The EverON storage operating system was architected with a singular focus: to deliver a high performance, enterprise grade, networked storage platform that could reliably store and manage hundreds of terabytes of data in a single system. ONStor Clustered NAS solutions are based on the EverON operating system, making them an ideal storage platform for enterprise business, technical and high performance applications.

Real-time, Storage Operating System

The EverON storage Operating System is a secure, highly efficient, light-weight micro-kernel software platform. EverON OS takes advantage of multi-core network processors to provide advanced storage, networking and data movement services needed to build a scalable networked storage system.

Open Storage Virtualization

Gain the freedom to deploy the network storage of your choice. EverON OS virtualizes multi-vendor, multi-grade (Fibre Channel, SATA and Solid-state) enterprise SAN storage into one or more storage pools to simplify storage management and improve resource utilization. EverON OS uses a pluggable storage array manager (PSAM) framework to provide storage array profile, path and failover management. Storage i/o to a SAN storage array is managed by a storage array manager (SAM) which has complete knowledge of the storage array's i/o and failover characteristics. Several SAMs are natively available in EverON OS to support a variety of enterprise SAN storage arrays.

Storage Pooling and Automated Capacity Provisioning

By pooling multi-vendor, multi-grade storage into a shared storage pool, EverON OS dramatically simplifies the provisioning of storage for ONStor NAS file systems. EverON OS provides an automated provisioning framework, AutoGrow, which allows administrators to define rules that govern how capacity is allocated to various file systems. Administrators choose storage array, RAID levels, storage pool, capacity increments and thresholds at which capacity is to be provisioned and EverON OS automatically allocates capacity to file system when pre-defined thresholds are met. AutoGrow enables just-in-time provisioning allowing administrators to create file systems with minimal capacity and automatically grow capacity as needed. This powerful feature eliminates wasted space, frees administrators of burdensome provisioning chores and improves responsiveness to end user requests. EverON storage pools are shared across multiple ONStor NAS systems in a cluster enabling easy movement and migration of EverON file systems between ONStor NAS systems. This gives administrators the flexibility to adapt to different application and end user workflows and sustain the required performance from an EverON cluster.

Reliable, failsafe IP Networking

Reliable data delivery requires a robust, failsafe network implementation. EverON OS supports an array of networking features to guarantee robust, high performance network throughput with low latencies. Native support for Gigabit Ethernet, Virtual LAN (IEEE 802.1q) ports for creating logical networks, Ethernet port trunking for higher application availability, higher bandwidth through Link Aggregation (IEEE 802.3ad) and built-in TCP offloading are some of the notable networking features that are available in EverON OS. For applications needing multi-tenancy and mobility across multiple NAS nodes in a cluster, EverON OS offers virtual network stacks. Virtual network stacks when combined with EverON Virtual Servers provides a very powerful and flexible virtualization solution for large scale file data consolidation.

Concurrent Windows & Unix Data Access

ONStor Clustered NAS systems running EverON OS natively support concurrent data access through NFSv2 and NFSv3 protocols over UDP/TCP and Microsoft SMB CIFS protocol. EverON OS seamlessly plugs into customer environments with fully integrated support for Active Directory, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Network Information Services (NIS), and Kerberos for strong encryption.

Using a native implementation of the Windows CIFS protocol, EverON OS supports the full range of Windows clients and servers, including Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista. For efficient file sharing within a multi-protocol (Windows and UNIX / Linux) environment, EverON StorFS file system supports an integrated security model that permits a single file to be accessed by a Windows or Unix client. Both Windows ACL and Unix permissions are strictly enforced. File locking across protocols is enforced when both Windows and Unix clients access the same file at the same time. EverON OS CIFS services also support the multiple domain trust relationships found in more complex IT environments.

As a member of Microsoft Communications Protocol Program, ONStor licenses the communications protocols that facilitate interaction of Windows devices, and ensures that members are updated with the most current information as Windows evolves. With guaranteed Windows compliance now and in the future, ONStor customers are assured of investment protection as they leverage ONStor solutions in order to meet their server consolidation demands.

EverON NAS Cluster Manager

EverON NAS Cluster Manager enables single-pane-of-glass management of multiple ONStor NAS Systems in a cluster through an intuitive graphical user interface, wizard based configuration management, and guided maintenance to simplify management tasks and speed learning. A powerful suite of storage management tools enabling the quick and easy configuration and management of file systems, IP clients, and fibre-channel attached LUNS. EverON NAS Cluster Manager supports a management window in which you can drill down to specific features to configure and manage shares, automated provisioning, snapshot schedules, data replication schemes, and much more. Icons, tree diagrams, menus, context menus, dialogs, and buttons, make the configuration and management of EverON NAS Cluster and your SAN environment simpler. However, for those that prefer CLI, a rich command-line interface is always available for traditional access and management.