Quoting from official announcement:
Voltaire, the leader in interconnect solutions for high performance grid computing today announced the completed integration and support for Xen server virtualization software with its InfiniBand-based grid interconnect solutions. The combined solution, which includes Voltaire network and storage virtualization technology, creates a highly scalable data center infrastructure by eliminating I/O overhead and providing the full flexibility to choose any application to run on any virtual server, and dynamically allocate compute, network, and storage resources. Voltaire will demonstrate the solution today at the Linux on Wall Street conference in New York City in booth 222.
Voltaire grid interconnect solutions consist of layer 2-7 multiprotocol switches with integrated InfiniBand, GbE and Fibre Channel connectivity, grid management and virtualization software, adapters and other software that enable high performance applications to run on virtualized server and storage resources. Voltaire switches deliver the industry?s highest speed and lowest latency and are deployed successfully in the world?s largest production supercomputer and many other large grids.
Voltaire is collaborating with Cambridge, U.K.-based XenSource and the open source Linux community to deliver the solution. The solution leverages InfiniBand drivers from OpenIB, the open source InfiniBand project. Both the InfiniBand and Xen drivers are included in Kernel.org 2.6.11.
?We see strong demand for server virtualization solutions coming from our enterprise customers, with large Wall Street firms in the lead,? said Yaron Haviv, Chief Technology Officer, Voltaire. ?Server virtualization is part of the general trend in IT today of moving to use large grids that are based on commodity servers and storage. Combining these commodity elements with open source Linux software and Voltaire multi-service switches dramatically reduces IT costs.?
?We are pleased with the progress and commitment shown by Voltaire to support Xen,? said Moshe Bar, CTO of XenSource. ?The integrated solution of Xen server virtualization with Voltaire grid interconnect with hardware-based virtual I/O enables customers to build high-performance virtual data center environments.?
Voltaire switches are centrally controlled and virtualized through embedded VoltaireVision Grid Interconnect Management software. VoltaireVision uses industry-standard interfaces to enterprise management platforms and can be provisioned by automation and policy platforms such as IBM Tivoli Intelligent Orchestrator and others. The integration of provisioning management tools, server virtualization software and intelligent grid interconnect solutions is the foundation of the next generation data center.
Xen is an open source server virtualization architecture that allows users to run multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) simultaneously on the same physical server. Each VM gets a portion of the server CPU, memory and I/O from Xen, which dynamically assigns resources to virtual machines or migrates virtual machines to other servers, if needed. Through integration with Voltaire grid interconnect, Xen benefits from multi-channel hardware and OS bypass to enable full isolation between virtual machines, greater performance and scalability.
Integrated with Voltaire GridBoot for Diskless Grids and Clusters
Voltaire?s Xen server virtualization solution also offers diskless boot capabilities which simplifies the deployment and management of complex grid computing environments. Voltaire GridBoot is complementary to Xen as it enables the complete disaggregation of compute and storage resources.
Voltaire?s solution enables users to run diskless stations, perform pre-boot remote diagnostics and conduct maintenance tasks using standard tools such as OSCAR, ROCKS and IBM Tivoli Intelligent Orchestrator and other commercial applications. GridBoot coupled with Voltaire multiprotocol switches offer customers the flexibility to boot off any type of storage: FC SAN, iSCSI, NAS or from a server within the InfiniBand cluster. Using Voltaire GridBoot, customers can easily move to diskless environments to reduce deployment time and cluster operating expenses.