Microsoft Storage Puzzles

Storage functions from Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) may help IT managers save time and money -- if they can understand what's being offered.

Lots of Windows users, particularly ones in small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), use SAN, NAS, and DAS. These customers want the convenience and efficiency of managing their storage gear and software in a common Windows interface.

Trouble is, most of the information about Microsoft's storage functionality comes from third-party vendors -- the main implementers of the technology. The message of "support" is often unclear. "Microsoft has not done a lot of promotion about this," concedes Claude Lorenson, senior product manager at Microsoft's Windows Server Division. "There's been more organic learning about it. IT managers are often surprised... But people who discover it and use it love it."

Let's take a closer look. Microsoft's main storage networking functions are offered as development toolkits for Windows Server 2003. They include:

Some confusion about Microsoft's storage functionality surrounds VSS. A slew of vendors have announced VSS support, but without clarification the news is meaningless. That's because in order to automatically create snapshots and store them, VSS requires the use of a requestor in the form of a backup application that calls for a snapshot to be made and stored; a writer, usually part of a Windows application, that keeps track of the information needed to create the snapshot; and a provider that creates and stores the snapshot on disk.Not everything is offered in a single product.

Several software suppliers offer requestor products that work with generic third-party storage arrays that also support VSS. These suppliers include Computer Associates International Inc. (CA) (NYSE: CA), CommVault Systems Inc., EMC Legato, and Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS).

A range of VSS applications are also available that don't work specifically with storage hardware. These include programs from Arkeia Corp., DataCore Software Corp., and NSI Software Inc., to name just a few.

A number of storage vendors have announced VSS providers. These include EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), EqualLogic Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), LeftHand Networks Inc., Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP), and Xiotech Corp.

To muddy the waters, most of the big storage vendors, particularly EMC, HP, HDS, and NetApp, offer their own requestors, presumably to add granularity in managing their wares.While VSS requestors and providers are supposed to work together automatically, when it comes to two different vendors, actual certifications call for a joint effort, as happened between CommVault and Engenio (see Engenio, Commvault Utilize Snapshot) and CommVault and Xiotech (see Xiotech, CommVault Team Up).

Confusion also surrounds MPIO, which until recently was available only to improve the performance of Fibre Channel arrays in Windows environments. Recently, Microsoft has added MPIO for iSCSI as well, and EqualLogic and LeftHand support it (see EqualLogic Adds Auto-Snapshot Manager anbd LeftHand Enhances Microsoft Support).

As for VDS, that's still available only for Fibre Channel volume management, and it's been adopted by Dot Hill Systems Corp. (Nasdaq: HILL), FalconStor Software Inc. (Nasdaq: FALC), and QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC). (See Dot Hill to Certify With Microsoft, QLogic and QLogic Does Windows.)

An iSCSI version of VDS is due from Microsoft late this year, and LeftHand, for one, has vowed to support it.

Another sticking point: Vendors who support Microsoft's storage capabilities in their products often have their own snapshotting, load balancing, and virtual disk capabilities. Does that mean there's a conflict of interest? Will the vendors discontinue their own wares?At least one of these, LeftHand Networks, softpedals the potential conflict. According to a spokesman, the vendor's Microsoft VSS capabilities are meant to help out Windows customers that want them specifically. LeftHand has its own Windows functions and won't discontinue them.

Any muddles over Microsoft support are likely to be resolved as more SMBs adopt products this year.

Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch