1. Atlantis USX 3.1.2 Enhancements

2. Atlantis – Consistent Meaningful Innovation
USX 3.1.2
HyperScale CX-4 / 2-Node USX
Optional and Thin Provisioned SnapClone
USX 3.1
Dedup aware stretched cluster
3 Site DR
Feature Richness
USX 3.0
VVOL certification
Snapshots
Replication
Atlantis Insight
HyperScale
All Flash HyperConverged
CX-12 and CX-24
60 minute time to value
USX 2.2
XenServer Support
LDAP Authentication
Simplified Licensing
Deployed Customers
USX 2.1
New Dashboard with status reporting
VMware VAAI plugin
Nov’14
Feb’15
May’15
Aug’15
Oct’15
Jan’16

3. USX Support for 2-Node Deployments
USX now supports creation of RAID1 volumes
Enables resilient pooled volume creation with only two nodes
USX Manager
Management n/w
Hypervisor
Hypervisor
Storage n/w
Node 1
Node 2

4. USX Support for 2-Node Deployments
Use cases
ROBO deployments
Micro-datacenters
Enterprise starter-kits
Test & Dev
PoCs
Supports all pooled volume types
Hybrid, Hyper-converged, All-Flash
ROBO Deployment
Central Site

5. Enabling RAID 1
For a RAID 1 volume, “Enable RAID1” flag shall be checked in the Create Volume page
The flag is checked by default if “Enable RAID1” has been checked in the Global Preferences
For a non-RAID1 volume, “Enable RAID1” flag should be unchecked in the volume creation page
Create Volume Page
Global Preferences

6. USX RAID 1 Volumes RAID1 volume using only two nodes and service VMs
RAID1 volume protection

7. High Availability & Disaster Recovery for Distributed Data Centers

8. Distributed Data Centers
Distributed Data Centers present unique HA & DR challenges
Distributed Data Centers
Remote Office/Branch Office
(ROBO)
Remote Management
(Lack of) People
Predictable local SLA protection
Resiliency
Massive Fan-in/Fan-out
Disaster Recovery
DR - massive fan-in/fan-out, high latency jittery links, Ability to mix SDS and HCIA to save costs
Micro Data Center

9. Resiliency - Local Protection
The two nodes are in a mirrored configuration
Provides complete protection against component failure (Volume, Nodes, Drives, Volumes)
USX Manager
Management n/w
Hypervisor
Hypervisor
Storage n/w
Node 1
Node 2

10. Resiliency - Handling split brain situations
Challenge
In a 2-node deployment, network connectivity loss between the two nodes cannot be distinguished from failure of one of the nodes.
However, it is for the system to distinguish between the two scenarios for a predictable and deterministic continuation of service
Event type: Network connectivity loss between two nodes
Expected behavior - Application I/Os continue to be serviced
Event type: One of the nodes go down

11. Resiliency - Handling split brain situations
Split brain situations are handled using the service VMs, that act as a local tiebreaker
In the event of a storage n/w failure, the management n/w is used to determine any volume service failover process as needed
To guard against both storage and management n/w failure, an external tiebreaker can also be configured at the time of deployment
USX Manager
Management n/w
Hypervisor
Hypervisor
Storage n/w
Service VM
Service VM
Node 1
Node 2
Specifying an external tiebreaker should always be the preferred option if customers can specify a tiebreaker at a third site.
Specifying an external tiebreaker provides an additional level of deterministic protection against link failures.

12. RAID1 Volume with an External Tiebreaker
RAID 1 Volume can be created in Stretched Cluster mode with an external tiebreaker
Specifying an external tiebreaker provides an additional level of deterministic protection against link failures
This is the recommended option for customers that can specify a tiebreaker at a third site

13. Resiliency - Redundant Tiebreakers
When configured with an external tiebreaker (with an IP address), USX / CX-4 has two tiebreakers
External Tiebreaker specified via the IP address
Local Tiebreaker using the Service VMs
External tiebreaker is the default tiebreaker, and always takes precedence.
Atlantis checks for the availability of the external tiebreaker from both nodes periodically.
If it is determined that the external tiebreaker is inaccessible from both the nodes, then the tiebreaker automatically gets changed to the local tiebreaker (Service VMs)
Once the external tiebreaker comes back (links are restored to both nodes) then it is designated as the tiebreaker again.

