vStack Virtualization Platform

The main articles are:

• What is IaaS
• Virtualization. Classification and applications

2024

The ability to combine individual clusters into a single system

The vStack HCP version implements the ability to combine individual clusters into a single system. The developer announced this on August 7, 2024.

This functionality, called global infrastructure, allows you to create a common virtual environment from individual clusters for deploying, managing and monitoring applications and services. In this case, the clusters themselves can be located in geographically distributed locations.

The global infrastructure is managed from a single point, allows you to evenly distribute loads, and quickly add or remove new clusters. Another feature is the ability to prescribe common policies for all clusters.

This functionality will be in demand among large corporate users. Their infrastructure is usually geographically distributed throughout, and the to the country number of administrators can reach several thousand people. The global infrastructure implements an advanced role model for individual users and groups of users with the ability to assign roles and additional privileges to them. The global infrastructure simplifies the management of complex distributed systems and allows you to create a flexible, scalable and fault-tolerant cloud environment, "said Evgeny Karpov, CEO of vStack.

Compatibility of vStack HCP version 2.3 with Rosa Chromium 12

vStack HCP 2.3 has been tested for compatibility with the ROSA Chrome 12 operating system. This was announced by the STC IT ROSA on August 1, 2024.

During the tests, experts installed the ROSA Chrome 12 operating system as a guest OS in a virtual infrastructure running the vStack HCP version 2.3 hyperconverged platform

The ROSA Chrome 12 operating system in the Server configuration demonstrated stable operation in the vStack HCP virtual environment. All functionality checks, including loading in UEFI mode, working with cloud-init, managing resources and file systems, were successful.

Successful testing of vStack HCP with ROSA Chrome 12 strengthens the ecosystem the Russian IT of solutions. This allows our customers to create modern virtual infrastructures based entirely on domestic technologies, without the need to turn to foreign products, - said the Evgeny Karpov CEO of vStack.

Cooperation with vStack allows us to guarantee the stable operation of ROSA CHROME 12 in virtual environments. The compatibility of our OS with the vStack HCP platform opens up opportunities to build fault-tolerant and scalable virtual infrastructures based on domestic software products, "commented Vyacheslav Kadomsky, Director of Strategic Development at ROSA.

Adding External Storage

In the vStack HCP platform, the External Storage function has appeared - an option for external consumers to access the storage layer, the purpose of which is to provide the ability to unify and diversify the storage component in infrastructures. External Storage can be used by any consumer: both by conventional bare-metal servers and in third-party virtualization solutions, for example, VMware. VStack (ITglobalcom Labs) announced this on July 22, 2024.

vStack External Storage allows you to create and use additional storage in a unified form. The purpose of using additional storage can be: exhaustion of the capacity of existing storage or diversification of the storage component.  The connection is via NVMeOF (TCP) or iSCSI block protocols. External Storage allows you to connect to third-party platforms and deploy a complete solution with the ability to manage DSS resources from a single point.

We are progressively developing our virtualization platform, and the development of vStack External Storage is a logical step to meet the growing needs of enterprise customers. This is not just additional storage - it is a new level of adaptability of the IT infrastructure to business tasks of any complexity, "said Evgeny Karpov, CEO of vStack.

The main advantage of External Storage is the ability to use a single, fault-tolerant and easily scalable storage infrastructure, which provides the user with an even more flexible and efficient approach to solving business problems.

Ability to create a Stretched cluster

The vStack team has implemented additional enterprise-level functionality - the ability to create a Stretched cluster. The developer announced this on July 10, 2024.

A stretched cluster is a deployment model in which nodes of a single cluster are geographically distributed between two or more sites. The advantage of such a deployment is to ensure high availability and continuity of business processes, even in the event of a complete failure of one of the sites.

A fundamental feature of the Stretched cluster is the redundancy at the level of the entire site, and not individual nodes.

