X-IO Technologies / Xiotech ISE Data Recovery
X-IO Technologies, formerly Xiotech, built its Intelligent Storage Element (ISE) arrays around sealed, field-replaceable drive assemblies called DataPacs rather than individually serviceable drives. This unusual hardware design, inherited in part from the earlier Seagate-derived Magnitude 3D line, means both logical faults and physical DataPac failures need an approach specific to X-IO's sealed-module architecture.
Platform Lineage and Naming
Xiotech's Intelligent Storage Element concept grew out of technology connected to the earlier Seagate Magnitude 3D storage line, and was commercialised as the Emprise 5000 and 7000 systems before the company was renamed X-IO Technologies. X-IO then introduced the ISE 200, 700 and 800 series, spanning hybrid and later all-flash configurations.
X-IO subsequently rebranded parts of its portfolio under the Axellio name, targeting edge and high-performance computing use cases, while continuing to support the sealed DataPac architecture that distinguished the company's products from conventional drive-bay arrays.
- Xiotech Emprise 5000, 7000
- X-IO ISE 200, 700, 800 series
- Intelligent Storage Element (ISE)
- Axellio (later X-IO branding)
- Magnitude 3D (predecessor lineage)
- DataPac sealed drive assembly
Generations and Models We Evaluate
| Generation / family | Models |
|---|---|
| Emprise | Emprise 5000, Emprise 7000 |
| ISE | ISE 200, ISE 700, ISE 800 (hybrid and all-flash) |
| Later branding | Axellio |
Architecture and Data Layout
DataPacs are sealed enclosures containing a matched set of drives that ship, fail and are replaced as a single field-replaceable unit, rather than exposing individual drives to the administrator. Internally each DataPac manages its own drive-level protection before presenting capacity up to the ISE controller layer.
The ISE controller aggregates multiple DataPacs into pools presented as block volumes, with the controller responsible for higher-level provisioning, caching and host connectivity on top of what each DataPac reports.
Because DataPacs are sealed, standard practice on failure is to replace the whole assembly rather than open it, which means any recovery attempt on a failed DataPac needs specialised handling rather than conventional individual-drive imaging.
Protocols and formats: Fibre Channel, iSCSI
- Protection is implemented internally within each DataPac across its matched drive set, with additional pooling logic at the ISE controller level.
- The sealed nature of DataPacs means drive-level layout details are not exposed externally in the way they are on conventional JBOD or drive-bay arrays.
Failure Scenarios
Logical failures
- Deleted or reformatted volumes at the ISE controller level
- Pool or provisioning metadata corruption
- Failed firmware upgrade on the ISE controller
- Host file system corruption inside presented volumes
Hardware failures
- DataPac failure beyond its internal protection tolerance
- Multiple DataPac failures within the same pool
- ISE controller failure
- Backplane or interconnect faults between DataPacs and the controller
What Not To Do Before an Evaluation
- Do not run rebuilds, reconstructions or re-initialisations against an array that has already lost more drives than its protection level allows.
- Do not recreate pools, aggregates, disk groups, storage pools or clusters — these operations write new metadata over the structures a recovery needs.
- Do not swap drives between slots, and do not reorder shelves. Record the original slot and shelf positions before removing anything.
- Do not run file-system repair tools against production volumes before the underlying storage layer has been evaluated.
- Do not restore a backup or replication set over the affected volumes until the recovery scope has been assessed.
- Do not eradicate deleted volumes or empty recycle/destroyed states on platforms that hold deleted data for a retention window.
Our Evaluation and Recovery Process
- Intake and platform identification — array model, generation, firmware, protection layout and the sequence of events that led to the failure.
- Read-only evaluation of the media and array structures, including assessment of drive health and the extent of any physical damage.
- Forensic imaging of all contributing media, with cleanroom work where drives require it. Originals are preserved unaltered.
- Reconstruction of the storage layer — pools, aggregates, parity groups, chunklets, extent groups or objects — from the images.
- Extraction of the layers above: file systems, virtual machines, databases, mailboxes and shares.
- Verification against a file list and customer-nominated critical data, followed by secure return on encrypted media.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a DataPac be opened and its drives read individually?
DataPacs are sealed, matched drive-set assemblies not designed for individual drive access; recovering from one needs a process built around the sealed unit rather than treating it as loose drives.
Is Axellio hardware handled the same way as older ISE arrays?
Axellio continues the sealed-module philosophy in newer form factors, but exact internals vary by generation, so each case is assessed against the specific hardware in front of us.
What happens if only one DataPac in a pool fails?
A single DataPac failure within its designed tolerance is normally handled by DataPac replacement; recovery concerns arise mainly when a DataPac fails beyond its internal protection or when multiple DataPacs in the same pool are affected.