TS-4801R

Written by Sammi Yang

Wednesday, 02 September 2009 00:00

The Innovative 2.5 inch Fibre RAID system, setup an important milestone for MaxTronic entering into the Critical High-end enterprise demands, High performance, Eco-Friendly, and government grade data-at-rest Security. The new space efficient storage systems fully comply with latest HDD trends of SAS, Small Form Factor and Self Encrypting Drive* (SED). The 4Gb FC host interface and dual active-active controllers enable high performance and full hardware redundancy, best feasible for enterprise level 24x7 operation. The 2.5” SFF drives consume around 50% power than 3.5" drives, generate less thermal and acoustic noise, reducing the power consumption and operating cost.
* Specifications are subject to change by Arena without notice

Overview

Click to enlarge photo!

Ideal Application
- Data Center
- Medical
- Academic
- Enterprise storage
- Cloud Storage
- Military
- Government
- Video/Audio Editing

Specifications

Hardware
Controller	Dual (Redundant)
Controller CPU	Intel IOP34x 1.2GHz
Cache Memory	2048 - 4096 MB DDR II
Battery Backup	Yes
Host Interface	4Gb FC
Host Channels No.	4
Disk Interface	SAS (SATA compatible) (*1)
Number of Disk Channels	24
Hot Swap Disk Tray	2.5" hot-swappable tray
Expansion	x4 SAS (SFF-8088) port (*2)
MaxSure (Support SED)	Yes
Management Port	10/100 Mbit port (RJ45)
UPS Monitoring	1 (RS232)
Hot Swap Fan	2 x Fan Module
Hot Swap Power supply	2 x 400 W Redundant
AC Input Voltage	100 to 240V (+/- 10%), 47 to 63 Hz
Feature	1. Energy Efficiency: The 80% high efficiency rating power supply. 2. Low Noise: Operational noise is less than 50 dB. 3. Disk Standby: Support disk spin down option while host inactivity. 4. Dynamic Airflow: Special designed fan module improves the cooling efficiency. 5. Capacity Expansion: Expandable up to 120 disks by JBOD unit. 6. Support Self Encrypting Drive (SED) 7. SED Key management: Easy to manage security key from SED DG (Disk Group) and backup SED key. 8. Instant Secure Erase: No additional cost or time to erase data using the Instant Secure Erase feature
RAID Function
RAID Levels	JBOD, 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, NRAID
RAID Features	-Support multiple RAID levels and stripe size -Support local hot spare and global hot spare -Instant and background initialization -Online RAID level and stripe size migration -Online disk group defragmentation for free space consolidation -Online capacity expansion and shrink -Online drive traveling and array roaming -Online array recovery -Support Disk Self Test (DST) -Support Disk Scrubbing (DS) -Support Disk Cloning (DC)
Snapshot	Yes (Firmware Embedded)
Environment Specification
Humidity	20% to 80% non-condensing
Operating Temp	5°C to 40°C (41°F to 104°F)
Non-Operating Temp	-25°C to 60°C (-13°F to 140°F)
Safety Regulatory	UL, CUL, CB
EMC Standard	FCC, CE, C-Tick
Dimension and Weight
Physical Dimensions	485 (W) x 565 (D) x 88 (H) mm
Physical Weight	22 Kgs (without drives)
Packed Dimensions	610(W) x 800(D) x 280(H) mm
Packed Weight	31 Kgs (without drives)

*1. Support SATA drive requires AA-MUX tray board.
*2. Support up to 120 disks (include local chassis)
*3. Specifications and product offerings may vary without notice.
*4. Various trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Key Features

Click a feature for more info!

Green design

-Energy Efficient: The 80% high efficiency rating power supply delivers lowest power consumption.
-Quiet Operation: Operational noise is lower then 50 dB, best fit for noise sensitive application.
-Dynamic Airflow: Special designed fan module improves the cooling efficiency and the energy consumption.
-Disk Standby: Support disk spin down option while host inactivity. This function helps to further reduce power usage but depends on drives support capability.
-Capacity Expansion: Expandable up to 120 disks by cascading with the external 2.5” or 3.5” JBOD unit, help reduce total cost of ownership.

