Tintri is on a roll! Coming on the heels of last month’s Tintri SQL Integrated Storage announcement is the introduction of Tintri IntelliFlash 3.11.0.0.
How Did We Get Here?
In 2019, Tintri acquired the IntelliFlash storage platform from Western Digital. This bolstered our portfolio with a highly-reputed storage product family that has thousands of customers and a very loyal fan base. IntelliFlash systems provide multiprotocol support, optimizing both file- and block-based environments running physical and/or virtual machines. The platform also offers our customers broad storage media flexibility:
- NVMe flash-based systems for high-performance Tier 1 workloads
- SAS flash-based systems for cost-effective high-density storage
- Hybrid systems that deliver balanced performance and cost-efficiency with concurrent support for SDD and HDD media
IntelliFlash is currently one of 3 product lines within the Tintri Intelligent Infrastructure portfolio, along with VMstore and NexentaStor.
Expanded Use Cases for Multiprotocol NAS and Business Continuity
This OS release adds multiprotocol NAS file services and zero-data loss business continuity to the range of IntelliFlash use cases – enabled by the new General File Services and Synchronous Replication capabilities, respectively. The new capabilities are available for all IntelliFlash systems – N-Series NVMe Flash, HD-Series All-Flash and T-Series All-Flash and Hybrid Systems – which to-date have been successfully deployed across a broad range of use cases:
- Low-latency applications such as databases and real-time analytics workloads
- High-IOPs workloads such as data warehouses and scientific simulation applications
- Virtualized environments including VDI, VSI and dev/test
- Secondary storage such as media streaming, digital imaging and backup
General File Services
Although the Tintri IntelliFlash platform has supported NAS (NFS/SMB) for years, it has been largely optimized for virtualized environments. The newly introduced General File Services mode extends NAS functionality by supporting a large number of shares for various file server use case scenarios. With concurrent data access across NFS and SMB protocols and multi-petabyte capacity, IntelliFlash is well-equipped to now serve as a large-scale, multi-protocol NAS solution. And it scales without the performance degradation that usually accompanies large-scale file services running on other NAS platforms.
General File Services mode supports all of the enterprise-grade data services that IntelliFlash is well-known for, including: snapshots, cloning, replication, encryption, deduplication, compression, thin provisioning, and backup integration. Here are some IntelliFlash advantages for multi-protocol NAS file services use cases:
- IntelliFlash unified storage enables SAN and NAS workloads to be supported concurrently on the same system for cost-efficient workload consolidation.
- Its combination of excellent performance and high scalability make IntelliFlash an ideal NAS platform for enterprise AI and analytics workloads, complementing the strengths of the overall DDN portfolio.
- With multi-petabyte capacity, IntelliFlash is highly suited for virtualized and non-virtualized NAS workloads that need to support a large number of file shares.
- As a highly reliable enterprise-grade platform, IntelliFlash is an excellent choice for maintaining high levels of data availability and data protection for file services.
The General File Services capability complements the existing IntelliFlash NAS solution and is available to current IntelliFlash customers via a software upgrade at no additional cost. We’ve made it extremely easy to set up and use the new functionality – yes, we really mean this! You can continue to configure, monitor and manage your multiprotocol NAS environment with the same intuitive, feature-rich IntelliFlash UI and cloud-based analytics that you’re using today.
Figure 1. General File Services Mode for a Flexible Multiprotocol NAS Solution
The takeaway with General File Services is that Tintri IntelliFlash customers now have a trusted, enterprise-grade system for all of their NAS requirements. Unified storage simplifies management and improves ROI by enabling all SAN and NAS (FC- and Ethernet-based) workloads to run concurrently on the same IntelliFlash system. The solution is optimized to scale without compromising performance; it’s also hybrid cloud-ready and is easy to configure, monitor and manage.
Zero Data Loss Disaster Recovery (Synchronous Replication)
While most organizations have experienced some type of event – usually unplanned – that has resulted in downtime, data loss, or both, many still don’t have a disaster recovery solution in place. And of the ones that do, most opt for replicating data asynchronously to a secondary site because they just can’t deal with the performance latency of a synchronous replication solution. As Tintri quickly evolves to meet the storage needs of just about every enterprise environment, we felt that we absolutely had to consider the needs of IntelliFlash customers running mission-critical workloads – those 5% of apps that can’t tolerate any amount of downtime or data loss.
You might be wondering “what’s the big deal”? Haven’t storage vendors been delivering synchronous replication for ages? Yes. However, there are some unique capabilities that make the IntelliFlash implementation very flexible and economical. As with General File Services, Synchronous Replication is available as a transparent upgrade for existing IntelliFlash customers, at no extra cost – and the feature is integrated with the IntelliFlash Web UI and cloud-based analytics for easy access, monitoring and management. Here are some additional IntelliFlash advantages for zero data loss disaster recovery use cases:
- Synchronous Replication enables business continuity and minimizes disruption by maintaining data consistency between iSCSI or FC LUNs on two IntelliFlash systems.
- Synchronous Replication ensures that source and partner systems are always in sync and that there is zero data loss in the event of a component, system or site failure.
- Our flexible approach enables data from different IntelliFlash systems (with same pool type) to be synchronously replicated between source and partner systems.
- Disaster recovery is immediate, with automatic (or manual) failover and failback processes beginning within seconds of a detected outage.
Figure 2. Synchronous Replication for a Zero Data Loss Disaster Recovery Solution
The takeaway for Synchronous Replication is that it enables Tintri IntelliFlash customers to now take their business continuity plans to the next level with a zero data loss disaster recovery solution for critical workloads. It’s a flexible solution that supports both FC and iSCSI protocols and lets customers replicate data for all IntelliFlash systems. True to IntelliFlash and overall Tintri value, this solution is easy to set up and manage and costs nothing extra.
Stay tuned for even more groundbreaking IntelliFlash capabilities that will soon provide even greater flexibility, simplicity and cost-efficiencies for your Intelligent Infrastructure.
Please visit our website for more information on Tintri IntelliFlash systems or reach out to your Tintri representative to schedule a conversation or product demo.
