In bad econnomic times we still need to purchase storage

Today was not a good day for the US stock market. The Dow dropped 770 points and the Nasdq lost almost 200 points.

So why am I noting all this gloom on the Sunstar Blog Site - after all Sunstar Company is a data storage and backup company.

Quite simply - our data continues to grow and we need to ensure that the data we have is available be it on RAID storage or perhaps archived onto tape. Look at your home computer, yes we are adding more data all the time and backup up less frequently. This we knno is not good. The disk drive manufacturers are increasing the drive capacities for two basic reasons: Technology alows for larger capacity and secondly, the consumers demand more capacity. Bottom line our data will continue to grow and I believe we are near the bottom of the curve.

Data is there and we need to deal with it. The consumers of RAID storage have few choices. Sure we can archive more, tape is great but we all question reliability. Primary storage can be cost prohibitave. So we must look to secondary storage.

Sunstar works with storage manufacturers such as NexSAN, iQStoar and Arena and thes folks tend to fucus on primarily SATA II storage, thus the secondary tier of storage.

As for tape - LTO, IBM and the StorageTek line are still popular - but now for archive purposes.

Please conatc Sunstar if we can be of assistance.
800.663-5523 info@sunstarco.com
Gavin

iQstor with Fibre Drives

Fibre Disk drives are the standard for 3.5-inch 10K-RPM and 15K-RPM hard drives used in mission-critical server and storage solutions where system availability and reliability are of utmost importance.

If performance, reliability and innovation for enterprise applications is of importance to you, I would recommend that you looks at utilizing Fibre disk drives in your RAID. These drives tend to set the standard for e-business and real-time commerce infrastructure computing. Fibre drives are ideal for 3.5-inch mainstream and enterprise storage applications and is an excellent choice for demanding mission-critical network and server storage environments.

• Broad range of capacities—from 36 GB to 450 GB
• Serial Attached SCSI, Ultra320 SCSI, 2-Gb/s and 4-Gb/s Fibre Channel interfaces
• A 40 percent improvement in IOPS/watt performance.
• RoHS compliant
• Sustained data rates up to 125 MB/s
• Seek times as fast as 3.5 ms
• Highest reliability rating in the industry
• Generally - 5-year limited warranty

Sunstar Company offers the iQstor line of storage that utilize Fibre and SATA drives. Each shelf supports 15 drives and the two models that I would like to bring to you attention are:

Fibre to Fibre - iQ2880 4Gb Fibre to Fibre and iSCSI to Fibre - iQ2850 iSCSI to SATA or Fibre along with the JBOD that supports a choice of Fibre or SATA Drives. (240 Drives max)

Contact me and we discuss these options: 800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com

Gavin

www.sunstarco.com

Advantages of SAS Drives

Sunstar Company and NexSAN Technologies would like to introduce you to their new SASBoy Storage Array.



Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), the follow-on to parallel SCSI, is designed for high performance enterprise requirements.



SAS provides significant benefits to external storage subsystems and offers users "one-stop-shopping" to satisfy their requirements for the following three main data types.

Throughput Data: High MB/s and large data intensive files; Large block, random read/writes; Video streaming; CAD; Transaction Data; Reference Data

Transaction Data: Maximum IOP, calculation intensive files; Small block, random read/writes; Reservation systems; Billing systems

Reference Data: Large block, sequential writes / reads

SAS based external storage arrays (such as the NexSAN SASBoy) provide benefits in four areas: performance, availability, flexibility, scalability and cost of ownership.

SASBoy: High capacity – up to 4.2 TB in only 3U and Data Transfer Rates: Fibre: Up to 50,000 random IOPS from cache.

Many Thanks

Gavin

(800) 663-5523 info@sunstarco.com

www.sunstarco.com

iSCSI RAID now VMware Certified

Sunstar Company, Inc is please to announce that the iQ2850 iSCSI storage system has been certified for use with VMware Infrastructure 3. Based on this completed interoperability testing, iQstor’s iQ2850 will now be included in the Storage / SAN Compatibility Guide for VMware ESX 3.5, a part of VMware Infrastructure 3, as a supported storage platform.

The iQstor iQ2850 iSCSI SAN is easily installed in under twenty minutes -- simplifying integration and accelerating migration into virtual environments. By deploying the iQ2850 with VMware Infrastructure 3, IT managers are able to leverage a simple, flexible virtual storage solution that can scale easily and affordably to meet changing business requirements.

iQstor’s iQ2850 iSCSI SAN includes:

• integrated data protection and management features such as storage virtualization
• snapshot
• volume-copy
• remote replication
• storage provisioning
• and policy-based capacity growth.

The iQ2850 provides simple storage consolidation, enabling virtual infrastructures to improve storage utilization and data protection methods, facilitate disaster recovery and optimize virtualized server availability and workload migration.

