This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides a detailed look at the features, benefits, and capabilities of the IBM System Storage® N series hardware offerings. The IBM System Storage N series systems can help you tackle the challenge of effective data management by using virtualization technology and a unified storage architecture. The N series delivers low- to high-end enterprise storage and data management capabilities with midrange affordability. Built-in serviceability and manageability features help support your efforts to increase reliability, simplify and unify storage infrastructure and maintenance, and deliver exceptional economy. The IBM System Storage N series systems provide a range of reliable, scalable storage solutions to meet various storage requirements. These capabilities are achieved by using network access protocols, such as Network File System (NFS), Common Internet File System (CIFS), HTTP, and iSCSI, and storage area network technologies, such as Fibre Channel. By using built-in Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technologies, all data is protected with options to enhance protection through mirroring, replication, Snapshots, and backup. These storage systems also have simple management interfaces that make installation, administration, and troubleshooting straightforward. In addition, this book addresses high-availability solutions, including clustering and MetroCluster that support highest business continuity requirements. MetroCluster is a unique solution that combines array-based clustering with synchronous mirroring to deliver continuous availability.

Corporate workgroups, distributed enterprises, and small to medium-sized companies are increasingly seeking to network and consolidate storage to improve availability, share information, reduce costs, and protect and secure information. These organizations require enterprise-class solutions capable of addressing immediate storage needs cost-effectively, while providing an upgrade path for future requirements. IBM® System Storage® N series storage systems and their software capabilities are designed to meet these requirements. IBM System Storage N series storage systems offer an excellent solution for a broad range of deployment scenarios. IBM System Storage N series storage systems function as a mulitprotocol storage device that is designed to allow you to simultaneously serve both file and block-level data across a single network. These activities are demanding procedures that, for some solutions, require multiple, separately managed systems. The flexibility of IBM System Storage N series storage systems, however, allows them to address the storage needs of a wide range of organizations, including distributed enterprises and data centers for midrange enterprises. IBM System Storage N series storage systems also support sites with computer and data-intensive enterprise applications, such as database, data warehousing, workgroup collaboration, and messaging. This IBM® Redbooks® publication explains the software features of the IBM System Storage N series storage systems. This book also covers topics such as installation, setup, and administration of those software features from the IBM System Storage N series storage systems and clients and provides example scenarios.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides a detailed look at the features, benefits, and capabilities of the IBM System Storage® N series hardware offerings. The IBM System Storage N series systems can help you tackle the challenge of effective data management by using virtualization technology and a unified storage architecture. The N series delivers low- to high-end enterprise storage and data management capabilities with midrange affordability. Built-in serviceability and manageability features help support your efforts to increase reliability; simplify and unify storage infrastructure and maintenance; and deliver exceptional economy. The IBM System Storage N series systems provide a range of reliable, scalable storage solutions to meet various storage requirements. These capabilities are achieved by using network access protocols such as Network File System (NFS), Common Internet File System (CIFS), HTTP, and iSCSI, and storage area network technologies such as Fibre Channel. Using built-in Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technologies, all data is protected with options to enhance protection through mirroring, replication, Snapshots, and backup. These storage systems also have simple management interfaces that make installation, administration, and troubleshooting straightforward. In addition, this book also addresses high-availability solutions including clustering and MetroCluster supporting highest business continuity requirements. MetroCluster is a unique solution that combines array-based clustering with synchronous mirroring to deliver continuous availability.