14. Failure Scenarios and Handling
Scenario One
Storage network link between the two nodes go down. Both nodes are however up.
Behavior
Tiebreaker detects the network loss.
One of the nodes (node 1) grab the token from the tiebreaker.
If a volume service was running on node 2, it fails over to the node 1.
When storage network gets restored, both nodes again get in a protected (HA) mode.
Scenario Two
One of the nodes go down
Behavior
Tiebreaker detects the node failure.
If a volume service was running on that node, it fails over to the surviving node.

15. Failure Scenarios and Handling
Scenario Three
Storage AND management network links between the two nodes go down. Both nodes are however up.
External tiebreaker is configured.
Behavior
Tiebreaker detects the network loss.
One of the nodes (node 1) grab the token from the tiebreaker.
If a volume service was running on node 2, it fails over to the node 1.
When networks get restored, both nodes again get in a protected (HA) mode.
Scenario Four
Storage AND management network links between the two nodes go down. Both nodes are however up.
External tiebreaker is NOT configured.
Behavior
Volume services on both nodes shut down.

16. Local Snapshots
Snapshots can be used to protect Atlantis volumes locally
With vSphere 6 support, Atlantis USX also enables VM level snapshot using VMware VVOL integration
Redirect-on-write
Dedup-aware
Fast
Efficient
Atlantis Snapshots
Flexible
Easy
Volume and VM level
Intuitive steps

17. Central Site backup for Disaster Recovery
ROBO deployments across multiple sites can be backed up to a central site.
Unlimited
Atlantis supports N -> 1 replication, where ‘N’ is the number of ROBO sites and is virtually unlimited.
Granular
Every Atlantis volume can be protected individually, and can be replicated to a target volume at the central site.
Flexible
The central site can have USX or HyperScale.
This enables customers to use their existing server or storage (including shared storage) infrastructure to act as a replication target for all remote/branch offices
Central Site
(USX or HyperScale)

18. USX Miscellaneous

19. SnapClone Enhancements for SiM Volumes
Option to disable SnapClone for SiM volumes
Option to specify disk type as Thin, ThinkLazy or ThickEager for SnapClone
Recommendation
Enable SnapClone and choose Thin as the disk type

20. USX Manager Plug-in framework
Atlantis Internal
USX Manager Plug-in framework
GUI
Rest API
Exposed to users
USX Manager Modules
System Plug-in
User Plug-in
USX Manager … …
Plug-ins provide control & automation
Create plug-ins in python
Upload plug-ins to USX Manager using REST APIs
Execute plug-ins using REST APIs … …
Plug-in target types can be:
All USX Managers
All USX Volumes (Volume Services)
All USX Service VMs
All objects (all the above)
For more details, see:
For existing plug-ins, go to:
For access request to the above Dropbox folder, send mail to:
USX Objects
(Volumes, Service VMs)

21. Atlantis Products Overview
Atlantis USX
100% Software-Defined Storage
Virtualize any server, any storage
Enterprise-class data services
Atlantis HyperScale
All-flash hyper-converged, powered by Atlantis USX
20 minute time to value
Choice of HW vendors – SuperMicro, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Cisco
Powered by
Atlantis USX is a software defined storage solution that delivers a new generation of storage for the enterprise. As software defined storage solution Atlantis USX is designed to pool and abstract your existing storage, and through our unique patented HyperDup data services deliver additional capacity, performance and availability to your server estate.
Atlantis HyperScale brings the benefits of USX in a pre-packaged, easy to consume and use compute+storage appliance. It is the only flash-optimized hyper-converged appliance that brings the performance of flash, enterprise data services at a cost lower than that of traditional disk-based storage.

22. Thank you
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