Every iQ2850 offers seamless and affordable online capacity expansion - up to 240 drives - and features eight iSCSI host ports for flexible, multi-host accessibility. iQstor’s fully redundant active-active architecture provides a complete and fault-tolerant SAN.

If this is iSCSI RAID solution is of interest to you please contact us:

800.663.5523 info@sunstarco.com

Gavin

www.sunstarco.com

Data Transcription and Migration Services

Are you in need to repair or replace an existing tape drive?

Sunstar Company, Inc has the ability ro repair and supply new or replacement tape drives to companies offering:

• Tape Media Copying
• Tape Transcribing
• Data Re-mastering
• Data Archiving
• Data Processing Services.
• Tape drives supported:

LTO (Ultrium)
LTO 4, 3, 2 and 1 - Internal External (FH & HH) and for specific tape libraries
T9840, T9940 and T10000
T9840A, B, C & D; T9940A & B and T10000- Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3480
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490e
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3590
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3592 TS1120 TS1130
IBM, Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
DLT
DLT & SDLT drives - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
SLR 9 Track 4mm 8mm
Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
DIR & DTF Drives
Internal, External and for specific tape libraries

Do let us know if we can be of assistance?

(800) 663-5523 info@sunstarco.com

Many Thanks

Gavin

Storage and Backup: Email Management Appliances

Storage and Backup: Email Management Appliances
PivotStor Site
http://pivotstor.com/

Email Management Appliances

Do you have an need to find and old email? Ideally we want to conduct a search using a command very similar to that of what we expect when we search within Google.

This option is available from PivotStor when install one of their email management appliances. What's more it is definable and has centralized policies for total information protection.

Let's use Sunstar Company as an example. We send and receive email every day, and we need the email to be filtered. Email enters the system and is then subject to the centralized policies of the EP-Archive storage engine. Its customizable rules can be tuned to match Sunstar's business needs. If the email or its attachments are duplicates, EP-Archive automatically tags it as a “single instance”, which serves to reduce storage drain. The email is then fully indexed for easy search and retrieval by end users.

And thanks to the sophistication of the EP-Archive software, archived data can be retrieved in minutes, not hours or days. This feature is particularly important in cases with legal ramifications.

Models available from Sunstar Company, designed to manage to over 2500 mailboxes and 800,000 emails per day:

EP-1000™ SMB is designed to protect up to 1000 mailboxes in a small to medium-sized company. A 1U rack-mount, short-form design with a low power footprint makes it ideal for any SMB company, ISP or ASP provider.

EP-2500™ SME is designed to protect up to 2500 mailboxes in a small to medium-sized enterprise. A 1U rack-mount, short-form design with a low power footprint makes it ideal for any SME company, ISP or ASP provider.

EP-2500+™ Enterprise is designed to protect over 2500 mailboxes in an enterprise environment. A 2U rack-mount design with a low power footprint makes it ideal for any enterprise company, ISP or ASP provider. It can be customized to support over 50,000 users per node.

Please contact us and let Sunstar help you select the appropriate solutions that will safeguard you and your emails. (800) 663-5523 info@sunstarco.com

Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

NAS for the SMB Market

There are numerous manufacturers of NAS (Network Attached Storage) solutions that incorporate Microsoft's Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 (WUDSS) as their software engine.

However, I would like to focus on NexSAN's -The Edge NAS solutions that differs from the competition even though that they all utilize WUDSS.

A little about The Edge.

• Greater capacity and density - Scale from a few TBs to14TBs to 46TBs to 84TBs
• 1U compact size with integrated FC storage ports and IP host and client ports
• More robust reliability with NexSAN enterprise class RAID storage - FC connected RAID storage for higher performance
• Quad core processor with 4GB of memory and two 80GB drives configured in a mirror
• RAID operations are separate and off-loaded from The Edge NAS server maximizing NAS server CPU and memory performance.
• Green benefits with Nexsan's energy saving AutoMAID technology
• Consolidates file and block into a single solution with CIFS, NFS and iSCSI

The competition tends to incorporate a server at the head with a RAID controller or perhaps software RAID. Here NexSAN is somewhat different. Sure the operating system resides on the head - but that's where we part from the competition. Every NexSAN storage array includes a choice of a single or dual RAID controller. As we add another RAID box, we add another RAID controller. Perhaps you add a:

• NexSAN SATABeast or
• NexSAN SASBoy or
• NexSAN SATABoy

Each NexSAN box has it's own fast controller and a choice of SATA or SAS drives, ensuring that the NAS will not chug along but rather performance will increase as you add more Fibre Channel connected storage.

Green technology is supported. When you install The Edge and incorporate any of the NexSAN Storage Arrays you have the ability to take advantage AutoMaid at no additional charge thus reducing power and cooling costs. When activated you will reduce your power consumption by at least 15% to 50+%.

Sunstar Company continues to offer NexSAN Storage solutions. Their track record is excellent and having seen The Edge in action I am confident that this NAS box will be a terrific solution.

For additional in formation - contact us at: (800) 663-5523 or info@sunstarco.com

Gavin

http://www.sunstarco.com/

Sun StorageTek T10000B Tape Drive

The Sun StorageTek T10000B tape drive delivers the industry’s highest capacity, making it ideal for 24x7 datacenter operations requiring high duty cycle data storage and retrieval.

Basic Facts:

• 1 TB native capacity and 120 MB/sec throughput drive datacenter efficiencies
• Protects your investment with T10000 media re-use and broad compatibility
• Supports demanding 24x7 business operations, minimizing risk
• Enhances security and ensures data protection

As a result of its 120 MB/sec throughput, the StorageTek T10000B lets you write a terabyte of data in less than 2.5 hours, shrinking backup windows and saving staff time and resources. Add optional sport cartridges to the mix and get 2x faster average access to data. The StorageTek T10000B is compatible with Sun StorageTek enterprise libraries and integrates seamlessly with leading third-party enterprise software libraries and business applications.

The T10000B utilizes the same physical tape drive for FICON and Fibre Channel, allowing you to easily transition between both open systems and mainframe environments.

A great feature of the The StorageTek T10000B, it comes with built-in encryption. This tape-encryption appliance provides a simple, centralized, scalable solution for managing the keys used to encrypt and decrypt data written by the tape drive, ensuring that only the right people have access to the data.

Contact us here at Sunstar Company for your new and re-certified T10000 tape drives.

info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523

Many Thanks

Gavin

Tandberg Data for the SMB

We all are aware that Tandberg Data purchased Exabyte and it seems that they have covered all the bases if you are looking for a small tape library or autoloader.

Yes they do focus in the SMB enviroment, however with some of their larger libraries I feel that some enterprise accounts could certainly purchase one of the Tandberg libaries.

Let's review them:

Tandberg Data's new or renamed Exabyte Libraries - certainly their flagships.
StorageLibrary 24 Supporting 1 - 2 LTO Drives with 24 Slots
StorageLibrary T40 Supporting 1 - 4 LTO Drives with 40 Slots
StorageLibrary T80 Supporting 1 - 8 LTO Drives with 77 Slots

The reason for stating "say 1 - 4 drives," Tandberg has designed these units to support full height and half height LTO drives. Note: Most of these units support a variety of LTO generations and models and please look at each unit as to connectivity.

Hold outs from Exabyte.
StorageLoader LTO-4 Supporting 1 drive with 8 slots
StorageLoader LTO-3 Supporting 1 drive with 8 slots
StorageLoader LTO-2 Supporting 1 drive with 8 slots
Magnum 1x7 LTO Autoloader Supporting 1 drive with 7 slots
Magnum 224 Library Supporting 1- 2 drives with 24 slots (see T40)
Magnum 448 Library Supporting 1-4 drives with 48 slots

All in all, well manufactured LTO Tape Libraries and these units are available from Sunstar Company, Inc.
Please contact us: (800) 663-5523 or info@sunstarco.com
Many Thanks

Gavin

HP Business Class Tape Libraries

Supporting up to 16 tape drives and 240 slots with a capacity to 96TB native. The Hewlett Packard (HP) Business Class Libraries are ideal for small to medium IT networks with or without a storage area network (SAN). Investment protection with both capacity and performance upgrades for environments with unpredictable data growth.


HP StorageWorks MSL6000 Tape Library
Supports LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 and LTO-3 Ultrium 960

HP StorageWorks MSL8096 Tape Library
Supports LTO-4 Ultrium 1840; LTO-4 Ultrium 1760; LTO-3 Ultrium 960 and LTO-3 Ultrium 920

HP StorageWorks MSL4048 Tape Library
Supports LTO-4 Ultrium 1840; LTO-4 Ultrium 1760; LTO-3 Ultrium 960 and LTO-3 Ultrium 920

HP StorageWorks MSL2024 Tape Library
Supports LTO-4 Ultrium 1840; LTO-4 Ultrium 1760; LTO-3 Ultrium 960; LTO-3 Ultrium 920 and LTO-2 Ultrium 448.

Each library includes two removable 12-slot magazines, and one user-configurable mail slot dedicated for import/export of data cartridges. A barcode reader is part of the standard configuration for facilitating media management.

We at Sunstar sell new and refurbished LTO tape drives.
(800) 663-5523 info@sunstarco.com
Gavin at Sunstar

HP LTO Tape Drives

Looking for a new or used LTO tape drive manufactured by Hewlett Packard. HP has a plethora of models for you to choose from.

