| iSCSI
news |
Increasing the Usefulness
of Cheap SSDs with Virtual SAN Software
Editor:- June 24, 2009 -
Seanodes
disclosed
results
of tests using entry level SSDs
with its
Exanodes
virtual SAN software.
In an ESX environment of 8 servers with 1
SSD drive per server, IOmeter benchmark results showed 36,000 IOPS (random read
4K) for a system with an overall cost under $20K (including the cost of SSDs and
Exanodes VM Edition).
“‘Traditional arrays have been designed to work efficiently
with spinning disks and can’t give the promise of SSDs in terms of
performance and scalability for example,” said Frank Gana, Business
Development Director at Seanodes. “This limits the usage and markets and
as a consequence most people use them as Direct Attached Storage with all the
usual known problems that come with DAS. Thanks to Exanodes and its innovative
design we can aggregate and use SSDs efficiently, opening new markets and
applications to this technology”.
Editor's comments:- Seanodes
says it's trying to fix the problem of aggregating and sharing multiple low
capacity, low cost SSDs between servers without requiring special tuning
skills. But I have to say the quoted IOPS don't sound impressive to me compared
to the fastest SSDs.
So why wouldn't you use less servers and a better SSD instead?
With
so many other competing solutions in the
rackmount SSD and
PCIe SSD market - I
suspect that Seanode's solution may only provide an economic price point for a
tiny fragment of possible applications - or none at all. There isn't enough
data in the press release to be sure.
Emulex says "No" to a future "Connecting everything®"
Editor:- May 4, 2009 - Emulex announced today
it has
rejected
an unsolicited acquisition offer from Broadcom.
...Later:-
May 5, 2009 - Broadcom
extended
the deadline for their offer and published a press release saying what a
great deal it would be for shareholders. "Broadcom's all-cash offer is not
subject to a financing condition. Broadcom intends to fund the offer with its
existing cash holdings."
Emulex, in its rejection letter, had
pointed to the potential value in recent design wins. Broadcom rubbished this
assertion with this pithy analysis.
"... while Emulex has touted
its "design wins" in its response to Broadcom and in other
communications with the financial community, it has failed to demonstrate an
ability to convert design wins into either revenue growth or market share.
Over the last several years, including this most recent quarter, Emulex has
continued to lose share to its larger competitor (QLogic)."
Editor's
comments:- the FC,
10GbE and
InfiniBand adapter
markets used to be pivotal enabling tools for fast
SANs in the enterprise
server computing market. However, in recent times these network technologies
have become commodities - and their prospects
have waned..
As I've said before, the future of fast storage interconnects will be dominated
by the requirements of the SSD
market instead of the HDD
market. Redeploying the intellectual property of these storage connections
into closer proximity with solid state storage is something which the
traditional HBA business model cannot achieve - or which takes too long.
Broadcom's
mission statement "Connecting everything®" is more in line with
the future vision of the computer market than the old-style duopoly of Emulex
(and QLogic) which dominate a market that's going to become irrelevant.
Dell Joins iSCSI Compatible SSD Market
Editor:-
March 25, 2009 - Dell
announced
SSD
options for its iSCSI
compatible EqualLogic PS6000 storage arrays.
Pricing starts at
$25,000. This brings the number of
rackmount SSD oems
to 34. That number is expected to reach 300 in 2010.
StorMagic Launches Virtual iSCSI SAN Manager
Bristol, UK - February 18,
2009 - StorMagic today announced SvSAN - which helps small to
mid-size organisations build a cost-effective virtual iSCSI SAN in just a few
minutes.
The StorMagic SvSAN is designed to enable the deployment
of a high-availability shared storage solution for VMware ESX environments for
less than $2,000 allowing users to take advantage of enhanced server
virtualisation functions without the need to purchase expensive shared storage.
SvSAN supports upto 1,024 simultaneous sessions and 256 targets per appliance.