Support SED (Self Encrypting Drive)*

The TS-4801R offers hardware based, disk drive integrated encryption for data resident to disks. All encryption executed by SED (Self-Encrypting Drives) itself, where down-time due to no sharing of CPU resources.

SED Key management*

Each DG (Disk Group) has its own SED key that used for SED array maintenance (e.g. array roaming). Default SED key is “00000000”(eight zero) while DG creating with SED function enable. It’s recommend administrator to modify (or auto regenerate) the SED key at first time DG (Disk Group) created and the key is also downloadable to save at personal computer.

Instant Secure Erase*

Instant Secure Erase is a method of data erasure that you can use with SED disks. After the initial investment into a SED disk, there is no additional cost or time to erase data using the Instant Secure Erase feature.

Superior Security*

The TS-4801R with the Self Encrypting Drives (SED) implementing FIPS approved AES-128 bit encryption algorithm; the government grade data security feature, no backdoor available.

Embedded Snapshot

The snapshot is done at the array and block level by leveraging the computing power of the RAID system, it is host-independent, and application-independent. Have less performance impact comparing to host-based snapshot software solutions. User is also allowed to restore data by using snapshot restore function. As a data image can be roller back to a snapshot immediately, user may resume applications without downtime.

Innovative New Array Structure

The system features a new innovative array structure that hierarchically organizes storage objects. With this structure, physical drives are combined into Disk Groups (DG). DGs are subdivided into Logical Disks (LDs) where arrays are created. LDs can be combined together to form a stripped Volumes. Either Volumes or LDs can be pointed to a LUN which are then presented to the host computer.

Centralized management by RAIDGuard Central

RAIDGuard Central (RGC), a free centralized management utility provides centralized monitoring multiple RAID systems by through Ethernet at a local area network. Easier install RGC to a normal PC as an agent and then any PC/server could monitor to RAID system remotely. Allow customer to warning the engineer real-time with mail sending and most popular web messenger: MSN.

JBOD Expansion

This feature provides users the option to attach external SAS JBOD unit to expand the capacity of their storage solution. By cascading the RAID-less SAS JBOD unit helps reduce the total cost of ownership.

Array Recovery

The system provides an Array Recovery Utility that can aid a user in the event of multiple drive failures corrupting the RAID array of a Logical Disk and/or volumes. The feature enables users to recover lost disk members of a Disk Group, and will automatically recover Logical Disks and Volumes.

Disk/Array Roaming

The system provides Disk/Array Roaming that can aid user in the event of enclosure failures corrupting the RAID system works anymore. The feature protects data saving in each member disks and could be moved to fine RAID system to resume data back.

Online Expansion and Defragmentation of Disk Groups

New physical disks can be added by expansion of a Disk Group (DG) while the unit remains online. During the process of expanding Disk Groups, defragmentation can be selected to move unused capacity to the ending LBA of a Disk Group. Defragmentation can also be selected at anytime there is unused storage space residing between Logical Disks.

Online Expansion and Shrinking of Logical Disks

Logical Disk (LD) Online Expansion can increase the capacity of an online LUN, instead of having to create a separate partition for unused capacity or capacity gained from Disk Group Expansion; now your storage can dynamically grow as your demands grow. In the event of overestimating requirements for Logical Disk capacity, shrinking can be used reduce the allocated storage of a Logical Disk.

Global/Local spare disk

With the new storage structure, local and global spares can be configured. Local spares will belong to specific Disk Groups and will only replace faulty drives in a specific Disk Group. Meanwhile, Global Spares will replace faulty disk in any available Disk Group.

Regenerate Parity

A simplified feature of Disk Scrubbing (DS), Regenerate Parity will regenerate the parity of a Logical Disk(s) in a Disk Group without a parity check.

Dual Flash ROM

Dual Flash ROM per controller gives higher RAID system availability and reliability during firmware upgrading or in the event of a single ROM failure.

Web-based GUI

Embedded CGI-based GUI (graphic user interface) management interface can be accessed through a web browser. The GUI allows users to easily setup RAID arrays, LUN mapping, etc. and also provides remote monitoring of drive health, fan, and power supplies.

