Last week I was able to attend a presentation from Whiptail in which they talked about their flash-based storage array. With their product portfolio they offer storage solutions that deliver high levels of speed for applications which produce high loads on storage.

Whiptail positions itself in the marked as a storage solution for applications like VDI, server virtualization and databases that demand high performance. At this moment they are not trying to compete with storage vendors that deliver high amounts of storage space. high numbers on read and write actions, high bandwidth and low latency times are the current key values of the Whiptail storage solutions.

The Whiptail storage family consists of the:

The Accela which is smallest model in the family. This unit uses 2U of rack space and has a power usage below 200 watts. It can deliver a storage capacity from 1,5 TB up to 12 TB at a write speed of 250k IOPS (based on 4K cryptographically random writes) a bandwidth of 1.9 GB/s and a latency value of 100 µs (0,1 ms).

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AJ discusses VDI storage solutions with Jonathan Klick from VKernel/Quest/Dell.

In the past we at VMGuru.nl have been great fans of Dell EqualLogic storage solutions for it’s simplicity and with our current employer we have learned the advantages of NetApp storage systems and it’s completeness. But why should we have to choose? Why can’t we just combine the ease of use and licensing model from EqualLogic with the high performance file system and feature set of NetApp? Well, now you can!

Recently we were introduced to Nimble Storage, a flash-enabled hybrid storage solution that combines fast SSD disks with high capacity SATA disks.

Their own CASL (Cache Accelerated Sequential Layout) file system, combined with compression and clever dynamic caching algorithms, result in a high performance storage system that use simple SATA disks. The CASL FS deploys SSD disks as a read cache to enhance read performance and it uses a write optimized data layout (to turn random writes into sequential writes, much like NetApp’s WAFL does) combined with inline compression to improve write performance.

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Since my article on ‘Storage Optimization with Atlantis‘ on April 3rd, I’ve been in contact with Atlantis and got some additional information I would like to share with you.

First of all, in the article it says the following:

Another point of interest is, does Atlantis live up to the promises made regarding the alleged savings of up to 90%? Of course these numbers are sales numbers and it’s up to 90%. But recently I heard about some Atlantis test results from renowned industry parties, which aren’t so positive as the sales number want you to believe. The first tests do show a huge decrease of read I/O but they also show an increase in write I/O. Now, I don’t want to claim that the myth is busted, further investigation and testing is required, but you should definitely try before you buy.

The issues mentioned above where discovered by our colleagues from PQR and also by the Cisco VXI team. But according to Atlantis, they have already corrected this issue.

The issue with the linked clones was caused by mis-alignment of the redo logfile because of the VMware View Composer and linked clone format.  Atlantis released anew version which is able to treat a linked clone specifically for this issue and correct misaligned writes.

According to Atlantis, the PQR team has already retested Atlantis ILIO and found good write offload as promised.

The second item I would like to share, is a concern Anne Jan raised when using Atlantis ILIO.

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In our quest for native PC performance in a VDI solution we are always looking for better, faster and simpler storage solutions. To improve storage performance several vendors have introduced different solutions like controller cache, SSD disks, flash memory. Last week I received an e-mail from a colleague regarding ‘Atlantis Computing Uses Diskless VDI Architecture Made Possible by the Cisco Unified Computing System‘. This got my attention, what is Atlantis and how does this storage optimization work?

The Atlantis storage optimization works at the Windows NTFS protocol layer to offload virtual desktop I/O. When the Microsoft Windows operating system and applications request I/O from storage, Atlantis intercepts and inline deduplicates the I/O stream before it reaches the storage. Up to 90% of all I/O requests are processed in RAM. This enables native PC storage performance characteristics which VDI solution require. (more…)

10GbE connections are getting more common in the datacenters, even for SMB 10GbE is getting within their reach. In the storage market Dell EqualLogic lagged behind large storage vendors like NetApp in functionality and connectivity but now EqualLogic released their new products on 10GbE, solving the connectivity issue.

Both the PS6000 series for large scale implementations and the PS4000 series for the less demanding customers now have the option for 10GbE with SFP+ (fiber) or 10G Base-T (copper).

The two new models, PS6110 and PS4110, both have copper (10GBase-T) and optical (SFP+) connections. The new models can be mixed with other EqualLogic units in a group. Next to the 10Gbit connections the units have a management port for out of band management.

The PS6110 comes in six configurations with support ranging from high capacity 7,200 RPM SAS hard drives to enterprise-grade SSDs. The PS6110 Series can handle up to 72TB in a single array and 1.2 Petabytes in a single group.

In the PS6110 series is available in the following editions:

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August 2010 I wrote an article on support for Exchange CCR clustering on VMware with iSCSI.

VMware’s response then was very simple and straight forward. Exchange CCR clustering on VMware is not supported on iSCSI!

When asked if VMware had plans to change this support issue in the future the response was promising.

“The Exchange team within VMware requested the vSphere product team to support iSCSI for CCR and DAG clusters. They also would like to remove the RDM requirement for CCR and DAG.
Response from the product team is that they are testing and will update the support stance in a future release.”

Well, the future is now. I stumbled upon a VMware KB article, released May 5, which provides clear guidelines on the vSphere support status when running various Microsoft clustering solutions on VMware vSphere 4.

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EMC has announced a new storage system called Isilon 108NL. The Isilon storage system consists of 36 disk 4U nodes which can be joined together to create a 144 node storage system with a capacity of 15 PB.

It’s a scale-out storage system where each node contains its own 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps interfaces so you can add capacity while maintaining throughput.

According to EMC, the Isilon 108NL can achieve a throughput of 85 GBps and a maximum of  1.4 M IOPS. The Isilon can be equipped with 1, 2 or 3 TB Hitachi SATA disks giving it 36, 72 or 108 TB per storage node. The Isilon is by powered by the OneFS operating system which supports NFS, SMB, iSCSI, http and FTP and delivers N+4 data protection on cluster, directory or file level.

