April 2017 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructures Update Newsletter

Volume 17, Issue IV

Hello and welcome to the April 2017 issue of the Server StorageIO data infrastructures update newsletter.

Spring is here in the northern hemisphere which means that there is a lot of things going on, or about to be occurring soon. April has been a busy month for me including spending time in Europe doing some seminar and workshop presentations, along with other consulting advisory activities involving data infrastructures.

Besides travel, I have been busy working on client projects, attending to various post-production activities for my new book Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (more about this in the May issue). Other things I have been doing include being briefed on upcoming technology announcements along with some hands activities trying out things that will be covered in future updates, as well as working with some interesting NDA items that, well, are NDA.

Be sure to check out the recent blog posts, as well as industry trends perspectives commentary below, along with recent and upcoming webinar among events.

In This Issue

Enjoy this abbreviated edition of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

Cheers GS

 

Server StorageIOblog Posts

Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

View other recent as well as past StorageIOblog posts here

Server StorageIO Commentary in the news

Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

Via SearchCloudComputing: Virtual private clouds an alternative to on-premisess computing
Hybrid clouds continue to grow in popularity as well as deployed usage, from storage to compute to networking, said Greg Schulz, the senior advisory analyst at StorageIO in Stillwater, Minn. Most cloud and service providers talk about hybrid along with public clouds, while AWS tends to talk about [VPC aka virtual private clouds].

Via SearchDataCenter: Ask the right questions before committing to a collocation SLA policy
Do you just need a physical space to put things, or do you need high bandwidth and ultra-reliable power? asked Greg Schulz, senior advisory analyst at StorageIO, a consultancy in Stillwater, Minn.

Via EnterpriseStorageForum: Tips for Enterprise SSD Form Factor Selection Deployment
It’s doubtful that there is one form factor to rule them all. Some may be best for X but lousy for Y. But Greg Schulz, an analyst at StorageIO Group notes that many vendors attempt to champion a particular flash SSD form factor and interface, claiming it’s the best and only fit for the enterprise.

Via SearchITOperations: Storage performance analysis reveals IT’s ongoing bottleneck
Sometimes it takes more than an aspirin to cure a headache, said Greg Schulz

Via SearchDNS: Parsing through the software-defined storage hype
Beyond scalability, SDS technology aims for freedom from the limits of proprietary hardware, explained StorageIO analyst Greg Schulz.

Via InfoStor: Data Storage Industry Braces for AI and Machine Learning
AI could also lead to untapped hidden or unknown value in existing data that has no or little perceived value, said Greg Schulz.

View more Server, Storage and I/O trends and perspectives comments here

Events and Activities

Recent and upcoming event activities.

May 11, 2017 – Webinar – Email Archiving, Compliance and Ransomware

May 8-10, 2017 – Dell EMCworld – Las Vegas

April 3-7, 2017 – Seminars – Dutch workshop seminar series – Nijkerk Netherlands

March 15, 2017 – Webinar – SNIA/BrightTalkHyperConverged and Storage – 10AM PT

See more webinars and activities on the Server StorageIO Events page here.

Server StorageIO Industry Resources and Links

Useful links and pages:
Microsoft TechNet – Various Microsoft related from Azure to Docker to Windows
storageio.com/links – Various industry links (over 1,000 with more to be added soon)
objectstoragecenter.com – Cloud and object storage topics, tips and news items
OpenStack.org – Various OpenStack related items
storageio.com/protect – Various data protection items and topics
thenvmeplace.com – Focus on NVMe trends and technologies
thessdplace.com – NVM and Solid State Disk topics, tips and techniques
storageio.com/converge – Various CI, HCI and related SDS topics
storageio.com/performance – Various server, storage and I/O benchmark and tools
VMware Technical Network – Various VMware related items

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials(CRC Press).

Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

VMware vSAN 6.6 hyper-converged (HCI) software defined data infrastructure

server storage I/O trends

VMware vSAN 6.6 hyper-converged (HCI) software defined data infrastructure

In case you missed it, VMware announced vSAN v6.6 hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) software defined data infrastructure solution. This is the first of a five-part series about VMware vSAN V6.6. Part II (just the speeds feeds please) is located here, part III (reducing cost and complexity) located here, part IV (scaling ROBO and data centers today) found here, as well as part V here (VMware vSAN evolution, where to learn more and summary).

VMware vSAN 6.6
Image via VMware

For those who are not aware, vSAN is a VMware virtual Storage Area Network (e.g. vSAN) that is software-defined, part of being a software-defined data infrastructure (SDDI) and software-defined data center (SDDC). Besides being software-defined vSAN is HCI combining compute (server), I/O networking, storage (space and I/O) along with hypervisors, management, and other tools.

Software-defined data infrastructure

Excuse Me, What is vSAN and who is if for

Some might find it odd having to explain what vSAN is, on the other hand, not everybody is dialed into the VMware world ecosystem, so let’s give them some help, for everybody else, and feel free to jump ahead.

For those not familiar, VMware vSAN is an HCI software-defined storage solution that converges compute (hypervisors and server) with storage space capacity and I/O performance along with networking. Being HCI means that with vSAN as you scale compute, storage space capacity and I/O performance also increases in an aggregated fashion. Likewise, increase storage space capacity and server I/O performance you also get more compute capabilities (along with memory).

For VMware-centric environments looking to go CI or HCI, vSAN offers compelling value proposition leveraging known VMware tools and staff skills (knowledge, experience, tradecraft). Another benefit of vSAN is the ability to select your hardware platform from different vendors, a trend that other CI/HCI vendors have started to offer as well.

CI and HCI data infrastructure

Keep in mind that fast applications need a fast server, I/O and storage, as well as server storage I/O needs CPU along with memory to generate I/O operations (IOPs) or move data. What this all means is that HCI solutions such as VMware vSAN combine or converge the server compute, hypervisors, storage file system, storage devices, I/O and networking along with other functionality into an easy to deploy (and management) turnkey solution.

Learn more about CI and HCI along with who some other vendors are as well as considerations at www.storageio.com/converge. Also, visit VMware sites to find out more about vSphere ESXi hypervisors, vSAN, NSX (Software Defined Networking), vCenter, vRealize along with other tools for enabling SDDC and SDDI.

Give Me the Quick Elevator Pitch Summary

VMware has enhanced vSAN with version 6.6 (V6.6) enabling new functionality, supporting new hardware platforms along with partners, while reducing costs, improving scalability and resiliency for SDDC and SDDI environments. This includes from small medium business (SMB) to mid-market to small medium enterprise (SME) as well as workgroup, departmental along with Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO).

Being a HCI solution, management functions of the server, storage, I/O, networking, hypervisor, hardware, and software are converged to improve management productivity. Also, vSAN integrated with VMware vSphere among other tools enable modern, robust data infrastructure that serves, protect, preserve, secure and stores data along with their associated applications.

