What is Tulsient XS?
Tulsient XS is a network-attached storage appliance.
Designed and optimized to perform a very specific tas. Attaching the Tulsient XS directly to an Ethernet network users are able to store and retrieve their data in the knowledge that these files are 'safe'.

What would I use it for?
Commonly, data storage is based on your existing network server.Tulsient XS is designed to take the strain of data storage away from this server while providing fault tolerance via RAID.

Tulsient XS would typically be used for the following applications:

.To provide high volume data creators, such as clients or networks running E-Commerce, CAD/CAM, imaging or audio/visual applications with high capacity, low cost secure storage.

. Workgroups within a larger network can share common files, safe in the knowledge that their data will not disappear if a hard drive fails.

.Independent peer to peer workgroups where there is no network server will benefit from having a high capacity, high performance, scalable RAID server holding all of their information centrally that will grow with them.

.Schools and educational establishments can utilize the flexibility of Tulsient XS by deploying department or faculty specific servers again with high performance and data security.

. As a means to ensure that data that would normally be kept on workstation drives is actually kept centrally, securely and backed up.

. A safe haven for critical data in place of a tape backup solution. Data can be moved to the RAID server from the main network server and be protected by RAID, ready for use should the main server fail.

.Any network that requires an easy to install RAID solution that requires minimal administration and simple configuration, combined with high performance and unrivalled scalability

What is a network appliance?
A server appliance is defined by the following characteristics:

.Easy to install (typically 15 minutes).

.Fulfils a dedicated server function - accessible from multiple clients and protocols while offering several simultaneous server emulations (such as SMB, NCP, NFS, AFP, etc.) over the LAN.

.Low cost of ownership (less expensive than a traditional server dedicated for the same job).

.Mission-optimized software architecture.

.No network operating system license.

.Open standards-based.

Is Tulsient XS designed to replace my main network file server?
No. It is designed to complement your existing network structure. Tulsient XS is designed to take away the pressure and burden from your existing server by providing a dedicated and optimized RAID solution. It will operate in a peer to peer workgroup as the main data storage server though.

What does the Tulsient XS look like?
Tulsient XS is available as a solution, with the configuration, disk capacity fitting the specific customer needs.

Which device connectors does Tulsient XS have?
The Tulsient XS SCSI/IDE model has a single LVDS (Ultra 80 SCSI) channel and two ULTRA ATA/33 EIDE channels offering a total hard drive capacity of 19 drives.

Can I buy Tulsient XS as a complete RAID solution, including hard drives?
Yes. Tulsient XS is configured and built as a specialized solution to suit your requirement.

How is Tulsient XS managed?
Tulsient XS is easily accessible through the web browser based interface. A number of wizards are available to help novice users set-up, configure and learn about RAID groups and shares.

Does the Tulsient XS support languages other than English?
Yes, the Tulsient XS is fully localized. The administration interface is localized in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. In addition, the on-line context sensitive help system also supports all of these languages.

What is RAID?
RAID - Redundant Array of Independent Disks - is an evolving storage technology that offers significant advantages in performance, capacity, reliability, and scalability to groups of users that have requirements beyond those offered by a single PC.
RAID systems provide high reliability and data availability through techniques such as parity checking. In this scheme, when the RAID controller writes information onto the disks, it also writes redundant information called parity bits. Should a disk fail, this parity information enables the RAID controller to re-compute the lost information as it is requested without degrading performance. Advanced RAID controllers will reconstruct the lost data onto a spare disk, so that the system can survive another disk failure.
With increasing demands for mass storage performance, capacity, scalability and reliability, many companies are adopting RAID technology to complement their existing computer systems, enabling them to support demanding applications such as digital imaging, pre-press, on-line transaction processing, data warehousing, and file servers.

RAID technology can be implemented at two levels:

.In server software - software RAID

.In the firmware of the controller - hardware RAID

Which Raid levels does Tulsient XS offer?
Tulsient XS offers three levels of RAID:

.Data is broken down in blocks and each block is written to a separate drive. Also known as Striping, offers no fault tolerance and should be used for high-speed storage of non-critical files.

.Data blocks are copied or Mirrored on to a backup drive. Entry level RAID for basic redundancy and fault tolerance.

.Data blocks are split between drives and separate parity blocks are written to another drive. Parity blocks are always on a separate drive to the physical data that they represent. Typically used for critical data storage where data protection and up time is critical.

Is Software RAID better than hardware RAID?
Software RAID is more flexible. By using software RAID the Tulsient XS is able to span RAID groups across both SCSI and EIDE hard drives. It is also able to run all three levels (0, 1 & 5) simultaneously across all drives allowing different users different levels of fault tolerance. Also, software RAID allows for drives of different sizes to be mixed and matched in the RAID group.

