content storage simplified

Product Brief

CAStor Content File Server

TM

File system interface to object based storage

Up to 90% of new data being created is file-based and todays storage systems require file systems to manage tens of millions of files and hundreds of terabytes of capacity. There are challenges with traditional file systems addressing the performance, scalability and continuous availability needs for customers today. A CAStor object based storage system can address all these constraints and provide a highly optimized and unified storage environment. CAStor CFS is complementary to your existing investments by providing connectivity between legacy file systems and the CAStor cloud.

Use case applications for CAStor CFS

The following three customer scenarios illustrate the seamless integration of existing customer file system environments with CAStor by using a wide range of industry standard protocols such as NFS and CIFS.

Data Migration
Migrate legacy data from NAS filers to CAStor As customers reach limits with existing NAS filers, they can easily migrate legacy data from NAS filers to CAStor with CFS. CFS enables investment protection of existing filers while providing an integrated CAStor object storage system. photos video docs CIFS/NFS
CFS

CIFS/NFS

NAS filers

HTTP

Object storage

CFS
HTTP

Cloud Transition
Legacy applications to connect to the cloud Customers looking to gain the accelerated performance, scalability and high availability of a CAStor storage cluster can use CFS as an easy way to transition to a cloud solution without rewriting applications.

Access

CFS

Cloud Storage

Client applications

CIFS/NFS

HTTP

Object storage

Deep Archive
Create deep archive for long term retention Customers have a need for a cost effective way to keep data that is not changing. CFS provides a transparent way to move data from any client system into CAStor for a WORM compliant object store. The CAStor system with power conservation and spin down technology provides compelling cost savings. Spin down power conservation Scanners
CFS

Client applications

CIFS/NFS

HTTP

Object storage

CAStor Content File Server

TM

Innovation in digital content access

Wide range of protocol support. The primary access method for CAStor is HTTP the same language that powers the internet and cloud computing. CAStor CFS adds the flexibility of a wide range of industry standard file access methods for investment protection of legacy file systems. Windows, Linux and Mac users can all use CIFS, NFS, WebDAV and FTP to get direct access to a CAStor cluster. File protection and recovery. CFS provides the innovation of Continuous Data Protection (CDP) which is sometimes referred to as continuous snapshots for file protection and point-in-time recovery. CFS Timescapes captures every transaction and so the file system can be rolled back to any point in time to recover folders or even a specific file. Metadata attributes can be set to specify the lifecycle of files, replication counts and retention policies per each mounted volume. The file history can be viewed and extracted as an image set and moved to another tier of storage as a part of lifecycle management. File size and storage scalability. The value of CFS is its ability to address universal access to files large and small. Unlike a tradition file system, with CFS, there is no limit to the number of files or the total capacity in a single file system. This provides unlimited growth to support billions of files and petabytes of capacity for files. Because files are stored in CAStor, Caringos flagship object based storage system, the old stuff never gets in the way of the new stuff. That is, performance is never impacted by the quantity of files that are being stored. Enables compliance for archive retention. To address lifecycle management of data, CFS supports write once and read many (WORM) data protection capabilities by enforcing a simple metadata policy at the mount point level. The CFS metadata policies work seamlessly in concert with CAStor Content Router for replication and intelligent distribution for deployment of a DR strategy and enable customers to meet regulatory compliance requirements. Unified Access to Storage. CFS provides ubiquitous access to CAStor storage for any application by selecting the access protocol of choice. Customers can scale to billions of files and petabytes of capacity by integrating existing file systems and new file systems with CAStor. Enterprise Class Security. CFS provides enterprise level authorization and authentication by leveraging industry standard support of Active Directory (AD) and Access Control List (ACL). CFS supports file-level read, write and execute permissions for users and groups. To meet the most demanding security requirements, CFS seamlessly integrates to highly flexible permissions models and facilitates a high access control protection. Virtual Machine support. Can seamlessly run in a virtual machine for optimization and flexibility in the cluster. Simple Management. CFS installs with a simple wizard to setup, configure shares and connect to a CAStor cluster. All file system metadata is stored in CAStor so there is no metadata database to manage. A single namespace is responsible for maintaining and mapping file system metadata to the objects stored in CAStor. Because all the file metadata is stored in CAStor, management is simplified and there is never a need for backup or offline storage.

CFS Features
File system protocol support:

CIFS, NFS, FTP, and WebDAV Windows, Linux, Unix, and MAC file systems Active Directory (AD) and Access Control List (ACL) Continuous Data Protection (CDP) through CFS for continuous snapshots WORM policy protection for compliance File replication integrated to CAStor Continuous Data Availability at all times including recovery CFS wizard setup CFS metadata stored in CAStor Single namespace for file system

Client OS support:

Authorization and authentication:

Data protection:

Setup and management:

Required OS and Software

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 CAStor Content Storage Software (server)

Recommended Hardware Configuration

CPU Hard Drive Other Drive Memory Network Interface CAStor Content Storage Cluster 64-bit, Intel Xeon, AMD Athlon 64, or equivalent SATA, SAS, or SCSI, with RAID configuration for failover CD ROM to install the operating system 2GB minimum, additional mounts require additional RAM Dual Gigabit Ethernet Storage cluster of 3 or more server nodes

To learn more about CAStor and CFS visit our web site or e-mail info@caringo.com.

Caringo, Inc.

6801 North Capital of Texas Highway Building 2, Suite 200 Austin, TX 78731

2011 Caringo, Inc. All rights reserved.

content storage simplified

03/11