Storage Administration and Management Features
The MSM Graphical User Interface (GUI) enables administrators to easily configure the core functionality required to cost-effectively manage any optical storage archival application. The Administrative features support both local and remote administration through any browser.
Configuration Wizard
The MSM configuration Wizard is an automated approach for the configuration and setup of any optical library. Through its discovery process it identifies, configures and presents the library and its associated drives in a graphical manner. All default settings can be easily changed at any time by the administrator to suit application requirements.
Advanced Configuration Tools
Every Wizard screen has an advanced button which enables storage and network administrators to easily drill down into the lower levels of the devices and system settings. This allows the optical library to be specifically configured to operate as an archive resource in their environment. Configuration changes can be made quickly and easily at anytime to accommodate application or infrastructure requirements.
Media Management
Optical storage resources are configured and managed through a sophisticated but simple single screen. This interface provides the administrator a window into all of the optical storage devices connected to the MSM. This approach allows for an intuitive and rapid method of managing all of the available functions such as: importing media, mounting media, and creating volume sets.
Storage Virtualization
The MSM enables storage virtualization of an optical library through its media grouping function. Media grouping builds logical volumes out of many individual optical discs, where the capacity of these volumes is equal to the sum of all the optical discs in the volume. Volume capacity can be increased or decreased at any time by an administrator thus enabling a straightforward approach to archival storage provisioning.
Advanced Cache Management
The MSM has two-(2) integrated SATA hard disk cache which can be configured for RAID-1 or individual disks (JBOD) through the Wizard. The cache greatly improves the read and write performance of optical libraries, and this is especially important when configured on a high speed storage network. The cache also supports Offline Media Tracking whereby any media exported from the library is identified and stored for rapid retrieval at anytime. The cache is also used to stage data for disc-at-once writing which produces highly compatible media which can be natively be read on any Windows, UNIX, Linux or MAC OS/X system.
Security
The MSM provides several levels of security which protect your optical storage resources from unauthorized access. Administrators have the ability to allow read-only or read-write access to each media group, on a per user basis. This level of control ensures that each user only has the appropriate access and control that they require. In addition to securing access to the data in the library, the web administration tools can be secured to ensure that users must first supply proper credentials, before being granted access.
Simple Network Integration
The MSM provides simple network configuration for integration into most standard network infrastructures supporting 10/100/1000 base-T interface and protocols including: CIFS, NFS, TCP/IP, FTP, NTP, HTTP & DHCP. By allowing administrators to define the MSM’s hostname, workgroup, DNS server, default gateway and domain name, it will seamlessly appear as any other networked attached server, ensuring complete transparency for the end user.
Extensive Help Facilities
The MSM provides an extensive help facility on every screen, including content specific hot links to reference information providing quick on-line support.
Remote Replication Option
StorageQuest has taken the first steps toward offering users an optional integrated replication solution for optical libraries through its Remote Replication ManagerTM By utilizing existing IP networks, the MSM appliance enables a complete remote copy of critical data to be maintained off-site at a fraction of the cost of other solutions. The MSM is optimized to perform well on low-bandwidth network segments, which together with the operational simplicity of an appliance, enables Small and Medium Business (SMB) office locations to implement continuity plans as an extension of their backups. This is achieved by protecting their primary data centers through the concurrent replication of the primary data center’s archived data to a remote site.