Compellent Adds Server Management to Its Storage Software

Compellent Technologies wants to make booting a companys servers from the SAN easier.

The network storage vendor on March 26 is announcing a new addition to its Storage Center 3.5 suite that will give users a simplified away of booting servers from a SAN (storage area network).

The software, called Server Instant Replay, works by creating a snapshot of the servers image, which then allows an IT administrator to recover a failed server or redeploy that image to any number of servers within a data center.

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Once an administrator configures a server with the operating system, application and additional data, the software wizard guides the user through the copying of the configuration—Compellent calls this the "gold image"—in six steps.

This new software wizard allows for easier management of servers on the SAN, while providing additional options for companies looking to create disaster recovery and business continuity plans, said Bruce Kornfeld, vice president of marketing for the company, based in Eden Prairie, Minn.

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About 90 percent of Compellents customers are using the companys suite to boot servers from the SAN, and this addition to the suite simplifies that process while adding some additional functionality, Kornfeld said.

For example, he said that while it might normally take eight hours to configure an entire group of servers with an operating system and applications, the wizard allows an administrator to copy that configuration, provision other servers and boot from the SAN within 15 minutes.

Kornfeld said the software suite will also reduce costs for companies by eliminating the need for disk drivers and cutting down on power and cooling costs by reducing the number of moving parts— the disk drivers —within the data center.

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By allowing provisioning and booting within 15 minutes, Kornfeld said companies can also save on maintenance and other costs. Most of Compellents customers are midrange enterprises and Kornfeld believes that this latest offering will appeal to customers that need faster booting and recovering technology.

The new software will be included free within Compellents Storage Center 3.5 suite.

The companys QuickStart ILM (information lifecycle management) bundle with a single storage controller, 6.4TB of disk memory, the Storage Center 3.5 suite, Data Instant Replay, thin provisioning and automatic tiered storage licenses costs about $49,500, company officials said.

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