Can I mix IDE and SCSI drives together?
Absolutely. RAID groups can span both SCSI and IDE disks.

What types and sizes of SCSI and IDE hard disk drives are supported?
All sizes of LVDS (Ultra 80 SCSI) compatible drives are supported.
All sizes of EIDE compatible drives are supported.

Do all hard drives need to be the same physical size?
No, any size drives can be utilized. A RAID group can span disks of different physical sizes, although you must allocate identical amounts of storage space from each device in the group.

What is the maximum hard drive size supported?
Based on currently available hard drives, Tulsient XS can support approx. 1.1 TB of SCSI storage space and approx. 300 GB of EIDE storage space. As hard drive sizes increase Tulsient XS will continue to grow and support these larger sizes.

What is the maximum supported file size?
Files up to 1TB can be saved to the unit. Many competitive units will not accept files greater than 2GB, however Tulsient XS does not suffer from this limit.

Which IDE ATA levels are supported (33, 66 or 100)?
The Tulsient XS IDE/SCSI model has two ULTRA ATA/33 channels.

Are CD or DVD-ROM or CD-R drives supported?
A single CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive can be connected to the Tulsient XS to act as a 'loading device'.
Any CD or DVD placed into this drive can be copied to the RAID array. Tulsient XS will not share the optical drive or media across the network. Tulsient XS is designed as a RAID server only. To share CDs or DVDs we have the CDH as the solution. CD-R devices are not supported.

Can I use hardware RAID controllers in conjunction with the Tulsient XS?
Yes. Currently two hardware RAID controllers are supported. The CMD 5440 and the Chapparal G5312. Either of these controllers can be attached to the SCSI connector of the Tulsient XS.

Is it possible to add a new disk into an existing live' RAID-group?
Yes. Dynamic RAID expansion is fully supported for all RAID levels.

Will Tulsient XS support Hot Swapping of drives?
Yes. Hot Swap functionality is fully supported on the SCSI bus.

Will Tulsient XS support Hot Spares?
Yes. Any drive that is attached to the Tulsient XS, but not configured as part of an existing RAID group is able to be designated as a hot spare drive. In the case where both IDE and SCSI drives are available, Tulsient XS will utilize the IDE drives first. There is no limit to the number of Hot Spare drives that can be connected (up to the physical maximum of 19 drives for Tulsient XS).

Can I backup my data?
The Tulsient XS has two options for backing up and restoring data. A tape drive can be attached directly to the Tulsient XS (either SCSI or IDE) and used as the primary backup and restore device. Some tape autoloaders are also supported. The back up device can be one of the following types:

¼ Inch, AIT2, DLT, 4mm DAT, 8mm DAT, Mammoth2, MLR, SLR, Travan or VXA

Alternatively, the built in Veritas Backup Exec Agent will allow Tulsient XS to be seamlessly integrated into an enterprise backup strategy.

Can my backup span multiple tapes?
Yes. The Tulsient XS will prompt you to change the tape when needed.

Are Tape auto-changers / jukeboxes support?
Tape autoloaders that do not require a separate robotics control connection should function properly when attached directly to a Tulsient XS. Jukeboxes are not supported at this time.

Am I able to backup and restore single files from a drive or share?
The backup utilities within Tulsient XS will allow you to only back up all files from a defined RAID group or share.

Can I set a backup schedule?
Yes. Backups can be scheduled to run at a regular set time.

Is server mirroring supported?
Yes. Tulsient XS can be configured to mirror the data to another Tulsient XS at pre-defined regular intervals. This feature greatly improves the redundancy of your RAID solution by offering a total server 'backup' held on a physically separate unit. Should one unit fail the mirrored Tulsient XS can be used instead.

Can I mirror other servers and clients?
Tulsient XS running the SmartMirror feature are compatible with the Unix mirroring application rsync. You can use other rsync Servers and Clients to synchronize data with Tulsient XS.

What is the base configuration of the model?
Tulsient XS 350MHz AMD K6-2E processor with 64 MB memory.

Which RAM Modules are supported?
The Tulsient XS has a single DIMM slot that will accept standard PC100 DIMMS from 64MB to 512MB in size.

How big is the flash memory?
A massive 4MB.

What network speeds and connections does the Tulsient XS have?
The standard Tulsient XS configuration provides a 10/100 auto sensing Ethernet connector.
It is also possible to add an Intel PRO/1000 Fibre or Copper card to the Tulsient XS PCI slot to obtain Gigabit Ethernet support

Does Tulsient XS support DHCP?
Yes. Tulsient XS can act as a DHCP server and issue IP addresses to client workstations that attach to it. It can also obtain an IP address on boot up from an existing DHCP server on the network.

Are NetWare 5 and NW/IP supported?
Yes.

