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Coraid EtherDrive media arrays appear as local SAS disks to Windows, Linux, and VMware systems, allowing organizations to use any kind of database or file system, whether Windows NTFS, Linux Ext4, XFS,JFS, Solaris ZFS, or VMware VMFS.

Coraid EtherDrive SAN System consists of:

• Coraid EtherDrive SRX Media Arrays
• Optional Coraid EtherDrive VSX Network Storage Virtualizer
• Coraid EtherDrive Host Bus Adaptor (HBA) cards for Windows, Linux, or VMware servers

Because Coraid software is lightweight and flexible, you can mix and match media array models, storage virulizers, drive types, and HBAs in any configuration to meets your organization’s unique needs.

For example, match the SRX2421 Media Array with twenty-four SSDs and up to three 10GbE Coraid EtherDrive HBAs to create the perfect platform for virtual desktop environments.

The SRX2441 Media Array with high-performance 3.5" disks striped in a RAID5 make a great storage solution for database applications.

For backup, the SRX3641 Media Array is hard to beat, especially when combined with a couple of 1GbE Coraid EtherDrive HBAs. With thirty-six 3.5" disk bays filled with 8TB SMR drives, the storage-per-month cost per GB is less than $0.001.

The Flexibility of Options

The core of Coraid EtherDrive storage systems is efficient, hand-crafted software running on affordable hardware connected to your server through a Coraid EtherDrive HBA. This combination is all you need for a high performing, cheap storage area network using readily available Ethernet.

Coraid EtherDrive HBAs are Ethernet Network Interface Cards (NIC) that use a driver to make the HBA appear as a simple SAS Host Bus Adaptor. This allows for incredible ease of use because anyone with local drive experience knows everything they need to use Coraid EtherDrive SAN System.

HBAs come in 2x 1GbE or 10GbE, and a single server can utilize as many cards as will fit on your host server’s motherboard. No matter how many you use, Coraid EtherDrive storage will look like a single HBA to Windows, Linux, or VMware hosts because the software will multipath automatically with no port bonding or multipathing configuration needed on the part of the user. It even automatically load balances discovered links.

Connect your server to your media arrays using an HBA and Ethernet, either directly or through a switch. Each array has two 1 GbE ports standard with up to twelve additional 1 GbE or six 10 GbE ports. As long as jumbo frames are enabled, any standard switch will do.

Coraid EtherDrive SRX Media Arrays come in 36, 24, and 16 disk options:

• SRX2421: 2U form factor media array with twenty-four disk bays, perfect for 2.5" solid state disks
• SRX1631: 3U form factor media array with sixteen disk bays for 2.5" or 3.5" disks
• SRX2441: 4U form factor media array with twenty-four disk bays for 2.5" or 3.5" disks

Each model uses commodity, off-the-shelf chassis to minimize your costs. Thanks to Coraid's hand-crafted software, your SAN doesn't need overpriced, hard-to-use hardware for high-performing storage. Coraid EtherDrive storage systems are powerful and sophisticated at a low, low cost.

The robust nature of each system is all thanks to their ability to transform one or more of your physical disks into virtual disks called LUNs. You can manipulate LUNs to meet a variety of storage needs using simple commands that allow you to mirror, stripe, or even combine them into RAID arrays. (And we do mean simple. The whole system is so easy-to-use that it only takes four short commands to set up a Coraid EtherDrive media array.)

The Coraid EtherDrive store system scales as your storage needs grow. Each additional Coraid EtherDrive media array provides more than just another 16, 24, or 36 disks: you get more network connectivity, processing power, and cache memory, so systems don't just scale up, they scale out.