|
What is a Zerver ?
-
Reliable Data Storage
-
for Multiple Users
-
for Multiple network Protocols
-
Simple to Configure and Operate
-
Redundant Disks to protect against disk faiure
-
SmartMirror tasks scheduled monthly, weekly, daily, hourly
-
to another Zerver to protect against total system failure,
-
internally to create snapshots for quick rollback and recovery
-
Linux and other Free and Open Source Software
to be independent of Other Operating Systems license and security concerns
What is a ZerverModule™ ?
A ZerverModule is
an IDE-interface device with a small amount of flash memory
that appears to a motherboard BIOS like a bootable disk
that holds the Zerver software/firmware, current configuration information,
local userids,
other state and security files such as "Active Directory" Windows Domain data,
and the long-term log files.
Using a ZerverModule for system operation
means that all of the disk space is available for data.
What is a ProZerver ?
A ProZerver is a fully-configured, fully initialized system
with a number of models available, primarily rackmount (rather than tower),
using from one to four CPU, up to 4 GB of RAM,
from four to 16 SATA disks (with other kinds of disk-interface available),
dual gigabit network interfaces,
dual power supplies.
A ProZerver comes with a copy and an initial license
for the PC-server program "Backup for WorkGroups",
which is to be installed on a PC-server and
configured to use the ProZerver as a repository.
Any number of PC in the organization
can then use the Backup for Workgroup client.
-
From each PC, back-up is scheduled, perhaps during off-hours,
to the PC-server and ProZerver.
-
Different back-up sets can have different schedules,
some directories daily, others less often.
-
Open files can be handled,
including Active Directory and Exchange files.
-
At the PC-server, redundant files are recognized.
-
At each PC, data can be compressed and encrypted,
and remains encrypted until needed for a restore.
-
Restore of directories, files, and deleted files is straight-forward,
and should not require an administrator.
-
Restore of an entire system onto replacement hardware can be done.
Download latest ProZerver Technical Specifications pdf
Download current list of Models and Features pdf
PZ2800R
Zerver Details
-
RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) used to protect against disk failure --
RAID-5-Checksum can keep operating after the failure of any one disk in a Raid-Group,
RAID-6 can keep operating after the failure of any two disks,
and RAID-1-Mirror can be used to any desired level of redundancy.
-
RAID used to create large file-system space from multiple disks, up to 16 TB.
-
Software RAID allows use of a wide range of disks
(compare with "hardware" RAID in which the firmware is on a controller board,
and can only operate with the disks directly connected to that controller board).
-
Journal-File-System (EXT3) used for quick recovery from unexpected shutdown
(generally minutes, not hours for a full File-System Check).
-
SmartMirror uses rsync to create and efficiently maintain back-up files
between two or more systems, on schedule of hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly,
using whatever bandwidth is available.
-
SmartMirror scheduling, job linking, and options can be used
to automatically make daily, weekly or monthly full-back-up sets,
or sets of changed files.
-
Zerver Pair allows immediate mirror of a file system to
a completely separate system (but requires high-speed link between the systems),
to protect against catastrophic loss of an entire system.
-
As NAS-Network-Attached-Storage, sharing data between users is easy.
-
With multi communication protocols, sharing data between users
accessing with Windows, Macintosh, NFS (for Unix/Linux systems),
web-browsers, and/or FTP is easy.
-
Using Linux for the kernel and many FOSS Free and Open Source Software projects,
there are no per-seat license fees.
-
System structure is intended to allow current versions of each of these projects.
-
System structure is intended to use a wide-range of hardware,
from one to four Intel/AMD CPU, up to 4 GB of memory,
from one to four network connections,
with a wide range of disks using IDE, SCSI, SATA, and/or USB.
-
The Zerver part of this system is focused on these limited goals,
so that set-up and operation will be simple.
-
For operation,
-
e-mail alerts are used for system conditions
-
SNMP can be used for performance monitoring
-
NTP can be used to keep time synchronization
-
program ZerverView can be used for some control operations
-
SSH-Secure-Shell can be used for specialized maintenance tasks
-
Firmware, configuration, and long-term log files are on a small flash
ZerverModule™. All disk space is available for data storage.
|
Data Protect Mechanisms --
|
RAID
|
Journal File System
|
Zerver Pair
|
SmartMirror
|
|
Protect against --
|
Disk Fail
|
Sudden shutdown File-System corruption
|
Total File-System or hardwre loss
|
All of these, plus human error
|
|
Data protected within --
|
Seconds
|
n/a
|
Seconds
|
Hours, as scheduled
|
|
HW Cost --
|
Extra disks within a system
|
Extra I/O operations during file create or delete
|
Second system
|
Space on a second system
|
|
Network bandwidth needed --
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
Big, to match disk write speed
|
Will work with whatever bandwidth is available
|
|
Operations for a file updated 10 times during one SmartMirror scheduled interval
|
Write all RAID drives 10 times
|
Extra journal operation once at file create
|
Send to Secondary, write to its File-System 10 times
|
Send file-changes, update remote File-System once
|
|
Recovery --
|
Immediate, operation continues
|
Few seconds - minutes at system restart
|
Manual, activate Secondary node
|
Manual, find and retrieve lost files
|
What a Zerver is not --
-
Does not have transparent, automatic fail-over.
Within a redundant Raid-Group, drives can fail without any disruption,
but failure of an entire Zerver (by fire, flood, lightning, etc)
is not recovered automatically.
Zerver Pair can be used to keep two Zerver mirrored
within a few seconds of each other,
but the recovery will require each client for each protocol
to make use of the mirror.
-
Does not have support for hardware hot-swap.
-
Does not have an elaborate security model.
Network administrators who wish to maintain exhaustive
ACL-Access-Control-Lists
of operations, users, and groups for every directory and for every file
will not be pleased with the Zerver security model
of Share-Names and User-Accounts.
-
Is not intended for use in a hostile (network) environment.
Although all admin operations are done with admin web pages
which are user-password protected,
those passwords are not SSL-encrypted.
-
Does not encrypt data on disk.
Upon theft of a Zerver, the data would be readable.
|
