http://blogs.eweek.com/storage_station/content/general/live_migration_coming_into_play_in_system_refreshes.html Storage virtualization provider DataCore Software is now deploying its SANmelody system in conjunction with the second release of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, working in clustered Hyper-V systems.
The news here is that a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster now has the ability to "live-migrate" the virtual machines, meaning two cluster nodes have read/write access to the disk at the same time. This wasn't possible in the first release.
The time and money savings of this feature are potentially significant. Live migration elicited a lot of interest recently when DataCore showcased its storage virtualization software at Microsoft's TechEd Europe show in Berlin.
"What this DataCore-Hyper-V setup does is to minimize or even eliminate downtime, when we need to make system changes," said Jack Weisberg, IT director of an early adopter, the New York law firm of McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams. "So far this system is working very nicely. Plus, everything is redundant. We have redundant storage with DataCore. And we have redundancy built into the VM system."
When making the purchasing decision to replace some legacy hardware and software, Weisberg said it boiled down to DataCore's SANmelody versus an HP/LeftHand Networks system.
"In comparing both systems, we found both to be strong in terms of their capability of avoiding single points of failure," Weisberg said. "But I really like not being tied to specific hardware -- something DataCore enables. It was very important for us not to get locked into older platforms, when there is newer hardware available on the market that we could use with SANmelody."Using DataCore, the storage solution provider, P&J Computers, was able to use its preferred hardware of choice -- in this case, enterprise-class 6GB SAS drives. DataCore enabled administrators to add a couple of 10GB NICs (network interface cards) in these servers at a very low cost.
So, there's some real-world decision making at work. Is that something you're looking at for 2010?
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
DataCore Storage Virtualization Software Proves to Be a Great Fit for Microsoft Hyper-V and Cluster Deployments
Case in Point - Law Firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams
http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/11/16/datacore-storage-virtualization-software-proves-to-be-a-great-fit-for-microsoft-hyper-v-and-cluster-deployments.aspx
Microsoft Hyper-V and DataCore Software's Storage Virtualization Are Winning New Customers Together by Successfully Powering Virtual Infrastructures
DataCore Software announced its SANmelody storage virtualization solution has been deployed along with Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ at the law firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams. "McNamee/Lochner" is one of the largest law firms in Albany, New York. "The combination of DataCore with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for Hyper-V allowed us a lot of flexibility to deploy the best solution possible at McNamee/Lochner with the available hardware," stated Kelly M. Knowles, Network Engineer, P&J Computers, Inc.
Hardware Independence - Optimized by Virtualization
McNamee/Lochner had reached a point where the firm needed to increase its storage capacity. "Our storage was growing at a much faster rate than it had in the past," noted Jack Weisberg, IT director, McNamee, Lochner, Titus and Williams. "Moreover, the hardware that we were running on was out of warranty - so we were looking to get something new." Since 2004, the firm had been using a clustered SAN - an HP MSA 1000. Initially, a key requirement in a new system was something that had a solid approach to redundancy, as well as one that offered ease of expansion.Whereas LeftHand Networks was an early front-runner, since it seemed a logical replacement to the MSA SAN, P&J Computers presented DataCore SANmelody to the firm as well. "In comparing both systems, we found both to be strong in terms of their capability of avoiding single points of failure," noted Weisberg. "But I really like not being tied to specific hardware - something DataCore enables. It was very important for us not to get locked into older platforms, when there is newer hardware available on the market that we could use with DataCore SANmelody."
With DataCore, P&J was able to their preferred hardware of choice - in this case enterprise-class disks 6 GB SAS drives. Knowles praised the ability of DataCore to enable administrators to add a couple of 10 GB NICs in these servers for a very low cost as "tremendous."
P&J Computers - Trusted Solution Providers
DataCore partner P&J Computers, Inc., a data storage and IT service provider, sees the DataCore and Microsoft Hyper-V combination to be not only a good fit - but a great opportunity for both resellers and users alike. It also showcases P&J Computers' ability to be one of the first to implement the latest Windows Server 2008 R2 technology, which was released to the manufacturer (RTM) in July and was just released publicly in October 2009.
P&J Computers is engaged in several accounts where they are deploying DataCore storage virtualization, Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V in joint configurations. What the partner saw in the new R2 release of Windows Server 2008 release was an opportunity for McNamee/Lochner to take some of the complexity out of its existing environment. What was imperative to making this possible was the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 and the live migration functionality - which was not in Hyper-V prior to R2.
A Virtual Infrastructure - Combining Servers and Storage to Support Mission-Critical Applications
DataCore SANmelody is now deployed in conjunction with a clustered Hyper-V system. Moreover, with a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster McNamee/Lochner now has the ability to "live migrate" the virtual machines (VMs). Both cluster nodes have read/write access to the disk, at the same time. Running on this infrastructure, there are four (4) VMs that can "live migrate" between the two hosts. Currently, the second node at McNamee/Lochner is located onsite, albeit in a separate rack. "What this DataCore-Hyper-V set-up does is to minimize or even eliminate downtime, when we need to make system changes," noted Weisberg. "So far this system is working very nicely. Plus, everything is redundant. We have redundant storage with DataCore. And we have redundancy built into the VM system."
