Xsigo Doubles Virtualized I/O To 40 Gbps

Xsigo, the I/O specialist for intensively virtualized environments, has upped the ante with its I/O Director to 40 gigabits per second (Gbps) I/O per physical server. It was previously limited to 20 Gbps. That means 15 virtual machines (VMs) running on a server could be connected to both networking and storage through I/O Director, with one mission-critical VM assigned a high allotment of 10 Gbps of bandwith, while the others would still have over 2 Gbps each, with all traffic traveling over an Infiniband cable link between the server and I/O Director.

The I/O Director takes the traffic flowing off all the servers' VMs through the virtual I/O devices and sends it out to its proper physical device, whether a network router or Fibre Channel storage switch. I/O Director serves as a variable mix of virtual network interface cards and host bus adapters to move the converged traffic away from the server and into the network fabric.

Xsigo customers typically use two cables so that one may serve as an alternative channel in case of a device failure, said Jon Toor, VP of marketing at the six-year-old firm. Xsigo was one of the first high-speed appliances that hit the market to relieve the emerging I/O bottleneck of servers running multiple VMs and becoming overloaded with network and storage traffic. The I/O Director is a 2u or 4u rack-mount device that virtualizes I/O by bringing converged traffic off the physical server and routing it through virtual network interface cards or virtual host bus adapters.

A virtual network interface looks like a physical device to the VM on a host server. It achieves a connection between VM and network that meets the requirements for isolation set by the Payment Card Industry standard for credit card financial transactions. But because the I/O has been virtualized inside I/O Director, levels of I/O bandwidth can be assigned and reassigned dynamically through its XMS management interface.

The two Infiniband cables serve as the equivalent of 64 cables between network interface cards or host bus adapters to specific devices on the network, Toor said. When it comes to 40 Gbps speeds for I/O, "we don't see any users who can consume it fully," said Toor, in an interview. The I/O Director was previously limited to 20 Gbps speeds, but Xsigo wants to stay ahead of the trend to load more VMs on one server and provide headroom for expansion, he said. One I/O Director can handle the traffic from many virtualized hosts, he added.The 40 Gbps announcement Tuesday moves Xsigo to the opposite end of the virtualized I/O spectrum from the stance it took in August. At that time, it said it could handle Fibre Channel over Ethernet traffic, or 10 Gbps Ethernet, via a standard link a server's Ethernet port.

The 10 Gbps speed represented a reduction in its 20 Gbps Infiniband capabilities, but it connected the I/O Director directly to the new servers coming off manufacturer's assembly lines with a 10 Gbps Ethernet switch on the motherboard. In the past, Xsigo required pricey, specialized network interface cards and host bus adapters produced specifically for I/O Director. With the August announcement, converged traffic could be moved directly off the virtualized server with no additional network device expense.

Xsigo opened up the bandwidth to Infiniband's maximum capability of 40 Gbps with Tuesday's announcement. Toor said 12-15 VMs per physical server used to represent a heavily virtualized host. Now the rule of thumb comes closer to 20 VMs per server, he said. "They're pushing I/O harder. The objective is to get as high (as many VMs) as they can," he said. "We're the only ones using Infiniband in the (I/O hardware/software device) market at this time," he claimed.

The XMS management interface to I/O Director is now in its 3.0 version, with a number of new features for large-scale server management. A virtual infrastructure manager can define connectivity to a particular type of virtual machine as a template, then apply the template to a set of servers that meet its definition, such as 20 web servers or 10 Microsoft Exchange servers. I/O Director then establishes all the virtual connections. It allows the manager to view the connections to thousands of VMs from a single pane of glass. And it allows managers to monitor I/O activity, checking for bottlenecks and identifying underutilized resources.

XMS 3.0 also lets a manager migrate VM connectivity identities from one site to another to help speedily restore a set of VMs to operation in the event of a data center failure. The XMS interface can be accessed from an iPad and server I/O can be adjusted with drag-and-drop finger controls.Creating and managing large sets of x86 servers, heavily virtualized, is considered one of the attributes of a private cloud inside the enterprise. The additions and enhancements to I/O Director are meant to further support the creation of private clouds, Toor said.

I/O Director VP780 and VP560 models with 40 Gbps speed will be available in December and will be priced at $35,000. The XMS 3.0 management interface is available in October priced at $10,000; one unit can manage three I/O Director appliances.

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