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Configuring VMware VASA for EMC VNX

By Josh Townsend · 6 Comments · (Updated: June 30, 2013)

vSphere Storage APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) are one of several VMware vSphere Storage APIs.  VASA, new in vSphere 5.0, provides vCenter with a way of interrogating storage array LUNs and associated datastores to gain visibility into the underlying hardware and configuration of the storage layer.  Storage capabilities, such as RAID level, thin or thick LUN provisioning, replication state, caching mechanisms, and auto-tiering are presented through VASA to vCenter (a unidirectional read operation by vCenter against the array).  With VASA, vCenter can identify which datastores possess … [Read more...]

Filed Under: EMC, Storage, vCloud, VMware How To, VMware Images, VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM), VMware vSphere Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Storage Basics – Part IX: Alternate IOPS Formula

By Josh Townsend · 12 Comments · (Updated: July 25, 2013)

It's been a long time since I published an article in my Storage Basics series - the series has been some of the top content on my site to date.  I sat for a beta version of the VMware Certified Advanced Professional - Desktop Design (VCAP-DTD) test today and was reminded by the test of a post I had in waiting about an alternate way to calculate IOPS (hint hint - memorize these formulas).  I have several more articles sitting in draft form, but a new job, crazy kids, home improvement projects, and a wife with chronic cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) leaks (it sounds bad - and it is - but look on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: EMC, Issues & Troubleshooting, Microsoft, Storage, Storage Basics, VMware Horizon View, VMware How To, VMware Images, VMware vSphere Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Storage Basics – Part VII: Storage Alignment

By Josh Townsend · 19 Comments · (Updated: June 29, 2013)

At the risk of beating a dead horse, it's time to resurrect my Storage Basics series.  I've recently had some great feedback on the series and figured I should round out a few of the concepts before I wrap it up.  I want to cover a topic often discussed amongst virtualization professionals, but one I often find general practitioners and server admins not understanding: storage alignment.  Storage alignment, or the lack of alignment, is not a new issue and is not unique to VMware or virtualization in general.  However, the effects of misaligned storage can be more greatly felt in terms of … [Read more...]

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Free SAN Monitor for DS3300, MD3000i and others

By Josh Townsend · 4 Comments · (Updated: June 29, 2013)

One of my most popular posts to date had been IBM DS3300 Write Performance Problem Solved.  I am pleased to have upgrade my internal environment to an EMC Clariion CX4 array, but still have customers using the DS3300 and the MD3000i from Dell.  For that reason, I keep an eye out for news on these arrays.  You'll recall that these arrays are based on the same LSI kit.  Truth be told, properly designed and configured, these arrays are a technically proficient and cost efficient solution for SMB's looking to get their VMware environments going. While reviewing my email today I found an email … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Product Releases, VMware Images Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Storage Basics – Part VI: Storage Workload Characterization

By Josh Townsend · 21 Comments · (Updated: June 29, 2013)

Most of what I covered in Storage Basics Parts 1 through 5 was at a very elementary level.  The math I used to do IOPS calculations, for example, is only true under very certain conditions.  RAID controllers implement caching and other techniques that skew the simple math that I provided.  I mentioned that the type of interface that you ought to use on your storage array should not be randomly chosen.  In fact, choosing the right array with the appropriate components and characteristics can only be done when you enlighten your decision with a characterization of workloads it will be … [Read more...]

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Storage Basics – Part V: Controllers, Cache and Coalescing

By Josh Townsend · 14 Comments · (Updated: June 30, 2013)

My Storage Basics series has been neglected for some time (sick kids, snow storms, VMware Upgrades, SAN implementations and some Cisco switch upgrades took all my free time), so let's jump right in to Part V - Cache, Controllers, and Coalescing.   Between the alliteration and fancy words, it might seem like I am about to tell a tale of international espionage.  Unfortunately, my introductory treatment of these aspects of a storage system will probably not keep you on the edge of your seat - but I'll try to keep it interesting. Throughout this series, we've been working our way from the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: EMC, General IT, NetApp, Storage, Storage Basics, VMware Images Tagged With: , , , , ,

Storage Basics – Part IV: Interface

By Josh Townsend · 11 Comments · (Updated: June 29, 2013)

In parts I, II, and III of the Storage Basics series we looked at the basic building blocks of modern storage systems: hard disk drives.  Specifically, we looked at the performance characteristics of disks in terms of IOPS and the impact of combining disks into RAID sets to improve performance and resiliency.  Today we will have a quick look at another piece of the puzzle that impacts storage performance: the interface.  The interface, for lack of a better term, can describe several things in a storage conversation.   It can be let me break it down for you (remember, we're keeping it simple … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Storage, Storage Basics, VMware Images Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Storage Basics – Part III: RAID

By Josh Townsend · 28 Comments · (Updated: June 29, 2013)

This is the third in a multi-part series on storage basics.  I've had some good feedback from folks in the SMB space saying that the first couple posts in this series have been beneficial, so we'll be sticking with some basic concepts for another post or two before we dive into some nitty-gritty details and practical applications of these concepts in a VMware environment.  In the second post of this series I introduced the concept of IOPS and explained how the physical characteristics of a hard disk drive determine the theoretical IOPS capability of a disk.  I then noted that you can aggregate … [Read more...]

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