Sanbolic Added Distributed Locking Components to Its Custered File System

Sanbolic, Inc. has added new distributed locking components to its Melio clustered file system, specifically optimized for block objects such as virtual disk files and databases. This allows high performance direct I/O on SAN infrastructure and the capability to support very large clusters of host machines for virtualized cloud infrastructure. Sanbolic has also added support for shared host access to a LUN for Windows Server 2008 R2 beta, which enables live migration for Hyper-V. In addition, Melio FS now provides shared access to data on SAN storage from virtual machines running on Citrix® XenServer. This capability has been available for Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware ESX virtual machines since last year.

"Current options for host clustering in virtual datacenters have limited scalability and performance," said Momchil Michailov, CEO of Sanbolic. "The new lock architecture in Melio provides virtually unlimited cluster sizes while providing native performance of the SAN storage infrastructure." Melio FS also provides integrated storage I/O and transaction performance monitoring, as well as quality of service assignment by host. These tools enable administrators to better identify and manage any storage bottlenecks in their virtual infrastructure.

Melio FS now provides shared access to data on SAN storage from virtual machines running on VMware ESX, Hyper-V, and/or Citrix XenServer, greatly improving storage flexibility for what Gartner calls ‘Virtualization 2.0’ deployments. Sanbolic also enables centralized configuration and assignment of logical storage volumes among the virtual servers using LaScala Enterprise clustered volume manager. Increasingly, customers are finding that virtualization provides not only cost saving through server consolidation, but improved business agility. By providing greater flexibility and shared access to SAN storage, Sanbolic enables virtual infrastructure to respond more rapidly to changes in workload or new opportunities.

"Sanbolic’s Melio File System was simple to install and provides high performance shared access to files on a SAN from physical and virtual machines providing the same functionality as NAS systems, without the performance penalty," said Rueben van der Swan, IT Manager at Argeweb Netherlands. "This allows us to improve flexibility and efficiency in our hosting infrastructure where availability and high performance is required." Argeweb is one of the fastest growing providers of domain registration and webhosting services in the Netherlands. The company provides online back-up, hosted exchange, (managed) server hosting and virtual private servers.

Sanbolic’s Melio clustered file system and LaScala clustered volume manager install on physical or virtual servers, and can utilize any fibre channel or iSCSI storage hardware. Windows active directory, DFS, and clustering features are supported.

Sanbolic software currently supports Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, including Server Core, and Windows Server 2008 beta. Sanbolic distributes its product solutions worldwide through a network of distributors, OEMs, VARs and system integrators.