School District Optimizes Virtual Machine Archiving
Posted by
Beth Bacheldor
August 18, 2010
They chose to use Pancetera's Unite, a software virtual appliance that lets IT administrators integrate standard file system tools, such as backup, replication and migration software, with the VMware virtual infrastructure. The Unite file system is mounted just like a Common Internet File System (CIFS) share or Network File System (NFS) mount, and all the standard operations, such as copying files, are done just as any any other file system, according to Pancetera.
There is no writing to the Unite file system; instead, it is populated with the VM files from an organization's vSphere ESX or ESXi servers via Pancetera's SmartRead capability designed to minimize I/O requirements. I/0 requirements are minimized because Unite only reads the data actually in use at the time and within the virtual Machine Desk (VMDK). In addition, the software reading the virtual disk receives a standard virtual disk-formatted data stream that has been cleaned of random data in order to improve WAN throughput, compression and any deduplication activities.
With Pancetera's SmartView technology, administrators can view, from a single access point, all the VMs and their disks, regardless of what type of storage they are on, or whether a VM is running, suspended, or powered down. Any time a VM is created, deleted, or moved, SmartView is updated, according to Pancetera.
"Unite creates a window into the VM file system that any backup system can read, and allows me to interact with my virtual machines directly," says EDCOE's Lemming, who is using the software appliance to do image-level backups of their production environment. "Pancetera unlocks my virtual environment and allows me to use the best solution that fits my requirements for backups and archiving," he adds. "I am not locked into expensive solutions provided by either my storage vendor or my current backup vendor. The tool is agnostic, so I can use whichever tool works the best for the solution I need."
Available now, Unite is $1,000 per CPU socket. The company is currently offering a 30-day free trial which can be downloaded from Pancetera's Web site.
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