With New InsightIQ Software, Users Can Build Policies for Moving Data Across Tiers in a Single Volume

Isilon just beefed up its OneFS storage operating system by launching two new data-management applications that can transform the way a facility organizes and oversees its networked storage. The new SmartPools software allows users to combine multiple "storage performance tiers" in a single file system – that means data can be moved freely and automatically to and from both high-performance and nearline-archive tiers in a single storage volume, allowing users to make sure they have speed where they need it and to save money where they don't. Another new application, InsightIQ, is designed to offer easy access to system statistics that help identify and address performance bottlenecks.
Essentially, the two programs together offer users the opportunity to create intelligent policies for moving files among Isilon storage tiers – the high-performance S series, the primary X series, and the NL series for nearline archiving. Those tiers were introduced last year, when users could create one file system for each tier of storage, reaching into the petabyte range, but could not unify them in a single system across all three tiers.

“This is what people really want,” Isilon Director of Product Management Nick Kirsch told StudioBytes. “They want a single place for their content and, over time and as their workflow demands, they want their content in the right place at the right time.” The SmartPools software is licensed per-node on a capacity basis, starting at $3950 for less than 10 TB of storage and topping out at $9950 for nodes with 36 TB or more of capacity. (That’s on top of what you’ve already paid for the storage itself.)

SmartPools is designed to take advantage of data provided by InsightIQ, which is designed to give system administrators the information they require to set efficient policies about which data should be given a privileged position in the system, and which can be placed on lower-performance storage tiers.

“We can give them per-client performance information on latency and throughput over time,” Kirsch said. “We can let them see per-file and per-directory performance metrics. That’s critical in an example like rendering, where you really want to identify the hot pieces of input data. There is also a long-term file-system analytics view where you can see information about directories and files, with histograms that let the user see whether valuable data is on the right tier of storage.” That kind of information allows users to set policies for automating file movement, Kirsch explained, prioritizing different file types according to different applications’ demands.

And bottlenecks can be identified in one of three places – somewhere inside the storage system, somewhere in the network between clients attached to the storage, or at the client itself, where a particular application simply isn’t being aggressive enough in its demands on the storage system. Once the wimpy app is identified, Kirsch said, tweaking its settings can make a difference. “For a lot of high-performance workflows, the ability to see per-file and per-directory performance metrics is critical,” Kirsch said. “Users have done a lot of work writing their own tools to try and identify those bottlenecks. We’re giving them the same visibility in an easy, graphical way with no extra work on their part.” InsightIQ runs $1950 to $3850 per node, depending on capacity.

Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) is among the beta users of the new programs, according to Isilon PR Manager Lucas Welch, who told StudioBytes that SPI combined its S-series Isilon storage, which it had been using for rendering, with X-series storage, which was being used for streaming and for less performance-intensive applications like fluid and particle effects. For the first time, SPI was able to handle all that content from a single point of management. “Now, the people who were moving data back and forth [between file systems] as the workflow progression changed can focus on higher priorities and stop worrying about storage,” Welch said.

Both SmartPools and InsightIQ are available now, along with OneFX 6.0, the sixth-generation version of the company’s storage operating system.

For more information: www.isilon.com.