Questions to ask:

1. Connectivity - Fibre Channel, SCSI or SAS
2. Full Height or Half Height Drives
3. Capacity and speed. Choose from four generations of the Ultrium LTO drives: LTO1, LTO2, LTO3 or LTO4
4. Internal (System or library) or External

LTO4
HP Ultrium 1840 800GB at 120MB/s, 1.6TB at 240MB/s
HP Ultrium 1760 HH 800GB, 1.6TB at 576GB/hr

LTO3
HP Ultrium 960 400GB at 80MB/s, 800GB at 160MB/s
HP Ultrium 920 HH 400GB, 800GB at 432GB/hr

LTO2
HP Ultrium 460 200GB at 30MB/s, 400GB at 60MB/s
HP Ultrium 448 HH 200GB, 400GB at 173GB/hr

LTO1
HP Ultrium 232 HH 100GB, 200GB at 115GB/hr
HP Ultrium 230 100GB at 15MB/s, 200GB at 30MB/s

Do not be surprised if we at Sunstar have the model of your choice on hand.

info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523

Cheers

Gavin

www.sunstarco.com

Sun StorageTek T9840C Tape Drive

The StorageTek T9840C drive is ideal for applications that demand high data throughput and fast recall and stores up to 40 gigabytes native on a single cartridge. Available with two-gigabit Fibre Channel, two gigabit FICON and ESCON connectivity, these drives give you access to data at an average of just 12 seconds

With native data transfer rates of 30 megabytes per second, the T9840C drive allows you to store more data in less time to meet your shrinking backup windows.

The T9840C drive is backward compatible, can store up to 75 GB on a single, reusable cartridge and provides an average file access time of 8 seconds.

When outfitted with fast-access StorageTek T9840 tape drives and StorageTek 9840 data cartridges, tape libraries can serve as a high-volume source for a large-capacity storage device for fixed-content data. Sun StorageTek VolSafe secure media technology utilizes Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) technology to secure high-value, fixed-content data. Together, StorageTek T9840 tape drives and StorageTek 9840 tape cartridges comprise an ideal, active archive for regulated data that has been used worldwide since 2000 to meet compliance requirements.

Here at Sunstar Company, Inc we offer new and reconditioned StorageTek T9840C tape drives. We have an inventory of drives and spares on hand. Please consider contacting us at 800.663.5523 or via email info@sunstarco.com and perhaps we can be of assistance.

Many Thanks

Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

We purchase used media and services

Sunstar Company will purchase your media.

We buy storage media such as LTO, ½" 3480, 3490, 3590, 9840 and 9940 cartridges

Please contact us @ purchasing@sunstarco.com
(800) 663.5523
www.sunstarco.com

LTO2 Tape Drives

Linear Tape-Open (or LTO - Ultrium)) is a magnetic tape data storage technology developed as an open standards alternative to the proprietary magnetic tape formats.

LTO2 Tape drives were released in 2003 with a native capacity of 200GB and a Max Speed 40MB/s. Primary manufacturers of these LTO tape drives are: IBM, Quantum, Tandberg Data, Seagate and Certance.

Below is a list of the drives that we at Sunstar Company have sold and continue to offer as new or refurbished. Note that the half height drives have the same capacity but perform at a slower rate.
HP Ultrium 460 200GB at 30MB/s
IBM LTO-2 200GB at 35MB/s
Quantum LTO2 200GB at 123GB/hr
Quantum LTO2HH 200GB at 94GB/hr
Tandberg Data LTO2 HH 200GB at 24MB/s

• The HP, IBM and Quantum full height drives are available with a choice of a SCSI or a Fibre interface. Internal, external or for a specific tape library.
• Quantum LTO2 Half Height Drives deliver compressed capacities of 400GB and backup speeds of up to 187 GB/hr. They are read/write compatible to LTO-1. Available with Wide Ultra 160 SCSI connectivity.
• Tandberg Data internal and external LTO-2 Half Height SCSI tape drive with a compressed transferred rate of 48MBs.
• Tape Libraries that support LTO2 are shown on our web site at www.sunstarco.com

If you have an LTO tape drive that is not working at this time, contact us and perhaps we can repair the said unit.

For additional information please contact us: 800.663.5523 or info@sunstarco.com

RAID Levels

RAID = Redundant Array of Independent Discs.
A RAID system is a collection of hard drives joined together using a RAID level definition.

• RAID can be used to stripe drives together to give more overall access speed (level 0).
• RAID can be used to mirror drives (level 1).
• RAID can be used to increase uptime of your overall storage by striping drives together and then keeping parity data, if a drive should fail the system keeps operating (level 5 or 6).

RAID levels 5 and 6 are most commonly used, primarily for uptime purposes and its ability to join together (say) 14 drives, giving a large storage block.

Read about RAID levels below and for more detailed information visit the specific RAID Education page on our site at Sunstar Company, Inc.

