Shared Storage Solutions VMware

NFS, CIFS/SMB, AD Unified Shared Storage Solutions for VMware Private & Hybrid Clouds.

SoftNAS Cloud NAS on VMware enables organizations of all sizes to leverage their existing investment in VMware platforms and tools to deploy powerful software-defined storage capabilities.

VMware VSAN Shared Storage

In today’s cloud-based world, convenient access to highly durable off-site cloud storage is a must-have for secure archiving and mass cloud storage. SoftNAS Cloud NAS Storage extends VMware VSAN shared storage with NFS, CIFS/SMB, Active Directory, and LDAP integration and an enterprise-class NAS feature set.

SoftNAS also works with any server and back-end data storage. You choose your hardware for ultimate flexibility and control.

SoftNAS Cloud NAS extends VMware VSAN storage

Why SoftNAS Cloud NAS on VMware?

SoftNAS Cloud NAS for VMware vSphere storage management enables companies to manage data storage in both on-premise and virtualized environments.

SoftNAS complements VMware virtual with an extensive NAS feature set, combined with unified storage access via NFS, CIFS/SMB, with Active Directory integration. SoftNAS extends the VMware environment to include highly durable Amazon S3 cloud storage, with additional petabytes of secure off-site cloud storage. 

SoftNAS runs as a virtual appliance on VMware ESXi and the SoftNAS VM is allocated clustered storage from. Storage volumes are allocated from storage pools and shared as NFS exports and VIDS/SMD shared. Integration with Active Directory provides authentication and authorization features. 

Benefits
Enterprise-class NAS features

SoftNAS provides a robust set of enterprise-class NAS data protection, including:

  • High-Availability (HA) with easy set-up
  • Deduplication
  • Compression
  • Thin and thick provisioning
  • Caching
  • Scheduled and manual snapshots
  • Active Directory and LDAP integration
  • Instant writeable SnapClones™

SoftNAS supports all VMware-compatible storage media and network hardware and is compatible with all private, public, and hybrid cloud platforms. This flexibility has driven customer interest from industries that often face limited IT capital resources, ranging from small-to-medium businesses, educational institutions, government entities, media or publishing companies, and service providers. 

Local Storage Options

Direct Attached Storage (DAS)

Leverage internal drives on your server, JBOD disk enclosures, or flash storage.

SAN

Leverage and existing SAN for high performance NAS capabilities.

Hybrid

Leverage the SoftNAS multi-level caching options to increase performance using local RAM and SSDs with back end hard disk (HDD) storage for a great blend of performance and capacity.

Hyperconverged

Are you using a VSAN or other hyperconverged option that only presents block storage? Use SoftNAS to provide enterprise class advanced NAS capabilities to increase the benefits of hyperconverged storage without adding any new hardware.

S3 Object Storage

On-premises or public cloud, SoftNAS supports popular object storage products including NetApp StorageGRID Webscale, SwiftStack, Hitachi Data Systems Hitachi Content Platform (HCP), Amazon Web Services S3, Cleversafe Web-Scale Storage Software Platform, Cloudian HyperStore and any S3-compatible object storage.

Use Cases

Customizable Primary and Secondary Storage

SoftNAS allows primary storage using SSD or SSD/HDD hybrids to support high-performance production workloads. Or connect any combination of inexpensive secondary storage for cost-effective and efficient storage of unstructured data.

File Services for VMware VSAN

SoftNAS complements Virtual SAN by providing a full NAS feature set combined with unified storage access via NFS, CIFS/SMB with Active Directory and LDAP integration. It extends the VMware environment to include highly durable cloud storage, up to 16 Petabytes of secure off-site cloud storage per SoftNAS filer.

On-premises to Cloud Backup

With SoftNAS SnapReplicate™, easily replicate and backup your data from your VMware datacenter to the public cloud. Eliminate physical backup tapes required by business compliance by archiving data in inexpensive S3 storage or cold storage for long-term protection.

Continuous Data Protection for Disaster Recovery

For applications that require aggressive recovery time and recovery point objectives (RPOs), as well as application awareness, SoftNAS SnapReplicate works hand-in-hand with the highly-available storage architectural design to provide continuous data protection.

Buurst offers SoftNAS Free Trial on VMware

Use this simple, step-by-step checklist to set up and configure the SoftNAS instance on VMware.

 

  • Login to your VMware vSphere client with your credentials.
  • Download the SoftNAS OVA and save it to the host it will be installed on
  • Login to your vSphere client and select the ESXi that you will be using. Click “File” from the navigation bar and then “Deploy OVF Template.” Click “Browse” to locate the SoftNAS OVF and select it.
  • Click “Next,” then select “Next” again on OVF Template Details. Select the host you want to deploy on and select “Next.” Select a resource pool and then click “Next.”
  • Select your destination storage and click “Next.” Select a disk format and click “Next.” Select a network for your VM to use.
  • Click “Finish.” The SoftNAS VM will be deployed after a short interval.

Download OVA