Xinnor and Advanced HPC: A Backup Boost

Summary

Xinnor and Advanced HPC have partnered to deliver a cutting-edge backup and restore solution for a US Federal Agency. This new system utilizes Xinnor’s xiRAID software and NVMe SSDs to significantly improve performance and reliability. The upgrade has resolved previous bottlenecks, allowing for faster data backups and improved data availability.

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** Main Story**

Let’s talk about how Xinnor and Advanced HPC have teamed up to give a US Federal Agency, one focused on scientific research, a serious backup and restore upgrade. They’ve basically given their whole system a shot in the arm. The goal? A more robust and efficient setup. And honestly, who doesn’t want that? The agency needed to ditch their old HDD-based storage array and replace it with something way faster – using Xinnor’s xiRAID software and NVMe SSDs. The result is pretty dramatic: a big jump in both performance and reliability.

Dealing with the Data Deluge

Think about it. The agency was drowning in scientific data, databases, and filesystem snapshots. Their old HDD setup just couldn’t keep up. It was creating a bottleneck, holding back their Spectra Logic T950 tape library – which, by the way, has five LTO6 drives – from reaching its full potential. Backup speeds were slow, and data availability was at risk. Not ideal, right? It was hampering their ability to protect the very data they’re entrusted with.

xiRAID to the Rescue: NVMe Performance Unleashed

The solution, purchased through the NASA SEWP platform, is all about Xinnor’s xiRAID software. This isn’t your grandpa’s RAID. It’s designed to squeeze every last drop of performance out of NVMe SSDs. Moreover, it protects data even if multiple drives fail. We’re talking about twelve 30TB and two 6.4TB Gen4 NVMe SSDs, configured with xiRAID. It creates two RAID5 block devices in 5+1 configurations and one RAID1 array in a 1+1 configuration. What does this actually mean? Essentially, you’ve got built-in redundancy and fault tolerance. The system can handle multiple drive failures without losing data. Pretty cool, huh? Add to that a GIGABYTE R282-Z94-00 server, an AMD EPYC 7453 processor, and 256GB of RAM, and you have a system ready to handle some serious workloads. And I’m sure that was all the clients’ looking for.

Smooth Integration, Ready to Grow

The new system plays nicely with the agency’s existing Commvault backup and recovery software and SpectraLogic tape archive system. Data lands on the speedy NVMe storage first, and then Commvault Media Agent moves it to tape for long-term archiving. It’s a smooth, efficient process. Plus, the whole thing is designed to scale. The agency can add new LTO9 tape systems and boost write throughput as needed. It’s ready for whatever comes next.

Exceeding Expectations

One of the agency’s system engineers said something that really stuck with me. They considered hardware RAID but found xiRAID software was the best option for performance and value. It didn’t just meet their expectations; it blew them away. That’s the kind of feedback you want to hear, isn’t it? The agency now has a high-performance, reliable, and cost-effective solution perfectly tailored to their needs. This ultimately enhances their research capabilities.

Key Benefits of xiRAID

• Data Protection: Advanced algorithms safeguard data even when multiple drives fail. It’s like having a safety net for your data.
• Performance Boost: xiRAID accelerates network saturation for reads and writes, keeping the tape archive system busy and providing a fast landing zone for backups. Think of it as a high-speed data highway.
• Easy to Use: xiRAID Classic presents a block device within the Linux kernel, making integration with the file system straightforward.
• Cost-Effective: The software-based solution delivers superior performance and value compared to traditional hardware RAID options. Who doesn’t love saving money?
• Scalable: The system adapts to future growth and changing data storage needs. It’s an investment in the future.

This deployment shows the power of software-defined storage solutions like xiRAID to boost performance, reliability, and scalability in federal agencies. The Xinnor and Advanced HPC collaboration is a great example of how public-private partnerships can drive innovation and improve data management in government. This is as of March 19, 2025.