The operating system for the IBM® N
series products is the Data ONTAP software. It is a highly optimized,
scalable and flexible operating system that can handle heterogeneous
environments. It integrates into UNIX, Windows, and web environments.
Data ONTAP characteristics include:
- Flexible volumes that do not require pre-partitioning
- Usage of multiple processors for performance
- Block-level data access over a Fibre Channel SAN fabric using
FCP and over an IP-based Ethernet network using iSCSI
- File-level data access over an IP-based Ethernet network using
file access protocols such as NFS, CIFS, HTTP, or FTP
- Data protection and recovery
- Disk-based data permanence features for regulated and reference
data
- Double parity RAID
- Setup wizard
- System Manager™, a web-based administration tool that
allows IT administrators to fully manage N series systems from remote
locations. System Manager is a simple and intuitive web-based single-appliance
administration.
- SnapShot™, which enables instant self-service file backup and
recovery for end users. Only block level changes are stored, so only
a minimal amount of space is required for each subsequent snapshot.
- FlexVol™, which allows an administrator to create multiple flexible
volumes across a large pool of disks. This feature enables dynamic,
non-disruptive storage (thin) provisioning and increases space- and
time-efficiency. FlexVol enables more productive use of available
storage and helps improve performance.
Data ONTAP also offers the Clustered Data ONTAP option
that is a scale-out solution that allows customers to gradually increase
the performance and capacity of a single name space environment (horizontal
scaling) to meet the needs of their organization. This provides a
more flexible environment and enables customers to preserve their
investment beyond simple capacity scaling (vertical scaling).
The following protocols are supported for IBM N series storage
systems.
- CIFS
- CIFS allows Microsoft Windows servers and clients access over the
IP network using CIFS file system protocols. Microsoft Windows client access licenses (CALs) are
not required.
CIFS supports an active directory environment.
To
enable CIFS support, you must purchase the appropriate feature code.
See IBM N series host software features.
- NFS
- NFS allows UNIX and Linux servers
and clients access over an IP network using NFS file system protocols.
To
enable NFS support, you must purchase the appropriate feature code.
See IBM N series host software features.
- iSCSI
- iSCSI allows transfer of
data between storage and servers in block I/O formats (iSCSI protocol) across
an IP network. iSCSI enables the creation of IP SANs for optimizing
the transfer of database traffic in IP environments.
To enable
iSCSI, you must purchase the appropriate feature code. See IBM N series host software features.
- FCP
- FCP allows transfer of data
between storage and servers in block I/O formats utilizing FCP protocols across
a Fibre Channel SAN. FCP enables participation of an N series
storage solution within Fibre Channel SAN environments.
To enable
FCP, you must purchase the appropriate feature code. See IBM N series host software features.
Following are descriptions of some of the Data ONTAP software packages
available for N series storage systems as feature codes.
- Advanced Single Instance Storage
- This feature
provides block-level deduplication within the entire flexible volume
on an IBM N series storage controller that has the
near-line Function feature enabled. Advanced Single Instance Storage
only stores unique data blocks in the flexible volume and creates
a small amount of additional metadata in the process. Each block
of data has a digital "signature," that is compared to all other signatures
in the flexible volume. If an exact byte-for-byte block match exists
on the flexible volume, the duplicate block is discarded and its disk
space is reclaimed.
- CFO
- Installed on a pair of N series storage
controllers, this feature is designed to enable the transfer of data
service from an unavailable controller to the other controller in
the cluster. It is designed to deliver a robust and highly available
data service for business-critical environments.
- Disk Sanitization
- Disk sanitization is the
process of physically obliterating data by overwriting disks with
specified byte patterns or random data in a manner that helps prevent
recovery of current data by any known recovery methods. This feature
enables you to carry out disk sanitization by using three successive
byte-overwrite patterns per cycle and a default six cycles per operation.
Note: After
the disk sanitization feature has been installed on an N series storage
system, it cannot be uninstalled.
- FlexCache™ for NFS
- FlexCache for NFS is designed
to create a caching layer in your storage infrastructure that helps
to eliminate performance bottlenecks in NFS environments. It is designed
to replicate hot data sets to local caching volumes anywhere in the
infrastructure. This is useful with NFS implementations in compute-intensive
applications, distributed computing environments, and reverse-tiered
storage.
- FlexClone™
- FlexClone enables near-instant
replication of data volumes/sets without requiring additional storage
space at the time of creation. FlexClone allows an IT administrator
to make a backup copy of a database and then modify and run testing
against the test (backup) database without affecting the online database
and without taking the online database offline.
- MetroCluster
- This feature is an integrated,
high-availability, and business-continuance solution designed to leverage
proven technologies from IBM. It expands the capabilities
of the IBM N series portfolio of high-availability and
disaster recovery solutions–a portfolio that includes failover, data
replication, and backup solutions. MetroCluster is designed to be
a simple-to-administer solution that extends failover capability from
within a data center to a remote site. It also provides replication
of data at the primary site to a remote site, helping to keep data
at the remote site current. The combination of failover and data
replication aids in the recovery from disaster, helping prevent loss
of data in less time than otherwise possible.
