Nexenta has introduced significant updates to its block and object storage platform, NexentaEdge, including seamless integration with OpenStack and Docker environments. NexentaEdge was the first software-only, scale-out, multi-service storage solution to deliver cluster-wide inline deduplication and compression, offering high-performance, simplified management of petabyte-scale repositories. Now, with the latest updates, the block and object software-defined platform includes additional performance optimisations for all-flash and hybrid configurations, tightly integrates with the OpenStack ecosystem to simplify deployments in OpenStack clouds, and adds support for container-based deployments and Docker environments.
“While both OpenStack and container technologies are growing in adoption, scalable storage is a key component in optimising these ecosystems for the enterprise,” said Henry Baltazar, research director, storage at 451 Research. “Legacy hardware appliances cannot provide the scalability demanded by rapidly growing data volumes. Companies need to look to Software-Defined Storage to take advantage of the inherently flexible nature of OpenStack and container environments.”
In addition to full iSCSI, NexentaEdge now supports native block device services, allowing hyperconverged OpenStack deployments to run Nova nodes directly on the NexentaEdge cluster. To fully automate deployment and configuration of NexentaEdge nodes in Canonical OpenStack environments, Juju Charms are available from the Canonical Juju Charms Store. All NexentaEdge Cinder drivers are also fully integrated in the OpenStack Mitaka release. ”We selected NexentaEdge as our scale-out storage solution to support a petabyte scale OpenStack cloud for the university,” said Dr. Paul Calleja, Director of High Performance Computing Service (HPCS) at the University of Cambridge. “NexentaEdge’s storage efficiency using cloud copy-on-write, inline cluster-wide deduplication and compression allowed us to get the most out of our existing hardware and provision more virtual machines. The ease of management with a self-healing, self-balancing core for automatic avoidance of hot spots and failed components has been critical in supporting more than 20,000 students and faculty.”
“We have implemented a content delivery solution using NexentaEdge along with Pluribus Networks switch software on Dell switches,” said Joe Little, representing a technology department at a leading private university in California. “The combination of the NexentaEdge Replicast™ protocol and the Multi-Listener Discovery support provided by Pluribus Networks VCF-powered switches allow for the deployment to scale out as needed while maintaining low latency between storage nodes.”
Additional product enhancements include:
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Cinder drivers for OpenStack Icehouse, Juno, Kilo, Liberty and Mitaka releases, with full integration in the OpenStack Mitaka release
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High performance block services for hybrid and all-flash configurations
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Contrary to most scale-out software solutions on the market, NexentaEdge runs directly on raw physical devices in its storage nodes, eliminating the complexity and performance overhead of local file systems on these devices. For hybrid configurations, NexentaEdge leverages SSDs in each storage node to coalesce random write IOs and serialize the data that is pushed to backend disks
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Simple deployment and configuration through Canonical Juju Charms
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Performance profile based software deployment and streamlined management through self-documenting REST APIs and cluster CLI
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Container-based deployment option, providing persistent storage services to Docker based application microservices running on the same servers
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While NexentaEdge can be deployed on a wide variety of x86 based industry standard servers, Nexenta maintains detailed NexentaEdge configuration guidelines for:
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Cisco, Dell, HPE, Lenovo and Supermicro servers
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Arista, Cisco, Dell, Mellanox, Pluribus and Supermicro networks
