Instead of relying on separate servers for each workload, companies began consolidating multiple tasks onto shared hardware platforms. This approach is cost-effective, flexible, and operationally efficient — but it also introduces one major challenge: storage.
When multiple virtual machines compete for the same storage bandwidth, a significant bottleneck can occur, impacting both performance and system stability. Traditional storage solutions often struggle to meet these growing demands, and the complexity continues to increase.
The Complexity of Traditional Block Storage Solutions
Block-based solutions like SAN and iSCSI have addressed some of these issues — but at a high cost:
The need for expensive, specialized hardware
Complex zoning management
Separate, complicated storage networks
In practice, many organizations end up investing considerable resources just to maintain an acceptable level of performance.
An Innovative Solution by Visuality Systems
This is where Visuality Systems steps in. With their innovative NQ Storage solution, organizations can enjoy the benefits of file-based storage while achieving the same level of performance and reliability that was once available only through costly and complex block-based systems.
Their smart approach offers a simpler, faster, and more cost-effective way to manage storage infrastructure in virtualized environments.
To learn more and explore the full solution, visit the official website: https://visualitynq.com/.
Why Choose Visuality Systems?
High performance even under heavy workloads
Proven reliability in mission-critical environments
Simple management with no need for complex infrastructure
Significant reduction in operational costs
What Makes Hyper-V over SMB a Game-Changing Architecture?
Microsoft introduced support for storing Hyper-V virtual machines on SMB 3.0 file shares in Windows Server 2012. This capability allows organizations to store all virtual machine components on standard file shares rather than block storage. The architectural implications are profound.
Simplified Provisioning: Creating new virtual machines requires simply writing files to a share rather than carving LUNs, zoning storage, and mapping disks. This accelerates VM deployment from hours to minutes.
Transparent Capacity Expansion: Running out of storage space requires adding capacity to file shares—operations that don't require downtime or VM reconfiguration.
Unified Management: File-level permissions, quotas, and auditing replace block-level management tools. IT administrators familiar with file server management can operate virtualization storage without specialized SAN expertise.
According to Microsoft's documentation on Hyper-V, SMB 3.0 provides the reliability and performance required for production virtualization workloads.
How Do SMB Protocol Features Enable High Availability?
High availability architectures ensure that service interruptions are minimized through redundancy and automated failover. SMB-based high availability leverages protocol features to achieve resilience with simpler architecture.
Scale-Out File Server Clusters: Windows Server's Scale-Out File Server (SOFS) feature creates active-active clusters where multiple nodes simultaneously serve SMB clients. If one node fails, clients automatically fail over without interruption.
SMB Transparent Failover: SMB 3.0's Continuous Availability feature allows SMB sessions to survive server failures without disconnecting clients. Virtual machines continue running without interruption even as underlying storage fails over.
Visuality Systems is the worldwide leader in the development and provision of Server Message Block (SMB) protocol solutions, serving the needs of embedded devices, Java systems, and mobile applications. Their cutting-edge technology is widely adopted across a diverse spectrum of industries, including IoT & consumer electronics, data management networks, automotive, medical, aerospace & defense, HMI, telecom, banking, robotics, and more.
SMB Multichannel: This feature allows SMB clients to use multiple network paths simultaneously to a file server. If one network adapter fails or becomes congested, traffic automatically shifts to other available adapters.
Persistent Handles: When network interruptions occur, persistent handles allow SMB sessions to remain valid for a configurable duration. Clients can reconnect and resume operations without error.
What Performance Optimizations Does NQ Storage Provide for Hyper-V?
Performance represents a critical concern for virtualization storage. Virtual machines run diverse workloads with varying I/O patterns—database servers with random reads and writes, file servers with large sequential operations, and application servers with mixed workloads.
Zero-Copy Architecture: NQ Storage implements zero-copy data paths that eliminate redundant memory copying operations. Data flows from network interfaces to storage backends directly without intermediate copies, reducing CPU utilization and latency.
SMB Direct (RDMA): Remote Direct Memory Access allows network adapters to transfer data directly between systems without involving CPUs. NQ Storage fully supports SMB Direct, enabling environments with RDMA-capable network adapters to achieve exceptional performance.
Optimized Metadata Operations: Virtual machine operations generate substantial metadata activity. NQ Storage optimizes these operations through caching and batching, reducing network round-trips.
Efficient Memory Management: NQ Storage implements intelligent memory management that adapts to workload characteristics.
The Storage Performance Council maintains industry benchmarks demonstrating that well-implemented SMB storage can match block storage performance for virtualization workloads.
How Does SQL Server Benefit from SMB-Based Storage?
SQL Server workloads place extreme demands on storage systems. SMB 3.0 changed the calculus by introducing features that meet database storage requirements.
Transaction Log Performance: SQL Server transaction logs require sequential write performance with guaranteed durability. NQ Storage's zero-copy architecture and SMB Direct support ensure minimal latency. Organizations report transaction log write latencies under 2 milliseconds.
Database File I/O: Database files experience mixed read/write patterns. NQ Storage handles these mixed workloads efficiently through intelligent caching and optimized I/O scheduling.
Backup and Restore Operations: Database backup operations transfer massive data volumes. NQ Storage's high sequential throughput—often exceeding 10 Gbps on modern networks—ensures backup windows remain manageable.
Clustered SQL Server Instances: SQL Server clustering for high availability requires shared storage accessible from multiple cluster nodes. SMB-based clustering simply grants multiple servers access to the same file shares.
What Testing Validates NQ Storage for Production Workloads?
Organizations deploying critical virtualization and database infrastructure rightfully demand rigorous validation. Visuality Systems subjects NQ Storage to comprehensive testing against Microsoft's SMB Protocol Test Suite, achieving over 85% completion in SMB2/3 and File System Algorithm tests.
Stress Testing: Simulated workloads with hundreds of concurrent virtual machines validate that NQ Storage maintains performance and stability under extreme load.
Failure Injection: Deliberately introducing failures validates that NQ Storage handles error conditions gracefully.
Interoperability Testing: Testing against diverse Hyper-V and SQL Server versions ensures broad compatibility.
How Does Visuality's Microsoft Partnership Enhance Reliability?
Visuality Systems' longstanding partnership with Microsoft ensures access to the latest protocol specifications, implementation guidance, and Microsoft's testing resources. When Microsoft develops new Windows Server versions with enhanced SMB features, Visuality receives advance access to specifications and pre-release software.
What Cost Savings Does SMB-Based Virtualization Provide?
Total cost of ownership represents a critical decision factor. Reduced Capital Costs: Organizations typically save 50-70% on storage hardware costs by deploying SMB-based storage instead of SANs. Simplified Operations: File-based storage management leverages existing Windows administration skills. Improved Resource Utilization: Active-active clustering ensures all storage nodes serve production traffic. Reduced Energy Consumption: Organizations report 30-40% reduction in storage infrastructure power consumption.
How Does NQ Storage Support Live Migration?
Live migration—moving running virtual machines between Hyper-V hosts without downtime—represents one of virtualization's most valuable capabilities. SMB-based live migration simplifies architecture by using the same network for both storage access and migration traffic. Organizations report live migration times 30-50% faster with SMB storage compared to traditional SAN architectures.
Visuality Systems demonstrates conclusively that file-based storage using modern SMB protocols can meet and exceed the performance and reliability requirements of demanding virtualization and database workloads. Organizations deploying Hyper-V and SQL Server on NQ Storage-powered file shares gain technical advantages, operational simplification, and financial benefits.