This section introduces the GS scale-out cluster, including requirements, the architecture, the management software, and cluster cabling.

Requirements

Applied models

• GS Family: 1000 Gen2, 2000, 3000 Gen2, 4000 Gen2, 3000B Gen2, 4000B Gen2, 3000 G3, 4000 G3, 2000U, 3000U, 4000U, 3000UT, 4000U, 5000U
• GSe Family: 1000 Gen2, 2000, 3000 Gen2, 4000 Gen2, 3000 G3, 4000 G3, 2000U, 3000U, 3000UT, 4000U
• GSe Pro Family: 3000

Applied firmware

• GSe Pro 3000: Firmware version 1.61L.10 or later
• Other models: Firmware version 1.61K.10 or later

Required RAID levels

• RAID 1
• RAID 5
• RAID 6

Appliance status

• The primary appliance can be a new appliance or a used one.
• The other appliances must be new, meaning they have NOT been “initialized.” If they have been initialized, reset them to default settings first.
• HA service and scale-out cannot be activated on the same system at the same time.

Architecture

EonStor GS is a unified storage system providing both scale-out expansion and scale-up expansion.

In the scale-out architecture, you linearly increase storage performance and capacity with multiple GS appliances. Initial deployment can start with only one GS appliance. As your data grows over time, you add more appliances one by one, forming a scale-out cluster of up to four GS appliances, with one acting as the primary appliance.

In the scale-up architecture, you increase storage capacity by connecting each GS appliance to expansion enclosures that contain additional hard drives.

Cluster cabling

Below we use a cluster with three appliances to demonstrate cluster cabling.

1. Connect the management port on each GS appliance to the network that the administrator’s computer is connected to (marked in blue below).
2. Connect the data channel port on each GS appliance to another network that clients are connected to (marked in red below).