VMworld 2014: Vision and Strategy for SW defined Storage

Session: STO1853S

The software defined datacenter: Expand virtual compute to all applications; virtualize the network for speed and efficiency; transform storage by aligning it with app demands; management tools give way to automation.

Between 2014 and 2016: 41% Y-over-Y storage capacity increase. Most pressing challenges are meeting SLA, troubleshooting, data migrations, time/budget

“Hot edge” – CPU/memory bound, low latency, dominated by flash

“Cold Core” – Capacity centric, increasing commodity HW, scale-out, extends into the cloud

x86 based servers are prime candidates for the “hot edge” storage

Rapidly emerging x86 server storage brings data close to the applications (Greater CPU density, high density flash, flash interfaces)

Hyper-converged storage (e.g. Nutanix, VMware VSAN). VMware believes Hyperconverged will dominate the hot-edge storage tier.

Legacy operational model creates several challenges – SAN device management, NAS device mgt, etc. Data is typically managed at the LUN level, not VN level.

Storage consumer challenges: lengthy provisioning cycles, difficult to make adjustments, lack of granular control

VMware believes the hypervisor is the place to virtualize the data plane. Make the virtual disk the primary unit of data management.

VMware software-defined storage vision for external storage:  Storage policy based management (capacity, performance, availability, data protection, security) based on Virtual Volumes.

vVols allows published capabilities such as snapshot, replication, dedupe, QoS. They are applied native by the array at the VM level.

Policy driven VM-centric control plane, dynamic composition of storage sevices

Enabling self-service consumption: Virtual volumes, virtual SAN (hyperconverged), vCloud Air

Virtual Volumes

  • Virtual disks are natively represented on arrays
  • Enables VM granular storage operations using array-based data services
  • Integrates storage policy based consumption
  • Supports existing I/O protocols such as iSCSI, FC, NFS)
  • Ecosystem-wide initiative
  • Uses VASA APIs and a new VASA provider on the storage array
  • Virtual datastore has capacity, access controls, and published capabilities (snapshot, replication, dedupe, encryption, QoS, etc.)
  • As you provision VMs you will select the appropriate policy that matches business requirements
  • Data path is separate from the control path (control path uses VASA)
  • Industry wide: HP, NetApp, Dell, EMC, IBM, SolidFire, Tintri, Nimble Storage, NEC, Hitachi (29 total partners)
  • HP, NetApp and Dell announced GA of vVols when vSphere 6.0 GAs

NetApp vVol Demo:

  • 8.2.1 clustered data OnTap, with shipping vVol support
  • Shows off a demo of creating a storage policy, deploying a VM with the policy, checking compliance, and using hardware based snapshot offload.
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