VSI 10.1 – HPP for PowerMax NVMeoF devices

A quick update for the latest VSI release 10.1. Most of the new features are for PowerStore but one of my requests for PowerMax made it into the release. I asked development to add the ability to set host best practices for NVMeoF devices. This is similar to the best practices for NMP, except that...

ESA 7.1

This post is one of the rare ones where I can cover both PowerFlex and PowerMax together since I'll be discussing Enterprise Storage Analytics (ESA) release 7.1. ESA 7.1 is not a major release, and yet is an important one for PowerFlex. There are three major features, or rather new support in this release: vRealize...

Partial SRDF/Metro 3-site with SRM (SRA)

I recently ran across a customer configuration I had not seen before with 3-site SRDF/Metro (ASYNC leg with failovertoasync site set in Global XML), and it gave me some concern. Let me talk about the setup and then cover the concerning aspects. I will say from the outset, I actually didn't think this setup was...

VDI – vVol Linked Clones

Many enterprise customers use at least part of their infrastructure to host VDI environments or virtual desktops. Even at Dell I can order up one of these desktops through a self-service catalog if the need arises. I've seen a variety of different types of VDI implementations from NFS to FC, sometimes on a small dedicated...

vSphere 8

*** Nov 8, 2022 update *** VMware has declared this IA release as GA now. You don't have to change anything it magically becomes GA. ************************* A new major vSphere release is available for download today - vSphere 8. VMware previously announced this at VMware Explore in August, but now you can actually get the...

PowerMax CSI v2.4 – REST 10, SRDF changes

PowerMax CSI v2.4 is available on GitHub now and can be found here. This CSI is one developed by Dell which enables provisioning of PowerMax volumes to kubernetes environments. While it is typically used in physical environments where both FC and iSCSI are common, it can also be used in VMware environments when the VM...

Dell ESA 7.0

Our second release today which supports the new PowerMaxOS 10 and thus REST API 10, as well as the new platforms PowerMax 2500/8500, is Dell (nix EMC) Storage Analytics or ESA 7.0. I'm focusing on PowerMax obviously, but there are lots of other features for the other platforms if you use those. The main features...

Dell VSI 10.0

One of two plugin releases today along with ESA, the Dell (nix EMC) VSI 10.0 plugin that supports the latest Unisphere REST 10 is available for download. This release supports our latest PowerMaxOS 10 and PowerMax 2500/8500 arrays. Besides that general support, there are two main features added in VSI 10 for the PowerMax array:...

PowerMax 2500/8500 GA software posting

You'll recall we announced our new PowerMax platform, the 2500/8500, back in May of this year. Well, today 7/19/22, both the hardware and software released. While the new array obviously must be ordered, the various software products can be downloaded on delltechnologies.com. I have a number of posts on this site which cover the new...

NVMe/TCP and SRDF (with VMware)

I'm not sure this topic requires a full post, but if you don't work with NVMeoF technology much, you may assume that it is just a different way to connect to your storage and everything else functions pretty much the same as it does with FC/iSCSI connectivity. Spoiler - it doesn't. Here I am interested...