For a limited time end-users can obtain a promo key for a free copy of SvSAN,
with no expiration date. ...StorMagic profile
Nimbus Offers Drive Agnostic iSCSI
San Francisco, CA -
February 9, 2009 - Nimbus Data Systems today announced the H-class
RH100 quad port 10GbE unified storage system.
It offers up to 60x
hot-swappable SATA (terabyte HDDs supported), SAS (450GB HDDs), or SSD drives
(7.7TB capacity if populated by supported 128GB SSDs). Drives can be mixed
within the same enclosure. The RH100 includes no-additional-charge snapshot,
cloning, and replication software, built-in
iSCSI SAN and
NAS capabilities. The
RH100 has a 4GB cache and 60Gbps internal bandwidth. Nimbus says it can be up
and running in just 20 minutes. ...Nimbus profile,
rackmount SSDs
a New Way to Instantly Rollback and Resume 24/7 Windows Apps
Santa Clara, Calif. -
January 20, 2009 - Asempra Technologies today introduced its Business
Continuity Appliance.
Designed for Microsoft environments the
2U rackmount iSCSI /
FC SAN
appliance
(price $30,000) provides a Terabyte of storage which can be rolled back to any
recovery point (with second by second resolution) and deliver data to
applications within 30 seconds of a rollback being initiated, instead of hours
or days with traditional D2d
or tape backup systems.
And unlike clustered servers or HA storage (which merely provide data
continuity) Asempra's BCS can instantly restart from your chosen "good"
data set - before a virus or software corruption occurred. ...Asempra Technologies
profile
Editor's comments:- $30,000 seemed like a steep price
for a disk backup / recovery system - so I asked more about it.
One of
the problems with this product is terminology. It sounds like a lot of other
storage solutions - but is actually a different class of storage. The technical
stuff on Asempra's site is clear and you will quickly recognize if it's the
right product for your type of application. Like
RAM SSDs - it's not for
everybody.
StoneFly Lowers Cost of SAS IP SANs
Hayward,
Calif. - December 10, 2008 - StoneFly, Inc. is now offering
high-capacity SAS expansion for its S-Class model IP SANs.
This
lowers the cost of expansion significantly: from $1.00 per GB previously, to
$.80 per GB currently. In addition, customers can now increase expansion to up
to 72 additional disks on some S-Class models. Another change announced today
for the ISC line is that it now comes standard with 6 Gigabit Ethernet ports, or
can be upgraded to support dual 10GbE connections. ...StoneFly profile
Sun Launches iSCSI Hybrid HDD / SSD Rackmount Storage
SANTA
CLARA, Calif. - November 10, 2008 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. today
announced the availability of its new 7000 family of rackmount storage systems
- which includes hybrid HDD / flash SSD arrays.
Sun says its
Solaris ZFS can use SSDs intelligently as a cache for both application and file
system metadata, placing latency-critical data structures appropriately on flash
media and using algorithms to optimize data placement. In addition, Solaris ZFS
provides acceleration of both read and write operations, and lets administrators
configure the system to match workload demands.
Among the products
launched today the
Sun
Storage 7210 is a 4U 4 port GbE iSCSI compatible storage system which can
be configured with 44TB of 7,200 RPM hard drives working alongside 36GB
internal flash SSD and 64GB RAM. MSRP for this configuration is $117,995.
...Sun Microsystems profile,
Hybrid Storage
Drives, rackmount
SSDs
MicroNet Ships Low Cost Unified SMB Storage
Torrance, CA - October 27,
2008 - MicroNet Technology today introduced its first unified NAS/iSCSI
ipSAN-ready storage solution for the desktop SMB market with 5 hot swappable 3.5"
drives.
Features include:- 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports with load
balancing and failover, selective
iSCSI target mode,
RAID 0/1/5/6/10/JBOD/SPAN,
3 USB expansion ports and 1x eSATA port for storage and printer sharing. The
MaxNAS is available immediately with an MSRP of $1,349 for a 2.5TB
configuration, $1,699 for the 5TB model and $2,499 for the 7.5TB appliance.