The multi-Terabyte data pool at McNamee/Lochner and the system is currently supporting 130 users. A third node - running Microsoft Data Protection Manager - is deployed for back-up. The applications McNamee/Lochner uses run on HP DL 380 G6s (dual processor, quad core with Nahalim). The 24 GB of memory can be expanded to 144 GB, if need be. "All the bread and butter applications for running McNamee/Lochner's business will run on this by year-end," noted Knowles.The next phase of the migration will entail moving what was clustered on Windows 2003 on the old SAN into the virtual environment as well. Space is allocated and P&J Computers just needs to schedule a date to do the cut-over.
Value Protection That Meets Business Objectives
In embracing a virtualized approach, McNamee/Lochner is looking three or four years down the road. Therefore DataCore's "Carry Forward Value Protection Program" - which translates to "Buy - Upgrade - And only pay the difference" - is for McNamee/Lochner a real insurance policy, whereby they might look at new hardware and still keep the same software. "I love this policy that DataCore offers," commented Weisberg. "I am entitled to upgrade the hardware I use with DataCore storage virtualization software. Rather than be forced to scrap my MSA 1000 SAN when it is at its end-of-life, with DataCore I can just buy new hardware and I can continue to use the software - on any new environment I choose. I really think this is awesome."
"We were looking for something redundant, reliable, flexible and expandable," summarized Weisberg. "The DataCore-Hyper-V combination really fit our needs. I certainly like the virtual environment. I also really like having redundant storage. And having seamless failover was key for us as well."
About McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams
Based in Albany, New York, McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams is one of the Capital Region's oldest and largest law firms with multiple practice areas ranging from civil litigation to business transactions, reflecting a diverse clientele. For more, visit www.mltw.com.
About P&J Computers, Inc
For connectivity, network and data center solutions, P&J Computers has served as a complete source for IT solutions since 1984. www.pjcomp.com.
http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/11/16/datacore-storage-virtualization-software-proves-to-be-a-great-fit-for-microsoft-hyper-v-and-cluster-deployments.aspx
Microsoft Hyper-V and DataCore Software's Storage Virtualization Are Winning New Customers Together by Successfully Powering Virtual Infrastructures
DataCore Software announced its SANmelody storage virtualization solution has been deployed along with Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ at the law firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams. "McNamee/Lochner" is one of the largest law firms in Albany, New York. "The combination of DataCore with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for Hyper-V allowed us a lot of flexibility to deploy the best solution possible at McNamee/Lochner with the available hardware," stated Kelly M. Knowles, Network Engineer, P&J Computers, Inc.
Hardware Independence - Optimized by Virtualization
McNamee/Lochner had reached a point where the firm needed to increase its storage capacity. "Our storage was growing at a much faster rate than it had in the past," noted Jack Weisberg, IT director, McNamee, Lochner, Titus and Williams. "Moreover, the hardware that we were running on was out of warranty - so we were looking to get something new." Since 2004, the firm had been using a clustered SAN - an HP MSA 1000. Initially, a key requirement in a new system was something that had a solid approach to redundancy, as well as one that offered ease of expansion.Whereas LeftHand Networks was an early front-runner, since it seemed a logical replacement to the MSA SAN, P&J Computers presented DataCore SANmelody to the firm as well. "In comparing both systems, we found both to be strong in terms of their capability of avoiding single points of failure," noted Weisberg. "But I really like not being tied to specific hardware - something DataCore enables. It was very important for us not to get locked into older platforms, when there is newer hardware available on the market that we could use with DataCore SANmelody."
With DataCore, P&J was able to their preferred hardware of choice - in this case enterprise-class disks 6 GB SAS drives. Knowles praised the ability of DataCore to enable administrators to add a couple of 10 GB NICs in these servers for a very low cost as "tremendous."
P&J Computers - Trusted Solution Providers
DataCore partner P&J Computers, Inc., a data storage and IT service provider, sees the DataCore and Microsoft Hyper-V combination to be not only a good fit - but a great opportunity for both resellers and users alike. It also showcases P&J Computers' ability to be one of the first to implement the latest Windows Server 2008 R2 technology, which was released to the manufacturer (RTM) in July and was just released publicly in October 2009.
P&J Computers is engaged in several accounts where they are deploying DataCore storage virtualization, Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V in joint configurations. What the partner saw in the new R2 release of Windows Server 2008 release was an opportunity for McNamee/Lochner to take some of the complexity out of its existing environment. What was imperative to making this possible was the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 and the live migration functionality - which was not in Hyper-V prior to R2.
A Virtual Infrastructure - Combining Servers and Storage to Support Mission-Critical Applications
DataCore SANmelody is now deployed in conjunction with a clustered Hyper-V system. Moreover, with a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster McNamee/Lochner now has the ability to "live migrate" the virtual machines (VMs). Both cluster nodes have read/write access to the disk, at the same time. Running on this infrastructure, there are four (4) VMs that can "live migrate" between the two hosts. Currently, the second node at McNamee/Lochner is located onsite, albeit in a separate rack. "What this DataCore-Hyper-V set-up does is to minimize or even eliminate downtime, when we need to make system changes," noted Weisberg. "So far this system is working very nicely. Plus, everything is redundant. We have redundant storage with DataCore. And we have redundancy built into the VM system."