• Level 0
  Striped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance: Provides data striping (spreading out blocks of each file across multiple disk drives) but no redundancy. This improves performance but does not deliver fault tolerance. If one drive fails then all data in the array is lost.
• Level 1
  Mirroring and Duplexing: Provides disk mirroring. Level 1 provides twice the read transaction rate of single disks and the same write transaction rate as single disks.
• Level 2
  Error-Correcting Coding: Rarely used, with data striped at the bit level rather than the block level.
• Level 3
  Bit-Interleaved Parity: Provides byte-level striping with a dedicated parity disk. Rarely used as it cannot service simultaneous multiple requests.
• Level 4
  Dedicated Parity Drive: A commonly used implementation of RAID, Level 4 provides block-level striping (like Level 0) with a parity disk. If a data disk fails, the parity data is used to create a replacement disk. A disadvantage to Level 4 is that the parity disk can create write bottlenecks.
• Level 5
  Block Interleaved Distributed Parity: Provides data striping at the byte level and also stripe error correction information. This results in excellent performance and good fault tolerance. Possibly the most popular implementations of RAID.
• Level 6
  Independent Data Disks with Double Parity: Provides block-level striping with parity data distributed across all disks. Very popular at this time.
• Level 0+1
  A Mirror of Stripes: Not one of the original RAID levels, two RAID 0 stripes are created, and a RAID 1 mirror is created over them. Used for both replicating and sharing data among disks.
• Level 10
  A Stripe of Mirrors: Not one of the original RAID levels, multiple RAID 1 mirrors are created, and a RAID 0 stripe is created over these.

Please feel free to contact us at Sunstar Company at: info@sunstarco.com or 800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Gavin

www.sunstarco.com

DLT Tape Drives is there still a market?

Look at the list below and it is rather easy to tell that Quantum sold millions of these drives over the last decade or so. The sad truth is that today Quantum is not so fortunate. In fact they are now a leading manufacturer of their one time ardent competitor - the Ultrium LTO.

Sunstar Company offers the DLT-S4 and SDLT 600 and 320 but the inquires are few. Other than Quantum, I am not aware of any tape library manufacturer including the DLT or SDLT as an option.

Quantum's tape division seems to be focusing on the LTO technology. There are so many SDLT and DLT drives out there and Sunmstar Co. is one of the few organizations that can repair or replace these drives. We carry an iventory of refurbished SDLT and DLT drives and yes we do have spare parts.

DLT-S4 800GB at 60MB/s 1600GB at 320MB/s
SDLT 600 300GB at 36MB/s 600GB at 72MB/s
SDLT 320 160GB at 16MB/s 320GB at 32MB/s
SDLT 220 110GB at 11MB/s 220GB at 22MB/s
DLT 8000 40GB at 6MB/s 80GB at 12MB/s
DLT V4 160GB at 10MB/s 320GB at 20MB/s
DLT1 40GB at 3MB/s 80GB at 12MB/s
DLT-VS160 80GB at 8MB/s 160GB at 16MB/s
DLT-VS80 40GB at 3MB/s 80GB at 6MB/s
DLT 7000 35GB at 5MB/s 70GB at 10MB/s
DLT 4000 20GB at 1.5MB/s 40GB at 3MB/s
DLT 2000XT 15GB at 1.25MB/s 30GB at 2.5MB/s

If you have any of the drives above and you need assistance, please contact and hopefully we will be able to help you.
info@sunstarco.com (800) 663.5523

Many Thanks
Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

Refurbish your IBM Tape Drives

We at Sunstar Company can refurbish your IBM Tape Drives.

Models that we work on daily.
3480 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490e Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3590 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3592 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
TS1120 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
TS1130 Internal, External and for specific tape libraries

LTO (Ultrium) Internal External (FH & HH) and for specific tape libraries

• LTO 4
• LTO 3
• LTO 2
• LTO 1

We offer:

• Repairs
• Recertification
• Advance Exchange
• Replacement

All drives are tested and retested before the drive is shipped.

Please call us in advance to receive a cost estimate and RMA no.

(800) 663-5523

Thank You

Sunstar Company, Inc.

www.sunstarco.com

We will repair your old tape drive

Sunstar Company repair specific tape drives. Sure we have the ability to repair many more models, however often spare are not readily available and due to the fact "sometimes" it might be cost prohibitive to repair a drive.

We repair primary the follow drives:

LTO (Ultrium)
LTO 4, 3, 2 and 1 - Internal External (FH & HH) and for specific tape libraries
9840 & 9940
9840A, B & C and 9940A & B - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3480
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3490e
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3590
All Manufacturers - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
3592 TS1120 TS1130
IBM, Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
DLT
DLT & SDLT drives - Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
SLR 9 Track 4mm 8mm
Internal, External and for specific tape libraries
DIR & DTF Drives
Internal, External and for specific tape libraries

Please do call us at 800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

Snap Server from Overland Storage

Sunstar Company has sold the Snap Server line of storage solutions for years. Overland Storage recently purchased this line of storage from Adaptec and we will continue to promote the solutions offered.