...MicroNet profile,
NAS
iSCSI vs FCoE Article in The Register
Editor:-
October 15, 2008 - The Register has published a new article called -"iSCSI:
Game Over?"
In it author
Chris Mellor
discusses how emerging vendor support for FCoE (the first adapters were shipped
exactly a year ago)
might ultimately affect the iSCSI
market. Even if you're already heavily commited to
fibre-channel
SANs or the various flavors
of NAS and have no plans to
change soon - the article makes interesting reading.
iStor Unlocks High Availability Features in Installed iSCSI ASICs
IRVINE, Calif. - October 7, 2008 -
iStor Networks, Inc. has begun shipping a new version of its
software, v2.5, as a no-cost upgrade for all its iSCSI storage solutions.
This software will provide dual-controller
iS512 systems with the
ability to automatically detect malfunctions in the operational controller and
to switch to the redundant controller without loss of data, function or
performance.
"This new software capitalized on the patented
capabilities of iStor's ASIC technology enabling HA capability with no
impact upon system performance before, during or after a controller failure."
said Jim Wayda, iStor's VP of Software Development. "iStor designed its
controllers from the very beginning to deliver advanced functionality such as HA
and we are very proud that we have been able to demonstrate the investment
protection inherent in iStor's approach of implementation..."
...iStor profile,
iSCSI,
storage reliability
Wasabi Expands iSCSI SAN Product Line
VMWorld,
Las Vegas, NV - September 16, 2008 - Wasabi Systems has expanded its
line of VMX iSCSI SAN appliances.
Targeted applications for the
VMX series include disk-backup,
digital archive, web2.0 infrastructure, video surveillance, digital media
infrastructure and general office systems. The VMX series was designed to
support virtual server infrastructure using VMWare, XEN or Hyper-V server
virtualization technology. The
VMX
2000e starts at under $6,000 for a 2TB system and can be expanded up to
12TB.
"Our initial iSCSI SAN appliances have
been well received in the market place," said Frank G. Logan, Wasabi's
President and CEO. "These new models have been upgraded and cover a much
broader spectrum of the market and outperform many of the market leaders at
dramatically lower price points. With the addition of 10GbE, thin provisioning,
snapshot and volume shadow copy services, we cover the entire market spectrum
from entry level to mid-range enterprise requirements." ...Wasabi Systems profile
Axstor Launches2U 8 Port iSCSI Storage
Coventry, UK - September 9,
2008 - Axstor, announces the Ai-Pro 5108 - a 2U, 12 bay fast iSCSI
storage system.
With 8x 1Gb
iSCSI ports, the Ai-Pro
5108 can deliver more than 80,000 IOPs from a single controller, and a data
transfer rate of more than 800MB/s. It's fully dual-ported to ensure that there
is no single point of failure. Initially supporting up to 60 drives and 90TB
capacity, the system can be expanded to support 128 drives with the planned
release of new firmware in January 2009. ,,,Axstor profile
BBC Deploys ExaStore
London, UK - September
3, 2008 - BBC World Service has installed Exanet's ExaStore
clustered NAS system to support news production and archiving for the production
platform and play-out platform-multimedia workflow.
"ExaStore's infrastructure supports collaboration, which is
critical, as more than 125 people can potentially be accessing the system
simultaneously," says Elsa Shweid, Exanet's Sales Director.
BBC will store more than 6,500 hours of real-time high resolution
video and low-resolution proxy media on its ExaStore storage system. At the same
time, ExaStore is providing a bandwidth of more than 600Mbytes/second, with the
speed supporting individual access as well as rendering and media conversions
running in the background.
...Exanet profile
Fast Growth for Open-E's iSCSI Platform
Boston,
MA - August 19, 2008 - Open-E announced today that the number of
companies using its NAS/iSCSI software offering has grown by more the 30%
since its entry into the U.S. market this year.