The multi-Terabyte data pool at McNamee/Lochner and the system is currently supporting 130 users. A third node - running Microsoft Data Protection Manager - is deployed for back-up. The applications McNamee/Lochner uses run on HP DL 380 G6s (dual processor, quad core with Nahalim). The 24 GB of memory can be expanded to 144 GB, if need be. "All the bread and butter applications for running McNamee/Lochner's business will run on this by year-end," noted Knowles.The next phase of the migration will entail moving what was clustered on Windows 2003 on the old SAN into the virtual environment as well. Space is allocated and P&J Computers just needs to schedule a date to do the cut-over.
Value Protection That Meets Business Objectives
In embracing a virtualized approach, McNamee/Lochner is looking three or four years down the road. Therefore DataCore's "Carry Forward Value Protection Program" - which translates to "Buy - Upgrade - And only pay the difference" - is for McNamee/Lochner a real insurance policy, whereby they might look at new hardware and still keep the same software. "I love this policy that DataCore offers," commented Weisberg. "I am entitled to upgrade the hardware I use with DataCore storage virtualization software. Rather than be forced to scrap my MSA 1000 SAN when it is at its end-of-life, with DataCore I can just buy new hardware and I can continue to use the software - on any new environment I choose. I really think this is awesome."
"We were looking for something redundant, reliable, flexible and expandable," summarized Weisberg. "The DataCore-Hyper-V combination really fit our needs. I certainly like the virtual environment. I also really like having redundant storage. And having seamless failover was key for us as well."
About McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams
Based in Albany, New York, McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams is one of the Capital Region's oldest and largest law firms with multiple practice areas ranging from civil litigation to business transactions, reflecting a diverse clientele. For more, visit www.mltw.com.
About P&J Computers, Inc
For connectivity, network and data center solutions, P&J Computers has served as a complete source for IT solutions since 1984. www.pjcomp.com.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Download a simple pre-configured virtual SAN for Microsoft Hyper-V
http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid94_gci1374013,00.html#
DataCore released a version of its Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA) this week for Microsoft Hyper-V environments. The product allows customers to access Hyper-V features such as live migration, dynamic load balancing and high availability without having to purchase an external storage area network (SAN) storage.
Using locally attached internal disk drives, the DataCore VSA creates a virtual iSCSI SAN that can pool up to 1 TB of capacity. VSA includes the ability to "thin provision" VM storage to save capacity, create snapshots for instant volume cloning and speed up application performance by leveraging surplus server memory.
DataCore VSA comes as a virtual appliance in Microsoft-standard Virtual Hard Disk format, and can be downloaded from the DataCore website for a free 30-day trial.
DataCore released a version of its Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA) this week for Microsoft Hyper-V environments. The product allows customers to access Hyper-V features such as live migration, dynamic load balancing and high availability without having to purchase an external storage area network (SAN) storage.
Using locally attached internal disk drives, the DataCore VSA creates a virtual iSCSI SAN that can pool up to 1 TB of capacity. VSA includes the ability to "thin provision" VM storage to save capacity, create snapshots for instant volume cloning and speed up application performance by leveraging surplus server memory.
DataCore VSA comes as a virtual appliance in Microsoft-standard Virtual Hard Disk format, and can be downloaded from the DataCore website for a free 30-day trial.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
DataCore Virtual SAN Appliance Software Lets Customers Experience New Migration and Clustering Features in Microsoft Hyper-V without Buying a New SAN
http://www.snseurope.com/snslink/news/news-full.php?id=13508&result=datacore
DataCore Software says that customers who don't have a SAN can now experience new features in Microsoft Hyper-V including live migration, dynamic load balancing and high-availability, simply by downloading DataCore's pre-configured Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA).VSA makes it possible for two physical servers to share disks and that is something of great significance to Hyper-V users – since many Hyper-V capabilities require just that. The DataCore VSA comes in a standard VHD format for Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ and Microsoft Hyper-V.The VSA can be downloaded at http://www.datacore.com/msvsappliance/ .
Fully operational in just a few minutes With DataCore's Virtual SAN Appliance Microsoft Hyper-V users can quickly:
DataCore™ Virtualizes Storage for Microsoft Hyper-V Users "Why wait until you can roll in a SAN?" said Augie Gonzalez, Director of Product Marketing at DataCore Software. "When DataCore can virtualize the physical storage from internal or direct-attached disks to make it behave like a shared storage pool."
DataCore Software says that customers who don't have a SAN can now experience new features in Microsoft Hyper-V including live migration, dynamic load balancing and high-availability, simply by downloading DataCore's pre-configured Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA).VSA makes it possible for two physical servers to share disks and that is something of great significance to Hyper-V users – since many Hyper-V capabilities require just that. The DataCore VSA comes in a standard VHD format for Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ and Microsoft Hyper-V.The VSA can be downloaded at http://www.datacore.com/msvsappliance/ .
Fully operational in just a few minutes With DataCore's Virtual SAN Appliance Microsoft Hyper-V users can quickly:
- Utilize Microsoft virtualization environments with an iSCSI SAN created from their server's internal disks. No need for new hardware!
- Pool up to 1 Terabyte of disk space "Thin Provision" storage to the virtual machines. See how much capacity it saves!
- Leverage DataCore's "mega cache" capability – this speeds up performance for Exchange, SQL and others applications using surplus server memory to cache I/Os from the virtual SAN
- Use Snapshots for Instant Volume Cloning and Fast Disk-to-Disk Backups Create a SAN from their server's internal disks
DataCore™ Virtualizes Storage for Microsoft Hyper-V Users "Why wait until you can roll in a SAN?" said Augie Gonzalez, Director of Product Marketing at DataCore Software. "When DataCore can virtualize the physical storage from internal or direct-attached disks to make it behave like a shared storage pool."
