VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘storage’

You’ve probably heard VMware virtualization and storage talk about VAAI (vStorage API for Array Integration. If you’ve listened to episode 4 of VIRTUMANIA or watched the recent video from the vExpert Panel session at the Carolina VMUG Summit then you’ve heard me talk about it with some of those most in the know on the topic. But what is VAAI exactly and how will it impact virtualization in the future?

Side note – I hate saying “V A A I”. IMO it’s quite a tongue twister. I have adopted saying “V double A I” because it is much easier to get out.

VAAI Introduced 2 years ago

Although it does not exist in vSphere 4.0 today, believe it or not VAAI was first introduced at VMworld 2008 when the vStorage API was announced.

VMware Unveils New vStorage Technologies to Deliver Leading Efficiency and Manageability for the Virtual Datacenter Operating System

New Capabilities Deliver Deeper Integration with Storage Partner Functionality
vStorage enables intelligent integration of storage products within the Virtual Datacenter OS through the new vStorage APIs. 

vStorage APIs deliver tight integration of advanced capabilities from storage partners with the Virtual Datacenter OS from VMware.  vStorage APIs for array integration will enable customers to leverage array-based capabilities, such as snapshots, provisioning, replication and restore, directly with individual virtual machines in conjunction with the clustering and pooling capabilities of VMware Infrastructure.  vStorage APIs for multi-pathing will provide customers the ability to integrate advanced load balancing capabilities provided by leading partners’ multi-pathing software with their virtual environment.

If you are like me you were probably so overwhelmed by the news of the VCD-OS (That’s what VMware was calling the hybrid Cloud at the time … I guess?) that you missed (or were not capable or ready to comprehend) how complete of a strategy already existed for building Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) with the vStorage API. For me, looking back 2 years later it is amazing to me it was all there – at least in concept.

Don’t confuse VADP and VAAI

VAAI is only one part of the vStorage API. VADP (vStorage API for Data Protection) is another, but the these two seem to have been easily confused lately. VADP is

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Over the past few years I’ve been asked to troubleshoot and explain why cloning a virtual machine (VM) from a master template would take a longer time than expected more than once. Usually when I’m asked the virtualization admin is frustrated at the hypervisor. “This shouldn’t take this long. It needs to be fixed!” they say. “I definitely agree,” I say, “but let’s take a deeper look at what is happening here first before we flame the vendor’s help desk technician on the phone.”

So, this post is about taking a deeper look at where the master template VM resides versus where the cloned template is destined. My math my be a little off or may not account for every factor involved, but my point is to be close enough to demonstrate that the disk/array/LUN design is can be the culprit more times than not.

When I started this post I emailed for some help. I asked for a sanity check from some storage experts. I’ve been reasonably happy with my own answer until now, but I figured I do some research before adding the content to VM /ETC. I got back a single reply that I am paraphrasing: “Sounds about right. Let me think about it some more and if I can stump you with anything else I’ll let you know.” He never did so I’ll take that as a positive confirmation meaning “yes VM moron, it is that simple.” Good enough for me! If anyone can point out any other factors I am not properly accounting for please leave a comment.

The following is part of my email for help. It not only explains my test scenario but it illustrates the problem and resolution as well. At the end of this post I make some suggestions for bettering the time it takes to clone a VM.

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I’ve been invited to another blogger event by HP, so I’m looking forward to returning to Houston, TX this coming week. The HP StorageWorks Tech Day will begin on Monday 3/29 and end Tuesday 3/20 afternoon. This time HP will show off how their StorageWorks team and products contribute to their Converged Infrastructure strategy. Regular readers may recall that the first HP event I was a part of was the 2009 StorageWorks Tech Day in Colorado Springs last fall. It was a great event then and I expect the same this time too.

Look for my usual coverage with quick photo videos, eventually my full photo album, and a few posts here on VM /ETC. I might even follow fellow attendee John Obeto’s lead and try out a live blogging service and widget. We’ll see.

I want to thank the folks at Ivy World Wide, Calvin Zito, and everyone involved at HP for putting another event together for us right on the heals of the HP Blades Event just few weeks ago.

