Aurora’s Design and Management
The Galaxy® Aurora IB is a 22TB 4RU RAID Storage SAN-Ready Subsystem Appliance. Each 4U 19” rack based Aurora supports 24 1TB Seagate Enterprise class SAS drives in field replaceable canisters. Dual 20 Gbit InfiniBand I/O ports provide connectivity to your Post production work station. The Galaxy® Aurora IB is SAN-ready and can be connected to multiple workstations using InfiniBand [IB] topology with the embedded StorNext SAN management software and file system. This compact yet powerful product does the work of systems several times its size.

Aurora’s powerful parallel processors, RAID 6 hardware-accelerated storage engine, and our patent -pending software called EOS delivers over 2 GBytes of raw data movement. This is fast enough to handle the reading, writing, and even data reconstruction without impacting sustained high-speed, real-time data delivery and protection needed to maintain 4K film production. Aurora’s innovative Distributed Shared Memory architecture and EOS software system, which handles all the RAID storage management functions, is the power behind Aurora and includes:

• RAID 6 ECC algorithms
• Email error notification
• Advanced storage administration applications
• Web-based GUI
• SAS drive / backplane connectivity and protocols
• Embedded StorNext SAN management software
• Storage interface and InfiniBand drivers
• Integration with SAN applications
• Embedded error and status monitoring systems

Using Seagate’s latest family of Enterprise SAS drives, Galaxy® Aurora IB gives the user the expected native resiliency, error handling and reporting, high MTBF and speed needed to meet the high demand of this creative market without compromising performance or ROI. The Galaxy® Aurora delivers 1700 MBytes/sec to the host using a simple one cable connection from an easy to install network using Mellanox ConnectX Infiniband 20 Gbit channel host adapters. Error, Status, Monitor, and Alert systems provide proactive support of our systems, providing real-time status monitoring, direct event notification, logs, and if required, email notification.

Aurora’s Performance
By leveraging our patent-pending Aurora RAID technology, our solution can process over 1.2 Trillion bytes per second. Combined with EOS, which uses proprietary scheduling algorithms and other advanced features that prioritize data movement, Galaxy® Aurora is capable of providing over 1700 MBytes/sec in real world high-end post production applications and file system environments.

That’s fast enough for 4K film production or numerous streams of HD. With its ultra fast algorithms, Aurora’s unique SAN appliance is uniquely capable of sustaining 4K performance even in the event of one or two failed drives. The RAID 6 engine embedded in the Galaxy® Aurora IB is the fastest in the industry, and ideally suited for the demanding performance and reliability required in the Post industry.

Using the 24 drive Galaxy® Aurora IB in a SAN configuration, we leverage Mellanox’s award winning ConnectX 20 Gbit InfiniBand Host Channel topology to support a full 4K uncompressed data stream over a single cable. Other network topologies require 4 to 8 separate cables, multiple storage adapters, and up to 48 or more disk drives to attain this feat.

In addition to the performance advantage, InfiniBand offers other significant benefits. Designed from the beginning to support multiple protocols, it also simplifies the infrastructure required for shared SAN environments. Direct connection to shared InfiniBand SAN storage eliminates the requirement to copy and replicate data among multiple workstations.

Aurora IB: Virtualized Expansion
Aurora IB can expand its storage and bandwidth capabilities by using it's innovative virtualization feature: Dynamic Resource Allocation. Dynamic Resource Allocation functions include the ability to add new capacity to an existing Aurora IB storage system without requiring client downtime. This function, called File System Expansion, allows large capacity upgrades without significantly disrupting business operations. This function is easily done in two ways: at the time of a new install, striping multiple Aurora IB’s into a single group; or as an add on to an existing Aurora IB installation.

With File System Expansion, a customer attaches additional Aurora IB’s to the IB Network. A GUI wizard is used to create a new Stripe Group (SG) and then add it to the existing file system. Aurora automatically updates the available file system capacity and presents the expanded file system to the clients. All I/Os currently in process continue uninterrupted during the expansion. A short pause of new I/O requests is experienced as the embedded Metadata controller updates its internal system, after which all the clients are made aware of the new overall capacity and physical disk resources.

If the addition of another Aurora IB is done after the initial install, the user has the option to leave the existing data in the original Stripe Group and let the new storage be used in a concatenated capacity or incorporate the added Aurora IB storage into a new Stripe Group with the existing Aurora IB’s and make one single file system. Either way, an efficient process is in place so Aurora can handle the new capacities and capabilities to move the data efficiently across all of the Aurora IB storage systems.

Our embedded Aurora EOS software, supports the StorNext MetaData network and IB storage network simultaneously, therefore the Aurora solution can share the network requirements needed by the high bandwidth IB data and the low bandwidth metadata over the same cable connection without the typically required metadata server. Our IB SAN environment reduces the networks to manage; from IB and GigE to IB only, further reducing cost and complexity. Our small footprint lowers your power and cooling requirements as well.

All these benefits add up to lowering your total cost of ownership and giving you a higher return on investment.

Aurora’s SAN Connectivity: StorNext
Partnering with Quantum’s StorNext Data Management Software, a single Galaxy® Aurora IB can support two Windows or Linux clients and either a single stream of 4K material or multiple streams of 2K material. Data Management makes Aurora storage appear as a server protected local drive to the post production systems and includes full File Locking and enables protected, concurrent read/write access by all attached clients.

Other features of StorNext are:

• High speed data sharing dramatically boosts I/O performance and enables faster project completion – gains of 2x, 3x and more are common
• Heterogeneous data sharing amongst the broadest range of OS platforms enables greater collaboration and fewer delays
• Distributed LAN Client enables cost-effective fan out to LAN systems while still providing enterprise resiliency and performance
• Online expansion of storage capacity and disk array swap-outs simplify service and upgrade processes

Galaxy® Aurora IB ships with StorNext SAN software and therefore users can integrate it into legacy Fibre-based StorNext SANs if needed. Moving data between an existing Fibre - based SAN and an InfiniBand SAN can be easily accomplished by simply mounting both SANs on a single client.

For larger installations, Galaxy® Aurora IB can be scaled up with single or dual redundant InfiniBand switches and multiple redundant MetaData controllers. Full access control improves data security by controlling user access across operating systems. Both copper and optical cables (up to 100 meters) are available to support large post facilities.

Easy to install and manage
Rorke Data, with over 23 years of successfully bringing you easy to install products, continues that effort with the Galaxy® Aurora IB. Pre-configured, tested, and customized to your needs before it leaves our ISO 9001 integration facility, your Aurora is ready to use out of the box. Setting up minor configuration changes on-site is simple. Our embedded Web Based GUI gives you all the tools needed to monitor and troubleshoot the Aurora. When used with SAN environments, SAN application software can also be pre-configured at our integration facility to help minimize installation and set-up issues.

Service and Support
Every Galaxy® Aurora IB is backed by a 3 year limited warranty with 24/7 telephone and email support (Americas & EMEA). When our support team confirms a failure in the field, advanced replacement parts are always available to eliminate down time.

Global Service and Support
Rorke Data’s Engineering Services Division provides a single point of contact for a wide range of maintenance and support services.

• 24 x7 Onsite Maintenance Contracts
• Call Center for Global 24 x 7 Response
• Installation and Training Services
• Multiple Warehouse and Manufacturing Facilities
• Experienced, Certified Field Engineers
• Call Escalation Procedures
• Service and Repair Portal
• Supportforce Application for Case Tracking and Records Management
• Extended Parts and Replacement Warranties