Now we recognize that the Snap line, even though it is quote comprehensive is not for all. There are software suites offered for a fee that add terrific value to theses NAS devices.

At present we at Sunstar promote the following models"

• Snap Server 650 High-performance block and file storage for enterprise data management1U 1.2TB - 85.2TB
• Snap Server 520 Great storage performance with flexible capacity management1U 1TB – 88TB
• Snap Server 410 High-performance rackmount storage with advanced data protection640GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB
• Snap Server 210 High-performance, high-capacity desktop storage with advanced data protection500GB, 1TB, 1.5TB
• Snap Server 110 Compact, high-performance desktop storage160GB, 250GB, 500GB, 750GB
• SANBloc S50 JBOD Expansion for Snap Server 650 and Snap Server 520 with a choice of 12 SAS or SATA drives

Guardian OS - Operating system for Snap Server storage systems for the distributed enterprise

Snap EDR - Data protection, disaster recovery, and data management for distributed enterprises

In excess of 20,000 units in the field.

If the Snap Server line is of interest to you, please do contact us so that we can share our experiences with you.

info@sunstarco,com 800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Gavin

www.sunstarco.com

iQstor 2880 Fibre to Fibre RAID

Offered by Sunstar Company, Inc. the iQstor iQ2880 is a full-featured 4Gb storage system, providing maximum flexibility, scalability and reliability for business, large and small. With all key internal components being hot-swappable and redundant, the iQ2880 ensures dependable data protection and delivery to help keep business-critical applications running smoothly. Supporting RAID level (0, 1, 1+0, 3, 5, 6) provides data protection and helps keep business critical applications running.

The iQstor 2880 Fibre to Fibre Storage uses high-performance RAID controllers and offers fast I/O response for searching and retrieving small fixed content files. It is well suited for applications like web and Intranet fixed content delivery, databases for storing and retrieving PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) content, document management, and business reports.

Each iQ2880 supports up to fifteen Fibre Channel Drives providing 6TB of storage capacity using 400GB (optional 10,000 or 15,000 RPM) disk drives or 15TB with 1TB SATA (7,200 RPM) disk drives. This capacity can be easily and dynamically scaled to 240TB by attaching optional J2880 disk enclosure with FC or SATA disk drives to the iQ2880 storage system, creating a tiered-storage environment, with Fibre Channel drives for primary storage and SATA drives for secondary storage.

The iQ2880 combines enterprise-level features such as storage virtualization, snapshot, mirroring, remote replication, storage provisioning and automated capacity growth with fully redundant components, to deliver storage scalability, data protection, storage automation and management simplicity

If this RAID solution is of interest to you contact us at Sunstar Company.
(800) 663.5523 info@sunstarco.com www.sunstarco.com
Many Thanks
Gavin
Sunstar Company.

NEXSAN SASBoy

Available through Sunstar Company, Inc. the NexSAN SASBoy is designed to enable high performance fixed content applications with energy efficiency.

SASBoy is completely OS-independent and provides both iSCSI and Fibre Channel connectivity. Presently the SASBoy supports 14 x 300GB SAS drives (15000 RPM) in 3U for 4.2 TB of storage. Great for applications that require high transaction performance, the SASBoy supports 50,000 IOPS from cache and 2,500 IOPS from disk, and can sustain data rates up to 875 Mbps.

The SASBoy uses high-performance RAID controllers and offers fast I/O response for searching and retrieving small fixed content files. It is well suited for applications like web and Intranet fixed content delivery, databases for storing and retrieving PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) content, document management, and business reports.

• Speeds: High performance random access for fixed content. Up to 50,000 random IOPS from cache
• Green storage: Multiple levels of energy efficiency, user configurable to control energy use. No compromise on application performance. Comes standard with the SASBoy
• Features both Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity to enable cost-effective, high performance access to large amounts of information
• High availability architecture features full redundancy across all active components
• Centralized management and monitoring platform that enables remote management and configuration of multiple arrays from a single GUI through NexScan software
• Priced for the SME market (small to mid-size enterprises)
• Easily integrates with SATA products for tiered storage
• Three-year warranty includes advance exchange, 24-7 technical support.

Please do contact us if you would like to learn more about this solution. Best to reach us by: Calling us at (800) 663.5523, email info@sunstarco.com or visiting us at http://www.sunstarco.com/

Many Thanks
Gavin
Sunstar Company, Inc.

Fibre Attached Storage

Fibre attached SANs at this point in time are certainly the SAN of choice when the client has a need for fast storage. Sure we can consider iSCSI SANs, however if a database is involved and the client is look for the highest IOPS then we tend to point to a Fibre Attached SAN with fast drives.

