We have some exciting news for those interested in NAS (Network Attached Storage), which includes two products in our Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2012R2 based PowerVault NX lineup. We are upgrading our NX NAS appliances to allow our Windows NAS customers to take advantage of the improved performance, energy efficiency and manageability options of our powerful new line of PowerEdge 13th Generation servers.
The NX3200 and NX3300 NAS appliances currently based on PowerEdge 12G server technology are now being upgraded to 13G hardware. They will inherit all the efficiency and performance features of the new server platforms, including the benefits of the new Haswell microarchitecture.
Best of all, this time around we went a step further than just changing nuts and bolts under the hood. We added a cool new feature called RASR– Rapid Appliance Self Recovery Tool. RASR will allow the end user to restore the NAS appliance to its factory shipping state. RASR is using a bare metal restore process, where the operating system drives are rebuilt to the exact default factory image. This is especially useful in test environments where machines are re-imaged often, or if you are notorious for misplacing your system restore DVD.
How else does this benefit our customers?
- More CPU cores: The NX3230 entry configuration and the NX3330 Optimum trim level will both move from four to six cores. For larger configurations, both the NX3230 and NX3330 will move from six to eight cores, providing additional CPU cycles for more demanding applications.
- PERC: The Dell PowerEdge RAID Controllers shipping with the NX3230 and NX3330 will now support 12G SAS and the new generation backplanes. In addition, the H730, which is part of our NX3230 default configuration, will double the cache from 512MB to 1GB to accelerate performance.
- Chassis Flexibility: We have now moved the NX3330 (gateway appliance) from a 2PCI to a 3PCI slot chassis which will provide our customers freedom to add additional IO cards.
- Memory: The new architecture for both the NX3230 and NX3330 will allow for higher memory clock speeds. The two units are shipping with 1600 MHz RAM configurations, compared to 1333MHz of the previous generation. In addition, we added a 64GB RAM option for the NX3330 Performance configuration, answering customer demand for a higher performing solution, especially in large home-share environments.
Keep in mind that Windows Storage Server based NAS can be an extremely efficient, fast and feature rich platform when it comes to SMB file sharing. Especially if you have Microsoft admin expertise in-house, there will be a zero learning curve with Windows- based NAS products and a seamless integration with AD (Active Directory) or Microsoft based systems management.
Finally, we have a new name for this portfolio of NX NAS appliances, which were previously known as the PowerVault series. Going forward, we will refer to them as Dell Storage NX NAS series of products as part of an update across our portfolio that is moving under a common “Dell Storage” naming. So, go online to check out the new Dell Storage platforms at dell.com/us/business/p/powervault-nx/pd
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