Where to Learn More

The following are additional resources to learn more about vSAN and related technologies.

What this all means

Overall a good set of enhancements as vSAN continues its evolution looking back just a few years ago, to where it is today and will be in the future. If you have not looked at vSAN recently, take some time beyond reading this piece to learn some more.

Continue reading more about VMware vSAN 6.6 in part II (just the speeds feeds please) is located here, part III (reducing cost and complexity) located here, part IV (scaling ROBO and data centers today) located here, as well as part V here (VMware vSAN evolution, where to learn more and summary).

Ok, nuff said (for now…).

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials” (CRC Press).

Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

VMware vSAN V6.6 Part II (just the speeds feeds features please)

server storage I/O trends

VMware vSAN v6.6 Part II (just the speeds feeds features please)

In case you missed it, VMware announced vSAN v6.6 hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) software defined data infrastructure solution. This is the second of a five-part series about VMware vSAN V6.6. View Part I here, part III (reducing cost and complexity) located here, part IV (scaling ROBO and data centers today) found here, as well as part V here (VMware vSAN evolution, where to learn more and summary).

VMware vSAN 6.6
Image via VMware

For those who are not aware, vSAN is a VMware virtual Storage Area Network (e.g. vSAN) that is software-defined, part of being a software-defined data infrastructure (SDDI) and software-defined data center (SDDC). Besides being software-defined vSAN is HCI combining compute (server), I/O networking, storage (space and I/O) along with hypervisors, management, and other tools.

Just the Speeds and Feeds Please

For those who just want to see the list of what’s new with vSAN V6.6, here you go:

  • Native encryption for data-at-rest
  • Compliance certifications
  • Resilient management independent of vCenter
  • Degraded Disk Handling v2.0 (DDHv2)
  • Smart repairs and enhanced rebalancing
  • Intelligent rebuilds using partial repairs
  • Certified file service & data protection solutions
  • Stretched clusters with local failure protection
  • Site affinity for stretched clusters
  • 1-click witness change for Stretched Cluster
  • vSAN Management Pack for vRealize
  • Enhanced vSAN SDK and PowerCLI
  • Simple networking with Unicast
  • vSAN Cloud Analytics with real-time support notification and recommendations
  • vSAN ConfigAssist with 1-click hardware lifecycle management
  • Extended vSAN Health Services
  • vSAN Easy Install with 1-click fixes
  • Up to 50% greater IOPS for all-flash with optimized checksum and dedupe
  • Support for new next-gen workloads
  • vSAN for Photon in Photon Platform 1.1
  • Day 0 support for latest flash technologies
  • Expanded caching tier choice
  • Docker Volume Driver 1.1

What’s New and Value Proposition of vSAN 6.6

Let’s take a closer look beyond the bullet list of what’s new with vSAN 6.6, as well as perspectives of those features to address different needs. The VMware vSAN proposition is to evolve and enable modernizing data infrastructures with HCI powered by vSphere along with vSAN.

Three main themes or characteristics (and benefits) of vSAN 6.6 include addressing (or enabling):

  • Reducing risk while scaling
  • Reducing cost and complexity
  • Scaling for today and tomorrow

VMware vSAN 6.6 summary
Image via VMware

Reducing risk while scaling

Reducing (or removing) risk while evolving your data infrastructure with HCI including flexibility of choosing among five support hardware vendors along with native security. This includes native security, availability and resiliency enhancements (including intelligent rebuilds) without sacrificing storage efficiency (capacity) or effectiveness (performance productivity), management and choice.

VMware vSAN DaRE
Image via VMware

Dat level Data at Rest Encryption (DaRE) of all vSAN dat objects that are enabled at a cluster level. The new functionality supports hybrid along with all flash SSD as well as stretched clusters. The VMware vSAN DaRE implementation is an alternative to using self-encrypting drives (SEDs) reducing cost, complexity and management activity. All vSAN features including data footprint reduction (DFR) features such as compression and deduplication are supported. For security, vSAN DaRE integrations with compliance key management technologies including those from SafeNet, Hytrust, Thales and Vormetric among others.

VMware vSAN management
Image via VMware

ESXi HTML 5 based host client, along with CLI via ESXCLI for administering vSAN clusters as an alternative in case your vCenter server(s) are offline. Management capabilities include monitoring of critical health and status details along with configuration changes.

VMware vSAN health management
Image via VMware

Health monitoring enhancements include handling of degraded vSAN devices with intelligence proactively detecting impending device failures. As part of the functionality, if a replica of the failing (or possible soon to fail) device exists, vSAN can take action to maintain data availability.

Where to Learn More

The following are additional resources to find out more about vSAN and related technologies.

What this all means

With each new release, vSAN is increasing its feature, functionality, resiliency and extensiveness associated with traditional storage and non-CI or HCI solutions. Continue reading more about VMware vSAN 6.6 in Part I here, part III (reducing cost and complexity) located here, part IV (scaling ROBO and data centers today) found here, as well as part V here (VMware vSAN evolution, where to learn more and summary).

Ok, nuff said (for now…).

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the Spring 2017 release of his new book “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials” (CRC Press).

Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

VMware vSAN V6.6 Part III (reducing costs complexity)

server storage I/O trends

VMware vSAN V6.6 Part III (Reducing costs complexity)

In case you missed it, VMware announced vSAN v6.6 hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) software defined data infrastructure solution. This is the third of a five-part series about VMware vSAN V6.6. View Part I here, Part II (just the speeds feeds please) is located here, part IV (scaling ROBO and data centers today) found here, as well as part V here (VMware vSAN evolution, where to learn more and summary).

VMware vSAN 6.6
Image via VMware

For those who are not aware, vSAN is a VMware virtual Storage Area Network (e.g. vSAN) that is software-defined, part of being a software-defined data infrastructure (SDDI) and software-defined data center (SDDC). Besides being software-defined vSAN is HCI combining compute (server), I/O networking, storage (space and I/O) along with hypervisors, management, and other tools.

Reducing cost and complexity

Reducing your total cost of ownership (TCO) including lower capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating (OPEX). VMware is claiming CapEx and OpEx reduced TCO of 50%. Keep in mind that solutions such as vSAN also can help drive return on investment (ROI) as well as return on innovation (the other ROI) via improved productivity, effectiveness, as well as efficiencies (savings). Another aspect of addressing TCO and ROI includes flexibility leveraging stretched clusters to address HA, BR, BC and DR Availability needs cost effectively. These enhancements include efficiency (and effectiveness e.g. productivity) at scale, proactive cloud analytics, and intelligent operations.

VMware vSAN stretch cluster
Image via VMware

Low cost (or cost-effective) Local, Remote Resiliency and Data Protection with Stretched Clusters across sites. Upon a site failure, vSAN maintains availability is leveraging surviving site redundancy. For performance and productivity effectiveness, I/O traffic is kept local where possible and practical, reducing cross-site network workload. Bear in mind that the best I/O is the one you do not have to do, the second is the one with the least impact.

