Hammerspace Release Notes – Version 4.5.0

Hammerspace announces version 4.5.0

2020-Oct-12 – Hammerspace announces a new software release, version 4.5.0

New Features and Enhancements in Hammerspace v4.5.0

  • File cloning on storage without native cloning support

Hammerspace already supports cloning on volumes where a NAS array has the capability to clone files on demand. Hammerspace leverages the efficiency of the native NAS cloning feature to provide a fast and efficient way of cloning files. Hammerspace 4.5 extends this support to NAS storage that does not support native file cloning. 

  • Adding volumes when adding a storage node

When a storage system is added, Hammerspace now allows the user to add all discovered storage volumes on that storage system in a single step. 

  • GUI support for offline licensing

Adding a license for Hammerspace nodes that are not connected to the internet, requires multiple steps and is not straightforward. In Hammerspace version 4.5, this workflow has been simplified by allowing the user to navigate it through the GUI. 

  • Assimilation

Hammerspace version 4.5 adds support for SMB aliases as well as supporting data assimilation when NFS and SMB paths differ, in addition to various other hardening enhancements around data assimilation. 

  • Usability

Various usability improvements around event management and GUI workflows have been added to Hammerspace version 4.5. The GUI enhancements include the ability to list data and management IPs separately, additional Active Directory information, directions on how to mount (NFSv4, NFSv3, SMB) a share as well as display the floating cluster data and management IP addresses. 

  • Memory management

We have enhanced memory management to support smaller RAM footprint deployments of Hammerspace.  

  • Security

Multiple security enhancements have been added to further secure firewall and export settings. REST API calls have also been enhanced to make them more robust and secure. 

Technology Preview Features

This category consists of product features made available for testing purposes only. Technology preview features are not supported for production use. In general, a preview feature will be made available with full product support in the following release. 

  • Capacity planning analysis

Hammerspace provides customers with tools that help them plan their storage needs by allowing them to simulate data uploads to cloud without actually moving any data, while taking into account storage efficiency features like data compression and deduplication.

  • Synchronous data mirroring

As a tech preview feature, Hammerspace can now synchronously mirror data to different volumes for increased resiliency. There are known issues with RHEL 7.7 around writing to mirrors, therefore it is recommended to use later client versions when using this functionality. 

  • Global File System

Customers can now deploy a single global namespace across different geographical sites and replicate data and metadata across these sites. The data in global shares are available Read-Write on multiple sites at the same time. Initial support goes up to 16 sites concurrently active on the same share. 

  • Continuous assimilation 

For datasets that are changing over time, continuous assimilation provides an efficient way to only assimilate the changes between assimilated datasets. 

  • Native cloud volume support

With support for native volumes, customers have the ability to access cloud data using any third-party tools and applications. 

NFS Client Changes

  • Additional client support 

Hammerspace has added support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 clients for NFS 4.2 access in version 4.5. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 and 7.8 clients are already supported.