LeftHand Networks has announced a virtual version of its SaniQ
software that will allow users to convert locally attached disc in
ESX servers to an
iSCSI storage area network (San). With the
announcement, LeftHand joins in the trend of virtual storage
software appliances being built to run on VMware's ESX server by
companies such as Falconstor Software and EMC subsidiary Avamar
Technologies.
The Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) is compatible only with
VMware's Infrastructure 3 (VI3) and requires two physical ESX
servers for failover and mirroring for data protection. LeftHand's
software, in virtual as well as physical editions, converts
servers, until now hardware boxes from IBM and HP, into iSCSI Sans.
What's more, this edition will be no different when it comes to the
DAS on the ESX servers, according to vice-president of marketing
John Fanelli.
"Nearly all of our users have internal storage that gets thrown
in with server purchases, usually somewhere around a terabyte per
server, that they're not using," Fanelli said. Before VI3 added
iSCSI support, some users were using ESX on big servers, rather
than moving to San. Since then, he said, "When users move these big
systems to San, they're left asking, 'What do we do with all this
storage'?"
The VSA for VMware ESX server comes packaged with a licensed
operating system and will be available for free trial download on
VMware's website. That free trial download can run on a laptop or
desktop computer for demonstration purposes, dividing up the
storage available on the hard drive.
If installed on a server, the full version of the software will
automatically see the DAS belonging to its physical host, as well
as the storage being managed by SaniQ anywhere on the network,
including LeftHand's full San. VSAs and LeftHand's Sans running on
server hardware clusters can be managed together from one
screen.
According to Tony Asaro, senior analyst with the Enterprise
Strategy Group (ESG), "This is the way the whole market's going,
with virtualised software sharing various storage and server
resources."
But according to Fanelli, this management integration also has
to do with the fact that the VSA is not meant to ultimately replace
a San. This is due to the performance issues still presented by
server virtualisation products that must "switch" between the
hypervisor and operating system in order to transfer commands.
Furthermore, some users currently evaluating the VSA said they
have concerns about performance.
"Once you put virtual servers on top of a virtual San, there's a
definite question as to how it's going to perform," said Stan
Rehfuss, director of technical systems and operations for the
Denver Museum of Nature & Science. However, he said he sees the
VSA system helping out with a disaster recovery plan he's still
trying to get off the ground, allowing him to replicate data from a
6Tbyte LeftHand hardware-based San to VSAs at a second
location.
Rehfuss also said that he's interested in using the VSA for
temporary, cheap expansion of the main San. "It's really hard to go
and say you need £50,000 for storage expansion when the whole [IT]
budget is a little more than double that."
For other LeftHand users, the ability to repurpose DAS far
outweighs any performance concerns. Bob Lamb, general manager of
hosting services for managed hosting provider Strategic Business
Solutions, said he's been waiting for this product for more than a
year. "I plan to use it to offer my smaller clients storage
services at a much lower price point than with my physical LeftHand
San," he said. He estimates that the new services he will offer,
based on VSA, will run about 50p per gigabyte, as opposed to
the £2.50 per gigabyte charged now for physical storage. "It'll
help my company get into a whole new market."
Jimmy Reid, director of technical operations at the University
of Maryland, said in an interview with SearchStorage.com that his
shop has been using the VSA since
LeftHand released version 7.0 of its SaniQ
software and set him up with the feature well in advance of its
announcement. The ability to fold unused DAS on physical hosts
running VMware "is going to be huge for us," said Reid. "There's
almost 2Tbytes that we can immediately start using that's
sitting empty in our environment."
The LeftHand VSA requires a base configuration of two physical
hosts equipped with ESX server. Each server should have at least
2Gbytes of Ram and 2GHz of CPU reserved through ESX. The VSA itself
is priced at £250,000 per instance. Fanelli estimated the cost of
the required server hardware at about £5,500 street price. "That's
compared to £13,000 on new servers and £8,500 for software to run a
physical San," he said.