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...

Oracle RAC vVol test failover without SRM (import snapshot)

Our vVol 2.0/VASA 3.0 implementation which includes SRDF replication, is best implemented with VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM). We do not recommend using PowerCLI as there are manual processes involved and there are known issues. There's really little comparison between the two. SRM handles all the orchestration for you and is the superior solution for...

VASA Provider 9.1 ESXi validation errors

In our recent PowerMaxOS release I mentioned that we have a new VASA Provider, version 9.1. I noted our recommendation to upgrade to this release, particularly for the performance benefit related to snapshots; however, I failed to mention a VMware bug in ESXi 6.7 that can cause issues when deploying the new version. I was...

Reducing snapshot VM stun time: VVol VASA Provider upgrade

One of the features of Virtual Volumes (VVols) is that when you take a VM snapshot it uses the array technology instead of VMware's host-based solution. If you use VMware with VMFS or NFS you are probably quite familiar with the sight of VMware's snapshot files which include a .vmsd file, a couple vmdks -...

Dell EMC PowerMax

Today Dell EMC announced the latest high-end array to our family, the Dell EMC PowerMax. The PowerMax is an end-to-end NVMe solution. It's powerful and fast, period. The PowerMax is not a VMAX. It's a new platform with a new operating system, PowerMax OS. Dual-ported active/active NVMe drives (the only vendor to do so) means...

Thick or thin VMDKs on VMAX/PowerMax

Thick or thin? This is a question I get in almost all best practice discussions with customers and while I cover it in the TechBook and elsewhere, I thought I'd do a quick post on it without all the extras. VMware offers 2 types of disks - thick or thin - and 3 disk types - thin, zeroedthick,...

VMAX VVol replication with RP4VM

Our VVol implementation has been out for well over a year now and we've had our share of customers wanting to take the technology for a spin. When VMware first introduced support in vSphere 6 - what is known as VVol 1.0 and VASA 2.0 - they did not offer replication capabilities for array vendors....

VMAX/VMware TechBook, VAAI WP

The after-EMC World documentation updates continue with the publishing of the VMAX VMware TechBook (Using EMC VMAX Storage in VMware vSphere Environments): Click to enlarge – use browser back button to return to post and the VAAI whitepaper (Using VMware vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration with EMC Symmetrix): Click to enlarge – use browser...

HYPERMAX OS 5977 Q1 2016 SR – VVol GA, SRDF/Metro enhancements

lua Today EMC released our HYPERMAX OS 5977 Q1 2016 Service Release (Product Documentation).  This release is focused heavily around Mainframe which is great news for many of our customers; but there are some features not specific to Mainframe that impact topics I usually write about in my posts. **All the features I will include...

VVol Certification for VMAX3

Starting today EMC is making available VMware Virtual Volumes (VVol) through Direct Availability (DA).  The basic difference between a DA release and a General Availability (GA) release is that in order to use VVols with VMAX3 you will need to work through your EMC Sales team to acquire the necessary software to run VVols.  It...