vVols, SRDF, and VMware SRM on PowerMax

We have finally released our long awaited VASA 3 implementation for vVols 2.0 which includes support for SRDF Asynchronous (SRDF/A) replication. Lack of replication support has been a blocker for many customers to even look at vVols since a DR solution is such an essential component of a business (as it should be). And having...

ESA 6.0

Dell EMC Enterprise Storage Analytics (ESA) 6.0 is now available for download here. We've actually had a couple releases prior to 6.0: 5.0 and 5.1. I did not blog about those versions because they were focused on other platforms, that and we have capable bloggers from those platforms who covered the releases. The current release...

Snapshot metrics in VMware Virtual Volumes (vVols)

I was working on an update to the vVol whitepaper for our next release (VASA 3), and I realized that I failed to include a more detailed explanation of snapshot reporting in the VASA 2 paper. I'll try to get that done in the next couple weeks (done), but in the meantime let me run...

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...

vRealize Operations 8.1 and vVols

I normally don't cover VMware's new releases for non-vSphere products unless we have integration available, however in this case I wanted to point out some new functionality in vROps 8.1. Our Dell EMC Enterprise Storage Analytics plugin just released version 5.1 which supports vROps 8.0 only. Given the close proximity of the releases I know...

VMware SRM 8.3 GA

In addition to vSphere 7, VMware released SRM 8.3 today. The big ticket item in SRM 8.3 is support for Virtual Volume (vVol) array replication. Prior to 8.3, VMware only supported vSphere Replication with vVols but now array vendors can enable support via their VASA Providers. With SRM and vVols there is no requirement for...

Tech Preview of SRM with vVols on PowerMax

Disclaimer: This post concerns pre-GA releases from both VMware and Dell EMC. This overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware or Dell EMC to deliver these features in any generally available product. Today at VMworld Europe, VMware and Dell EMC introduced a preview of VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) with VMware Virtual Volumes...

vVols, VVols, VVOLs or again vVols?

So which is the correct spelling of VMware's storage paradigm? If you said, "all of them?" it would be hard to fault you. VMware has gone through many iterations of the capitalization before landing on "VVols" for the past couple years anyway. Well it was too good to last and VMware is asking for another...

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 -...