Which clients does Tulsient XS support?
NetWare 3.x, 4.x or 5 clients.
Microsoft networking clients (Windows 95, 98, NT, Windows for Workgroups or DOS)
Apple Macintosh clients running AppleTalk, TCP/IP or both. AFP is fully supported.
Web Based clients (HTTP or FTP)
UNIX NFS clients

Does Tulsient XS support Macintosh file formats and clients?
Absolutely! Macintosh users can see the Tulsient XS as if it were a native Macintosh server. Zones are supported and any Macintosh client running under Appletalk, TCP/IP or both are fully supported. The Tulsient XS supports the AFP protocol.

Which network protocols are supported by Tulsient XS?

.TCP/IP
.Appletalk
.NW/IP
.IPX

Which file-sharing protocols are supported by Tulsient XS?

.NFS
.FTP
.HTTP
.CIFS (SMB)
.NCP
.NW/IP
.AFP

Which servers does Tulsient XS emulate?

.Novel NetWare 3.12, 4.x & 5.x
. Microsoft Windows
. UNIX NFS 2.0 and 3.0
. Apple Macintosh 6.0, 7.5, 8.0, 8.5 and 9.0

Is File Level Security (FLS) supported?
Absolutely! Native FLS is available for UNIX clients and browser-based FLS is available for Macintosh, Windows NT and NetWare clients, providing greater data security and improved file access.
Native support will be added to upcoming releases for the other protocols.

Can Tulsient XS be viewed across global domains?
Yes. But please remember that this functionality is dependent on your WINS configuration.

Are there any limitations on the number of concurrent users on the Tulsient XS?
Tulsient XS can maintain a list of 1,000 known users with approximately 250 concurrent user connections.

Are there any limits on the number of shares that can be offered to users?
A total of 250 individual shares can be simultaneously published.

Can the display of shares be restricted?
Yes. In addition to standard security settings, individual shares can be set to present themselves only to clients running specific protocols. For example, this means that a share can be set to display only to Windows (CIFS) users and be invisible to Macintosh (AFP) users.

Can I use underscore characters in share names?
Yes.

Is NDS integration via the web-interface possible?
NO. XS view should be used for NDS integration, as this method is more secure than sending unencrypted administration information using the HTTP protocol.

Is there an undelete function?
No. Once data is deleted it is not recoverable. We recommend that you make use of the backup functionality within the Tulsient XS.

What happens if the Tulsient XS unit fails? Will my existing RAID levels disappear?
No. If you have a number of hard drives with RAID groups configured on them and the Tulsient XS fails, it is possible to attach the hard drives to a new Tulsient XS unit without loss of data. Upon power up the Tulsient XS will recognize that the attached hard drives have been configured as a RAID group(s) and will automatically adapt to this information, providing the data as before.

Which file format is used when writing to the disks?
Native NT and NetWare file formats are used.

Can I access my data while Tulsient XS is rebuilding my RAID groups?
Yes. Full user access is possible while the unit is rebuilding a RAID group.

Is NFS version 3 supported?
Yes.

Is there file locking between Windows and Unix?
Database-style file locking will not be supported. However, if a Windows client is writing a file for example, a UNIX client will be locked out until writing is completed and vice versa.

Is there a caching system (like write-back) to improve the RAID performance?
No, but most newer SCSI drives have this feature included in the drive electronics.

What happens to data in cache in the event of a power outage?
As with almost all RAID systems, power outage can cause a full resynchronization of the RAID array, and a rebuild of the file system. Data may be corrupted in some files that were actively being written during the power failure. Use of a UPS is strongly recommended.

Why would Tulsient XS resynchronize the RAID set every time the unit is turned on?
Tulsient XS will only do this if not correctly powered down via the administration interface. Like almost all operating systems on the market today, an orderly shutdown is required to close all open files and write configuration information.

How is Unix Security set?
Normally, Tulsient XS offers user and group security at the "share" level. This means that the same file can be accessed via different shares and would have different security depending on which share the user accessed the file from. In addition to this, it is now possible to provide NFS clients with file level security.

How is Web Security set?
For the Tulsient XS administrator account, by setting user administration rights.
For users/clients accessing shares, by making shares non-public or by manually adding users to the server and then assigning rights to shares.

Is there an alarm system in the event of a failed drive?
Yes, alerts are sent via email notification (SMTP) or SNMP (event notification).

Is SNMP supported?
Yes. Tulsient XS can be configured as an SNMP agent providing SNMP traps for server event notification and alerts.

What type of events does email (SMTP) and SNMP notification notify?
Tulsient XS offers a comprehensive range of alerts such as:
Drive failures, drive/file system rebuilds, drives reaching capacity, unit reboot, unit overheating and backup related messages. Further alerts are in development.

How does Tulsient XS handle the repair of the file system in the event of a crash?
There is an automatic rebuild of any questionable file system. In addition, there is a manual on demand rebuild of file systems.