vRO Plug-in for PowerMax 1.2.2 – vRO 8.4

The latest release of the vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) Plug-in for PowerMax 1.2.2 is now available for download here. No new features in this one, but we added support for vRO 8.4. I know I've had my share of queries from customers and internal sales about vRO 8.4 support so here it is.

PiTs with SRM and the SRDF SRA

I wanted to revisit this post on using point-in-time (PiTs) with SRM and the SRDF SRA having just demonstrated SRM with virtual and physical infrastructure. A dual purpose environment was the original impetus for adding the parameter IgnoreActivatedSnapshots so many years ago now, and as it has been four years since the post I thought...

Combine physical and virtual infrastructure with SRM

Although less common than it used to be, some of our customers still have their physical and virtual environments tightly bound together. For the sake of argument (and my example), let's say the database runs on a Solaris or AIX box, but the applications accessing that database are on VMware. Such configurations typically run a...

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...

Oracle RAC on VMFS – SnapVX restore for testing

I've had some questions from customers running Oracle RAC on VMFS who would like to use TimeFinder/SnapVX to test, rather than Oracle tools like RMAN. This is a sensible course given that for large databases RMAN takes a long time to restore, and SnapVX is basically instantaneous. But why use either solution when I can...

VMware Clustered VMDK, SCSI3-PR and WEAR

Just a short (for me anyway) post here on a vSphere 7 feature I get pinged about every so often: Clustered VMDK. VMware introduced this feature in vSphere 7. It is an attribute of a VMFS6 datastore which can be enabled on a new datastore  - post-creation as the option is not available in the...

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...

Multiple SRDF/A groups and the SRDF SRA with SRM

Yes, another SRM post. I guess I do write a lot of them to be fair. I'm not actively seeking them out I assure you. As is the case the vast majority of the time, this is drawn from a customer experience. I had not given much thought to the differences in these scenarios I...

VSI 8.6 – PowerMax snapshot policies and hosts

VSI 8.6 is available for download today. This version does away with the previous process for registering the vCenter as part of the OVA deployment. Instead it provides a new interface which I'll cover below. Along with registration updates, there are a number of new features for PowerMax. At a high-level these are the new...

vCenter 7.0 U1c – Cross vCenter migration

VMware has released quite a number of vCenter 7.0 patches over the past few months for various bug fixes and sometimes new feature content. VMware makes the patches relatively easy to install by warning you of their availability each time you login to your vCenter via the message banner at the top. If you wish...