|
General
|
|
|
- Fully Supported
- Limitation
- Not Supported
- Information Only
|
|
Pros
|
- + Extensive platform support
- + Extensive data protection capabilities
- + Flexible deployment options
|
- + Extensive QoS capabilities
- + Considerable data protection integration
- + Built for performance
|
- + Flexible architecture
- + Satisfactory platform support
- + Several Microsoft integration points
|
|
Cons
|
- - No native data integrity verification
- - Dedup/compr not performance optimized
- - Disk/node failure protection not capacity optimized
|
- - Single hypervisor support
- - No stretched clustering
- - No native file services
|
- - Minimal data protection capabilities
- - No native dedup capabilities
- - No native encryption capabilities
|
|
|
|
Content |
|
|
|
|
WhatMatrix
|
WhatMatrix
|
WhatMatrix
|
|
|
|
Assessment |
|
|
|
|
Name: SANsymphony
Type: Software-only (SDS)
Development Start: 1998
First Product Release: 1999
NEW
DataCore was founded in 1998 and began to ship its first software-defined storage (SDS) platform, SANsymphony (SSY), in 1999. DataCore launched a separate entry-level storage virtualization solution, SANmelody (v1.4), in 2004. This platform was also the foundation for DataCores HCI solution. In 2014 DataCore formally announced Hyperconverged Virtual SAN as a separate product. In May 2018 integral changes to the software licensing model enabled consolidation because the core software is the same and since then cumulatively called DataCore SANsymphony.
One year later, in 2019, DataCore expanded its software-defined storage portfolio with a solution especially for the need of file virtualization. The additional SDS offering is called DataCore vFilO and operates as scale-out global file system across distributed sites spanning on-premises and cloud-based NFS and SMB shares.
Recently, at the beginning of 2021, DataCore acquired Caringo and integrated its know how and software-defined object storage offerings into the DataCore portfolio. The newest member of the DataCore SDS portfolio is called DataCore Swarm and together with its complementary offering SwarmFS and DataCore FileFly it enables customers to build on-premises object storage solutions that radically simplify the ability to manage, store, and protect data while allowing multi-protocol (S3/HTTP, API, NFS/SMB) access to any application, device, or end-user.
DataCore Software specializes in the high-tech fields of software solutions for block, file, and object storage. DataCore has by far the longest track-record when it comes to software-defined storage, when comparing to the other SDS/HCI vendors on the WhatMatrix.
In April 2021 the company had an install base of more than 10,000 customers worldwide and there were about 250 employees working for DataCore.
|
Name: Acuity (AC)
Type: Hardware+Software (HCI)
Development Start: 2016
First Product Release: 2017
Pivot3 was founded in 2002 and began to ship its first hyper-converged storage (HCI) platform, Serverless Computing, in 2008. The first Pivot3 appliances were primarily positioned for storing video surveilance data.
Early 2016 Pivot3 acquired external storage system company NexGen Storage and with it its mature N5 operating system that leveraged strong storage QoS capabilities. Pivot3 succesfully combined the N5 OS with its own vSTAC (Virtual Storage and Compute) OS, into a new software stack called Acuity. The Acuity platform was launched in April 2017, although the technology features and software were available in 2016 as part of the Pivot3 SLX product. In July 2018 Pivot3 also switched to the Acuity codebase for its video surveillance appliances.
Pivot3 pursues a vision to radically simplify the datacenter by collapsing storage, compute and network resources onto a powerful, easy to deploy solution that reduces cost, risk and complexity. Pivot3 has by far the longest track-record when it comes to hyper-converged infrastructure, when comparing to the other SDS/HCI vendors in the WhatMatrix.
In July 2018 the company had an install base of more than 2,600 customers worldwide and there were more than 300 employees working for Pivot3.
|
Name: HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
Type: Hardware+Software (HCI)
Development Start: 2014
First Product Release: 2016
StarWind Software is a privately held company which started in 2008 as a spin-off from Rocket Division Software, Ltd. (founded in 2003). It initially provided free Software Defined Storage (SDS) offerings to early adopters in 2009. Sometime in 2011 the company released its product Native SAN (later rebranded to Virtual SAN). In 2015 StarWind executed a successful 'pivot shift' from software-only company to become a hardware vendor and brought Hyper-Convergence from the Enterprise level to SMB and ROBO. The new HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) allowed the company to tap into the 'long tail' of the hyper-convergence market, thanks to its simplicity and cost-efficiency. In 2016 StarWind released two more hardware products: Backup Appliance and Storage Appliance.
In June 2019 the company had a StarWind HCA install base of approximately 1,250 customers worldwide. In June 2019 there were more than 250 employees working for StarWind.
|
|
|
|
GA Release Dates:
SSY 10.0 PSP12: jan 2021
SSY 10.0 PSP11: aug 2020
SSY 10.0 PSP10: dec 2019
SSY 10.0 PSP9: jul 2019
SSY 10.0 PSP8: sep 2018
SSY 10.0 PSP7: dec 2017
SSY 10.0 PSP6 U5: aug 2017
.
SSY 10.0: jun 2014
SSY 9.0: jul 2012
SSY 8.1: aug 2011
SSY 8.0: dec 2010
SSY 7.0: apr 2009
.
SSY 3.0: 1999
NEW
10th Generation software. DataCore currently has the most experience when it comes to SDS/HCI technology, when comparing SANsymphony to other SDS/HCI platforms.
SANsymphony (SSY) version 3 was the first public release that hit the market back in 1999. The product has evolved ever since and the current major release is version 10. The list includes only the milestone releases.
PSP = Product Support Package
U = Update
|
GA Release Dates:
AC 10.6.1: feb 2019
AC 10.6: dec 2018
AC 10.5.1: oct 2018
AC 10.4: jun 2018
AC 2.3.3: mar 2018
AC 2.3.2: jan 2018
AC 2.2: oct 2017
AC 2.1.1: aug 2017
AC 2.1: apr 2017
NEW
5th Generation software. Pivot3 currently has the most experience when it comes to HCI technology, when comparing Pivot3 technology to other SDS/HCI platforms.
|
Release Dates:
HCA build 13279: oct 2019
HCA build 13182: aug 2019
HCA build 12767: feb 2019
HCA build 12658: nov 2018
HCA build 12393: aug 2018
HCA build 12166: may 2018
HCA build 12146: apr 2018
HCA build 11818: dec 2017
HCA build 11456: aug 2017
HCA build 11404: jul 2017
HCA build 11156: may 2017
HCA build 10833: apr 2017
HCA build 10799: mar 2017
HCA build 10695: feb 2017
HCA build 10547: jan 2017
HCA build 9996: aug 2016
HCA build 9781: jun 2016
HCA build 9052: may 2016
HCA build 8730: nov 2015
Version 8 Release 10 StarWind software on proven Super Micro and Dell server hardware.
|
|
|
|
Pricing |
|
|
|
Hardware Pricing Model
Details
|
N/A
SANsymphony is sold by DataCore as a software-only solution. Server hardware must be acquired separately.
The entry point for all hardware and software compatibility statements is: https://www.datacore.com/products/sansymphony/tech/compatibility/
On this page links can be found to: Storage Devices, Servers, SANs, Operating Systems (Hosts), Networks, Hypervisors, Desktops.
Minimum server hardware requirements can be found at: https://www.datacore.com/products/sansymphony/tech/prerequisites/
|
Per Node
There is no separate software licensing. Each node comes equiped with an all-inclusive feature set. This means that without exception all Acuity software capabilities are available for use.
|
Per Node
|
|
|
Software Pricing Model
Details
|
Capacity based (per TB)
NEW
DataCore SANsymphony is licensed in three different editions: Enterprise, Standard, and Business.
All editions are licensed per capacity (in 1 TB steps). Except for the Business edition which has a fixed price per TB, the more capacity that is used by an end-user in each class, the lower the price per TB.
Each edition includes a defined feature set.
Enterprise (EN) includes all available features plus expanded Parallel I/O.
Standard (ST) includes all Enterprise (EN) features, except FC connections, Encryption, Inline Deduplication & Compression and Shared Multi-Port Array (SMPA) support with regular Parallel I/O.
Business (BZ) as entry-offering includes all essential Enterprise (EN) features, except Asynchronous Replication & Site Recovery, Encryption, Deduplication & Compression, Random Write Accelerator (RWA) and Continuous Data Protection (CDP) with limited Parallel I/O.
Customers can choose between a perpetual licensing model or a term-based licensing model. Any initial license purchase for perpetual licensing includes Premier Support for either 1, 3 or 5 years. Alternatively, term-based licensing is available for either 1, 3 or 5 years, always including Premier Support as well, plus enhanced DataCore Insight Services (predictive analytics with actionable insights). In most regions, BZ is available as term license only.
Capacity can be expanded in 1 TB steps. There exists a 10 TB minimum per installation for Business (BZ). Moreover, BZ is limited to 2 instances and a total capacity of 38 TB per installation, but one customer can have multiple BZ installations.
Cost neutral upgrades are available when upgrading from Business/Standard (BZ/ST) to Enterprise (EN).
|
Per Node (all-inclusive)
There is no separate software licensing. Each node comes equiped with an all-inclusive feature set. This means that without exception all Acuity software capabilities are available for use.
|
Per Node (all-inclusive)
Normal StarWind Virtual SAN licensing does not apply. Each StarWind HCA node comes equiped with an all-inclusive feature set. This means that a StarWind HCA solution provides unlimited capacity and scalability.
|
|
|
Support Pricing Model
Details
|
Capacity based (per TB)
Support is always provided on a premium (24x7) basis, including free updates.
More information about DataCores support policy can be found here:
http://datacore.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1270/~/what-is-datacores-support-policy-for-its-products
|
Per Node
Software support is mandatory at initial purchase and available in 1-, 3-, and 5-year increments.
Support Offerings:
7 day x 24 hour phone | parts onsite/same day
7 day x 24 hour phone | parts next business day
5 day x 9 hour phone | parts next business day
Pivot3 Proactive Diagnostics is an optional service that when enabled, provides:
- Actionable alerts and notifications
- Integrated phone-home telemetry.
|
Per Node (included)
StarWind ProActive Support is included with every HCA node that is acquired.
StarWind ProActive Support monitors the cluster health 24x7x365.
With the intial purchase, StarWind HCA comes with ProActive Support for a period of 3 years. There are options to get 5 and 7 years support. In terms of part replacement within the support contract both Next Busines Day (NBD) and 4 Hour options are available.
|
|
|
Design & Deploy
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Design |
|
|
|
Consolidation Scope
Details
|
Storage
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
DataCore is storage-oriented.
SANsymphony Software-Defined Storage Services are focused on variable deployment models. The range covers classical Storage Virtualization over Converged and Hybrid-Converged to Hyperconverged including a seamless migration between them.
DataCore aims to provide all key components within a storage ecosystem including enhanced data protection and automation & orchestration.
|
Compute
Storage
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
With the Acuity platform Pivot3 aims to provide key components within a Private Cloud ecosystem as well as integration with existing hypervisors and applications. Pivot3 also leverages several data protection capabilities.
|
Storage
Management
|
|
|
|
1, 10, 25, 40, 100 GbE (iSCSI)
8, 16, 32, 64 Gbps (FC)
The bandwidth required depends entirely on the specifc workload needs.
SANsymphony 10 PSP11 introduced support for Emulex Gen 7 64 Gbps Fibre Channel HBAs.
SANsymphony 10 PSP8 introduced support for Gen6 16/32 Gbps ATTO Fibre Channel HBAs.
|
10 GbE (or 1GbE)
Pivot3 Acuity hardware models include redundant ethernet connectivity using SFP+ or Base-T. Pivot3 recommends 10GbE to avoid the network becoming a performance bottleneck.
The 1GbE Base-T ports in the hardware models are left unused in almost all cases. They can be activated and used, but it is only on Exceptional, and Approved Opportunities.
|
1, 10, 25, 40, 100 GbE
StarWind hardware appliances include redundant ethernet connectivity using SFP+, SFP28, QSFP+, QSFP14, QSFP28, Base-T. StarWind recommends 10GbE or higher to avoid the network becoming a performance bottleneck.
|
|
|
Overall Design Complexity
Details
|
Medium
DataCore SANsymphony is able to meet many different use-cases because of its flexible technical architecture, however this also means there are a lot of design choices that need to be made. DataCore SANsymphony seeks to provide important capabilities either natively or tightly integrated, and this keeps the design process relatively simple. However, because many features in SANsymphony are optional and thus can be turned on/off, in effect each one needs to be taken into consideration when preparing a detailed design.
|
Low
Pivot3 Acuity was developed with simplicity in mind, both from a design and a deployment perspective. Pivot3 Acuitys uniform platform architecture is meant to be applicable to a wide variety of use-cases and seeks to provide important capabilities natively. Many advanced capabilities like deduplication and compression are always turned on. This minimizes the amount of design choices as well as the number of deployment steps.
|
Medium
StarWind HCA in itself has a straight-forward techniscal architecture. However, StarWind HCA does not encompass many native data protection capabilities and data services. A complete solution design therefore requires the presence of multiple technology platforms.
|
|
|
External Performance Validation
Details
|
SPC (Jun 2016)
ESG Lab (Jan 2016)
SPC (Jun 2016)
Title: 'Dual Node, Fibre Channel SAN'
Workloads: SPC-1
Benchmark Tools: SPC-1 Workload Generator
Hardware: All-Flash Lenovo x3650, 2-node cluster, FC-connected, SSY 10.0, 4x All-Flash Dell MD1220 SAS Storage Arrays
SPC (Jun 2016)
Title: 'Dual Node, High Availability, Hyper-converged'
Workloads: SPC-1
Benchmark Tools: SPC-1 Workload Generator
Hardware: All-Flash Lenovo x3650, 2-node cluster, FC-interconnect, SSY 10.0
ESG Lab (Jan 2016)
Title: 'DataCore Application-adaptive Data Infrastructure Software'
Workloads: OLTP
Benchmark Tools: IOmeter
Hardware: Hybrid (Tiered) Dell PowerEdge R720, 2-node cluster, SSY 10.0
|
ESG Lab (dec 2017)
ESG Lab (Dec 2017)
Title: 'Pivot3 Acuity: A High-performance Hyperconverged Platform with Advanced QoS'
Workloads: MSSQL OLTP, VDI, Generic
Benchmark Tools: HammerDB (MSSQL), Login VSI (VDI), IOmeter (generic)
Hardware: All-flash Acuity X5-6500/X5-6000, 3-node cluster, AC 2.1 (MSSQL, generic); All-flash+Hybrid Acuity, 6-node cluster, AC 2.1 (VDI)
|
StorageReview (oct 2019)
StorageReview (Oct 2019)
Title: 'StarWind HyperConverged Appliance Review'
Workloads: Generic profiles, SQL profiles
Benchmark Tools: VDbench
Hardware: HCA L-AF 3.2, 2-node cluster, HCA 13279
|
|
|
Evaluation Methods
Details
|
Free Trial (30-days)
Proof-of-Concept (PoC; up to 12 months)
SANsymphony is freely downloadble after registering online and offers full platform support (complete Enterprise feature set) but is scale (4 nodes), capacity (16TB) and time (30 days) restricted, what all can be expanded upon request. The free trial version of SANsymphony can be installed on all commodity hardware platforms that meet the hardware requirements.
For more information please go here: https://www.datacore.com/try-it-now/
|
Cloud Edition (forever)
Online Labs
Proof-of-Concept (PoC)
Partner Driven Demo Environment
Pivot3 Acuity Cloud Edition provides a non-intrusive way to test the product and its feature set.
Pivot3 organizes remote demos via VPN access to one of Pivot3s demo labs. In addition hands-on in-person demos/testing can be arranged in one of Pivot3s Executive Briefing Center (EBC) labs.
Pivot 3 provides both remote and on-site Proof-of-Concepts (PoC). PoCs are properly prepared by first agreeing on a set of success criteria. The length of a PoC is determined on a case-by-case basis. Under normal conditions Pivot3 PoCs are executed at no cost to the end-user.
Several Pivot3 partners provide an Acuity demo enviroment for customers to explore.
|
Community Edition (forever)
Trial (up to 30 days)
Proof-of-Concept
There are 3 ways for end-user organizations to evaluate StarWind:
1. StarWind Free. A free version of the software-only Virtual SAN product can be downloaded for the StarWind website. The free version has full functionality but StarWind Management Console works only in the monitoring mode without the ability to create or manage StarWind. All the management is performed via PowerShell and set of script templates.
The free version is intended to be self-supported or community-supported on public discussion forums. This
2. StarWind Trial. The trial version has full functionality and all the management capabilities for StarWind Management Console and is limited to 30 days but can be prolonged if required.
3. Proof-of-Concept. This option also has 2 ways. First, it is possible to get StarWind HCAs that will be delivered to a potential customer location for POC. The availability of HCAs is checked according to the schedule.
Second, remote access to StarWind HCA Appliances. The availability of HCAs is checked according to the schedule.
|
|
|
|
Deploy |
|
|
|
Deployment Architecture
Details
|
Single-Layer
Dual-Layer
Single-Layer = servers function as compute nodes as well as storage nodes.
Dual-Layer = servers function only as storage nodes; compute runs on different nodes.
Single-Layer:
- SANsymphony is implemented as virtual machine (VM) or in case of Hyper-V as service layer on Hyper-V parent OS, managing internal and/or external storage devices and providing virtual disks back to the hypervisor cluster it is implemented in. DataCore calls this a hyper-converged deployment.
Dual-Layer:
- SANsymphony is implemented as bare metal nodes, managing external storage (SAN/NAS approach) and providing virtual disks to external hosts which can be either bare metal OS systems and/or hypervisors. DataCore calls this a traditional deployment.
- SANsymphony is implemented as bare metal nodes, managing internal storage devices (server-SAN approach) and providing virtual disks to external hosts which can be either bare metal OS systems and/or hypervisors. DataCore calls this a converged deployment.
Mixed:
- SANsymphony is implemented in any combination of the above 3 deployments within a single management entity (Server Group) acting as a unified storage grid. DataCore calls this a hybrid-converged deployment.
|
Single-Layer (primary)
Dual-Layer (secondary)
Single-Layer: Pivot3 Acuity is meant to be used as a storage platform as well as a compute platform at the same time. This effectively means that applications, hypervisor and storage software are all running on top of the same server hardware (=single infrastructure layer).
Pivot3 Acuity can also serve in a dual-layer model by providing storage to non-Acuity hypervisor hosts (Please view the compute-only scale-out option for more information).
|
Single-Layer
Dual-Layer (secondary)
Single-Layer = servers function as compute nodes as well as storage nodes.
Dual-Layer = servers function only as storage nodes; compute runs on different nodes.
|
|
|
Deployment Method
Details
|
BYOS (some automation)
BYOS = Bring-Your-Own-Server-Hardware
DataCore SANsymphony is made easy by providing a very straightforward implementation approach.
|
Turnkey (very fast; highly automated)
Because of the ready-to-go Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) building blocks and the setup wizard provided by Pivot3, customer deployments can be executed in hours instead of days.
|
Turnkey (very fast; highly automated)
|
|
|
Workload Support
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Virtualization |
|
|
|
Hypervisor Deployment
Details
|
Virtual Storage Controller
Kernel (Optional for Hyper-V)
The SANsymphony Controller is deployed as a pre-configured Virtual Machine on top of each server that acts as a part of the SANsymphony storage solution and commits its internal storage and/or externally connected storage to the shared resource pool. The Virtual Storage Controller (VSC) can be configured direct access to the physical disks, so the hypervisor is not impeding the I/O flow.
