Introduction

Welcome to eEKAS – a next-generation, Ceph-based storage operating system designed for modern enterprise and cloud-native environments. Engineered for scalability, performance, and continuous availability, eEKAS delivers unified block, file, and object storage within a single, integrated platform, managed through an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI).

eEKAS introduces a unique and flexible architecture based on IP Groups for block and file services. IP Groups enable logical grouping and dynamic assignment of network and storage resources to services such as SMB, NFS, iSCSI, and NVMe-oF. These movable service endpoints allow precise workload placement, efficient resource utilization, and seamless failover across nodes in the cluster.

For object storage, eEKAS provides a fully integrated S3-compatible service designed for high availability and balanced I/O performance across the storage cluster. Client connections are transparently distributed across available nodes, ensuring optimal throughput, efficient use of system resources, and uninterrupted access even during node maintenance or failure.

The S3 service in eEKAS fully implements the standard Amazon S3 API and is compatible with common S3 tools and workflows, including the AWS S3 CLI and other S3-compatible clients. This makes eEKAS an ideal on-premises S3 target for backups, archiving, cloud-native applications, and hybrid cloud scenarios, without introducing vendor lock-in.

In the event of hardware or node failure, eEKAS automatically maintains service availability by redistributing workloads and client access across remaining nodes. Combined with Ceph’s distributed, self-healing storage backend, this architecture ensures data integrity, operational resilience, and consistent service levels without manual intervention.

Whether deployed as a scalable storage backbone for virtualization, a high-performance file and block storage platform, or an enterprise-grade S3-compatible backup and object storage system, eEKAS delivers the reliability, flexibility, and simplicity required by today’s demanding IT environments.

This guide will walk you through the installation, configuration, and ongoing operation of eEKAS, enabling you to design, deploy, and scale a modern storage infrastructure with confidence.