Abstract: A data storage system that is based on a unique configuration of hardware and collection of open source software. In a preferred networked implementation, the system includes a plurality of data storage servers arranged in a cluster and each being accessible via a network switch to an external network. Each data storage server includes a communications bus, disk drives, network adaptor, and control software. The control software consists essentially of only open source software, including the EXT3 node file system, GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) security, domain name system (DNS) IP addressing, an enterprise volume management system (EVMS), heartbeat monitoring, NFS and CIFS network protocols, data replication block device (DRBD) data mirroring, a distributed lock manager (DLM), a general file system (GFS) and Andrew file system (AFS), AND open single system image (SSI) software.