In Microsoft Hyper-V environments the SANsymphony software can also be installed in the Windows Server Root Partition. DataCore does not recommend installing SANsymphony in a Hyper-V guest VM as it introduces virtualization layer overhead and obstructs DataCore Software from directly accessing CPU, RAM and storage. This means that installing SANsymphony in the Windows Server Root Partition is the preferred deployment option. More information about the Windows Server Root Partition can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/performance-tuning/role/hyper-v-server/architecture
The DataCore software can be installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2019 or lower (all versions down to Microsoft Windows Server 2012/R2).
Kernel Integrated, Virtual Controller and VIB are each distributed architectures, having one active component per virtualization host that work together as a group. All three architectures are capable of delivering a complete set of storage services and good performance. Kernel Integrated solutions reside within the protected lower layer, VIBs reside just above the protected kernel layer, and Virtual Controller solutions reside in the upper user layer. This makes Virtual Controller solutions somewhat more prone to external actions (eg. most VSCs do not like snapshots). On the other hand Kernel Integrated solutions are less flexible because a new version requires the upgrade of the entire hypervisor platform. VIBs have the middle-ground, as they provide more flexibility than kernel integrated solutions and remain relatively shielded from the user level.
|
Virtual Storage Controller
The Pivot 3 Virtual Storage Controller is deployed as a pre-configured Virtual Machine on top of each server that acts as a part of the Pivot3 Acuity storage solution and commits its internal storage to the shared resource pool. The Virtual Storage Controller (VSC) can be configured direct access to the physical disks, so the hypervisor is not impeding the I/O flow. Pivot3 leverages its patented MPIO driver and VMwares DirectPath I/O framework to maximize storage performance.
MPIO Driver: Pivot3 has a patented MPIO driver in Acuity that allows an application server to see and, more importantly, read and write down every path available to the data. This improves both performance and storage resiliency.
DirectPath I/O (VMDirectPath) is a VMware framework that allows Acuity to directly communicate with the
underlying storage controllers, NVMe devices and disks for optimal performance benefit. Pivot3’s patented implementation against this framework allows for improved overall I/O performance for the
application layer and VMs.
Kernel Integrated, Virtual Controller and VIB are each distributed architectures, having one active component per virtualization host that work together as a group. All three architectures are capable of delivering a complete set of storage services and good performance. Kernel Integrated solutions reside within the protected lower layer, VIBs reside just above the protected kernel layer, and Virtual Controller solutions reside in the upper user layer. This makes Virtual Controller solutions somewhat more prone to external actions (eg. most VSCs do not like snapshots). On the other hand Kernel Integrated solutions are less flexible because a new version requires the upgrade of the entire hypervisor platform. VIBs have the middle-ground, as they provide more flexibility than kernel integrated solutions and remain relatively shielded from the user level.
|
Virtual Storage Controller (vSphere)
User-Space (Hyper-V)
VMware vSphere: StarWind is installed inside a virtual machine (VM) on every ESXi host. The StarWind VM runs the Windows Server operating system.
Microsoft Hyper-V: By default, StarWind is installed in 'C:\Program Files\StarWind Software' on the Windows Server operating system.
|
|
|
Hypervisor Compatibility
Details
|
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5-7.0U1
Microsoft Hyper-V 2012R2/2016/2019
Linux KVM
Citrix Hypervisor 7.1.2/7.6/8.0 (XenServer)
'Not qualified' means there is no generic support qualification due to limited market footprint of the product. However, a customer can always individually qualify the system with a specific SANsymphony version and will get full support after passing the self-qualification process.
Only products explicitly labeled 'Not Supported' have failed qualification or have shown incompatibility.
|
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5-6.7
Pivot3 Acuity hardware models are officially listed in the Storage/SAN section of the online VMware Compatibility Guide.
Pivot3 Acuity only supports the VMware vSphere hypervisor at this time.
|
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5U3-6.7
Microsoft Hyper-V 2012-2019
StarWind is actively working on supporting KVM.
|
|
|
Hypervisor Interconnect
Details
|
iSCSI
FC
The SANsymphony software-only solution supports both iSCSI and FC protocols to present storage to hypervisor environments.
DataCore SANsymphony supports:
- iSCSI (Switched and point-to-point)
- Fibre Channel (Switched and point-to-point)
- Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
- Switched, where host uses Converged Network Adapter (CNA), and switch outputs Fibre Channel
|
iSCSI
The Pivot3 Acuity platform supports the industry-standard iSCSI protocol to present storage to both hypervisor and non-hypervisor environments.
The iSCSI protocol can also be leveraged to present storage directly to VMs, which is often referred to as 'in-guest iSCSI'.
|
iSCSI
NFS
SMB3
iSCSI is the native StarWind HCA storage protocol, as StarWind HCA provides block-based storage.
NFS can be used as the storage protocol in VMware vSphere environments by leveraging the File Server role that the Windows OS provides.
SMB3 can be used as the storage protocol in Microsoft Hyper-V environments by leveraging the File Server role that the Windows OS provides.
In both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V environments, iSCSI is used as a protocol to provide block-level storage access. It allows consolidating storage from multiple servers providing it as highly available storage to target servers. In the case of vSphere, VMware iSCSI Initiator allows connecting StarWind iSCSI devices to ESXi hosts and further create datastores on them. In the case of Hyper-V, Microsoft iSCSI Initiator is utilized to connect StarWind iSCSI devices to the servers and further provide HA storage to the cluster (i.e. CSV).
In virtualized environments In-Guest iSCSI support is still a hard requirements if one of the following scenarios is pursued:
- Microsoft Failover Clustering (MSFC) in a VMware vSphere environment
- A supported MS Exchange 2013 Environment in a VMware vSphere environment
Microsoft explicitely does not support NFS in both scenarios.
|
|
|
|
Bare Metal |
|
|
|
Bare Metal Compatibility
Details
|
Microsoft Windows Server 2012R2/2016/2019
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5/6.6/7.3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0SP3+4/12.0SP1
Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS
CentOS 6.5/6.6/7.3
Oracle Solaris 10.0/11.1/11.2/11.3
Any operating system currently not qualified for support can always be individually qualified with a specific SANsymphony version and will get full support after passing the self-qualification process.
SANsymphony provides virtual disks (block storage LUNs) to all of the popular host operating systems that use standard disk drives with 512 byte or 4K byte sectors. These hosts can access the SANsymphony virtual disks via SAN protocols including iSCSI, Fibre Channel (FC) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).
Mainframe operating systems such as IBM z/OS, z/TPF, z/VSE or z/VM are not supported.
SANsymphony itself runs on Microsoft Windows Server 2012/R2 or higher.
|
Many
Because Pivot3 leverages the industry-standard iSCSI protocol, it enables hosts and physical workloads that reside outside of a Pivot3 cluster to access Pivot3 volumes by providing highly available block storage as iSCSI LUNs. The physical workloads can be stand-alone servers, Windows Failover Clusters (including MSSQL) or Oracle RAC. Also hypervisor workloads are supported to run on these separate hosts, such as Hyper-V and KVM.
Pivot3 quality engineering teams have so far qualified Acuity with external hosts running VMware ESX 6.x, Windows Server 2012/2016 and various flavors of Linux.
|
Microsoft Windows Server 2012/2012R2/2016/2019
StarWind HCA provides highly available storage over iSCSI between the StarWind nodes and can additionally share storage over iSCSI to any OS that supports the iSCSI protocol.
|
|
|
Bare Metal Interconnect
Details
|
iSCSI
FC
FCoE
|
iSCSI
The Pivot3 Acuity platform supports the industry-standard iSCSI protocol to present storage to both hypervisor and non-hypervisor environments.
The iSCSI protocol can also be leveraged to present storage directly to VMs, which is often referred to as 'in-guest iSCSI'. Pivot3 recommends utilizing a modern iSCSI initiator that supports MPIO ALUA in Round-Robin policy.
MPIO ALUA = Multipath Input/Output Asymmetric Logical Unit Access
|
iSCSI
|
|
|
|
Containers |
|
|
|
Container Integration Type
Details
|
Built-in (native)
DataCore provides its own Volume Plugin for natively providing Docker container support, available on Docker Hub.
DataCore also has a native CSI integration with Kubernetes, available on Github.
|
N/A
Pivot3 Acuity relies on the container support delivered by the hypervisor platform.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA relies on the container support delivered by the hypervisor platform.
|
|
|
Container Platform Compatibility
Details
|
Docker CE/EE 18.03+
Docker EE = Docker Enterprise Edition
|
Docker CE 17.06.1+ for Linux on ESXi 6.0+
Docker EE/Docker for Windows 17.06+ on ESXi 6.0+
Docker CE = Docker Community Edition
Docker EE = Docker Enterprise Edition
|
Docker CE 17.06.1+ for Linux on ESXi 6.0+
Docker EE/Docker for Windows 17.06+ on ESXi 6.0+
Docker CE = Docker Community Edition
Docker EE = Docker Enterprise Edition
|
|
|
Container Platform Interconnect
Details
|
Docker Volume plugin (certified)
The DataCore SDS Docker Volume plugin (DVP) enables Docker Containers to use storage persistently, in other words enables SANsymphony data volumes to persist beyond the lifetime of both a container or a container host. DataCore leverages SANsymphony iSCSI and FC to provide storage to containers. This effectively means that the hypervisor layer is bypassed.
The Docker SDS Volume plugin (DVP) is officially 'Docker Certified' and can be downloaded from the Docker Hub. The plugin is installed inside the Docker host, which can be either a VM or a Bare Metal Host connect to a SANsymphony storage cluster.
For more information please go to: https://hub.docker.com/plugins/datacore-sds-volume-plugin
The Kubernetes CSI plugin can be downloaded from GitHub. The plugin is automatically deployed as several pods within the Kubernetes system.
For more information please go to: https://github.com/DataCoreSoftware/csi-plugin
Both plugins are supported with SANsymphony 10 PSP7 U2 and later.
|
Docker Volume Plugin (certified) + VMware VIB
vSphere Docker Volume Service (vDVS) can be used with VMware vSAN, as well as VMFS datastores and NFS datastores served by VMware vSphere-compatible storage systems.
The vSphere Docker Volume Service (vDVS) installation has two parts:
1. Installation of the vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) on ESXi.
2. Installation of Docker plugin on the virtualized hosts (VMs) where you plan to run containers with storage needs.
The vSphere Docker Volume Service (vDVS) is officially 'Docker Certified' and can be downloaded from the online Docker Store.
|
Docker Volume Plugin (certified) + VMware VIB
vSphere Docker Volume Service (vDVS) can be used with VMware vSAN, as well as VMFS datastores and NFS datastores served by VMware vSphere-compatible storage systems.
The vSphere Docker Volume Service (vDVS) installation has two parts:
1. Installation of the vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) on ESXi.
2. Installation of Docker plugin on the virtualized hosts (VMs) where you plan to run containers with storage needs.
The vSphere Docker Volume Service (vDVS) is officially 'Docker Certified' and can be downloaded from the online Docker Store.
The StarWind HA VMFS (datastore) can be used for deploying containers just as on common VMFS datastore.
|
|
|
Container Host Compatibility
Details
|
Virtualized container hosts on all supported hypervisors
Bare Metal container hosts
The DataCore native plug-ins are container-host centric and as such can be used across all SANsymphony-supported hypervisor platforms (VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM, XenServer, Oracle VM Server) as well as on bare metal platforms.
|
Virtualized container hosts on VMware vSphere hypervisor
Because the vSphere Docker Volume Service (vDVS) and vSphere Cloud Provider (VCP) are tied to the VMware Sphere platform, they cannot be used for bare metal hosts running containers.
|
Virtualized container hosts on VMware vSphere hypervisor
Because the vSphere Docker Volume Service (vDVS) and vSphere Cloud Provider (VCP) are tied to the VMware Sphere platform, they cannot be used for bare metal hosts running containers.
|
|
|
Container Host OS Compatbility
Details
|
Linux
All Linux versions supported by Docker CE/EE 18.03+ or higher can be used.
|
Linux
Windows 10 or 2016
Any Linux distribution running version 3.10+ of the Linux kernel can run Docker.
vSphere Storage for Docker can be installed on Windows Server 2016/Windows 10 VMs using the PowerShell installer.
|
Linux
Windows 10 or 2016
Any Linux distribution running version 3.10+ of the Linux kernel can run Docker.
vSphere Storage for Docker can be installed on Windows Server 2016/Windows 10 VMs using the PowerShell installer.
|
|
|
Container Orch. Compatibility
Details
|
Kubernetes 1.13+
|
Kubernetes 1.6.5+ on ESXi 6.0+
|
Kubernetes 1.6.5+ on ESXi 6.0+
|
|
|
Container Orch. Interconnect
Details
|
Kubernetes CSI plugin
The Kubernetes CSI plugin provides several plugins for integrating storage into Kubernetes for containers to consume.
DataCore SANsymphony provides native industry standard block protocol storage presented over either iSCSI or Fibre Channel. YAML files can be used to configure Kubernetes for use with DataCore SANsymphony.
|
Kubernetes Volume Plugin
vSphere Cloud Provider (VCP) for Kubernetes allows Pods to use enterprise grade persistent storage. VCP supports every storage primitive exposed by Kubernetes:
- Volumes
- Persistent Volumes (PV)
- Persistent Volumes Claims (PVC)
- Storage Class
- Stateful Sets
Persistent volumes requested by stateful containerized applications can be provisioned on vSAN, VVol, VMFS or NFS datastores.
|
Kubernetes Volume Plugin
vSphere Cloud Provider (VCP) for Kubernetes allows Pods to use enterprise grade persistent storage. VCP supports every storage primitive exposed by Kubernetes:
- Volumes
- Persistent Volumes (PV)
- Persistent Volumes Claims (PVC)
- Storage Class
- Stateful Sets
Persistent volumes requested by stateful containerized applications can be provisioned on vSAN, VVol, VMFS or NFS datastores.
|
|
|
|
VDI |
|
|
|
VDI Compatibility
Details
|
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
There is no validation check being performed by SANsymphony for VMware Horizon or Citrix XenDesktop VDI platforms. This means that all versions supported by these vendors are supported by DataCore.
|
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
Pivot3 has published an Acuity X5 Reference Architecture whitepaper for VMware Horizon.
Pivot3 has not (yet) published an Acuity X5 Reference Whitepaper for Citrix XenDesktop.
|
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
Although StarWind supports both VMware and Citrix VDI deployments on top of StarWind HCA, there is currently no specific documentation available.
|
|
|
|
VMware: 110 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: 110 virtual desktops/node
DataCore has not published any recent VDI reference architecture whitepapers. The only VDI related paper that includes a Login VSI benchmark dates back to december 2010. There a 2-node SANsymphony cluster was able to sustain a load of 220 VMs based on the Login VSI 2.0.1 benchmark.
|
VMware: 272-317 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: 167 virtual desktops/node
NEW
VMware Horizon 7.0.2: Load bearing numbers are based on Login VSI tests performed on an Acuity X5 hybrid configuration consisting of two Pivot3 X5-2500 Accelerator nodes and one Pivot3 X5-2000 Standard node, and an Acuity X5 all-flash configuration consisting two Acuity X5-6500 Accelerator nodes and one Pivot3 X5-6000 Standard node. In both cases each of the Acuity accelerator nodes had 1.6TB of NVMe flash storage and 2vCPU Windows 7 desktops and the Knowledge Worker profile were used.
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1808: Load bearing numbers are based on Login VSI tests performed on an Acuity X5 all-flash configuration consisting of two Pivot3 X5-6500 Accelerator nodes and one Pivot3 X5-6000 Standard node. Each of the Acuity accelerator nodes had 2.0TB of NVMe flash storage and 2vCPU Windows 10 1709 desktops and the Knowledge Worker profile were used.
For detailed information please view the corresponding whitepapers.
|
VMware: up to 260 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: up to 220 virtual desktops/node
The load bearing numbers are based on approximate calculations of VDI infrastructure that StarWind HCA can support.
There are no LoginVSA benchmark numbers on record for StarWind HCA as of yet.
|
|
|
Server Support
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Server/Node |
|
|
|
Hardware Vendor Choice
Details
|
Many
SANsymphony runs on all server hardware that supports x86 - 64bit.
DataCore provides minimum requirements for hardware resources.
|
Dell
Lenovo
For Pivot3 Acuity Datacenter Edition end-users may choose either Dell-base or Lenovo-based server hardware should it matter to them.
Pivot3 Acuity Lenovo and Dell servers may be mixed and matched, so switching between server hardware vendors is allowed. The only prerequisite for mixing is that the persistent media type (SSD or Hybrid), drive capacity and the number of drives per node are the same. When mixing, nodes are allowed to have varying memory and CPU sizes.
|
Super Micro (StarWind branded)
Dell (StarWind branded)
Dell (OEM)
HPE (Select)
All StarWind HCA models can be delivered as either Dell or Supermicro server hardware. Dell and Supermicro rackmount chassis hardware models (1U-2U) are further selected as to best fit the requirements of the specific end-user organization.
|
|
|
|
Many
SANsymphony runs on all server hardware that supports x86 - 64bit.
DataCore provides minimum requirements for hardware resources.
|
8 compute+storage models:
X5-2000, X5-2500, X5-6000, X5-6500, X3-2000, X3-2500, X3-6000, X3-6500
4 compute-only models:
X3-2000, X3-2500, X3-6000, X3-6500
4 storage-only models:
X3-2000s, X3-6000s, X5-2000s, X5-6000s
NEW
Different models are available for different workloads and use cases:
X5-6500 - HCI Flash Accelerator Node 2U
X5-6000 - HCI Flash Standard Node 2U
X5-6000s - STO Flash Storage-only Node 2U
X5-2500 - HCI Hybrid Accelerator Node 2U
X5-2000 - HCI Hybrid Standard Node 2U
X5-2000s - STO Hybrid Storage-only Node 2U
X3-6500 - HCI Flash Accelerator Node 1U
X3-6000 - HCI Flash Standard Node 1U
X3-6000s - STO Flash Storage-only Node 1U
X3-2500 - HCI Hybrid Accelerator Node 1U
X3-2000 - HCI Hybrid Standard Node 1U
X3-2000 - STO Hybrid Storage-only Node 1U
A Pivot3 Acuity cluster always has to include 2 Accelerator nodes (either X5-6500, X5-2500, X3-6500 or X3-2500), because NMVe PCIe is used as write-buffer and all writes are mirrored between these two nodes.
Pivot3 X-Series Storage Appliances are combined with Pivot3 X-Series HCI Appliances to form a Virtual Performance Group (vPG).
|
6 Native Models (L-AF, XL-AF, L-H, XL-H, L, XL)
20 Native Submodels
All StarWind HCA models are designed for small and mid-size SMB virtualized environments.
StarWind Native Models (Super Micro / Dell):
L-AF (All-Flash; Performance)
XL-AF (All-Flash; Performance @ scale)
L-H (Hybrid; Cost-efficient performance)
XL-H (Hybrid; Cost-efficient performance @ scale)
L (Magnetic-only; Capacity)
XL (Magnetic-only; Capacity @ scale)
|
|
|
|
1, 2 or 4 nodes per chassis
Note: Because SANsymphony is mostly hardware agnostic, customers can opt for multiple server densities.
Note: In most cases 1U or 2U building blocks are used.
Also Super Micro offers 2U chassis that can house 4 compute nodes.
Denser nodes provide a smaller datacenter footprint where space is a concern. However, keep in mind that the footprint for other datacenter resources such as power and heat and cooling is not necessarily reduced in the same way and that the concentration of nodes can potentially pose other challenges.
|
1 node per chassis
Pivot3 Acuity X5-Series appliances are 2U building blocks. Pivot3 Acuity X3-Series appliances are 1U building blocks.
