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Introduction

This document describes how to deploy Hammerspace in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. Hammerspace software is available in two consumption models: Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) and Bring Your Own License (BYOL).

Hammerspace BYOL (Bring Your Own License)

BYOL licensing is a software subscription model that is activated by contacting Hammerspace. This is often a suitable choice for customers who have a mix of cloud and on-premises deployments and a desire to consolidate licensing.

Hammerspace PAYGO (Pay-As-You-Go)

PAYGO licensing is a standard cloud consumption model in which usage is metered and billed to the cloud provider on an hourly, monthly, or yearly basis.

Solution Overview

The Hammerspace Data Platform consists of two main software components: a metadata node (Anvil) and a data services node (DSX).

Anvil

The following services are provided by the Anvil instances:

  • Management GUI and CLI.

  • Metadata management.

  • Mount point for Parallel NFS (NFSv4.2).

DSX

The Data Services instances provide the following services:

  • Global namespace.

  • Global file system.

  • Mount point for NFSv3, SMB3, and S3.

  • Data mobility.

  • Storage and volume management.

Hammerspace System Requirements

Anvil must be given sufficient resources to deliver low-latency performance for applications and end users. Anvil metadata nodes take full advantage of allocated resources. It is not unusual for Anvil to operate at 40% or higher CPU utilization even with a relatively modest metadata workload in a large file system. Metadata performance may suffer if the system becomes resource constrained. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that Anvil metadata nodes have sufficient system resources.

Listed below are the minimum system resource recommendations for Anvil and DSX in a bare minimum deployment. Production environments or environments requiring high performance need substantially more than the listed minimum recommendation.

Table 1. Minimum system resource recommendations
Anvil metadata node DSX data node

Azure virtual machine

2 x Standard E4as v4

1 x Standard F2s v2

CPU cores

16 vCPU

8 vCPU

RAM

32 GB (more recommended)

4 GB (more recommended)

Boot disk

200 GB (if memory is larger than 160 GB, multiply by 1.3 for sizing)

200 GB minimum

Additional disk drives for metadata storage

2 x 400 GB (minimum) backed by SSD or NVMe

As needed for DSX data storage

Network adapter

2 x 10 Gbps Ethernet. One link is dedicated to HA services

1 x 10 Gbps Ethernet

The choices of virtual machine sizes, as well as disk types and sizes, require careful planning. A metadata disk size of 200 GB accommodates approximately 25–50 million files. For small-to-medium environments or lab/demo scenarios, the default settings are typically adequate. For large or workload-intensive environments, consult with Hammerspace before deployment. This is particularly important where metadata performance is critical.

For environments with more than 500 clients using the SMB protocol to access the solution, a larger-sized virtual machine type and/or additional DSX nodes are strongly recommended. Additional Data Store disks can be added non-disruptively and without downtime post-deployment.