- MultiStore®
- MultiStore permits consolidating
a large number of Windows and UNIX file
servers onto a single storage system.
MultiStore is designed to
let you quickly and easily create separate, private logical partitions
in filer network and storage resources. Each virtual storage partition
is designed to maintain separation from every other storage partition
to prevent different enterprise departments that share the same storage
resources from accessing or finding other partitions. MultiStore helps
prevent information on any virtual partition from being viewed, used,
or downloaded by an unauthorized users.
- NearStore
- This feature is designed to help
optimize an N series system for data protection and retention applications.
It enables additional concurrent streams and SnapVault for NetBackup.
- SnapDrive for UNIX and Windows
- SnapDrive
provides a software application designed to enhance the storage management
capabilities in an operating system environment, including easier
management of dynamic volume, cluster, snapshot, and replication management.
- SnapLock Compliance
- SnapLock Compliance
provides data permanence storage that enables compliance with government
records retention regulations by using SEC-compliant disk-based WORM
technology.
- SnapLock Enterprise
- Like SnapLock Compliance,
SnapLock Enterprise provides data permanence storage that enables
compliance with government records retention regulations by using
SEC-compliant disk-based WORM technology. SnapLock Enterprise allows
administrators to delete SnapLock Enterprise volumes.
- SnapManager™ for Exchange
- SnapManager for
Exchange is designed to help streamline storage management while simplifying
configuration, backup, and restore operations for Microsoft Exchange
databases.
- SnapManager for Hyper-V
- SnapManager for
Hyper-V is designed to designed to integrate with the Microsoft Hyper-V
virtual server infrastructure and automate crucial tasks such as back
up, restore, recovery, and cloning. It allows connectivity of any
number of Microsoft Hyper-V servers to one storage controller.
- SnapManager for Oracle
- SnapManager for Oracle
is designed to integrate with an Oracle Database and automate crucial
tasks such as back up, restore, database recovery, and cloning.
- SnapManager for SAP
- SnapManager for SAP
is designed to allow SAP administrators to backup and restore a SAP
system hosted on an Oracle database. It is integrated with the interface
for SAP br* tools for backup and recovery of SAP systems as well as
with the N series data management tools. It is designed to simplify
provisioning and data protection on enterprise SAP systems.
- SnapManager for SharePoint
- IBM SnapManager
for Microsoft Office SharePoint provides a
single console to manage disk-based backup and recovery of SharePoint
content databases, portals, sites, sub-sites, folders, documents,
and versions of documents. Deployed in combination with an N series
storage system, SnapManager software is designed to provide near-instantaneous
hot backups and rapid restores to help you achieve a combination of
availability, scalability, performance, and reliability for SharePoint
environments. This feature allows connectivity of any number of Microsoft Office SharePoint servers to
one N series storage system.
- SnapManager for SQL
- SnapManager for SQL
is designed to help reduce backup and restore times of SQL databases
by using backups based upon snapshot copies. SnapManager for SQL
enables simultaneous backup of multiple databases using minimal disk
space for each additional full backup.
- SnapManager for VI
- SnapManager for Virtual
Infrastructures (SnapManager VI) is designed to integrate with a virtual
server infrastructure and automate crucial tasks such as back up,
restore, recovery, and cloning. It allows connectivity of any number
of VMWare servers to one storage controller.
- SnapMirror®
- SnapMirror provides remote mirroring
software that enables automated file system replication between sites.
SnapMirror enables asynchronous, synchronous, and semi-synchronous
remote replication over inexpensive Internet protocols. Full backup
is followed by incremental block updates.
- SnapMover®
- SnapMover provides a local data
migration solution for optimizing workloads across N series systems
sharing a common disk array. SnapMover allows you to migrate the ownership
of a volume from one filer to another filer with a single command.
This feature also allows for better resource utilization and performance
amongst multiple N series systems.
Note: MultiStore and Clustering
are prerequisites for SnapMover.
- SnapRestore®
- SnapRestore enables quick restoration
of snapshot data files and volumes. It provides instant self-service
volume recovery for large individual files. SnapRestore allows volumes
to be restored with a single command (as opposed to the file level
restorations that SnapShot offers).
- SnapValidator™
- SnapValidator provides data
validation and protection for Oracle data.
- SnapVault Primary
- SnapVault Primary provides
disk-based backup by periodically backing up a SnapShot copy to another
system. SnapVault provides heterogeneous, super-efficient, hourly
disk-based online backup and restoration by periodically backing up
a snapshot copy to another system. SnapVault Primary is the license
for the primary backup system in use.
- SnapVault Secondary
- Like SnapVault Primary,
SnapVault Secondary provides disk-based backup by periodically backing
up a SnapShot copy to another system. SnapVault Secondary is required
to attain the license for the secondary backup device.
- SyncMirror®
- SyncMirror provides data protection
by maintaining two copies of data online; SyncMirror maintains strict
physical separation between the two copies. This feature enables synchronous
local mirroring from one volume to another volume attached to the
same filer. SyncMirror includes volume mirroring between two clustered
nodes.