Virsto updates storage I/O management software for Microsoft Hyper-V

Virsto Software first entered the virtualization market back in February of this year, claiming it could solve the storage I/O bottleneck challenges caused by hypervisors and the increased density of additional virtual machines.

With an interesting twist, the company launched its storage optimization technology for virtual infrastructures powered by Microsoft Hyper-V instead of going with the obvious choice of VMware, the virtualization market leader. The company claimed it eventually could support VMware and other hypervisor technologies, but for now it remains focused on Hyper-V. That’s great news for Microsoft; if the company wants to beat VMware at the hypervisor game, it’ll have to build out a software ecosystem to help level the playing field when it comes to the application stacks surrounding Hyper-V.

[ Also on InfoWorld: Gluster CTO AB Periasamy discusses how virtualization and cloud infrastructures impact storage. | Make sure to keep up with all the latest virtualization news with InfoWorld’s virtualization newsletter. ]

This week, the company announced an update to its flagship product, Virsto One Version 1.2. The new platform still only provides support for the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor despite the fact that the market continues to be dominated by VMware and its ESX technology. It seems like the company is happy to solely ride this train for the foreseeable future.

According to Virsto, many of its customers use System Center software to manage their Hyper-V systems. Because of that, customers were driving Virsto to increase support for additional Microsoft technologies. Virsto responded by joining the Microsoft System Center Alliance program and added support in Version 1.2 for the following:

• Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 — leverages the Rapid Provisioning option, allowing users to provision new virtual machines without the time required for a network copy of the VHD.
• Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) 2010 — delivers to users a faster data protection solution for Microsoft server applications running on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.
• Microsoft Windows Volume Shadow Service (VSS) — ensures that users deploying storage compatible with Hyper-V and the Hyper-V VSS Writer can perform a full server backup that helps protect all of the data required to fully restore the server.

Additionally, the new release offers increased usability features for visualizing disk usage, and it includes a new export feature that complements existing import capabilities, making it easier to migrate data into and out of Virsto One.

Virsto One 1.2 also works with Microsoft Hyper-V Dynamic Memory, a new feature added in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1. Dynamic Memory allows a user to run more Hyper-V virtual machines in a given amount of memory. Doing so translates into a greater virtual machine density per physical host. Unfortunately, while alleviating memory bottlenecks, this will in turn expose another potential bottleneck problems — specifically, the storage I/O bottleneck or, as Virsto calls it, the “VM I/O Blender.”

According to Mark Davis, CEO of Virsto Software, the VM I/O Blender “is the result of running numerous operating system images simultaneously on a single box. Each OS instance tries to optimize its I/O stream for performance, but the hypervisor multiplexes them, presenting highly random I/O that thrashes storage hardware.”

Davis concludes that as you add virtual machines to a server, the total I/O throughput of the box goes down. On a loaded server, half or even 80 percent or more of the server and storage hardware’s I/O capacity is sapped. Davis adds, “As a result, achievable VM density is constrained by I/O, even though the hardware is capable of delivering much more performance.”

Virsto claims that the last hurdle to high virtual machine density is getting rid of the storage I/O bottleneck. AMD and Intel are addressing the CPU bottleneck, and Microsoft is attacking the memory bottleneck with technologies like Dynamic Memory. That’s where Virsto One comes into play.

Davis told InfoWorld that Virsto One solves this very problem, allowing customers to get the full I/O throughput that their server and storage solutions are capable of achieving without having to upgrade the hardware. As an example, he claims that with installations ranging from high-end Fibre Channel SANs to low-cost commodity direct-attached storage, Virsto customers have tripled their potential I/O throughput by simply adding Virsto One software to their existing systems.

The new version of Virsto One is available now, and pricing for the solution is per server socket.

This story, “Virsto updates storage I/O management software for Microsoft Hyper-V,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in virtualization and cloud computing at InfoWorld.com.