Monday, November 16, 2009
Microsoft Tech-Ed Virtualization Pavilion Showcases DataCore’s Advanced Site Recovery Software; New Capabilites for Microsoft Hyper-V
Microsoft Virtualization Pavilion Showcases DataCore’s Advanced Site Recovery Software; Extends Disaster Recovery and Clustering Benefits of Microsoft Hyper-V
http://www.it-director.com/technology/storage/news_release.php?rel=14301
DataCore Software was featured last week within the Microsoft Tech-Ed Virtualization pavilion. DataCore showcased its ground-breaking Advanced Site Recovery (ASR) solution for virtual and physical IT infrastructures. Unlike other site recovery approaches that are limited to a specific vendor's virtual machine recovery, DataCore ASR enables both physical and virtual servers to be protected across multiple sites. The combination of DataCore ASR and Microsoft Hyper-V™/ Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 Failover and Clustering features enables businesses to embrace "real-world" Distributed Disaster Recovery (D-DR) – allowing organizations to cost-effectively spread disaster recovery (DR) responsibilities across several smaller sites.
Microsoft and DataCore Software Combine to Address ‘Real-World' Site Recovery
Taking machines from one site and replicating them to another site before a calamity unfolds is not new. But buyer beware. Many other disaster recovery products are limiting in that they assume recovery, from one environment to an identical or very similar environment or they support only a subset of the infrastructure. Often physical servers are not supported or require a separate solution from applications and virtual servers. DataCore ASR enables users to execute site recovery operations in a way that is fundamentally different from existing solutions in the marketplace today by bringing the data center together into a single solution.
"The industry is conditioned to think of DR as a one-to-one proposition. This places unreasonable demands on a single recovery site that mirrors the main site," argues Augie Gonzalez, product marketing director at DataCore Software."But most organizations aren't structured that way. They look more like a hub and spoke, with smaller branches emanating from the central data center. For this reason, DataCore's Advanced Site Recovery distributes the disaster recovery workloads among these smaller entities, allowing each of them to accept a more manageable role in keeping the business going."
http://www.it-director.com/technology/storage/news_release.php?rel=14301
DataCore Software was featured last week within the Microsoft Tech-Ed Virtualization pavilion. DataCore showcased its ground-breaking Advanced Site Recovery (ASR) solution for virtual and physical IT infrastructures. Unlike other site recovery approaches that are limited to a specific vendor's virtual machine recovery, DataCore ASR enables both physical and virtual servers to be protected across multiple sites. The combination of DataCore ASR and Microsoft Hyper-V™/ Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 Failover and Clustering features enables businesses to embrace "real-world" Distributed Disaster Recovery (D-DR) – allowing organizations to cost-effectively spread disaster recovery (DR) responsibilities across several smaller sites.
Microsoft and DataCore Software Combine to Address ‘Real-World' Site Recovery
Taking machines from one site and replicating them to another site before a calamity unfolds is not new. But buyer beware. Many other disaster recovery products are limiting in that they assume recovery, from one environment to an identical or very similar environment or they support only a subset of the infrastructure. Often physical servers are not supported or require a separate solution from applications and virtual servers. DataCore ASR enables users to execute site recovery operations in a way that is fundamentally different from existing solutions in the marketplace today by bringing the data center together into a single solution.
"The industry is conditioned to think of DR as a one-to-one proposition. This places unreasonable demands on a single recovery site that mirrors the main site," argues Augie Gonzalez, product marketing director at DataCore Software."But most organizations aren't structured that way. They look more like a hub and spoke, with smaller branches emanating from the central data center. For this reason, DataCore's Advanced Site Recovery distributes the disaster recovery workloads among these smaller entities, allowing each of them to accept a more manageable role in keeping the business going."
Sunday, November 15, 2009
DataCore shows disaster recovery for Microsoft Hyper-V (In German)
DataCore shows disaster recovery for Microsoft Hyper-V (Note Articles In German)
http://www.speicherguide.de/Magazin/StorageNews/tabid/114/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/11637/Datacore-zeigt-Disaster-Recovery-fur-Microsoft-Hyper-V.aspx
Christian Marczinke presents ASR at Tech-Ed Europe 2009
Virtual Storage for Hyper-V
http://www.itseccity.de/?url=/content/produkte/sanhardware/091113_pro_san_datacore.html
http://www.speicherguide.de/Magazin/StorageNews/tabid/114/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/11637/Datacore-zeigt-Disaster-Recovery-fur-Microsoft-Hyper-V.aspx
Christian Marczinke presents ASR at Tech-Ed Europe 2009
Virtual Storage for Hyper-V
http://www.itseccity.de/?url=/content/produkte/sanhardware/091113_pro_san_datacore.html
Monday, November 9, 2009
DataCore Software Updates Storage Virtualization Free Trial Software; Performance Acceleration, Migration Tools + iSCSI, Fibre Channel, FCoE Support
DataCore Software Updates Storage Virtualization Free Trial Software; Performance Acceleration, Migration Tools + iSCSI, Fibre Channel, FCoE Support
http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/11/03/datacore-software-updates-storage-virtualization-free-trial-software-includes-performance-acceleration-migration-tools-and-support-for-iscsi-fibre-channel-and-fcoe.aspx
DataCore Software announced that it has updated its Free Trial software, which is architected to optimize and manage users’ storage. This free trial of SANmelody™ iSCSI, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and Fibre Channel SAN evaluation software, comes with performance acceleration, content migration, snapshot and thin provisioning – all included. The evaluation software enables data centers and IT departments to consolidate and maximize their disk capacity utilization. SANmelody simplifies management and leverages existing storage hardware and networking to efficiently serve the storage needs for Windows, Netware, MacOS, UNIX, and Linux systems as well as Microsoft, VMware and Citrix virtual servers and desktops.
