Quantum Xcellis GEN3 (Appliances)

Overview

The Quantum Xcellis GEN3 Appliance is a next-generation workflow storage system designed for high-performance shared file systems and data-intensive workloads. It serves as the central controller (Workflow Director) or extender (Workflow Extender) within a StorNext enabled shared-storage environment, enabling scalable, converged compute and storage for demanding use cases (media & entertainment, life sciences, research, large-scale archive, etc).
The system supports dual-node high-availability configurations, with the ability to expand additional nodes or storage chassis as required. The GEN3 architecture delivers significantly improved sustained performance (up to ~1.6×) for file-system operations compared to prior generations.
Quantum designed this appliance to fully leverage modern connectivity (100 GbE with NVMe-oF, 32 Gb Fibre Channel, and readiness for 200 GbE / 64 Gb Fibre Channel) and to integrate metadata services and user-data storage in one scalable architecture.
The appliance is ideal when organisations require large-scale shared-storage collaboration, high throughput streaming, multi-user access, and future-ready connectivity.

Key Features

• High performance: GEN3 delivers increased peak and sustained throughput for file system and shared-storage operations, supporting large unstructured data-sets and multi-user workflows.
• Converged architecture: Combines compute (metadata services), client access and storage in one system (Workflow Director / Extender) to simplify deployment and management.
• Flexible connectivity: Supports 100 GbE with RDMA for NVMe-oF, 32 Gb Fibre Channel, dual-port 100 GbE, and is ready for 200 GbE or 64 Gb Fibre Channel as future connectivity evolves.
• Scalable and modular: Can be deployed as a single server or dual-node high-availability pair; storage capacity and performance scale by adding RAID chassis, expansion chassis (JBODs) or additional director nodes.
• Multi-protocol access: Supports SAN clients and NAS (SMB/NFS) clients, enabling a wide range of operating systems (Linux, macOS, Windows) for seamless collaboration.
• Optimised for large-scale workflows: Engineered for high throughput media streaming, large file ingest, sharing and long-term retention with integrated metadata services and tiered storage support (object, tape, cloud).
• High-availability and redundancy: Features redundant power supplies, redundant cooling/fans, hot-swappable components and dual-node configurations for continuous operation.
• Ease of deployment and management: Pre-tuned appliances with a unified management interface allow streamlined provisioning, monitoring and growth with minimal forklift upgrades.

Specifications

System Architecture / Hardware

• Server node: 1 U rack-mount appliance running Linux (Rocky 8) with 256 GB (standard) to 512 GB RAM, 32-core CPU (GEN3) and PCIe 4 expansion.
• Boot drives: 2 x 960 GB M.2 NVMe; Data drives (for Director node) include 2 x 960 GB 2.5″ NVMe flash (data) drives in baseline.
• Expansion slots: One low-profile half-length expansion card slot + two full-height half-length expansion card slots (for NICs, Fibre Channel HBAs) in server node.
• Storage chassis: Options include QXS series RAID/expansion chassis (2 U/4 U), H-Series, F-Series depending on performance/capacity need.

Connectivity / Protocols

• Ethernet: Dual-port 100 GbE with RDMA, Quad-port 10/25 GbE auto-sensing, optical or DAC.
• Fibre Channel: Up to quad-port 32 Gb Fibre Channel per node; ready for 64 Gb in future.
• Client support: SAN (StorNext SAN clients), NAS (SMB, NFS v3/v4), StorNext LAN clients, Active Directory / OpenLDAP, REST API.

Scalability / Storage Support

• Scale-out file systems: Supports billions of files, up to 64 virtual file systems, and extends to hundreds of petabytes via tiering.
• Storage tiers: Supports QXS-5 Series HDD/SSD, F-Series NVMe flash for high performance, third-party user-data storage (with dedicated metadata).

Physical / Environmental

• Appliance dimensions (1U node): Height ~1.7" (43 mm), Width ~17.2" (437 mm), Depth ~23.5" (597 mm). Weight ~11.34 kg.
• Operating temperature: 10 °C to 35 °C (50 °F to 95 °F); non-operating: -40 °C to 60 °C. Relative humidity: 8 %–90 % non-condensing.
• Power: Typical 700 W output (100-140 Vac); 750 W (200-240 Vac) for appliance.

Licensing & Software

• Requires StorNext 7 subscription for operation.
• No per-client licensing required for many connectivity options; licensing model focuses on appliance and features (NAS, LAN Gateway, Distributed Data Mover, etc).