Tier 3 Research Data Storage

Oregon State University intends to contract for the provision of Tier 3 Research Data Storage from Croit North American Inc as a sole source because of the uniqueness (design, capability, nature) of the goods and/or services. Croit's Ceph management platform was the only supplier found to meet the following minimum requirements:**Technical Requirements:** - GUI-based Ceph cluster deployment and lifecycle management capable of managing 40+ petabytes per administrator - Automated PXE boot infrastructure for diskless server deployment across 32+ Supermicro SSG-641E-E1CR36L nodes (4U chassis, 30 HDD bays, 6 NVMe slots) - Web-based administration interface with integrated shell access to all cluster nodes, eliminating need for separate SSH key management across 4 geographically distributed datacenters - Automated OS (RHEL9-compatible: Rocky/Alma Linux) and Ceph security updates with cluster-wide update management - GUI-based CRUSH map management for complex multi-datacenter erasure coding configurations (8+4 across 4 DCs with 3 chunks per DC) - Centralized logging and monitoring with pre-built Grafana dashboards for proactive health monitoring - High-availability gateway management for NFS, SMB, S3, and iSCSI protocols with keepalived/CTDB integration - RESTful API and hook scripts for automation and integration with OSU's IAM (Active Directory/Grouper) - 100% pure open-source Ceph distribution (no proprietary forks) to maintain upgrade path flexibility and avoid vendor lock-in **Operational Requirements:** - 24x7 emergency support with documented response times (4-hour initial response for Severity 1 incidents) - Expertise in multi-datacenter Ceph deployments with erasure coding failure domain architecture - Remote support capability via VPN/SSH with German/European time zone coverage for overnight incidents - Hardware-agnostic support (vendor must support commodity Supermicro hardware configurations) - Onboarding services including initial cluster design validation, deployment assistance, and staff training - Documented upgrade path from standard open-source Ceph (if initially deployed with 42on emergency support) **Compliance and Security Requirements:** - Support for NIST 800-171 technical controls implementation (encryption at rest via Ceph S3, audit logging, per-user access controls)- VLAN-based network segmentation support for separating client, storage, and management traffic - Audit logging capabilities for compliance documentation **Compatibility Requirements:** - Must support Supermicro SSG-641E-E1CR36L storage nodes with Broadcom 3808 onboard HBA, 24TB Seagate Exos HDDs, and 7.68TB Micron 7450 Pro NVMe drives - Must integrate with Weka.io v5.0 high-performance caching layer via Ceph S3 backend tiering (Cluster B requires dedicated Ceph cluster as Weka backend) - Must support NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Dx 25GbE networking infrastructure An entity may appeal this determination in accordance with OSU Standard 03-010. Section 5.17 no later than the closing date indicated on the website. Appeals must be submitted to Procurement, Contracts and Materials Management at [email protected] by Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 1:30 pm, PST. For additional information please contact Brian Kinsey by email at [email protected] or by telephone at (541) 737-1027.