Sans Digital, New One in Scale Out Object Storage System

Sans Digital, Inc. has developed a scale out storage product, branded under Scala Storage to compete against other scale out storage vendors.

Application server cluster

Similar to Amplidata NV (acquired by WD/HGST)’s product, the company is looking at scale, object-based storage supporting different OS including Posix.

The cross-platform supports global namespace, consolidates DAS, NAS and SAN storage into single management.

Scala Storage is designed for data and metadata intensive workload. It utilizes around 90% of network performance. Scala Storage File System (ScalaFS) is optimized for both large (>10GB) and small files (KB-sized).

It needs:

• MetaData controllers (MDS)
• Intelligent storage nodes (iStore)
• Network switches

The solution uses a minimum of 2 (up to 128) MDS depending on the number of files. The 1U rack includes dual mirrored 240GB SSDs, dual 10G SFP+ or dual 10GBASE-T port.

It stores critical information about the data store in iStore nodes. Capacity starts at 144TB and can increase to t hundreds of petabytes within the same namespace. Each node, up to 4,000, in 2U rack, contains 12 SAS HDD bays for 4TB or 6TB disks. Large files are striped as 64MB sections across nodes. The aggregate throughput grows linearly when adding more nodes. 

Metadata is distributed across multiple metadata servers to provide high redundancy without RAID technology. Data are replicated and distributed across multiple nodes to prevent disk, server or network failures. Minimum number of nodes is three with no limitation on maximum. The system is designed with no single point of failure. Both data path and data storage have built-in redundant path in order to prevent possible downtime.

• 10GbE network switches are available with three options:
• 48 x 10GBASE-T ports / 4 x 40G QSFP+ ports / 2Gb ports
• 48 x 10G SFP+ ports / 4 x 40G QSFP+ ports / 2Gb ports
• 24 x 10G SFP+ ports