This means if you can address I/Os as close to the application as possible (e.g. locality of reference), that is a better I/O. On the other hand, when data is not local, then the best I/O is the one involving a local or remote site with least overhead impact to applications, as well as server storage I/O (including networks) resources. Also keep in mind that with vSAN you can fine tune availability, resiliency and data protection to meet various needs by adjusting fault tolerant mode (FTM) to address a different number of failures to tolerate.

server storage I/O locality of reference

Network and cloud friendly Unicast Communication enhancements. To improve performance, availability, and capacity (CPU demand reduction) multicast communications are no longer used making for easier, simplified single site and stretched cluster configurations. When vSAN clusters upgrade to V6.6 unicast is enabled.

VMware vSAN unicast
Image via VMware

Gaining insight, awareness, adding intelligence to avoid flying blind, introducing vSAN Cloud Analytics and Proactive Guidance. Part of a VMware customer, experience improvement program, leverages cloud-based health checks for easy online known issue detection along with relevant knowledge bases pieces as well as other support notices. Whether you choose to refer to this feature as advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), proactive rules enabled management problem isolation, solving resolution I will leave that up to you.

VMware vSAN cloud analytics
Image via VMware

Part of the new tools analytics capabilities and prescriptive problem resolution (hmm, some might call that AI or advanced analytics, just saying), health check issues are identified, notifications along with suggested remediation. Another feature is the ability to leverage continuous proactive updates for advance remediation vs. waiting for subsequent vSAN releases. Net result and benefit are reducing time, the complexity of troubleshooting converged data infrastructure issues spanning servers, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software, cloud, and configuration. In other words, enable you more time to be productive vs. finding and fixing problems leveraging informed awareness for smart decision-making.

Where to Learn More

The following are additional resources to find out more about vSAN and related technologies.

What this all means

Continue reading more about VMware vSAN 6.6 in part I here, part II (just the speeds feeds please) located here, part IV (scaling ROBO and data centers today) found here, as well as part V here (VMware vSAN evolution, where to learn more and summary).

Ok, nuff said (for now…).

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials” (CRC Press).

Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

VMware vSAN V6.6 Part IV (HCI scaling ROBO and data centers today)

server storage I/O trends

VMware vSAN V6.6 Part IV (HCI scaling ROBO and data centers today)

In case you missed it, VMware announced vSAN v6.6 hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) software defined data infrastructure solution. This is the fourth of a five-part series about VMware vSAN V6.6. View Part I here, Part II (just the speeds feeds please) is located here, part III (reducing cost and complexity) located here, as well as part V here (VMware vSAN evolution, where to learn more and summary).

VMware vSAN 6.6
Image via VMware

For those who are not aware, vSAN is a VMware virtual Storage Area Network (e.g. vSAN) that is software-defined, part of being a software-defined data infrastructure (SDDI) and software-defined data center (SDDC). Besides being software-defined vSAN is HCI combining compute (server), I/O networking, storage (space and I/O) along with hypervisors, management, and other tools.

Scaling HCI for ROBO and data centers today and for tomorrow

Scaling with stability for today and tomorrow. This includes addressing your applications Performance, Availability, Capacity and Economics (PACE) workload requirements today and for the future. By scaling with stability means boosting performance, availability (data protection, security, resiliency, durable, FTT), effective capacity without one of those attributes compromising another.

VMware vSAN data center scaling
Image via VMware

Scaling today for tomorrow also means adapting to today’s needs while also flexible to evolve with new application workloads, hardware as well as a cloud (public, private, hybrid, inter and intra-cloud). As part of continued performance improvements, enhancements to optimize for higher performance flash SSD including NVMe based devices.

VMware vSAN cloud analytics
Image via VMware

Part of scaling with stability means enhancing performance (as well as productivity) or the effectiveness of a solution. Keep in mind that efficiency is often associated with storage (or server or network) space capacity savings or reductions. In that context then effectiveness means performance and productivity or how much work can be done with least overhead impact. With vSAN, V6.6 performance enhancements include reduced checksum overhead, enhanced compression, and deduplication, along with destaging optimizations.

Other enhancements that help collectively contribute to vSAN performance improvements include VMware object handling (not to be confused with cloud or object storage S3 or Swift objects) as well as faster iSCSI for vSAN. Also improved are more accurate refined cache sizing guidelines. Keep in mind that a little bit of NAND flash SSD or SCM in the right place can have a significant benefit, while a lot of flash cache costs much cash.

Part of enabling and leveraging new technology today includes support for larger capacity 1.6TB flash SSD drives for cache, as well as lower read latency with 3D XPoint and NVMe drives such as those from Intel among others. Refer to the VMware vSAN HCL for current supported devices which continue evolve along with the partner ecosystem. Future proofing is also enabled where you can grow from today to tomorrow as new storage class memories (SCM) among other flash SSD as well as NVMe enhanced storage among other technologies are introduced into the market as well as VMware vSAN HCL.

VMware vSAN and data center class applications
Image via VMware

Traditional CI and in particular many HCI solutions have been optimized or focused on smaller application workloads including VDI resulting in the perception that HCI, in general, is only for smaller environments, or larger environment non-mission critical workloads. With vSAN V6.6 VMware is addressing and enabling larger environment mission critical applications including Intersystem Cache medical health management software among others. Other application workload extensions including support for higher performance demanding Hadoop big data analytics, a well as extending virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) workspace with XenDesktop/XenApp, along with Photon 1.1 container support.

What about VMware vSAN 6.6. Packaging and License Options

As part of vSAN 6.6 VMware several solution bundle packaged options for the data center as well as smaller ROBO environment. Contact your VMware representative or partner to learn more about specific details.

VMware vSAN cloud analytics
Image via VMware

VMware vSAN cloud analytics
Image via VMware

Where to Learn More

The following are additional resources to find out more about vSAN and related technologies.

What this all means

Continue reading more about VMware vSAN 6.6 in part I here, part II (just the speeds feeds please) is located here, part III (reducing cost and complexity) located here as well as part V here (VMware vSAN evolution, where to learn more and summary).

Ok, nuff said (for now…).

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the Spring 2017 release of his new book “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials” (CRC Press).

Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

VMware vSAN V6.6 Part V (vSAN evolution and summary)

server storage I/O trends

VMware vSAN V6.6 Part V (vSAN evolution and summary)

In case you missed it, VMware announced vSAN v6.6 hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) software defined data infrastructure solution. This is the fifth of a five-part series about VMware vSAN V6.6. View Part I here, Part II (just the speeds feeds please) is located here, part III (reducing cost and complexity) found here, part IV (scaling ROBO and data centers today) located here.

