NVMe/TCP on the PowerMax

With our new platform we've introduced another NVMeoF solution - NVMe/TCP. We will not be supporting FC-NVMe on the PowerMax 2500/8500 in the GA release, however, I'd guess it will come in the future. The reason for the focus is simple, the future is in TCP. IDC is projecting that TCP will have the majority...

SRDF SRA 10.0

Along with the new PowerMax as expected we have a new SRA release, version 10.0. The primary feature of the release is to support Solutions Enabler 10.0 and the new platform - PowerMax 2500/8500. But there are a few items to discuss concerning the release, one a new requirement, the second a bug fix which...

PowerMax 2500/8500

Today we announced a new set of platforms, the PowerMax 2500 & 8500. For ease of reference and to avoid confusion, I'll refer to this as the V4 platform to distinguish it from the previous PowerMax which I'll call the V3. The boxes run a new operating system, PowerMax OS 10. This OS is unique...

File on PowerMax 2500/8500

File The new PowerMax has upgraded its NAS capabilities from the previous eNAS implementation and is now called PowerMax File. Because there is new hardware with this release, if you are running eNAS on a PowerMax 2000 or 8000, PowerMax File will be a new implementation. There will be a number of ways to bring...

Dell PowerMax Content Pack v1.4 for VMware Log Insight

I've posted the newest build of the content pack for the PowerMax array in conjunction with the announcement of our newest platform - the PowerMax 2500 and 8500. In alignment with the new naming I spoke about in my GA blog post, the content pack will now be named the Dell PowerMax Content Pack (DPCP)....

PowerMax File Replication

Continuing from my last post on PowerMax File, I'm going to cover how to replicate an NFS filesystem from one PowerMax to another. Replication So let’s move now to protect our FS by setting up replication. There is also the option to use snapshots for protection, but I'm going to cover the new replication capability...

SRM Windows upgrade to SRM Appliance with SRDF SRA

Now that VMware has a number of SRM releases that support the Appliance model (8.3-8.5), more and more customers are taking the leap to move off their Windows implementation. VMware provides a procedure to make the transition which applies to any SRM environment whether it is using an SRA or not. I've been reticent, therefore,...

vRA 8.4+ catalog item issues

We've all hit our share of bugs, and normally I don't highlight them, but I've seen this one a number of times internally and now at a customer. Best to mention it, therefore, in hopes it saves some customers time debugging. My experience with the bug occurred when I upgraded my vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) Plug-in...

Dell EMC CSM with replication

Dell EMC has created a GitHub for container storage modules or CSM. Dell EMC writes that "the Dell Container Storage Modules (CSM) enables [sic] simple and consistent integration and automation experiences, extending enterprise storage capabilities to Kubernetes for cloud-native stateful applications." Quite a mouthful. To de-marketize the statement, CSM sits on top of other integrations...

VMAX/VMware TechBook terminal release

I've posted what is the terminal release of the TechBook Using Dell EMC VMAX and PowerMax in VMware vSphere Environments. For those not familiar with it, this book contains the general best practices of using VMware with the VMAX/PowerMax family of arrays. This latest update has, for the most part, minor changes, and will cover...