SwiftHLM

The Swift High Latency Media (HLM) project can create a high-latency storage back end that makes it easier for users to perform bulk operations of data tiering within a Swift data ring.

High-latency media includes tape archive systems, such as those that are supported by Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition. IBM Spectrum Scale™ and Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition are examples of HLM back ends that provide important and complex functions to manage HLM resources (tape mounts and unmounts, serialization of requests for tape media, and tape drives). They can use SwiftHLM functions for a proper integration with Swift.

By running OpenStack Swift on top of HLM storage, you can cheaply store and efficiently access large amounts of infrequently used object data. Data that is stored on tape storage can be easily adopted to an Object Storage data interface.

Add SwiftHLM to OpenStack Swift (without modifying Swift) to extend Swift’s interface. Extending Swift's interface allows users to control and query the state (on disk or on HLM) of Swift object data, including the efficient prefetch of bulk objects from HLM to disk.

A SwiftHLM backend connector is available for Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition. For more information, see Installing the SwiftHLM backend connector in the IBM Redbook: Implementing OpenStack SwiftHLM with IBM Spectrum Archive™ Enterprise Edition or IBM Spectrum Protect for Space Management.