html
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