What is Clustering?

Put simply, clustering is connecting multiple servers together to act as one large unit. Our cluster solutions consists of two or more Storinator storage servers working together to provide a higher level of availability, reliability, and scalability than can be achieved by using a single server. Designed to work together, our cluster solutions will protect your data and keep your applications running if failure on one of the server occurs. Our cluster solutions also offer easy scalability for your growing data demands.

Why Cluster?

There are many reasons you would benefit from a cluster solution:

You're looking for a performance boost

Clustering architecture can be used to achieve very high levels of performance.
You want high availability

If you’re taking a server offline, doing server maintenance or experience power failure -Clustering will keep your data available at all times!
You’ve reached capacity and need more space

Clustering your Storinator is the most effective way to grow your overall capacity.
You will need more space in the future

As your business grows, so will your storage requirements. With some simple planning you can be sure you will never run out of space.

How to Cluster?

Call us!

But the long answer is clustering requires at least two Storinators of any model and the proper software. Our Storinator storage server is an open storage platform that gives you the freedom to run any software you choose including GlusterFS and Ceph. Our own clusters are using servers that run CentOS with GlusterFS and ZFS on Linux running on top, to create one central storage platform. However, we have many customers using other Linux distros, such as Ubuntu and RedHat, but in our petabyte configuration we used the following: CentOS, ZFS on Linux and GlusterFS.

Software

Our Storinator storage server is an open storage platform that gives you the freedom to run any software you choose including GlusterFS and Ceph. Our clusters are using servers that run CentOS with GlusterFS and ZFS on Linux running on top, to create one central storage platform. We have many customers using other Linux distros, such as Ubuntu and RedHat, but typically in our petabyte configuration we use the following:

Did you know: The ZFS file system offers a compression feature which gives users more space than what you purchased - It's like getting space for free.

From Our Blog:
How to achieve petabytes of data with a cluster using GlusterFS

Depending on how you configure your cluster, you can achieve different goals, such as large aggregate capacity or robustness via redundancy. To create a cluster, one adds a software layer on top of the OS that runs each server. A little bit of configuration, and you are up and running.

Read the Full Article »

Clustering Videos

Set Up a Highly Available,
Low Cost Storage Cluster

Watch R&D Engineer Brett Kelly set up an easy, fast and low cost storage cluster using two S45 Storinators.
Clustering our Storinator Storage Server

Engineer Brett Kelly explains how to how to achieve a Petabyte of storage using a cluster.
The Evolution of Petabytes
on a Budget

Co-founder Doug Milburn explains the history of Petabytes on a Budget and
the evolution of storage.
Trying to Destroy A Clustered Volume During a File Transfer

Engineer Brett Kelly keeps a high-speed file transfer going while pulling drives, unplugging network cables and turning off power to multiple servers.