Windows File Server Consolidation -
Overview & Features

Overview

Windows File Server Consolidation enables IT to consolidate many disparate storage "puddles" and associated file servers into one cost-effective, scalable and easy to manage file serving cluster. HP PolyServe’s file serving software runs on Windows Server System enabling administrators to maintain their current IT practices, rather than forcing them to switch to a proprietary architecture. Based on industry standard building blocks—servers, storage, FC SAN or iSCSI—it provides the best price-performance in scalable file serving.

Features and Benefits

• Simplified, Centralized Data Management: The Windows File Serving Solution simplifies administration with a single global namespace, provisioning, backup and management of a single pool of storage.

• Affordable High Availability: Clustered NAS offers load-balanced, fault-tolerant access to mission-critical data with increased system uptime through a flexible failover infrastructure that monitors health of servers, storage and network.

• Cost Effective Performance: Automatically scales file serving performance on demand when needed while delivering performance in excess of 2.4 Gigabytes per second of I/O throughput.
• Island Consolidation: Consolidate storage islands onto a scalable, fault-tolerant file serving cluster for thousands of users, web clients and compute nodes.
• Scalable Storage: As needs grow, a cluster can be scaled from as little as a pair of dual-processor servers to a set of 16 servers, each with four or eight CPUs, multiple Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel connections – all without interrupting client service and without requiring any migration of data.
• Data Capacity Utilization: Centralization of data makes storage management more effective and increases storage utilization rates.