News

posted on 10 April 2008 13:57

Sanbolic, a provider of clustered file system software, has announced that industry-standard X86 servers can be clustered to provide a scalable shared file system resource for Windows servers.

Typically clustered file systems are hardware/software products from suppliers such as Isilon. Sanbolic has implemented its Melio clustered file system software on industry standard servers running Windows Storage Server. Melio FS is a clustered file system that provides concurrent shared access to SAN storage from multiple Microsoft Windows servers, or Windows XP workstations. In other words it functions as a network-attached storage (NAS) head and sits between a set of Windows servers and a storage area network (SAN) resource.

These servers access the Sanbolic software using the CIFS protocol. By integrating NFS Maestro Server from Hummingbird Solutions, the cluster can also provide scalable file serving over NFS to Linux and Unix clients.

The Melio FS can also now run on Server Core, an installation option for Windows Server 2008 that provides a minimal environment for running specific server roles, which reduces maintenance and management requirements and improves security by reducing the attack surface.

As more servers are added to the NAS head its performance scales linearly. The Sanbolic NAS head is managed via standard Windows management tools and can be implemented at less cost, Sanbolic says, than hardware-based clustered file systems.

Bala Kasiviswanathan, Microsoft's Director of Storage Solutions Marketing, emphasised this, saying: “Sanbolic’s clustered file system enables customers to integrate cost-effective file serving solutions utilizing Windows Storage Server delivering the same value as high-end systems, at a much more attractive price point.”

Sanbolic is a privately-held company founded in 2000 and based in Waterdown, Massachusetts. The Melio FS software is available through Sanbolic's OEMS, distributors, resellors and system integrators.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}