This post contains the list of items you will need to get started with VSAN. I’ll also try to highlight some best practices when it comes to configuring VSAN. First off, lets start with the software requirements – those are the easy bits. You will need ESXi version 5.5 and vCenter server version 5.5. The vCenter server can be either the Windows version or the appliance version; both support VSAN. Finally you will need to familiarize yourself with the vSphere web client if you haven’t already done so. VSAN can only be managed from the vSphere web client; it is…
At last, VSAN is launched. Over the coming weeks and months, I plan on doing a series of VSAN (or Virtual SAN to be more accurate) posts. I will start with a brief introduction to the product which was announced at VMworld 2013 with a public beta.
Nutanix just announced the availability of NOS 3.5. It has been approximately 6 months since I posted about their NOS 3.0 release which had a lot of cool features. I was curious to see what they added to 3.5, especially from a VMware integration perspective.
SimpliVity are another storage vendor I highly recommend that you check out at VMworld 2013. I wrote an article about them prior to VMworld 2012. Essentially, SimpliVity wanted to stop the sprawl of appliances in your data center and to that end, they ship an appliance that takes care all of these functions (dedupe, backup, I/O acceleration, etc). The bonus is that you do not have idle resources/appliances hanging around when that particular function is not being used. They have just announced new enhancements to their OmniStack software and have introduced a number of new OmniCube hardware models. I caught…
Before I left for PTO, I wrote an article on a number of different storage vendors you should be checking out at this year’s VMworld 2013. One of these was a new start-up called PernixData. With tongue firmly in cheek, I suggested that PernixData might use VMworld as a launchpad of their FVP (Flash Virtual Platform) product. Well, needless to say, my good friend Satyam Vaghani, CTO at PernixData, reached out to me to say that they were in fact announcing FVP before VMworld. He shared some details with me, which I can now share with you if you haven’t…
One of my favorite parts of VMworld is the Solutions Exchange. This is where you can catch up with new products and features from established storage vendors. Not only that, but you can also catch up with ‘new kids on the block’ and find out what cool, new ideas they bring to the field of storage and virtualization. This year is no different, with a couple of new storage products from established vendors, as well as some interesting new arrivals on the scene. This is by no means an exhaustive list. If you have some recommendations on some other items…
I just saw this, thought it was sort of cool, and wanted to share it with you. You may have need, from time to time, to export the Storage Map view in the vSphere client to a format which can be used in reports, etc. It appears that the Storage Map may be exported to a Windows EMF (Enhanced Metadata Format). This format can then be imported into Visio: Useful if you ever need to do that kind of thing.