ThinkParQ’s BeeGFS parallel filesystem software now runs on Huawei’s OceanDisk all-flash storage servers.
The joint product is formally called the OceanDisk Built-in File System HPC Storage Solution. The basic OceanDisk concept is that parallel file system runs in scale-out disk-less (actually SSD-less) servers with them accessing a storage pool of NVMe SSDs, in a disaggregated compute-storage architecture, allowing customers to upgrade their compute systems without changing the storage system architecture.
Now ThinkParQ and Huawei have a strategic co-operation agreement enabling, ThinkParQ says, “BeeGFS to run natively on the OceanDisk 1610, creating a scale-out storage platform built for the throughput and concurrency demands of HPC and AI workloads.”
ThinkParQ CEO Frank Herold said: “We've had a long relationship with Huawei, and we're excited about what this partnership will deliver for customers in both China and Germany. We've recently expanded our operations in China, where we now have a local sales and support team for BeeGFS."
The OceanDisk 1610 is a smart SSD enclosure or storage server having a dual-controller active-active architecture, and providing shared pools of NVMe-oF storage with RDMA RoCE data access. The 1610 ’s compute configuration has 4 x 48 core processors, providing 192 cores in total and with a 1 TB cache. We think they are Huawei/HiSilicon Kunpeng-class ARM server CPUs, but Huawei has not revealed the actual specification.
The 1610 comes in a 2 RU chassis containing 36 x 161.44 TB QLC NVMe SSDs with a 2 PB maximum raw capacity. Its dual controllers can deliver up to 175 GBps bandwidth and 5.2 million IOPS. It can be integrated with mainstream third-party file systems such as Lustre, GPFS, and BeeGFS.
The basic OceanDisk concept replaces local disks or SSDs on servers to provide transparent access for the upper-layer scale-out software. The compute servers run their applications, and access parallel file system storage using a front-end client which talks to the back-end parallel file system storage.
By leveraging the Huawei OceanDisk smart disk enclosure's built-in VM capabilities, BeeGFS can now run directly within the storage hardware. The two companies say that conventional high-performance computing (HPC) storage systems typically require independent deployment of storage devices, file system nodes, and management servers, resulting in a complex architecture, prolonged deployment process, and skyrocketing O&M costs.
Zheng Yong, Senior Architect of Huawei Scale-Out Storage, said: "The OceanDisk smart disk enclosure offers built-in VM capabilities to enable partners' file systems to run directly on VMs, delivering a streamlined and efficient HPC storage solution." This level of integration eliminates the need for dedicated file system servers, simplifying the overall architecture, shortening deployment process, and improving resource utilization, the two companies said.
The joint appliance will be showcased at Huawei Connect in Shanghai, Huawei's flagship global ICT and enterprise technology event taking place this week.
Get an OceanDisk brochure here.
Bootnote
Huawei NoF+ is Huawei’s branded storage-network stack: NVMe over Fabrics on Ethernet, specifically NVMe over RoCE, plus Huawei extras for lossless transport, failover, and simpler operations.