VMware vSAN 6.6
Image via VMware

For those who are not aware, vSAN is a VMware virtual Storage Area Network (e.g. vSAN) that is software-defined, part of being a software-defined data infrastructure (SDDI) and software-defined data center (SDDC). Besides being software-defined vSAN is HCI combining compute (server), I/O networking, storage (space and I/O) along with hypervisors, management, and other tools.

How has vSAN (formerly referred to as VSAN) Evolved

A quick recap of the VMware vSAN progression which first appeared as part of vSphere 5.5. (e.g. vSAN 5.5 can be thought of 1.0 in some ways) consists of several releases. Since vSAN is tightly integrated with VMware vSphere along with associated management tools, there is a correlation between enhancements to the underlying hypervisor, and added vSAN functionality. Keep in mind sometimes by seeing where something has been, helps to view where going.

Previous vSAN enhancements include:

  • 5.5 Hybrid (mixed HDD and flash)
  • 6.2 (2016) All flash (e.g. AFA) versions included data footprint reduction (DFR) technologies such as compression and dedupe along with performance Quality of Service (QoS) enhancements.
  • 6.5 Cross Cloud functionality including the announcement of container support, cloud-native apps, as well as upcoming vSphere, vSAN, NSX and other VMware software-defined data center (SDDC) and software-defined data infrastructure (SDDI) technology running natively on AWS (not on EC2) cloud infrastructure.
  • 6.6 Modern data infrastructure flexibility, scalability, resiliency, extensibility including performance, availability, capacity and economics (PACE).

V5.5

  • Distributed RAID
  • Per-VM SPBM
  • Set and change FTT via policy
  • In-kernel hyper-convergence engine
  • RVC and Observer

V6.0

  • All-flash architecture
  • Perf improvements (4xIOPS)
  • 64-node support
  • High-density storage blades
  • Fault domain awareness
  • Scalable snapshots and clones
  • Disk enclosure management

V6.1

  • Windows Failover Clustering
  • Oracle RAC support
  • HW checksum and encryption
  • 2-node ROBO mode
  • UltraDIMM and NVMe support
  • Stretch clusters
  • 5 min RPO (vSphere Rep)
  • SMP-FT support
  • Health Check, vROps, Log Insight

V6.2

  • IPv6 support
  • Software checksum
  • Nearline dedupe and compression on all-flash
  • Erasure coding on all-flash
  • QoS IOPS limits
  • Performance monitoring service

V6.5

  • iSCSI
  • 2-Node direct connect
  • PowerCLI
  • Public APIs and SDK
  • 512e support
  • All-Flash to all editions

Where to Learn More

The following are additional resources to find out more about vSAN and related technologies.

What this all means, wrap up and summary

VMware continues to extend the software-defined data center (SDDC) and Software-Defined Data Infrastructure (SDDI) ecosystem with vSAN to address the needs from smaller SMB and ROBO environments to larger SME and enterprise workloads. To me a theme with V6.6 is expanding resiliency, scalability with stability to expand vSAN upmarket as well as into new workloads similar to how vSphere has evolved.

With each new release, vSAN is increasing its feature, functionality, resiliency and extensiveness associated with traditional storage and non-CI or HCI solutions. Overall a good set of enhancements as vSAN continues its evolution looking back just a few years ago, to where it is today and will be in the future. If you have not looked at vSAN recently, take some time beyond reading this piece to learn some more.

Ok, nuff said (for now…).

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the Spring 2017 release of his new book “Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials” (CRC Press).

Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

March 2017 Server StorageIO Data Infrastructure Update Newsletter

Volume 17, Issue III

Hello and welcome to the March 2017 issue of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

First a reminder world backup (and recovery) day is on March 31. Following up from the February Server StorageIO update newsletter that had a focus on data protection this edition includes some additional posts, articles, tips and commentary below.

Other data infrastructure (and tradecraft) topics in this edition include cloud, virtual, server, storage and I/O including NVMe as well as networks. Industry trends include new technology and services announcements, cloud services, HPE buying Nimble among other activity. Check out the Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyper-Converged (HCI) and Cluster in Box (or Cloud in Box) coverage including a recent SNIA webinar I was invited to be the guest presenter for, along with companion post below.

In This Issue

Enjoy this edition of the Server StorageIO update newsletter.

Cheers GS

Data Infrastructure and IT Industry Activity Trends

Some recent Industry Activities, Trends, News and Announcements include:

Dell EMC has discontinued the NVMe direct attached shared DSSD D5 all flash array has been discontinued. At about the same time Dell EMC is shutting down the DSSD D5 product, it has also signaled they will leverage the various technologies including NVMe across their broad server storage portfolio in different ways moving forward. While Dell EMC is shutting down DSSD D5, they are also bringing additional NVMe solutions to the market including those they have been shipping for years (e.g. on the server-side). Learn more about DSSD D5 here and here including perspectives of how it could have been used (plays for playbooks).

Meanwhile NVMe industry activity continues to expand with different solutions from startups such as E8, Excelero, Everspin, Intel, Mellanox, Micron, Samsung and WD SANdisk among others. Also keep in mind, if the answer is NVMe, then what were and are the questions to ask, as well as what are some easy to use benchmark scripts (using fio, diskspd, vdbench, iometer).

Speaking of NVMe, flash and SSDs, Amazon Web Services (AWS) have added new Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) storage and I/O optimized i3 instances. These new instances are available in various configurations with different amounts of vCPU (cores or logical processors), memory and NVMe SSD capacities (and quantity) along with price.

Note that the price per i3 instance varies not only by its configuration, also for image and region deployed in. The flash SSD capacities range from an entry-level (i3.large) with 2 vCPU (logical processors), 15.25GB of RAM and a single 475GB NVMe SSD that for example in the US East Region was recently priced at $0.156 per hour. At the high-end there is the i3.16xlarge with 64 vCPU (logical processors), 488GB RAM and 8 x 1900GB NVMe SSDs with a recent US East Region price of $4.992 per hour. Note that the vCPU refers to the available number of logical processors available and not necessarily cores or sockets.

Also note that your performance will vary, and while NVMe protocol tends to use less CPU per I/O, if generating a large number of I/Os you will need some CPU. What this means is that if you find your performance limited compared to expectations with the lower end i3 instances, move up to a larger instance and see what happens. If you have a Windows-based environment, you can use a tool such as Diskspd to see what happens with I/O performance as you decrease the number of CPUs used.

Chelsio has announced they are now Microsoft Azure Stack Certified with their iWARP RDMA host adapter solutions, as well as for converged infrastructure (CI), hyper-converged (HCI) and legacy server storage deployments. As part of the announcement, Chelsio is also offering a 30 day no cost trial of their adapters for Microsoft Azure Stack, Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 client environments. Learn more about the Chelsio trial offer here.

