Accusys ExaSAN A12S2-PS – 12 bay PCIe High Performance RAID

posted in: Accusys, Computing, Data Storage

Accusys ExaSAN A12S2-PS High Performance PCIe RAID storage

High performance RAID storage – scalable, reliable and affordable.Accusys A12S2-PS High performance PCIe RAID array

Accusys provide fault tolerant data storage solutions that connect to a host system via a connection which is over twice as fast as 8Gb Fibre Channel, that can span 100m distances, and that can be used to form a complete Storage Area Network (SAN) solution without incurring the high costs associated with a fibre channel infrastructure.

The Accusys ExaSAN A12S2-PS, the newest member of the ExaSAN family, offers high performance, availability and scalability. It features PCI Express 2.0 technology capable of reaching read speeds in excess of up to 1200MB/s with only twelve drives and can easily perform on multiple HD, 2K and 4K DPX video formats, even dual stream stereoscopic 3D editing workflows. The A12S2-PS storage system makes high speed shared post-production workflows more affordable than current fibre channel solutions. The system is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux.

The A12S2-PS utilises an external PCIe connection to provide 20Gb/sec bandwidth without the protocol conversion which reduces the efficiency of other connection formats such as Fibre Channel or SAS. Using copper or optical cables this connection can be made from 2m to 100m without degrading performance. It can even be routed through an Accusys PCIe switch to share storage between systems or to create a SAN environment.

Video Stream Performance Chart
Video Format
Assumes video @ 29.97/ film @24fps
Data Rate
MB/s
GB Used
/ Per Hour
Hour Used
/ Per TB
A12S2-PS
stream count
2x A12S2-PS stream count
DVCPro HD 100Mb/s 13 46 75 88 169
ProRes HQ 28 101 10 42 82
HD 1080i 8bit 4:2:2 124 448 2.25 9 19
HD 1080i 10bit 4:2:2 135 597 1.6 8 17
HD 1080i 10bit 4:4:4 248 895 1.1 4 9
HD film DPX 1920 x 1080 192 691 1.4 6 12
2K film DPX 2048 x 1556 288 1037 0.96 4 8
4K film DPX 4096 x 3112 1152 4147 0.24 1 2

 

The A12S2-PS can be easily configured and maintained by anyone, not just professionals. The modular design provides swappable drives (SATA or SAS), RAID controller, FAN and power supply modules dramatically reducing maintenance time and increasing system reliability. From an environmental protection perspective, the A12S2-PS is a model of energy efficiency reducing storage system energy consumption while improving on traditional storage per watt performance.

The A12S2-PS supports the 3TB hard drives, comes with 6Gb SAS JBOD expansion capabilities allowing the user to add up to three JBOD sub-systems (A12S2-SJ) for up to 144TB’s of storage. A Dual Port QSFP HBA allows a wokstation to connect to two A12S2-PS arrays so the combined speed can reach 40Gb/sec, providing enough bandwidth for the most demanding Ultra-high speed application.

Single System Configuration

Accusys A12S2-PS - High Performance PCIe RAID array

  • Workstation directly attached to A12S2-PS via Copper (2m/5m) or Optical (10m>100m) cable
  • 20Gb bandwidth, up to approximately 1200 MB/s performance when fully populated with 12 drives
  • Max. certified capacity 33TB in RAID 5 (12 x 3TB drives) – *4TB drive certification coming soon.
  • High performance to cost ratio for ideally suited for 4K workflows

 

In its simplest form the Accusys A12S2-PS provides fast and reliable direct attached storage for one workstation. With its high bandwidth and reliability it is ideally suited for high resolution or multi-stream editing systems.

 

Ultimate Performance System Configuration

Accusys A12S2-PS - High Performance PCIe RAID array - Maximum Speed Configuration

  • Workstation directly attached to two A12S2-PS units via one QSFP dual port HBA
  • 40Gb bandwidth, up to approximately 2400MB/s performance when fully populated with 24 drives.
  • Max. certified capacity 66TB in RAID 5 (24 x 3TB drives) – *4TB drive certification coming soon.
  • Scalable capacity via OS stripping of the two A12S2-PS
  • Volume backup via OS mirroring of the two A12S2-PS

 

For maximum bandwidth and performance harness the speed of two A12S2-PS on one system. Using the PCI-e x8 dual port HBA you can attach two arrays for double the performance. Editors looking for dual stream 4k workflows need look no further than this setup.

 

Maximum Capacity System Configuration

Accusys A12S2-PS - High Performance PCIe RAID array - Maximum Capacity Configuration

  • Workstation directly attached to two A12S2-PS units via one QSFP dual port HBA
  • Each A12S2-PS connected to 3 x A12S2- SJ 6Gb SAS JBOD systems.
  • 40Gb bandwidth, up to approximately 2800MB/s with the best load balance
  • Supports Max. 96 drives, total capacity up to 264TB in RAID 5.
  • Scalable capacity by OS stripping two A12S2 and six JBOD systems

 

With the same beautiful housing and hot-swappable hardware design as the A12S2-PS RAID system, the A12S2-SJ JBOD systems are able to utilize the A12S2 RAID engine and 6Gb SAS transmission speed.  The A12S2-PS can support up to three JBOD systems connectivity with a dual QSFP port HBA in the host configuration. As a direct attached storage solution you can connect up to eight storage systems for access to a total of 96 high-capacity hard drives which could store approximately 60 hours of non-compressed 4K DPX film.

 

[Expand Full Specifications: (click to expand/collapse)]
Name A12S2-PS A12S2-SJ
Host Interface PCI Express Gen2 5Gb x4, transfer rate up to 20Gb SAS 6Gb x4, transfer rate up to 24Gb
Capacity 36TB (12x 3TB)
Desktop / Rackmount 2U Rackmount
Array Type Hot-Swappable
Form Factor 12 bay
Drives Type Supported – Support 12x SAS/SATA 6Gb and SSD disks 

– Support 3.5’’ / 2.5’’ hard disks

– Support 2TB/3TB hard disks

RAID Controller – LSISAS2208 processor 

– Hardware XOR/Multi-Parity engine

– 1GB DDR III, ECC-protected

None
Dimension 88mm (H) x 483mm (W) x 597mm (L)
Weight 32.2kg (71 lbs.) dual I/O module configuration with drives
Power Supply 400W x2, Redundancy
Operating Temperature Temperature: 0º to 40ºC (32º to 104º F) 

Humidity: 5% to 85%

Management 

and Monitoring

RAIDGuide X (Java-based GUI, cross-platform executable )
Compatibility – Windows: XP/2003/Vista/2008 and Windows 7(32/64-bit, Miniport and storport driver, WHQL certified)- Linux: Red Hat, SUSE, Fedora, CentOS, Debian… 

– MAC: OS X (10.5, 10.6, 10.7)

Software 

Specification

– Multiple RAID levels: 0,1,5,6, 0+1, and JBOD 

– Up to 4 independent disk arrays

– RAID capacity partitioning: up to 16 slices

– Support up to 64 LUNs

– Variable stripe sizes: 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 (KB)

– Selective initialization method with background initialization

– Online RAID set expansion and level migration

– Controller and Disk Cache Control to optimize read/write performance

– Support write-back and write-through caching

– Automatic drive insertion/removal detection and fast disk rebuilding

– Online bad block data recovery and reallocation

– Online disk scrubbing with data refresh and parity regeneration b SAS JBOD System

– Disk health monitoring by S.M.A.R.T

– NVRAM-based transaction log and auto parity resynchronization

– Array roaming and disk travelling with redundant on-disk metadata

– Array recovery to restore RAID configurations

– Dual firmware images for firmware recovery

– Disk lag proof technology to guarantee disk timely response

– Equalization mode to smooth the performance

of sequential I/Os and reduce fluctuation

Provided by RAID systems
Management – Enclosure components monitoring and control via GUI 

– LED indicator for RAID & enclosure status

– Event logging to text file with event viewer

– Event notification by email (SMTP)

– Centralized multiple RAID system management

– Support both in-band and out-band management

– Support RAID management by EFI and BIOS

– Support firmware upgrade via GUI

– Support CLI (Command Line Interface)

– Support SNMP

– Support remote management

Provided by RAID systems
Enclosure – Modularized components design, Power module, Fan module and RAID Controller support hot-pluggable- FAN, Power, Temperature status LED indication in the front handle. 

– 80plus power can be above 80% providing the energy conversion efficiency with more power bill savings

– Power supply also supports Power Management Bus (PMBus) protocol it allows to monitor power supply status and performance from RAIDGuard X

Expansion – The A12S2-PS able to connect three A12S2-SJ JBOD systems.- Users can deploy their storage with ExaSAN switch to construct a ExaSAN solution.
Certification RoHS, CE, FCC, C-Tick, BSMI
Warranty 3-Year Limited Warranty for RAID and JBOD systems and within components.1-Year Limited Warranty for HBA and cable.
Box Content – A12S2-PS 

– QSFP single port Host Bus Adapter

– QSFP 2m copper cable

– Rail and rail extenders

– Power cord

– A12S2-SJ 

– SAS 6Gb 2m cable

– Rail and rail extenders

– Power cord

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For more information, to discuss your requirements, or for a quotation please contact us directly on 01462 433558 or via our contact form.