These are so cool I had to recognize them. If you are like me and would rather see things in action than read about them in a manual, then the VSAN In 3 Minutes Series is for you.
Check the videos out. A big shout out to my colleague Greg Mulholland who does a great job putting these together.
On Friday, March 18 I took the opportunity to watch the live Webcast of Storage Field Day 9. If you can carve our some time, I highly recommend this.
Tech Field Day@TechFieldDay
VMware Storage Presents at Storage Field Day 9
The panel of industry experts ask all the tough questions and the great VMware Storage team answers them all.
| Storage Industry Experts | VMware Virtual SAN Experts |
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The ~2 hour presentation was broken up into easily consumable chunks. Here’s a breakdown or the recoded session:
In this Introduction, Yanbing Le, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Storage and Availability, discusses VMware’s company success, the state of the storage market, and the success of HCI market leading Virtual SAN in over 3000 customers.
Christos Karamanolis, CTO, Storage and Availability BU, jumps into how Virtual SAN works, answers questions on the use of high endurance and commodity SSD, and how Virtual SAN service levels can be managed through VMware’s common control plane – Storage Policy Based Management.
Christos continues the discussion around VSAN features as they’ve progressed from the 1st generation Virtual SAN released in March 12, 2014 to the 2nd, 3rd, and now 4th generation Virtual SAN that was just released March 16, 2016. The discussion in this section focuses a lot on data protection features like stretched clustering and vSphere Replication. They dove deep into how vSphere Replication can deliver application consistent protection as well as a true 5 minute RPO based on the built in intelligent scheduler sending the data deltas within the 5 minute window, monitoring the SLAs, and alerting if they cannot be met due to network issues.
Deduplication, Compression, Distributed RAID 5 & 6 Erasure Coding are all now available to all flash Virtual SAN configurations. Christos provides the skinny on all these data reduction space efficiency features and how enabling these add very little overhead on the vSphere hosts. Rawlinson chimes on the automated way Virtual SAN can build the cluster of disks and disk groups that deliver the capacity for the shared VSAN datastore. These can certainly be built manually but VMware’s design goal is to make the storage system as automated as possible. The conversation moves to checksum and how Virtual SAN is protecting the integrity of data on disks.
OK, this part was incredible! Christos laid down the gauntlet, so to speak. He presented the data behind the testing that shows minimal impact on the hosts when enabling the space efficiency features. Also, he presents performance data for OLTP workloads, VDI, Oracle RACK, etc. All cards on the table here. I can’t begin to summarize, you’ll just need to watch.
Rawlinson Rivera takes over and does what he does best, throwing all caution to the wind and delivering live demonstrations. He showed the Virtual SAN Health Check and the new Virtual SAN Performance Monitoring and Capacity Management views built into the vSphere Web Client. Towards the end, Howard Marks asked about supporting future Intel NVMe capabilities and Christos’s response was that it’s safe to say VMware is working closely with Intel on ensuring the VMware storage stack can utilize the next generation devices. Virtual SAN already supports the Intel P3700 and P3600 NVMe devices.
This was such a great session I thought I’d promote it and make it easy to check it out. By the way, here’s Rawlinson wearing a special hat!
Yesterday I was at the New England VTUG event which is always a great event to meet up with familiar faces and be introduced to some new ones. I met up with a relatively new VMware Virtual SAN customer and we discussed lots of fun things about VSAN and their implementation experience. One frustrating thing they mentioned is that they couldn’t find anywhere that documented how to put the Cisco 12G SAS Modular Raid Controller in Pass-Through mode. They explained that after lots of searching on VMware and Cisco’s site, they contacted Cisco and were provided the information. They were kind enough to capture a screenshot of the setting and provide it to me.
The procedure is:
That’s it. Easy.
If this is a brand new, unconfigured host, the unclaimed disks in the host will now get passed to ESXi and VSAN can use them for the VSAN datastore.
However, if this host IO Controller had previously been configured with RAID, you should check out: How to delete the RAID configuration from drives managed by the Cisco 12G SAS Modular Raid Controller
I hope that helps others save some time in getting VSAN up and running.
Special thanks to Stephanie Forde and Matthew Gabrick from the Boston Water and Sewer Commission for pointing this out and providing the screenshot.
