The after-EMC World documentation updates continue with the publishing of the VMAX VMware TechBook (Using EMC VMAX Storage in VMware vSphere Environments):
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and the VAAI whitepaper (Using VMware vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration with EMC Symmetrix):
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The TechBook in particular hasn’t been updated in almost a year so it was due. Any important changes, however, were always covered here in posts (e.g. NMP IOPS) so it gave me the leeway to work on more pressing projects. Some of the TB updates include:
- Changes to reflect the latest HYPERMAX OS releases along with the management software (SE, Unisphere)
- Addition of VMAX All Flash throughout the TB
- NMP RR IOPS
- Updates to Log Insight, ESA
- SRDF/Metro
- VVol
- SRM
Those last two bullet items also speak to a practice that I’ve been lax in implementing in the last few updates but which I’ve now enforced. While the TB is meant as a one-stop shop for VMAX/VMware integration, it was never designed to cover larger topics in great depth. I’ve tried to have it both ways over the years by putting in the essentials from certain topics to get the reader by, while leaving out the more comprehensive details that were covered in other documents. Well as they say the devil is in the details and these topics are all about the details. So in this release even the essentials are gone from the larger topics – in particular VVol and SRM. The topics are introduced so the reader understands where they fit in the VMAX/VMware universe, and then a reference to a whitepaper (VVol) or another TechBook (SRM) is provided. Those other documents then become the single source for information on the topics. Not only will this relieve me from having to update two documents, but it ensures that you won’t find different information in each document depending on when each was updated.
For the VAAI paper the most important update was to the software table which shows the compatibility of HYPERMAX OS and VAAI and any special notes the customer should know about.
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The other updates in this paper centered around VMAX All Flash. Happy reading.
Dell PowerFlex and PowerMax with VMware 
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