When it comes to storage, the EqualLogic PS-series amazes me every time.

Last Tuesday I was at a client site investigating performance issues but when I opened SANHQ and the web interface on the PS 6000E one thing stood out. The performance issues were not caused by the storage device. The PS 6000E is hosting 12 virtualized Citrix XenApp servers en 8 supporting VMs and during heavy load the average latency is 1,2ms with a read/write ratio of 28%/72% and a max of 1100 IOPS.

But yesterday we had to swap SANs, a PS 5000XV for a PS 6000E and the ease with which this can be done amazes me every time. The hardest part was the process of endless firmware updates on the PS 5000XV to get it to a respectable level to get it to join the PS 6000 in the same storage group.

We had to upgrade from firmware version 3.3.0 to 4.3.4 but this is no simple task because you cannot directly apply 4.3.4. First we had to upgrade to 4.0.7, then to 4.1.7, to 4.3.4. Every time uploading the firmware using FTP, updating both controllers, restarting. This took us almost 2 hours to complete.

When this was done, all that was left was to join the PS 6000 in the existing storage group and evict the PS 5000 and this is the process that amazes me every time.

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Since last week I’ve got a new assignment which is a long way from home. Next to the downsides of traveling 5 hours a day and staying in hotels, it certainly has advantages.

During my 5 hour drive or when I’m staying in a hotel i have time to listen to the VMware Community Roundtable podcasts I put on my iPhone. For those of you who don’t know this. VMware Community Roundtable is a weekly conference call/chat for VMware enthusiasts. Every week there’s a different topic and this is your change to discuss these topics with the experts in the community. For those of you who don’t have time to attend, there’s the possibility to listen online or download the sessions as podcasts.

Last week I listened to a great topic which was called the ‘#66 – iSCSI Super Friends with EMC, NetApp, Dell, HP, VMware‘. This podcast was from September 30 so it was quite an old podcast but this was such a great session that I don’t want to keep it from you. This session discusses the multi vendor blog post by VMware (Andy Banta), EMC (Chad Sakac), NetApp (Vaughn Stewart), Dell/EqualLogic( Eric Schott), HP/Lefthand Networks (Adam Carter) on how to implement iSCSI with VMware VI3.5 and vSphere 4.

So for those of you who already heard it, sorry for the ‘old’ intel, for those of you who haven’t, this is a must read/hear.

The mult vendor blog post discusses can be found here:

• Using iSCSI with VMware VI 3.x
• Using iSCSI with VMware vSphere 4
  

I really liked the conclusion that you can build iSCSI storage solutions which are as fast as fiber storage solutions and that tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 storage definitions should not be based on the technique used but on the service level agreement with your end user.

Personally I wonder what the future will bring. Will fiber channel disappear in favor of iSCSI? As discussed during this podcast, ethernet is ideal for storage connections, the questions is which protocol to use, NFS, iSCSI or FCoE. We will see ……

Last week Iomega  announced a new NAS appliance called the Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d. It is based on  EMC storage technologies and contains four SATA-300 drivebays. With a storage capacity of 2, 4 and 8 TB it is the ideal NAS appliance for small businesses, distributed offices and home office networks that require advanced data storage and protection features without the need for a dedicated IT staff.

By default the Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d is configured as a RAID 5 array but RAID 10 or JBOD is also possible. Free disk space can be monitored on the front LCD display.

The Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d is equipped with two gigabit ethernet ports which support link aggregation, network failover and subnetting. It also supports various protocols like iSCSI, NFS, DLNA, uPnP, Bonjour, SNMP, FTP, HTTP and Samba so it can be used with Mac-, Windows- or Linux hosts.

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A few weeks ago I attended the ‘What’s new in VMware vSphere 4‘ course given by Eric Sloof. Eric pointed us to a very nice and cheap shared storage solution from Iomega which he also uses in his home lab, the Iomega Storcenter ix-series.

I have been scouting the local hardware vendors for the Iomega ix2 but I could decide to go for the cheaper 1TB or the more expensive 2TB version. Today I was browsing through the VMware HCL when I remember the dilemma and was wondering if VMware even knew/supported the little Iomega storage box. And what do you know ………… the Iomega ix-series is on the VMware HCL!

The Iomega StorCenter ix2 and the ix4-100 are supported for all versions of VMware ESX 3.5 and the larger rack mountable ix4-200r is even supported on ESX 4.0 as NAS or iSCSI.

So I will be heading for the shops to get my own home shared storage solution.

The Iomega StorCenter ix is available in the following configurations:

Today Dell EqualLogic introduced their new PS6000 series iSCSI SANs. The new models in this serie are the PS6000E, PS6000X, PS6000XV, PS6000S and the PS6500E.

One of the most interesting models is the PS6000S. This PS6000S is an enterprise-class iSCSI SAN with SSD technology and is offering an affordable and easy means to bring the low latency performance benefits of SSD technology. The PS6000S provides higher IOPS and as little as 1/3rd the latency of 15k rpm disk arrays, ideal for challenging applications, such as virtual desktop implementations such as VMware View with linked clone technology. The Solid State Drives (SSD) provide low-latency and high-IOPS.

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One of the feeds in my RSS reader is the VMware feed. One of the posts that caught my attention was the ‘High Throughput iSCSI with VMware’

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Dell is working very actively to train their partners in Dell EqualLogic SANs. The training consists of a large portion of the operator training, a bit of (pre-)sales training and also a large portion was what you could call a Q&A session.

I spent the last two days in Eindhoven at Core Education together with Froos to be one of the first in our company to follow this training.

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