LeftHand Networks® SAN/iQ®
The LeftHand Networks SAN/iQ storage system is an iSCSI target solution that includes three (3) HP ProLiant DL320s systems and the LeftHand Networks SAN/iQ software. It includes 10K or 15K RPM SAS disk drives totaling up to 3.6 TB of raw capacity per module, configured as RAID 10. In this case, the three ProLiant DL320s servers are clustered together to create a “virtual storage array” consisting of 5.4 TB of total usable storage. In addition to RAID10 at the disk level, LeftHand offers “network RAID” to provide an additional layer of protection for individual LUNs which guards against network or any other hardware failure.
SAN/iQ includes many additional management features as part of the basic SAN offering. These features include snapshots, volume branching, thin provisioning, offsite DR snapshots, iSCSI load balancing, block-level load balancing, and automated capacity management. Customers can expand the storage cluster at any time by adding additional units to the cluster. This not only increases capacity, but SAN/iQ automatically re-load balances all the existing LUNs across the new configuration, increasing the performance of the SAN as well.
Another capability is LeftHand’s “multi-site SAN” in which customers physically locate half their cluster in one location and the other half at a different location, such as another building or floor. In this case, the SAN is now “fault-tolerant” in that a location disaster will not interrupt service. This capability is included in the base offering, and does not require any additional administration to set up and manage.
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