Denser nodes provide a smaller datacenter footprint where space is a concern. However, keep in mind that the footprint for other datacenter resources such as power and heat and cooling is not necessarily reduced in the same way and that the concentration of nodes can potentially pose other challenges.
|
1 node per chassis
The StarWind HCA architecture uses 1U-1Node and 2U-1Node building blocks.
|
|
|
|
Yes
DataCore does not explicitly recommend using different hardware platforms, but as long as the hardware specs are somehow comparable, there is no reason to insist on one or the other hardware vendor. This is proven in practice, meaning that some customers run their productive DataCore environment on comparable servers of different vendors.
|
Partial
A Pivot3 Acuity 'cluster' is called a Pivot3 virtual Performance Group (vPG). vPGs can only consist of like platforms (Hybrid nodes vs. All-flash nodes).
However, Pivot3 Acuity Hybrid (2x00) and All-flash (6x00) nodes can co-exist within the same Pivot3 Domain (aka 'Federation'). All nodes in the Domain can be managed via a single pane of glass.
|
No
StarWind HCAs cannot be mixed and should be of the same configuration when used in a cluster as they come in a High-Availability (HA) pair as a single solution.
|
|
|
|
Components |
|
|
|
|
Flexible
Minimum hardware requirements need to be fulfilled.
For more information please go to: https://www.datacore.com/products/sansymphony/tech/compatibility/
|
Flexible: up to 7 options
NEW
HCI Appliances: By default both X3 and X5 series models are equiped with 1st generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Skylake):
Intel Xeon Scalable 4114 2x 10-cores (X3-2000/2500)
Intel Xeon Scalable 5118 2x 12-cores (X3-6000/6500; X5-2000/2500/6000/6500)
Intel Xeon Scalable 6138 2x 20-cores (X3-6000/6500; X5-2000/2500/6000/6500)
Other Intel Xeon CPUs are available on request. The following CPU configurations are supported in Pivot3 Acuity appliances:
Dual Xeon 6138 20-cores
Dual Xeon 5118 12-cores
Dual Xeon 4114 10-cores
Single Xeon 3104 12-cores
Dual Xeon 4116 12-cores
Single Xeon 4116 12-cores
Single E3-1270 4-cores
Storage Appliances: By default both X3 and X5 series models are equiped with 1st generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Skylake):
Intel Xeon Scalable 3104 1x 6-cores (X3-2000s/6000s; X5-2000s/6000s)
Pviot3 Acuity X-Series nodes do not yet ship with 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Cascade Lake) processors.
|
Flexible
StarWind HCAs have flexible CPU configurations. StarWind can equip any Intel CPU as per customers specific requirements. Only the default CPU configurations are shown below.
StarWind HCA model L-AF (All-Flash) CPU specs:
L-AF 2.8: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
L-AF 4.8: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
L-AF 7.6: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
L-AF 9.6: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
StarWind HCA model XL-AF (All-Flash) CPU specs:
XL-AF 13.4: 2x Intel Xeon Gold 5218 (16 cores)
XL-AF 15.3: 2x Intel Xeon Gold 5218 (16 cores)
XL-AF 19.2: 2x Intel Xeon Gold 5218 (16 cores)
XL-AF 23.0: 2x Intel Xeon Gold 5218 (16 cores)
StarWind HCA model L-H (Hybrid) CPU specs:
L-H 5.9: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
StarWind HCA model XL-H (Hybrid) CPU specs:
XL-H 8.8: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
XL-H 11.8: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
XL-H 16.8: 2x Intel Xeon Gold 5218 (16 cores)
XL-H 21.7: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 5218 (16 cores)
XL-H 37.6: 2x Intel Xeon Gold 5218 (16 cores)
StarWind HCA model L (Magnetic-only) CPU specs:
L-4D: 2x Intel Xeon Bronze 3204 (6 cores)
StarWind HCA model XL (Magnetic-only) CPU specs:
XL-8D: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
XL-16D: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
XL-24D: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
XL-32D: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
XL-48D: 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4208 (8 cores)
StarWind HCA nodes are equiped with 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Cascade Lake) processors by default.
|
|
|
|
Flexible
|
Flexible: up to 4 options
NEW
HCI Appliances:
X5-series storage nodes: 256GB, 512GB, 768GB or 1536GB per node. 1536GB per node is available only on request.
X3-series storage nodes: 192GB, 384GB or 768GB per node.
X3-series compute-only nodes: 256GB, 768GB or 1536GB per node.
Each Acuity node has 24 DIMM slots that are populated with multiples of 32GB or 64GB DIMMs to reach the different memory capacity points.
Storage Appliances:
X5s-series and X3s-series storage nodes: 32GB per node
|
Flexible
StarWind HCA model L-AF (All-Flash) Memory specs:
L-AF 2.8: 64GB
L-AF 4.8: 128GB
L-AF 7.6: 128GB
L-AF 9.6: 128GB
StarWind HCA model XL-AF (All-Flash) Memory specs:
XL-AF 13.4: 192GB
XL-AF 15.3: 256GB
XL-AF 19.2: 320GB
XL-AF 23.0: 512GB
StarWind HCA model L-H (Hybrid) Memory specs:
L-H 5.9: 96GB
StarWind HCA model XL-H (Hybrid) Memory specs:
XL-H 8.8: 128GB
XL-H 11.8: 128GB
XL-H 16.8: 256GB
XL-H 21.7: 256GB
XL-H 37.6: 512GB
StarWind HCA model L (Magnetic-only) Memory specs:
L-4D: 32GB
StarWind HCA model XL (Magnetic-only) Memory specs:
XL-8D: 64GB
XL-16D: 96GB
XL-24D: 128GB
XL-32D: 128GB
XL-48D: 192GB
Memory can be expanded on all StarWind HCA models and sub-models.
|
|
|
|
Flexible
Minimum hardware requirements need to be fulfilled.
For more information please go to: https://www.datacore.com/products/sansymphony/tech/compatibility/
|
Flexible: disk capacity
NEW
X5-2000 (Hybrid Standard):
2x 400GB SSD - used primarily for Erasure Coding write acceleration
12x 1TB/2TB/4TB/8TB/10TB/12TB NL-SAS = 12TB/24TB/48TB/96TB/120TB/144TB raw capacity
X5-2500 (Hybrid Accelerator):
1x 3.8TB/4.0TB NVMe PCIe
2x 400GB SSD - used primarily for Erasure Coding write acceleration
12x 1TB/2TB/4TB/8TB/10TB/12TB NL-SAS = 12TB/24TB/48TB/96TB/120TB/144TB raw capacity
X3-2000 (Hybrid Standard):
1x 400GB SSD - used primarily for Erasure Coding write acceleration
8x 1TB/2TB NL-SAS = 8TB/16TB raw capacity
X3-2500 (Hybrid Accelerator):
1x 960GB 2.5' PCIe SSD (U.2) or 1.6TB NVMe PCIe
2x 400GB SSD - used primarily for Erasure Coding write acceleration
8x 1TB/2TB NL-SAS = 8TB/16TB raw capacity
X5-6000 (All-Flash Standard):
8x 400GB/480GB/800GB/960GB/1.6TB/1.9TB/3.8TB = 3.2TB/3.8TB/6.4TB/7.6TB/12.8TB/15.3TB/30.7TB raw capacity
X5-6500 (All-Flash Accelerator):
1x 1.6TB NVMe PCIe
8x 400GB/480GB/800GB/960GB/1.6TB/1.9TB/3.8TB = 3.2TB/3.8TB/6.4TB/7.6TB/12.8TB/15.3TB/30.7TB raw capacity
X3-6000 (All-Flash Standard):
8x 960GB/1.9TB/3.8TB = 7.6TB/15.3TB/30.7TB raw capacity
X3-6500 (All-Flash Accelerator):
1x 960GB 2.5' PCIe SSD (U.2) or 1.6TB NVMe PCIe
8x 960GB/1.9TB/3.8TB = 7.6TB/15.3TB/30.7TB raw capacity
There is no difference in storage capacity options between Pivot3 X-series HCI appliances and Pivot3 X-series Storage appliances.
|
Flexible: number of storage devices
StarWind HCA model L-AF (All-Flash) Storage specs:
L-AF 2.8: 4x 960GB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5)
L-AF 4.8: 6x 960GB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5)
L-AF 7.6: 5x 1.92TB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5)
L-AF 9.6: 6x 1.92TB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5)
StarWind HCA model XL-AF (All-Flash) Storage specs:
XL-AF 13.4: 8x 1.92TB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5)
XL-AF 15.3: 9x 1.92TB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5)
XL-AF 19.2: 11x 1.92TB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5)
XL-AF 23.0: 13x 1.92TB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5)
StarWind HCA model L-H (Hybrid) Storage specs:
L-H 5.9: 2x 1.92TB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID1) + 2x 4TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID1)
StarWind HCA model XL-H (Hybrid) Storage specs:
XL-H 8.8: 4x 960GB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5) + 6x 2TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
XL-H 11.8: 5x 960GB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5) + 4x 4TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
XL-H 16.8: 6x 960GB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5) + 6x 4TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
XL-H 21.7: 4x 1.92TB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5) + 8x 4TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
XL-H 37.6: 6x 1.92TB SATA Mix Use SSD (RAID5) + 14x 4TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
StarWind HCA model L (Magnetic-only) Storage specs:
L-4D: 4x 2TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
StarWind HCA model XL (Magnetic-only) Storage specs:
XL-8D: 8x 2TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
XL-16D: 8x 4TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
XL-24D: 12x 4TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
XL-32D: 8x 8TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
XL-48D: 12x 8TB 7.2K NL-SAS (RAID10)
Storage can be expanded on the following StarWind HCA models:
- All L-AF and XL-AF submodels
- XL-H 8.8, XL-H 11.8, XL-H 16.8, XL-H 21.7, XL-H 37.6
- XL-8D, XL-16D and XL-32D
|
|
|
|
Flexible
Minimum hardware requirements need to be fulfilled.
For more information please go to: https://www.datacore.com/products/sansymphony/tech/compatibility/
|
Flexible: 2 or 3 options
NEW
HCI Appliances:
X5-6500: 6x 10 GbT + 2x1GbT OR 8x 10 GbT / GbE SFP+
X5-6000: 4x 10 GbT + 2x1GbT OR 6x 10 GbT / GbE SFP+
X5-2500: 6x 10 GbT + 2x1GbT OR 8x 10 GbT / GbE SFP+
X5-2000: 4x 10 GbT + 2x1GbT OR 6x 10 GbT / GbE SFP+
X3-6500: 8x 10 GbT OR 8x 10 GbE SFP+
X3-6000: 6x 10 GbT OR 6x 10 GbE SFP+
X3-2500: 8x 10 GbT OR 8x 10 GbE SFP+
X3-2000: 6x 10 GbT OR 6x 10 GbE SFP+
Storage Appliances:
X5-6000s: 4x 10 GbT OR 4x 10 GbE SFP+
X5-2000s: 4x 10 GbT OR 4x 10 GbE SFP+
X3-6000s: 4x 10 GbT OR 4x 10 GbE SFP+
X3-2000s: 4x 10 GbT OR 4x 10 GbE SFP+
|
Fixed (Private network)
StarWind HCA model L-AF (All-Flash) Networking specs:
L-AF 2.8: 4x 1GbE and 2x 10GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
L-AF 4.8: 4x 1GbE and 2x 10GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
L-AF 7.6: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
L-AF 9.6: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
StarWind HCA model XL-AF (All-Flash) Networking specs:
XL-AF 13.4: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
XL-AF 15.3: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
XL-AF 19.2: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
XL-AF 23.0: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
StarWind HCA model L-H (Hybrid) Networking specs:
L-H 5.9: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC
StarWind HCA model XL-H (Hybrid) Networking specs:
XL-H 8.8: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
XL-H 11.8: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
XL-H 16.8: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
XL-H 21.7: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
XL-H 37.6: 2x 1GbE + 2x 10GbE NDC and 2x 25GbE (Private, RDMA-enabled)
StarWind HCA model L (Magnetic-only) Networking specs:
L-4D: 2x 1GbE (LOM) and 4x 1GbE
StarWind HCA model XL (Magnetic-only) Networking specs:
XL-8D: 4x 1GbE and 2x 10GbE (Private)
XL-16D: 4x 1GbE and 2x 10GbE (Private)
XL-24D: 4x 1GbE and 2x 10GbE (Private)
XL-32D: 4x 1GbE and 2x 10GbE (Private)
XL-48D: 4x 1GbE and 2x 10GbE (Private)
Private networks that are used for StarWind remain fixed. Other NICs can be replaced as per customer-specific requirements.
|
|
|
|
NVIDIA Tesla
AMD FirePro
Intel Iris Pro
DataCore SANsymphony supports the hardware that is on the hypervisor HCL.
VMware vSphere 6.5U1 officially supports several GPUs for VMware Horizon 7 environments:
NVIDIA Tesla M6 / M10 / M60
NVIDIA Tesla P4 / P6 / P40 / P100
AMD FirePro S7100X / S7150 / S7150X2
Intel Iris Pro Graphics P580
More information on GPU support can be found in the online VMware Compatibility Guide.
Windows 2016 supports two graphics virtualization technologies available with Hyper-V to leverage GPU hardware:
- Discrete Device Assignment
- RemoteFX vGPU
More information is provided here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/rds-graphics-virtualization
The NVIDIA website contains a listing of GRID certified servers and the maximum number of GPUs supported inside a single server.
Server hardware vendor websites also contain more detailed information on the GPU brands and models supported.
|
X5: NVIDIA Tesla
X3: N/A
The following NVIDIA GPU card configurations can be ordered along with the Pivot3 X5-6000/6500 models:
1x NVIDIA Tesla M10
1x NVIDIA Tesla M60
1x NVIDIA Tesla P40
1x NVIDIA Tesla V100
|
NVIDIA Tesla/Quadro
GPUs can be added to custom StarWind HCA models depending on the requirements.
The following NVIDIA GPU card configurations can be ordered along with custom StarWind HCA models:
NVIDIA Tesla P4
NVIDIA Quadro P4000
|
|
|
|
Scaling |
|
|
|
|
CPU
Memory
Storage
GPU
The SANsymphony platform allows for expanding of all server hardware resources.
|
Memory
Network
The system memory of a Pivot3 Acuity node may be expanded after initial purchase.
Each Acuity node has 24 DIMM slots that are populated with multiples of 32GB or 64GB DIMMs to reach the different memory capacity points.
It is possible to expand the number of available network ports within a node through the addition of an extra PCIe 10Gbe network card, or to upgrade an existing network card from dual-port to quad-port configurations.
|
CPU
Memory
Storage
GPU
Storage: All available disk slots in a StarWind HCA node can be utilized. Additionally, the StarWind HCA technical architecture allows scaling using external disk shelves (JBODs).
|
|
|
|
Storage+Compute
Compute-only
Storage-only
Storage+Compute: In a single-layer deployment existing SANsymphony clusters can be expanded by adding additional nodes running SANsymphony, which adds additional compute and storage resources to the shared pool. In a dual-layer deployment both the storage-only SANsymphony clusters and the compute clusters can be expanded simultaneously.
Compute-only: Because SANsymphony leverages virtual block volumes (LUNs), storage can be presented to hypervisor hosts not participating in the SANsymphony cluster. This is also beneficial to migrations, since it allows for online storage vMotions between SANsymphony and non-SANsymphony storage platforms.
Storage-only: In a dual-layer or mixed deployment both the storage-only SANsymphony clusters and the compute clusters can be expanded independent from each other.
|
Compute+storage
Compute-only (iSCSI)
Storage-only
NEW
Storage+Compute: Existing Pivot3 Acuity clusters can be expanded by adding additional X5-Series nodes, which adds additional compute and storage resources to the shared pool.
Compute-only: Because Pivot3 Acuity leverages a common block protocol (iSCSI), storage can be presented to hypervisor hosts not participating in the Pivot3 Acuity storage cluster, as long as these hosts are connected to the storage iSCSI network. This is also beneficial to migrations, since it allows for online storage vMotions between Pivot3 Acuity and non-Pivot3 Acuity storage platforms.
Storage-only: With the release of Acuity 10.6.1 Pivot3 introduces Storage appliances next to its HCI appliances. The Storage appliances have minimal CPU and Memory resources on board and only take part in the storage cluster so they can contribute to the shared storage pool of the HCI appliances. They do not take part in the hypervisor (compute) cluster, so no VMware vSphere licenses are required.
|
Compute+storage
Compute-only
Storage-only
In case of Storage-only scale out, StarWind HCA Storage Nodes will be based on Windows Server bare metal with no hypervisor software installed eg. VMware ESXi. StarWind software will be running as a Windows-native application and providing storage to the hypervisor hosts.
|
|
|
|
1-64 nodes in 1-node increments
There is a maximum of 64 nodes within a single cluster. Multiple clusters can be managed through a single SANsymphony management instance.
|
X5 Hybrid: 3-12 nodes in 1-node increments
X5 All-Flash: 3-16 nodes in 1-node increments
X3 Hybrid: 3-8 nodes in 1-node increments
X3 All-Flash: 3-8 nodes in 1-node increments
At maximum a Pivot3 Acuity X5 Hybrid vPG (aka 'cluster') consists of 12 X5-2x00 nodes. The maximum configuration consists of 2 Flash Accelerator nodes + 10 non-accelerator nodes.
At maximum a Pivot3 Acuity X5 All-Flash vPG (aka 'cluster' ) consists of 16 X5-6x00 nodes. The maximum configuration consists of 2 Flash Accelerator nodes + 14 non-accelerator nodes.
At maximum a Pivot3 Acuity X3 Hybrid vPG (aka 'cluster') consists of 8 X3-2x00 nodes. The maximum configuration consists of 2 Flash Accelerator nodes + 6 non-accelerator nodes.
At maximum a Pivot3 Acuity X3 All-Flash vPG (aka 'cluster' ) consists of 8 X3-6x00 nodes. The maximum configuration consists of 2 Flash Accelerator nodes + 6 non-accelerator nodes.
A Pivot3 Acuity vPG (aka 'cluster' ) always needs to include 2 Flash Accelerator nodes, because the NMVe PCIe cards are used as write-buffer and all writes have to be mirrored between these two nodes to protect the incoming data streams.
A Pivot3 Domain can include multiple vPGs and therefore can have an unlimited number of nodes. All vPGs can be managed as one pool of resources from a single management pane. VMs can have data stored on multiple clusters and vMotion between any cluster works seamlessly.
|
2-64 nodes in 1-node increments
The 64-node limit applies to both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V environments.
|
|
|
Small-scale (ROBO)
Details
|
2 Node minimum
DataCore prevents split-brain scenarios by always having an active-active configuration of SANsymphony with a primary and an alternate path.
In the case SANsymphony servers are fully operating but do not see each other, the application host will still be able to read and write data via the primary path (no switch to secondary). The mirroring is interrupted because of the lost connection and the administrator is informed accordingly. All writes are stored on the locally available storage (primary path) and all changes are tracked. As soon as the connection between the SANsymphony servers is restored, the mirror will recover automatically based on these tracked changes.
Dual updates due to misconfiguration are detected automatically and data corruption is prevented by freezing the vDisk and waiting for user input to solve the conflict. Conflict solutions could be to declare one side of the mirror to be the new active data set and discarding all tracked changes at the other side, or splitting the mirror and merge the two data sets into a 3rd vDisk manually.
|
3 Node minimum (data center)
1 Node minimum (ROBO)
Pivot3 Acuity supports a minimum of 3 X-series nodes when local High Availability (HA) is required. The minimum base configuration consists of 2 Flash Accelerator nodes + 1 non-accelerator node. Two Accelerator nodes are required, because the NMVe PCIe cards are used as write-buffer and all writes are mirrored between these two nodes.
