Xinnor xiRAID High Availability BeeGFS Solution with Western Digital and ThinkParq

Xinnor Ltd. announced the release of a comprehensive solution brief detailing a high availability BeeGFS implementation powered by Western Digital Corp.‘s OpenFlex Data24 4000 Series NVMe-oF storage platform.

The validated design addresses critical infrastructure needs for HPC environments requiring both performance and robust fault tolerance.

This solution combines Xinnor’s xiRAID Classic software with BeeGFS parallel file system and Western Digital’s composable infrastructure to deliver a cost-effective, highly available storage platform. The integrated approach enables organizations to build resilient HPC clusters capable of surviving multiple drive failures and complete server node failures while maintaining continuous operations.

Key technical specifications include:

Up to 1,474.56TB capacity in a 2U unit
Support for up to 12 hosts without requiring a switch
PCIe Gen4 performance throughout the chassis
Measured performance of 61.5GB/s read and 24.4GB/s write throughput

The solution specifically addresses the challenge of eliminating single points of failure in HPC storage systems. xiRAID Classic provides automatic failover capabilities through Pacemaker Cluster Shell integration, ensuring seamless operation even during hardware failures. This HA architecture is particularly critical for data-intensive workloads in AI, ML, and scientific computing applications where downtime can be costly.

“The combination of xiRAID Classic’s high availability features with BeeGFS’s parallel file system architecture creates a robust foundation for mission-critical HPC workloads,” said Davide Villa, CRO, Xinnor. “Organizations can now deploy large-scale storage infrastructure with confidence, knowing their systems can maintain operations through various failure scenarios.”

The solution represents a collaborative effort between 3 technology leaders, each contributing specialized expertise. Western Digital provides the underlying NVMe-oF composable infrastructure, while BeeGFS delivers the parallel file system optimized for concurrent access patterns typical in HPC environments.

The solution leverages Western Digital’s RapidFlex network adapters and fabric bridge devices to provide 12 ports of 100GbE connectivity. The architecture supports both RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) and TCP connections, offering deployment flexibility for different data center environments.

Xinnor’s xiRAID Classic operates as a lightweight software module with minimal CPU and memory overhead while providing enterprise-grade RAID functionality specifically optimized for NVMe flash storage. The software’s lockless data path and I/O handling parallelization ensure RAID penalties remain minimal.

Resources:
Western Digital has published both a solution brief and detailed reference architecture documenting the implementation. The materials provide comprehensive guidance for organizations planning to deploy this HA storage platform: