Can you run high transactional workloads out of object storage? When we think of object storage, we think, cumbersome puts/gets of whole files (objects) via APIs. And we traditionally associate object storage as a cold or an archive tier for our data. 

Filespaces don't perform the traditional 1 file : 1 object methodology. Data is broken into a block-level and streamed on-demand from the object store in a random read/write manner. Data is encrypted and compressed on the client-side therefore remarkably efficient and secure. 

Perfect for high capacity, realtime workloads, as you aren't waiting on all the data to download, you can access data just-in-time, as requested. To demonstrate this, we will use Hyper-V as there's nothing more realtime, random access than a virtual machine. 

In this guide we will Export a Windows VM, destroy it, and recover it from our Filespace, hosted in Microsoft Azure, or the object storage provider of preference, either cloud or on-premises:

1. Download and install LucidLink client on your Windows Hyper-V server.

2. You'll require a Filespace. Sign-up to our service, follow our Getting Started Guide to initialize your Filespace within your storage account.

3. Configure LucidLink as a service

lucid service --install
lucid service --start

4. Link and mount our Filespace (we've used a specific Filespace User ACL called "Hyper-V" which has a data Share to required access). We will use H: drive for our mount-point.

lucid link --fs <filespace.domain> --user <filespaceuser> --mount-point <driveletter>

5. We're done, you've extended your Windows server's operating system filesystem to object storage. 

6. Our Hyper-V environment has a couple of virtual machines

7. Right-click on the desired virtual machine and select export

You can also export a VM Checkpoint

8. Browse to our Filespace mount-point on H: and the preferred location for our VM export

9. Export your VM

Alternatively, you can export via Powershell

Export-VM -Name \<vm name\> -Path \<path\>

10. Once we've successfully completed our VM export. you will note your VM files on your Filespace H: mount-point. 

11. Now for the fun part! We can now initiate a disaster and delete our VM! 

12. But don't worry. We can simply import it from our Filespace!

a. Launch the Import Virtual Machine Wizard

b. Browse to your prior export location

c. Follow the wizard selecting import type "Register the virtual machine in-place"

d. Complete the import wizard

e. You now have your VM restored to its previously saved state

13. Success! your VM machine restores immediately back to its previous state and is now, more importantly, running out of object storage. 

On-premises storage area networks are premium storage and should be utilized efficiently. You certainly don't want your backups or copy data occupying premium resources. 

Things have certainly changed - converge cost-effective object storage into your production environments. 

Filespaces integrate as an extension of the local filesystem and can run virtually any workloads within the majority of operating environments, securely through the storage provider of your choice.