In vStack HCP, the redundancy of a stretched cluster stretched over two sites is 2N. As a result, the business will be able to painlessly survive the failure of a separate site due to the fact that the entire storage layer is pools with RAID-1 redundancy. If a disk fails in the RAID-1 configuration, its files are not lost because they are copied to the disk mirror.

In a stretched cluster virtual machines , they can be placed on any node of the cluster, regardless of its geographical location. This provides flexibility in resource allocation and simplifies infrastructure management. In the event of a failure of one servers virtual machine, the machines located on it are automatically restarted on another server of the same site, or in an alternative one.

To prevent the so-called split-brain, a quorum server located separately is used. It is responsible for preventing isolated parts of the cluster from making decisions that are incompatible with each other if the cluster is split.

Cluster growth is carried out by cluster pairs.

In general, Stretched cluster provides significant benefits to keep mission-critical applications running smoothly and scalable.

The implementation of the Stretched cluster concept is an important milestone for our company. Thanks to it, users of the vStack platform will be able to deploy their critical systems with a completely new level of reliability and fault tolerance, "said Evgeny Karpov, CEO of vStack.

vStack HCP 2.3 with multiple clusters combined into a single management system

vStack May 20, 2024 announced the release of a major version of the vStack HCP 2.3 virtualization platform. The capabilities that have appeared in this version are focused on the needs of owners of enterprise-level infrastructures.

Added functionality:

• Combine multiple clusters into a single management system: web-interface or API-endpoint.
• Global (inter-cluster) objects: virtual data centers and virtual networks.
• Authentication and authorization of users from Active Directory and LDAP directory services .
• Authentication and authorization of users from external identity providers that support the OpenID standard.

By combining control loops and global cluster objects, the load on infrastructure resources can be distributed more efficiently and evenly.

The use of accounts from directory services and identity providers simplifies the administrative outline of infrastructure operation. In addition, vStack HCP received an extended role model that allows you to assign users not only roles, but also specific privileges.

In this release, we implemented the functionality familiar to owners of corporate-level infrastructures, "said Evgeny Gavrilov, vStack project manager.

Functionality, such as clustering into a single management system, enables us to address the complex challenges of customers with growing infrastructure management needs. Implementation integration with Active Directory and OpenID makes vStack HCP even more convenient and flexible to use. We are confident that the updated version will be highly appreciated by our users, "said Evgeny Karpov, CEO of vStack.

Compatibility of vStack HCP 2.2 with OpenYard 19 'servers: 1U model RS101I and 2U model RS201I

The companies vStack Open Development Center have successfully tested the compatibility of their products - virtualizations the vStack HCP 2.2 platform and. servers OpenYard The OpenYard 19 'rack servers were tested for compatibility with vStack: 1U model RS101I and 2U model RS201I and their separate components, hba and network cards. Such deep testing is designed to simplify the choice of equipment for corporate consumers and to obtain a fully validated hardware configuration. VStack ON announced this on April 2, 2024.

For the vStack company, it is extremely valuable to cooperate with the manufacturer, which provides such an in-depth in integration the stages of creation and development, and has its own built-in ON firmware. This allows both vStack and OpenYard to very accurately configure the equipment, ensuring a high level of end user exploitation, "commented Evgeny Karpov, CEO of vStack.

It is important for OpenYard that our servers help solve the problems of owners of data centers of any scale, and that is why partnering with vStack is especially valuable for us, "said Dmitry Penyaz, Head of OpenYard Products and Solutions (Open Development Center LLC).

