Series nodes make a balance between large capacity and high-performance storage. These nodes are best for high throughput and high concurrency applications for tier 1 and tier 2

workflows.

NL-Series nodes are designed to provide a cost-effective high density storage solution for tier 3 workflows that are accessed infrequently, but still must be stored and protected.

In addition to the storage nodes, EMC Isilon offers two accelerator nodes: Performance and Backup Accelerator nodes. The former adds CPU, memory and network resources to the cluster, while the latter adds CPU, memory, and Fibre Channel connectivity for connection to tape backup devices.

Storage solutions can be expensive. Tiering classifies data so that it can be stored in the appropriate cost efficient manner. In a tiered system, timely data that needs higher tiers needs faster, and more expensive, storage. In a simple 3-tiered system, tier 1 data is accessed often and is mission-critical. Tier 2 data may be used less frequently or may have fewer users, but it is still important data that users need in a timely manner. Tier 3 data is defined as seldom accessed data that is archived for historical or regulation purposes. Additionally, as the use of solid state drives, or SSDs, increases there is also a type of data that is so time-sensitive and critical to the business that it needs the most efficient storage type.

In an EMC Isilon storage cluster, you can combine SSD and SAS or SSD and SATA drives in one chassis to meet specific storage requirements. You can configure a cluster to keep metadata or data on SSDs, and even to use SSDs in one part of the cluster to store metadata for nodes that have no SSD drives.

The S-Series is purpose built for IOPS-intensive applications. It provides fast primary storage for mission critical, high transactional and random access file-based applications. S-Series nodes can use SSDs to store file system metadata, which improves performance for

metadata intensive operations, and to store latency-sensitive file data. You can combine SSD and SAS drives in one chassis to meet specific storage requirements and create a tier 0 for data tiering.

EMC Isilon S-Series nodes are suitable for digital media companies and financial institutions that need high-transactional IOPs for editing and post-production, as well as calculations for business analysis. Energy and surveillance organizations would also benefit from the S-series by using nodes for performance applications that need tier 0 and 1 storage.

The EMC Isilon X-Series is a flexible and comprehensive series that strikes the right balance between large capacity and high-performance storage. The EMC Isilon X-Series accelerates high concurrent and sequential throughput applications, speeding access to massive amounts of critical data, dramatically reducing the cost and complexity of managing and storing data.

There are two types available; the 4U X400 and the 2U X200 platforms. The X400 provides more capacity at a given performance level. This node would be ideal for someone who needs more capacity then performance according to the requirements they have provided.

In the X200 space, this node is purchased because there are more performance

requirements than capacity. With the X200 there is also upgradability, SSDs can be added after the fact, and memory can be upgraded as well. The X400 cannot be upgraded or used with SSDs.

The NL-Series is purpose-built for large capacity storage, enabling near-line storage

performance at near-tape storage costs. High density, massive capacity and maximum cost per TB are the strengths of the NL-series. No SSDs are supported on this platform.

The EMC Isilon NL-Series is ideal for complementing and improving a company’s existing tape backup, archiving, data protection strategies, and provides economical storage. This series uses low cost SATA drives. NL-Series products have the flexibility to configure different drive sizes, memory, and network interfaces giving customers the ability to customize the EMC Isilon product based on the environment.

Performance Accelerators are diskless nodes which increase overall throughput, CPU memory, and networking support throughput workflows. By seamlessly adding a

Performance Accelerator to an existing EMC Isilon S-Series or X-Series cluster, you can add more than 400 MB/s of single stream throughout and up to 700 MB/s of concurrent throughput. Typically, one Performance Accelerator per storage node is recommended for supporting write-intensive applications. For read-intensive applications, up to three

Accelerators per storage node is recommended.

Backup Accelerators enable high-speed backup of file system data to locally attached tape libraries or media changer devices. The Backup Accelerator can be seamlessly added to any existing EMC Isilon cluster to deliver up to 480 MB/s of performance across four concurrent streams, speeding back-up operations and reducing the risk of business-critical data loss. It is used to pre-fetch data from the file system and across the InfiniBand network efficiently push the data to tape. Each Backup Accelerator can support up to four paths via Fiber Channel

With greater capacity, usually comes greater performance requirements across all storage.

For unstructured and dynamic data, EMC Isilon’s clustered storage provides predictable growth with predictable performance.

The S-series platform is the answer for ultra-performance primary storage, purpose built for high IOPS-intensive random access file-based applications. The EMC Isilon X-Series, is the most flexible and comprehensive storage product line, striking the right balance between large capacity and high-performance storage. The NL series focuses on cost and capacity with much less attention paid to performance. The NL-Series combines high density and efficiency, with massive capacity capabilities.

This module covered EMC Isilon storage and accelerator nodes. Node types may be mixed in a cluster, and often will be in order to achieve the desired balance of performance and capacity. Performance may also be improved through the use of SSDs in some nodes.

This module focuses on EMC Isilon’s OneFS software modules which provide a robust suite of management applications.

SmartPools is a software module that enables administrators to define subgroups of nodes within a OneFS cluster. Using SmartPools, multiple tiers of EMC Isilon storage nodes can all co-exist within a single file system, with a single point of management. By using SmartPools, administrators can specify exactly which files they want to live on which particular nodes and disks.

