#Rocket division software starwind series#

#Rocket division software starwind series#

market, recently added an iSCSI initiator to its Wasabi Storage Builder series of software. There are currently three companies developing dongles for building simple plug-and-play storage appliances: Wasabi Systems Puchheim, Germany-based Open-E and the ANStor64 division of Cutting Edge, El Cajon, Calif. Plug-and-play capability also gives users the advantage of prototyping different types of storage devices before putting them into operation, Mertens said. 'And most motherboards are set by default to boot from an IDE master device.' There's no configurationit just appears as an IDE hard drive,' Mertens said. 'There's no cabling or mounting of hard drives. 'FalconStor Software, for instance, needs two hard drives to do the operating systems for redundancy,' Mertens said.Д«ut more importantly, the module has plug-and-play capability. Because the dongles are solid-state, there is less concern over failure, which eliminates the need for the extra drives required by some storage software, he said. The dongles offer several advantages over traditional storage-building technology, said Barron Mertens, CEO of DSG Storage, London, Ontario, which integrates NAS and iSCSI appliances using dongles from Wasabi Systems, Norfolk, Va. 'This really opens the floodgate for resellers to build their own powerful storage systems,' said James Huang, product marketing specialist for Amax Information Technologies, Fremont, Calif. System builders that have tested the dongles say they make building storage appliances much easier. custom-system channel over the past year are setting the stage for more widespread adoption, system builders say. While the technology has been around for several years, the growth in the custom storage market and the entry of two new vendors into the U.S. No other software or storage media is required. The modules plug into an IDE port on nearly any standard server, turning the server into a NAS or iSCSI appliance.ДЄfter the module, known as a 'dongle,' is plugged into the IDE port, the installer turns the server on to boot the storage operating system, which in turn automatically configures the server as a storage appliance. Building custom storage equipment has never been easier thanks to the development of plug-and-play technology that turns an ordinary low-cost, industry-standard server into a storage appliance.ДЄt least three vendors are now selling storage-specific operating systems embedded as firmware on a bootable module.