At the heart of BeeCloud Stack

beeline cloud (beeline cloud) and vStack presented a joint product: the BeeCloud Stack platform (a hyperconverged solution for managing public and private virtual resources). The purpose of the platform is to become a replacement for foreign virtualization solutions. The BeeCloud Stack is based on the hyper-converged vStack platform. Representatives of VStack reported this on February 12, 2024. Learn more here.

vStack HCP ver compatibility. 2.2 with "Inferit" servers

Technical partners vStack and "" Inferitis have tested the compatibility of their products. Tests have shown that virtualizations the vStack HCP ver platform. 2.2 works stably at. server equipment "Inferit" This was announced on January 22, 2024 by the company. Softline

The deployment of vStack HCP based on Inferit equipment is designed to simplify the implementation of domestic solutions in the corporate infrastructure of Russian organizations. Migration from Western solutions is a rather time-consuming process associated with the need to integrate technologies and equipment from several manufacturers. For their correct operation, as a rule, refinement is required, for which customers do not always have time and technical expertise. A list of hardware tested for compatibility with the vStack HCP virtualization platform solves this problem.

Since 2022, Western software and equipment cannot be updated and contacted by vendors for technical support. This poses significant operational risks. Compatible domestic solutions allow organizations to migrate painlessly to Russian platforms, reduce the risk of failures, and reduce the cost of maintaining corporate infrastructure. And thanks to the partnership between vStack and Inferit, we can recommend developer servers for the deployment of our platform, "said Evgeny Karpov, CEO of vStack.

{{quote "In the line of IT vendor" Inferit "- servers of Russian production from 1U to 4U. Thanks to new partnerships with Russian software developers, our clients can be sure of the compatibility of servers with the necessary software, "said Igor Zinin, Head of Server and DSS Development at Inferit. }}

Compatibility of vStack HCP version 2.1.3 with Red OS 7.3

Red Soft on January 16, 2024 announced the completion of vStack HCP version 2.1.3 compatibility testing with the general-purpose operating system for servers and workstations RED OS 7.3.

Tests were carried out on various configurations of the RED OS 7.3 operating system. To do this, a test virtual infrastructure was organized in which virtual machines running RED OS 7.3 was created on the vStack HCP platform.

Experts checked the correctness of the installation and operation of the software product RED OS 7.3 as a guest OS of the vStack virtual machine. Checking the integrity of the OS after installing the platform included testing, checking the OS files with the afick -k command and analyzing the results. The companies also checked the functionality of the vStack virtual machine, XFS and PostgreSQL 15.4.

All stages of testing were completed successfully, the specialists did not identify problems in the work and interaction of vStack HCP and RED OS 7.3 and showed the compatibility of both solutions. This is confirmed by the certificate of conformity received by the companies.

Checking that our platform works correctly with other solutions and operating systems is an important part of ensuring the quality of vStack. Tests have shown that our product is fully compatible with the Russian RED OS operating system. This means that we can confidently recommend this decision to our clients, - commented Stanislav Mril, CEO of vStack.

RED SOFTWARE is actively developing the ecosystem of the RED OS operating system. We strive to provide customers from every industry with a versatile workspace filled with useful tools. Understanding the specifics of various companies, RED SOFTWARE builds cooperation with technological partners when creating an import-independent technostek. The entry of vStack products into the ecosystem of the RED OS operating system will allow corporate-level companies to organize workflows on Russian software, fulfilling the requirements of the law, - commented Rustam Rustamov, Deputy General Director of RED SOFT.

2023

Add VM startup on any cluster node

An updated version of the vStack virtualization platform has been released. VStack (ITglobal Labs) announced this on December 20, 2023.

This version contains the key functions of the enterprise level: starting a VM on any cluster node, CPU-pinning and updating the cluster one node at a time.

Working on the release, we focused on the implementation of concepts and functionality that are in demand and familiar to users who previously used Western virtualization platforms, "said project manager Yevgeny Gavrilov.

Virtual machines (VMs) can now be run on any cluster node, regardless of storage pool location. This greatly simplifies load sharing and makes it possible to use the power of cluster nodes more efficiently.

Here's what it gives:

• Reduce the amount of resources (cluster nodes) reserved to provide failover of running virtual machines from one node to another (failover)
• The ability to implement DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) functionality in the upcoming minor version - a mechanism for automatic resource balancing in a virtualization cluster. DRS functionality - load redistribution, restart - allows you to more efficiently use the cluster resources that need to be reserved to ensure failover of virtual machines. And this, in turn, will further increase the economic efficiency of the solution.