If you scan the bill of materials for the various Cisco UCS VSAN ReadyNodes you’ll see a line item for:
Controller Cache: Cisco 12Gbps SAS 1GB FBWC Cache module (Raid 0/1/5/6)
If you’ve followed Virtual SAN for awhile you might wonder, why would the ReadyNodes include controller cache when VMware recommends disabling controller cache when implementing Virtual SAN. Well, it turns out that the presence of the FBWC Cache module allows the queue depth of the Cisco 12G SAS Modular Raid Controller to go from the low 200’s to the advertised 895. The minimum queue depth requirement for Virtual SAN is 256 so including the FBWC Cache module allows the queue depth to increase above that minimum requirement and improve Virtual SAN performance.
This is my third post this week, possibly a record for me. All three are centered around ensuring the correct firmware and drivers are installed and running. The content of this post was created by my colleague, David Boone, who works with VMware customers to ensure successful Virtual SAN deployments. When it comes to VSAN, its important to use qualified hardware but equally important to make sure the correct firmware and drivers are installed.
Navigate to the VMware Compatibility Guide for Virtual SAN, scroll down and select “Build Your Own based on Certified Components”, then find the controller in the database. Here’s the link for the Cisco 12G SAS Modular Raid Controller and the link to download the correct driver for it (as of Nov. 20, 2015): https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESX55-LSI-SCSI-MEGARAID-SAS-660606001VMW&productId=353
Use your favorite way to install the driver. This might include creating a custom vSphere install image to deploy on multiple hosts, rolling out via vSphere Update Manager (VUM), or manually installing on each host.
EVO:RAIL is the only Hyper-Converged solution that ships Pre-Built with VMware software and is ready to deploy VM’s when it arrives. There, that’s it.
OK, maybe you want more detail than that.
This analogy has been used before but it’s worth repeating for those who haven’t heard it before. This comes from my days as a vSpecialist at EMC. If you want a cake, you have 3 primary options.
The first way to get a cake is you Build your own. You purchase the ingredients (flour, eggs, milk, etc.), you measure the quantities you think you need, mix them together, and make a cake. The second time you make one it might be a bit better based on some lessons learned. Eventually, if you do it enough, you’ll probably get pretty good at it.
The second way to get a cake is to buy a Reference Architecture. This is a specific set of pre-measured ingredients that you buy, but you still have to make it. You open the box, add eggs and water to the mix and the end result is a cake. If you make another, it’ll probably be pretty similar to the last one.
The third option is you go to a bakery and buy a cake. It’s professionally made and ready to eat. And if you want another one just like it, your favorite bakery can reproduce it and get it to you pretty quickly.
Lets now shift this analogy to data center infrastructure. The first way to get data center infrastructure is to build your own (i.e. bake a cake). Purchase your favorite servers, network switches, and storage system, connect them together, configure them, install VMware software, and eventually you’ll have a place to provision virtual machines. The next time you need to build out infrastructure you’ll likely be able to do it a bit faster, with less configuration errors, and have it run more optimally based on some lessons learned. Eventually, if you do it enough you’ll get pretty good at it.
The second way to get data center infrastructure is to purchase a prepackaged reference architecture solution, but you still have to make it (i.e. cake mix). You get the hardware, connect it to the network, install VMware software, and you have infrastructure. The performance is fairly predictable since the hardware was chosen to meet a certain workload profile.
The third option to get data center infrastructure is to purchase a pre-built solution (i.e. bakery). And this is where EVO:RAIL is different. There are only 3 ways I know of to purchase infrastructure pre-built with VMware software that is ready to provision VM’s when they arrive. The first way that emerged several years ago is VCE Vblock or VxBlock. The second way now available is the Hyper-converged EVO:RAIL from an Qualified EVO:RAIL Partner (Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, inspur, NetApp, netone, and SuperMicro). Receive the system, power it on, and start provisioning VM’s since its already running the VMware software you need to do so. The third way is EVO:RACK which is currently available as a tech-preview from a few Qualified EVO:RACK Partners. More information is available here: EVO: RACK Tech Preview at VMworld 2014
That’s it, no one else, without a specific agreement to do so, can ship hardware pre-built with VMware software, just VCE and Qualified EVO:RAIL and EVO:RACK Partners. All other “converged infrastructure” solutions, require you to obtain the hardware (either by picking and choosing components yourself, or by going with a reference architecture). None of them are able to arrive with VMware software already installed. Once the hardware arrives the VMware software must be installed first. And in the case of all other “converged” infrastructure solutions other than VMware Virtual SAN, you must install the storage software on top of vSphere. VI wrote about this here: What Makes VSAN Different?
