Data centers that want to have an all-flash array will find Infortrend’s EonStor GSa 2024 series a very attractive proposition. They look very powerful, providing unified NAS, FC SAN and IP SAN services, high availability and support for a range of cloud storage providers.
In this exclusive review, let’s take a look at the EonStor GSa 2024RC, which comes with 24 SFF hot-swappable drive bays and dual active/active controllers. Each uses a dual-core Intel Pentium D-1500 CPU with 8GB of DDR4 cache and can be upgraded to 64GB with RC review, including supercapacitors and flash backup modules.
Data port selection is very rich because each controller includes four embedded Gigabit ports that can be used to present NAS or IP SAN storage. They also have two module bays that support 2-port or 4-port motherboards, InforTend offers 1GbE, 10GbE RJ-45 or 10GbE SFP+, 25GbE SFP28, 40GbE QSFP, 8 / 16Gb / sec FC, 10GbE FCoE, 56GbE InfiniBand, and SAS3.
The expansion potential is huge; the array supports up to 12 JB 300 expansion shelves and supports up to 744 drives. You can use up to 384 drives per embedded SAS3 port, but up to 744, you need to add an optional dual-port SAS3 module to the second expansion bay.
Infortrend EonStor GSa 2024RC: Deployment
The price we show for the evaluation system includes Toshiba’s latest 960GB PM5-R SAS3 read-intensive enterprise-class SSD with a total raw capacity of 23TB. It also includes a 4-port 16Gb/sec FC expansion module for each controller.
For management, you can use the array’s embedded EonOne web console or the free Central EonOne app, which manages multiple devices from a single interface. Our system comes pre-configured with two 12-drive RAID5 storage pools, but you can run the setup wizard from the console.
The salient features of the pool are ALUA (Asymmetric Logical Unit Access) support for file and block-level volumes or symmetric access to block-level volumes. Select before creating a volume, which allows you to have active/standby or active/active links on both controllers – something we didn’t see on any competing storage product.
Volume creation is simple. For NAS file-level access, they can be specified as WORM (write once for multiple reads). You can set the retention period (in years) and choose the compliance mode, during which you cannot delete any files, or select Enterprise mode, only the system administrator can delete files.
File sharing is created in the NAS volume where you can enable the selected protocol, apply quotas, and extend access security to local or LDAP / AD authenticated users. The controller’s gigabit data port can be specified for block-level IP SAN or file-level NAS access – but don’t change it during peak hours because it requires a reboot.
Infortrend EonStor GSa 2024RC: FC Performance
For FC performance testing, we used four Windows Server 2016 hosts with dual-port QLogic QLE2672 16Gb/sec FC adapters. On the array, we created four private volumes and found that the hosts were mapped very quickly because they were discovered once they were connected to the controller.
To get the baseline, we ran Iometer on a server using a 32Gb/sec MPIO FC connection with sequential read and write rates of 24.6Gbits/sec and 24.5Gbits/sec, respectively, with the random operation of 24.6Gbits/sec. And 23Gbits / sec. For random operations, changing to a small 4KB block returns 212,000 and 122,000 IOPS for sequential reads and writes down to 208,500 and 66,500 IOPS.
Since all four servers are running Iometer, we recorded sequential reads and writes of 97Gbits/sec and 62.3Gbits/sec, which were reduced to 96.3Gbits/sec and 31.2Gbits/sec. The overall throughput is very strong because we see a cumulative 734,000 and 342,500 IOPS for sequential reads and writes, which are stable at 698,500 and 97,000 IOPS when swapped to random operation.
In our random read and write test, we noticed that the EonStor Web console showed that the CPU utilization of both controllers reached 100%. However, since the random read rate we measured is very close to the number referenced by InforTrend, they look at the work very well because there is no difference.
Infortrend EonStor GSa 2024RC: Snapshot
The price includes a standard volume snapshot license, each volume supports 64, and each system supports 128, which can be increased to 256 and 4,096 respectively. These can be run on demand or scheduled every 10 minutes, while data recovery is achieved by rolling back the snapshot or installing it as a new volume.
Volumes can be mirrored on the same device, where the standard license allows 4 copies per volume, 16 times per system. Remote replication is also available and supports block-level replication and file-level Rsync operations.
The cloud is very versatile: the optional EonCloud Gateway allows providers to be used for synchronization, snapshot backup, caching or tiering. Support includes Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack Swift, and Alibaba Cloud, which recently opened two new data centers in London.
Basic one-way and two-way folder synchronization can be run from the standard SyncCloud application, which supports the same four providers as the EonCloud Gateway. There are many other onboard applications, including local antivirus scanning, LDAP, proxy, Syslog and VPN servers, as well as separate file explorer applications.
Infortrend EonStor GSa 2024RC: Judgment
InforTrend sets the standard for unified storage because the EonStor GSa 2024RC barely sees its capabilities. If you want a reasonably priced all-flash array with triple-play storage services, high performance, end-to-end redundancy, and massive data protection, you don’t have to look any further.
Specification
Chassis: 2U rack
Storage: 24 x SAS3 SFF hot-swap drive bays
Drives included: 24 x 960GB Toshiba PM5-R SAS3 SSDs
Power: 2 x 460W hot-plug 80+ Bronze PSUs with cooling fans
Dual controllers each with the following:
CPU: Dual-core Intel Pentium D-1500
Memory: 8GB DDR4 cache (max 64GB) with capacitor/Flash memory
Array support: RAID 0, 1 (0+1), 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60
Host interfaces: 4 x 1GbE (NAS/iSCSI),
Network: 1GbE management port
Expansion: 1 x SAS3 port, 2 x expansion board slots
Port modules included: 4-port 16Gb/sec FC board
Management: Web browser, Central EonOne
Original Article Source from https://www.itpro.co.uk/server-storage/32855/infortrend-eonstor-gsa-2024rc-review-the-all-flash-host-with-the-most