NetApp Products - gFiler Systems home ) netapp products ) gfiler system

Network Appliance™ gFilerT Gateway for SAN Storage Environments
Industry-proven appliance that seamlessly enables unified NAS and SAN data access for SAN storage.

The Challenge: Maximizing Storage Utilization and Access
As enterprise storage requirements evolved from direct-attached to networked storage, many enterprises made significant investments in multiple storage architectures-DAS, SAN, and NAS-to support the different access methods required by business solutions. The result is often an inefficient and underutilized storage environment. A critical IT management challenge is to maximize the usage of existing storage to improve efficiency and return on investment (ROI) yet continue to support different access methods for different business solutions throughout the enterprise.

File-level usage and distributed enterprise usage of the SAN environment are ways to maximize access and usage of storage resources. Many enterprises, however, are not ready to replace their existing storage systems with new, unified storage systems-such as the NetApp FAS series of storage servers-that permit simple provisioning of SAN and NAS workloads from a single platform. Instead, companies with extensive SAN storage networks are looking for ways to broaden the use of their current infrastructures and achieve a greater ROI by provisioning SAN capacity for new business solutions that require NAS shared data access and remote access.

The Solution: NetApp Gateway for IP Connectivity to SAN Storage
NetApp gFiler is an innovative storage consolidation solution that provides unified NAS and SAN access to data stored in Fibre Channel SAN storage arrays, enabling data center storage deployment for an expanded set of business solutions. Like all NetApp storage appliances, gFiler is based on the industry-hardened Data ONTAPT microkernel operating system, which supports multiprotocol services and advanced data management capabilities for consolidating, protecting, and recovering mission-critical data for enterprise applications and users.

The NetApp gFiler product line offers the performance and capacity to meet access requirements for enterprises of all sizes. All three models-GF960, GF940, and GF825-deliver industry-leading performance, offer terabytes of managed capacity, and can be configured for simultaneous active/active access with secure failover across two independent systems in a cluster. Massive SAN and NAS consolidation is now a reality using multiple gFiler systems and SAN storage systems configured in a scalable SAN infrastructure.

Multiple enterprise storage systems are supported by the gFiler series. Enterprise-class Hitachi Freedom StorageT systems provide a common storage pool for the consolidated solution. Powered by the Hi-StarT switched architecture, Lightning 9900T V and 9900T series storage systems provide massive storage scalability and consolidation for open systems and mainframe servers. Thunder 9500T V series storage systems provide high performance and easy-to-manage storage in a small-footprint, modular package. The gFiler gateway series for Hitachi Freedom Storage is available exclusively through Hitachi Data Systems.

The NetApp gFiler product line also supports the IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server (ESS) series. The ESS high-performance disk storage solution supports diverse business applications across the enterprise and helps set new standards in performance, automation, and integration as well as capabilities that support continuous availability to data for the on-demand world. The gFiler product line for IBM storage has received Comprehensive IBM TotalStorage ProvenT certification and is available directly through NetApp.

Consolidating Storage to Increase Utilization
The gFiler product line enables new business solutions that require NAS or remote access to utilize SAN storage. The resulting consolidation of storage improves utilization and maximizes flexibility in planning storage growth. iSCSI support enables consolidation of distributed storage and provides a cost-effective DAS consolidation. This solution enhances existing SAN solutions by enabling you to create a consolidated storage infrastructure that supports the entire range of enterprise workloads and allowing you the flexibility to select and easily provision the optimal storage access approach for current and future storage needs. This solution also facilitates file sharing by enabling simultaneous access among heterogeneous clients and servers throughout the enterprise while consolidating servers by eliminating the need for standalone or SAN-attached file servers.

Maximize Investment Protection by Leveraging Existing Infrastructure
NetApp gFiler seamlessly integrates into mission-critical enterprise-class SAN infrastructures, allowing you to leverage your SAN infrastructure and storage investments by providing new business solutions with excess capacity while minimizing SAN connectivity requirements. Companies gain the advantages of enterprise Fibre Channel storage connectivity without the costs of physically connecting each client to the SAN infrastructure, thereby optimizing storage usage and preserving future scalability.

Proven Data Management for Reduced TCO
NetApp storage solutions are based on Data ONTAP, a highly optimized and scalable operating system that integrates seamlessly into UNIX, Windows, and Web environments. Data ONTAP delivers proven multiprotocol access, scalable performance, and advanced data management capabilities while minimizing management complexity and reducing your total cost of ownership (TCO).

