UltraFast™ Networking

SoftNAS® UltraFast™ uses UDP and TCP/IP to transfer data between two SoftNAS instances. It provides a high speed tunnel between two nodes, regardless of geographical distance. By implementing UltraFast™ endpoints on each separate node, it provides an on-ramp to accelerate data through the tunnel to the other node, and an offramp to facilitate data out of the tunnel, optimizing speed on both ends.

One instance serves as the “Source” instance and the other is the “Target” instance. The Source instance is responsible for connecting to the Target instance, but both the Source and Target instance are able to send data to each other using the UltraFast Storage Accelerator. The following network ports must be open for UltraFast to be able to function:

On the source instance (Outgoing):

Note: Port defaults can be changed if required for firewall compliance or other reasons.

Note: TCP connection is optional, but is recommended in order for our users to see the value provided by SoftNAS® UltraFast™. The TCP port serves to provide a real-time speedtest comparison against UltraFast traffic, allowing you to measure the value added by UltraFast™.

Note: The source can be behind a NAT masquerading router. When the NAT translation occurs, the responses will be delivered to the public IP address of the source instance. 

On the second instance (Incoming/Receiving):

Note: Ports can be reconfigured on the destination side as well.

Note: NAT Configuration on the target node is very possible, but requires Destination NAT Rules configured. Configuring destination side NAT rules will not be covered in this guide.

Refer to SoftNAS' Installation Guide and Reference Guide for other ports that should be opened for management functionality, such as for features including SnapReplicate™, SNAP HA™, and storage protocols such as NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, or AFP.

For Amazon EC2 Target instances, configure a security group that allows for incoming TCP/443, UDP/8888, and TCP/8888 from the public IP address of the Source instance. For Amazon EC2 Source instances, configure a security group that allows for incoming TCP/8888 from the public IP address of the Target instance.

Firewalls, Gateway and Router Configuration

Firewall, Gateway and Router configuration is beyond the scope of this guide, simply due to the number of different solutions available. Vendor documentation should provide you the information needed to configure your on-premise instances to send and receive data with UltraFast™ . If you are not receiving the expected throughput, there could be configuration issues with internet gateways, routers or firewalls.

When using network address translation (NAT) or virtual private network (VPN) technologies between the Source and Target instance there are additional configuration steps that may be required, depending on vendor and configuration.

One setting within many firewalls that may require particular attention is what is typically referred to as  "UDP flooding" or "Traffic Shaping". Consult your device vendor's documentation for such items, and ensure that you provide exceptions for the UDP communications path between your two UltraFast™ instances that do not excessively throttle end-to-end UDP throughput. UltraFast™ makes strong use of both TCP and UDP, and if one is throttled, performance will be impacted.