The update implements the function of binding the cores of a virtual machine to the cores of a NUMA domain and visualizing the disposal of the cores of a physical processor (CPU-Pining). The benefits of this functionality are improved capabilities to isolate the influence of VMs on each other and increase the performance of the computing layer as a whole due to the maximum exclusion from operation of the weakest point of the x86 architecture: QPI (Intel QuickPath Interconnect).

The capabilities of working with node components are also expanded. Component information now includes detailed information about network ports, memory, and node processors.

Now the platform can be updated one node in a cluster with minimal impact on the operation of virtual infrastructures. This is a meaningful feature for enterprise customers who value the ability to upgrade the platform nondisruptively. This "seamless" is critical for continuous enterprise systems where long downtime is unacceptable. In addition, support for updates without downtime removes the severe requirements for fault tolerance of other components of the IT infrastructure.

As of December 2023, our priority is the development and implementation of functions in the platform that are most in demand in the corporate segment. We consciously do not strive to compare functionality with Western solutions. They have developed for a long time and have many perfectly working, but rarely used functions, "said Stanislav Mril, CEO of vStack.

vStack HCP ver compatibility. 2.1 with QTECH QSRV Series Server Platforms

The Russian company vStack on November 29, 2023 announced the completion of compatibility tests of its own hyperconverged virtualization platform and QTECH QSRV series server platforms. Testing has confirmed the stability of the interaction of the vStack HCP ver hyperconverged virtualization platform. 2.1 and QTECH server equipment.

QTECH specializes in the development and production of network, telecommunications and IT equipment for corporate clients. According to the results of testing, experts did not reveal problems in the interaction of vStack HCP ver. 2.1 and QTECH equipment. Partners have received a certificate of compatibility between the hyperconverged platform and server hardware.

Cooperation with QTECH will allow you to offer customers a software and hardware complex (PAC) for building virtual data centers. The package of offers will include server hardware, virtualization software and cluster switches.

"QTECH is a Russian developer and manufacturer of IT equipment. In turn, vStack is a modern alternative solution to the VMware platform that has left the Russian market. Thanks to the successful tests and partnership of two strong brands, we are ready to recommend a comprehensive domestic solution to our customers, "commented Stanislav Mril, CEO of vStack.

MIND Migrate Compatibility

vStack became a technology partner of MIND Software. vStack announced this on October 9, 2023. After joint tests, the companies confirmed the compatibility and correctness of the vStack platform and the MIND software complex for the mobility of virtual environments. Now vStack customers can use MIND Migrate, a domestic tool for migrating virtual infrastructure. Read more here.

As part of the joint solution for creating data centers Gagar > n and ITglobal.com

and Producer Russian GAGAR Server Hardware> N the developer software for virtualizations vStack introduced a collaborative branch enterprise-level solution data centers. The product is designed to build flexible corporate IT infrastructures in companies with high bandwidth requirements: hyperscalers, to telecom financial organizations, industries, and so on. This was reported on August 11, 2023 in. ITglobalcom Rus

The partners demonstrated the vStack compatibility case with Russian server equipment according to the Open Compute Project GAGAR > N standard.

vStack and GAGAR testing > N

We see prospects in the development of strategic alliances with Russian developers of innovative solutions for data centers. Combining our expertise and vStack expertise allows maintaining a high level of automation of domestic business, and plans to jointly launch the Telco Cloud solution will help in effective work with telecom operators and telecommunications companies. commented Irina Baranova, Partner Relations Director of GAGAR > N.

Also during testing, the companies achieved the following results:

• full installation of the vStack platform on the cluster and correct operation of drivers with GAGAR > N equipment;
• serious load tests found that the peripherals correspond to the load that can be created using the infrastructure;
• the performance of the resulting solution is at the same high level as that of solutions from Western A-brands;
• created a software and hardware complex (PAC) based on its own technologies.

