Q: What is a NAS?
NAS is a common IT term for Network Attached Storage that enables data and file sharing using popular protocols like NFS and CIFS/SMB. iSCSI is typically associated with SAN (Storage Area Networks). NAS storage systems that support NFS, CIFS/SMB and iSCSI are termed “unified” storage. SoftNAS Cloud provides unified storage designed and optimized for high performance. The design considers high I/O per second (IOPS) and data reliability and recoverability. It also increases storage efficiency through thin-provisioning, compression and deduplication.
The most common cloud use cases include: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, On-premises to Cloud Backup and Faster Backup and Archival.
Q: What is Amazon Web Services Marketplace?
Amazon Web Services Marketplace is a curated digital catalog that makes it easy for customers to find, buy, deploy, and manage third-party software that customers need to build solutions and run their businesses.
Q: What is SoftNAS?
SoftNAS is a software-defined NAS filer delivered as a virtual storage appliance that runs within the Amazon EC2 environment. SoftNAS provides enterprise-grade NAS capabilities, including cross-zone high-availability with automatic failover in the Amazon Web Services cloud.
SoftNAS Cloud is an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) launched via Amazon Web Services Marketplace or Amazon Web Services console that delivers on-demand, enterprise-grade NAS capabilities. With just a few clicks, the SoftNAS Cloud AMI can be launched and operational within your Amazon Web Services account
Q: What are some of the key features of SoftNAS?
While SoftNAS has many more features than listed here, some of the most important are: up to 10,000 IOPS on Amazon EC2, 40,000+ IOPS with SSD cache, commercial-grade NAS capabilities in a virtual appliance, the flexibility to manage data in the cloud, on-premise or both and, it is fast to implement, in as little as 30 minutes on Amazon EC2.
Q: How do you protect against failures in a single Amazon Web Services datacenter?
You can use the built-in SnapReplicate™ feature to replicate data changes from one availability zone (or Amazon Web Services region) to another, for high-availability and added disaster recovery protection. You can use any backup tool which supports Linux and Amazon Web Services to perform a separate backup, as well
Q: What if we need more than 20 terabytes of usable storage space?
SoftNAS Cloud is limited to 20 TB of usable storage space. SoftNAS Cloud/Enterprise has up to 16 PB of usable storage space. If you begin with SoftNAS Cloud initially and need to go beyond 20 TB, it is possible to upgrade to SoftNAS Cloud/Enterprise for increased storage access.
Q: Can two or more instances use the same NFS exports and iSCSI LUNs in a cluster-like configuration?
Yes, you can have any number of EC2 instances with shared access to iSCSI targets and LUNs, NFS volumes and Windows CIFS shares. File locking and user permissions are maintained, so application operates as expected with a file server
Q: What happens to my data if the SoftNAS instance is stopped?
Your data remains intact and undisturbed. When the SoftNAS instance is not running, NAS clients connecting via NFS, iSCSI or CIFS will not have access to NAS services, which will be restored when the SoftNAS instance is powered back on.