Open-E JovianDSS vs Open-E DSS V7 – Specific SAN/NAS Functionalities

The Open-E DSS V7 end-of-life is approaching rapidly. Let us remind you – on November 1st, 2024, we will end the distribution of this software with no more updates to be released in the future. Therefore, for the past few months, in our series of articles comparing Open-E JovianDSS and Open-E DSS V7 features, we outline what functionalities the two systems differ in. We also want to describe to our readers and users why migrating from the old system to its successor is worthwhile. In this series article, we compare features specific to NAS and SAN environments and the benefits Open-E JovianDSS offers in this regard.

Specific NAS Functionalities in Open-E JovianDSS

Metadata Pinning

Metadata pinning in Open-E JovianDSS is used to improve the performance of file operations, specifically by speeding up the time it takes to preview datasets. This is achieved by caching the entire metadata content, which eliminates the need for frequent retrieval from slower storage tiers. This functionality is particularly beneficial for environments with large datasets, enabling faster access to file information and metadata.

Open-E DSS V7 does not support metadata pinning, which can lead to slower file access times, especially when dealing with large datasets.

Windows Active Directory Integration

The integration with Windows Active Directory (AD) allows Open-E JovianDSS to provide centralized user and group authentication and authorization within an Active Directory domain. By doing this, it ensures a higher level of security and more efficient management of users, roles, and permissions across the network. The AD integration supports trust relationships between domains and subdomains, which is particularly useful in multi-domain environments, allowing seamless access management and scalability.

Open-E DSS V7 also offers AD integration but has a different depth of functionality, particularly in handling trust relationships and scalability across multi-domain environments.

Specific SAN Functionalities in Open-E JovianDSS

Fibre Channel Failover:

The Fibre Channel Failover feature ensures high availability and reliability for data storage systems configured with Fibre Channel technology. In case of a failure in one path (like a switch or storage node), the system automatically fails over to an alternative route, ensuring continuous access to the storage without interruptions. This is critical for enterprises requiring constant uptime for mission-critical applications. Open-E JovianDSS includes Fibre Channel Failover, guaranteeing continuous uptime and data storage availability during a hardware failure. This is a critical feature for high-availability SAN setups.

Open-E DSS V7 does not have Fibre Channel Failover, meaning it lacks automatic failover capabilities for SAN environments, which could result in downtime during path failures.

ALUA Multipathing for Fibre Channel

As mentioned above, Open-E JovianDSS includes Fibre Channel Failover, which provides companies with uninterrupted data storage access. It’s also important that the Fibre Channel Failover implementation is based on Asymmetric Logical Unit Access so that the originator side knows that a failover has occurred or resources have been moved between nodes. This multipath approach reduces the risk of costly downtime, which may happen while using Open-E DSS V7, which does not have this capability.

Open-E DSS V7 limits its path management, which may result in less optimized performance in SAN environments.

Open-E JovianDSS vs. Open-E DSS V7 – Why Migrate?

Migrating from Open-E DSS V7 to Open-E JovianDSS offers several NAS functionalities, especially in terms of performance and user management. In regards to a Non-shared Storage Cluster architecture (such as seen in Open-E DSS V7 as well), Open-E JovianDSS also has a big advantage due to its support for RDMA on ‘mirror path’. One of the standouts in Open-E JovianDSS is metadata pinning, which leads to much faster file access, viewing, and searching, especially in environments that handle large data sets, such as media production or big data applications. By eliminating the need to retrieve metadata from slower storage continuously, Open-E JovianDSS provides faster response and increased productivity. In addition, Open-E JovianDSS’ advanced Windows Active Directory (AD) makes centralized user authentication and authorization much more efficient. This deeper AD integration allows for better scalability and streamlined user and privilege management in complex, multi-domain environments. In contrast, Open-E DSS V7 offers more limited AD functionality, limiting its effectiveness in more extensive networks.

In SAN environments, migrating to Open-E JovianDSS brings key reliability and performance benefits as well. Including a Fibre Channel Failover and ALUA Passive State Mode Selection provides companies with uninterrupted data storage access, reducing the risk of costly downtime, which can happen using Open-E DSS V7.

Therefore, migrating from legacy software to new one is the best solution for your business to ensure business continuity and data storage safety at every level of that infrastructure in both environments.

Read our End-Of-Life Guide brochure if you know more about Open-E DSS V7 end-of-life and migration possibilities: