Teras systems are building blocks for a capable, efficient storage infrastructure. With several platform
tiers for entry level to high end applications and an innovative portability solution, the Teras line
is full-service for any sized business.
- An innovative platform for data migration that brings high performance, high capacity
storage to a mobile platform. A Data Migration solution allows more flexibility and security in the transport of data between
physical locations than traditional methods.
- Traditional modular storage solutions from 4 to 36 disks per unit. Ideal for smaller
SAN/NAS deployments for any application, but scalable for growing operations.
- Scalable from 32 to 192 disks per rack. Maximum capacity, redundancy and scalability
are key considerations.
Consolidate storage on a Teras SAN solution to realize better performance, greater flexibility, fault
tolerance and higher utilization of storage resources.
One of the most appealing benefits of SAN is consolidating storage wherever possible to centralize management,
enable flexibility and portability, simplify the scaling of capacity and performance, and ensure availability.
Identifying your IT troubles and needs is the first step in choosing an appropriate SAN architecture. Below are a
few scenarios which can dramatically benefit from storage consolidation on SAN.
Many stand-alone servers providing one or two important services each, using discrete RAID volumes to host their
relevant data. E-mail, file sharing, databases and backups, for instance. Ideally, data should be wholly separate
from the services that channel it, dissolving single points of failure and preventing hardware-related issues from
critically affecting service availability.
SAN is ideal for continuously growing or shifting business demands on IT infrastructure. The need for scaling up to
increase performance or capacity on a regular basis and scaling out to offer services to a wider client base or
integrating new or expanded services are addressed elegantly by a SAN architecture. A pool of SAN storage is fluid,
able to be carved up and re-allocated at any time.
Reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) is a very important consideration, especially in the context of
customer service. Essentially it is the realization that bad things can and will happen and the planning that goes
around being prepared. Setting goals and metrics to address the concerns of service downtime can help to reduce a
myriad of potential losses associated with downtime and maintain a strong reputation in the industry and amongst
customers for reliability.
Solutions designed around MDI's innovative portable storage platform, the Tn1000p, go where a traditional
SAN can't. Move terabytes of data between sites, unbounded by the limitations of a fixed datacenter installation.
The Teras Family of SAN products has a unique member; the Tn1000p holds up to 10 TB in a form factor designed for mobility.
Unusual in the SAN space, but with applications in almost every organization, a mobile SAN storage system adds new dimensions
to flexibility, migration and replication.
Easy to deploy and quick to configure, the Tn1000p is built for drop-and-go applications, where time is a sensitive matter
and rack space may not be available. Within minutes, you can have SAN volumes attached to any system, anywhere, even
without a network switch, dedicated IP block or an intermediate system to perform the configuration. The construction is
sturdy and comes with a rolling carry case, with an optional rolling hard case for shipping.
Accessibility is one of the most prominent features of the Ti800p, not only is it simply there when you need it, it has a
myriad of software interfaces. There is an intuitive graphical web management interface, as well as Telnet, serial and the
built-in-console from which to configure the system. Management is accessible through data ports and direct-attached connectivity
requires no intermediate networking hardware. The Tn1000p easily integrates with other Teras storage systems.
The Tn1000p has virtually unlimited applications.
- Data migration for files as well as block data.
- Forensics, discovery, data acquisition and many other engineering applications.
- Military and Government
- Field, Training and Demonstration
- Mobile Appliances
- Disaster Recovery
Plan ahead for adversity. Teras Storage Solutions are designed to improve storage resiliency and
enable off-site replication, clustering and other forms of protection against the unpredictable.
Preparedness is the key to ensuring business continuity through any disaster scenario. Ensuring that data is not
stored at or tied to a unique location or device is part of that. Another important aspect is ensuring that
data remains available to users and applications through site failures. Maintaining even a reduced degree of
service is far superior to complete downtime, especially from the perception of your customers. Teras Storage can
help meet both of these requirements with the Teras Data Docking Station.
Planning for adversity means building up your IT infrastructure to withstand faults, and having a plan
to recover from faults if they occur. Disaster recovery is part of any business continuity
plan, but it is not a primary function of IT and should not impact your budget as such. A Teras Disaster Recovery
solution is a cost-effective way to prevent loss of data and downtime during such scenarios.
With Teras Data Docking Stations at each regional datacenter, operators can make use of the removable SAS or
SATA disks for emergency data relocation between sites. Docking stations can run backup or replication software
continuously, however the rapid I/O and high capacity also allows the operator to quickly download data onto the
transportable disks, which can then be moved to a safe location and accessed with a portable server or off-site docking
station. Because there is no need to decompress or restore the data and each Teras unit is capable of acting as a
secondary provider for critical applications, the operator can immediately begin working with the data.
Teras storage platforms are affordable and effective systems for any backup architecture, whether
it be file-level, block-level or long term archiving.
It's no secret that the cost of disk storage has gone down drastically in the past several years. SAN technology is available
through low-cost IP networks, large disk arrays outweight the cost and efficiency of tape auto-loaders, and real-time
off-site replication has largely deprecated tape retention services.
Keeping information on hand on a live and readily accessible source is ideal for retrieval, restoration, performance
and scaling with obvious logistical benefits. With the proper planning, huge backup windows, manual intervention and
unwieldy tape libraries can be eliminated. With increasing pressure on compliance archival, it's important to be able
to index and search your backup archives for critical files in the event of a short-notice audit.
Teras SANs easily integrate into existing backup solutions such as Veritas, Microsoft Storage Server, EMC Dantz, CA
BrightStor and others. Built-in NAS capabilities allow Teras storage to be accessible to any client in your network,
while scaling to meet demand with the widening client base.
