| • |
iSCSI disk emulation
Serves well-behaved virtual disks to popular operating
systems using standard iSCSI protocol over Ethernet.
Supports allocation requests from Windows Virtual Disk
Services (VDS). |
| • |
Support for numerous types of disk drives
Supports any disk drives qualified for Windows (i.e.
SCSI, EIDE, Fibre Channel, SATA, etc.) and transparently
bridges between the drive interface and the iSCSI or
optional Fibre Channel host connection.Please refer
to FAQ 729 on DataCore's SANmelody Technical Support
Site for supported disk drives. |
• |
I/O read and write caching.
Uses the server's local memory (RAM) as a cache to improve
application response time. |
• |
Secure LUN allocation (access controls)
Prevents unauthorised host access to virtual disks not
explicitly assigned to them. |
• |
Supports Windows Server 2003 Storage Services.
Virtual Disk Services (VDS)
Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS), and Multipath I/O
(MPIO). Administrators benefit from a standard methodology
for invoking disk services, setting up snapshots and
supporting muti-path redundancy across a spectrum of
workloads and storage devices. |
• |
Virtual LUNs
Divides or aggregates physical disks to meet various
capacity requirements. |
• |
Intuitive administrative GUI
Uses Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Snap-ins for
simple point and click configuration and management. |
• |
Performance displays
Leverages Windows' built-in Perfmon to trace SANmelody-specific
performance counters. |
• |
Event logging
Assists in troubleshooting via Windows' built-in Event
Viewer and event log. |
| • |
Fibre Channel Disk Emulation Option
Serves well-behaved virtual disks to popular operating
systems using Fibre Channel connections. Supports allocation
requests from Windows Virtual Disk Services (VDS). |
| • |
Auto Failover (HA) Option
Synchronously mirrors writes between a pair of disk
servers using Fibre Channel connections. Both disk servers
may actively process I/Os with one handling primary
paths for some of the volumes and secondary paths for
others. In the event of a failure, the companion server
takes over with the mirrored volumes. Hosts must be
adequately configured with qualified multi-pathing drivers
to take advantage of this automatic failover feature.
Each disk server must be separately licensed with the
HA option. |
• |
High Availability Alternate Path software
DataCore provides several alternate path software solutions
for application servers that ensure continued I/O access
in the case of a physical path failure. |
• |
Windows Alternate Path (AP) Driver
Provides Fibre Channel path failover for Windows 2000
Server, Windows 2000 Pro, Windows 2003 Server and Enterprise
Server and Windows XP Pro. See the SANmelody Support
Matrix for additional details. |
• |
Solaris Alternate Path (AP) Driver
Provides Fibre Channel path failover for the SUN Solaris
operating system. See the SANmelody Support Matrix for
additional details and specific O.S. Revisions supported. |
• |
DataCore MPIO Driver
Based on the industry standard Windows MPIO specification
this driver provides Fibre Channel and iSCSI path failover
for Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Pro, Windows 2003
Server and Enterprise Server and Windows XP Pro. See
the SANmelody Support Matrix for additional details. |
• |
AIX Alternate Path (AP) Driver
Provides Fibre Channel path failover for the IBM AIX
operating system. See the SANmelody Support Matrix for
additional details and specific O.S. Revisions supported. |
• |
In addition, there are several other 3rd-party Multipath
driver solutions that DataCore has qualified for use
on various operating system environments. See the SANmelody
Support Matrix for additional details and specific O.S.
Revisions supported. |
• |
Snapshot Option
Point-in-time snapshots are generated using copy-on-write
technology for selected virtual volumes. Snapshots may
also be triggered from the Volume Shadow Copy Services
(VSS) in Windows Server 2003 hosts attached to the disk
server. |
• |
Auto Provisioning Option
Just-in-time auto provisioning takes the guesswork out
of LUN allocation. The Network Managed Volumes (NMV)
option presents large virtual volumes to applications
but only allocates disk blocks dynamically as the application
consumes it. |
• |
Asynchronous IP Replication Option
The Asynchronous IP Mirroring (AIM) option replicates
selected volumes between a pair of disk servers using
native IP connections over long distances. Each disk
server in the AIM connection must be separately licensed
with the SANmelody AIM option. |
• |
Addtional Application Server Software
DataCore provides other product capabilities in the
form of standalone software offerings for use on Windows
Application servers. |
• |
Asynchronous IP Mirrors (AIM) Client
AIM client runs and operates as a standalone application
on a Windows application server independent of SANmelody.
AIM Client operates within the confines of a single
Windows application server and can act as a AIM source
for locally attached volumes only. AIM client provides
the capability to asynchronously mirror select volume
write operations (based on configuration) to a remote
site running SANmelody with the AIM option (the AIM
destination). |
• |
DataCore VSS (Snapshot for SQL Server, Exchange
2003, and Windows 2003 file systems) Simplified
disk–to-disk backup and rapid disaster recovery
for SQL Server database volumes, Exchange 2003 information
stores and Windows 2003 file systems utilizing Microsoft
Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS). DataCore’s
VSS provides the ability to create a point-in-time copy
for all VSS aware applications including SQL Server,
Exchange 2003 and Windows 2003 file systems to ensure
the applications are in a consistent state to enable
rapid recovery from a point-in-time and to simplify
backup processes. The volumes are delivered to the application
servers from SANmelody over iSCSI. DataCore snapshot
commands can be issued either locally or remotely (via
synchronous disk-to-disk mirrors or AIM – Asynchronous
IP Mirroring) to enable back-up copies or an offline
application to utilise the data volumes. |
• |
DataCore SQLSnap (for SQL 2000 Database only)
This Windows 2000 application support package provides
the ability to quiesce the SQL 2000 Database (DB) and
then flush cache so that the DB volumes and log files
are in a consistent state. If the DB volumes involved
are delivered to the application server from SANmelody
then a Snapshot command can be issued, while the DB
is in a quiesced state, which allows the consistent
DB set to be backed up or used by an offline application.
In addition, while the DB is in a quiesced state, AIM
marker commands can be issued to the AIM source system
that will in turn send the marker to a remote SANmelody
system (AIM destination) to take a remote Snapshot the
DB volumes. |