Everspin (the MRAM Spintorque, persistent RAM folks) have announced a new Storage Class Memory (SCM) NVMe accessible family (nvNITRO) of storage accelerator devices (PCIe AiC, U.2). Whats interesting about Everspin is that they are using NVMe for accessing their persistent RAM (e.g. MRAM) making it easily plug compatible with existing operating systems or hypervisors. This means using standard out of the box NVMe drivers where the Everspin SCM appears as a block device (for compatibility) functioning as a low latency, high performance persistent write cache.

Something else interesting besides making the new memory compatible with existing servers CPU complex via PCIe, is how Everspin is demonstrating that NVMe as a general access protocol is not just exclusive to nand flash-based SSDs. What this means is that instead of using non-persistent DRAM, or slower NAND flash (or 3D XPoint SCM), Everspin nvNITRO enables high endurance write cache with persistent to compliment existing NAND flash as well as emerging 3D XPoint based storage. Keep an eye on Everspin as they are doing some interesting things for future discussions.

Google Cloud Services has added additional regions (cloud locations) and other enhancements.

HPE continued buying into server storage I/O data infrastructure technologies announcing an all cash (e.g. no stock) acquisition of Nimble Storage (NMBL). The cash acquisition for a little over $1B USD amounts to $12.50 USD per Nimble share, double what it had traded at. As a refresh, or overview, Nimble is an all flash shared storage system leverage NAND flash solid storage device (SSD) performance. Note that Nimble also partners with Cisco and Lenovo platforms that compete with HPE servers for converged systems.View additional perspectives here.

Riverbed has announced the release of Steelfusion 5 which while its name implies physical hardware metal, the solution is available as tin wrapped (e.g. hardware appliance) software. However the solution is also available for deployment as a VMware virtual appliance for remote office branch office (ROBO) among others. Enhancements include converged functionality such as NAS support along with network latency as well as bandwidth among other features.

Check out other industry news, comments, trends perspectives here.

Server StorageIOblog Posts

Recent and popular Server StorageIOblog posts include:

View other recent as well as past StorageIOblog posts here

Server StorageIO Commentary in the news

Recent Server StorageIO industry trends perspectives commentary in the news.

Via InfoStor: 8 Big Enterprise SSD Trends to Expect in 2017
Watch for increased capacities at lower cost, differentiation awareness of high-capacity, low-cost and lower performing SSDs versus improved durability and performance along with cost capacity enhancements for active SSD (read and write optimized). You can also expect increased support for NVMe both as a back-end storage device with different form factors (e.g., M.2 gum sticks, U.2 8639 drives, PCIe cards) as well as front-end (e.g., storage systems that are NVMe-attached) including local direct-attached and fiber-attached. This means more awareness around NVMe both as front-end and back-end deployment options.

Via SearchITOperations: Storage performance bottlenecks
Sometimes it takes more than an aspirin to cure a headache. There may be a bottleneck somewhere else, in hardware, software, storage system architecture or something else.

Via SearchDNS: Parsing through the software-defined storage hype
Beyond scalability, SDS technology aims for freedom from the limits of proprietary hardware.

Via InfoStor: Data Storage Industry Braces for AI and Machine Learning
AI could also lead to untapped hidden or unknown value in existing data that has no or little perceived value

Via SearchDataCenter: New options to evolve data backup recovery

View more Server, Storage and I/O trends and perspectives comments here

Various Tips, Tools, Technology and Tradecraft Topics

Recent Data Infrastructure Tradecraft Articles, Tips, Tools, Tricks and related topics.

Via ComputerWeekly: Time to restore from backup: Do you know where your data is?
Via IDG/NetworkWorld: Ensure your data infrastructure remains available and resilient
Via IDG/NetworkWorld: Whats a data infrastructure?

Check out Scott Lowe @Scott_Lowe of VMware fame who while having a virtual networking focus has a nice roundup of related data infrastructure topics cloud, open source among others.

Want to take a break from reading or listening to tech talk, check out some of the fun videos including aerial drone (and some technology topics) at www.storageio.tv.

View more tips and articles here

Events and Activities

Recent and upcoming event activities.

May 8-10, 2017 – Dell EMCworld – Las Vegas

April 3-7, 2017 – Seminars – Dutch workshop seminar series – Nijkerk Netherlands

March 15, 2017 – Webinar – SNIA/BrightTalkHyperConverged and Storage – 10AM PT

January 26 2017 – Seminar – Presenting at Wipro SDx Summit London UK

See more webinars and activities on the Server StorageIO Events page here.


Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert (and vSAN). Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Watch for the spring 2017 release of his new book Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials(CRC Press).

Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved.

HPE Continues Buying Into Server Storage I/O Data Infrastructures

Storage I/O Data Infrastructures trends
Updated 1/16/2018

HPE expanded its Storage I/O Data Infrastructures portfolio buying into server storage I/O data infrastructure technologies announcing an all cash (e.g. no stock) acquisition of Nimble Storage (NMBL). The cash acquisition for a little over $1B USD amounts to $12.50 USD per Nimble share, double what it had traded at. As a refresh, or overview, Nimble is an all flash shared storage system leverage NAND flash solid storage device (SSD) performance. Note that Nimble also partners with Cisco and Lenovo platforms that compete with HPE servers for converged systems.

Earlier this year (keep in mind its only mid-March) HPE also announced acquisition of server storage Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) vendor Simplivity (about $650M USD cash). In another investment this year HPE joined other investors as part of scale out and software defined storage startups Hedvig latest funding round (more on that later). These acquisitions are in addition to smaller ones such as last years buying of SGI, not to mention various divestitures.

Data Infrastructures

What Are Server Storage I/O Data Infrastructures Resources

Data Infrastructures exists to support business, cloud and information technology (IT) among other applications that transform data into information or services. The fundamental role of data infrastructures is to give a platform environment for applications and data that is resilient, flexible, scalable, agile, efficient as well as cost-effective.

Technologies that make up data infrastructures include hardware, software, cloud or managed services, servers, storage, I/O and networking along with people, processes, policies along with various tools spanning legacy, software-defined virtual, containers and cloud.

HPE and Server Storage Acquisitions

HPE and its predecessor HP (e.g. before the split that resulted in HPE) was familiar with expanding its data infrastructure portfolio spanning servers, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software and services. These range from Compaq who acquired DEC which gave them the StorageWorks brand and product line up (e.g. recall EVA and its predecessors), Lefthand, 3PAR, IBRIX, Polyserve, Autonomy, EDS and others that I’m guessing some at HPE (along with customers and partners) might not want to remember.

In addition to their own in-house including via technology acquisition, HPE also partners for its entry-level and volume low-end MSA (Modular Storage Array) series with DotHill who was acquired by Seagate a year or so ago. In addition to the MSA, other HPE OEMs for storage include Hitachi Ltd. (e.g. parent of Hitachi Data Systems aka HDS) reselling their high-end enterprise class storage system as the XP7, as well as various other partner arrangements.