The company has
established a worldwide presence with 220 OEMs, resellers and integrators
located across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions, and is positioned
to outpace first-generation solution providers. With over 10,000 installations,
in over 93 countries, Open-E data storage solutions are used by Fortune 500
customers worldwide.
IDC predicts a 76% increase
in iSCSI market revenue
between 2005 and 2010. The firm estimates that by 2010, iSCSI revenue will be
around $5 billion or 20% of the external disk storage market, up from $305
million or 3% in 2005.
...Open-E profile
HP BladeSystems Get iSCSI Accelerators
ALISO
VIEJO, Calif - July 24, 2008 - QLogic Corp. today announced a
performance-enhanced iSCSI mezzanine adapter for HP BladeSystem
servers.
The fully integrated QLogic QMH4062 1GbE dual-port
iSCSI Adapter offers
TCP/IP and iSCSI offload, iSCSI boot from a SAN and IPv6 compliance. It is
pre-certified with a wide range of storage systems in both Microsoft Windows and
Linux environments.
"Customers are looking to simplify their operations and reduce
the cost of their data centers," said Jim Ganthier, director, marketing
strategy, HP BladeSystem. "The single-step iSCSI boot feature of the
QMH4062 allows customers to boot their BladeSystem c-Class servers from a remote
operating system image located on an Ethernet-based storage network, resulting
in lower costs while simplifying the boot process for IT administrators."
...QLogic profile
Editor's
comments:- 6 years ago I wrote an article
the New Goldrush? -
Network Accelerators in which I listed all the companies talking about
TCP/IP accelerator and iSCSI offload cards.
A combination of the last
recession, slowness to develop standards and Microsoft's drag on the storage
software market meant that many of those products never got beyond prototypes.
The only company to have consistently ploughed this furrow has been
Alacritech. Good
technology ideas don't die. They resurface when the ecosystem looks more
favorable. I was wrong before about the iSCSI Accelerator Goldrush so, like you,
I'll just wait and see what happens now.
TCP/IP Acceleration and VTL Leaders Collaborate on Faster Offsite
Backup
MINNEAPOLIS,
MN - July 22, 2008 - NetEx today announced that its HyperIP bandwidth
optimization appliance has been certified by FalconStor Software, Inc.
providing mutual customers with a proven application acceleration solution.
The certification follows joint performance testing by NetEx and
FalconStor to prove interoperability of HyperIP in accelerating data rate
performance across TCP/IP transports for FalconStor data protection solutions,
including the FalconStor VTL, DiskSafe, and FileSafe solutions.
...FalconStor
Software profile, ...NetEx
profile, iSCSI
Editor's
comments:- FalconStor's software is built into
disk backup appliances sold
by many oems. So it's good news for customers of those products who can soon
expect to be offered a simple way to incrementally speed up their
offsite backup.
ET Solar Systems Pics - 3PAR's Utility Storage
FREMONT, CA - June 30, 2008 -
NASA Ames Research Center has chosen 3PAR's SAN storage for a mission
that will send the Kepler Space Telescope into orbit around the Sun to find
planets in solar systems outside our own.
Set to launch in
February of 2009, the mission will use 3PAR Utility Storage to store digital
images taken with the powerful telescope and its camera. NASA Ames chose the
resilient 3PAR storage system to meet its strict cost and performance
requirements while maintaining massive scalability and avoiding the need for a
full-time, dedicated storage expert.
During the Kepler mission, the telescope will orbit the Sun while
capturing images of approximately 100,000 solar systems in 30-minute intervals.
Scientists will then use these images to analyze the orbital patterns of planets
in these other solar systems. The aim of this research is to identify planets
with the potential to sustain life, based on their sizes and distances from
their respective suns.
Over the course of the Kepler mission, NASA Ames anticipates
requiring between 30 and 90 terabytes of capacity to allow storage and analysis
of images captured by the telescope.
