nas

[Steve Modica]

Were the interfaces SFP+ or the older cx4?

Steve Modica
CTO, Small Tree Communications

[Bob Zelin]

https://www.gblabs.co.uk/

6 slot Linux PC with self contaned drive chassis (like SAN Networks, CI, etc).

2 native ethernet ports on motherboard
4 port 1Gig E ports on the PCIe card

By default SPACE is fitted with four 1G Ethernet (GbE) ports to which client workstations can be directly connected. However, for best performance with GbE clients we recommend that these GbE ports be channel bonded to a GbE switch, and client workstations connected to the switch. When used with a switch in this fashion these four GbE ports are optimised.

REPLY – gee, where have we seen this before ?

When SPACE is used in conjunction with a SPACE EX greater performance is available than could be derived by using the default four GbE ports. In order to make use of this extra performance for GbE clients we recommend fitting a 10GbE Ethernet card and using 10GbE connection to a GbE switch so that all available performance can be gained from the system.

SPACE has additional expansion slots that allow up to five further cards to be added. These slots can be used to increase the number of GbE clients that are directly connected to SPACE without a switch. Alternatively, they can be used to add up to ten 10GbE ports. These can be used to connect 10GbE client workstations that require greater performance than that offered by a GbE connection either directly or indirectly via a 10GbE switch. The expansion slots can also be used to add additional Raid cards to support more SPACE EX units and increase speed further.

I dont’ see any specifics on what cards they are using.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

https://gblabs.interads.co.uk/sites/default/files/Space-Connections.png

[Bob Zelin]

you can see in the photo on the far right, the card is a dual CX4 10GbE card.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

if you look at their wiring diagram, and blow it up, you will see that they are using a D-Link DGS-3627 24 Port Gb stackable swithc with 3 10Gb slots. Our friends in Irvine are using this switch too.
So my money says that this is their 10Gig 2 port card –

https://www.myri.com/products/network-adaptors/10g-pcie-8b-2c.html

bob Zelin

[Alex Gerulaitis]

My understanding was they use several different types depending on cable length requirements. The BIG difference between them and other players – no special tweaks on the client side. To get full 110MB/s on the client’s GbE port, nothing needs to be done. I did a very crude file transfer test – not even direct but through two unmanaged switches – and got 110MB/s on a Z800 built-in GbE port on 4GB file transfer. No tweaks or adjustments at all.

They say the numbers are just outrageous on 10G connections: over 1GB/s on Linux, 700MBs Windows, 350MB/s OSX.

The “secret” sauce is their ability to pull data off the hard disks and pipe it into the NICs.

Alex (DV411)

[Ohannis Dikramanjian]

There is many ways SPACE can be configured.
These cards can be added to the SPACE
Quad Copper 1Gb PCIe Ethernet card
Dual Channel Copper 10Gb PCIe Ethernet card (CX4) up to 5 HCA
Dual Channel SFP+ 10Gb card with 2 x LC optical SFP’s (up to 50M range)

1- Use the included 4 port GbE using Link aggregation on a switch then connect Client systems to the switch.

2- Use up to 5 10Gb dual port HCA and connect each client to one port.

3- Use the existing 4 Port GbE and connect each client directly without a switch.

4- Also there are options in the web GUI for link aggregation which
I have not tested yet.

Test Results on a Space Mini with a single GbE I have connected 4 workstations and started transferring big chunks of files from all 4 workstations simultaneously and network monitor was showing 110~120 MB/s on each of the clients.
One other cool feature they have is called SPACE Echo which can be used for mirroring and redundancy, very promising product.

Ohannis Dikramanjian
818-242-4996 x 112
ohannis@nlesystems.com
http://www.nlesystems.com

[Steve Modica]

My understanding from our resellers is that this is an OpenE box. We sell openE on Mobile as well. OpenE only supports the 82598 chipsets out of the box because they use an old kernel (we get a special mod so we can support 82599 with receive side coalescing). That’s why I was curious. It looks like they don’t have it.

OpenE does a linux based storage stack for white boxes.

Steve Modica
CTO, Small Tree Communications

[Dominic Harland]

Thanks very much for all your comments, SPACE does not use open-e, we have developed our own kernel in house, by our programmers which work for me full time. (no outsourcing here!)

This is the key to our speed and upgrade options, it also allows us to react rapidly to any changes in the market. For example we had Final Cut Pro X running with SPACE yesterday!

We have a wide range of options for Nics, capacities and even the ability to cluster our storage.

Please feel free to test a unit, seeing is believing!

Dominic
CTO GB Labs + GB Labs USA