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Sistina Software has released the latest version of its clustered file system, with new features that enhance key data management and protection capabilities to accelerate the deployment of Linux clusters in combination with storage area network (SAN) and blade-based computing architectures.
Sistina Global File System version 5.2 for the Intel architecture is currently available on all major Linux distributions and allows multiple computers to share a single, common view of storage data. This lets organizations consolidate existing server and storage resources into a single management domain, linking diverse data storage repositories into a scalable, secure SAN based on either Fibre Channel or IP technologies.
“The ability to share data is at the heart of the incremental computing movement in which system administrators can incrementally and independently add compute, I/O, and storage capacity,” reports Greg Nuss, Sistina’s director of product management. “Intel clusters running Linux, glued together by Sistina GFS and a SAN architecture, deliver this enterprise-class functionality.”
Oracle9i RAC, file serving, and Web server applications are just a few of the environments that can benefit from a cluster architecture and Sistina GFS, the company says.
GFS 5.2 includes an expanded OmniLock architecture that allows applications to access any file independently of other servers, with file integrity protected through flexible locking mechanisms. Sistina claims that the OmniLock architecture is “the only lock management system in Linux that can deliver multiple, independent simultaneous writes to the same file, thus providing a tremendous performance and scalability boost to enterprise applications such as sophisticated, high-end distributed databases.”
GFS 5.2 also delivers four to 16 times the scalability of competing solutions, Sistina claims, with expansion capabilities up to 256 servers. The enterprise-class meta-data journaling system has also been extended to allow data journaling, improving performance in environments such as e-mail where
small files predominate.
“Clustering and availability software, such as Sistina GFS 5.2, can help organizations address their requirements for improved performance and higher levels of reliability and availability, while keeping hardware and software acquisition costs in line,” says Dan Kusnetzky, vice president for system
software research at IDC.
Other features of Sistina GFS 5.2 include direct I/O for high-performance, file system-based database implementations, a full POSIX-compliant file system
interface, dynamic multi-pathing, and unique storage capacity quotas.
Sistina offers a free 30-day trial version of Global File System 5.2 at http://www.sistina.com/products_gfs.htm. GFS is also resold via Sistina’s partnerships with HP and Fujitsu.
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