Abstract

Traditional scale-up Network Attached Storage (NAS) architecture uses a single head unit to control and protect a number of disk arrays. Although popular, this approach introduces a single point of failure and potentially creates bottlenecks as additional capacity is added. Scale-out architectures, on the other hand, leverage multiple head units (nodes) that work together to protect data, and can expand easily to spread processing power and bandwidth to maximize performance and redundancy.

Overland Storage commissioned Tolly to evaluate the scalability and performance of their new SnapScale X2 clustered NAS solution. Tolly evaluated the SnapScale X2 platform in sequential and random read/write test scenarios. Tolly validated that the SnapScale X2 can scale to 50 nodes seamlessly, with no disruption. Adding nodes increased the capacity and also improved cluster-wide performance as additional nodes were added to the cluster.