Pivot3 Acuity also supports 1-node configurations when local HA is not required, eg. in ROBO deployments.
|
2 Node minimum
StarWind HCAs or Storage-only HCAs come as a 2-node minimum. They can further scale up by adding more disks or JBODs or scale-out by adding new HCAs or Storage-only nodes.
|
|
|
Storage Support
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
General |
|
|
|
|
Block Storage Pool
SANsymphony only serves block devices to the supported OS platforms.
|
Block Pool
Pivot3 Acuity serves block devices as storage volumes to the supported OS platforms. The Block Pool is wide striped and load balanced across all resources in the cluster.
|
Block Storage Pool
StarWind HCA only serves block devices as storage volumes to the supported OS platforms.
The underlying storage is first aggregated with hardware RAID inside StarWind HCA. Then, the storage is replicated by StarWind at the block level across 2 or 3 nodes and further provided as a single pool (single StarWind virtual device) or as multiple pools (multiple StarWind devices).
|
|
|
|
Partial
DataCores core approach is to provide storage resources to the applications without having to worry about data locality. But if data locality is explicitly requested, the solution can partially be designed that way by configuring the first instance of all data to be stored on locally available storage (primary path) and the mirrored instance to be stored on the alternate path (secondary path). Furthermore every hypervisor host can have a local preferred path, indicated by the ALUA path preference.
By default data does not automatically follow the VM when the VM is moved to another node. However, virtual disks can be relocated on the fly to other DataCore node without losing I/O access, but this relocation takes some time due to data copy operations required. This kind of relocation usually is done manually, but we allow automation of such tasks and can integrate with VM orchestration using PowerShell for example.
Whether data locality is a good or a bad thing has turned into a philosophical debate. Its true that data locality can prevent a lot of network traffic between nodes, because the data is physically located at the same node where the VM resides. However, in dynamic environments where VMs move to different hosts on a frequent basis, data locality in most cases requires a lot of data to be copied between nodes in order to maintain the physical VM-data relationship. The SDS/HCI vendors today that choose not to use data locality, advocate that the additional network latency is negligible.
|
None
Pivot3 Acuity enables every drive in every node throughout the vPG (virtual performance group or cluster) to contribute to the storage performance and capacity of every volume presented by Acuity. After a VM is moved to another Acuity X5 node, data remains in place and does not follow the VM because data is wide-striped and available across all nodes.
Whether data locality is a good or a bad thing has turned into a philosophical debate. Its true that data locality can prevent a lot of network traffic between nodes, because the data is physically located at the same node where the VM resides. However, in dynamic environments where VMs move to different hosts on a frequent basis, data locality in most cases require a lot of data to be copied between nodes in order to maintain the physical VM-data relationship. The SDS/HCI vendors today that choose not to use data locality, advocate that the additional network latency is negligible.
|
Partial
StarWinds core approach is to keep data close (local) to the VM in order to avoid slow data transfers through the network and achieve the highest performance the setup can provide. The solution is designed to store the first instance of all data on locally available storage (primary path) and the mirrored instance to be stored on the alternate path (secondary path). Furthermore every hypervisor host can have a local preferred path, indicated by the ALUA path preference. Data does not automatically follow the VM when the VM is moved to another node.
Whether data locality is a good or a bad thing has turned into a philosophical debate. Its true that data locality can prevent a lot of network traffic between nodes, because the data is physically located at the same node where the VM resides. However, in dynamic environments where VMs move to different hosts on a frequent basis, data locality in most cases requires a lot of data to be copied between nodes in order to maintain the physical VM-data relationship. The SDS/HCI vendors today that choose not to use data locality, advocate that the additional network latency is negligible.
|
|
|
|
Direct-attached (Raw)
Direct-attached (VoV)
SAN or NAS
VoV = Volume-on-Volume; The Virtual Storage Controller uses virtual disks provided by the hypervisor platform.
|
Direct-attached (Raw)
Direct-attached: The software takes ownership of the unformatted physical disks available each X5-Series node.
External SAN/NAS Storage: Pivot3 Acuity does not support the connection to external Fiber Channel (FC), Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), iSCSI and/or NFS storage directly or through the Fabric Interconnect (FI) switches.
|
Direct-attached (Raw)
SAN or NAS
Direct-attached: StarWind can take control of formatted disks (NTFS). Also, StarWind software can present RAW unformatted disks over SCSI Pass Through Interface that enables remote initiator clients to use any type of a hard drive (PATA/SATA/RAID).
External SAN/NAS Storage: SAN/NAS can be connected over Ethernet connectivity and can be used for StarWind HCA as soon as they are provided as block storage (iSCSI). In case it is required to replicate data between NAS systems, there should be 2 NAS systems connected to both StarWind HCA nodes.
|
|
|
|
Magnetic-only
All-Flash
3D XPoint
Hybrid (3D Xpoint and/or Flash and/or Magnetic)
NEW
|
Hybrid (Flash+Magnetic)
All-Flash
Depending on the chosen X5-series appliance model, Pivot3 Acuity can be deployed using different compositions:
- Hybrid (NVMe PCIe/Performance SSD + Capacity HDD)
- All-Flash (NVMe PCIe/Performance SSD + Capacity SSD)
|
Magnetic-only
Hybrid (Flash+Magnetic)
All-Flash
|
|
|
Hypervisor OS Layer
Details
|
SD, USB, DOM, SSD/HDD
|
USB, SSD, SD
Dell: ESXi is booted from an internal, enterprise grade M.2 SSD drive or from dual SDs.
Lenovo: ESXi is booted from an internal, ultra-high performance, enterprise grade USB drive.
|
SD, USB, DOM, SSD/HDD
By default, all StarWind HCA nodes come with redundant SSDs or M.2 sticks for OS installation.
|
|
|
|
Memory |
|
|
|
|
DRAM
|
DRAM
|
DRAM
|
|
|
|
Read/Write Cache
DataCore SANsymphony accelerates reads and writes by leveraging the powerful processors and large DRAM memory inside current generation x86-64bit servers on which it runs. Up to 8 Terabytes of cache memory may be configured on each DataCore node, enabling it to perform at solid state disk speeds without the expense. SANsymphony uses a common cache pool to store reads and writes in.
SANsymphony read caching essentially recognizes I/O patterns to anticipate which blocks to read next into RAM from the physical back-end disks. That way the next request can be served from memory.
When hosts write to a virtual disk, the data first goes into DRAM memory and is later destaged to disk, often grouped with other writes to minimize delays when storing the data to the persistent disk layer. Written data stays in cache for re-reads.
The cache is cleaned on a first-in-first-out (FiFo) basis. Segment overwrites are performed on the oldest data first for both read- and write cache segment requests.
SANsymphony prevents the write cache data from flooding the entire cache. In case the write data amount runs above a certain percentage watermark of the entire cache amount, then the write cache will temporarily be switched to write-through mode in order to regain balance. This is performed fully automatically and is self-adjusting, per virtual disk as well as on a global level.
|
Read Cache and Write Buffer
DRAM is used by Acuitys Dynamic Data Path Engine to provide read-ahead cache acceleration. Data is copied
from NVMe PCIe flash or disk (HDD or SSD) into DRAM to provide faster access to the data.
GlobalCache: Pivot3 Acuity also uses the DRAM inside each node as a high performance cache to provide an initial landing point for data as it is passed from the NVMe PCIe flash tier to the erasure coded persistent storage tier (HDD or SSD).
|
Read/Write Cache
StarWind HCA accelerates reads and writes by leveraging conventional RAM.
The memory cache is filled up with data mainly during write operations. During read operations, data enters the cache only if the latter contains either empty memory blocks or the lines that were allocated for these entries earlier and have not been fully exhausted yet.
StarWind HCA supports two Memory (L1 Cache) Policies:
1. Write-Back, caches writes in DRAM only and acknowledges back to the originator when complete in DRAM.
2. Write-Through, caches writes in both DRAM and underlying storage, and acknowledges back to the originator when complete in the underlying storage.
This means that exclusively caching writes in convential memory is optional. When the Write-Through policy is used, DRAM is used primarily for caching reads.
To change the cache size, first, the StarWind service should be stopped on one HCA and change cache and then start the service and then repeat the same process on the partner HCA. This allows keeping VMs up and running during cache changes.
In the majority of use cases, there is no need to assign L1 cache for all-flash storage arrays.
Note: In case of using the Write-Back policy for DRAM, UPS units have to be installed to ensure the correct shutdown of StarWind Virtual SAN nodes. If a power outage occurs, this will prevent the loss of cached data. The UPS capacity must cover the time required for flushing the cached data to the underlying storage.
|
|
|
|
Up to 8 TB
The actual size that can be configured depends on the server hardware that is used.
|
Configurable
Between 24-128GB of physical memory (DRAM) in each Pivot3 Acuity node is assigned to the local Pivot3 Virtual Storage Controller (VSC) and as such is not available to the hypervisor software (ESXi).
The local Pivot3 Acuity VM can be assigned more memory, however there is little to no benefit to performance by doing so.
By default, 24GB of the memory (DRAM) that is assigned to the local Pivot3 Acuity VM is used as GlobalCache.
GlobalCache: A high performance cache that provides an initial landing point for data as it is passed from the NVMe PCIe flash tier to the erasure coded persistent storage tier (HDD or SSD).
|
Configurable
The size of L1 cache should be equal to the amount of the average working data set.
There are no default or maximum values for RAM cache as such. The maximum size that can be assigned for StarWind RAM cache is limited by the available RAM to the system; also, you need to make sure that other applications running will have enough of RAM for their operations.
Additionally, the total amount of L1 cache assigned influences the time required for system shutdown so overprovisioning of the L1 cache amount can cause StarWind service interruption and the loss of cached data. The minimum size assigned for RAM cache in either write-back or write-through mode is 1MB. However, StarWind recommends assigning a StarWind RAM cache size that matches the size of the working data set.
|
|
|
|
Flash |
|
|
|
|
SSD, PCIe, UltraDIMM, NVMe
|
NVMe, SSD
|
SSD, NVMe
|
|
|
|
Persistent Storage
SANsymphony supports new TRIM / UNMAP capabilities for solid-state drives (SSD) in order to reduce wear on those devices and optimize performance.
|
NVMe PCIe: Read/Write Cache
SSD: Persistent Storage
Pivot3 Acuity X5 Accelerator nodes have either a 1.6TB/1.92TB (X5-6500) or 3.2TB/3.8TB (X5-X2500) NVMe PCIe Flash card.
The 1.6TB NVMe PCIe Flash card in an Acuity X5 Accelerator node (X5-6500) is segmented in:
Write Cache Primary: 560GB
Write Cache Partner Replica: 560GB
Read-Warm Cache: 480GB
The 3.2TB NVMe PCIe Flash card in an Acuity X5 Accelerator node (X5-X2500) is segmented in:
Write Cache Primary: 1,120GB
Write Cache Partner Replica: 1,120GB
Read-Warm Cache: 960GB
X5 Hybrid SSDs: 2x 400GB are a caching tier as part of the Erasure Coding process
X5 All-Flash SSDs: 400GB/480GB/800GB/960GB/1.6TB/1.9TB/3.8TB
A Pivot3 Acuity X5 Hybrid node holds 2 SSDs and 12 HDDs.
A Pivot3 Acuity X5 All-Flash node holds 8 SSDs.
Pivot3 Acuity X3 Accelerator nodes (X3-2500; X3-6500) have either an 960GB 2.5-inch PCIe SSD (U.2) or an 1.6TB NVMe PCIe Flash card.
X3 Hybrid SSD: 1x 400GB is a caching tier as part of the Erasure Coding process
X3 All-Flash SSDs: 960GB/1.9TB/3.8TB
A Pivot3 Acuity X3 Hybrid node holds 1 SSD and 8 HDDs.
A Pivot3 Acuity X3 All-Flash node holds 8 SSDs.
|
Read/Write Cache (hybrid)
Persistent storage (all-flash)
StarWind HCA supports a single Flash (L2 Cache) Policy:
1. Write-Through, caches writes in both Flash (SSD/NVMe) and the underlying storage, and acknowledges back to the originator when complete in the underlying storage.
With the write-through policy, new blocks are written both to cache layer and the underlying storage synchronously. However, in this mode, only the blocks that are read most frequently are kept in the cache layer, accelerating read operations. This is the only mode available for StarWind L2 cache.
In the case of Write-Through cached data does not need to be offloaded to the backing store when a device is removed or the service is stopped.
In the majority of use cases, if L1 cache is already assigned, there is no need to configure L2 cache.
A StarWind HCA solution with L2 cache configured should have more RAM available, since L2 cache needs 6.5 GB of RAM per 1 TB of L2 cache to store metadata.
|
|
|
|
No limit, up to 1 PB per device
The definition of a device here is a raw flash device that is presented to SANsymphony as either a SCSI LUN or a SCSI disk.
|
All-flash:
X5-6500: 1x NVMe AIC/PCIe +16x SSD
X3-6500: 1x NVMe U.2 + 8x SSD
X5-6000: 16x SSD
X3-6000: 8x SSD
Hybrid:
X5-2500: 1x NVMe AIC/PCIe + 2x SSD
X3-2500: 1x NVMe U.2/PCIe + 1x SSD
X5-2000 2x SSD
X3-2000 1x SSD
Pivot3 Acuity X5 Accelerator nodes have either a 1.6TB or 3.2TB NVMe Flash device.
The 1.6TB NVMe PCIe Flash card in an Acuity X5 Accelerator node is segmented in:
Write Cache Primary: 560GB
Write Cache Partner Replica: 560GB
Read-Warm Cache: 480GB
The 3.2TB NVMe PCIe Flash card in an Acuity X5 Accelerator node is segmented in:
Write Cache Primary: 1,120GB
Write Cache Partner Replica: 1,120GB
Read-Warm Cache: 960GB
X5 Hybrid SSDs: 2x 400GB are a caching tier as part of the Erasure Coding process
X5 All-Flash SSDs: 400GB/480GB/800GB/960GB/1.6TB/1.9TB/3.8TB
A Pivot3 Acuity X5 Hybrid node holds 2 SSDs and 12 HDDs.
A Pivot3 Acuity X5 All-Flash node holds 16 SSDs.
Pivot3 Acuity X3 Accelerator nodes have either a 960GB 2.5-inch or a 1.6TB NVMe Flash device.
X3 Hybrid SSD: 1x 400GB is a caching tier as part of the Erasure Coding process
X3 All-Flash SSDs: 960GB/1.9TB/3.8TB
A Pivot3 Acuity X3 Hybrid node holds 1 SSD and 8 HDDs.
A Pivot3 Acuity X3 All-Flash node holds 8 SSDs.
|
All-Flash: 4-20+ devices per node
Hybrid: 2 devices per node
All available disk slots in a StarWind HCA node can be utilized. Additionally, the StarWind HCA technical architecture allows scaling using external disk shelves (JBODs).
|
|
|
|
Magnetic |
|
|
|
|
SAS or SATA
SAS = 10k or 15k RPM = Medium-capacity medium-speed drives
SATA = NL-SAS = 7.2k RPM = High-capacity low-speed drives
In this case SATA = NL-SAS = MDL SAS
|
Hybrid: SATA
SATA = NL-SAS = 7.2k RPM = High-capacity low-speed drives
|
Hybrid: SAS or SATA
|
|
|
|
Persistent Storage
|
Persistent Storage
|
Persistent Storage
|
|
|
Magnetic Capacity
Details
|
No limit, up to 1 PB (per device)
The definition of a device here is a raw flash device that is presented to SANsymphony as either a SCSI LUN or a SCSI disk.
|
X3 Hybrid: 12 SATA HDDs per host/node
X5 Hybrid: 8 SATA HDDs per host/node
A Pivot3 Acuity X5 Hybrid node holds 2 SSDs for caching and 12 HDDs for storage of persistent data.
A Pivot3 Acuity X3 Hybrid node holds 1 SSD for caching and 8 HDDs for storage of persistent data.
|
Hybrid: 4+ devices per node
Magnetic-only: 4-12+ devices per node
All available disk slots in a StarWind HCA node can be utilized. Additionally, the StarWind HCA technical architecture allows scaling using external disk shelves (JBODs).
|
|
|
Data Availability
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reads/Writes |
|
|
|
Persistent Write Buffer
Details
|
DRAM (mirrored)
If caching is turned on (default=on), any write will only be acknowledged back to the host after it has been succesfully stored in DRAM memory of two separate physical SANsymphony nodes. Based on de-staging algorithms each of the nodes eventually copies the written data that is kept in DRAM to the persistent disk layer. Because DRAM outperforms both flash and spinning disks the applications experience much faster write behavior.
Per default, the limit of dirty-write-data allowed per Virtual Disk is 128MB. This limit could be adjusted, but there has never been a reason to do so in the real world. Individual Virtual Disks can be configured to act in write-through mode, which means that the dirty-write-data limit is set to 0MB so effectively the data is directly written to the persistent disk layer.
DataCore recommends that all servers running SANsymphony software are UPS protected to avoid data loss through unplanned power outages. Whenever a power loss is detected, the UPS automatically signals this to the SANsymphony node and write behavior is switched from write-back to write-through mode for all Virtual Disks. As soon as the UPS signals that power has been restored, the write behavior is switched to write-back again.
|
NVMe PCIe (mirrored)
NVMe PCIe serves as a very performant storage medium for a read/write mirrored journal that is split between two accelerator nodes.
When an application sends a write request, it is mirrored between the NVMe PCIe flash cards on two Acuity X3/X5 Accelerator nodes for high availability and redundancy. Once both copies are stored, the receiving node acknowledges the write completion to the host. Once the write is acknowledged, the system will copy the data from NVMe PCIe flash to disk (HDD or SSD). Reads, writes, and modifies of the original copy occur in NVMe PCIe flash. At this point, the copy on disk is only used in the event that a rebuild on the NMVe PCIe flash tier is required. Lastly, if the data that is stored in NVMe PCIe flash is not being accessed frequently, the Acuity X5 node will evict it to make room for more active data based on the QoS priorities and targets. The decision to evict data is made in real-time based on access patterns, current performance levels and data-reduction ratios.
NVMe flash is able to deliver 2x the performance of 12Gbps SAS and up to 6x the performance of 6Gbps SATA.
Pivot3 Acuitys platform architecture requires two Flash Accelerator nodes to be part of any virtual Performance Group (vPG aka 'cluster'), regardless if SSD or HHD is placed underneath.
NVMe = Non-volatile memory express
PCIe = Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
|
DRAM (mirrored)
Flash Layer (SSD, NVMe)
|
|
|
Disk Failure Protection
Details
|
2-way and 3-way Mirroring (RAID-1) + opt. Hardware RAID
DataCore SANsymphony software primarily uses mirroring techniques (RAID-1) to protect data within the cluster. This effectively means the SANsymphony storage platform can withstand a failure of any two disks or any two nodes within the storage cluster. Optionally, hardware RAID can be implemented to enhance the robustness of individual nodes.
SANsymphony supports Dynamic Data Resilience. Data redundancy (none, 2-way or 3-way) can be added or removed on-the-fly at the vdisk level.
A 2-way mirror acts as active-active, where both copies are accessible to the host and written to. Updating of the mirror is synchronous and bi-directional.
A 3-way mirror acts as active-active-backup, where the active copies are accessible to the host and written to, and the backup copy is inaccessible to the host (paths not presented) and written to. Updating of the mirrors active copies is synchronous and bi-directional. Updating of the mirrors backup copy is synchronous and unidirectional (receive only).
In a 3-way mirror the backup copy should be independent of existing storage resources that are used for the active copies. Because of the synchronous updating all mirror copies should be equal in storage performance.
