FalconStor® Network Storage Server (NSS) Virtual Appliance for VMware® Infrastructure

Industry Overview

VMware provides powerful server virtualization for small and medium business (SMB) and remote/branch office (ROBO) environments. In order to ensure high availability in these infrastructures, organizations need to leverage shared storage for disaster recovery (DR). Today’s SMB and ROBO environments need a solution that can complement and enhance the capabilities of VMware High Availability, VMware VMotion, and VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler, eliminating the cost and complexity of building a SAN.

Solution Overview

The FalconStor® Network Storage Server (NSS) Virtual Appliance for VMware Infrastructure eliminates all barriers to server virtualization and brings affordable enterprise-class data protection and virtual SAN technology within the reach of any organization. FalconStor NSS Virtual Appliance is a pre-configured, production- ready virtual machine that creates a virtual SAN on a VMware ESX hosts by turning internal disk resources into a shareable pool of storage without the need for external storage arrays, SAN switches, or costly host bus adapters (HBA). Internal disk drives are detected by the software and incorporated into the management console through a simple GUI. Storage can be provisioned and securely allocated via iSCSI over standard Ethernet cabling. To enable high availability (HA), the FalconStor NSS Virtual Appliance can be deployed on two VMware ESX

hosts that provide shared storage with each other as well as additional VMware ESX hosts.

By consolidating all the elements of a shared storage environment, the FalconStor NSS Virtual Appliance provides a cost-effective solution that delivers highly available

shared storage in a VMware Infrastructure environment. Thin Provisioning technology and space-efficient snapshots further decrease costs by minimizing consumption of physical storage resources.

Solution Benefits

The FalconStor NSS Virtual Appliance provides enterprise-class data protection features including mirroring, replication, and application-aware snapshots that can maintain up to 64 point-in-time copies of each volume. Snapshot images provide

100% transactionally consistent copies of application data for fast recovery, as well as testing, development, auditing, reporting, etc. Thin Replication minimizes bandwidth utilization by sending only unique data blocks over the wire. Built-in compression and encryption further reduce bandwidth consumption and enhance security. Tape backup for multiple remote offices can be consolidated to a central site, eliminating the need for distributed tape autoloaders and associated management headaches, extra tape media costs, and other overhead.

VMware and FalconStor

The FalconStor NSS Virtual Appliance features a unique, TOTALLY OpenTM architecture, which allows it to integrate readily with existing infrastructures, including VMware environments and technologies. This virtual appliance creates a virtual SAN on a VMware ESX host by turning internal disk resources into a shareable pool of storage. It enables key enterprise-class VMware features, including VMware VMotion, VMware High Availability, and VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler. FalconStor NSS Virtual Appliance offers fully application-aware snapshots that serve as a secondary source for VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB), limiting the impact on existing VMware ESX production servers.

Download the full White Paper in PDF format:
Falcon Network Storage Server White Paper (34)