Category Archives: VMware

Enhancement to VAAI-NAS in vSphere 5.1

Posted on by
5

I’ve already done a write-up of the VAAI-NAS features in vSphere 5.0, but one of the three VAAI NAS primitives has expanded functionality in vSphere 5.1.

In vSphere 5.1, the NFS File Cloning primitive is expanded to allow array-based snapshots to be used for virtual machines and vApps being fast-provisioned by vCloud Director.  When vCloud Director does a fast-provision of VMs and/or vApps on a supported NAS array, VAAI-NAS File Cloning is used to off-load the clone creation to the array transparently.  As with NFS File Cloning in vSphere 5.0, this feature requires a VAAI NAS plug-in from the storage array vendor.

Continue reading →

EMC Updates VFCache – Now Supports VMware vMotion

Posted on by
3

When EMC first announced VFCache back in February, I was one of the first folks to write about using VFCache in a VMware enviroment.  At launch, the short answer was: “You can, but there are some limits that might cause you to not want to…”, so I’m really pretty happy to report on EMC’s latest update to the product.

EMC’s official announcement goes on about a number of new features in VFCache, including an industry first, and I’ll get to those, but I’m going to start with what I, personally, consider the best feature add:

VFCache Now Supports VMware vMotion

That’s right, VFCache now has full interoperability with vMotion.  Whereas before, you needed to go through a multi-step work-around to vMotion your VFCache-enabled VM from one ESXi host to another, now you no longer require any additional steps and can vMotion that VM the same as you would any VM that’s not using VFCache.

It’s not 100% seamless — but all the set-up tasks are done once up-front, and then you’re good to go.  Enabling vMotion with VFCache requires the use of EMC’s Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) vCenter plug-in.  VSI manages the VM’s relationship with the VFCache on the ESXi hosts involved, allowing the vMotion to work without manual intervention (which is to say, “allowing vMotion to work like, well, vMotion”…).

I’m excited by this news, and I know that lots of other folks who would love to get the performance-enhancing benefits of VFCache for their virtualizaed workloads will be excited, too.

The best part: according to the announcement, this new interoperability with vMotion is available right now.  Existing VFCache customers will likely need to update their VFCache software and VSI plug-in in order to get the new features.

Other Enhancements in VFCache

EMC also announced other enhancements to the VFCache product, including:

  • In-line deduplication of data in the cache, allowing for a larger effective cache size, as well as extending the life of the cache cards (as fewer write operations will be performed) — this is the industry first mentioned above
  • Support for multiple PCIe cards per server
  • Support for larger PCIe cards — now up to 700GB per card
  • Support for LSI’s customized mezzanine cards for Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers
  • Tie-ins to provide VFCache reporting info to EMC VMAX storage arrays (similar functionality for EMC VNX will be coming in 2013)

All in all, a great update to a very promising product, originally known as Project Lightning.

Project Thunder, EMC’s network-attached, sharable Flash device receives a footnote as a future offering.  I have no info on plans for its availability (and even if I did, it’s likely that NDAs wouldn’t allow me to say anything anyway).  I’ll post more on Thunder as more info becomes available.

September EMC Solutions for VMware Webcasts

Posted on by
1

I’m a little late getting this posted. I’m going to use having been busy at VMworld 2012 last week as an excuse. (I’m not going to claim it’s a good excuse — it’s just the one I’m sticking with.) The webcasts we have coming up for September cover some great topics (even if I’m not one of the featured speakers this month…).

One of the great things about this series is that every webcast is recorded and then made available for on-demand viewing. As such, you may find it worth your while to register for a webcast you’re interested in even if you can’t attend it live. Folks who register will get email with a link to the recording as soon as it’s posted.

The webcasts run on Thursdays at 8:00 PDT, 11:00EDT, 15:00 UTC. The topics for September, their brief descriptions, and links to register for the webcasts are listed below:

Continue reading →

Isilon Integration with VAAI-NAS and VASA

Posted on by
2

It’s come up on my VAAI v2 (NFS) write-up that today there are only two products that offer vSphere Storage API for Array Integration for NAS (VAAI-NAS) integration with vSphere 5.  We all know that more will be coming, and we all hope it’ll be sooner, rather than later.  Personally, I predict that Isilon will be the next storage array with full VAAI-NAS support in VMware’s Compatibility Guides.

How can I be so confident?  I’ve seen it in action, and next week you can, too.

Continue reading →

August’s EMC Solutions for VMware Webcasts

Posted on by
Reply

Everybody’s getting ready for VMworld 2012, and the Everything VMware at EMC Community is no different. The webcasts we have coming up for August cover some really great topics — and I’m not just saying that because I’m one of the featured speakers this month…

One of the great things about this series is that every webcast is recorded and then made available for on-demand viewing. As such, you may find it worth your while to register for a webcast you’re interested in even if you can’t attend it live. Folks who register will get email with a link to the recording as soon as it’s posted.

