APD/PDL in vSphere 6 with VMAX and VPLEX

Recently I have seen a number of internal emails here at EMC asking about our recommendations around All Paths Dead (APD) and Permanent Device Loss (PDL) in vSphere 6 on our storage arrays - mostly VPLEX to be specific.  There have been significant changes in APD/PDL in vSphere 6 which is why the questions are...

vSphere 6.x and VAAI performance boost on VMAX

***Update - as more customers move to vSphere 6.x on VMAX, I expect this topic to be more poignant.  So I want to point out something about the changes detailed below.  The new changes for vSphere 6.x and XCOPY are ONLY for VMAX and no other arrays - not VNX, not XtremIO, not VPLEX, etc....

eNAS on VMAX3 and VAAI integration with NFS

Late last year in the second release of the HYPERMAX OS for VMAX3, EMC delivered new functionality for file-based storage called Embedded NAS or eNAS.  eNAS runs as a guestos (GOS) on the VMAX3 and therefore is fully integrated. What it does is enable virtual instances of VNX Software Data Movers and Control Stations to...

VMAX3 Q4 GA – RDF/SNAPVX/XCOPY

The Q4 release of VMAX3/HYPERMAX OS is here.  As Less Grossman would say "Welcome to the goody room!"  This release has the features we have been waiting for since the VMAX3 went GA (yes I know barely 2 months ago) - Local/Remote replication and the return of the VAAI primitive Full Copy (or XCOPY) among...

ESA 2.4.1 GA – VPLEX, VMAX FAST VP

Another release of EMC Storage Analytics is on the books.  For those keeping track these come out quarterly (or as close as we can get them).  Our last release (2.3.2) was minor in that it basically covered a couple new models on the VNXe line.  This release is major, adding a new platform:  VPLEX (note...

VSI 6.3 releases with new VMAX enhancements

VSI 6.3 released today and contains some new VMAX features I have been requesting (along with many customers).  When VSI moved from its Classic form into the Web Client, the initial VMAX integration was extremely basic.  Over the past many months I have worked closely with development to re-incorporate many of the features I saw...

VMAX3 is GA!

The VMAX3 (100K, 200K, 400K), the latest evolution in our high-end storage arrays (Symmetrix), officially went GA today.  This platform has been some time in the making and it took the combined effort and long hours of many individuals in engineering to bring it to fruition.  As there will be many other blogs/announcements concerning VMAX3...

New release of EMC Storage Analytics (ESA) available – 2.3.2

Today EMC released the latest version of ESA - 2.3.2.  This release focuses on the VNXe platform but also introduces support for the VNX-F5000 and VNX-F8000.  Here are the major additions in this release: An OEM version of vCenter Operations Manager 5.8.2 that is for EMC storage only (for those without vCOPS already) New and...

VMAX Content Pack 2.0 for VMware Log Insight 2.0

VMware has announced the release of the 2.0 version of VMware Log Insight (LI).  Steve Flanders is the go-to guy at VMware for all things Log Insight so check out his blog on this - http://sflanders.net/2014/06/11/log-insight-2-0-now-available/ .  So another release of LI provides a chance for me to update the VMAX Content Pack (CP). I’m going...

Demo of EMC VMAX Content Pack for VMware Log Insight

http://youtu.be/RaKaha6JOdI This video demonstrates installing and using the EMC VMAX Content Pack for VMware Log Insight.  I presented this at EMC World 2014.  The demo was created using VMware Log Insight v1.5 and the EMC VMAX Content Pack 1.5.1 (includes auditing information).  Look for an update shortly on the 2.0 version of the EMC VMAX...