Fibre Channel Cluster is designed to mirror storage using the FC protocol. It fits in well with your existing Fibre Channel infrastructure and transforms your storage into a strong FC server mirror. Fibre Channel Cluster ensures continuous readiness for your data with consistently high I / O performance. It is the right choice when uninterrupted operation is essential.
FC Cluster is optimized for short latencies and high bandwidths. It’s perfect for data-intensive applications that require high data transaction rates.
Miles of distance are no problem – servers can be located at different locations or in different sections of the belt, for example, thus guaranteeing maximum security for your data
ScreenshotsFibre Channel Cluster simply explained…
Each Fibre Channel node has its own storage which is mirrored to the other node. For local storage, you can use various forms of storage. eg
- local S-ATA, SAS or SSD drives
- External storage (SAS, FC, iSCSI)
- Combination of both (external storage and SSD drives as Hybrid Cache Tier)
If one of the two mirrored Fibre Channel storages fails, the cluster system automatically switches to the second storage – without the need for manual intervention. The transition is usually much faster than IP-based replication.
Mirrored storage is made available to clients in the form of Fibre Channel targets. ALUA / MPIO ensures that the clients know which path to use. Here’s an example on VMWare ESX.
Seamless integration with VMware ESX, Citrix Xen, Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft Cluster, StorNext, and XSAN makes it a powerful storage solution for your mission-critical applications.
Key Benefits of Fibre Channel Clusters
- FC Cluster can be configured with internal hard drives (SSD, SAS or SATA) or as a mirror for your existing FC SAN RAIDs.
- eSSM controls server mirroring in real time and optimizes I / O for consistently high performance
- Highest availability for your applications
- Highest IOPS performance
- Very short latencies and high data transaction rates
- Up to 10-20 times faster failover times than IP-based replication
- Preventing creeping data corruption thanks to T10 HBA support
- Multipath support (MPIO / ALUA)
- VAAI support
- Snapshots
- LUN masking
- Block-based synchronous server mirroring using FC protocol in real time
- Mirroring at Remote Sites
- Automatic failover
- FC Port Management – assign the FC Targets to one or more ports
- It can be managed centrally by each individual cluster member
Optimized from the ground up for Fibre Channel
Some competitors are setting their own replication services to foreign operating systems. With us you do not need an additional license for the operating system. The operating system and all replication services form a unit that is designed and optimized from the ground up for these tasks.
Fibre Channel has never been easier
The intuitive user interface allows quick setup and deployment of Fibre Channel clusters without having to read a thick manual. eSSM technology provides easy maintenance because it can shut down a server without compromising client data access.
Virtualization
Virtual environment requires maximum redundancy, data security and availability. Fibre Channel protocol guarantees the highest performance with concurrent server mirroring and server failover failover. Thanks to VAAI support(VAAI Does not work during a failover event), the computing processes can be outsourced to the SAN Cluster. This dramatically reduces the traffic between the server and the storage system and improves the performance of the VMs.
Data centers
Fibre Channel is the number one choice in data centers. With SAN Cluster you get the maximum accessibility with constant performance. Data can be synchronized between different fire sections.
Post production and broadcast
High performance and maximum redundancy is no longer a contradiction.
It’s the perfect solution for the broadcast and media industry. It can be seamlessly integrated into the XSAN environments. It offers the maximum reliability and the highest performance for video editing so no frames are lost. Streaming of multiple videos, transcoding and rendering in mirrored servers in different fire sections is finally possible.
* (requires Qlogic 8/16 Gb HBA)