Keep in mind that HPE has a large server business from low to high-end, spanning towers to dense blades to dual, quad and cluster in box (CiB) configurations with various processor architectures. Some of these servers are used as platforms for not only HPE, also other vendors software defined storage, as well as tin wrapped software solutions, appliances and systems. HPE is also one of a handful of partners working with Microsoft to bring the software defined private (and hybrid) Azure Stack cloud stack as an appliance to market.

HPE acquisitions Dejavu or Something New?

For some people there may be a sense of Dejavu of what HPE and its predecessors have previously acquired, developed, sold and supported into the market over years (and decades in some cases). What will be interesting to see is how the 3PAR (StoreServ) and Lefthand based (StoreVirtual) as well as ConvergedSystem 250-HC product lines are realigned to make way for Nimble and Simplivity.

Likewise what will HPE do with MSA at the low-end, continue to leverage it for low-end and high-volume basic storage similar to Dell with the Netapp/Engenio powered MD series? Or will HPE try to move the Nimble down market and displace the MDS? What about in the mid-market, will Nimble be unleashed to replace StoreVirtual (e.g. Lefthand), or will they fence it in (e.g. being restricted to certain scenarios?
Will the Nimble solution be allowed to move up market into the low-end of where 3PAR has been positioned, perhaps even higher up given its all flash capabilities. Or, will there be a 3PAR everywhere approach?

Then there is Simplivity as the solution is effectively software running on an HPE server (or with other partners Cisco and Lenovo) along with a PCIe offload card (with Simplivity data services acceleration). Note that Simplivity leverages PCIe offload cards for some of their functionality, this too is familiar ground for HPE given its ASIC use by 3PAR.

Simplivity has the potential to disrupt some low to mid-range, perhaps even larger opportunities that are looking to go to a converged infrastructure (CI) or HCI deployment as part of their data infrastructure needs. One can speculate that Simplivity after repackaging will be positioned along current HPE CI and HCI solutions.

This will be interesting to watch to see if the HPE server and storage groups can converge not only from a technology point, also sales, marketing, service, and support perspective. With the Simplivity solution, HPE has an opportunity to move the industry thinking or perception that HCI is only for small environments defined by what some products can do.

What I mean by this is that HPE with its enterprise and SMB along with SME and cloud managed service provider experience as well as servers can bring hyper-scale out (and up) converged to the market. In other words, start addressing the concern I hear from larger organizations that most CI or HCI solutions (or packaging) are just for smaller environments. HPE has the servers, they have the storage from MSAs to other modules and core data infrastructure building blocks along with the robustness of the Simplivity software to enable hyper-scale out CI.

What about bulk, object, scale-out storage

HPE has a robust tape business, yes I know tape is dead, however tell that to the customers who keep buying products providing revenue along with margin to HPE (and others). Likewise HPE has VTLs as well as other solutions for addressing bulk data (e.g. big data, backups, protection copies, archives, high volume, and large quantity, what goes on tape or object). For example HPE has the StoreOnce solution.

However where is the HPE object storage story?

Otoh, does HPE its own object storage software, simply partner with others? HPE can continue to provide servers along with underlying storage for other vendors bulk, cloud and object storage systems, and where needed, meet in the channel among other arrangements.

On the other hand, this is where similar to Polyserve and Ibrix among others in the past have come into play, with HPE via its pathfinder (investment group) joining others in putting some money into Hedvig. HPE gets access to Hedvig for their scale out storage that can be used for bulk as well as other deployments including CI, HCI and CIB (e.g. something to sell HPE servers and storage with).

HPE can continue to partner with other software providers and software-defined storage stacks. Keep in mind that Milan Shetti (CTO, Data Center Infrastructure Group HPE) is no stranger to these waters given his past at Ibrix among others.

What About Hedvig

Time to get back to Hedvig which is a storage startup whose software can run on various server storage platforms, as well as in different topologies. Different topologies include in a CI or HCI, Cloud, as well as scale out with various access including block, file and object. In addition to block, file and object access, Hedvig has interesting management tools, data services, along with support for VMware, Docker, and OpenStack among others.

Recently Hedvig landed another $21.5M USD in funding bringing their total to about $52M USD. HPE via its investment arm, joins other investors (note HPE was part of the $21.5M, that was not the amount they invested) including Vertex, Atlantic Bridge, Redpoint, edbi and true ventures.

What does this mean for HPE and Hedvig among others? Tough to say however easy to imagine how Hedvig could be leveraged as a partner using HPE servers, as well as for HPE to have an addition to their bulk, scale-out, cloud and object storage portfolio.

Where to Learn More

View more material on HPE, data infrastructure and related topics with the following links.

  • Cloud and Object storage are in your future, what are some questions?
  • PCIe Server Storage I/O Network Fundamentals
  • If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?
  • Fixing the Microsoft Windows 10 1709 post upgrade restart loop
  • Data Infrastructure server storage I/O network Recommended Reading
  • Introducing Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL Overview
  • IT transformation Serverless Life Beyond DevOps with New York Times CTO Nick Rockwell Podcast
  • HPE Announces AMD Powered Gen 10 ProLiant DL385 For Software Defined Workloads
  • AWS Announces New S3 Cloud Storage Security Encryption Features
  • NVM Non Volatile Memory Express NVMe Place
  • Data Infrastructure Primer and Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)
  • January 2017 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter
  • September and October 2016 Server StorageIO Update Newsletter
  • HP Buys one of the seven networking dwarfs and gets a bargain
  • Did HP respond to EMC and Cisco VCE with Microsoft Hyper-V bundle?
  • Give HP storage some love and short strokin
  • While HP and Dell make counter bids, exclusive interview with 3PAR CEO David Scott
  • Data Protection Fundamental Topics Tools Techniques Technologies Tips
  • Hewlett-Packard beats Dell, pays $2.35 billion for 3PAR
  • HP Moonshot 1500 software defined capable compute servers
  • What Does Converged (CI) and Hyper converged (HCI) Mean to Storage I/O?
  • What’s a data infrastructure?
  • Ensure your data infrastructure remains available and resilient
  • Object Storage Center, The SSD place and The NVMe place
  • Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What this all means

    Generally speaking I think this is a good series of moves for HPE (and their customers) as long as they can execute in all dimensions.

    Let’s see how they execute, and by this, I mean more than simply executing or terminating staff from recently acquired or earlier acquisitions. How will HPE craft go to the market message that leverages the portfolio to compete and hold or take share from other vendors, vs. cannibalize across its own lines (e.g. revenue prevention)? With that strategy and message, how will HPE assure existing customers will be taken care, be given a definite upgrade and migration path vs. giving them a reason to go elsewhere.