Generally speaking databases are not that large so we tend to recommend utilizing either Fibre or SAS drives drives within the SAN.

Two manufacturers come to mind: NexSAN and iQstor. Two very different solutions; one supporting SAS and the other Fibre drives.

NexSAN SASBoy.

• High Performance SAS Storage (15K SAS)
• High transaction performance
• NexSAN's revolutionary AutoMAID™ energy saving technology greatly reduces power consumption and operating costs.
• High capacity – up to 4.2 TB in only 3U
• Dual function Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity
• Transaction speeds up to 50,000 IOPS from cache and 2,500 IOPS

iQstor iQ2880 :

• High Performance Fibre Storage (choice of 10K or 15K Fibre)
• Single or Dual RAID Controllers
• Full 4GB Fibre
• Capacity: Up to 240 drives, using expansion chassis
• Software solution sets - SnapShots, Replication, Volume Copy, Volume Manager Virtualization etc.

I will discuss each one of these RAID solutions in more detail in the following blogs.

Please contact at Sunstar Company, Inc if we can be of assistance.

info@sunstarco.com (800) 663-5523

www.sunstarco.com

Is tape dead?

I can't count the number of time I have heard the question - is tape dead? As we continue this debate it is clear that the days when tape drives or libraries were purchased on a regular basis is certainly over. Disk is certainly a player in the decision process and it is my belief that tape will soon be relegated to mere archive in the years to come.

There are many choices available from so many manufacturers that it seems that the end user is often confused as to what will be the right solution for their company.

I am an advocate that tape should still be part of the backup/archive strategy but not at the expense of fast reliable backup and more importantly ask the question - how fast can I retrieve my data?

Some of the options available:
Storage - DAS, SAN, NAS or iSCSI
VTL
Data Deduplication
Replication
Tape

Unfortunately "data loss" is only too real and we all have experienced some data loss at one point in time or another. The key here is to minimized this potential loss and with the appropriate planning we can alleviate the pain.

Please do contact Sunstar Company and let us help you design the appropriate backup strategy that works best for you.
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Thank You

Gavin

Tape drive repairs

Sunstar Company, Inc. repairs and service the following Tape Drives and Loaders.
3480, 3490, 3490e, 3590 3592 and TS1120
All LTO Drives
All 9840 and 9940 drives
Sony DTF, AIT, SAIT and DIR
A $125.00 fee applies to product shipped to our facility for evaluation.
The approval of any repair waives the $125.00 evaluation fee.
Standard turn around time is usually 3 to 5 business days on most repairs.
Expedited repairs can often be returned by the following business day with a priority shipping service.
All repairs carry a 90 day warranty.
For additional information - follow this link.
To request a RMA number and specific details

iSCSI Storage for the future?

Question - If Fibre Channel SANs are the present are iSCSI SAN's the future of storage area networks?

Facts:

• iSCSI is preferred over Fibre Channel and outperforms Fiber Channel SANs when using small and mid-range servers with limited data transfers
• Fiber Channel SANs are superior when compared to iSCSI SANs when large database transfers and input/output operations take place.
• Ethernet is the most simplistic part of iSCSI. It runs on Ethernet. The odds are good that you and your coworkers are familiar with Ethernet—positive and negative points. With iSCSI, you can rely on inexpensive, commodity hardware and can get your SAN running quickly and easily.
• In most iSCSI equipment, the snapshot feature is included in the base price of the product. Snapshots provide significant data protection in that they can protect your data between backups.
• Replication - optional
• Scalability - depends on the manufacturer

iSCSI SAN technologies are improving and will soon be available to handle the high Input/Output operations of database transfers that are better supported Fiber Channel SANs.

For additional information - visit our web site: www.sunstarco.com
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Many Thanks

Gavin
Sunstar Company, Inc.

Why should you purchase an iSCSI SAN

Here at Sunstar Company we offer a number of iSCSI SAN storage solutions; and frankly speaking we see more of these units being installed today than Fibre attached storage.

There are many reasons for this - in no particular order.

• Cost to implement - very little additional infrastructure. If you have a Gigabit network - a switch with an extra port - installation is quick and easy. Not necessary to purchase additional hardware in most cases.
• Ease of installation - Most manufacturers have installed a simple " follow me" wizard and hopefully within 30 minutes you are up.
• iSCSI is fast and unless you have a bandwidth-intensive application (e.g., streaming media) this should be ample.
• Consolidate hardware and resources through advanced technology
• Flexible: Eliminates physical limitations of dedicated storage networks
• Remote Access: Allows to quickly and easily manage and allocate server and storage resources.
• Reliable: Multiple-redundant drives for reliable storage of the most sensitive of data

As for Applications:

