Array Networks AVX 5900

Make your Apps Fast, Available and Secure

Array network hyperconverged infrastructure platforms provide the best of both worlds – the agility of virtualization combined with the performance of purpose-built networking and security hardware. Deployed in the enterprise or service provider data center, the AVX enables consolidation of services such as next-generation firewalls, SSL VPNs, load balancing, web application firewalls, IPS/IDS and other network services either from Array or other 3rd-party vendors.

AVX virtualization platforms deliver superior performance compared to general-purpose servers by virtualizing and reserving resources such as CPU, RAM, I/O and SSL on a per VA basis. In addition, Array platforms simplify deployment of virtual network functions by automating and optimizing tasks such as resource assignment, CPU pinning, NUMA boundaries, and physical and virtual port mapping to provide both guaranteed SLAs and quicker time-to-market.

Eliminates Trade-Offs of Virtualization

APV x900 Series application delivery controllers ensure 99.999% availability for cloud services and enterprise applications. Leveraging robust distribution algorithms, health check mechanisms, clustering and failover capabilities, APV Series appliances maintain connections, ensure persistence, direct traffic away from failed servers and intelligently distribute application services across multiple servers for optimized performance and availability. APV Series can load balance traffic for a wide variety of protocols at Layers 2, 3, 4 and 7, including WebSocket and WebSocket Secure.

Data Center Consolidation

Customized traffic management is often a trade-off between performance, control and ease-of-use. Unlike ADCs that rely on complex, compute-intensive scripting to enable custom Layer-7 policies, Array supports a vast library of policies that are hard-coded at the kernel level, are configurable with point-and-click simplicity via the WebUI or CLI, and can be combined and nested to create advanced customized application traffic management. With Array’s unique approach to Layer-7 traffic management, customers get the best of all worlds: ease of use, granular control and superior performance and scalability.

Enhancing Security

Traditional, single-function security solutions, such as NGFW, IDS/IPS, DDoS protection, WAF and others, often lack the ability to decrypt and scan SSL- encrypted traffic, or if they do have SSL resources, those resources can quickly become overwhelmed by large traffic volumes, impacting performance. Similarly, activating multiple security functions on a ‘combination’ appliance can also reduce the overall ability to protect against security threats.

The AVX Series network functions platform provides guaranteed resources – including SSL processing resources – to help ensure the performance of these critical security functions. In addition, functions can be service chained, or cascaded, to maximize the effectiveness of each individual VA. (In effect, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.) For example, a virtual ADC can decrypt SSL-encrypted traffic, pass it to a virtual NGFW, then to a virtual IDS/IPS, then to a virtual WAF, then to another virtual ADC for re- encryption and forwarding to its final destination.

High Performance for Virtual Appliances

The AVX Series supports up to 32 fully independent VAs in a single appliance, each powered by reserved CPU, SSL, memory and interface resources. As a result, the AVX Series offers the equivalent of up to 32 dedicated physical appliances in just two rack units, where customers and services can be assured of guaranteed and demonstrable performance.

Each VA is separately configurable and centrally manageable, enabling the utmost in flexibility, security and control. Through dedicated hardware resources and a partitioned software-centric architecture, service providers and enterprises gain a purpose-built platform for on-demand provisioning and consolidation of secure, high-performance VAs.

Flexible Sizing & Consumption

Four size options are supported for hosted VAs – entry, small, medium and large – to meet the performance requirements of any size customer or service. The AVX5800 also support up to 16 shared-entry instances with best-effort performance for smaller workloads where density is a primary consideration.

In addition to supporting different network functions, different size VAs can be mixed and matched within an AVX Series platform, and system resources can be fine- tuned for individual VAs if needed. For example, a single platform can be configured to simultaneously support one large, two medium, four small and eight entry-level VAs.

The AVX Series also features pay-as-you-grow licensing, allowing individual licenses or multi-license packs to be added at any time up to the maximum capacity of the AVX appliance.

Cost-Effective To Deploy & Maintain

By consolidating multiple dedicated single-function boxes into a single, easy-to-manage virtualized appliance, the AVX Series reduces space and power requirements by up to a factor of 16 versus traditional dedicated hardware network and security appliances. Expensive truck rolls for provisioning high-performance services are also eliminated. By bringing the AVX Series platform and hosted VAs under the purview of a software-centric cloud management system such as OpenStack, services may be enabled, expanded and reallocated on-demand. Time to ROI, based on CapEx and OpEx savings, is typically under 6 months for both enterprise and service provider organizations.

Management Integration & Orchestration

AVX Series platforms and hosted Array and 3rd party VAs are simple to install and offer intuitive configuration and management via a user-friendly WebUI with a service topology view, and a familiar command line interface. Via the AVX dashboard, network managers can view the status for a range of system and function parameters, enable services, automate configuration and gain granular control over virtual Ethernet and SSL resources. VA images can be quickly installed via the convenient online image repository or uploaded via USB drive or from the web.

To meet the deployment and management require- ments of modern virtualized data centers and private cloud environments, Array’s eCloud RESTful API provides an extensible interface for cloud management, orchestration and automation systems to manage and monitor Array AVX Series platforms and hosted Array VAs.