When in a 3-way mirror an active copy fails, the backup copy is promoted to active state. When the failed mirror copy is repaired, it automatically assumes a backup state. Roles can be changed manually on-the-fly by the end-user.
DataCore SANsymphony 10.0 PSP9 U1 introduced System Managed Mirroring (SMM). A multi-copy virtual disk is created from a storage source (disk pool or pass-through disk) from two or three DataCore Servers in the same server group. Data is synchronously mirrored between the servers to maintain redundancy and high availability of the data. System Managed Mirroring (SMM) addresses the complexity of managing multiple mirror paths for numerous virtual disks. This feature also addresses the 256 LUN limitation by allowing thousands of LUNs to be handled per network adapter. The software transports data in a round robin mode through available mirror ports to maximize throughput and can dynamically reroute mirror traffic in the event of lost ports or lost connections. Mirror paths are automatically and silently managed by the software.
The System Managed Mirroring (SMM) feature is disabled by default. This feature may be enabled or disabled for the server group.
With SANsymphony 10.0 PSP10 adds seamless transition when converting Mirrored Virtual Disks (MVD) to System Managed Mirroring (SMM). Seamless transition converts and replaces mirror paths on virtual disks in a manner in which there are no momentary breaks in mirror paths.
|
Erasure Coding (EC1/EC3/EC5)
Global Virtual Sparing
The Pivot3 Acuity platform leverages patented Erasure Coding technology. Pivot3 Acuity Erasure Coding requires at least 3 nodes in a vPG. Pivot3 Acuity Erasure Coding is configured on a per volume basis, so EC levels can be mixed within the same vPG.
Configurable Erasure Coding levels:
EC1: Protects against 1 disk failure event OR 1 node failure event.
EC3: Protects against 3 simultaneous disk failure events OR 1 drive failure event + 1 node failure event.
EC5: Protects against 5 simultaneous disk failure events OR 2 drive failure events + 1 node failure event.
The Pivot3 Acuity platform also leverages a patented Global Virtual Sparing methodology. Whenever a volume is created, it is known what the required capacity for sparing is. Therefore, a small percentage of every drive is reserved for this capacity, meaning that a virtual spare spanning the entirety of the cluster, is created for each volume.
Global Virtual Sparing has two major advantages:
- The overall net capacity is significantly improved, since there is no longer the requirement for a single drive per node to be reserved for sparing. Also, as the system scales, the percentage required for sparing on each
drive decreases and more capacity is made available for application data.
- Since every drive has a small amount of sparing reservation, the performance impact of the failure and the
subsequent data migration or rebuild is distributed across all of the other drives in the vPG. This significantly improves rebuild times and reduces the performance impact on the system during failure conditions.
|
1-2 Replicas (2N-3N)
+ Hardware RAID (1, 5, 10)
StarWind HCA uses replicas to protect data within the cluster. In addition, hardware RAID is implemented to enhance the robustness of individual nodes.
Replicas+Hardware RAID: Before any write is acknowledged to the host, it is synchronously replicated to one or two designated partner nodes. This means that with 2N one instance of data that is written is stored on the local node and another instance of that data is stored on the designated partner node in the cluster. With 3N one instance of data that is written is stored on the local node, and two other instances of that data are stored on designated partner nodes in the cluster. When a physical disk fails, hardware RAID maintains data availability.
The hardware RAID level that is applied depends on the media type and the number of devices used:
Flash drives = RAID5
2 Flash drives in Hybrid config = RAID1
Magnetic drives = RAID10
2 Magnetic drives in Hybrid config = RAID1
|
|
|
Node Failure Protection
Details
|
2-way and 3-way Mirroring (RAID-1)
DataCore SANsymphony software primarily uses mirroring techniques (RAID-1) to protect data within the cluster. This effectively means the SANsymphony storage platform can withstand a failure of any two disks or any two nodes within the storage cluster. Optionally, hardware RAID can be implemented to enhance the robustness of individual nodes.
SANsymphony supports Dynamic Data Resilience. Data redundancy (none, 2-way or 3-way) can be added or removed on-the-fly at the vdisk level.
A 2-way mirror acts as active-active, where both copies are accessible to the host and written to. Updating of the mirror is synchronous and bi-directional.
A 3-way mirror acts as active-active-backup, where the active copies are accessible to the host and written to, and the backup copy is inaccessible to the host (paths not presented) and written to. Updating of the mirrors active copies is synchronous and bi-directional. Updating of the mirrors backup copy is synchronous and unidirectional (receive only).
In a 3-way mirror the backup copy should be independent of existing storage resources that are used for the active copies. Because of the synchronous updating all mirror copies should be equal in storage performance.
When in a 3-way mirror an active copy fails, the backup copy is promoted to active state. When the failed mirror copy is repaired, it automatically assumes a backup state. Roles can be changed manually on-the-fly by the end-user.
DataCore SANsymphony 10.0 PSP9 U1 introduced System Managed Mirroring (SMM). A multi-copy virtual disk is created from a storage source (disk pool or pass-through disk) from two or three DataCore Servers in the same server group. Data is synchronously mirrored between the servers to maintain redundancy and high availability of the data. System Managed Mirroring (SMM) addresses the complexity of managing multiple mirror paths for numerous virtual disks. This feature also addresses the 256 LUN limitation by allowing thousands of LUNs to be handled per network adapter. The software transports data in a round robin mode through available mirror ports to maximize throughput and can dynamically reroute mirror traffic in the event of lost ports or lost connections. Mirror paths are automatically and silently managed by the software.
The System Managed Mirroring (SMM) feature is disabled by default. This feature may be enabled or disabled for the server group.
With SANsymphony 10.0 PSP10 adds seamless transition when converting Mirrored Virtual Disks (MVD) to System Managed Mirroring (SMM). Seamless transition converts and replaces mirror paths on virtual disks in a manner in which there are no momentary breaks in mirror paths.
|
Erasure Coding (N+1/N+3/N+5)
The Pivot3 Acuity platform leverages patented Erasure Coding technology. Pivot3 Acuity Erasure Coding requires at least 3 nodes in a vPG. Pivot3 Acuity Erasure Coding is configured on a per volume basis, so EC levels can be mixed within the same vPG.
Configurable Erasure Coding levels:
EC1: Protects against 1 disk failure event OR 1 node failure event.
EC3: Protects against 3 simultaneous disk failure events OR 1 drive failure event + 1 node failure event.
EC5: Protects against 5 simultaneous disk failure events OR 2 drive failure events + 1 node failure event.
|
1-2 Replicas (2N-3N)
Replicas: Before any write is acknowledged to the host, it is synchronously replicated to one or two designated partner nodes. This means that with 2N one instance of data that is written is stored on the local node and another instance of that data is stored on the designated partner node in the cluster. With 3N one instance of data that is written is stored on the local node, and two other instances of that data are stored on designated partner nodes in the cluster.
|
|
|
Block Failure Protection
Details
|
Not relevant (usually 1-node appliances)
Manual configuration (optional)
Manual designation per Virtual Disk is required to accomplish this. The end-user is able to define which node is paired to which node for that particular Virtual Disk. However, block failure protection is in most cases irrelevant as 1-node appliances are used as building blocks.
SANsymphony works on an N+1 redundancy design allowing any node to acquire any other node as a redundancy peer per virtual device. Peers are replacable/interchangable on a per Virtual Disk level.
|
Not relevant (1-node chassis only)
Pivot3 Acuity X5 compute+storage building blocks are based on 1-node 2U (X5) or 1-node 1U (X3) chassis only. Therefore multi-node block (appliance) level protection is not relevant for this solution as Node Failure Protection applies.
|
Not relevant (1-node chassis only)
|
|
|
Rack Failure Protection
Details
|
Manual configuration
Manual designation per Virtual Disk is required to accomplish this. The end-user is able to define which node is paired to which node for that particular Virtual Disk.
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
|
|
Protection Capacity Overhead
Details
|
Mirroring (2N) (primary): 100%
Mirroring (3N) (primary): 200%
+ Hardware RAID5/6 overhead (optional)
|
EC1: 9%-51%
EC3: 25%-72%
EC5: 36%-92%
The EC configuration depends on the storage setup (hybrid vs. all-flash) as well as the number of nodes in the Pivot3 Acuity cluster. Storage efficiency increases with scale, up to 16 nodes with only 9% capacity overhead for EC1 protection.
|
Replica (2N) + RAID1/10: 200%
Replica (2N) + RAID5: 125-133%
Replica (3N) + RAID1/10: 300%
Replica (3N) + RAID5: 225-233%
|
|
|
Data Corruption Detection
Details
|
N/A (hardware dependent)
SANsymphony fully relies on the hardware layer to protect data integrity. This means that the SANsymphony software itself does not perform Read integrity checks and/or Disk scrubbing to verify and maintain data integrity.
|
Metadata verification (software)
Predictive drive analysis (software)
Disk scrubbing (software)
The Pivot3 Acuity platform utilizes the following mechanisms to prevent data corruption:
- Metadata verification via checksums. Metadata is replicated across nodes. Metadata is also replicated within the node.
- Metadata validation on load. Self-check and version control.
- Predictive drive failure analysis.
- Background disk scrub with error recovery from EC.
- Write-error will fail drive.
Pivot3 Acuity has a built-in predictive drive analysis function to monitor a number of aspects around drive performance within the virtual Performance Group (vPG). By proactively monitoring disk health for CRC errors, drive seek times, IO response times and a host of Smart Drive Functions, it is possible to predict, and therefore proactively, fail a drive within the vPG.
|
N/A (hardware dependent)
StarWind HCA fully relies on the hardware layer to protect data integrity. This means that the StarWind software itself does not perform Read integrity checks and/or Disk scrubbing to verify and maintain data integrity.
|
|
|
|
Points-in-Time |
|
|
|
|
Built-in (native)
|
Built-in (native)
Pivot3 Acuity provides:
- VSS integrated snapshots.
- VMware integrated snapshots.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not have native snapshot capabilities. Hypervisor-native snapshot capabilities can be leveraged instead.
|
|
|
|
Local + Remote
SANsymphony snapshots are always created on one side only. However, SANsymphony allows you to create a snapshot for the data on each side by configuring two snapshot schedules, one for the local volume and one for the remote volume. Both snapshot entities are independent and can be deleted independently allowing different retention times if needed.
There is also the capability to pair the snapshot feature along with asynchronous replication which provides you with the ability to have a third site long distance remote copy in place with its own retention time.
|
Local + Remote
Pivot3 Acuity data protection capabilities are integrated in its approach to snapshot-based remote replication, so there is no need for additional Point-in-Time (PiT) capabilities.
Traditional snapshots can still be created using the features natively available in the hypervisor platform (eg. VMware Snapshots).
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not have native snapshot capabilities. Hypervisor-native snapshot capabilities can be leveraged instead.
|
|
|
Snapshot Frequency
Details
|
1 Minute
The snapshot lifecycle can be automatically configured using the integrated Automation Scheduler.
|
GUI: 15 minutes (Policy-based)
Timing options of the Pivot3 Acuity native snapshot capacility include:
- Minutes
- Hours
- Days
- Weeks
- Months
Snapshots can be taken every 'x' minutes/hours/days/weeks/months and 1-50 or unlimited snapshot copies can be retained.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not have native snapshot capabilities. Hypervisor-native snapshot capabilities can be leveraged instead.
|
|
|
Snapshot Granularity
Details
|
Per VM (Vvols) or Volume
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
Although DataCore SANsymphony uses block-storage, the platform is capable of attaining per VM-granularity if desired.
In Microsoft Hyper-V environments, when a VM with vdisks is created through SCVMM, DataCore can be instructed to automatically carve out a Virtual Disk (=storage volume) for every individual vdisk. This way there is a 1-to-1 alignment from end-to-end and snapshots can be created on the VM-level. The per-VM functionality is realized by installing the DataCore Storage Management Provider in SCVMM.
Because of the per-host storage limitations in VMware vSphere environments, VVols is leveraged to provide per VM-granularity. DataCore SANsymphony Provider v2.01 is certified for VMware ESXi 6.5 U2/U3, ESXi 6.7 GA/U1/U2/U3 and ESXi 7.0 GA/U1.
|
Per Volume
Pivot3 Acuity provides:
- Volume recovery from snapshot clone
- File/Folder recovery from snapshot clone
Cloning from a snapshot requires only a single click in the GUI.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not have native snapshot capabilities. Hypervisor-native snapshot capabilities can be leveraged instead.
|
|
|
|
Built-in (native)
DataCore SANsymphony incorporates Continuous Data Protection (CDP) and leverages this as an advanced backup mechanism. As the term implies, CDP continuously logs and timestamps I/Os to designated virtual disks, allowing end-users to restore the environment to an arbitrary point-in-time within that log.
Similar to snapshot requests, one can generate a CDP Rollback Marker by scripting a call to a PowerShell cmdlet when an application has been quiesced and the caches have been flushed to storage. Several of these markers may be present throughout the 14-day rolling log. When rolling back a virtual disk image, one simply selects an application-consistent or crash-consistent restore point from just before the incident occurred.
|
Built-in (native)
By combining Pivot3 Acuitys native snapshot feature with its native remote replication mechanism, backup copies can be created on remote Pivot Acuity vPGs (clusters).
A snapshot is not a backup:
1. For a data copy to be considered a backup, it must at the very least reside on a different physical platform (=controller+disks) to avoid dependencies. If the source fails or gets corrupted, a backup copy should still be accessible for recovery purposes.
2. To avoid further dependencies, a backup copy should reside in a different physical datacenter - away from the source. If the primary datacenter becomes unavailable for whatever reason, a backup copy should still be accessible for recovery purposes.
When considering the above prerequisites, a backup copy can be created by combining snapshot functionality with remote replication functionality to create independent point-in-time data copies on other SDS/HCI clusters or within the public cloud. In ideal situations, the retention policies can be set independently for local and remote point-in-time data copies, so an organization can differentiate between how long the separate backup copies need to be retained.
Apart from the native features, Pivot3 Acuity can be used in conjuntion with external data protection solutions like VMwares free-of-charge vSphere Data Protection (VDP) backup software, as well as any hypervisor compatible 3rd party backup application. VDP is part of the vSphere license and requires the deployment of virtual backup appliances on top of vSphere.
No specific integration exists between Pivot3 Acuity and VMware VDP.
|
External
StarWind HCA does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
StarWind Virtual Tape Library Appliance (VTLA) which is available as pre-configured Appliance or as a software verion, another product in StarWinds portfolio, can be leveraged as a backup storage target by a large number of well-known backup applications. VTLA is also able to offload backups to a secondary backup repository by replicating them to public cloud targets. VTLA supports Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Azure blob (premium, hot, cool, archive), Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and IronMountain IronCloud.
|
|
|
|
Local or Remote
All available storage within the SANsymphony group can be configured as targets for back-up jobs.
|
To local and remote clusters
To remote cloud object stores (Amazon S3)
Pivot3 Acuity supports remote replication of storage snapshots to another Acuity vPG (cluster) within the same datacenter or in a remote datacenter.
Pivot3 Acuity supports remote replication of storage snapshots to a Pivot3 Acuity appliance hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Pivot3 Cloud Edition is an Amazon EC2 instance that uses Amazon S3 storage for storing incoming data from on-premises Pivot3 Acuity deployments. It can serve as an off-site repository for short-term and long-term backups, as well as hosting a DR copy. Pivot3 Cloud Edition is deployed as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) so there is no manual installation involved.
All Pivot3 AWS appliances are currently deployed as t2.2xlarge (8 vCPUs; 32GB RAM) EC2 instances with EBS st1 (2/4/8/16TB HDD) for data storage and EBS gp2 (200GB SSD) for journal space.
Pivot3 AWS cloud appliances can be managed from the vCenter Plugin.
EBS = Elastic Block Storage
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
StarWind Virtual Tape Library Appliance (VTLA) which is available as pre-configured Appliance or as a software verion, another product in StarWinds portfolio, can be leveraged as a backup storage target by a large number of well-known backup applications. VTLA is also able to offload backups to a secondary backup repository by replicating them to public cloud targets. VTLA supports Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Azure blob (premium, hot, cool, archive), Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and IronMountain IronCloud.
|
|
|
|
Continuously
As Continuous Data Protection (CDP) is being leveraged, I/Os are logged and timestamped in a continous fashion, so end-users can restore to virtually any-point-in-time.
|
15 minutes (Asynchronous)
In the Pivot3 Acuity platform the backup/restore function is integrated with remote replication. This means that the minimum backup frequency is the same as the minimum remote replication frequency which is 15 minutes.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
StarWind Virtual Tape Library Appliance (VTLA) which is available as pre-configured Appliance or as a software verion, another product in StarWinds portfolio, can be leveraged as a backup storage target by a large number of well-known backup applications. VTLA is also able to offload backups to a secondary backup repository by replicating them to public cloud targets. VTLA supports Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Azure blob (premium, hot, cool, archive), Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and IronMountain IronCloud.
|
|
|
Backup Consistency
Details
|
Crash Consistent
File System Consistent (Windows)
Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
By default CDP creates crash consistent restore points. Similar to snapshot requests, one can generate a CDP Rollback Marker by scripting a call to a PowerShell cmdlet when an application has been quiesced and the caches have been flushed to storage.
Several CDP Rollback Markers may be present throughout the 14-day rolling log. When rolling back a virtual disk image, one simply selects an application-consistent, filesystem-consistent or crash-consistent restore point from (just) before the incident occurred.
In a VMware vSphere environment, the DataCore VMware vCenter plug-in can be used to create snapshot schedules for datastores and select the VMs that you want to enable VSS filesystem/application consistency for.
|
File System Consistent (Windows); Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
Pivot3 Acuity provides the option to enable Microsoft VSS integration when configuring a backup policy. This ensures application-consistent backups are created for MS Exchange and MS SQL database environments.
Pivot3 Acuity also integrates with VMware vCenter to create software snapshots of VMs before taking hardware snapshots of volumes in order to maintain data consistency.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
StarWind Virtual Tape Library Appliance (VTLA) which is available as pre-configured Appliance or as a software verion, another product in StarWinds portfolio, can be leveraged as a backup storage target by a large number of well-known backup applications. VTLA is also able to offload backups to a secondary backup repository by replicating them to public cloud targets. VTLA supports Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Azure blob (premium, hot, cool, archive), Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and IronMountain IronCloud.
|
|
|
Restore Granularity
Details
|
Entire VM or Volume
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
Although DataCore SANsymphony uses block-storage, the platform is capable of attaining per VM-granularity if desired.
In Microsoft Hyper-V environments, when a VM with vdisks is created through SCVMM, DataCore can be instructed to automatically carve out a Virtual Disk (=storage volume) for every individual vdisk. This way there is a 1-to-1 alignment from end-to-end and snapshots can be created on the VM-level. The per-VM functionality is realized by installing the DataCore Storage Management Provider in SCVMM.
Because of the per-host storage limitations in VMware vSphere environments, VVols is leveraged to provide per VM-granularity. DataCore SANsymphony Provider v2.01 is VMware certified for ESXi 6.5 U2/U3, ESXi 6.7 GA/U1/U2/U3 and ESXi 7.0 GA/U1.
When configuring the virtual environment as described above, effectively VM-restores are possible.
