PowerFlex, CSIs and VMware CNS with vVols

In this post I'll cover both the vSphere CSI and the PowerFlex CSI. Since both are utilized in a VMware environment, let's start there. vSphere and Kubernetes VMware has made Kubernetes or K8s, an integral part of their vSphere solution. Whether as part of vSphere in the form of Tanzu (with or without VCF), or...

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 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...

vSphere 7.0 U2 – iSCSI, vVols

VMware recently released Update 2 for vSphere 7, both ESXi and the vCenter. I'm going to cover a few of the new additions in this release, though not all, so I have put in the links to the READMEs. VMware updates used to be minor events, but more and more they are packing these with...

CSI Driver for PowerMax & VM in-Guest iSCSI

Last year I did a post on VMware's Cloud Native Storage and how you could use their CSI (container storage interface) driver to provision to Kubernetes running in VMware via VMFS, NFS, and vVols, and all on the PowerMax. The direct integration makes this ideal. I used a vanilla K8s implementation, though vSphere has other...

VMware Cloud Foundation with FC, vVols, and SRDF Metro

I've been meaning to talk about this topic for a while, but lack of lab resources and other pressing projects kept pushing it to the back burner. I've bundled a few things together in this post since they all center on VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), and as I've used the same environment for everything, creating...

PowerMax, vVols, VMware CNS, and K8s

I'm going to veer from my usual topics today to talk about Kubernetes (K8s) and vSphere given the new features in vSphere 7 (e.g. Project Pacific, Tanzu). K8s and Docker are everywhere these days - from many of VMware's newer appliances like SRM to our own VSI plugin. Initially, containers generally were associated with being...