SRDF/Metro online device expansion

With the new PowerMaxOS 5978.444.444 release, you can now expand SRDF/Metro devices, and thus the VMware datastores built on top of them, online. You may recall in our current release you can expand SRDF/Metro devices but it does require suspending access to the R2 by changing the RDF mode to synchronous. I wrote this up...

PowerMax vRO Plug-in v1.1 – SRDF workflows

The next release of the vRO PowerMax plug-in is already here (officially the vRO Plug-in for PowerMax). If you missed the inaugural release, I wrote about it previously at this link. The primary feature of this release is SRDF support. Before getting into that, let's start with the "upgrade" process and do some other housekeeping...

SRM reprotect with SRDF/Metro and async leg

Our SRDF SRA supports many configurations - 2 site, 3 site, STAR, SRDF/Metro - well you get the idea. For the majority of these environments, all SRM functions are supported. That includes test, planned migration, failover, failback and reprotect. There are a couple of specific, 3 site setups where we cannot support reprotect. This comes...

TechBook update for PowerMax

Well PowerMax has been out for a few months now but I only just finished my VMAX/PowerMax/VMware TechBook update here. It's always a bear to be perfectly honest since it encompasses all best practices but the blog can only buy me so much time before we need it in official form. I've managed to get...

Online SRDF device expansion – SRDF/Metro

As I mentioned in my post on SRDF online device expansion, we do not yet support online expansion of SRDF/Metro devices (until 5978.444.444). There are some SRDF enhancements in PowerMaxOS, however, which can get you pretty close so I thought it might be worthwhile to explain how to do that. We now support moving SRDF/Metro...

3-site SRDF with VMware SRM

As there is a 500 page TechBook on SRDF with SRM, it might seem a bit redundant to be covering a topic like this again, and perhaps it is; but as I have worked with customers and support over many months (and years), a few issues seem to recur. It's usually at that point I figure...

vSphere 6.5 U1, SRDF/Metro

VMware just released Update 1 for vSphere 6.5 (ESXi, vCenter). You can search for it on the VMware website. Now normally I don't bother putting up posts about updates or patches. The way VMware certification is passed is at the base release (e.g. 6.5) so if they release an update or patch it is supported...

SRDF/Metro WP Update

Just a quick post to let you know I completed the update of my SRDF/Metro whitepaper to reflect both changes in the 5977 2016 Q3 SR and the SRDF SRA 6.2 release. In short, here are the general changes: Included new functionality for virtual witness (vWitness). Though the environment I present in the paper uses a physical witness,...

PP/VE 6.1, SRDF/Metro and Autostandby

PowerPath Virtual Edition (PP/VE) 6.1 is now available for download from support.emc.com. This release offers a new feature which has been available previously on VPLEX Metro configurations, Autostandby or ASB.  When enabled (default), ASB is able to determine which device paths have a higher latency to storage, automatically assigning them to a standby status.  This capability is...

SRDF SRA 6.2 – Metro, Witness, and DR

Dell EMC SRDF SRA 6.2 is now available for download and use with the latest HYPERMAX OS Q3 SR. This SRA brings support for a couple features which greatly enhance SRDF/Metro capabilities in SRM. The first is the ability to use the SRA with a Metro pair that is protected by a Witness (physical or...