FalconStor Supports Microsoft Clustering And Hyper-V With Virtual Storage

FalconStor Software is supporting Windows clustering and Microsoft's new Hyper-V server virtualization platform to enable instantaneous disaster recovery over wide area networks with both physical and virtual servers.

FalconStor's Network Storage Server (NSS), an appliance for storage virtualization, virtualization, and thin provisioning, now has specific integration with Windows Server 2008 Multi-Site Clustering and with Hyper-V to enable disaster recovery between two sites with complete or partial failover, said Fadi Albatal, director of marketing for North America.

The new NSS capabilities were introduced at the Storage Networking World conference, held this week in Dallas.

Microsoft's clustering technology does automatic failover of a server to a secondary site in case of a problem with that server, and the latest version of FalconStor's NSS detects the failover and reverses the replication roles between the primary and secondary sites, Albatal said.

"As the servers seamlessly replicate, we need to be sure the storage seamlessly fails over with the servers," he said.

In traditional environments, when a server fails over to a secondary site, the replicated server can be set to become the primary server, and vice versa, but only manually, Albatal said. The NSS now allows that process to be automated, he said.

By tying into Hyper-V, the NSS allows that capability to work with both physical and virtual servers. For instance, Albatal said, the storage associated with a physical server can be migrated to a physical or a virtual server with no downtime.

More important, Albatal said, is that when a physical or virtual server fails at the first site, the clustered node at the second site recovers automatically and becomes the primary node.

"We're the only company at this time to provide this capability for Microsoft's Multi-Site Clustering," he said. "We do it for both physical and virtual servers. So it's a complete disaster recovery capability for Microsoft clusters with both physical and virtual servers."

While Hyper-V is still new, it is important for solution providers to start looking at how it works in storage environments so they can talk to customers, said Greg Knieriemen, vice president of marketing at Chi, a Cleveland, Ohio-based solution provider and FalconStor partner.

"Hyper-V is still early, but it will grow dramatically," Knieriemen said.

FalconStor's message all along has been about flexibility and compatibility, and so the new capabilities come as no surprise, Knieriemen said.

"As user adoption of Hyper-V picks up, this gives us new ways to work with customers' SANs," he said. "A lot of end users are concerned with future-proofing their investments and making sure their storage infrastructures will be supported."

The new version of the NSS with Windows Server 2008 Multi-Site Clustering and Hyper-V capabilities is available immediately at no extra charge.

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