Maestro

The debut offering from new file storage player Attune Systems, Maestro provides both management and virtualization capabilities to existing file stores (file servers and NAS) throughout the organization. The 3U appliance sports ten 1 Gb/sec Ethernet ports, 12 RAID 5 protected (with hot spare) hot swappable Ultra SCSI drives (driven by a MegaRAID controller), and N+1 redundant hot swappable power supplies. The drives on the device are used primarily for its own metadata and file handling purposes (not user data); with the exception of the Small File Acceleration feature (see below) wherein smaller files can be stored locally on the device itself for improved performance.

Maestro features three distinct modes, or steps, of operation--Discovery, Native, and Extended--which can be utilized concurrently per administrator needs. For example, some resources can be discovered and monitored by the admin, others can additionally be incorporated into the virtual namespace (Native mode), and still others can leverage the enhanced features of the platform such as dynamic allocation (Extended mode).

In the Discovery phase, Maestro automatically discovers network file shares and exports. Maestro allows for the management of the physical shares with such features as customizable, threshold-based alerting (file share is inaccessible, high CPU utilization, capacity is low, HDD failure, etc.); usage statistics reporting; and monitoring capabilities.

In Native mode, discovered resources can be incorporated--per administrator selection--into a single, virtual namespace that can then be exposed to clients. This virtual namespace is exposed as Virtual Volume Sets, providing virtual access capabilities allowing the clients to access the files via a single, persistent path regardless of where the file physically resides (and allowing the changing of the file path by the administrator, when necessary, without requiring the physical movement of the files). This virtualization layer--in combination with the products' striping and mirroring capabilities (see below)--allows clients to continue to access files during routine file server maintenance and file migration; and when individual files are migrated to new physical locations the client can continue to access them via their original virtual pathname.

Files can be accessed by clients via the CIFS and NFS protocols, with opportunistic locking also supported by Maestro. The vendor states that neither the file servers/filers nor the clients require new software upgrades to use Maestro.

Finally, in the Extended mode of operation the appliance provides enhanced services to the virtual file layer, including automated striping and mirroring over multiple discovered physical file stores (definable to the file or directory level); dynamic volume expansion wherein the capacity of volume sets can be automatically expanded as needed; and the aforementioned Small File Acceleration option, which tunes the platform specifically for environments that consist of many, smaller files by storing such files locally on the device itself for improved performance.

The Maestro platform is built on multiple components--some already mentioned earlier in this briefing--which work individually and together to accomplish the device's functions:

- Maestro Policy IQ, which allows for automated, policy-based movement of files based on multiple attributes (access date, file type, last update, etc.) across mutliple file storage tiers

- Maestro Dual Path Access, which allows files to be accessed both through Maestro, and directly through their physical file servers (around Maestro) for incremental migrations

- Maestro Remote Scripting Engine, which allows both for 3rd party application interfacing with the Maestro platform as well as the creation of custom ILM processes.

- Maestro Adaptable Striping & Mirroring

- Meastro Volume Sets

- Maestro Dynamic Volume Expansion

- Maestro Small File Acceleration

Maestro is available now, with an MSRP of $44,995. Visit the Attune Systems Web site for further information.