Iomega have released a new update to their popular PX NAS series of devices. This new series of “Server Class” PX devices sees a number of improvements over the standard PX NAS series that have been on offer for almost a year.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Iomega PX NAS series, they are shared storage devices that offer both freestanding and rack mount NFS and iSCSI storage using Ethernet connectivity, and between 4 and 12 (depending on the model) SATA and/or SSD disks.  These NAS storage appliances are targeted a the SMB, remote office and distributed enterprise market space.

At this point you are probably asking yourself, “Ok, so how are they different than the standard PX series NAS devices?”

What’s New?

The answer is that the “Server Class” PX series has a new version of the EMC LifeLine software (v3.2) running on the PX which provides new advanced enterprise type features, along with it using enterprise grade SATA drives that are designed to be run continuously 24×7, thereby providing a significant increase in reliability and mean time between failure.

Below: Spot the difference – a “standard” & “Servers Class” Iomega PX

The PX NAS devices are compatible with various video surveillance systems which almost always run 24×7 so the introduction of the more robust hard drives will no doubt be welcome news for some.

The new LifeLine (v3.2) storage management software sees the addition of some exciting new features and functionality – in summary:

• Faster File System:  A licensed version of Linux Tuxera  of the XFS file system which will apparently provides improved performance.
• Volume Encryption:  Allows you to secure your data on the PX.
• Power Management:  Schedule the PX device to turn off and on, thereby providing power cost savings.
• Wake-on-LAN:  Turn the PX on via the network.
• PX Configuration: Back up and restore a PX’s configuration, making it easy to roll out ‘standardised’ configurations to multiple PX devices.
• Cloud Storage Integration:  Integration with EMC’s Cloud based storage service, Atmos, thereby providing another option for the backing up the PX’s data up into “The Cloud”.

The PX Models

The  Iomega PX NAS devices are available with capacities of 1TB, 2TB and 3TB models, with the 1TB PX model being new to the family providing with a lower entry price.  There are two form factors of PX model, freestanding/desktop and rack-mount each with a varying number of physical drives that will meet most SMB size requirements and budgets.

For more detail on the different models available click on this link here.

It is good to see the various drive configuration options available which no doubt adds a element of flexibility to the decision making process when looking at buying a PX NAS, especially if budget is a major factor.

Although I personally don’t have a requirement for a “Server Class” PX in my own lab environment I do see the benefits of having this option available to SMBs and for larger business remote offices where local IT support is not always on-hand.  As with most shared storage devices/appliances the component that most commonly fails is almost always the hard disks so providing additional disk robustness to a shared SMB storage solution such as the Iomega PX is no bad thing.

The additional features provided by the new LifeLine v3.2 operating system software is the most promising aspect for me, with the increase in storage performance via the Linux Tuxera XFS file system being the most exciting of the new features.

The update to the LifeLine v3.2 operating system will apparently be made available to existing non-“Server Class” models of the PX, so look out for an update sometime in the future.

Good news for all Iomega IX2 and IX4 non-Cloud Edition owners who want to back their Apple Mac up to their Iomega IX2 or IX4 using Time Machine.  A firmware update (v2.1.40) has been released by Iomega which resolves the issue of not being able to backup your Apple Mac using Apple’s Time Machine backup utility.  For those of you with a Cloud Edition model of the Iomega IX2, IX4 or PX series storage devices have had a firmware update containing the fix since back in August 2011 (v3.1.12.47838, 11th August  2011).

Prior to applying this v2.1.40 firmware update for non-Cloud Edition models you were unable to establish a connection via Time Machines to the IX2/IX4 device due to a change in Lion OS X that did “not allow standard network connections via AFP, which is the protocol used to create Time Machine backups on network device”.  One point to note is that as of today (4th January 2012) the ‘Update Device Software’ page in the Iomega IX2 and IX4’s web based management console is still saying that the v2.1.38.22294 is the latest available FW update – don’t be fooled by this as you can download the v2.1.40 firmware update for the Iomega IX2 here and the IX4 here and then ‘Copy Update File’.

I have applied this new Iomega firmware update to my IX4 non-Cloud Edition and can confirm that it works just fine.  I can now backup from my Apple MacBook Pro to the IX4 without any issue.