EMC Invista

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EMC Invista is a software product which provides a storage virtualization solution that runs on intelligent SAN switches (i.e. Cisco or Brocade). Invista's management tool is a Java-based GUI called Invista Element Manager (a CLI is also available).

Invista features storage target virtualization, dynamic volume management, cloning, point-in-time copies (or snapping), and dynamic seamless volume migration.

Invista relies on Split-Path Architecture (SPA) to manage data flows. The intelligent switch redirects all control commands (i.e. SCSI Inquiry, Read Capacity, or Report LUNs) to a pair of redundant external controllers called Control Path Cluster (CPC), while read and write I/Os will flow from the host to the appropriate physical storage array via the intelligent switch hardware. In the current release, CPC and the switch communicate using SNMP over an Ethernet connection (further releases will allow Fibre Channel communication).

Invista can be configured in a redundant and highly available fashion so it contains no single point of failure.