Press Release:
StarWind iSCSI SAN software coupled with Mellanox Ethernet-based high speed end-to-end infrastructure accelerates storage networking connectivity and lowers overall power consumption
StarWind SAN iSCSI software running over a Mellanox ConnectX®-2 40GE networking solution provides better performance, high availability (HA) and redundant iSCSI storage solutions at 40Gb/s bandwidth and high IOPS.
Burlington, Mass. – April 27, 2011 – StarWind Software, a global leader and a pioneer in SAN software for building iSCSI storage servers, today announced that StarWind SAN iSCSI software has achieved a record level of 27 Gb/s throughput and 350K IOPs running over a Mellanox ConnectX®-2 40GE networking solution.
StarWind has recently conducted the test under Mellanox Enterprise Datacenter’s initiative where the following testing configuration has been used: 3 servers of Zorro (HP DL380 G6 with 2*167GB disks, 24GB RAM, 8 cores); 6 Mellanox HCAs with 40Gb/s single port, 2 HCAs in each server; connected with 3 subnets, copper QSFP cables; OS: Windows 2008 Server R2.
Testing showed StarWind software has achieved record connectivity performance:
- With the non-HA configuration (one node of the HA cluster and the client were performing I/O through the single 40Gb/s connection in both directions utilizing full-duplex Ethernet connection) the cluster got 25Gb/s of an iSCSI traffic (due to PCIe Gen 2 system limitations full 40Gb/s wire speed has not been reached). More than 300K IOPs at 25Gb/s have been achieved with 16 clients using StarWind iSCSI SAN software.
- The full HA (two nodes: HA 1 and HA 2 processed requests served under Round-Robin) has achieved the same results as the non-HA configuration, but with more workers and deeper I/O queue.
In the near future 40Gb NIC will provide four times higher performance compared to 10Gb NIC for the same price.
“We thank Mellanox Technologies for helping StarWind iSCSI SAN software to continue setting new performance records. Just one year ago StarWind was used in the iSCSI performance tests by Microsoft and Intel, achieving a groundbreaking one million I/Os per second,” said StarWind’s CEO Artem Berman. “StarWind Technology Alliance Program builds relationships with best of breed technology companies to align technology, create leading solutions and help customers adopt our collective products.”
For more information on the test and performance benefits using StarWind iSCSI SAN software version 5.6 with Mellanox ConnectX-2 EN Adapters plus 10Gb/s or higher speeds (preferably 40Gb/s), for current and future x86 servers along with PCIe Gen2 and PCIe Gen 3-enabled systems, visit: http://www.mellanox.com/pdf/case_studies/CS_StarWind2.pdf
About Mellanox Technologies
Mellanox Technologies (NASDAQ:MLNX, TASE:MLNX) is a leading supplier of end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet connectivity solutions and services for servers and storage. Mellanox products optimize data center performance and deliver industry-leading bandwidth, scalability, power conservation and cost-effectiveness while converging multiple legacy network technologies into one future-proof architecture. The company offers innovative solutions that address a wide range of markets including HPC, enterprise, mega warehouse data centers, cloud computing, Internet and Web 2.0.
Founded in 1999, Mellanox Technologies is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and Yokneam, Israel.
About StarWind Software Inc.
StarWind Software is a global leader in storage management and SAN software for small and midsize organizations. The flagship product of StarWind is SAN software that turns any industry-standard Windows Server into a fault-tolerant, fail-safe iSCSI SAN. StarWind iSCSI SAN is qualified for use with VMware, Hyper-V, XenServer, and also with Linux and Unix environments. StarWind Software is focused on providing small and midsize organizations with affordable, high availability storage technology that previously was only available in high-end storage hardware. Advanced enterprise-class features in StarWind include Automated HA Storage Node Failover and Failback (High Availability), Replication across a WAN, Snapshots, Thin Provisioning and Virtual Tape management.
Since 2003, StarWind has pioneered the iSCSI SAN software industry and is the solution of choice for over 30,000 customers worldwide in over 100 countries, from small and midsize companies to governments and Fortune 1000 companies.
For more information on StarWind Software Inc., visit: www.starwindsoftware.com
StarWind’s pricing structure is where it fails. They should be positioning themselves a cost-effective, full featured software option, but their pricing model works against that. They have you pay based on how much storage you’re utilizing. So either you’re using high capacity, inexpensive drives to get the most storage space and you pay an exorbitant amount, which works against the idea of the inexpensive large drives. Or you pay for the smaller capacity, expensive, high speed drives, which saves money on the StarWind side but if you’re paying for the expensive performance you might as well get into a proper system with greater industry compatibility and support.