Testing has shown that the vStack platform is fully compatible with GAGAR > N hardware. We will continue to develop partner projects, thanks to which Russian companies can independently choose a manufacturer, quickly deploy IT systems without waiting for equipment deliveries, and save on infrastructure maintenance, noted Stanislav Mril, chief executive of vStack.

Joint Vendor Solutions

One of the main results of the cooperation was the Telco Cloud product - an industry solution for the telecom industry, designed to build modern data centers for telecom operators with increased bandwidth requirements, which allows you to place most network functions (CG-NAT, BRAS, DPI) in virtual form.

The companies also presented two ready-made hardware and software complexes (PAC) - "START" 6 nodes and "OPTIMAL" 12 nodes. 

PAC "START" 6 nodes (redundancy = 2): GAGAR > N Oracle GEN 2.0

• 2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6326 (16C @ 2.9GHz)
• 16 x 64GB RDIMM 3200MHz
• 2 x 480GB M.2 NVMe (OS) ▪ 6 x 1.92TB SSD NVMe U.2 (DATA)
• 4 x 10Gb Eth SFP+ (OCP 3.0)

PAC "OPTIMAL" 12 nodes (redundancy = 2):  GAGAR > N Oracle GEN 2.0

• 2 x Intel Xeon Gold 6348 (28C @ 2.6GHz)
• 32 x 64GB RDIMM 3200MHz
• 2 x 480GB M.2 NVMe
• 4 x 10/25Gb Eth SFP+ (OCP 3.0 + PCIe 4.0)
• PCIe Retimer Card.

As of August 2023, these hardware and software complexes have already begun to be implemented as part of the system integrator ITGLOBAL.COM.

2022

Russian virtualization. Review of 15 developers of domestic products

The TAdviser analytical center studied who is on the Russian virtualization market, analyzed the functional and integration capabilities of products, and assessed the experience of development companies. Among the companies and products studied are ITglobal.com (with the vStack product). Read more about the research here.

GAGAR Server Compatibility > N

Confirmed compatibility of vStack platform and GAGAR > N servers. The company ITglobal.com announced this on December 21, 2022.

The companies completed all testing stages, during which vStack specialists fully installed the platform on the cluster and checked the visibility of all hardware components, operating systems and the correct operation of drivers with this equipment. End-to-end testing showed that everything works correctly. Based on the results of load testing, it was found that the periphery corresponds to the load that can be created using the infrastructure. The performance of the resulting solution is at the same high level as that of solutions from Western A-brands.

Based on the results of testing, a decision was made to jointly promote the products. vStack customers will now be able to build virtual data centers enterprise-level managed server platforms and hardware of the same name. In GAGAR>N the future, companies plan to create a software and hardware complex (PAC) based on their own technologies.

Companies that have to build from scratch or modernize the IT infrastructure are increasingly looking towards domestic solutions - more than half of them, according to our data, are looking for alternatives to products from global vendors. Successful testing of vStack for compatibility with server equipment from GAGAR > N will allow us to implement even complex infrastructure projects for Enterprise-level customers based on domestic server equipment, "said Evgeny Gavrilov, vStack project manager.

We see great prospects in the development of strategic alliances with Russian suppliers of solutions for data centers. Combining our expertise and development with vStack will maintain a high level of automation of domestic business, - said Irina Baranova, Director of Partner Relations at GAGAR > N.

Launch of preferential licensing program for educational institutions

On April 12, 2022, ITGLOBAL.COM (ITGLOBALCOM RUS LLC) announced the launch of a preferential licensing program for the vStack hyperconverged platform for educational institutions, including libraries, museums and charitable organizations. The program is intended for a large circle of preferential categories of participants and will last from April 1, 2022 to August 31, 2022.

