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KernSafe iSCSI SAN is a powerful software-only iSCSI target that complies with the iSCSI 1.0 standard. It lets you quickly export existing storage resources such as disk images, VHD/VHDX files, physical disks, partitions, CD/DVD drives, tape devices, and other SCSI-based hardware to remote client machines across an IP network. This makes it easy to consolidate, virtualize, and centrally manage storage without dedicated SAN hardware.
KernSafe iSCSI SAN is hardware-independent and runs on the Windows file system you already have. You can build an IP SAN in minutes by turning local storage into iSCSI targets that are available anywhere on your Ethernet network. The platform is both cost-effective and scalable, and it supports enterprise features such as snapshots, VHD/VHDX targets, Generic SCSI bridging, RAID-1 mirroring, failover, and advanced caching.
Starting with version 5.0, KernSafe iSCSI SAN adds IPv6 support, Server Pool management, and VHDX support:
- IPv6 can be used for both iSCSI traffic and client authorization.
- Server Pool allows the iSCSI service to listen on multiple IP addresses and ports at the same time.
- VHDX enables large-capacity virtual disks without the legacy VHD size limitation.
Starting with version 6.0, KernSafe iSCSI SAN adds Storage Pool, a 100% SDS layer that aggregates disks into pooled storage and creates dynamic block volumes for clients. Storage Pool supports unlimited zero-copy snapshots, redundancy options, scale-up growth, and both all-flash and hybrid SSD/HDD arrays. Available volume types include RAW, Thin Provisioning, and Log Structured.
Starting with version 7.0, KernSafe iSCSI SAN improves the storage data path with optimized I/O processing, advanced memory caching, multi-level storage tiering, SSD cache, read cache, and persistent read/write cache with support for Persistent Memory technologies such as SCM and Optane.
Starting with version 8.0, KernSafe iSCSI SAN introduces a reconstructed iSCSI core for higher stability and performance, iSCSI RDMA support (iSER and RDMA replication), configurable workers, built-in web management, enterprise virtual tape devices, and enhanced Virtual Write support for advanced targets.
KernSafe iSCSI SAN is an excellent choice for enterprise storage virtualization and is compatible with standard iSCSI initiators, including Microsoft iSCSI Initiator 2.x. For more information, visit http://www.kernsafe.com.
Key Features
- Provides SDS-based Storage Pool management across multiple disks and supports dynamic block volumes with unlimited zero-copy snapshots.
- Provides enterprise tape targets, including virtual tape images, physical tape devices, and physical disks used as VTL backends.
- Provides built-in web-based management, configurable iSCSI workers, and RDMA-enabled iSCSI enhancements in the latest releases.
- Provides high-speed iSCSI RAM disks for temporary or performance-sensitive workloads.
- Provides isolated security disks for each client, with optional encryption based on the user's CHAP secret.
- Provides a built-in iSCSI CD/DVD-ROM emulator that exports ISO and other optical image files as virtual optical drives.
- Provides a built-in virtual disk emulator that exports existing disk images as iSCSI disks.
- Provides a virtual CD/DVD-RW device that lets users burn data into ISO files through an iSCSI target.
- Provides an auto-mount feature for the CD/DVD-RW emulator that automatically loads a new blank image after burning is complete.
- Provides raw storage bridging for partitions, disks, and optical drives as virtual iSCSI devices.
- Provides RAID-1 mirroring so that you can maintain duplicate image files on local storage or remote iSCSI devices.
- Provides failover capabilities for building high-availability iSCSI SAN deployments with two or more targets.
- Provides Multiple LUNs so that a single target can expose more than one device.
- Provides software RAID5 for general-purpose targets.
- Provides Datacenter mode so that a target can span devices on separate servers.
- Provides Generic SCSI passthrough for devices such as USB storage, tape drives, and optical scanners.
- Provides read and write caching that uses server memory to improve throughput and response time.
- Provides volatile and persistent COW protection so that each initiator can work with an isolated snapshot.
- Supports IPv6 for both iSCSI traffic and management.
- Provides Server Pool management so that the iSCSI service can listen on multiple IP addresses and ports.
- Provides CHAP authentication for initiator access control.
- Provides IPv4 and IPv6 client address authorization for additional security.
- Provides Active Directory-integrated local and remote management.
- Provides target portal management so that the service can operate behind firewalls and routed networks.
- Provides simple user management for CHAP users and groups.
- Places no fixed limits on disk capacity, CPU count, CPU cores, Ethernet ports, or installed memory.
- Supports CDP and snapshots, including Microsoft VSS-compatible workflows, volume cloning, and incremental backup scenarios.
- Supports Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (.VHD) files as iSCSI target media.
- Supports Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (.VHDX) files as iSCSI target media.
- Supports snapshots for VHD-based and standard image-based devices, including point-in-time recovery.
- Supports multiple connections per iSCSI session for multipath policies such as Round Robin and Weighted Paths.
- Supports both x86 and x64 systems.
- Supports 64-bit LBA for capacities greater than 2 TB.
- Supports sparse files on NTFS so that image files grow with actual usage.
- Supports native NTFS encryption.
- Supports native NTFS compression.
- Supports Windows file system capabilities such as encryption, compression, and file sharing for image-based storage.
- Supports many optical image formats, including .iso, .bin, .mdf, .cdi, .b5i, .nrg, .ccd, .sub, .img, and .raw.
- Supports both MBR and GPT partition tables.
- Provides a "Hold and Update" mechanism for updating data files from initiators back to targets.
- Fully supports SCSI-2 Reserve/Release.
- Fully supports SCSI-3 Persistent Reserve.
- Fully supports Citrix XenServer.
- Fully supports open-iSCSI on Linux.
- Fully conforms to the iSCSI 1.0 standard.
Typical Applications
- Centralized management and sharing of files, disks, and CD-ROM images across Windows, Linux, Solaris, NetWare, and macOS systems.
- iSCSI SAN storage for VMware ESX Server and ESXi Server.
- iSCSI SAN storage for Citrix XenServer.
- iSCSI SAN storage for Microsoft Hyper-V.
- iSCSI SAN storage for Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 clustering environments.
Requirements
- Server Side:
Microsoft Windows 2000 or later, 32-bit or 64-bit (x86, AMD64, EM64T, and Itanium)
750 MHz Intel Pentium III class processor
256 MB of RAM
30 MB of disk space for application data
Ethernet connection
- Client Side:
Software requirements:
Microsoft Windows 2000 or later, 32-bit and 64-bit (AMD64, EM64T, and IA64), Microsoft iSCSI Initiator
Linux with kernel >= 2.6.16 and open-iscsi
Citrix XenServer
VMware ESX Server/ESXi Server
Microsoft Hyper-V and Hyper-V R2
Microsoft Server 2003 and 2008 clustering
Novell NetWare 6.5 or later
SUN Solaris 10 with an Open-iSCSI initiator
Hardware requirements:
750 MHz Intel Pentium III class processor
256 MB of RAM
30 MB of disk space for application data
Ethernet connection
Trial Version Limitations
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