• Storage networks
• Upgrade existing Fiber Channel Networks to iSCSI
• Server Virtualization
• Multi-site Replication: Increases redundancy and allows for hardware to communicate without being physically connected.
• Offsite Backup

Some of the manufacturers taht we work with and have installed their iSCSI SAN solutions:
StoreVault
Gigabit
12 SATA Drives, 2U or 8 SATA Drives, 4U
iSCSI and NAS Storage - File and Block level
NexSAN
Gigabit, FC & SCSI
14 or 42 SATA, 3U or 4U Storage
iQstor
Gigabit
15 Fibre or SATA - 240 Drives
iSCSI Storage with software
RELDATA
Gigabit, SCSI, FC, SAS
Your choice Virtualization of Existing Storage Assets
iSCSI and NAS Storage - File and Block level
Arena
Gigabit
12 or 16 SATA or SAS Drives, 3U
iSCSI Storage
Snap Server
Gigabit
4+ SATA or SAS Drives
iSCSI and NAS Storage - File and Block level

Bottom Line: unless you need absolute speed - install iSCSI

For additional information - contact us:

info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523

Many Thanks

Gavin at Sunstar Company, Inc.

www.sunstarco.com

PiviStor TL4000 4U LTO Tape Library

Earlier on today I wrote a blog on the PivotStor TL8000, their 8U 96 slot library. let's look at the TL4000, 4U with 48 slots - ½ the size and capacity.

• Total compressed data storage capacity ranges from 38.4 TB (LTO-3HH or LTO-3FH) to 76.8 TB (LTO-4FH).
• Compressed data transfer rates range from 432 GBytes per hour per LTO-3HH drive, 576 GBytes per hour per LTO-3FH drive, and 864 GBs per hour per LTO-4FH drive.
• Single or dual LTO-3HH drive (customer upgradeable to four LTO-3HH drives) with a SCSI or SAS interface
• Single or dual LTO-3FH with either a FC or SCSI interface, or LTO-4FH drive with a FC, SAS or SCSI interface.
• All models include four (4) 12-slot tape cartridge magazines (left-side with mailslot).
• Accessories include customer-installable LTO Ultrium drives (LTO-3HH, LTO-3, and LTO-4) and additional 12-slot tape cartridge magazines.

The PivoStor TL4000 product family is designed with the affordable scalabilty of LTO Ultrium drive format and interface support in mind. The user can easily upgrade their backup and archive solution to up to four LTO-3HH drives, or up to 2 LTO-4, or LTO-3, full-height tape drives.

Ideal for:

• Archiving
• Backup
• Disaster Recovery
• etc

Each TL4000 4U Tape Library includes industry-leading standard features such as a remote management user interface, a rack-mount kit, an ethernet cable, and a bar code reader.

Standard Warranty - 1 year advance replacement warranty. Optional 1-year or 3-year warranty upgrades.

For further information please contact Sunstar Company.
info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523
Many Thanks
Gavin
www.sunstarco.com

PivotStor TL8000 LTO Tape Libarary

Are you looking to archive your data?

If you are considering a tape library we at Sunstar Company would like to introduce you to the PivotStor brand of libraries. With the latest LTO tape drives, these powerful and economic libraries are making there mark worldwide.

I would like to focus on one library in particular today, their 8U TL8000. The TL8000 product family is designed with a high degree of scalability by providing the customer to upgrade their solution onsite with up to eight (8) LTO-3HH drives or up to four (4) LTO-3/LTO-4 full-height drive in a compact 8U design.

Ideal for:

• data retention
• compliance
• backup
• archive
• disaster recovery

Some facts:

• Total compressed data storage capacity ranges from 76.8 TB (LTO-3HH or LTO-3FH) to 153.6 TB (LTO-4FH).
• Compressed data transfer rates range from 432 GBytes per hour per LTO-3HH drive, 576 GBytes per hour per LTO-3FH drive, and 864 GBs per hour per LTO-4FH drive.
• Single or dual LTO-3HH drive (customer upgradeable to four LTO-3HH drives) with a SCSI or SAS interface
• Single or dual LTO-3FH with either a FC or SCSI interface, or LTO-4FH drive with a FC, SAS or SCSI interface.
• All models include eight (8) 12-slot tape cartridge magazines (left-side with mailslot). Available accessories include customer-installable LTO Ultrium drives (LTO-3HH, LTO-3, and LTO-4) and additional 12-slot tape cartridge magazines.

Each PivotStor TL 8000 8U Tape Library family also includes industry-leading standard features such as a remote management user interface, a rack-mount kit, an ethernet cable, and a bar code reader.

Warranty - A standard 1-year advance replacement warranty with optional 1-year or 3-year warranty upgrades.

All in all a terrific library at a reasonable price.

Please feel free to contact us at Sunstar Company.

info@sunstarco.com 800.663.5523

www.sunstarco.com