Share application data across multiple virtual machines

Virtual machines running Windows operating systems on VMware ESX can now share access to application data on SAN volumes and maintain access to application data, even when virtual servers are migrated between physical host servers. Now Sanbolic’s Melio clustered file system available from NavigateStorage addresses a shortcoming of virtualization across all major platforms – an inability to share application data between multiple virtual machines, which creates an inflexible storage platform for virtual data centers.

"Previously, a SAN storage volume containing application data had to be assigned uniquely to a single physical or virtual server, limiting flexibility and providing a single path to application data," said Momchil Michailov, Sanbolic’s founder. "Sanbolic’s Melio file system (Melio FS) enables multiple paths to the data and concurrent read/write access to the application data using a high performance, low latency SAN storage fabric. Shared access to application data on SAN storage infrastructures enhances application availability, and also provides flexibility to scale applications and improve performance of tiered applications."

"We are building a VMware-based virtual environment for most of our servers," said Anders Alexandersson of GVA Consultants AB, a KBR company. "All of the physical and virtual servers have common shared storage volumes formatted with Melio FS. All of our data is placed on the Melio FS formatted volumes, and we can dynamically add both physical and virtual machines to access the data. This kind on infrastructure not only significantly reduces our administrative costs, but also allows us to keep a single set of the data and increase the processing times significantly."

Sanbolic’s Melio clustered file system and LaScala volume manager are designed to support Windows applications which benefit from central administration of a large virtual storage pool simultaneously accessed by multiple physical or virtual servers. Melio FS uses 64 bit architecture, allowing very large volume and file system sizes. These products install easily on physical or virtual servers, and can utilize any fibre channel or iSCSI storage hardware. Windows directory, reporting, and clustering features are supported. Reporting on storage I/O and transaction performance facilitates optimization of storage intensive workloads.

To learn more and see a demo contact NavigateStorage