The updated software is version 5.0 of Symantec’s Veritas Storage Foundation for Windows HA, which comes six months after the launch of version 5.0 of the Unix and Linux versions of the tool.

As it has done for those other versions of Storage Foundation, Symantec has also launched a stripped-down and free-of-charge of SFFWHA.

For quite some while Symantec has been promising to synchronize the launch of versions of its Veritas-originated software for different OS’s. But the Unix and Linux version of Storage Foundation shipped last summer. Symantec blames the delay of the Windows version of SF on Microsoft and its tardiness shipping Longhorn, the next version of Windows.

We waited and waited, and then we gave up waiting for Longhorn, the company said. Microsoft has itself set no shipping dates, but Longhorn was originally slated to ship by the end of last year, and is now not expected to appear until the end of this year.

SFFW comprises a volume manager, dynamic multi-pathing software, and snapshot and wide-area replication tools.

What’s interesting is that they’re adding features at no cost for the customer, Under a standard maintenance agreement it’s a free upgrade, said ESG analyst Brian Babineau. And it’s in the middle of a Microsoft transition, he added, referring to the recent Vista launch.

New features for version 5.0 include drag-and-drop volume management, configuration wizards to set up storage and snapshots for Exchange and other applications, tools to ensure consistent repeatable clustering set-up, and a fire-drill testing facility.

The updates for iSCSI include automated discovery, management and configuration of IP-based storage networks. One feature that is exclusive to the Windows version of the software is a dynamic disk that spans various types of volumes, which Symantec claims improves performance by 40%, by creating track-aligned volumes.

Symantec says that because it does not storage configuration management as Microsoft Logical Disk Manager does, dynamic disks enables unparalleled business and management flexibility.

Logical Disk Manager is a volume manager incorporated into Windows 2000 and 2003, which was developed jointly by Symantec and Microsoft, and is part of Microsoft’s wider and continuing efforts to build storage management tools into its operating system.

LDM also came under fire from Symantec when the company described its free, cut-down version of SFFWHA as basically a replacement for the Microsoft volume manager.

Babineau said that the comments are part of a long-running fight between Symantec and Microsoft.

There’s always been a little co-opetition with Microsoft on this, because Storage Foundation competes with any native volume manager. It’s a battle they’re going to have to carry on fighting, he said. But customers who want to standardize on the same volume manager across Windows and Unix servers are going to use the Symantec software, he said.

Called SF Basic for Windows, the free tool does not feature the snapshot, replication or clustering software of the full-bore product, and is restricted to servers with no more than two CPUs, and to the management of four disk volumes at maximum.

Symantec described SF Basic as suitable for edge-tier and infrastructure workloads.