StarWind iSCSI SAN Version 8.0 Beta

mirage98 · Mon Sep 09, 2013 3:14 am

How do I get the beta license key? I leveraged a Trial key from the site, but from what I can tell certain V8 functionality (Log File System) isn't enabled with that license and thus I'm not seeing it in the beta. I've got a nice little environment ready to go!

mahuan1688 · Mon Sep 09, 2013 3:17 am

Why didn't V8 virtual tape function? This function has a lock ah, can not use...?

Mon Sep 09, 2013 6:12 am

I`m assuming that you have already received the V8, so I`ll answer VTL realated question only: yes, we`ve excluded it from our functionality. This solution is temporary - we need some time to get it improved.

Mon Sep 09, 2013 9:43 am

Yes, VAAI is there. ODX is coming.

It's enabled by default. You don't need to install anything.

lakis wrote:Hi Anton
I seem to remember from a previous post that VAAI for Vmware was to be supported in this release ???
if so can you expand on how to install it?
if not is it to be released soon ??

Thank you

Mon Sep 09, 2013 9:44 am

It's embedded into the first updated post.

We'll remove key check for beta with an update.

mirage98 wrote:How do I get the beta license key? I leveraged a Trial key from the site, but from what I can tell certain V8 functionality (Log File System) isn't enabled with that license and thus I'm not seeing it in the beta. I've got a nice little environment ready to go!

Mon Sep 09, 2013 9:45 am

VTL (and async replication) are part of Beta-2 we'll push in a few weeks.

There are other features coming with V8 so these were posponed a bit.

mahuan1688 wrote:Why didn't V8 virtual tape function? This function has a lock ah, can not use...?

Mon Sep 09, 2013 10:20 am

a couple of new management console screenshots

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Mon Sep 09, 2013 10:21 am

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robnicholson · Tue Sep 10, 2013 8:25 pm

replaced and re-written "from scratch".

See Joel-on-software concerning re-written code

Cheers, Rob.

Tue Sep 10, 2013 9:33 pm

iSCSI engine and HA engines are still there with a fixes but not a mods

so you'll be fine

(we'll do async engine later with post-release update)

robnicholson wrote:
replaced and re-written "from scratch".
See Joel-on-software concerning re-written code

Cheers, Rob.

deiruch · Tue Sep 10, 2013 9:51 pm

Congrats on the new version! If I wasn't leaving for vacation in a few days, I'd test it out immediately. Will check back in a couple of weeks.

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This needs some more explanations. When should I select these options? What are the performance implications? What does "deletion support" mean? (Do you mean "TRIM support"?). What does "Auto" mean? If it means 4K, why not just pre-select "4k"?

Maybe you could hire a UX designer... ?

kspare · Wed Sep 11, 2013 3:36 am

Can you explain the optimal settings for setting up a new iscsi volume? I don't quite understand the L1 and L2 cache options.

JRutski · Wed Sep 11, 2013 3:11 pm

V8 looks great! Also, 3400 write IOPS (all virtual and against an already taxed SAN) is awesome! More details on my initial test here: http://blogs.serioustek.net/post.aspx?i ... b5bfba1d8b

Question 1: I wasn't able to find any reporting in the new console...is there a different console for this? Or am I just blind...
Question 2: I saw a PowerShell component during installation - any details on this??

Thanks guys! Keep it up!

Thu Sep 12, 2013 2:29 pm

deiruch,

LSFS Options dialog shows some advanced options that we were using for internal testing of LSFS.
Probably, most of these options will be removed.

Nice suggestion about automatic setting of data block size

Deletion support: internal option, it has no meaning now.
Deduplication enabled: self-describing. Turns on inline data deduplication in LSFS container.
Snapshots enabled: has no meaning now. Snapshots will be always enabled.
Auto defragmentation: will be always on. Enable internal defragmentation process. It helps to make space reclaim when old data is overwritten or snapshots are deleted.

Optimal setting for LSFS block size is 4k. Larger block size gives less operational costs in terms of CPU and memory but spoils deduplication ratio and can spoil performance in most cases.

Thu Sep 12, 2013 2:56 pm

kspare,

Can you explain the optimal settings for setting up a new iscsi volume? I don't quite understand the L1 and L2 cache options.

L1 cache resides in memory. L2 cache resides on disk. It makes sense when file for L2 cache data placed on SSD disk.
Cache modes:
- write-through: data always goes to the disk on writes, cache memory serves to accelerate read operations.
- write-back: on writes data goes to cache memory first, later it is flushed on disk by lazy-writer process. This type of cache can accelerate writes.