The Academic License provides customers with the opportunity to purchase permanent licenses for the vStack platform far below the cost of commercial software, and program participants will be able to use a hyperconverged solution on the same terms as commercial users. An academic license is purchased one-time and will be valid indefinitely as part of the deployment of software in the client's own IT infrastructure (On-premium). The cost of a preferential license does not include technical support services. For this type of license, the Managed vStack remote administration option is available, which allows the customer to transfer all routine infrastructure management processes to the vendor.

An academic license under the preferential program will be provided to customers with a confirmed status of an educational institution. They include public and private higher education institutions, courses and institutes of advanced training, training centers with licenses to conduct educational activities, administrative management bodies of educational institutions at the regional, regional and federal levels, research units that are part of the structures of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as public libraries, museums and charitable organizations.

The Company ITGLOBAL.COM reserves the right to check the existence of educational institution status in any client - both potential and permanent. To do this, it will be necessary to provide supporting documents.

This preferential program is designed to help domestic state and private educational institutions prepare their infrastructure for the new school year, make it more stable and scalable, "said Vasily Belov, Executive Director of the ITGLOBAL.COM. - Hyperconverged Platform allows you to reduce capital costs by reducing the unit cost of equipment and operating costs. vStack is compatible with any server hardware, and a high level of automation and a single control panel will make life easier for IT staff without the need for major retraining and long-term training.

2021: Inclusion in the register of domestic software

The company's hyper-converged vStack platform ITGLOBAL.COM entered. Russian Software Registry of the Russian Federation The developer announced this on November 23, 2021. The main idea of ​ ​ development is to create a fully managed virtual data center Enterprise level based on standard server equipment. The registration in the register No. 11995 of 18.11.2021 was made on the basis of the order of Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation 17.11.2021 No. 1193.

vStack consists of several software-defined modules: a virtualization system based on the bhyve hypervisor, a storage layer with a ZFS file system, its own operating system for managing vStack OS nodes, and is a single solution for creating and managing virtual data centers. In some cases, development can replace enterprise storage and virtualization tools.

The inclusion of vStack in the register of domestic software will allow state organizations to begin replacing foreign-developed virtualization systems for a number of tasks, while there is no need to increase their own staff of developers, as with the implementation of some other solutions, vStack is a completely Russian proprietary product with cyclical updates and 24x7 vendor support - said Vasily Belov, executive director ITGLOBAL.COM.

vStack provides customers with a number of advantages over their counterparts:

• Absence of reference to certain equipment: the use of the platform allows the customer to independently select the manufacturer whose equipment and components will be used in the work;
• Manpower savings: Infrastructure management comes from a single interface - only one system administrator is required for this task;
• Reducing software costs and simplifying budget planning: only the resources involved are taken into account, and idle equipment does not need to be licensed;
• Operate Scaling and Recovery: Software-defined components enable rapid increase in on-site resources, and replacing a failed element is technically easy.

Hyperconverged solutions combine compute and network resources, storage, and virtualization into a single platform with a single point of management. This greatly simplifies infrastructure administration and scaling, and significantly reduces business costs. IT

2020

hyperconvergent vStack is an enterprise-level platform developed by the company. ITGLOBAL.COM LABS The platform is a single infrastructure of software-defined data center modules Open Source using technologies:, OS FreeBSD file systems ZFS and bhyve. hypervisor Due to the synergistic effect of these technologies, vStack has high performance, especially at the network stack level. In essence, the platform is an alternative - more VMware accessible, but no less effective.

Based on vStack, which is deployed in data centers New Jersey in and, Amsterdam Serverspace it offers the VPS Rental service.servers

Virtualization Technology

• vStack allows you to quickly increase the power of the VPS server by increasing the resources of the CPU, RAM and SSD. High performance is provided by Intel Xeon Scalable v2 CPU processors and fast flash storage with IOPS up to 30,000.
• According to the provider, one of the features of the platform is overselling. If the physical host fails, the VPS is automatically restarted on the new physical host.
• Out-of-the-box virtual server configurations are deployed in just 1 minute. In addition, a free period is available for VPS testing.^[1]

(data current as of May 2020)

Notes