The Data ONTAP operating system enables increased storage utilization through:

• Heterogeneous Access. Provides transport-independent data access using standard network protocols such as CIFS, NFS, HTTP, FTP, and iSCSI and ensures cost-effective heterogeneous data sharing without compromising security, compatibility, or performance using SecureShare® cross-protocol locking.
• Storage Consolidation Using MultiStoreT Software . Enables multidomain server and storage consolidation with simplified tiered management by logically partitioning the network and gFiler storage resources.
• Optimized Resource Utilization Using SnapMoverT Software . Provides a no-copy data migration solution for workload distribution among gFiler systems sharing a RAID array, with no or minimal user disruption.

• Clustered Failover Software -Enables continuous access to data by automatically failing over to an additional gFiler appliance without data loss. Provides protection against planned and unplanned system outages.
• SyncMirrorT Software -Provides increased protection against multiple storage component failures by synchronously replicating mission-critical application data in a local data center environment.
• MetroCluster Software -Provides a highly available business continuance solution that enables the customer to quickly and easily resume mission-critical operation at a remote site within a campus or metropolitan area with no data loss and minimal downtime.
• SnapshotT Technology -Enables near-instantaneous, transparent on-disk backup by storing multiple read-only versions of each data volume. The Snapshot function uses minimal processing overhead, requires minimal disk space, and causes no disruption of service.
• SnapRestore® Software -Allows any system to revert back to a specified point in time for instant file system or file recovery. Terabytes can be recovered in minutes rather than hours, without going to tape.
• SnapMirror® Software -Provides transport-independent synchronous, semi-synchronous, and asynchronous remote replication at high speeds over a LAN, WAN, MAN, or SAN for use across a range of solutions, including disaster recovery, replication, backup, or testing on a nonproduction system.
• SnapVaultT Software -Enhances data protection by frequently backing up changed data from multiple gFiler platforms to a common Snapshot file on a central online repository, thereby enabling faster tapeless restores and lowering the cost of data protection.
• SnapDriveT Software -Provides host-based provisioning, Snapshot consistency, and dynamic volume management for simplifying SAN management.
• SnapManager® Software -Provides a comprehensive data management solution for hosting and automating near-instantaneous hot backups and near-online restoration of Microsoft® Exchange 2000 , Microsoft SQL , and Lotus Domino environments.
• Single Mailbox Recovery Solution -Single Mailbox Recovery functionality along with NetApp SnapManager for Exchange enables near-instantaneous, accurate, cost-effective backups and the ability to recover Microsoft Exchange data at any level of granularity-storage group, database, folder, single mailbox, or single message.
• SnapLockT Enterprise Software -Provides nonwritable data-permanence storage that enables compliance with government records-retention and business records-keeping best practices.

• Easy to Deploy - Data ONTAP seamlessly integrates into existing UNIX and Windows environments by utilizing standard naming and authentication services, including native support for Microsoft Active Directory and Kerberos authentication.
  
  Easy to Administer - Data ONTAP includes FilerView® , a powerful remote administration solution for today's open storage networks that enables IT administrators to use Web browsers to access a consistent, easy-to-use graphical user interface for everyday administration tasks. For added security, the SecureAdminT software option provides strong encryption for command-line and HTTP-based administration and management sessions.
  
  DataFabric® Manager provides a simple, centralized administration tool that enables comprehensive management of NetApp enterprise storage and content delivery infrastructure. With a rich set of capabilities, DataFabric Manager allows an organization to rapidly deploy, provision, and manage a complete enterprise storage network.
  
  Easy to Manage - ApplianceWatchT software reduces training costs through specialized plug-ins that support leading systems management frameworks, including Tivoli Enterprise and HP OpenView. Virtual File ManagerT (VFM) software provides a highly scalable, highly available file-virtualization solution that enables storage administrators to easily manage and optimize storage in distributed, multiprotocol environments.

 

• Storage consolidation -Enables organizations to consolidate UNIX®, Windows®, and Web workloads with existing SAN storage, thereby maximizing storage utilization.
• Leveraging of existing SAN infrastructure -Integrates into existing SAN storage environments, maximizing investment protection and ROI.
• Proven data management -Provides advanced data management solutions that maximize availability and significantly reduce operational cost.
• Proven leadership -Over 10 years of industry-leading experience providing reliable, fast, and scalable storage solutions to the enterprise.