KIOXIA America, Inc. (formerly Toshiba Memory America, Inc.) has introduced a new version of its KumoScale storage software based on NVM Express over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) technology. With the addition of new features designed to support cloud providers, KIOXIA’s KumoScale software suite enables next-generation, cost effective, private cloud deployments.
Developed to address the heightened demand for NVMe flash storage and the NVMe-oF framework that makes cloud-based disaggregation a reality, KumoScale software is a cloud-focused solution that delivers high-performance NVMe flash storage volumes via a virtual storage layer between clients and flash devices. It provides a central application programming interface (API) through which applications can request the resources needed, then dynamically provision and connect just the right amount of shared flash storage for each application instance. KumoScale software is NVMe-oF compliant and leverages the specification to deliver performance as if the NVMe SSDs were locally attached, and is one of the few storage fabric solutions that supports bare-metal, virtualized and Kubernetes deployments on a wide range of industry-standard servers.
Enhancements to Version 3.14 include:
- Thin Provisioning: Thin provisioning allows storage resources to be easily allocated to servers, on a just-enough and just-in-time basis. KumoScale software’s thin-provisioned volumes allocate blocks of data on demand versus the traditional method of allocating all possible blocks to a client in advance. This eliminates almost all whitespace and increases storage utilization rates, which can often be as low as 10% using the traditional approach.
- Autonomous Self-Healing: KumoScale software’s volume self-healing mechanism automatically identifies and repairs data inconsistencies that may result from replica failures, including reconnection to the target or an incomplete replica deletion, without the need for monitoring and intervention by a system administrator.
- Network Resilience: KumoScale software clients use Linux Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) and enhanced connections management to ensure consistent delivery of packets across all available network paths. KumoScale software targets use port bonding to ensure availability while maximizing total storage node throughput.
- Lights-out Storage Node Deployment: Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) protocol support enables automated installation over a network in data center environments. PXE boot installation capability replaces the need for either a bootable device for the operating system or the need to use an ISO file on a DVD or USB device.
- Snapshots: Highly efficient snapshots for Kubernetes deployments via the Kubernetes CSI API, and directly via the REST API or CLI.
- Support for High-Performance CM6 Series SSDs: Full support for KIOXIA’s CM6 Series of PCIe 4.0 (1×4, 2×2) NVMe 1.4 enterprise SSDs. CM6 drives deliver best-in-class sequential and random performance of up to 6.9 gigabytes per second (GB/s) and up to 1.4M IOPS, benefiting applications such as databases, data analytics and artificial intelligence.
“KumoScale 3.14 rolls up an impressive list of advanced storage functionality and demonstrates our continued commitment to automating the deployment and management of NVMe flash storage, making it easier to adopt and less expensive to use,” said Joel Dedrick, vice president and general manager, networked storage software, KIOXIA America, Inc. “We’re delivering on our promise to help make high-performance NVMe flash the clear choice for mainstream data center storage.”