    Hopefully HPE unleashes the full potential of Simplivity and Nimble along with 3PAR, XP7 where needed, along with MSA at low-end (or as part of volume scale-out with servers for software defined), to mention sever portfolio. For now, this tells me that HPE is still interested in maintaining, expanding their data infrastructure business vs. simply retrenching selling off assets. Thus this looks like HPE is interested in continuing to invest in data infrastructure technologies including buying into server, storage I/O network, hardware, software solutions, while not simply clinging to what they already have, or previously bought.

    Everything is not the same in data centers and across data infrastructure, so why have a one size fits all approach for organization as large, diverse as HPE.

    Congratulations and best wishes to the folks at Hedvig, Nimble, Simplivity.

    Now, lets see how this all plays out.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links P to T

    Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links P to T

    IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

    Updated 6/13/2018

    Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links P to T to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

    Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

    Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

    Links A-E
    Links F-J
    Links K-O
    Links P-T
    Links U-Z
    Other Links

    • Packeteer.com    WAFS and networking solutions (Bought Tacit)
    • packetlight.com    CWDM and DWDM networking solutions
    • Panasas.com    Clustered storage solution
    • pancetera.com    Virtual machine backup software (Bought by Quantum)
    • Panduit.com    Networking and cable management
    • panzura.com    Cloud storage access software
    • paraccel.com     Business and data analytics
    • paragon-software.com    Storage management and backup tools
    • parallels.com    VDI and desktop virtualization and cloud tools
    • parascale.com     Clustered and cloud storage software
    • pcisig.com    PCI trade group (PCI, PCI-X, PCI-Express/PCIe)
    • penguincomputing.com    HPC servers, storage and hosting
    • pergamumsystems.com    Archive solutions (Stealth)
    • Permabit.com    Data archiving solutions
    • Pernixdata    Server and storage I/O cache optimization for virtual servers
    • perotsystems.com    Hosting and managed service provider (Bought by Dell)
    • pgp.com    Security tools (Bought by Symantec)
    • PHDvirtual    Data protection tools
    • Pillardata.com    Data storage solutions – (Bought by Oracle)
    • pineapp.com    Email, archive solutions, web and data protection
    • Piviot3.com    IP Storage
    • Pivotal Labs    Big Data, PaaS development tools, EMC/VMware spinout
    • plasmon.com    (Now called Alliance Storage Technologies) Optical Storage Solutions
    • plextoramericas.com    SSD and other storage solutions
    • plianttechnology.com    Solid state storage devices (SSD) – (Bought by SANdisk)
    • Pluribus Networks    Converged and software defined network management
    • pmc-serria.com    Storage networking component supplier
    • pny.com    Memory componets and technology
    • Pogoplug    Cloud storage
    • PolyServe.com    Clustered storage solutions (Sold to HP)
    • Polargy    Data Center facilaties, HVAC and DCIM solutions
    • power.org    Power Processor trade group
    • Mushkin   SSD Solutions
    • Peak Cloud    Cloud and storage services
    • PowerFile.com    Data archiving solutions
    • powerware.com    UPS and power conditioning systems
    • procedo.com    Archiving and migration solutions
    • proceedtechnologies.com    SAP consulting
    • profusionbackups.com    Cloud and managed backup service solution
    • progeny.net    VAR and specialized IT systems
    • prolexic.com    Distributed denial of service tools
    • promise.com    RAID storage systems
    • Prostorsystems.com    Removable disk storage (See RDX Alliance)
    • Proxim.com    Wireless networking
    • proximaldata.com    SSD caching and tiering software
    • pt.com    Communications hardware and software
    • puresi.com aka Puresilicon    SSD storage solutions
    • purestorage.com    SSD based storage
    • Puppet Labs    IT Automation and DCIM tools for physical, Cloud and Virtual

