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Supported Platforms
Northern Storage Suite is a software application that runs within Windows environments. It supports additional platforms but always from an installation within a Windows environment.
Supported platforms
- Windows
- Windows Cluster
- NAS
- NetApp NAS
- EMC NAS
- SAN
Windows
When managing a Windows storage infrastructure it is recommended that Northern Storage Suite be installed on each file server [physical or virtual] that will be managed. This is not a requirement, the software can work remotely towards Windows, but for optimal performance installation on each Windows host is recommended. More information is included in the Northern Storage Suite Deployment and Evaluation guides.
The specific hardware and operating system requirements for management of Windows environments are detailed below:
Hardware:
600-megahertz Pentium III-compatible or faster
512 megabytes of RAM
80 megabytes of free disk space
Server OS:
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Client OS:
Windows XP Professional
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Internet Explorer 5.1 SP2 or later
Database:
MS SQL 2000 SP2 or later
MSDE 2000 or later [evaluation only]
Exchange features
MS Exchange 2000 or later
[Optional]
Windows Cluster
Northern Storage Suite supports Microsoft Cluster Service. It is a fully cluster aware, supporting failover of cluster resources between physical nodes. Support is offered for any number of physical nodes and any combinations of active and passive roles.
When managing a Windows Cluster environment it is important to install Northern Storage Suite on all physical nodes of the cluster. After installation all configuration must be centred upon the cluster groups [virtual servers] not the physical nodes. More information is included in the Northern Storage Suite Deployment and Evaluation guides.
The specific hardware and operating system requirements for management of Windows environments are detailed below:
Hardware:
600-megahertz Pentium III-compatible or faster
512 megabytes of RAM
80 megabytes of free disk space
Server OS:
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Client OS:
Windows XP Professional
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Internet Explorer 5.1 SP2 or later
Database:
MS SQL 2000 SP2 or later
MSDE 2000 or later [evaluation only]
Exchange features:
MS Exchange 2000 or later
[Optional]:
NAS
Northern Storage Suite supports all CIFS compliant NAS devices - managing volumes where CIFS and mixed-mode protocol support is configured. NFS data cannot be managed. Northern Storage Suite works with object ACLs, this security model is used in CIFS and CIFS/NFS mixed mode configurations, it is not present in NFS only configurations.
No installation on the NAS device is required, instead an installation should be made on a Windows host [virtual or physical] and then processes on the NAS device[s] are managed remotely from that Windows host. A single managing host can control processes on multiple NAS devices.
The specific hardware and operating system requirements for management of NAS environments are detailed below:
FOR MANAGING HOST:
Hardware: 600-megahertz Pentium III-compatible or faster
512 megabytes of RAM
80 megabytes of free disk space
Server OS: Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Client OS:
Windows XP Professional
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Internet Explorer 5.1 SP2 or later
Database:
MS SQL 2000 SP2 or later
MSDE 2000 or later [evaluation only]
FOR THE NAS DEVICE:
Configuration:
Configured to deliver file service to CIFS users
CIFS or CIFS/NFS protocol support on managed paths
NetApp NAS
Northern Storage Suite’s benchmark NAS support is even further extended for Network Appliance NAS devices and Data ONTAP. This advanced support includes remote file blocking using NetApp’s fpolicy API and integration with ONTAP’s entry-level quota technology ‘quota rules’.
Northern Storage Suite has supported non-Windows Networked Attached Storage devices since early 2005. The suite’s integrated NAS engine is now in its fourth generation and offers the fastest, most scalable, quotas in the marketplace on all CIFS compliant NAS devices including EMC Celerra and Fujitsu Siemens FibreCat.
Northern Storage Suite V8 for NetApp delivers these key features to our NetApp customer base:
High Performance NAS Quotas
An advanced piece of software engineering that dramatically accelerates Northern Storage Suite’s response times in large NAS environments.
Specifically affecting real-time functionality [storage quotas], V8 maintains a fast access list of file and path sizes in memory. When a change occurs, instead of rescanning the quota path V8 simply adds the new size to the known size and immediately sends notifications, locks/unlocks the quota, etc.
This list, or file cache, is populated and updated as files are used, so NSS always remembers the most active files. Removing the need to re-scan significantly reduces network traffic and Disk I/O – Efficient and intelligent storage management.
