FormationOne Dynamic Storage Platform
FormationOne is a hyper-scale software-defi ned storage platform, built from the ground up, for the modern enterprise data center. FormationOne virtualizes all elements of storing and managing data. The system dynamically supports flash, disk, and even IaaS storage as well as any new form of non-volatile storage media. It supports dynamic capacity changes and can dynamically scale-out to Exabyte-capacities. FormationOne also virtualizes storage resources across industry standard hardware elements as long as those elements meet certain minimum standards. We architected FormationOne to easily accommodate new hardware and storage media.
Through an open universal “Data API,” FormationOne dynamically supports all data types including block, fi le, Hadoop, and object data. FormationOne supports data management features like snapshot and cloning across every data type. From capacity to service level, every element within FormationOne is dynamically adjustable.
FormationOne allows enterprises to easily increase their storage capacity as needed and improves operational effi ciency by collapsing existing specialty storage and technology silos, such as backup platforms, Network Attached Storage (NAS), and Hadoop/HDFS, into a single platform. The system provides a single platform for data, no matter what its business value, simplifi ed storage management through a single pane of glass, and API-driven provisioning for quicker deployment and monitoring of business processes and effi ciency. The platform also has a built-in self-healing mechanism that prevents disruption during service, node and disk failures. We built FormationOne with three fundamental software layers
The following table summarizes these functions:
ACCESS MANAGER
Entry point for all data into the Formation domain. AM chunks and secure hashes the DOs. Access Manager is the coordinator in a distributed transaction that produces DOs and catalog objects and sends out the simulcast of these objects into the storage and data managers.
STORAGE MANAGER
Storage management layer that manages the data storage on the node. It keeps object-to-disk mapping, provides tiering between flash and disk, collects garbage, and de-duplicates data.
DATA MANAGER
Metadata manager for the volumes. It participates in the replication of data, time lining and cloning of volumes, and journaling of operations on a per-volume basis.
ORCHESTRATION MANAGER
The brain of the domain; it holds the map of active nodes that form the domain. It coordinates control path requests, such as creation and deletion of volumes or snapshots and clones, and starting and stopping rebalance on node reboot. It also provides an XDI interface that is available to the User Interface (UI) and applications.
PLATFORM MANAGER This component provides the common interface to the hardware in a node. For instance, it discovers disks and SSDs, and network interfaces. It participates in building the domain node map, and provides a messaging bus for all the other components above.