For file-level restores a Virtual Disk snapshot needs to be mounted so the file can be read from the mount. Many simultaneous rollback points for the same Virtual Disk can coexist at the same time, allowing end-users to compare data states. Mounting and changing rollback points does not alter the original Virtual Disk.
|
Entire Volume (snapshots/backups)
In the Pivot3 Acuity platform the backup/restore function is integrated with remote replication. This means that the granularity of both is tied to the volume level.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
StarWind Virtual Tape Library Appliance (VTLA) which is available as pre-configured Appliance or as a software verion, another product in StarWinds portfolio, can be leveraged as a backup storage target by a large number of well-known backup applications. VTLA is also able to offload backups to a secondary backup repository by replicating them to public cloud targets. VTLA supports Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Azure blob (premium, hot, cool, archive), Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and IronMountain IronCloud.
|
|
|
Restore Ease-of-use
Details
|
Entire VM or Volume: GUI
Single File: Multi-step
Restoring VMs or single files from volume-based storage snapshots requires a multi-step approach.
For file-level restores a Virtual Disk snapshot needs to be mounted so the file can be read from the mount. Many simultaneous rollback points for the same Virtual Disk can coexist at the same time, allowing end-users to compare data states. Mounting and changing rollback points does not alter the original Virtual Disk.
|
Entire VM: GUI
Single File: Multi-step
Snapshots can be recovered as complete volumes.
To be able to peer into a volume snapshot in order to recover individual files/folders/VMs, the snapshot must first be mounted to a recovery host (not the live host).
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not provide any backup/restore capabilities of its own. Therefore it relies on existing 3rd party data protection solutions.
VMwares free-of-charge backup software that comes with any vSphere license, VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP), has been declared End-of-Availability and is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and up.
StarWind Virtual Tape Library Appliance (VTLA) which is available as pre-configured Appliance or as a software verion, another product in StarWinds portfolio, can be leveraged as a backup storage target by a large number of well-known backup applications. VTLA is also able to offload backups to a secondary backup repository by replicating them to public cloud targets. VTLA supports Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Azure blob (premium, hot, cool, archive), Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and IronMountain IronCloud.
|
|
|
|
Disaster Recovery |
|
|
|
Remote Replication Type
Details
|
Built-in (native)
DataCore SANsymphonys remote replication function, Asynchronous Replication, is called upon when secondary copies will be housed beyond the reach of Synchronous Mirroring, as in distant Disaster Recovery (DR) sites. It relies on a basic IP connection between locations and works in both directions. That is, each site can act as the disaster recovery facility for the other. The software operates near-synchronously, meaning that it does not hold up the application waiting on confirmation from the remote end that the update has been stored remotely.
|
Built-in (native)
Pivot3 Acuity is capable of protecting individual volumes and groups of volumes by using a-synchronous remote replication techniques.
Once protection has been set up for a volume, Pivot3 Acuity periodically takes a replication snapshot of storage volume on the local cluster and replicates (copies) the snapshot to the paired remote cluster. In the event of a disaster at the local cluster, the most recently replicated snapshot of each protected volume is recovered at the remote cluster.
Optionally Pivot3 Acuity can quiesce the virtual machines through VMware vCenter integration before taking the replication snapshot.
|
Built-in (native; stretched clusters only)
External
StarWind HCA does not have any remote replication capabilities of its own. Stretched Clustering with synchronous replication is the exception.
Therefore in non-stretched setups it relies on external remote replication mechanisms like the ones natively available in the hypervisor platform (VMware vSphere Replication, Microsoft Hyper-V Replica) or any 3rd party remote replication application (eg. Zerto VR, Veeam VM replica, Azure Site Recovery).
vSphere Replication requires the deployment of virtual appliances. No specific integration exists between StarWind HCA and VMware vSphere VR.
|
|
|
Remote Replication Scope
Details
|
To remote sites
To MS Azure Cloud
On-premises deployments of DataCore SANsymphony can use Microsoft Azure cloud as an added replication location to safeguard highly available systems. For example, on-premises stretched clusters can replicate a third copy of the data to MS Azure to protect against data loss in the event of a major regional disaster. Critical data is continuously replicated asynchronously within the hybrid cloud configuration.
To allow quick and easy deployment a ready-to-go DataCore Cloud Replication instance can be acquired through the Azure Marketplace.
MS Azure can serve only as a data repository. This means that VMs cannot be restored and run in an Azure environment in case of a disaster recovery scenario.
|
To remote sites
To AWS Cloud
Pivot3 Acuity provides Data Protection QoS Policies for easily configuring enhanced remote replication. Remote replication can be leveraged for off-site backup needs and disaster recovery requirements.
Currently AWS can only serve as a data repository. This means that VMs cannot be restored and run in the AWS environment in case of a disaster recovery scenario.
Pivot3 Cloud Edition is an Amazon EC2 instance that uses Amazon S3 storage for storing incoming data from on-premises Pivot3 Acuity deployments. It can serve as an off-site repository for short-term and long-term backups, as well as hosting a DR copy. Pivot3 Cloud Edition is deployed as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) so there is no manual installation involved.
|
VR: To remote sites, To VMware clouds
HR: To remote sites, to Microsoft Azure (not part of Windows Server 2019)
VMware vSphere Replication (VR): VMware vSphere Replication allows for replication of VMs to a different vSphere cluster on a remote site or to any supported VMware Cloud Service Provider (vSphere Replication to Cloud). This includes VMware on AWS and VMware on IBM Cloud.
Hyper-V Replica (HR): Hyper-V Replica is an integral part of the Hyper-V role. This feature enables block-level log-based replication of an active source VM to a passive destination VM located on another Hyper-V server or to Microsoft Azure (requires Azure Site Recovery, which is a paid external service, i.e. not part of Windows Server 2019).
Because Hyper-V Replica operates on the hypervisor layer, it is storage agnostic. This means that on one site you can have Hyper-V 2019 on SAN, whereas on the other site you can have Hyper-V 2019 on S2D.
|
|
|
Remote Replication Cloud Function
Details
|
Data repository
All public clouds can only serve as data repository when hosting a DataCore instance. This means that VMs cannot be restored and run in the public cloud environment in case of a disaster recovery scenario.
In the Microsoft Azure Marketplace there is a pre-installed DataCore instance (BYOL) available named DataCore Cloude Replication.
BYOL = Bring Your Own License
|
Data repository (AWS)
Currently AWS can only serve as a data repository. This means that VMs cannot be restored and run in the AWS environment in case of a disaster recovery scenario.
|
VR: DR-site (VMware Clouds)
HR: DR-site (Azure)
VMware vSphere Replication (VR): Because VMware on AWS and VMware on IBM Cloud are full vSphere implementations, replicated VMs can be started and run in a DR-scenario.
|
|
|
Remote Replication Topologies
Details
|
Single-site and multi-site
Single Site DR = 1-to-1
Multiple Site DR = 1-to many, many-to 1
|
Single-site and multi-site
Single Site DR = 1-to-1
Multiple Site DR = 1-to many, many-to 1
Pivot3 Acuity supports many replication relationships:
1:1 - Source/Target
1:1 - Self (same vPG)
1:N - Fan Out
N:1 - Fan In
N:N - Matrixed
Up to 5 simultaneous replication targets can be configured per volume.
|
VR: Single-site and multi-site
HR: Single-site and chained
Single Site DR = 1-to-1
Multiple Site DR = 1-to many, many-to 1
Hyper-V Replica (HR): Besides 1-to-1 replications Hyper-V Replica allows for extended (chained) replication. A VM can be replicated from a primary host to a secondary host, and then be replicated from the secondary host to a third host. Please note that it is not possible to replicate from the primary host directly to the second and the third (1-to-many).
|
|
|
Remote Replication Frequency
Details
|
Continuous (near-synchronous)
SANsymphony Asynchronous Replication is not checkpoint-based but instead replicates continuously. This way data loss is kept to a minimum (seconds to minutes). End-users can inject custom consistency checkpoints based on CDP technology which has no minimum time slot/frequency.
|
15 minutes (Asynchronous)
The minimum frequency per replication task is 15 minutes.
|
VR: 5 minutes (Asynchronous)
HR: 30 seconds (Asynchronous)
SW: Continuous (Stretched Cluster)
Hyper-V Replica (HR): With Hyper-V Replica replication frequency can be set to 30 seconds, 5 minutes, or 15 minutes on a per-VM basis.
|
|
|
Remote Replication Granularity
Details
|
VM or Volume
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
Although DataCore SANsymphony uses block-storage, the platform is capable of attaining per VM-granularity if desired.
In Microsoft Hyper-V environments, when a VM with vdisks is created through SCVMM, DataCore can be instructed to automatically carve out a Virtual Disk (=storage volume) for every individual vdisk. This way there is a 1-to-1 alignment from end-to-end and snapshots can be created on the VM-level. The per-VM functionality is realized by installing the DataCore Storage Management Provider in SCVMM.
Because of the per-host storage limitations in VMware vSphere environments, VVols is leveraged to provide per VM-granularity. DataCore SANsymphony Provider v2.01 is VMware certified for ESXi 6.5 U2/U3, ESXi 6.7 GA/U1/U2/U3 and ESXi 7.0 GA/U1.
|
Volume
Up to five protection policies can be assigned to a single volume. A single protection policy can have up to 3 Tasks.
The idea of multiple Tasks is similar to setting up backup retention policies using a grandfather-father-son approach, each with different snapshotting frequencies and number recovery points that need to be retained.
|
VR: VM
HR: VM
Both vSphere Replication (VR) and Hyper-V Replica operate on the VM level.
|
|
|
Consistency Groups
Details
|
Yes
SANsymphony provides the option to use Virtual Disk Grouping to enable end-users to restore multiple Virtual Disks to the exact same point-in-time.
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
|
Yes
Pivot3 Acuity supports application-aware consistency groups (VSS/vCenter) where the Pivot3 software sorts out the consistency group relationships. Pivot3 Acuity also support user-defined groupings that will group together multiple volumes for coordinated recovery point creation.
|
VR: No
HR: No
|
|
|
|
VMware SRM (certified)
DataCore provides a certified Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) for VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM). DataCore SRA 2.0 (SANsymphony 10.0 FC/iSCSI) shows official support for SRM 6.5 only. It does not support SRM 8.2 or 8.1.
There is no integration with Microsoft Azure Site Recovery (ASR). However, SANsymphony can be used with the control and automation options provided by Microsoft System Center (e.g. Operations Manager combined with Virtual Machine Manager and Orchestrator) to build a DR orchestration solution.
|
VMware SRM (certified)
NEW
Pivot3 provides a certified Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) for VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM). Pivot3 SRA 10.6.1 shows official support for SRM 8.2 and 8.1.
The Pivot3 SRA is compatible with Acuity X3/X5 2000/2500/6000/6500 nodes.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not have a-synchronous native remote-replication capabilities and does not provide a Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) for VMware SRM implementations.
|
|
|
Stretched Cluster (SC)
Details
|
VMware vSphere: Yes (certified)
DataCore SANsymphony is certified by VMware as a VMware Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) solution. For more information, please view https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2149740.
|
N/A
At this time Pivot3 does not support Acuity X5 clusters that are stretched across data centers.
|
vSphere: Yes
Hyper-V: Yes
StarWind HCA support active-active Stretched Clustering which leverages native synchronous block-level replication.
|
|
|
|
2+sites = two or more active sites, 0/1 or more tie-breakers
Theoretically up to 64 sites are supported.
SANsymphony does not require a quorum or tie-breaker in stretched cluster configurations, but can be used as an optional component. The Virtual Disk Witness can provide a tie-breaker role if for instance redundant inter site paths are not implemented. The tie-breaker node (server or device) must be other than the two nodes presenting a virtual disk. Access to the Virtual Disk Witness is leading for storage node behavior.
There are 3 ways to configure the stretched cluster without any tie-breakers:
1. Default: in a split-brain scenario both sides stay active allowing upper infrastructure layers (OS/database/application) to make a decision (eg. clustering principles). In any case SANsymphony prevents a merge when there is a risk to data integrity, and the end-user has to make the choice on how to proceed next (which side is true)
2. Select one side to go inaccessible
3. Select both sides to go inaccessible.
|
N/A
At this time Pivot3 does not support Acuity X5 clusters that are stretched across data centers.
|
vSphere: 2+ sites = minimum of two active sites + optional tie-breaker in 3rd site
Hyper-V: 2+ sites = minimum of two active sites + optional tie-breaker in 3rd site
|
|
|
|
<=5ms RTT (targeted, not required)
RTT = Round Trip Time
In truth the user/app with the least tolerated write latency defines the acceptable RTT or distance. In practice
|
N/A
At this time Pivot3 does not support Acuity X5 clusters that are stretched across data centers.
|
<=5ms RTT
|
|
|
|
<=32 hosts at each active site (per cluster)
The maximum is per cluster. The SANsymphony solution can consist of multiple stretched clusters with a maximum of 64 nodes each.
|
N/A
At this time Pivot3 does not support Acuity X5 clusters that are stretched across data centers.
|
No set maximum number of nodes
|
|
|
SC Data Redundancy
Details
|
Replicas: 1N-2N at each active site
DataCore SANsymphony provides enhanced stretched cluster availability by offering local fault protection with In Pool Mirroring. With In Pool Mirroring you can choose to mirror the data inside the local Disk Pool as well as mirror the data across sites to a remote Disk Pool. In the remote Disk Pool data is then also mirrored. All mirroring happens synchronously.
1N-2N: With SANsymphony Stretched Clustering, there can be either 1 instance of the data at each site (no In Pool Mirroring) or 2 instances of the data a each site (In Pool RAID-1 Mirroring).
|
N/A
At this time Pivot3 does not support Acuity X5 clusters that are stretched across data centers.
|
Replicas: 0-3 Replicas at each active site
|
|
|
Data Services
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Efficiency |
|
|
|
Dedup/Compr. Engine
Details
|
Software (integration)
NEW
SANsymphony provides integrated and individually selectable inline deduplication and compression. In addition, SANsymphony is able to leverage post-processing deduplication and compression options available in Windows 2016/2019 as an alternative approach.
|
Software
Pivot3 Acuity includes data reduction technology, an inline pattern recognition engine that compresses and deduplicates incoming data. Acuity software recognizes common patterns in the data stream and immediately strips them at an individual block level.
|
Software (integration; limited)
StarWind HCA does not have any native data efficiency (deduplication and/or compression) capabilities. Post-process deduplication and compression can used by leveraging Windows Server OS native capabilities. However, this option is only applicable to bare metal StarWind HCA deployments, so not available to hypervisor StarWind HCA deployments.
|
|
|
Dedup/Compr. Function
Details
|
Efficiency (space savings)
Deduplication and compression can provide two main advantages:
1. Efficiency (space savings)
2. Performance (speed)
Most of the time deduplication/compression is primarily focussed on efficiency.
|
Efficiency and Performance
Deduplication and compression can provide two main advantages:
1. Efficiency (space savings)
2. Performance (speed)
Most of the time deduplication/compression is primarily focussed on efficiency.
Pivot3 focusses on both aspects.
|
Efficiency (space savings)
Deduplication and compression can provide two main advantages:
1. Efficiency (space savings)
2. Performance (speed)
Most of the time deduplication/compression is primarily focussed on efficiency.
|
|
|
Dedup/Compr. Process
Details
|
Deduplication: Inline (post-ack)
Compression: Inline (post-ack)
Deduplication/Compression: Post-Processing (post process)
NEW
Deduplication can be performed in 4 ways:
1. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and before the write is ackowledged back to the originator of the write (pre-ack).
2. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and in parallel to the write being acknowledged back to the originator of the write (on-ack).
3. A short time after the write is processed (inline) so after the write is acknowleged back to the originator of the write - eg. when flushing the write buffer to persistent storage (post-ack)
4. After the write has been committed to the persistent storage layer (post-process).
The first and second methods, when properly integrated into the solution, are most likely to offer both performance and capacity benefits. The third and fourth methods are primarily used for capacity benefits only.
DataCore SANSymphony 10 PSP12 and above leverage both inline deduplication and compression, as well as post process deduplication and compression techniques.
With inline deduplication incoming writes first hit the memory cache of the primary host and are replicated to the cache of a secondary host in an un-deduplicated state. After the blocks have been written to both memory caches, the primary host acknowledges the writes back to the originator. Each host then destages the written blocks to the persistent storage layer. During destaging, written blocks are deduplicates and/or compressed.
Windows Server 2019 deduplication is performed outside of IO path (post-processing) and is multi-threaded to speed up processing and keep performance impact minimal.
|
Deduplication: Inline (on-ack)
Compression: Inline (on-ack)
Deduplication can be performed in 4 ways:
1. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and before the write is ackowledged back to the originator of the write (pre-ack).
2. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and in parallel to the write being acknowledged back to the originator of the write (on-ack).
3. A short time after the write is processed (inline) so after the write is acknowleged back to the originator of the write - eg. when flushing the write buffer to persistent storage (post-ack)
4. After the write has been committed to the persistent storage layer (post-process).
The first and second methods, when properly integrated into the solution, are most likely to offer both performance and capacity benefits. The third and fourth methods are primarily used for capacity benefits only.
In the case of Pivot3 the inline on-ack method has both performance and capacity benefits by reducing write amplification by coalescing written data before destaging and by accelerating reads.
Pivot3 uses IO pattern matching as its method of deduplication and compression. This process is inline and happens on IO block acknowledgment; it is performed entirely in memory. As soon as the data is ingested into memory and determined to be a duplicate or compressible, the system adds a metadata pointer to the reference in memory and acknowledges to the host immediately, so processes can continue.
Pivot3 deduplication ans compression is a feature present in both All-flash and Hybrid systems.
|
Post-Processing
Deduplication can be performed in 4 ways:
1. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and before the write is ackowledged back to the originator of the write (pre-ack).
2. Immediately when the write is processed (inline) and in parallel to the write being acknowledged back to the originator of the write (on-ack).
3. A short time after the write is processed (inline) so after the write is acknowleged back to the originator of the write - eg. when flushing the write buffer to persistent storage (post-ack)
4. After the write has been committed to the persistent storage layer (post-process).
The first and second methods, when properly integrated into the solution, are most likely to offer both performance and capacity benefits. The third and fourth methods are primarily used for capacity benefits only.
Windows Server 2019 deduplication is performed outside of IO path (post-processing) and is multi-threaded to speed up processing and keep performance impact minimal.
|
|
|
Dedup/Compr. Type
Details
|
Optional
NEW
By default, deduplication and compression are turned off. For both inline and post-process, deduplication and compression can be enabled.
For inline deduplication and compression the feature can be turned on per node. The entire node represents a global deduplication domain. Deduplication and compression work across pools and across vDisks. Individual pools can be selected to participate in capacity optimization. Either deduplication or compression or both can be selected per individual vDisk. Pools can host both capacity optimized and non-capacity optimized vDisks at the same time. The optional capacity optimization settings can be added/changed/removed during operation for each vDisk.
For post-processing the feature can be enabled per pool. All vDisks in that pool would be deduplicated and compressed. Each pool is an independent deduplication domain. This means only data in the pool is capacity optimized, but not across pools. Additionally, for post-processing capacity optimization can be scheduled so admins can decide when deduplication should run.
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
|
Always-on
Pivot3 Acuitys data deduplication and compression features are always on and cannot be disabled as it is an integral component of the platform architecture providing both performance and efficiency. It also provides end-user simplicity.
|
Optional
By default post-process deduplication and compression are turned off. Deduplication and compression can be enabled for selected volumes, either manually or scheduled.
|
|
|
Dedup/Compr. Scope
Details
|
Persistent data layer
|
Read and Write caches + Persistent data layers
Deduplication and compression is used for optimizing read/write cache and persistent storage capacity.
|
Persistent data layer
Microsoft Windows Server native deduplication and compression can be set for StarWind virtual devices formatted as NTFS.
Windows Server 2019 Deduplication only happens in the persistent data layer and not in the cache. The cache is not accessible from the file system and so deduplication cannot be applied to it.
|
|
|
Dedup/Compr. Radius
Details
|
Pool (post-processing deduplication domain)
Node (inline deduplication domain)
NEW
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
For inline deduplication and compression raw physical disks are added to a capacity optimization pool. The entire node represents a global deduplication domain. Deduplication and compression work across pools and across vDisks. Individual pools can be selected to participate in capacity optimization.