OK, lets review with a diagram I put together based on EMC’s recent definition of Blocks, Racks, and Appliances. See the Virtual Geek blog here for more info: EMC World Day 1: BLOCKS, RACKS, APPLIANCES.
Notice that the concept of Build your own converged infrastructure combining compute and storage on the same host is not unique. There are approximately 15 companies with this solution including VMware. It’s a crowded space. VMware Virtual SAN is unique here in that it’s the only one that is built into the hypervisor.
Next notice that the concept of Reference Architecture converged infrastructure is not unique. There are approximately 5 companies with this solution including VMware. VMware Virtual SAN is unique here in that it’s the only one that is built into the hypervisor.
Finally, notice that there is only 1 way to obtain Pre-Built converged infrastructure and that’s EVO:RAIL which uses the VMware Virtual SAN storage that is built into the hypervisor. All you need to do is rack it, cable it, power it on, and start consuming VM’s. Kind of like buying a cake from the bakery, getting a fork, and start eating it.
OK, one last analogy… today, if you need a Virtual Machine and even EVO:RAIL isn’t a quick enough way to get it, it’s possible to simply provision one on demand from a service provider like vCloud Air. Now, wouldn’t it be great if you could get a piece of cake on demand? How long until this becomes a reality?
I had a question today asking how VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) compares to XYZ company. There are over a dozen virtual machine software based solutions that leverage the local disks in ESXi hosts to present storage back to the hosts in the vSphere cluster. Those solutions require a vSphere cluster to be created then their virtual machine must be installed on every host to handle the storage services. Some are more efficient at this than others but there is always level of effort to “build-your-own” storage on top of the vSphere cluster and those virtual machines can take up significant host resources to deliver on the storage services they offer. So converged infrastructure itself is nothing new or unique. Its how it’s done that is important.
Here’s what makes VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) different:
VMware Virtual SAN™ 6.0 Performance
All other converged software based storage solutions require running a Virtual Machine on top of ESXi. So all VM’s have to go through their own IO path, through the hypervisor, then through that single VM IO path, then back through the hypervisor, then to the disks. In some cases, the disks themselves need to be setup with a hardware RAID configuration then their VM solution implements software RAID in addition to the underlying hardware RAID paying a double performance and capacity penalty. Each of these VM’s take on additional host CPU and Memory. Some require 2-4 vCPU’s and 16GB or more of RAM. And some are limited to the number of nodes they can scale to and how much total capacity can be supported. Again, some solutions are more efficient and scalable than others so do the homework and ask the right questions when comparing. Finally, most don’t support VMware’s Storage Policy Based Management which is the VMware framework for managing all vSphere storage going forward.
VMware’s vision for Virtual SAN is that it be the best storage solution for Virtual Machines. With the release of vSphere 6 and Virtual SAN 6, VMware is closer to that vision. There are many software defined storage choices out there. Hopefully this helps in that decision making process.
I’ve been at VMware for 1.5 years and have had a blast talking to customers, partners, and VMware employees about all things software defined storage. This primarily involves Virtual SAN & EVO:RAIL which take advantage of VASA, Storage Policy Based Management, and VVOLS. Because we are talking about storage it also includes discussing the benefits of vSphere Replication, Site Recovery Manager, and vSphere Data Protection. Basically, anything to do with storing, protecting, and managing Virtual Machine data. Its exciting to be part of the whole software defined data center strategy.
We are growing our Software Defined Storage team and are looking for qualified rockstars. If you are one, and the topics above are familiar to you, and you are interested in joining the VMware Software Defined Storage Team, then check out the openings below. Feel free to apply directly or reach out to me with any questions at: pkeilty at vmware dot com
You can find the openings on the VMware Public Job Page: http://vmware.jobs/
Plug in the Requisition Number below to find more details on the openings and full job descriptions:
Systems Engineers
We are also looking for SE’s in the Ohio Valley and South East USA. In addition, we are looking for a Technical Field SE in the East. These jobs Requisitions will be posted soon.
Sales
Good luck!
Live Virtually 