Point in time snapshots allow for backup while a system is servicing requests, reducing or even eliminating the
traditional backup window. Low-cost, entry-level solutions are ideal for long-term disk archival.
Furthermore, the Teras Portable SAN (Tn1000p) can accomodate rapid deploy backups for emergency evacuation, auditing
and other time-sensitive scenarios.
With data volume increasing daily in the industry, traditional data
collection and migration has been facing some major obstacles. IT has always been challenged by
the expense of network backup and the timeliness of capture and re-deployment.
Tape archives have been the main method of data migration for decades.
But tape hosts only fragments of data, lying dormant on one of many tapes easily prone to individual
failure, loss or theft. Data is inaccessible unless loaded into a compatible tape unit at the origin
and destination locations and subsequently restored to a waiting system. Working with tape is a slow
and manual process, challenging and unreliable without a significant investment in archaic technology.
Most IT environments today are diverse - many operating systems,
multiple platforms, and heterogenous networks are very common. Collecting data from
such an environment and intelligently migrating from one to another is usually a costly, risky and
time-consuming proposition.
Proposing a Solution - Teras Portable Storage
Teras Portable storage hosts virtualized storage volumes, directly
accessible without the timely process of restoration. Up to 20 TB on each portable unit allows it to
host large data sets. Broad support for high throughput, low-latency I/O options allows
it to integrate into virtually any networked storage environment. Protocols supported include most
NAS standards, block-level storage such as iSCSI (up to 10 GigE), Fibre Channel and InfiniBand.
The Teras Portable storage platform has a unique advantage over both
tape and rackmount storage in respect to migration. Tape requires the use of both a tape loader
and a restoration target to bring data out of its dormancy. Rackmount storage systems are anchored
at their deployment site for most of their life, and are not designed for frequent travel. Teras Portable
storage systems are designed for rapid deployment and speedy performance as a source or target for data
in any environment. These systems are designed to be on the move and flexible between environments, ready for active
use within minutes of arriving on site.
Deploying a Teras Portable requires no special effort beyond typical SAN
or network provisioning. The built-in console allows remote connectivity to be established without a
secondary system, making it ideal in any space or condition - such as an emergency or field application.
Whether you only have room on the datacenter floor, in an office, a conference room table, a convention
center or a training facility, Teras can bring the same capabilities, performance or capacity
virtually anywhere.
Abstract: In its focus of enabling customers to evaluate Oracle and Oracle Partner products in
a state-of-the-art Datacenter environment, Oracle Enterprise Technology Center is
often tasked with providing proof of concept scenarios. However, simulations and
benchmarks are hardly a measure of real world performance - nothing can be a
more accurate representation than the customer's own data. For this purpose,
Oracle looked into methods of transporting potentially massive data sets securely
from the customer site to ETC for real-world data crunching comparisons. The Teras
Portable NAS unit provided a solution with up to 10TB of storage capacity while
supporting the Software, I/O and security needs of the POC process.
The Teras Data Migration solution is ideal for Oracle customers who have a need to transfer
data to Oracle's Enterprise Technology Centers. Oracle customers order disks, and Oracle
ships a Teras Portable Storage system to their datacenter. At a rate of up to 1 TB per hour,
data is pulled from the customer's storage network via the Teras Portable system and
securely stored on the data disks to be returned to the ETC via T-DDC shipping carrier(s).
Using the Teras Data Docking Station, Oracle pulls the data into their test environment and
either returns the disks or securely erases them, ready to drop-ship the portable to the next
customer.
Performance & Utilization at Oracle ETC
- Testing performed with HP's Oracle Database Machine (HPODBM)
- Encrypt and decrypt right from the portable into the customer environment
- Oracle connected the portable system directly via InfiniBand and simply NFS
mounted on database node(s)
- Test of 52 thread sql*loader against gzip'd files showed NO I/O wait. Loaded 520 gig of
raw data (50+ gig zipped data) into database in < 19 minutes. Effective 467.09 MB/s.
- Actual download rate between 50% and 75% of full 20Gb/sec Infiniband capacity
iSCSI has opened the way to widescale adoption of SAN technology, delivering the benefits of storage-attached
networks to a much broader range of customers than ever before. Implementing a Storage Area Network using
low-cost Gigabit Ethernet brings down the expense of an entry-level SAN solutions. Now businesses of all sizes
can enjoy the benefits of storage virtualization and consolidation.
SANs are networked storage pools which can be divided and provisioned to client systems. They are different
from file servers because they provide raw block-level storage rather than abstracting requests through a
higher-level software protocol. Many applications require low-level storage due to special requirements of
one or more specific file systems and highly intensive I/O.
SANs allow administrators to expand storage for a large number of servers or clients without physical
maintenance and downtime or additional local hardware. iSCSI SANs stack up well against Fibre-based SANs, implementing the SCSI protocol using common TCP/IP
networks. Gigabit Ethernet is ubiquitous on PCs, largely eliminating the need to buy additional discrete,
high-cost add-in adapters such as Fibre Channel HBAs. IP networks are much more broadly deployed and well
understood by more IT professionals than Fabric topologies.
The budget savings gained by using a much cheaper interconnect can be re-distributed to creating a much
more resilient network with larger storage pools. High-availability configurations may offer greater levels
of redundancy than Fibre-attached storage for the same budget due to lower price points, complimented by the
lower cost of connectivity.
Teras iSCSI SANs make use of SAS and SATA drives. SAS drives provide a strong disk subsystem for
high-performance applications requiring intensive I/O, while near-line SATA disks offer far greater capacity
and features friendly to large disk arrays.