Gluster Storage Platform Enables Big-Data Clusters
New, integrated software platform enables deployment of petabyte-scale clustered storage on industry-standard hardware in just a few mouse clicks
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Gluster, a leading provider of scalable open source storage solutions, today released Gluster Storage Platform, integrating the GlusterFS file system with an operating system layer. The platform features an improved management user interface and provides a complete storage software platform that simplifies deployment of petabyte-scale storage to two installation steps and a few mouse clicks. The new platform addresses the complexity of managing “big data,” the demanding scalability requirements of modern applications, and the accelerating growth of virtual server deployments.
Designed to be easy to configure and administer. With its “no-metadata server” architecture, Gluster provides a commercial storage platform that removes this common source of I/O bottlenecks. This approach provides true parallel data access, ensures linear scalability, and eliminates the risk of metadata server failure or corruption. Additionally, Gluster Storage Platform provides a cost-effective, open source solution on commodity hardware that meets enterprise requirements for data availability, ease of management, and scalability.
Highlights of Gluster Storage Platform include:
- Clustered storage on a stick: The complete platform image fits on a USB memory stick that can configure a bare server to a clustered storage node in 15 minutes or less
- Unified global namespace: Scale to hundreds of petabytes in a single volume across multiple commodity storage nodes
- Web-based installation and management: Rapid installation of first storage node with disk formatting performed post-install; integrated management of volumes, data resources, and servers plus centralized logging and reporting
- High availability: Data can be replicated (mirrored) for high availability; real time self-healing performs error detection and correction within files while they are running and during recovery from hardware failures
Additionally, Gluster Storage Platform ensures continuous operation of virtual machines (VMs). Replicated virtual machines can continuously operate in the event of hardware failure and recovery is performed in the background without requiring a restart or blocking I/O to the live VM. Gluster Storage Platform uses checksum-based healing detects and corrects errors within the VM rather than for the entire VM image.
Virtual Storage for Virtual Servers
Gluster Storage Platform aggregates disk and memory resources into a single pool of capacity under a global namespace, providing a true virtual storage environment to complement server virtualization. VM images and application data can be stored in the same system in a single volume, eliminating silos of data and centralizing management. Multiple storage building blocks are clustered together in parallel, eliminating I/O bottlenecks and hotspots that often negatively impact VM performance. With Gluster, storage administrators no longer need to manually manage multiple volumes and individual storage connections.
It is now common for mission-critical applications to be deployed on VMs. The VM images not only need to be stored, they also need to continue operating in the event of hardware failures and not allow faults to interrupt applications and services. Gluster Storage Platform employs file replication to ensure multiple copies of a VM are available in the event of hardware failure and provides both high availability and sophisticated real time self-healing to ensure continuous VM operation.
Product Availability and Pricing
Gluster Storage Platform is available today with subscriptions starting at $1,500 per storage node per year. See gluster.com/services/edition-subscriptions.php for more information.