The post-processing capability provided through Windows Server 2016/2019 is highly scalable and can be used with volumes up to 64 TB and files up to 1 TB in size. Data deduplication identifies repeated patterns across files on that volume.
|
Storage Cluster (vPG)
Pivot3 Acuity inline deduplication works globally, which means that deduplication happens across all nodes in a vPG (=storage cluster).
A vPG should not be confused with a vSphere cluster. For example: an 8-node vPG can be split into two 4-node vSphere clusters; two 8-node vPGs can be combined to form a 16-node vSphere cluster.
|
Volume
Windows Server 2019 deduplication is highly scalable and can be used with volumes up to 64TB and files up to 4TB in size. Data deduplication identifies repeated patterns across files on that volume.
|
|
|
Dedup/Compr. Granularity
Details
|
4-128 KB variable block size (inline)
32-128 KB variable block size (post-processing)
NEW
With inline deduplication and compression, the data is organized in 128 KB segments. Depending on the optimization setting, a write into such a segment first gets compressed (when compression is selected) and then a hash is generated. If the hash is unique, the 128 KB segment is written back and the hash is added to the deduplication hash-table. If the hash is not unique, the segment is referenced in the deduplication hash table and discarded. The smallest chunk in the segment can be 4 KB.
For post-processing the system leverages deduplication in Windows Server 2016/2019, files within a deduplication-enabled volume are segmented into small variable-sized chunks (32–128 KB), duplicate chunks are identified, and only a single copy of each chunk is physically stored.
|
256 KB - 1.5 MB variable block size
Pivot3 Acuity deduplication uses 256K - 1.5MB variable block segments.
|
32-128 KB variable block size
By leveraging deduplication in Windows Server 2019, files within a deduplication-enabled volume are segmented into small variable-sized chunks (32–128 KB), duplicate chunks are identified, and only a single copy of each chunk is physically stored.
|
|
|
Dedup/Compr. Guarantee
Details
|
N/A
Microsoft provides the Deduplication Evaluation Tool (DDPEVAL) to assess the data in a particular volume and predict the dedup ratio.
|
N/A
At this time Pivot3 does no guarantee a minimum savings. Pivot3 states that reduction rates will vary per workload and use case.
|
N/A
|
|
|
|
Full (optional)
Data rebalancing needs to be initiated manually by the end-user. It depends on the specific use case and end-user environment if this makes sense. When end-users want to isolate new workloads and corresponding data on new nodes, data rebalancing is not used.
|
Full
Data is automatically redistributed evenly across all Pivot3 Acuity nodes in the virtual Performance Group (vPG aka 'cluster') when a node is added.
When a node is removed from a Pivot3 Acuity vPG (aka 'cluster'), the Erasure Code calculations are redone in CPU and the data is redistributed as a background process (throttled to minimise impact on performance). Because of the data protections distributed nature, it avoids the pain associated with rebuilding traditional RAID groups.
There is no user-intervention required for any the redistribution activities.
|
Full (optional)
Data rebalancing needs to be initiated manually. When a new StarWind HCA node is added, a StarWind Support Engineer assists with replicating data to the new partner.
|
|
|
|
Yes
DataCore SANsymphonys Auto-Tiering is a real-time intelligent mechanism that continuously positions data on the appropriate class of storage based on how frequently the data is accessed. Auto-Tiering leverages any combination of Flash and traditional disk technologies, whether it is internal or array based, with up to 15 different storage tiers that can be defined.
As more advanced storage technologies become available, existing tiers can be modified as necessary and additional tiers can be added to further diversify the tiering architecture.
|
N/A
The Pivot Acuity storage architecture does not include multiple persistent storage layers, but rather consists of a caching layer (fastest storage devices) and a persistent layer (slower/most cost-efficient storage devices).
|
Partial (integration; optional)
StarWind HCA can leverage the data tiering capabilities available in the Windows Server 2016/2019 OS (Storage Spaces). This is the case for Hyper-V and VMware vSphere environments.
|
|
|
|
Performance |
|
|
|
|
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
Hyper-V: Microsoft ODX; Space Reclamation (T10 SCSI UNMAP)
DataCore SANsymphony iSCSI and FC are fully qualified for all VMware vSphere VAAI-Block capabilities that include: Thin Provisioning, HW Assisted Locking, Full Copy, Block Zero
Note: DataCore SANsymphony does not support Thick LUNs.
DataCore SANsymphony is also fully qualified for Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 and 2016/2019 ODX and UNMAP/TRIM.
Note: ODX is not used for files smaller than 256KB.
VAAI = VMware vSphere APIs for Array Integration
ODX = Offloaded Data Transfers
UNMAP/TRIM support allows the Windows operating system to communicate the inactive block IDs to the storage system. The storage system can wipe these unused blocks internally.
|
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
Pivot3 Acuitys iSCSI is fully qualified for all VMware vSphere VAAI-Block capabilities that include: Thin Provisioning, HW Assisted Locking, Full Copy, Block Zero, UNMAP.
There are some functionality exceptions:
- Boot from SAN is not supported.
- Gaps in LUN sequence is not supported.
- VAAI Thin Provisioning Space Reclamation is not supported.
VAAI = VMware vSphere APIs for Array Integration
|
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
Hyper-V: Microsoft ODX; UNMAP/TRIM
StarWind HCA iSCSI is fully qualified for all VMware vSphere VAAI-Block capabilities that include: Thin Provisioning, HW Assisted Locking, Full Copy, Block Zero.
StarWind HCA is also fully qualified for Microsoft Hyper-V 2016 and 2019 ODX, as well as TRIM (for SATA SSDs) and UNMAP (for SAS SSDs).
Note: ODX is not used for files smaller than 256KB.
VAAI = VMware vSphere APIs for Array Integration
ODX = Offloaded Data Transfers
UNMAP/TRIM support allows the Windows operating system to communicate the inactive block IDs to the storage system. The storage system can wipe these unused blocks internally.
|
|
|
|
IOPs and/or MBps Limits
QoS is a means to ensure specific performance levels for applications and workloads. There are two ways to accomplish this:
1. Ability to set limitations to avoid unwanted behavior from non-critical clients/hosts.
2. Ability to set guarantees to ensure service levels for mission-critical clients/hosts.
SANsymphony currently supports only the first method. Although SANsymphony does not provide support for the second method, the platform does offer some options for optimizing performance for selected workloads.
For streaming applications which burst data, it’s best to regulate the data transfer rate (MBps) to minimize their impact. For transaction-oriented applications (OLTP), limiting the IOPs makes most sense. Both parameters may be used simultaneously.
DataCore SANsymphony ensures that high-priority workloads competing for access to storage can meet their service level agreements (SLAs) with predictable I/O performance. QoS Controls regulate the resources consumed by workloads of lower priority. Without QoS Controls, I/O traffic generated by less important applications could monopolize I/O ports and bandwidth, adversely affecting the response and throughput experienced by more critical applications. To minimize contention in multi-tenant environments, the data transfer rate (MBps) and IOPs for less important applications are capped to limits set by the system administrator. QoS Controls enable IT organizations to efficiently manage their shared storage infrastructure using a private cloud model.
More information can be found here: https://docs.datacore.com/SSV-WebHelp/quality_of_service.htm
In order to achieve consistent performance for a workload, a separate Pool can be created where selected vDisks are placed. Alternatively 'Performance Classes' can be assigned to differentiate between data placement of multiple workloads.
|
IOPs/MBps/Latency Guarantees (minimums)
QoS is a means to ensure specific performance levels for applications and workloads. There are two ways to accomplish this:
1. Ability to set limitations to avoid unwanted behavior from non-critical clients/hosts.
2. Ability to set guarantees to ensure service levels for mission-critical clients/hosts.
Pivot3 Acuity supports the second method through pre-defined performance policies per volume. These policies can be changed manually on-the-fly or automatically by configuring and assigning schedules.
Available QoS Policies on All-Flash Acuity X5 models:
Policy 1 – Mission Critical – 125,000IOPs 1,000MB/s 1ms
Policy 2 – Business Critical – 75,000IOPs 500MB/s 3ms
Policy 3 – Business Critical – 50,000IOPs 250MB/s 10ms
Policy 4 – Non-Critical – 25,000IOPs 100MB/s 20ms
Policy 5 – Non-Critical – 10,000IOPs 50MB/s 40ms
Available QoS Policies on Hybrid Acuity X5 models:
Policy 1 – Mission Critical – 100,000IOPs 750MB/s 5ms
Policy 2 – Business Critical – 50,000IOPs 375MB/s 10ms
Policy 3 – Business Critical – 20,000IOPs 150MB/s 25ms
Policy 4 – Non-Critical – 10,000IOPs 75MB/s 50ms
Policy 5 – Non-Critical – 2,000IOPs 37.5MB/s 100ms
The pre-defined service levels govern how the QoS engine treats the targets in order to maintain Mission Critical performance, then Business Critical performance and then Non-critical performance.
The pre-defined service levels also govern how the read-warm cache is getting populated:
Policy 1 – Mission Critical – 1 hit per 1MB Region
Policy 2 – Business Critical – 4 hits per 1MB Region
Policy 3 – Business Critical – 16 hits per 1MB Region
Policy 4 – Non-Critical – read-warm disabled
Policy 5 – Non-Critical – read-warm disabled
The pre-defined service levels also govern how read-ahead is used:
Policy 1 – Mission Critical – enabled
Policy 2 – Business Critical – enabled
Policy 3 – Business Critical – enabled
Policy 4 – Non-Critical – read-ahead disabled
Policy 5 – Non-Critical – read-ahead disabled
|
N/A
Quality-of-Service (QoS) is a means to ensure specific performance levels for applications and workloads. There are two ways to accomplish this:
1. Ability to set limitations to avoid unwanted behavior from non-critical VMs.
2. Ability to set guarantees to ensure service levels for mission-critical VMs.
StarWind HCA currently does not offer any QoS mechanisms.
|
|
|
|
Virtual Disk Groups and/or Host Groups
SANsymphony QoS parameters can be set for individual hosts or groups of hosts as well as for groups of Virtual Disks for fine grained control.
In a VMware VVols (=Virtual Volumes) environment a vDisk corresponds 1-to-1 to a virtual disk (.vmdk). Thus virtual disks can be placed in a Disk Group and a QoS Limit can then be assigned it. DataCore SANsymphony Provider v2.01 has VVols certification for VMware ESXi 6.5 U2/U3, ESXi 6.7 GA/U1/U2/U3 and ESXi 7.0 GA/U1.
In Microsoft Hyper-V environments, when a VM with vdisks is created through SCVMM, DataCore can be instructed to automatically carve out a Virtual Disk (=storage volume) for every individual vdisk. This way there is a 1-to-1 alignment from end-to-end and QoS Limits can be applied on the virtual disk level. The 1-to-1 allignment is realized by installing the DataCore Storage Management Provider in SCVMM.
|
Per volume
Because Pivot3 Acuity presents block-based storage volumes, QoS Policies can be applied to VMware datastores and in-guest iSCSI disks.
|
N/A
Quality-of-Service (QoS) is a means to ensure specific performance levels for applications and workloads. There are two ways to accomplish this:
1. Ability to set limitations to avoid unwanted behavior from non-critical VMs.
2. Ability to set guarantees to ensure service levels for mission-critical VMs.
StarWind HCA currently does not offer any QoS mechanisms.
|
|
|
|
Per VM/Virtual Disk/Volume
With SANsymphony the rough hierarchy is: physical disk(s) or LUNs -> Disk Pool -> Virtual Disk (=logical volume).
In SANsymphony 'Flash Pinning' can be achieved using one of the following methods:
Method #1: Create a flash-only pool and migrate the individual vDisks that require flash pinning to the flash-only pool. When using a VVOL configuration in a VMware environment, each vDisk represents a virtual disk (.vmdk). This method guarantees all application data will be stored in flash.
Method #2: Create auto-tiering pools with at least 1 flash tier. Assign the Performance Class “Critical” to the vDisks that require flash pinning and place them in the auto-tiering pool. This will effectively and intelligently put as much of the data that resides in the vDisk in the flash tier as long that the flash tier has enough space available. Therefore this method is on a best-effort basis and dependent on correct sizing of the flash tier(s).
Methods #1 and #2 can be uses side-by-side in the same DataCore environment.
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
|
|
|
Security |
|
|
|
Data Encryption Type
Details
|
Built-in (native)
SANsymphony 10.0 PSP9 introduced native encryption when running on Windows Server 2016/2019.
|
Built-in (native)
Pivot3 Acuity 10.6 introduced native data encryption capabilities for storage volumes, however encryption keys need to be generated by 3rd party security tools (currently only HyTrust KeyControl is supported).
With Acuity data encryption volumes can be encrypted on creation through policy configuration. Pivot3 designed its data encryption algorithms to leverage Intel Xeon CPUs AES New Instructions (AES NI) to ensure minimal performance impact and low overhead. However, as encrypting a volume does cause a small degradation in performance, Pivot3 recommends encrypting only those volumes that contain sensitive information.
Data encryption can also be established using 3rd party security software.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not have native data encryption capabilities. Adding data encryption capabilities requires encryption storage hardware. Alternatively, software options such as Microsoft Bitlocker or vSphere Virtual Machine Encryption can be leveraged.
VMware Virtual Machine Encryption requires VMware vSphere
Enterprise Plus or VMware vSphere Platinum licences.
|
|
|
Data Encryption Options
Details
|
Hardware: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
Software: SANsymphony Encryption
Hardware: In SANsymphony deployments the encryption data service capabilities can be offloaded to hardware-based SED offerings available in server- and storage solutions.
Software: SANsymphony provides software-based data-at-rest encryption that is XTS-AES 256bit compliant.
|
Hardware: N/A
Software: Pivot3 Acuity data encryption; HyTrust DataControl (validated)
Pivot3 Acuity 10.6 introduced native data encryption capabilities for storage volumes, however encryption keys need to be generated by 3rd party security tools (currently only HyTrust KeyControl is supported).
Pivot3 also resells Hytrust software for data encryption.
|
Hardware: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
Software: Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption; VMware Virtual machine Encryption
Hardware: In StarWind HCA deployments the encryption data service capabilities can be offloaded to hardware-based SED offerings available in server- and storage solutions.
Software: Microsoft Bitlocker provides software encryption on standalone and cluster based NTFS or ReFS(v2) volumes. Cluster volumes (CSV) encryption support was added in Windows 2012 Server.
Microsoft BitLocker uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption algorithm with either 128-bit or 256-bit keys. It is generally recommended to use 256-bit keys because of their superior strength.
For pure Windows Server StarWind HCA deployments, Bitlocker can be used to encrypt the local storage, encrypt Cluster Shared Volumes created on StarWind HA devices where VMs are located or encrypt VMs with Trusted Platform Module.
As for ESXi hosts, Bitlocker can be used to encrypt the Windows Server VMs storage (only non-bootable partitions). However, this does not provide full security. Alternatively, vSphere Virtual Machine Encryption can be used.
|
|
|
Data Encryption Scope
Details
|
Hardware: Data-at-rest
Software: Data-at-rest
Hardware: SEDs provide encryption for data-at-rest; SEDs do not provide encryption for data-in-transit.
Software: SANsymphony provides encryption for data-at-rest; it does not provide encryption for data-in-transit. Encryption can be enabled per individual virtual disk.
|
Hardware: N/A
Software: Data-at-rest (Pivot3); Data-at-rest + Data-in-transit (HyTrust)
Hardware: N/A
Software: Pivot3 Acuity data encryption provides encryption for data-at-rest. The HyTrust encryption solution does provide both encryption for data-at-rest and encryption for data-in-transit.
|
Hardware: Data-at-rest
Software: Data-at-rest
Hardware: SEDs provide encryption for data-at-rest; SEDs do not provide encryption for data-in-transit.
Software: Microsoft BitLocker provides encryption for data-at-rest as well as data-in-transit during live migration of a VM; VMware Virtual Machine Encryption provides encryption for data-at-rest.
|
|
|
Data Encryption Compliance
Details
|
Hardware: FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (SEDs)
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (SANsymphony)
FIPS = Federal Information Processing Standard
FIPS 140-2 defines four levels of security:
Level 1 > Basic security requirements are specified for a cryptographic module (eg. at least one Approved algorithm or Approved security function shall be used).
Level 2 > Also has features that show evidence of tampering.
Level 3 > Also prevents the intruder from gaining access to critical security parameters (CSPs) held within the cryptographic module.
Level 4 > Provides a complete envelope of protection around the cryptographic module with the intent of detecting and responding to all unauthorized attempts at physical access.
|
Hardware: N/A
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (Pivot3;HyTrust)
FIPS = Federal Information Processing Standard
FIPS 140-2 defines four levels of security:
Level 1 > Basic security requirements are specified for a cryptographic module (eg. at least one Approved algorithm or Approved security function shall be used).
Level 2 > Also has features that show evidence of tampering.
Level 3 > Also prevents the intruder from gaining access to critical security parameters (CSPs) held within the cryptographic module.
Level 4 > Provides a complete envelope of protection around the cryptographic module with the intent of detecting and responding to all unauthorized attempts at physical access.
|
Hardware: FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (SEDs)
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (BitLocker; VMware Virtual Machine Encryption)
Microsoft BitLocker has been validated for Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 in March 2018.
FIPS = Federal Information Processing Standard
FIPS 140-2 defines four levels of security:
Level 1 > Basic security requirements are specified for a cryptographic module (eg. at least one Approved algorithm or Approved security function shall be used).
Level 2 > Also has features that show evidence of tampering.
Level 3 > Also prevents the intruder from gaining access to critical security parameters (CSPs) held within the cryptographic module.
Level 4 > Provides a complete envelope of protection around the cryptographic module with the intent of detecting and responding to all unauthorized attempts at physical access.
|
|
|
Data Encryption Efficiency Impact
Details
|
Hardware: No
Software: No
Hardware: Because data encryption is performed at the end of the write path, storage efficiency mechanisms are not impaired.
Software: Because data encryption is performed at the end of the write path, storage efficiency mechanisms are not impaired.
|
Hardware: N/A
Software: No (Pivot3); Yes (HyTrust)
Hardware: N/A
Software: Because Pivot3 Acuity data encryption is a platform-native solution, encryption of data takes place after data deduplication and compression.
Because HyTrust is an end-to-end solution, encryption is performed at the start of the write path and some efficiency mechanisms (eg. deduplication and compression) are effectively negated.
|
Hardware: No
Software: No (Bitlocker); No (VMware Virtual Machine Encryption)
Hardware: Because data encryption is performed at the end of the write path, storage efficiency mechanisms are not impaired.
Software: Microsoft BitLocker can be used to provide whole-disk encryption on a deduplicated disk since BitLocker sits at the end of the write path. VMware Virtual Machine Encryption encrypts tge data on the host before it is written to storage, thus negatively impacting backend storage features such as deduplication and compression. However, Microsoft post-process deduplication is executed at the filesystem layer.
|
|
|
|
Test/Dev |
|
|
|
|
Yes
Support for fast VM cloning via VMware VAAI and Microsoft ODX.
|
Yes
Native clone creation is VAAI-integrated.
Native clone creation is thin provisioned.
