RAID, Inc., ClearPointe and Chelsio Unveiling NVMe-Tuned Hyperconverged Solution

RAID Inc. and Chelsio Communications, Inc. demonstrated a hyperonverged infrastructure Microsoft Corp. Storage Spaces Direct architecture based on Windows Server 2016, at Microsoft booth and Lenovo Enterprise Solutions, Pte Ltd booth at the Microsoft Ignite Conference in Atlanta, GA.

This 4-node cluster solution presented and managed by RAID Inc. and ClearPointe with the directive to validate the HPC capabilities achieved by partnering with storage at scale and Windows Server design experts. It integrates Chelsio 40GbE iWARP RDMA-enabled networking adapters that offload network stack processing from the CPU, to provide a proof point that performance networking enables faster data communication.

RAID Inc ability HCI series overview
To take advantage of the growing demand for hyperconverged platforms and software-defined storage, RAID Inc. is making sizeable investments in architecting and the fine-tuning of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) hyper-converged solutions with the Ability HCI Series. By integrating Chelsio 40GbE iWARP RDMA adapters and NVMe technologies from HGST, Inc., the company leverages its HPC pedigree to supercharge Lenovo-based S2D deployments, built upon in-house validating and real-world testing.

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The Ability HCI Series powered by Lenovo on display at Ignite this year demonstrates the S2D200 model with the latest NVMe flash storage technologies and is tuned to excel in running nearly all workload types, including Hyper-V virtualized and enterprise applications, SQL databases, Remote Desktop Services for virtualized desktops, Azure-ready hybrid clouds, and big data analytics, with improved efficiency and scalability. Additionally, Lenovo and RAID Inc. are planning significant actions in solution development as well as go-to-market initiatives.

Ability HCI series S2D200 Ignite demo highlights:

• Lenovo system x3650 M5

• 2TB memory

• 224 cores

• S2D-tuned NVMe flash cache tier

• 20TB usable storage capacity

• Chelsio T5 40GbE iWARP RDMA networking

Performance results:

• 1.4 million IO/s at 70/30 4K random R/W

• Up to 17-22 GB/s throughput random R/W

• Up to 80 power user compute VMs (4C+16GB)

• Under $500 per VM (300 VMs at 1C+2GB)

“As a founding Microsoft partner for Storage Spaces, RAID Inc. brings its cloud architecture and HPC prowess to the software defined data center (SDDC),” comments Trenton R. Baker, VP, marketing, RAID Inc. “With the RAID Inc. Ability HCI Series powered by Lenovo for Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server 2016, this hyper-converged appliance leverages the Chelsio 40GbE iWARP RDMA adapters to greatly improve S2D networking and dramatically reduce the IT infrastructure TCO.“

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ClearPointe management and remediation for Storage Spaces Direct
ClearPointe provides a single source of management and remediation to ensure performance for the life cycle of the Ability HCI Series powered by Lenovo. With technologies changing at exponential rates, decision makers often have to consider timing when deploying technology – deciding on when to implement and when to wait for the next generation of something to arrive. By leveraging these technologies, you receive the value for your investment and position your organization to transition to Azure Stack as it becomes available. The management and monitoring tools translate directly into a model that scales into Azure Stack, and therefore Azure, to create a hybrid ecosystem that can scale and work together across on premise and cloud environments, all while being monitored by ClearPointe.

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“ClearPointe’s life cycle management gives us the ability to deliver a holistic approach from design through installation and as you scale to match your demand,” adds Daniel Weissenborn, solution architect, ClearPointe. “Complex systems will eventually exceed skill even for a company with infinite resources. The simplicity of this solution combined with the performance is what makes it ideal.“

Chelsio Terminator 5 ASIC architecture
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Chelsio T5 iWARP RDMA for Windows Server 2016 Storage Spaces Direct
Chelsio’s Terminator 5 ASIC offers a performance, third generation implementation of RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) over 40GbE – iWARP. T5 delivers end-to-end RDMA latency that is comparable to IB, using standard Ethernet infrastructure. iWARP is in production in GPU applications, in storage applications as a fabric for clustered storage, for Lustre and other storage applications, for HPC applications, and for remote replication and DR.

Terminator 5 (T5) 10 and 40 GbE iWARP (RDMA/TCP) enabled Unified Wire adapters have achieved ‘Certified for Windows Server 2016’ hardware certification. The iWARP standard enables building efficient, performance, Microsoft Cloud deployments quickly. iWARP works with any legacy Ethernet switch, thereby enabling incremental Windows Server 2016 installations without requiring a concurrent forklift upgrade of the switch infrastructure or the entire datacenter. This ability to work with any DCBX or non-DCBX switch, allows use of the cost effective new or existing switch infrastructure with the least amount of support, while enabling an immediate plug-and-play deployment. In addition, Microsoft’s support of iWARP protocol since Windows Server 2012-R2 release, has allowed for years of testing for a robust, tested, deployment with iWARP.

“The iWARP standard enables building very efficient, high performance, Microsoft Cloud deployments very quickly,” said Kianoosh Naghshineh, CEO, Chelsio. “This new offering validates how Storage Spaces Direct, combined with advanced flash-based storage connected by Chelsio’s 40GbE iWARP networking solution, helps build faster, easy-to-scale and reliable storage for their private cloud deployments“.

Information regarding the demonstration: Chelsio/ClearPointe Technical Brief