zStorage Version 22.06 is Here!

zStorage version 22.06 is here, featuring performance improvements across our VPSA and Object Storage technologies, security enhancements, and a resource tagging feature.

With the release of zStorage version 22.06 on July 3rd, Zadara customers will see improved performance across their Virtual Private Storage Arrays (VPSAs) Flash Array resources. 

For Zadara Object Storage customers, stability improvements have been included across the product line - details are available in the text that follows.

Additionally, as in all of our major releases, 22.06 contains important security enhancements to provide strengthened controls. We are also excited to announce our VPSA Resource Tagging feature, which makes it easier than ever to track usage across resources and customers. 

New and Notable

As with all Zadara releases, significant investment has been made in improving product security and addressing known vulnerabilities. To enhance the security of our VPSA product offering, minimum password requirements will now be configurable in the GUI, allowing users to set minimum length and character requirements. In addition to security-focused enhancements, 22.06 includes implementation of preventative measures securing resources against vulnerabilities discovered in our latest regular security tests.

zStorage 22.06 includes significant performance enhancements for VPSA Flash Arrays for both All Flash and Tiered Pool configurations. Customers can expect improvements in the arrays’ overall throughput, as well as improved overall service times. For example, in benchmark configurations, small block write workloads were improved by more than 50%. An additional key enhancement that was introduced for VPSA Flash Arrays is an optimization in the way SCSI xcopy directives are executed internally. This drives significant improvement for server virtualization workloads that take advantage of xcopy such as VMware. 

Also included is additional performance-related metering statistics support - the VPSA metering framework now includes statistics about VPSA vCPU IOwait both in the web GUI and in the API. In addition, a VPSA resource tagging feature is included with 22.06, creating a simple but powerful mechanism for storage professionals to track and manage their resource usage. With this feature, VPSA users can now add custom tags to their VPSA entities (such as pools or volumes) using a simple key-value convention and then use these tags to track and allocate resources.

The release also brings additional stability to Zadara’s Object Storage offering. This work included S3API bug fixes, a fix for auto refresh in Performance Tables, and more. Also included are enhancements to reduce latency during PUT workloads, such as Veeam offloads. 

Deprecations

Notably, beginning in Zadara zStorage release 22.06, the VPSA built in antivirus feature will no longer be offered. This includes the end of support for the existing Antivirus managed service offered by Zadara. Starting in zStorage-22.06 this feature will be completely removed from the product in all forms - GUI frontend, CLI, and API. End of support for existing VPSA built-in antivirus customers for prior zStorage releases will be August 1, 2023, approximately one year following feature removal. 

For customers currently using the built-in antivirus feature or planning an implementation, please contact your Zadara representative regarding alternative solutions.

Next Steps

Zadara’s Global Operations team is actively deploying v22.06 upgrades to ensure our customers and partners around the world are able to continually leverage the latest and greatest Zadara software. 

If you would like to book your ZOS/VPSA/Cloud update, please contact support@zadara.com and one of our team members will reach out to schedule a day/time that works best for you and your organization.

You can also submit a ticket directly to us using the below link (please reference ‘v22.06’ in the subject line): https://support.zadarastorage.com/hc/en-us/requests/new