Pivot3 Cloning is a storage technology that enables the rapid creation and customization of multiple cloned VMs from a source VM. The clones can then be used as standalone VMs.
|
No
StarWind HCA itself does not include fast cloning capabilities. Cloning functionality is provided by the hypervisor platform.
|
|
|
|
Portability |
|
|
|
Hypervisor Migration
Details
|
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
VMware Converter 6.2 supports the following Guest Operating Systems for VM conversion from Hyper-V to vSphere:
- Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10
- Windows 2008/R2, 2012/R2 and 2016
- RHEL 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, 7.x
- SUSE 10.x, 11.x
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS
- CentOS 6.x, 7.0
The VMs have to be in a powered-off state in order to be migrated across hypervisor platforms.
Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) supports conversion of VMware VMs and vdisks to Hyper-V VMs and vdisks. It is also possible to convert physical machines and disks to Hyper-V VMs and vdisks.
MVMC has been offcially retired and can only be used for converting VMs up to version 6.0.
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2016 also supports conversion of VMs up to version 6.0 only.
|
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
VMware Converter 6.2 supports the following Guest Operating Systems for VM conversion from Hyper-V to vSphere:
- Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10
- Windows 2008/R2, 2012/R2 and 2016
- RHEL 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, 7.x
- SUSE 10.x, 11.x
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS
- CentOS 6.x, 7.0
The VMs have to be in a powered-off state in order to be migrated across hypervisor platforms.
Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) supports conversion of VMware VMs and vdisks to Hyper-V VMs and vdisks. It is also possible to convert physical machines and disks to Hyper-V VMs and vdisks.
MVMC has been offcially retired and can only be used for converting VMs up to version 6.0.
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2016 also supports conversion of VMs up to version 6.0 only.
|
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
StarWind V2V Converter is a StarWind proprietary tool that can be leveraged for virtual-to-virtual (V2V) use cases as well as physical-to-virtual (P2V) use cases. The tool supports all major VM formats: VHD/VHDX, VMDK, QCOW2, and StarWind native IMG. Both the source and target VM copies exist simultaneously because the conversion procedure is more like a cloning process than a replacement. As a convenient side effect, StarWind V2V Converter basically creates a backup copy of the VMs, making the process even safer.
When converting the VM to VHDX format, StarWind V2V Converter enables the activation of Windows Repair Mode. This way the virtual machine will automatically adapt to the given hardware environment and negate any compatibility problems.
|
|
|
|
File Services |
|
|
|
|
Built-in (native)
SANsymphony delivers out-of-box (OOB) file services by leveraging Windows native SMB/NFS and Scale-out File Services capabilities. SANsymphony is capable of simultaneously handling highly-available block and file level services.
Raw storage is provisioned from within the SANsymphony GUI to the Microsoft file services layer, similar to provisioning Storage Spaces Volumes to the file services layer. This means any file services configuration is performed from within the respective Windows service consoles e.g. quotas.
More information can be found under: https://www.datacore.com/products/features/high-availability-nas-cluster-file-sharing.aspx
|
N/A
Pivot3 Acuity does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
|
Built-in (native)
StarWind HCA delivers out-of-box (OOB) file services by leveraging Windows native SMB/NFS and Scale-out File Services capabilities. StarWind HCA is capable of simultaneously handling highly-available block and file level services.
StarWind virtual devices formatted as NTFS volumes are provisioned to the Microsoft file services layer. This means any file services configuration is performed from within the respective Windows service consoles e.g. quotas.
|
|
|
Fileserver Compatibility
Details
|
Windows clients
Linux clients
Because SANsymphony leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS and Scale-out File services, most Windows and Linux clients are able to connect.
|
N/A
Pivot3 Acuity does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
|
Windows clients
Linux clients
Because StarWind HCA leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS and Scale-out File services, most Windows and Linux clients are able to connect.
|
|
|
Fileserver Interconnect
Details
|
SMB
NFS
Because SANsymphony leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS and Scale-out File services, Windows Server platform compatibility applies:
SMB versions1,2 and 3 are supported, as are NFS versions 2, 3 and 4.1.
|
N/A
Pivot3 Acuity does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
|
SMB
NFS
Because StarWind HCA leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS and Scale-out File services, Windows Server platform compatibility applies:
SMB versions1,2 and 3 are supported, as are NFS versions 2, 3 and 4.1.
|
|
|
Fileserver Quotas
Details
|
Share Quotas, User Quotas
Because SANsymphony leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS and Scale-out File services, all Quota features available in Windows Server can be used.
|
N/A
Pivot3 Acuity does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
|
Share Quotas, User Quotas
Because StarWind HCA leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS and Scale-out File services, all Quota features available in Windows Server can be used.
|
|
|
Fileserver Analytics
Details
|
Partial
Because SANsymphony leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS, Windows Server built-in auditing capabilities can be used.
|
N/A
Pivot3 Acuity does not provide any file serving capabilities of its own.
Inside a Guest VM all native file service features of the Microsoft Windows and/or Linux operating system can be leveraged to host network shares.
Linux requires Samba Server components to provide SMB file shares.
Depending on the OS of the Guest VM providing file services, quotas can been set on the share or the filesystem level.
|
Partial
Because StarWind HCA leverages Windows Server native CIFS/NFS, Windows Server built-in auditing capabilities can be used.
|
|
|
|
Object Services |
|
|
|
Object Storage Type
Details
|
N/A
DataCore SANsymphony does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
|
N/A
Pivot3 Acuity does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
|
|
|
Object Storage Protection
Details
|
N/A
DataCore SANsymphony does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
|
N/A
Pivot3 Acuity does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
|
|
|
Object Storage LT Retention
Details
|
N/A
DataCore SANsymphony does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
|
N/A
Pivot3 Acuity does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
|
N/A
StarWind HCA does not provide any object storage serving capabilities of its own.
|
|
|
Management
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interfaces |
|
|
|
GUI Functionality
Details
|
Centralized
SANsymphonys graphical user interface (GUI) is highly configurable to accommodate individual preferences and includes guided wizards and workflows to simplify administration. All actions available from the GUI may also be scripted with PowerShell Commandlets to orchestrate workflows with other tools and applications.
|
Centralized
Management of the Pivot3 Acuity platform, capacity monitoring, performance monitoring and efficiency reporting can be performed through the Pivot3 vSphere Web Client plug-in.
Other functionality such as snapshots and snapshot schedules are also managed from the Pivot3 vSphere Web Client plug-in.
Pivot3 AWS cloud appliances (Pivot3 Cloud Edition) can also be managed from the Pivot3 vSphere Web Client plug-in.
|
Centralized
StarWind Web-based Management provides the ability to administrate the StarWind HCA infrastructure from any remote location using any HTML 5 web console.
|
|
|
|
Single-site and Multi-site
|
Single-site and Multi-site
|
Single-site and Multi-site
From within the StarWind Web Management Console servers from different clusters and sites can be added.
|
|
|
GUI Perf. Monitoring
Details
|
Advanced
SANsymphony has visibility into the performance of all connected devices including front-end channels, back-end channels, cache, physical disks, and virtual disks. Metrics include Read/write IOPs, Read/write MBps and Read/Write Latency at all levels. These metrics can be exported to the Windows Performance Monitoring (Perfmon) utility where other server parameters are being tracked.
The frequency at which performance metrics can be captured and reported on is configurable, real-time down to 1 second intervals and long term recording at 2 minutes granularity.
When a trend analysis is required, an end-user can simply enable a recording session to capture metrics over a longer period of time.
|
Advanced
The Performance Monitor view provides a view of the activity within the domain that can consist of multiple clusters and each volume within an Acuity Virtual Performance Group (vPG). Metrics that can be viewed are: IOPS, Throughput (MBps) and Latency (ms) for Reads/Writes, Queue Depth and Block Size.
The Performance Diagnostics view provides an in-depth look into the performance metrics of network connections and disk usage for the selected Acuity vPG.
All metrics can be viewed from within the Pivot3 VMware vSphere Web Client plug-in.
|
Advanced
There are two options for monitoring in StarWind HCA. The StarWind Management Console can be used to view basic storage performance characteristics. New is StarWind Command Center that provides advanced monitoring functionality. StarWind Command Center monitoring and management tool is currently included with all StarWind HCAs on Hyper-V.
StarWind Management Console provides:
- counters on a per-host level: CPU/RAM load, CPU load, RAM load, Total IOPS, Total Bandwidth
- counters on a per-device level: Read Bandwidth, Write Bandwidth, Total Bandwidth, Total IOPS
- selectable are Server with all targets (StarWind devices) or each separate StarWind device
- retention time of performance information is last 24 hours
- refresh rate of performance metrics is every 30 seconds
StarWind Command Center provides:
- counters on a per VM-level: CPU, RAM, Storage usage, IOPS, IO latency
- counters on a per Storage-level: total usage, synchronization state, IOPS, disk throughput, average Queue Depth, Read/Write ratio, Peak disk throughput, Average IO size, Average IO, Latency
- counters on a per-node level: CPU, RAM, Storage usage, VMs distribution among nodes, IOPS, Disk Throughput, Disk IO Latency
- retention time of performance information is maximum of one year
- refresh rate of performance metrics is every 3 minutes
- VM-ranking options based on CPU/RAM usage, IOPS or IO latency
- monitoring of cluster-wide performance
|
|
|
|
VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
VMware vCenter plug-in for SANsymphony
SCVMM DataCore Storage Management Provider
Microsoft System Center Monitoring Pack
DataCore offers deep integration with VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V, as well as their respective systems management tools, vCenter and System Center.
SCVMM = Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager
|
VMware HTML5 vSphere Client (plugin)
VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
The Pivot3 Acuity VMware vSphere Web Client plug-in enabes performing daily storage provisioning and maintance tasks, including:
- viewing local and global system health and statistics
- provisioning and managing storage and performance (QoS policies)
- providing storage protection (QoS policies)
- viewing Acuity storage cluster node details.
The Pivot3 UI is not yet supported on VMware vCenter 6.7.
|
vSphere: Web Client (plugin)
Hyper-V: SCVMM 2016 (add-in)
The StarWind vCenter plug-in provides a 1-to-1 representation of the StarWind Web Console inside the VMware vSphere Web Client. It does not add additional StarWind HCA-related actions to any Web Client menus.
|
|
|
|
Programmability |
|
|
|
|
Full
Using DataCores native management console, Virtual Disk Templates can be leveraged to populate storage policies. Available configuration items: Storage profile, Virtual disk size, Sector size, Reserved space, Write-trough enabled/disabled, Storage sources, Preferred snapshot pool, Accelerator enabled/disabled, CDP enabled/disabled.
Virtual Disk Templates integrate with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), VMware Virtual Volumes (VVol) and OpenStack. Virtual Disk Templates are also fully supported by the REST-API allowing any third-party integration.
Using Virtual Volumes (VVols) defined through DataCore’s VASA provider, VMware administrators can self-provision datastores for virtual machines (VMs) directly from their familiar hypervisor interface. This is possible even for devices in the DataCore pool that don’t natively support VVols and never will, as SANsymphony can be used as a storage-virtualization layer for these devices/solutions. DataCore SANsymphony Provider v2.01 has VVols certification for VMware ESXi 6.5 U2/U3, ESXi 6.7 GA/U1/U2/U3 and ESXi 7.0 GA/U1.
Using Classifications and StoragePools defined through DataCore’s Storage Management Provider, Hyper-V administrators can self-provision virtual disks and pass-through LUNS for virtual machines (VMs) directly from their familiar SCVMM interface.
|
Full
Pivot3 Acuity leverages Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM) that allows administrators to build a profile for each volume consisting of Virtual Performance Group (vPG), Performance QoS and Protection QoS.
|
Partial (Protection)
|
|
|
|
REST-APIs
PowerShell
The SANsymphony REST-APIs library includes more than 200 new representational state transfer (REST) operations, so automation can be leveraged more extensively. RESTful interfaces are used by products such as Lenovo XClarity, Cisco Embedded Resource Manager and Dell OpenManage to manage infrastructure in the enterprise.
SANsymphony provides its own Powershell cmdlets.
|
REST-APIs
CLI
|
REST-APIs (through Swordfish)
PowerShell
StarWind HCA does not offer native REST APIs (functionality still under development). Alternatively, StarWind over Swordfish API can be configured if programming is a requirement.
For more information, please view: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/starwind-swordfish-provider/
|
|
|
|
OpenStack
OpenStack: The SANsymphony storage solution includes a Cinder driver, which interfaces between SANsymphony and OpenStack, and presents volumes to OpenStack as block devices which are available for block storage.
Datacore SANsymphony programmability in VMware vRealize Automation and Microsoft System Center can be achieved by leveraging PowerShell and the SANsymphony specific cmdlets.
|
VMware vRealize Automation (vRA)
Pivot3 provides an Acuity integration package for VMware vRealize Automation (vRA)
|
N/A
|
|
|
|
Full
The DataCore SANsymphony GUI offers delegated administration to secondary users through fine-grained Role-based Access Control (RBAC). The administrator is able to define Virtual Disk ownership as well as privileges associated with that particular ownership. Owners must have Virtual Disk privileges in an assigned role in order to perform operations on the virtual disk. Access can be very refined. For example, one owner may have the privilege to create a snapshot of a virtual disk, but not have the ability to serve or unserve the same virtual disk. Privilege sets define the operations that can be performed. For instance, in order for an owner to perform snapshot, rollback, or replication operations, they would require those privilege sets in an assigned role.
|
N/A
Pivot3 Acuity does not provide any end-user self service capabilities of its own.
A self service portal enables end-users to access a portal where they can provision and manage VMs from templates, eliminating administrator requests or activity.
Self-Service functionality can be enabled by leveraging for instance VMware vRealize Automation (vRA). This requires a separate VMware license.
|
N/A
|
|
|
|
Maintenance |
|
|
|
|
Unified
All storage related features and functionality are built into the DataCore SANsymphony platform. The consolidation means, that only one product needs to be installed and upgraded and minimal dependencies exist with other software.
Integration with 3rd party systems (e.g. OpenStack, vSphere, System Center) are delivered seperately but are free-of-charge.
|
Partially Distributed
For a number of features and functions the Pivot3 Acuity platform relies on other components that need to be installed and upgraded next to the core vSphere platform. Examples are backup/restore and remote replication software. As a result some dependencies exist with other software.
|
Partially Distributed
For a number of features and functions StarWind HCA relies on other components that need to be installed and upgraded next to the core Windows platform. Examples are backup/restore and advanced management software. As a result some dependencies exist with other software.
|
|
|
SW Upgrade Execution
Details
|
Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
Each SANsymphony update is packaged in an installation Wizard which contains a fully guided upgrade process. The upgrade process checks all system requirements and performs a system health before starting the upgrade process and before moving from one node to the next.
The user can also decide to upgrade a SANsymphony cluster manually and follow all steps that are outlined in the Release Notes.
|
Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
Pivot3 provides GUI-based non-disruptive rolling upgrades of the Acuity platform as well as the underlying server firmware.
The upgrade only gets committed once all nodes within the vPG (aka cluster) are at the same state and the update is stable.
|
Manual Upgrade (1-by-1)
|
|
|
FW Upgrade Execution
Details
|
Hardware dependent
Some server hardware vendors offer rolling upgrade options with their base software or with a premium software suite. With some other server vendors, BIOS and Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) updated have to be performed manually and 1-by-1.
DataCore provides integrated firmware-control for FC-cards. This means the driver automatically loads the required firmware on demand.
|
1-Click
Pivot3 provides GUI-based non-disruptive rolling upgrades of the Acuity platform as well as the underlying server firmware.
|
Manual Upgrade (1-by-1 )
To perform drivers updates, a remote session with a StarWind Support engineer is scheduled who will perform all the updates. Firmware and driver updates are first verified for any possible issues.
To keep the VMs and applications running during maintenance, StarWind performs the following steps:
1. Check that StarWind devices are synchronized on both nodes and that all iSCSI connections are active.
2. Move VMs inside the cluster to the partner node.
3. In case the process presumes several restarts, put StarWind service into a disabled state or manual start on the required node.
4. Install the required updates/drivers.
5. Restart the node if required.
6. In case required, shut down the node and perform a firmware update.
|
|
|
|
Support |
|
|
|
Single HW/SW Support
Details
|
No
With regard to DataCore SANsymphony as a software-only offering (SDS), DataCore does not offer unified support for the entire solution. This means storage software support (SANsymphony) and server hardware support are separate.
|
Yes
The entire HW/SW solution is owned by Pivot3, so support for all solution components can be provided by a single company.
|
Yes
StarWind provides unified support for the entire native solution. This means StarWind is the single point-of-contact for any storage software (StarWind Virtual SAN) and server hardware (SuperMicro/Dell) related issues.
|
|
|
Call-Home Function
Details
|
Partial (HW dependent)
With regard to DataCore SANsymphony as a software-only offering (SDS), DataCore does not offer call-home for the entire solution. This means storage software support (SANsymphony) and server hardware support are separate.
|
Full
Pivot3 Proactive Diagnostics (PPD) is an optional service that allows our products to report diagnostic system metadata to Pivot3 Support. Reported information includes Node health, Protection Group performance, logical volume operational errors, and vSMS reported error diagnostics. No confidential or secure data is conveyed through this feature, and using it is optional. Critical alerts reported as part of the service will generate a Pivot3 Support initiated effort to coordinate remediation with the customer.
|
Yes
StarWind ProActive Support combines both the 'Call Home' functionality and Predictive Analytics.
StarWind ProActive Support service notifies the StarWind Support team about any issues occurring in the StarWind HCA for storage, networking, compute and software layers. This is achieved by StarWind Agents running on each HCA and collecting the metrics from the servers and StarWind software.
|
|
|
Predictive Analytics
Details
|
Partial
Capacity Management: DataCore SANsymphony Analysis and Reporting supports depletion monitoring of the capacity, complements pool space threshold warnings by regularly evaluating the rate of capacity consumption and estimating when space will be depleted. The regularly updated projections give you a chance to add more storage to the pool before you run out of storage. It also helps you do a better job of capacity planning with fewer surprises. To help allocate costs, especially in private cloud and hosted cloud services, SANsymphony generates reports quantifying the storage resources consumed by specific hosts or groups of hosts. The reports tally several parameters.
Health Monitoring: A combination of system health checks and access to device S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) alerts help to isolate performance and disk problems before they become serious.
DataCore Insight Services (DIS) offers additional capabilites including log-analytics for predictive failure analysis and actionable insights - including hardware.
DIS also provides predictive capacity trend analysis in order to pro-actively warn about licensing limitations being reached within x days and/or disk pools running out of capacity.
|
Full
Pivot3 Acuity includes predictive analytics specific to the following areas:
- Proactive supportability: sensor data from multiple components (flash, disk, node, etc) within the system is analysed for predictive failures and self-healing of the system. For instance, if a drive is failing (not yet failed), system will automatically spare it out and phone home order a new one. Also, we analyse and predict when flash wear-out may occur and display/alarm this information to the customer and phone home.
- Capacity and Performance Planning: complete suite of metrics and dashboards available to the customer for capacity (current and predictive future) and performance to aid with expansion planning. All these metrics are included in a daily phone-home package sent to Pivot3 support cloud.
- Realtime IO Path/Data Placement manipulation: every IO is tracked and analysed in order to meet the SLAs defined by the customer via the built-in policy engine. Data placement in the system (RAM, NVMe, SSD, HDD) is governed by policy. The system uses predictive analytics and automation to make sure right IO path queueing and data placement is in effect to meet SLAs. Policy changes can be automated via built-in scheduler and CLI/APIs.
|
Partial
StarWind ProActive support is capable of Predictive Analytics by analyzing abnormal patterns on storage, networking, compute and software layers. This allows StarWinds Support team to automatically receive notifications as to possible issues that might occur on the servers.
Additionally, any other pattern that caused issues in one environment is analyzed and integrated into the ProActive Support database allowing the service to notify the StarWind Support team about the same patterns occurring in other clients environments.
|
|