...3PAR profile
Astute Networks Provides ATCA Storage for SPARC Blades
San
Diego, CA - June 12, 2008 - Astute Networks, Inc today announced the
availability of a bladed storage solution for the Sun compatible ATCA
market.
Sun Microsystems and Astute Networks will be
demonstrating a scalable ATCA platform at the
NXTcomm 2008 show in Las Vegas (June
16 - 19).
The demonstration is based on Sun's MySQL Cluster database,
and is implemented utilizing Sun's Netra CT900 ATCA bladed server chassis, the
Astute Networks' Caspian R1100 Edge Storage Blade, and the Sun Netra CP3260
UltraSPARC T2 blade server. ...Astute Networks profile,
Storage Events | |
 | |
|
Wherefore
Art Thou iSCSI?
It's 8 long years since
STORAGEsearch.com launched this
directory page dedicated to iSCSI
way back in March 2001.
iSCSI had an optimistic, much hyped for but false start in its early
years and became a graveyard
for many startups including many wannabe iSCSI host bus adapter oems.
That
segment of the iSCSI market became very lonely when
VCs realized the
market wasn't big enough to feed so many vendors and when some tuned software
accelerators were promising nearly the same levels of performance (but without
needing proprietary hardware).
In 2007 the iSCSI market reached
$1 billion annualised revenue (approximately 3 years later than
IDC had originally
projected ).
The main reasons for iSCSI's painful delivery were:-
slowness in the standard development process, early products which didn't work
properly, and then finally, waiting for the sleeping giant called
Microsoft to wake up
and grasp the significance of the storage market.
But like
Microsoft's late reaction to the world wide web - I think we can safely say the
company has now got the idea about storage.
In mid 2007 the iSCSI
market hotted up fueled by iSCSI benchmarks on 10Gbps Ethernet quoting
faster IOPs than
Fibre-channel
SANs and the low costs
which come from standardization. Users are hoping that iSCSI will be faster
to run than FC without the setup complexity.
Where is iSCSI today?
In the 3 months leading upto February 2009 - pageviews for iSCSI SANs
were 10% higher than those for FC SANs.
The FC SAN market isn't going
to go away - there's too much legacy investment for that to happen. But the
iSCSI market is where new network storage users are looking first to solve
their problems. Recent announcements about iSCSI compatible
SSD arrays also provide a
route for better performance.
If you're interested in seeing historical
snapshots of iSCSI history - try these links which take you to archived
versions of this page (and the external pages too).
| |
| . |
| Squeak!
- SSD Myths and Legends - "write endurance" |
| Does the
fatal gene of "write endurance" built into
flash
solid state
disks prevent their deployment in intensive server acceleration
applications - such as RAID
systems? |
It was
certainly true as little as a few years ago.
What's the risk with
today's devices?
This article looks at the current generation of
products and calculates how much (or how little) you should be worried. |
 | |
| RAM based SSDs have been
used alongside RAID for years - but flash SSDs are physically smaller and have
bigger capacity (160G in 2.5") and are lower cost than RAM-SSDs and could
actually be configured in standard RAID boxes. F-SSDs aren't as fast as RAM
based products but a single flash SSD can deliver 20,000 IOPs - which when
scaled up in an array - starts to look interesting. ...read the article,
storage reliability
solid state disks | |
| . |
|
|
| . |
Squeak! -
Why are Most Analysts Wrong About Solid State Disks?
Most
analysts and editors of other computer publications don't really understand the
solid state disk market. They show their ignorance and naivete by prefacing
every discussion of SSDs with a superficial analysis which compares the cost per
byte of storage between flash and hard disk drives.
That's the wrong
answer to the wrong question. And it's far removed from why the SSD market is
racing to become a multi billion dollar market seemingly in blithe ignorance of
the cost per byte proposition.
This new article tells you what's
important to users and the main applications in which SSDs are already being
used and new applications where they will be used in the next 3 years. ...read the
article, Solid State Disks | |
| . | |
