Flexibility, extensibility, and manageability are just three of their strengths
An appliance is a computer that's dedicated to a specific task. Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a good example of an appliance. A company that needs to increase network storage can purchase a NAS appliance that will accomplish certain goals without imposing an excessive administrative burden or incurring downtime to existing servers.
Some appliance vendors—particularly those that offer proprietary OSs—implement an inflexible closed-system approach in their solutions that prevents you from installing third-party utilities such as antivirus software and backup agents. The proprietary approach often also has other shortcomings. For example, integrating such an appliance into an existing environment and management strategy can be difficult if not impossible. However, proponents of proprietary-OS appliances argue that custom OSs provide speed-improvement opportunities and shield the device from potential corruption by third-party software. Although these advantages have merit, the flexibility trade-off demands consideration. Additionally, developing a custom OS is an expensive proposition, the cost of which is inevitably rolled into the appliance's purchase price.
Microsoft has introduced the Windows 2000 Server Appliance Kit (SAK) to its OEM partners so that they can quickly build and tailor appliance solutions—branded as Windows Powered—that leverage Microsoft's investments in scale-out solution management. The SAK provides features and utilities necessary to fill the needs of Windows computing environments. In addition, OEMs can use Microsoft's SAK Add-On Pack to build key manageability tools, including Multiple Device Manager (MDM) and the Role-Based User Interface (RBUI), into their offerings. For another inherent benefit of Windows Powered appliances, see the Web-exclusive sidebar "The Hidden Treasure of Windows Powered Appliances," http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 25650.
I gathered a sampling of SAK-based appliances in the Windows & .NET Magazine Lab—Maxtor's entry-level MaxAttach NAS 4300, Dell's midrange PowerVault 750N, and IBM's TotalStorage NAS Model 326. I also looked at a non-NAS offering: Dell's PowerEdge 1650 Web server. In my testing, I looked at how well each product performs its inherent duties and how easily I could deploy and manage the solution.
MaxAttach NAS 4300
The NAS 4300—considered an entry-level Windows Powered NAS device—is a 1U (1.75") rack-mountable NAS server equipped with an 866MHz Pentium III processor, 384MB of SDRAM, and 640GB of storage distributed across four internal ATA/100 hard disks. An external Adaptec Ultra160 SCSI port permits the connection of an external backup device. You can configure two built-in 10/100 Base-T Ethernet ports for failover and load balancing, and the appliance includes a copper Gigabit Ethernet interface for high throughput. The server's Persistent Storage Manager lets you create point-in-time snapshots of disk data. Documentation is in PDF format. One accompanying CD-ROM contains the MaxNeighborhood setup and discovery software, and a second CD-ROM contains 1Safe NAS Edition for MaxAttach backup software.
After cabling and powering up the NAS 4300, I installed the MaxNeighborhood software on a networked PC. From the software's browser-based configuration interface, which Figure 1 shows, I performed a discovery of the appliance and began the configuration procedures. I followed Maxtor's recommendations and installed the Maxtor Digital Certificate to implement Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for device administration. The browser-based interface's organizational categories are Welcome, Status, Network, Disks, Users, Shares, Maintenance, and Help. At the click of a button, I could configure settings such as server name and domain membership, NIC settings, file-sharing parameters, and local user and local group management. Although you can perform most operations within the browser window, some selections initiate a Windows 2000 Server Terminal Services session to the NAS 4300. For example, if you select the Disks and Volumes button, the browser opens a Terminal Services session and launches the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Disk Management snap-in. If you're a knowledgeable Win2K systems administrator and prefer to perform configuration through a Terminal Services session, this feature provides a welcome capability.
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