Hardware-Based Server Mirroring Protects Virtualized Workloads
June 16, 2014. Winchester Systems Inc., a leading data-storage infrastructure provider to Military and Commercial Systems Integrators and Service/Solution Providers, has announced immediate availability of the newest models in its FlashServer HA 4000 Series line of High Availability servers. Powered by Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors, the new FlashServer HA 4600 and FlashServer HA 4500 systems deliver up to 1.2 times the processing power of previous models. In addition to more powerful CPUs, the FlashServer HA 4600 now has double the main memory capacity of its predecessor: up to 512 GB.
FlashServer HA provides an extremely reliable, balanced-performance platform for virtual server workloads based on VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V. For extreme reliability, FlashServer HA provides hardware-based server mirroring: two server modules within a single enclosure that operate in parallel, simultaneously running the same operating system and applications on the same data. If either server module fails, results from the remaining server are used while the failed server is restored to proper operation. Repairs require no special training: an IT staffer merely slides out the failed module, and inserts a new one. Best of all, the entire process—from failure detection to repair—takes place with no application disruption. As far as the operating system and applications are concerned, the system has been operating continuously!
Virtual-server performance begins with powerful processors sporting multiple cores, and plenty of memory. But the vast majority of commercial workloads also perform tremendous amounts of I/O. With over three decades of tailored I/O-infrastructure experience, Winchester Systems can provide the right mix of Flash-based SSDs and hard disk drives—both within FlashServer HA and via external Hybrid storage systems such as FlashDisk FX—to address specific client needs.
“As organizations adopt server virtualization to consolidate their computing resources, they’re implicitly relying more and more upon the reliability of each physical server supporting those virtualized workloads,” said Ted Gumer, vice president of sales and business development for Winchester Systems. “These new systems continue to provide the steadfast critical-application protection for which FlashServer HA has become well known, while increasing capacity and performance for ever-growing database and virtualized server workloads.”
The new FlashServer HA systems are available immediately. Winchester Systems also offers storage-infrastructure consulting, on-site installation and service spares, and 24×7 product service and support for FlashServer HA worldwide.
For more information about FlashServer HA, see the FlashServer HA 4000 Series Data Sheet. To start designing a purpose-built infrastructure for your workload challenge, contact a Winchester Systems storage expert.