ACADEMIA
Violin WFA delivers compelling scale-out NAS file system
Violin Memory has announced its scale-out Tier-1 NAS solution. Based on Violin’s Windows Flash Array (WFA), this solution has delivered linear scalability to more than 2 million random read IOPS and 1.6 million random write IOPS on only a 2-node NAS cluster.
“Windows Flash Array provides a tier-zero and tier-1 scale-out NAS all-flash array for enterprise Microsoft deployments”
Microsoft’s white paper - Building High Performance Storage for Hyper-V Cluster on Scale-Out File Servers using Violin Windows Flash Arrays, published in October 2014 – details several user deployments that benefit from the performance, scalability, data services capabilities and availability of Violin’s WFA scale-out Tier-1 NAS solution.
In particular, the Microsoft white paper focuses on how the WFA’s scale-out NAS capability delivers high value to customers using Hyper-V on scale-out file servers with strong resiliency, availability, scalability and performance. With Violin enterprise-class all-flash arrays, Microsoft’s SMB Direct interconnect, and Windows Server 2012 R2, Violin’s scale-out NAS is extremely well-positioned for delivering a scale-out file server solution.
In addition, the WFA supports NFS 3.0 and NFS 4.1 for connectivity with application servers running operating systems such as Linux and UNIX. NAS scale-out file shares on the WFA are simultaneously available as Windows file shares over SMB 3 and as NFS exports to simplify data sharing across the data center. There are no artificial data silos separating SMB- and NFS-based applications with the WFA - just seamless integration of high performance, easily accessible all-flash storage.
Jointly developed with Microsoft Corp., the WFA is the first all-flash high-performance array solution powered by Windows Server 2012 R2 to deliver a rich set of storage features and data services for scale-out Tier-1 NAS deployments. The unmatched performance of the WFA transforms data center economics by reducing CAPEX, OPEX, and TCO for enterprise NAS environments.
“Windows Flash Array provides a tier-zero and tier-1 scale-out NAS all-flash array for enterprise Microsoft deployments,” said Jose Barreto, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft. “Windows Server 2012 R2 combined with Violin’s all -flash array delivers an enterprise grade solution for our joint customers.”
The Windows Flash Array enables Tier-1 NAS workloads, as well as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SharePoint, and Windows Server with Hyper-V for both server and desktop virtualization. The WFA’s enterprise-wide scale-out file services meets the needs of global enterprises, while refocusing IT expenditure towards business innovation.
The scale-out NAS WFA offers a full set of capacity points, as well as Violin’s Pay-As-You-Grow capacity licensing model for optimum solution delivery. Customers also have a choice in how they interconnect the all-flash scale-out NAS array with their existing infrastructures. The WFA supports either 56 Gb FDR InfiniBand or 10 Gb Ethernet. In both cases, customers benefit from the efficiency and high performance afforded by SMB Direct and the rest of the SMB 3.0 feature set.