The Free Trial software http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmel_trynow_form.asp supports group snapshot and cloning, simple content migration and iSCSI and Fibre Channel as well as FCoE.
FCoE Connectivity - Access Fibre Channel storage pool via the LAN switching infrastructure. Application servers and other storage consumers can now access SANmelody nodes equipped with Fibre Channel SAN connections using their Ethernet Network Interface Cards (NICs). This capability takes advantage of the new Fibre Channel over Ethernet protocol and FCoE-compliant switches.
Group Snapshot and Clone Command - Synchronize online snapshots across inter-dependent volumes. This capability coordinates multiple snapshots to occur at the same time across a group of related volumes. It ensures point-time synchronization of file systems and application data that reside on different disks. Fast and efficient disk-to-disk backups across volumes are greatly simplified – plus it ensures that clones created on new equipment are an exact replica of their predecessor.
Content Migration - Relocate active drives into the virtual storage pool. This feature enables existing drives formatted with NTFS file systems to be incorporated easily into the SANmelody storage pool. These physical drives are first un-mounted from the application servers where they were once active, and then reconnected behind a SANmelody node. The SANmelody node acts as an intermediary between the application server and these drives. To take full advantage of SANmelody advanced virtualization features, their contents may be copied to virtual disks using snapshots. The relocated drives can then be wiped clean and included in the physical storage pool as additional capacity, or they may be decommissioned.
See the following announcement on recent DataCore SANmelody enhancements – link: http://www.datacore.com/pressroom/pr_live.asp?date=10/14/2009
SANmelody Free Trial Software with iSCSI + FCoE + FC SAN Support: Try It Now!
DataCore SANmelody software converts standard Intel/AMD servers, blades or virtual machines (VMs) into fully capable SAN-wide storage servers that virtualize disks and serve them over existing networks to application servers. For a FREE 30-day trial go to: http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmel_trynow_form.asp.
With the SANmelody evaluation software, users can:
· Pool up to 1 Terabyte of disk space.
· Support a mix of iSCSI/Ethernet, FCoE and Fibre Channel connectivity.
· Speed up application performance with “Mega-Caching” – using surplus server memory to cache I/Os from the virtual SAN.
· "Thin Provision" storage.
· Use Snapshots for Instant Volume Cloning and Fast Disk-to-Disk Backups
· Create a SAN from your server's internal disks. No need for new hardware!
Special Offer: Go Beyond the Evaluation “Free Trial” Package with a Feature-Packed, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery SAN Software
For users who need to go beyond the “starter” Free Trial version because their requirements are more demanding, DataCore is offering special promotions on “Feature-Packed SAN Software,” which provide additional, more advanced features such as auto-failover, high-availability mirroring and asynchronous IP Mirroring.
To learn more, please visit: http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmelody_buy.asp
For info on Customer Promotions: http://www.datacore.com/customerprograms/ or contact DataCore directly at: info@datacore.com
http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/11/03/datacore-software-updates-storage-virtualization-free-trial-software-includes-performance-acceleration-migration-tools-and-support-for-iscsi-fibre-channel-and-fcoe.aspx
DataCore Software announced that it has updated its Free Trial software, which is architected to optimize and manage users’ storage. This free trial of SANmelody™ iSCSI, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and Fibre Channel SAN evaluation software, comes with performance acceleration, content migration, snapshot and thin provisioning – all included. The evaluation software enables data centers and IT departments to consolidate and maximize their disk capacity utilization. SANmelody simplifies management and leverages existing storage hardware and networking to efficiently serve the storage needs for Windows, Netware, MacOS, UNIX, and Linux systems as well as Microsoft, VMware and Citrix virtual servers and desktops.
The Free Trial software http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmel_trynow_form.asp supports group snapshot and cloning, simple content migration and iSCSI and Fibre Channel as well as FCoE.
FCoE Connectivity - Access Fibre Channel storage pool via the LAN switching infrastructure. Application servers and other storage consumers can now access SANmelody nodes equipped with Fibre Channel SAN connections using their Ethernet Network Interface Cards (NICs). This capability takes advantage of the new Fibre Channel over Ethernet protocol and FCoE-compliant switches.
Group Snapshot and Clone Command - Synchronize online snapshots across inter-dependent volumes. This capability coordinates multiple snapshots to occur at the same time across a group of related volumes. It ensures point-time synchronization of file systems and application data that reside on different disks. Fast and efficient disk-to-disk backups across volumes are greatly simplified – plus it ensures that clones created on new equipment are an exact replica of their predecessor.
Content Migration - Relocate active drives into the virtual storage pool. This feature enables existing drives formatted with NTFS file systems to be incorporated easily into the SANmelody storage pool. These physical drives are first un-mounted from the application servers where they were once active, and then reconnected behind a SANmelody node. The SANmelody node acts as an intermediary between the application server and these drives. To take full advantage of SANmelody advanced virtualization features, their contents may be copied to virtual disks using snapshots. The relocated drives can then be wiped clean and included in the physical storage pool as additional capacity, or they may be decommissioned.
See the following announcement on recent DataCore SANmelody enhancements – link: http://www.datacore.com/pressroom/pr_live.asp?date=10/14/2009
SANmelody Free Trial Software with iSCSI + FCoE + FC SAN Support: Try It Now!
DataCore SANmelody software converts standard Intel/AMD servers, blades or virtual machines (VMs) into fully capable SAN-wide storage servers that virtualize disks and serve them over existing networks to application servers. For a FREE 30-day trial go to: http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmel_trynow_form.asp.
With the SANmelody evaluation software, users can:
· Pool up to 1 Terabyte of disk space.
· Support a mix of iSCSI/Ethernet, FCoE and Fibre Channel connectivity.
· Speed up application performance with “Mega-Caching” – using surplus server memory to cache I/Os from the virtual SAN.
· "Thin Provision" storage.
· Use Snapshots for Instant Volume Cloning and Fast Disk-to-Disk Backups
· Create a SAN from your server's internal disks. No need for new hardware!
Special Offer: Go Beyond the Evaluation “Free Trial” Package with a Feature-Packed, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery SAN Software
For users who need to go beyond the “starter” Free Trial version because their requirements are more demanding, DataCore is offering special promotions on “Feature-Packed SAN Software,” which provide additional, more advanced features such as auto-failover, high-availability mirroring and asynchronous IP Mirroring.
To learn more, please visit: http://www.datacore.com/products/prod_SANmelody_buy.asp
For info on Customer Promotions: http://www.datacore.com/customerprograms/ or contact DataCore directly at: info@datacore.com
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Storage Technology News - DataCore SAN management software adds capabilities to storage arrays
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid5_gci1373639,00.html
The Barren County, Ky., school district discovered it could make good use of management features such as thin provisioning and remote mirroring even if they're not included natively with its storage arrays. As part of a virtualization project, the district installed an Emprise 5000 storage system from Xiotech Corp. and DataCore Software Corp.'s SANmelody software to increase uptime and decrease the impact of maintenance on its users.
Barren County school district includes around 4,600 students and 700 faculty. IT Director Steve Gumm and his team handle a high school, middle school, seven elementary schools, the board office, a day care location and four other buildings...
Gumm revamped his storage setup over the summer after the district virtualized all 30 of its servers with VMware. Gumm thought it would be a good time to modernize his storage network, which consisted of a four-year-old EMC iSCSI SAN. The district first went to its server vendor Dell and took a look at an EqualLogic iSCSI SAN. But Gumm wasn't comfortable with the idea of failing over between EqualLogic controllers in different sites during frequent network upgrades.
...Barren installed two 16 TB Fibre Channel systems in separate buildings and Gumm uses SANmelody to manage them with the uptime he wants.
"With SANmelody, we can thin provision those SANs," he said. "We're not utilizing all the space, and thin provisioning lets us use just what is needed at the time. We also use it for data mirroring between both locations. If we need to do maintenance or I need to re-boot my SAN for whatever reason, we drop the SAN here, failover, do our maintenance, failback, and we're up and going."...
"We can manage whatever maintenance needs to be done, whenever we need it," Gumm says of his new setup. "The biggest benefit coming down the road is we're not going to have to do forklift upgrades. When it comes time to add storage, we won't have to rip out the unit. We can add to the unit and allow DataCore to manage where we move data to."
The Barren County, Ky., school district discovered it could make good use of management features such as thin provisioning and remote mirroring even if they're not included natively with its storage arrays. As part of a virtualization project, the district installed an Emprise 5000 storage system from Xiotech Corp. and DataCore Software Corp.'s SANmelody software to increase uptime and decrease the impact of maintenance on its users.
Barren County school district includes around 4,600 students and 700 faculty. IT Director Steve Gumm and his team handle a high school, middle school, seven elementary schools, the board office, a day care location and four other buildings...
Gumm revamped his storage setup over the summer after the district virtualized all 30 of its servers with VMware. Gumm thought it would be a good time to modernize his storage network, which consisted of a four-year-old EMC iSCSI SAN. The district first went to its server vendor Dell and took a look at an EqualLogic iSCSI SAN. But Gumm wasn't comfortable with the idea of failing over between EqualLogic controllers in different sites during frequent network upgrades.
...Barren installed two 16 TB Fibre Channel systems in separate buildings and Gumm uses SANmelody to manage them with the uptime he wants.
"With SANmelody, we can thin provision those SANs," he said. "We're not utilizing all the space, and thin provisioning lets us use just what is needed at the time. We also use it for data mirroring between both locations. If we need to do maintenance or I need to re-boot my SAN for whatever reason, we drop the SAN here, failover, do our maintenance, failback, and we're up and going."...
"We can manage whatever maintenance needs to be done, whenever we need it," Gumm says of his new setup. "The biggest benefit coming down the road is we're not going to have to do forklift upgrades. When it comes time to add storage, we won't have to rip out the unit. We can add to the unit and allow DataCore to manage where we move data to."
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Computer Technology Review: Homecare Homebase deploys DataCore storage virtualization solutions
Homecare Homebase [HCHB] deploys DataCore storage virtualization solutions
...HCHB empowers the homecare and hospice industry to be more effective in providing healthcare to patients. Currently 4,375 office workers and over 11,000 field agents rely on applications running on HCHB’s IT systems infrastructure. Everything HCHB customers do is mobile and all of the applications HCHB offers these agents in the homecare industry are both mobile and real-time.
“The combination of the VMware platform along with the DataCore SAN has really given us a lot of flexibility to more rapidly deploy consistent images of systems – especially in the Citrix farm,” explained Chris Kane, director of technical operations, Homecare Homebase. “In addition, the VMware-DataCore combination has given us much improved VMotion capability – where the SAN enables us to do maintenance on the host in the middle of the day, if we have to.”
...“We quickly outgrew the storage we had – both in terms of the amount of space presented by those units as well as the performance of those units,” noted Kane.HCHB has a big Microsoft SQL Server shop and tended to back-up its customer information using these snap units at each site to replicate for disaster recovery purposes. According to Kane, the units were just not able to keep up with the back-up planning and also the synchronization of the data. “The storage we had before DataCore became troublesome,” commented Kane. “We were in desperate need, not only of space, but also of reliable storage.”
...On its own, HCHB looked at EqualLogic from Dell, LeftHand from HP, as well as EMC and NetApp.Noted Kane, “The DataCore SAN solution suits our IT administrative style better than the other solutions we saw. The more we looked at traditional SAN solutions – encompassing hardware, software and professional services – for us, these weren’t the type of solutions that we have typically dealt with. We have a lot of skilled technology people in house and we like to be able to get our hands on every piece of technology we bring in. The fact that DataCore is Windows-based gives us a little more control – particularly being able to manage the hardware ourselves. Moreover, DataCore gave us a full, high availability solution. Not to mention that DataCore is very competitive price-wise – so all of this made DataCore the best choice for us.”
...Virtualizing the Citrix environment with VMware and DataCore running in tandem has provided a real, tangible benefit in terms of system maintenance and administration. Before – with the physical, Citrix environment, the IT team at HCHB was very limited in terms of what they could do with those systems during the working day.“Just the patch management aspect of keeping up with all the physical boxes has been greatly improved in the virtual environment because we can deploy patch templates versus having to constantly update from Microsoft or other vendors,” added Kane.With the SAN in place, the virtual environment at HCHB has delivered real benefits to customers and system administrators alike. These benefits are a direct result of the improvements made possible through these new virtualization capabilities. For instance, HCHB as a whole is able to roll out new services more rapidly and consistently. The current databases and applications that HCHB uses internally to run its business, such as file servers (documentation that support internal needs) or Microsoft Office Sharepoint (that supports customers), have benefited, either directly or indirectly, from the VMware virtual infrastructure and the DataCore storage virtualization SAN.
...“It has been very rapid growth for us recently,” summarized Kane. “And I am very, very happy with the performance we are getting both out of VMware and the DataCore SAN at this point. The SAN has made a world of difference to us. There were many choices for a SAN – from a variety of SAN vendors. For us, DataCore was the right fit. DataCore gives us the ability to select and maintain the hardware of our own choice. It gives us the ability to have a fully redundant, highly available SAN – not just at the controller-level, but at the storage-level itself. That, combined with the price point DataCore’s portable SAN software offers – even when having to purchase hardware and licensing – is still much more effective than anything else we found on the market.”
...HCHB empowers the homecare and hospice industry to be more effective in providing healthcare to patients. Currently 4,375 office workers and over 11,000 field agents rely on applications running on HCHB’s IT systems infrastructure. Everything HCHB customers do is mobile and all of the applications HCHB offers these agents in the homecare industry are both mobile and real-time.
“The combination of the VMware platform along with the DataCore SAN has really given us a lot of flexibility to more rapidly deploy consistent images of systems – especially in the Citrix farm,” explained Chris Kane, director of technical operations, Homecare Homebase. “In addition, the VMware-DataCore combination has given us much improved VMotion capability – where the SAN enables us to do maintenance on the host in the middle of the day, if we have to.”
...“We quickly outgrew the storage we had – both in terms of the amount of space presented by those units as well as the performance of those units,” noted Kane.HCHB has a big Microsoft SQL Server shop and tended to back-up its customer information using these snap units at each site to replicate for disaster recovery purposes. According to Kane, the units were just not able to keep up with the back-up planning and also the synchronization of the data. “The storage we had before DataCore became troublesome,” commented Kane. “We were in desperate need, not only of space, but also of reliable storage.”
...On its own, HCHB looked at EqualLogic from Dell, LeftHand from HP, as well as EMC and NetApp.Noted Kane, “The DataCore SAN solution suits our IT administrative style better than the other solutions we saw. The more we looked at traditional SAN solutions – encompassing hardware, software and professional services – for us, these weren’t the type of solutions that we have typically dealt with. We have a lot of skilled technology people in house and we like to be able to get our hands on every piece of technology we bring in. The fact that DataCore is Windows-based gives us a little more control – particularly being able to manage the hardware ourselves. Moreover, DataCore gave us a full, high availability solution. Not to mention that DataCore is very competitive price-wise – so all of this made DataCore the best choice for us.”
