Syneto Storage OS 2.14 is out. This release has been mainly focused on consolidating and improving existing features that make Syneto Storage OS so great, especially our converged storage solution for deploying and provisioning local virtual machines and virtual servers.

Local Virtual Machines

Syneto Storage OS 2.14 greatly improves the management of on-storage virtual machines by allowing multiple disk management for every VM. The management UI has been completely overhauled for easier and faster configuration.

A significant performance boost can be attained by using the new option for VIRTIO drivers both for disks and network cards. The redesigned Web UI enables users to better view, understand and manage the state of their virtual machines. Local virtual machines and virtual servers be powered off directly from the guest operating system.

Storage Efficiency – improved Compression

Version 2.14 introduces a new compression algorithm, LZ4, for folders and virtual disks. All new folders and virtual disks are created with LZ4 compression enabled by default. Bellow is a benchmark between existing compression algorithms and the new LZ4, so you can judge the performance boost for yourself.

SMB/CIFS Sharing

Windows infrastructures that use SMB/CIFS sharing can now benefit from a new feature: client connections that can be kept alive even though there is a long period of inactivity. In practice this will not force users to logout in order regain access to their shares.

Performance Improvements

Performance on working with folders and virtual disks has been improved. New folders are now created with atime off (last access time), since it is a property that is almost never needed. When sharing a virtual disk over iSCSI you can now enable or disable LUN (logical unit) caching to boost performance. This comes to a cost though, in case of power failures you might loose the last few unwritten SCSI transactions.

Version 2.14 brings a lot more new features, improvements, and fixes, which help you enjoy Storage OS even more.

We added:

• Zabbix monitoring agent
• Lsiutil and Sasinfo command line tool
• Mpt_sas support for HUS156045VLS600 disks in multi-path configuration
• Mpt_sas support for pci15d9,691 (Supermicro branded LSI2308)

We improved:

• Folder access speed
• Better responsiveness of the Web UI
• Update Illumos kernel to the latest version

We Fixed:

• Resolved an issues that prevent KVM machines to start with VirtIO Network Drivers
• Pool import failure when replication destination is not reachable
• Resolved a problem where service management was not properly handling long service instance names
• Resolved a problem where missing network interfaces caused a Web GUI crash