Network Direct Attached Storage

Network Direct Attached Storage (NDAS) is a proprietary storage area network system, originally marketed by the company Ximeta, for connecting external digital storage devices such as hard-disks, flash memory and tape drives via the Ethernet family of computer networks. Unlike other more common forms of networked storage, NDAS does not use TCP/IP to communicate over the network. Instead a Lean Packet Exchange (LPX) protocol is used.[1] NDAS also supports some limited RAID functions such as aggregation and mirroring.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Benefits
* 3 Drawbacks
* 4 See also
* 5 References

## History

In 2001, Han-gyoo Kim of Korea and Zhe Khi Pak of Russia applied for a US patent on a "network-attached disk".[2] By 2002 the first NetDisk (up to 80 GB) was marketed as a low cost alternative to full computer based network storage options. The Ximeta company was founded in 2003.[3] In 2004 Kim applied for a patent to allow multiple clients write access to the shared block storage device.[4] By 2006, sizes up to 500 GB were supported.[5] In 2008 an NDAS device called "ShareDisk Gigabit" created by Co-World Cs in Germany briefly claimed the title of world's fastest network storage device.[6]

In 2011 IOCELL Networks announced ownership of the NDAS system and NetDisk patents.[7] The following year, IOCELL revived Linux client support for NDAS—which Ximeta had "temporarily suspended" in September 2009[8]—by releasing the drivers under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) as the open-source "ndas4linux" project.[9]

## Benefits

* Hardware is typically easy to set up and use, particularly when a unit is purchased with a disk installed.
* The disk drive can be used via multiple interfaces (typically eSATA, USB or Ethernet) though not concurrently: USB and eSATA allow access by only one host.
* The disks do not require special formatting so they can be treated as external disks on a wide variety of computers.
* Performance (speed vs. cost) is claimed to be better than similarly priced storage devices.
* Devices are isolated from external network discovery since the protocol is not visible through a router.

## Drawbacks

Linux Driver Project Code - chunk of GPL code from the NDAS driver

* The LPX Protocol is not routable, thus limiting access to one local area network.
* Some firewall programs block the LPX protocol by default. It uses EtherType value 0x88AD.
* Drivers required to operate NDAS devices over a network are not shipped with operating systems. The devices are usually accompanied with client driver software for Microsoft Windows operating systems.
* Drivers for Linux-based operating systems (Linux distributions such as Fedora, Ubuntu or Debian) were originally available only from the manufacturer.[10]

## See also

A similar protocol is ATA over Ethernet.

## References

1. ↑ Bruce Normann (November 28, 2011). "IOCELL NetDISK 351UNE Network Storage Device". Benchmark Reviews. http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=849. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
2. ↑ Disk system adapted to be directly attached to network. U.S. Patent 7,792,923 by Han-gyoo Kim and Zhe Khi Pak, Filed October 9, 2001, granted September 7, 2010.
3. ↑ "Ximeta: Creator of NDAS". http://www.ximeta.com/. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
4. ↑ System using a single host to receive and redirect all file access commands for shared data storage device from other hosts on a network . U.S. Patent 7,457,880 by Han-gyoo Kim, Filed September 27, 2004, granted November 25, 2008.
5. ↑ "Ximeta NetDisk Portable". Review. CNet. November 2, 2006. http://www.cnet.com/network-storage/ximeta-netdisk-portable-500gb/4505-3382_7-32017036.html. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
6. ↑ "The World's Fastest Network Storage". Ximeta, Germany. May 2008. http://www.ximeta.de/pdf/ShareDisk_Gigabit-Ger.pdf. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
7. ↑ "IOCELL Networks Purchases Innovative NDAS Technology". News release (IOCELL). August 4, 2011. http://www.iocellnetworks.com/neo/index.php/press/item/iocell-networks-purchases-innovative-ndas-technology. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
8. ↑ "SuspendSepDec". http://code.ximeta.com/trac-ndas/wiki/SuspendSepDec.
9. ↑ "iocellnetworks/ndas4linux". GitHub. 27 April 2021. https://github.com/iocellnetworks/ndas4linux. Retrieved 2021-09-04.
10. ↑ "Welcome to code.ximeta.com". http://code.ximeta.com/trac-ndas/.

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network Direct Attached Storage. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Network_Direct_Attached_Storage&oldid=4153476"