...Virtualizing the Citrix environment with VMware and DataCore running in tandem has provided a real, tangible benefit in terms of system maintenance and administration. Before – with the physical, Citrix environment, the IT team at HCHB was very limited in terms of what they could do with those systems during the working day.“Just the patch management aspect of keeping up with all the physical boxes has been greatly improved in the virtual environment because we can deploy patch templates versus having to constantly update from Microsoft or other vendors,” added Kane.With the SAN in place, the virtual environment at HCHB has delivered real benefits to customers and system administrators alike. These benefits are a direct result of the improvements made possible through these new virtualization capabilities. For instance, HCHB as a whole is able to roll out new services more rapidly and consistently. The current databases and applications that HCHB uses internally to run its business, such as file servers (documentation that support internal needs) or Microsoft Office Sharepoint (that supports customers), have benefited, either directly or indirectly, from the VMware virtual infrastructure and the DataCore storage virtualization SAN.
...“It has been very rapid growth for us recently,” summarized Kane. “And I am very, very happy with the performance we are getting both out of VMware and the DataCore SAN at this point. The SAN has made a world of difference to us. There were many choices for a SAN – from a variety of SAN vendors. For us, DataCore was the right fit. DataCore gives us the ability to select and maintain the hardware of our own choice. It gives us the ability to have a fully redundant, highly available SAN – not just at the controller-level, but at the storage-level itself. That, combined with the price point DataCore’s portable SAN software offers – even when having to purchase hardware and licensing – is still much more effective than anything else we found on the market.”
New SANmelody Feature highlighted: Non-disruptive disk, array, or vendor substitution - Raw Disk Mirroring
DataCore Releases SANmelody 3.0
Latest update version of vendor’s data storage and disk space management platform targets small and midsized businesses
http://www.information-management.com/news/san_storage_area_network_virtualization-10016293-1.html
Non-disruptive disk, array, or vendor substitution - Raw Disk Mirroring
http://sanmelody.blogspot.com/2009/10/raw-disk-mirroring-non-disruptive-disk.html With the release of SANmelody 3.0 PSP2 comes the addition of "raw disk mirroring" which I have touched on in the previous post.
I really don't think this new capability has been given enough coverage when you look at the flexibility it provides. The ability to replace "backend" raw disks without interfering with Virtual Volumes, NMV Volumes or the NMV Pool itself, all while I/O operations continue as normal is an incredible capability.Let look at a scenario: Client maintains a large VMware environment serving ~10TB of data across ~40 thin provisioned virtual volumes server from a SANmelody HA environment with "Vendor A" storage at the backend consisting of many 2Gb FC 146GB 7.5K drives... They are replicating this data to a DR site consisting of SANmelody with "vendor C" disk.Customer has decided to de-comission "vendor A" storage, in place of "vendor B" which contains new 4Gb 300GB 15K rpm drives.Solution: Utilising raw disk mirroring we are able to serve up new capacity from "vendor B" and mirror the raw disks with "vendor A" without touching any of our provisioned volumes. Once mirrors are established we can disconnect "vendor A" and continue as normal without any interuption to the business or to our DR replication solution. But I don't run SANmelody or SANsymphony?.. The 2nd piece of this puzzle is "Proxy volumes support". If you have existing vendor storage and would like the type of flexibility discussed above to migrate data, it can be done. DataCore can "pass through" all of your existing served volumes (with file systems) and mirror the data while it is serving I/O..........
Computer Technology Review:
SNW Fall 2009: DataCore enhances SANmelody storage virtualization solution
Latest update version of vendor’s data storage and disk space management platform targets small and midsized businesses
http://www.information-management.com/news/san_storage_area_network_virtualization-10016293-1.html
Non-disruptive disk, array, or vendor substitution - Raw Disk Mirroring
http://sanmelody.blogspot.com/2009/10/raw-disk-mirroring-non-disruptive-disk.html With the release of SANmelody 3.0 PSP2 comes the addition of "raw disk mirroring" which I have touched on in the previous post.
I really don't think this new capability has been given enough coverage when you look at the flexibility it provides. The ability to replace "backend" raw disks without interfering with Virtual Volumes, NMV Volumes or the NMV Pool itself, all while I/O operations continue as normal is an incredible capability.Let look at a scenario: Client maintains a large VMware environment serving ~10TB of data across ~40 thin provisioned virtual volumes server from a SANmelody HA environment with "Vendor A" storage at the backend consisting of many 2Gb FC 146GB 7.5K drives... They are replicating this data to a DR site consisting of SANmelody with "vendor C" disk.Customer has decided to de-comission "vendor A" storage, in place of "vendor B" which contains new 4Gb 300GB 15K rpm drives.Solution: Utilising raw disk mirroring we are able to serve up new capacity from "vendor B" and mirror the raw disks with "vendor A" without touching any of our provisioned volumes. Once mirrors are established we can disconnect "vendor A" and continue as normal without any interuption to the business or to our DR replication solution. But I don't run SANmelody or SANsymphony?.. The 2nd piece of this puzzle is "Proxy volumes support". If you have existing vendor storage and would like the type of flexibility discussed above to migrate data, it can be done. DataCore can "pass through" all of your existing served volumes (with file systems) and mirror the data while it is serving I/O..........
Computer Technology Review:
SNW Fall 2009: DataCore enhances SANmelody storage virtualization solution
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