from Jan Griesel
Currently, we are extending our main cluster to further improve our plentymarkets Professional semgent. After we have already significantly improved the system's reliability by implementing the master-master replication for our database servers, the storage section will now be transformed into a cluster storage system. For more detailed information about the changes involved, please read on.
With the storage concept used so far, the files of every plentymarkets system were stored on a storage server optimized for system reliability. This concept meant that a file was saved on one server where it was stored on two different hard drives. The new concept works completely differently. A large number of storage servers is bundled and together these servers make up a super hard drive. This allows for an optimum load balancing as each file is always saved on at least two physically separated storage servers and can be retrieved from either one of them. Thanks to this new solution, it is not only possible to easily compensate the breakdown of a certain number of a server's hard drives but also the breakdown of a complete storage server because in such a case the relevant files will be retrieved from another storage server.
Starting with version 4.306, plentymarkets has been optimized for the use of this new storage solution. The previous version, plentymarkets 4.305, is no longer maintained and therefore can not be optimized for this new storage concept either. In case your system is still running in the old version 4.305, we recommend you to carry out an update to avoid complications.
During the current migration all files will be transferred from the existing storage server onto the new cluster storage system. This process will be running in the background without interfering with your daily business. However, only a certain number of systems can be transferred each night and therefore this process will continue for several weeks.
We will keep on providing you with information about this topic.