The EMC Celerra NX4 brings the big benefits of consolidation to your business at an affordable price. With the Celerra NX4 unified storage platform you can eliminate file servers and consolidate application storage with NAS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel connectivity. This VMware-certified solution makes an ideal entry-level platform for virtualization. Celerra NX4 integrates EMC CLARiiON networked storage to deliver no-compromise availability and advanced data protection. It is easy to install and use, requiring as few as 15 minutes to go from power-up to production. Included functionality like Celerra Manager, Virtual Provisioning, Automated Volume Management, and Celerra SnapSure simplify your common administrative tasks. Celerra NX4 combines a front-end enclosure and dedicated storage in a single packaged solution. This approach offers the lowest acquisition cost along with simple implementation and management without sacrificing configurability options. - Multi-protocol (NAS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel) connectivity
- One or two X-Blade configurations
- SATA and SAS drive support
- Block and file I/O
- Performance/availability mode
- Tiered support options
The Celerra NX4 is comprised of one or two autonomous servers called X-Blades, a Control Station running a web server for management, and an integrated CLARiiON array. The X-Blades control data movement from the disks to the network. Each X-Blade houses two Intel processors and runs EMC’s Data Access in Real Time (DART) operating system, designed and optimized for high-performance, multi-protocol network file and block access. The integrated CLARiiON disk array has two storage processors, four optional Fibre Channel ports for host access, and support for up to 60 SAS or SATA disk drives. Depending on your operational needs, you can deploy NX4 in the Primary/Standby, or Primary/Primary operating modes. Primary/Standby is designed for environments that cannot tolerate any system downtime due to a hardware failure. In this mode, one of the X-Blades operates in standby mode while the second one manages all of the data movement between the network and storage. Other environments that value high capacity over continuous availability can choose to operate their dual X-Blade NX4 in Primary/Primary mode where each X-Blade is actively serving files or blocks. In Primary/Primary mode, should an X-Blade fail due to a software fault, it will execute a fast reboot to come back online, typically in seconds. With the Celerra NX4, no-compromise availability means non-stop file access achieved through transparent, dynamic failover to a hot standby X-Blade. For information protection, the NX4 includes EMC Celerra SnapSure™ software for creating read-only/read-write copies of file systems and iSCSI LUNs. The snapshot can be used for online backups as well as quick recovery of deleted files. With the addition of VSS integration, this capability is taken a step further, enabling the end user to leverage the functionality in Windows clients to recover deleted files directly from the Windows Explorer user interface. Since the snap is not a mirror operation, you also save disk space and time. For an even higher degree of information protection, EMC Celerra Replicator™ creates a point-in-time, read-only/readwrite copy of a production file system on either a local or geographically remote Celerra system. Celerra Replicator provides multi-site protection, simplifies administration with easy-to-define business policies including recovery-point objectives (RPOs), and utilizes standard IP-based networks for maintaining consistent replicas between the sites. In the event of an X-Blade failover, DART uses a metadata logging facility to recover within seconds or minutes. The advanced clustering capabilities allow the hot spare to take over the full workload, running at the same performance and service levels as before the failure. Hardware-based RAID controllers mean there is no performance degradation during a rebuild. Other high-end file servers can take hours to reboot and recover large-capacity file systems and will run at reduced performance and service levels until the failing component is replaced during a RAID rebuild. The Celerra NX4 defines entry-level high availability, delivered with X-Blade failover, hardware RAID protection, non-disruptive component replacement, storage processor battery backup, and advanced volume management. In addition, EMC Celerra Replicator supports application-consistent iSCSI replication for Windows. Managed by EMC Replication Manager, only the changed data is sent to the
replica, improving network efficiencies. The copy can be made read/write in the event of a failure of the primary or for other purposes such as testing. iSCSI replication offers an efficient, safe means of protecting LUNs via asynchronous replication. The Celerra NX4 system can be configured to tolerate both internal and external failures, such as the failure of a switch or router. Failsafe networking allows network ports to have a dedicated backup port on a separate network card take over in the event of a failure in either the primary adapter or an external switch or router. Applications requiring higher availability and bandwidth than any single network port can deliver are candidates for industry-standard Link Aggregation (IEEE802.3ad) or Ethernet Port Trunking. Multiple network ports can be aggregated and transmitted using a single logical address, providing greater link availability and potentially higher network bandwidth.
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