For service providers and enterprises leveraging OpenStack for cloud management and automation, Array offers a plug-in for OpenStack Nova as a compute node, which allows managers to create, instantiate, manage, adjust and terminate VAs. In addition, Array’s integration with OpenStack for load balancing-as-a- service (LBaaS) creates a standardized means to rapidly integrate with and control Array application delivery technology.

Platform & Function-Level High Availability

AVX Series platforms support support virtualization as well as standalone mode, multi-level high availability multi-level high availability, providing redundancy and failover for both AVX Series systems and VAs. AVX Series platforms can be configured to failover to backup AVX Series platforms, while VAs can be configured to failover within a platform or to failover to a backup platform. A synchronization function can clone AVX and VA-related configurations, as well as VA images and disks to the backup unit. AVX and VA configurations and images can also be backed up and restored via USB device if desired.

Array’s Full-Featured App Delivery & Security VAs

To support application delivery and security needs, users can purchase Array’s vAPV virtual application delivery controllers (ADCs) and vxAG virtual secure access gateways (SSL VPNs) - Machine authentication based on combination of HDD ID, CPU info and OS related parameters to deploy on AVX Series platforms. These VAs provide feature parity with Array’s line of physical load balancing, remote access and web application firewall products. In addition, many features that require additional licenses on Array’s physical appliances – such as global server load balancing on the APV Series and DesktopDirect remote desktop access on the AG Series – are included at no additional charge when deployed as virtual appliances on AVX Series platforms.

3rd-Party Virtual Appliances

In addition to supporting Array Networks virtual appliances for application delivery and security, AVX Series platforms also host VAs from 3rd-party vendors. Examples include security functions such as web application firewalls and next-generation firewalls as well as network functions such as WAN optimization and other proprietary or open source virtual functions appliances that run on Hypervisor, Ubuntu or CentOS.

3rd-party VAs benefit from the same performance guarantees and benefits as Array Networks VAs. VAs benefit from a higher level of performance as compared to general-purpose servers and also benefit from guaranteed performance. By deploying 3rd-party VAs on AVX Series platforms, enterprises and service providers can consolidate network infrastructure to achieve cost efficiencies, and at the same time move toward a software-centric architecture aligned with trends in cloud and virtualization.

AVX Series Platform Editions

The AVX Series is comprised of six platforms: the entry- level AVX5900, the mid-range AVX7900 and the high- end AVX9900.

The AVX5900 can host one large, two medium, four small or eight entry VAs, with the abilityto mix and match instance sizes up to system capacity. For example, an AVX5900 can host one large, or one medium vAPV and one small vxAG , or six entry vAPVs, or other combinations. The AVX5900 supports 40 Gbps throughput per system and is also capable of hosting up to 16 shared-entry VAs for deployment scenarios where density is a key business driver and guaranteed performance is not a use case requirement.

The AVX7900 can host two large, four medium, eight small or sixteen entry VAs, with the ability to mix and match instance sizes up to system capacity. For example, an AVX7900 could host two medium vAPVs, two entry vxAGs and six entry vAPVsand supports 80Gbps throughput per system. The AVX9900 can host four large, eight medium, sixteen small or thirty-two entry VAs, with the ability to mix and match instance sizes up to system capacity. For example, an AVX9900 could host one large vAPV, two medium vAPVs, four small vAPVs, two entry vxAGs and six entry vAPVs – all on a single platform. The AVX9800 supports 200 Gbps throughput per system.

Guaranteed Performance

• CPU, memory, I/O and SSL processing resources segregated per instance
• Hypervisor and management overhead separated from instance processing
• Four standard instance sizes ranging from the equivalent of low-end to high-end dedicated appliances
• Instance resources can be fine-tuned to meet the specific needs of VAs, if needed

Agility of Virtual Appliances

• Hosts Array and 3rd-party VAs , Ubuntu or CentOS
• Create, instantiate, modify and delete VAs on the fly

Data Center Consolidation

• Consolidates functions of up to 32 dedicated appliances into just 2 RU
• Reduces rack space, power and cooling costs
• Centralized management of deployed VAs and system

Improved Security

• Service-chain multiple security VAs in sequence to improve security
• Create new security schemas and service offerings
• Easily incorporate virtual ADCs in service chain to offload compute-intensive SSL processing from security VAs

Simplified Provisioning

• Automates and abstracts complex configuration tasks such as port mapping, CPU pinning, NUMA boundary settings, SR-IOV and drivers
• Takes the guesswork out of complex configurations
• Online image repository for quick access to VAs for installation

Management & Orchestration

• Easy-to-use graphical user interface for visualization and top-level management of installed VAs
• Easily access VA console or CLI if needed
• OpenStack plug-in allows complete lifecycle management
• RESTful API for integration with cloud management, orchestration and automation

High Availability

• Multi-level redundancy and failover
• Active/Standby at platform level
• Active/ Active or Active/Standby at instance level
• VA-level HA within same AVX platform or across two platforms
• Synchronization function clones AVX configs to backup unit
• Synchronizes VA configs, images and disks to backup unit
• USB backup option for AVX and VA configurations and images

Management

• SSH CLI,Direct Console RJ45 CLI, SNMP,Single Console per Cluster, XML-RPC, Out of Band Management
- RJ45