To see our event agenda go to the official Event Web Page.

http://www.hp.com/go/techday2010

There’s a Monday Night TweetUp open to the public, so if you are in the Houston area RSVP and come say hello Monday night.

http://twtvite.com/HPHouStorage

Here’s more specific event details and the list of bloggers attending as taken from the blog of HP’s Calvin Zito:

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Surely you’ve heard about Drobo by now? As the presenter in the last slot of the GetsaltIT Tech Field Day (TFD) schedule a few weeks ago,  Data Robotics was probably the most anticipated session by my fellow Delegates. I’ll admit, I had heard enough about the technology during the 2 day event that I was looking forward to the presentation as well. Data Robotics did not disappoint. Evidence can be seen in the enthusiasm expressed in the various posts and videos published since that session.

As always, I’ll leave the deep technical details of Drobo’s unique and patented Drobo BeyondRaid technology to my fellow storage bloggers and stay focused on how Data Robotics fits in virtual infrastructure. In this post I expand a little on why the Drobo storage device is a VMware HCL certified, simple to implement and expand iSCSI SAN targeted for SMB customers that is an exciting alternative. Finally I offer opinions based primarily on my virtualization server administrator perspective.
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Ocarina Networks presented to us during the Day 2 morning session of the GestaltIT Tech Field Day. Their presentation was a deep dive into storage compression and optimization. If you read my Ideas About Presenting To Engineers from earlier this week, then you’ll know what I mean when I say that Ocarina had “black magic” that wasn’t as interesting to me as how and where the solution was deployed in the data center. After all, Ocarina claims that they will optimize and compress data on any storage device. I wanted to know how they could integrate with existing, third party storage before I was ready to absorb how their compression and de-duplication was actually achieved.

I don’t want to mislead anyone – almost all of my fellow delegates where deeply impressed with the block by block algorithm lesson on Ocarina’s technology. The storage gurus where so into it I had to wait for the hands on labs to start before I could get my questions answered. In fact, I never did the labs because I spent the whole time at the white board understanding the deployment options.

My post is therefore about implementation options of an Ocarina solution. I’m using several quotes from posts by Carter George, co-founder of Ocarina Networks, taken from the Online Storage Optimization Blog to help me explain the deployment options. Then I’ll cover some ideas about how could Ocarina function in a virtual environment.

For those that want to know more about the deep dive on the Ocarina technology, follow the links at the end of this write up to my fellow attendee’s posts. Read the rest of this entry »

Take a 9 minute drive around the storage block with Marc Farley of 3PAR as he uses an analogy of mismatched socks to explain how Autonomic Storage can eliminate human error in storage provisioning for virtual servers and databases. In the beginning of the video Marc goes off on a tangent Twitter rant where you might recognize some twitternames mentioned.

It’s worth the ride!

3PAR was one of the sponsors during the GestaltIT Tech Field Day in San Jose, CA last week, and announced Autonomic Provisioning with the press release titled 3PAR Changes the Way Utility Storage is Provisioned for Virtual Server and Database Environments

Check out Marc’s StorageRap blog and all of his Steering Wheel Camera videos on YouTube. The episode where he gives fellow storage bloggers Dave Graham (EMC) and Stephen Foskett (Nirvanix) a ride to the San Francisco airport on the last day of VMworld 2009 may also be interesting to VM /ETC readers.

I’ve already mentioned (and posted) about the vSphere Blog Contest current topic of thin provisioning, but I’ve been thinking about another “product” that has always functioned thin provisioned – The VI administrator. That’s right, I’m talking about the guys and gals that manage all the hypervisor hosts, the server and desktop virtual machines, the networking, and the storage.

Have you thought about the systems to administrator ratios we work under these days? Sure, server consolidation to virtual infrastructure has enabled doing more with less, but is there a better way to explain thin provisioning and over allocation than by looking at the small teams responsible for the virtualized data center? I say not!!

This is my small VM /ETC tribute to the ones who truly are “thin provisioned and over allocated”.

Do me a favor, leave a comment letting everyone know how many administrators are on your team and how many VMs you are responsible for. I expect the numbers to be staggering!