SmartPools main components are node pools and file pools. Node pools are a set of nodes that you can group into a single pool of storage. File pools enable you to filter files and directories into specific node pools. File pool policies allow easy and powerful file

distribution among the tiers, cost alignment with aging or infrequently used content, and eliminate the need for data migrations.

SmartPools is recommended for organizations who have multiple storage tiers who wish to achieve cost efficiency in their storage system. Also, companies with multiple storage performance requirements and who want the ability to have individual files or sets of data on a specific storage tier. For example, clients that want to have older files on cheaper, slower, storage and newer, frequently accessed files on fast storage.

SnapshotIQ is a licensed data protection software module for EMC Isilon's OneFS operating system. A snapshot records a point in time snapshot of the data. Unlike a regular copy of data which takes significant space, snapshots only keep track of changed data blocks. In addition, SnapshotIQ has unlimited number of snapshots giving administrators another option to meet their organization's recovery point and recovery time objectives.

SnapshotIQ allows for the deletion of out of order snapshots and has been integrated with SmartPools giving the administrator the ability to store snap data on lower cost tiers of storage. Windows users may also use the ShadowCopy service to recover deleted files or directories.

SnapshotIQ allows users to easily recover files themselves. We also find use cases where customers have stringent data recovery requirements and want low-impact data protection.

SnapshotIQ is a complement to a tape or archive solution, but should not be considered a substitute.

SyncIQ is a simple to manage file asynchronous replication tool that enables administrators to synchronize mission-critical data throughout a globally distributed network. SyncIQ delivers replication of files across multiple EMC Isilon clusters over the WAN or LAN.

SyncIQ is the industry's only policy-based file replication system designed exclusively for scale-out storage, combining a rich set of policies for creating and scheduling storage replication jobs with bandwidth throttling and cluster utilization capabilities. Replication policies can be set at the cluster, directory, or file levels.

SyncIQ use cases include disaster recover, or DR, where we have a high-speed backup going across a WAN link, and availability where two or more copies of data are required across sites. This is often used for archiving where the production data is replicated to an offsite location, and tiered to tape from there. Another use case is content distribution where data is shared between sites.

SmartConnect is a client connection management module that enables client connections to be balanced across all nodes within an EMC Isilon cluster or across selected nodes for

security or performance reasons. It provides a single virtual host name for clients to connect.

SmartConnect’s round robin method works on a rotating basis. As one node IP address is handed out, it moves to the end of the list; the next node IP address is the used, and so on.

The advanced version of SmartConnect allows multiple network pools within one subnet. It supports Dynamic IP allocation and NFS failover. It allows for policy driven connection and failover based on metrics such as CPU utilization, throughput, and connection count.

In this example, all nodes are of one type. We’ll configure different access zones, and create a performance zone simply by creating a pool with the interfaces from the first set of nodes and giving it a different name. The high-performance clients then connect to a name associated with that pool, say performance.isilon.com.

We then create another pool associating the interfaces from the nodes on the bottom, and call that desktop.isilon.com, which will be used for general clients. We now have the ability to segment the load from different types of clients; the idea being to not allow desktop usage to impede any performance to the high-performance clients.

SmartQuotas is a feature that can provision, monitor, and report disk storage usage at the user, group, and directory levels. Administrators commonly use file system quotas as a method of tracking, and sometimes limiting, the amount of storage that a user, group, or a project is allowed to consume. SmartQuotas can send automated notifications when storage limits are exceeded or approached.

SmartQuotas allows for thin provisioning (also known as over-provisioning), enabling administrators to assign quotas above the actual cluster size. With thin provisioning, the cluster can be full while some users or directories are well under their quota limit.

Quotas are a useful way to ensure that a user or department does not infringe on the amount of storage that is allocated to other users or departments. Quotas are useful in enforcing an internal chargeback system, which is often found in the government and education industries.

SmartQuotas contain flexible reporting options that can help administrators analyze data usage statistics for their cluster. Both enforcement and accounting quotas are supported, and a variety of notification methods are available.

SmartLock provides policy-based retention and protection against accidental deletions. Many banks and financial institutions use this feature. Because SmartLock is a software-based approach to an enterprise file-level retention solution, you can store SmartLock-protected data alongside other data types with no effect on performance or availability, and without the added cost of purchasing and maintaining specialty file-level retention capable hardware.

SmartLock is stored at the directory level and sets default retention times once.

The use cases for SmartLock are when organizations need data to remain available but unchanged over extended periods of time. Examples include core revenue-producing workflows, product designs, software schemas, and product component elements such as image files, digital masters, legal documents, and critical communications. Legislation may also require that data be kept unchanged for a specific time period.

InsightIQ provides performance and file system analytics to optimize applications, correlate workflow and network events, and accurately forecast future storage needs. It elaborates on drill-downs and breakouts and provides both historical and near-time data. It is a stand-alone virtual application that is not part of OneFS but sells as a separate product.

InsightIQ is useful for organizations who want an easy-to-use, yet powerful analytics tool.

Companies who want to optimize their EMC Isilon storage clusters and the applications that use them without requiring professional services, and who want to offload processing of analytics from the storage system to a virtual appliance.

This module covered the additional software modules supported by OneFS and their various uses.

This course covered the EMC Isilon scale-out Storage Platform powered by the OneFS operating system. It introduced the EMC Isilon product lines and described the broad range of EMC Isilon options and software applications.