Scality RING is software to create an object storage system on servers with attached storage in a scale-out, distributed shared-nothing architecture. The software includes a number of features as an object storage system. The RING name is from the distributed architecture for the nodes in the configurations, which is based on the Chord protocol for peer-to-peer connections. The RING uses a distributed hash table with key-value pairs. The key format comes from a SHA-1 hash and is 160 bits with 128 for the object ID, 24 for the dispersion location (which node in which location), and 8 bits for the class of service which in this case means the protection policy of either replication or Forward Error Correction information dispersal. The algorithm maps objects to a virtual key (node) spaces and routes access requests to the node owning the data. Each node will have a successor and predecessor to the next node.
The architecture of Scality RING is meant to be high performance, which allows Scality to target replacing traditional NAS and block storage for unstructured and semi-structured data. Usage for performance demanding content repositories, big data analytics storage, and digital media are highlighted usages by Scality.
Data and metadata are distributed across nodes according to the RING algorithm. Forward Error Correction uses the ARC erasure codes with selectable protection and geographical distribution. In addition to information dispersal, Scality offers synchronous and asynchronous replication with the multi-Geo feature.
Access to Scality RING system, which consists of Scality software deployed on x86 servers with attached storage, is through file and object access methods. For file access, Scality supports its own Scale out File System, CIFS/SMB 2.0 (SAMBA), FTP, AppleTalk and NFSv4. Object access is over HTTP/REST protocol for S3, CDMI, Swift and RS2 APIs. Hadoop is implemented using Scality’s CDMI connector where the Hadoop NameNode server is replaced by the Scality architecture enabling the storage node to operate as the Hadoop compute node.
Scality RING Product Review Includes:
- Overview
- Highlights
- Usage
- Architecture Deployment
- Futurum EvaluScale Product Review Methodology
- The Futurum Group’s Opinion
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