Sanbolic Provides Shared Storage Solution for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Deployments

Sanbolic, Inc. announced that Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtual machines can now be stored on a single shared storage area network (SAN) storage volume using Sanbolic Kayo File System.

The virtual machines can then be moved independently between physical host servers using Quick Migration because all host servers have shared access to the virtual machines files. Kayo FS will be price at $299 per host server and sold in a 5 license bundle.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is Microsoft’s new hypervisor-based server virtualization solution, which is available as part of select versions of Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Datacenter editions also provide integrated failover clustering at no additional charge, when used in combination with Hyper-V allows customers to easily move virtual servers between physical hosts.

“Kayo FS is a new product that provides file-level shared access to a SAN volume from multiple physical host servers and is designed specifically to provide a cost-effective shared LUN solution for Hyper-V virtual machines,” said Momchil Michailov, Sanbolic’s founder. “Sanbolic is already shipping Melio FS, which is an advanced clustered file system with byte-range locking that can also provide concurrent read/write access to application data on SAN storage from multiple Windows physical or virtual servers. Kayo FS is aimed at a much broader group of customers who we expect will adopt server virtualization now that it is component of the Windows Server 2008 platform.”

“Customers can simplify their storage environments for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V deployments by using the Sanbolic file system along with Quick Migration capabilities native to the operating system,” said Zane Adam, senior director of virtualization strategy, Server and Tools Business at Microsoft Corp. “We are pleased that Sanbolic is supporting and providing mutual customers with cost-effective, high-performance virtualization solutions.”

Sanbolic’s product portfolio also includes Melio clustered file system and LaScala volume manager, which are designed to support Windows applications which benefit from central administration of a large virtual storage pool simultaneously accessed by multiple physical or virtual servers. Melio FS uses 64 bit architecture, allowing very large volume and file system sizes. These products install easily on physical or virtual servers, and can utilize any fibre channel or iSCSI storage hardware. Windows directory, reporting, and clustering features are supported. Reporting on storage I/O and transaction performance facilitates optimization of storage intensive workloads. The file system also incorporates quality of service assignment to allow prioritization of defined workloads in storage bandwidth-constrained environments.