RAID 6

RAID 6 improves over the industry standard RAID 5 by adding another parity disk which gives greater reliability and data protection.

Disk Self Test (DST)

Before the release of this function, users of RAID systems were forced to test suspected bad hard drives in a host computer individually using a drive manufacturer’s utility. This function tests the health of hard drives with them installed in the RAID unit. DST performs write tests, servo analysis, and read scan tests; the test results are then displayed on the LCD and hyper terminal output. This can aid the user in deciding whether or not to replace a suspected failing hard drive. We highly recommend running this test before initializing a RAID set to ensure a healthy RAID solution.

Disk Scrubbing (DS)

With today’s RAID subsystems being capable of storing multiple terabytes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage and maintain that large amount of data. To aid a user in maintaining their data’s health, Arena has released their newest firmware function Disk Scrubbing. The data and/or parity stored on hard drives can sometimes become corrupted; this data can also reside in areas that are not accessed for long periods of time. DS will use idle time to test the disks, and if a sector is found to be corrupted, the data will be regenerated from other RAID member disks and will be written to an uncorrupted sector. The purpose of DS is to prevent the possibility of having multiple corrupted sectors in a single stripe, which is one of the main causes of data loss.

Disk Clone (DC)

Hard drives are the most likely component to fail in a RAID array, and almost impossible to predict when the failure will occur. When a failure does occur the RAID unit will have to regenerate data from the non-failed hard drives to rebuild a new drive, and the RAID array will be in degraded mode. Having a unit in degraded mode is a very cautious time because if a second hard drive was to fail the RAID is destroyed and data is lost. This is where Disk Cloning can aide a user. With the help of the hard drives built in S.M.A.R.T. function, DC can determine when to begin cloning a bad drive to a hot spare. Upon completion of cloning, the new cloned disk can take the position of the failing disk or can stand-by until the original disk fails, then take the failed disks position. Disk cloning is to prevent a rebuild from ever occurring and having the unit in degraded mode.

Support for greater than 2TB LUN

Two firmware options are available to surpass the 2 terabyte limitation; 16byte CDB and variable sector size. With either of these functions enabled, users are able to create slices and map LUNs greater than 2TB to their respective host channels. See support documentation for compatibility or contact technical support for more information.

Background Initialization

Initialization occurs during creation of a RAID array by zeroing out / formatting drives. By default the regular initialization process occurs with the unit offline, and inaccessible. With background initialization, the RAID array can be accessed during the initialization process so that the unit can be setup without having to wait several hours to complete initialization.

BBM

An optional BBM can be included in the RAID system to ensure data integrity in the event of a power outage. The BBM, or battery backup module, will provide power to the on-board cache of the RAID controller in the event of a power outage. This will allow any data that is still stored on the cache to be saved until power is restored. Once power is restored, the RAID controller will flush the cache to drives.

Downloads

Firmware: Download

User Manual: Hardware│Software

TS-4801R Datasheet

GUI Preview

The Graphic User Interface, or GUI, is a CGI-based RAID subsystem management tool which is operated using a web browser. It enables users in quickly and easily setup and configure the array, monitor status and performance, and enable event notification via SNMP trap and SMTP. The new GUI has many new functions and features that can greatly enhance your experience with Arena RAID products.

Quick Setup
Select performance profile and quick create
RAID configurations.

RAID Management
Manage hard disks, JBOD, disk groups,
logical disks, volumes, snapshot volumes,
and LUN; configure storage provisioning
(LUN mappings).

Maintenance Utilities
Perform expansion, migration, resizing,
defragmentation, cloning, scrubbing, disk
self-test, array roaming, and array recovery,
schedule tasks, and configure RAID options.

Hardware Configurations
View and manage the hardware configurations
of hard disks, disk IO handling, SMART
warnings, bad block handling, host ports, and
COM port.

Event Management
View and manage event logging, configure
event notifications of email, SNMP trap, and
beeper, monitor UPS, and control auto write-
through cache.

System Management
Manage system-wide settings, like NVRAM
configurations, network interface, date and
time, security control, system information,
firmware update, BBM control, system shut-
down, and GUI refresh rate.

Performance Management
View IO statistics of disks, caching, LUN,
and storage ports.