The webcasts run on Thursdays at 8:00 PDT, 11:00EDT, 15:00 UTC. The topics for August, their brief descriptions, and links to register for the webcasts are listed below:

Continue reading →

Survey on Storage Integration with VMware

Posted on by
Reply

If you follow me on the Everything VMware at EMC community, you know that one of the topics I find most interesting is storage integration with VMware.  Last year, the good folks over at Wikibon conducted a massive survey on this exact topic to determine:

  1. How the various vendors stacked up compared to each other.
  2. How important people consider the various integration features.

Wikibon backed up the survey with lots of research, including interviews with the storage vendors in question.  It was my privilege in my role at EMC at the time to participate in those interviews.

(You can see the results of last year’s survey here and read my take on it here.)

Here’s where you come in: There have been a lot of changes on both the VMware and storage fronts since last year’s survey (e.g.: the release of vSphere 5, VAAI-NAS, and VASA), so Wikibon is looking to update the results.  The survey is open now and will run through 27 July.  More people taking the survey will make better and more unbiased results.

If you’re involved with VMware at any level, take a few minutes and take the survey here, then keep an eye out for when Wikibon publishes the results.

VMworld 2012: Not Your Usual Session Voting Plea

Posted on by
2

If you travel in some of the same online circles that I do (and, since you’ve somehow found this post, you probably do), you’ve probably noticed the same thing I have: VWSVPS.

VWSVPS is VMworld Session Voting Plea Syndrome.  Symptoms are indicated by any and all of your

  • Twitter feeds
  • RSS feeds
  • Google+ stream
  • normal blog reading
  • email Inbox

all being overcome by pleas like:

  • “Please vote for my VMworld 2012 session #XXXX!”
  • “Please consider voting for VMworld sessions #XXXX, #YYYY, #ZZZZ, #AAAA, #BBBB, and #CCCC…”
  • “I’ve never actually presented anything anywhere before, but please vote for my session because I’d really really like to”
  • “We’re Vendor X — Vote for ALL of our 367 proposed sessions!”
  • “A vote for my VMworld session, #XXXX, will help bring about World Peace”

Sadly, I can offer you no cure for VWSVPS.  (The issue should clear itself up after the voting deadline of 8 June 2012.)

In fact, all I have for you is yet another VMworld Session Voting Plea (YAVWSVP).

This plea is a little different, however.  I have nothing invested in how you vote — I’ve submitted no proposals of my own this year, nor has anyone at my employer (but look out next year!).

Instead, I’m just going to ask that you DO, in fact, vote.

Let’s face it: Ultimately this is VMware’s conference and they can do whatever they want with it (as they should), but they’re offering their user-base a chance to be heard and contribute to the decision process, and that’s an opportunity we shouldn’t miss out on.

So, please, sometime between now and the end of 8 June, set aside 20 minutes or so and go over to the VMworld 2012 Session Voting page and vote.  What should you vote for?  Whatever sessions and topics you would like to see presented.

Please, there are a lot of good proposals out there worthy of your attention, and if we keep participating, it’ll help encourage VMware to keep inviting our participation.

June EMC Solutions for VMware Webcasts – “How To”

Posted on by
Reply

Over in the Everything VMware at EMC community, June is “How To” month.  The webcasts in June will all follow the “How To” theme.

One of the great things about this series is that every webcast is recorded and then made available for on-demand viewing. As such, you may find it worth your while to register for a webcast you’re interested in even if you can’t attend it live. Folks who register will get email with a link to the recording as soon as it’s posted.

The webcasts run on Thursdays at 8:00 PDT, 11:00EDT, 15:00 UTC. The topics for June, their brief descriptions, and links to register for the webcasts are listed below

Continue reading →

VMware Announces Updates to View and Horizon Application Manager

Posted on by
Reply

[NOTE: The information in this post was provided to me by VMware in a pre-announcement briefing and was under embargo until 8:01 EDT 2 May 2012.]

Today, 2 May 2012, VMware is announcing new advanced features in their End-User Computing solution set.  These features come to us in the form of VMware View version 5.1 and VMware Horizon Application Manager version 1.5, both of which should be GA by the end of May.

Here’s what you’ll see in the new versions:

Continue reading →

May EMC Solutions for VMware Webcasts

Posted on by
Reply

I may have a new job, but I’ll be staying on as the Community Manager for the Everything VMware at EMC site. It’s great to get to continue working with both the EMC VMware Affinity Team and the EMC Community Network Team in my new role.

Since I’m in the Community Manager role, I thought I should point out that the EMC Solutions for VMware webcast series continues, bringing you a new topic every Thursday.

One of the great things about this series is that every webcast is recorded and then made available for on-demand viewing. As such, you may find it worth your while to register for a webcast you’re interested in even if you can’t attend it live. Folks who register will get email with a link to the recording as soon as it’s posted.

The webcasts run on Thursdays at 8:00 PDT, 11:00EDT, 15:00 UTC. The topics for May, there brief descriptions, and links to register for the webcasts are listed below:

Continue reading →