BonFire Space Virtualization
All BonFire systems
contain modified LZ4 compression, which can be activated on
demand. When activated, compression significantly
reduces the amount of space overwritten with new data.
This consequently increases the amount of free space on the
system, thus expanding the useful life of the product
proportionally.
|
BonFire Compression |
|
The data compression option |
Per
System |
Per ZFS
Terabyte |
Per ESS
Terabyte |
| Virtual
<=2x space multiplier |
-- |
-- |
+50% |
| Virtual
>2x space multiplier |
-- |
-- |
+100% |
The free space created by
LZ4 is substantial. While ordinary data normally does
not compress very well, most file systems generate a great
deal of compressible metadata. This typically compresses
85% to 90%. And most file systems generate more
metadata than they do source data The only principal exclusion to this
assertion is ZFS. ZFS stores metadata with
unique hashes, which are virtually uncompressible.
The LZ4 compressed space
can be used as additional space by electing one of our two
virtual space options. The <=2x option lets you define
free space up to twice the licenced amount of physical space
for a 50% surcharge on the base terabyte licensing fee,
while the >2x option covers all expansions beyone this
point.
Deduplication is in
development. This also has the option of logical space
expansion. The problem with deduplication is not
assuring opperability, but of assuring that the code does
not experience significant performance loss.
Space expansion through
either compression or deduplication must be monitored to
assure that you do not run out of free space, or create
excessive write amplification. This is best done by
expanding space availability in small increments rather than
oversizing from the beginning.
Space virtualization is
not available in the BonFire Lite program as this involves
fixed size systems.
|
