Openfiler

Open Storage Management

Openfiler delivers file-based Network Attached Storage and block-based Storage Area Networking in a single framework.

File-based networking protocols supported by Openfiler include: NFS, SMB/CIFS, HTTP/WebDAV and FTP. Network directories supported by Openfiler include NIS, LDAP (with support for SMB/CIFS encrypted passwords), Active Directory (in native and mixed modes) and Hesiod. Authentication protocols include Kerberos 5.

Openfiler includes support for volume-based partitioning, iSCSI (target and initiator), scheduled snapshots, resource quota, and a single unified interface for share management which makes allocating shares for various network file-system protocols a breeze.

The following are just some of the features currently available (unless indicated otherwise) in Openfiler.

  • Powerful block storage virtualization
    • Full iSCSI target support, with support for virtual iSCSI targets for optimal division of storage
    • Extensive volume and physical storage management support
    • Support for large block devices
    • Full software RAID management support
    • Support for multiple volume groups for optimal storage allocation
    • Online volume size and overlying filesystem expansion
    • Point-in-time snapshots support with scheduling
    • Volume usage reporting
    • Synchronous / asynchronous volume migration & replication (manual setup necessary currently)
    • Fibre Channel Target
  • Extensive share management features
    • Support for multiple shares per volume
    • Multi-level share directory tree
    • Multi-group based access control on a per-share basis
    • Multi-host/network based access control on a per-share basis
    • Per-share service activation (NFS, SMB/CIFS, HTTP/WebDAV, FTP with read/write controls)
    • Support for auto-created SMB home directories
    • Support for SMB/CIFS "shadow copy" feature for snapshot volumes
    • Support for public/guest shares
  • Accounts management
    • Authentication using Pluggable Authentication Modules, configured from the web-interface
    • NIS, LDAP, Hesiod, Active Directory (native and mixed modes), NT4 domain controller
    • Guest/public account support
  • Quota / resource allocation
    • Per-volume group-quota management for space and files
    • Per-volume user-quota management for space and files
    • Per-volume guest-quota management for space and files
    • User and group templates support for quota allocation
  • Other features
    • UPS management support
    • Built-in SSH client Java applet
  • Full industry-standard protocol suite
    • CIFS/SMB support for Microsoft Windows-based clients
    • NFSv3 support for all UNIX clients with support for ACL protocol extensions
    • NFSv4 support (testing)
    • FTP support
    • WebDAV and HTTP 1.1 support
    • Linux distribution back-end for any other customizations

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