On the technical side the cache size default is a maximum of 400,000 files per volume [56MB per volume] and can be edited through the registry.
Hybrid quotas
An even closer integration between Northern and NetApp offers a high performance combination of passive monitoring and active locking/unlocking.
Quota targets are monitored passively, guaranteeing zero impact on day-to-day file system activity and maximizing filer performance. When a target passes a locking threshold its priority rating is immediately increased; the object is locked and it is added to a high-priority monitoring list to guarantee immediate unlocking when usage decreases.
Hybrid quotas use Northern’s NSS Quota Server Service to monitor quota objects and NetApp’s FPolicy technology to lock/unlock.
User quota
Control usage by user account; within project or shared department folders.
Exclusion of sub-path
a. Block media files on all folders except a specific “Media” directory.
b. Set a quota on an entire project folder but exclude the subfolder “Media”.
Exclusion of user
a. Set quotas on all users except management and IT staff.
b. Block file types for all users expect the Marketing group.
Fpolicy-based file blocking quotas
Offering the ability to prevent specific file types from being saved. Non-intrusive extension-only filtering ensures close to zero lag.
NetApp quota rules
Viewing, setting and editing, allowing smooth migration for NetApp administrators who are using this built-in Data ONTAP technology.
REQUIREMENTS
A Windows host should be designated as the managing host for the filer[s] involved in the deployment. There are specific operating system requirements for the filer and as with generic CIFS compliant NAS devices Northern Storage Suite requires that the paths it will be managing are configured with pure CIFS or mixed CIFS/NFS security protocol support. NFS data cannot be managed.
The specific hardware and operating system requirements for management of NetApp NAS environments are detailed below:
FOR MANAGING HOSTS:
Hardware:
600-megahertz Pentium III-compatible or faster
512 megabytes of RAM
80 megabytes of free disk space
Server OS:
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Client OS:
Windows XP Professional
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Internet Explorer 5.1 SP2 or later
Database: MS SQL 2000 SP2 or later
MSDE 2000 or later [evaluation only]
FOR THE NAS DEVICE
Configuration: NetApp Data ONTAP version 7.0 or later
Configured to deliver file service to CIFS users
CIFS or CIFS/NFS protocol support on managed paths
EMC NAS
Northern Storage Suite offers support for EMC Celerra NAS devices - managing volumes where CIFS and mixed-mode protocol support is configured. NFS data cannot be managed.
No installation on the EMC device is required, instead an installation should be made on a Windows host [virtual or physical] and then processes on the NAS device[s] are managed remotely from that Windows host. A single managing host can control storage processes on multiple EMC devices.
The specific hardware and operating system requirements for management of EMC NAS environments are detailed below:
FOR MANAGING HOSTS:
Hardware:
600-megahertz Pentium III-compatible or faster
512 megabytes of RAM
80 megabytes of free disk space
Server OS:
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Client OS:
Windows XP Professional
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Internet Explorer 5.1 SP2 or later
Database:
MS SQL 2000 SP2 or later
MSDE 2000 or later [evaluation only]
FOR THE NAS DEVICE:
Configuration: Configured to deliver file service to CIFS users
CIFS or CIFS/NFS protocol support on managed paths
SAN
Northern Storage Suite offers support for SAN devices where the disk resource appears as a local resource to a Windows host.
Essentially, Northern Storage Suite sees the SAN in the same way that a user client will see the SAN – if the SAN appears to the user as one or a series of Windows disk resources then Northern Storage Suite will manage the device in the same way.
The specific hardware and operating system requirements for management of SAN environments are detailed below:
FOR MANAGING HOST:
Hardware:
600-megahertz Pentium III-compatible or faster
512 megabytes of RAM
80 megabytes of free disk space
Server OS:
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Client OS:
Windows XP Professional
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 2000 Servers or later [excluding Data Center editions]
Internet Explorer 5.1 SP2 or later
Database:
MS SQL 2000 SP2 or later
MSDE 2000 or later [evaluation only]
Exchange features:
MS Exchange 2000 or later
[Optional]
FOR THE SAN DEVICE:
Configuration: The SAN must be presented as a local drive to the Windows host
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