New release of popular storage software from StarWind allows Hyper-V users to store synchronization journals on separate storage and dramatically decrease the time of synchronization in case one node goes down due a hardware failure. This StarWind VSAN Latest update can be found here.
As you know, StarWind VSAN is a storage solution that can transform your internal server storage into a shared storage which can, in case of at least 2-node clusters, be very efficient and cost effective way to run remote offices.
Those 2-node clusters can be direct-connected so you don't even need to have a 10GbE switch for the storage sync. You can basically eliminate the need for external SAN/NAS device while keeping redundancy at very high level. This cost-effective architecture for VMware vSphere or Hyper-V is one of the advantages of software defined storage infrastructures.
StarWind VSAN creates a fully fault-tolerant and high performing storage pool built for the virtualization workloads by mirroring the existing server’s storage and RAM between the participating storage cluster nodes. The mirrored storage resources are then connected to all cluster nodes and treated just as a local storage by all hypervisors and clustered applications. High Availability (HA) is achieved by providing multipath access to all storage nodes.
However, when (if) you need to synchronize large storage pool because one of the nodes fails or goes offline for maintenance, it may take some time, especially If you have large amount of data to sync. The new journal synchronization performance impact is minimal since you do not need to synchronize the data already written to the node. And that's why the possibility of storing the synchronization journals on separate storage makes sense even if there is some additional I/O that comes from the synchronization process and data transfers.
In fact, you have two possible strategies, two options.
Two possible Options:
- Best Performance – The strategy provides better I/O performance while all device nodes are in a healthy state. But it can't guarantee fast synchronization in all cases.
- Fast Recovery – The strategy provides faster recovery in all cases but requires an I/O overhead for each write operation.
Quote from StarWind:
Synchronization Journaling Dramatically Speeds Up Sync After Node Boot Up.
In order increase applications and services uptime, even during the synchronization process, and minimize the risks of downtime, StarWind VSAN allows storing synchronization journals on separate storage. In this scenario, StarWind will only synchronize changes written to the storage while one of the partners was out of sync, which minimizes the amount of time needed for synchronization.
StarWind-replicated devices will become available within minutes, which increases the uptime of business critical applications.
Moreover, performance impact is minimal. StarWind partner nodes do not need to synchronize data which was already written on every node in the cluster.
Image from StarWind
Wrap Up
StarWind's latest release for Hyper-V platforms brings an additional benefit of choice. If the choice of strategy is to store the storing synchronization journals on separate storage, you can benefit for faster sync times in case one of your nodes goes down. If you prefer to stick with the best performing strategy, you can do so. You have a choice.
Links:
- StarWind release notes page.
- Journal Synchronization page.
More posts about StarWind on ESX Virtualization:
- How to Update StarWind VSAN for VMware on Linux- Follow UP
- Protect your Backups with Wasabi Immutable Storage Buckets and StarWind VTL
- StarWind SAN & NAS software details for VMware and Hyper-V
- Free StarWind iSCSI accelerator download
- VMware vSphere and HyperConverged 2-Node Scenario from StarWind – Step By Step(Opens in a new browser tab)
- StarWind Storage Gateway for Wasabi Released
- How To Create NVMe-Of Target With StarWind VSAN
- Veeam 3-2-1 Backup Rule Now With Starwind VTL
- StarWind and Highly Available NFS
- StarWind VVOLS Support and details of integration with VMware vSphere
- StarWind VSAN on 3 ESXi Nodes detailed setup
- VMware VSAN Ready Nodes in StarWind HyperConverged Appliance
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