    • qlogic.com    Host bus adapters and switches
    • qsantechnology.com    iSCSI IP storage
    • Qstart Technologies    Data protection storage including LTFS based systems
    • Quadric Software    Data protection software
    • qualstar.com    Tape backup and archive solutions (Aka Qstar)
    • quantum.com    Tape drives and libraries
    • quest.com    IT and data management solution tools (Bought by Dell)
    • Qumulo    Stealth storage startup
    • qwest.com    (Century Link) Telephone and data networking, managed services provider
    • racemi.com    Repurposing management tools
    • Rackable.com    Now SGI
    • Rackspace.com    Managed services and hosting
    • www.rackwise.com    Data center management tools
    • raidinc.com    Storage systems
    • raidundant.com    Storage systems
    • Rainfinity.com    File virtualization (Bought by EMC)
    • rainstor.com    Big data management tools
    • rapidio.org    RapidIO Trade Group
    • Raritan    Data center and DCIM tools
    • rasilient.com    Storage subsystem vendor
    • Ravello    VMware optimization and management tools
    • Raxco    Data, storage and systems management tools
    • rebit.com    Backup and data protection solutions
    • RecordNation    Digital Data Storage and Records Management
    • redbend.com    Mobile device and application management
    • redbooks.ibm.com    IBM Red books and Red pieces technical articles
    • Redhat.com    Linux provider (Bought Gluster)
    • Reduxio    Hybrid storage with data services
    • reflexphotonics.com    Optical connectivity solutions
    • Reldata.com    Storage systems (Renamed Starboard)
    • remote-backup.com    Remote backup software
    • renewdata.com    Data management and compliance tools
    • repliweb.com    Web and content distribution
    • Retrospect    Data Protection Software Tools
    • revivio.com    Data Protection Software (Assets Bought by Symantec)
    • rightscale.com    Amazon cloud computing management tools
    • rimage.com    CD/DVD production technologies
    • risingtidesystems.com    VAR
    • Ritek.com    Storage solutions
    • rittal.com    Enclosures and cabinets
    • riverbed.com    Wide area file access acceleration solution
    • rjssoftware.com    Document capture and management
    • rmsource.com    Cloud backup solutions
    • rnanetworks.com    Virtual memory management solutions (Bought by Dell)
    • rocketdivision.com    iSCSI technologies
    • rorke.com    VAR
    • rpath.com    Data center automation
    • rsa.com    Security division of EMC
    • safemediacorp.com    Internet security and intrusion detection tools
    • safenet-inc.com    Data protection focused VAR
    • Sagecloud   Cloud storage, deep cold archive
    • samsung.com    Various technologies including SSD memory
    • sanblaze.com    Embedded storage and emulation solutions
    • SANbolic.com    Storage, server and cloud management tools
    • sand-chip.com    Chip design
    • SANDforce.com    SSD storage solutions – (Bought by LSI)
    • sandial.com    Defunct SAN startup
    • SANdisk.com    SSD memory components
    • sandpiperdata.com    Data migration services
    • sanmina-sci.com    Contract manufacturer (Virtual Factory) for various OEM/VARs
    • sanovi.com    Disaster recovery management tools
    • sanpulse.com    SRA and automation tools
    • sanrad.com    Storage networking routers (Bought by OCZ)
    • sans.org    Security related web site
    • sansdigital.com    VAR
    • sap.com    Information management tools and applications
    • sas.com    Statistical analysis software
    • sata-io.org    Serial ATA trade organization
    • SavageIO   High performance storage solutions
    • savvis.com    Cloud, managed service provider and hosting (Bought by Centurylink)
    • sbbwg.org    Storage Bridge Bay Working Group
    • scalable-systems.com    Data warehouse consulting and tools
    • scalecomputing.com    Clustered storage management software
    • scalemp.com    Virtualization technology for scale out computing
    • scalent.com    Virtual IT data center management tools
    • scality.com    Email and sharepoint cloud storage
    • schoonerinfotech.com    SSD based database management solutions
    • scsita.org    SCSI and SAS trade group
    • seagate.com    Disk drives
    • Sealpath   Data and information protection tools
    • seanodes.com    Distributed storage
    • sec.gov    Site about compliance items including CFR 17a-4
    • securedatainnovations.com    Data protection and security tools
    • sentilla.com    Data center performance management tools
    • sepaton.com    Disk based backup solutions
    • serialata.org    Serial ATA trade association
    • servicemesh.com    Cloud, datacenter transformation and devops tools
    • servicenow.com    ITIL data center management tools
    • 1servosity.com    Cloud data protection
    • servoy.com    Cloud development tools
    • ServPath.com    Hosting services
    • seven10storage.com    Disaster recovery and archiving software
    • sgi.com    Storage, server and data management hardware, software, tools
    • sherpasoftware.com    Email archiving
    • shop.bellmicro.com    Distributor (Bought by Avnet)
    • siber.com    Data protection and security tools
    • sidusdata.com    Managed service and cloud provider
    • siemon.com    Storage networking infrastructure items
    • sigmasol.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
    • Signiant.com    Data management tools
    • silexamerica.com    Mobile device and server connectivity
    • SiliconImage.com    Digital Video components
    • SiliconStor.com    Storage networking silicon
    • siliconvalleypr.com    IT technologies press/media and analyst relations firm
    • silveradotech.com    VAR
    • silver-peak.com    Wide area data and file services (WAFS, WADM, WADS)
    • SilverSky    Cloud security
    • simpletech.com    Storage solutions including USB portable devices
    • simplivity.com    Convergence and virtualization solutions
    • simplycontinuous.net    Data protection and cloud backup
    • siriuscom.com    VAR
    • site-vault.com    On-line backup server provider (BSP) managed service provider (MSP)
    • skyera.com    SSD storage solutions
    • skytap.com    Public and private cloud application development tools
    • Smart421   Smart421    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • smartm.com    PC card and other memory module components
    • smc.com    Storage and networking components
    • smithmicro.com    Mobile data management tools
    • smmdirect.com    Memory devices
    • snapappliances.com    NAS Storage solutions (Now Adaptec)
    • snia.org    Storage Networking Industry Association
    • snseurope.com    U.K. & European Storage Networking News
    • snwusa.com    SNIA and Computerworld conference
    • softek.com    Storage management solutions (formerly Fujitsu Softek, Sold to IBM)
    • softlayer.com    Cloud infrastructure services (IaaS) (Bought by IBM)
    • softnas.com    ZFS based opensource NAS solutions
    • softricity.com    Virtualization management tools (Bought by Microsoft)
    • Sogeti.com    Data management tools
    • solarflare.com    10Gb Ethernet networking
    • solarwinds.com    IT management tools (Bought TekTools, Hyper9 and others)
    • solidaccess.com    Solid state storage (SSD) solutions
    • soliddata.com    Solid State Disk solutions
    • solidfire.com    iSCSI SSD optimized for hosting and cloud providers
    • Solix.com    Database archiving software
    • solutiontechnology.co.uk    Storage networking training
    • sonasoft.com    Email archiving, backup and data protection
    • sonnettech.com    External storage solutions
    • sony.com    Storage devices
    • sophos.com    Data protection and security tools
    • sorrento.com    Optical networking
    • sparebackup.com    Backup data protection solutions
    • sparkweave.com    Private cloud archive and file sharing
    • spec.org    SPEC benchmarks
    • spectralogic.com    Tape library and disk based backup solutions
    • spiceworks.com    Online community and management software tools
    • spirent.com    Storage networking test equipment
    • Spiron.com  Data discovery, classification, lifecycle management (formerly Identity Finder)
    • Splice Communications   Splice Communications    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • splunk.com    DCIM and log management tools
    • spotcloud.com    Cloud services clearing house
    • spraycool.com    IT Data center and component cooling
    • springsoft.com    Bought by Synopsys
    • spsoftglobal.com    Software development
    • spyrus.com    Security tools
    • ssswg.org    IEEE Storage Systems Standards Work Group
    • starboardstorage.com    Unified storage solutions (Formerly Reldata, now ceased operations)
    • startech.com    IT/AV technolgie equipment from enclosures to KVM and more
    • starwindsoftware.com    iSCSI storage management solutions
    • stcroixsolutions.com    VAR
    • stec-inc.com    SSD storage (Bought by WD)
    • Steeleye.com    HA software
    • Stellar    Data Protection tools
    • storagetek.com    Disk, tape, data management software (Bought by Sun)
    • stonebranch.com    File transfer tools
    • stonefly.com    Storage networking routers (Aka DNF)
    • storability.com    Storage management software (Bought by STK)
    • storactive.com    Data protection solutions
    • storagecraft.com    Data protection tools
    • storagefusion.com    Storage resource analysis (SRA) tools
    • storageio.net    Alternate URL for the StorageIO Group
    • storageiogroup.com    Alternate URL for the StorageIO Group
    • storagemadeeasy.com    Hybrid and personal cloud management tools and dashboards
    • Storagemonkeys.com    Storage community site
    • storagenetworking.org    Storage Networking Users Groups also known as SNUGs
    • storageperformance.org    Storage Performance Council information
    • www.storagesearch.com    Venue for information about various storage and related topics
    • storcase.com    Data Archive solutions (Bought by Crudata)
    • store-age.com    Storage management software (Bought by LSI)
    • storediq.com    eDiscovery, search, indexing, classification (Bought by IBM)
    • Storewize.com    Real time data compression (Bought by IBM)
    • Storix.com    Data backup solutions
    • storlife.com    CAS object archive storage
    • stormagic.com    Storage virtualization and data movement software
    • storserver.com    Backup and data protection solutions
    • storsimple.com    Cloud storage access solutions (Bought by Microsoft)
    • storspeed.com    NAS/NFS optimization solutions (Missing in action)
    • stratascale.com    Cloud, hosting and management solutions
    • stratus.com    High availability storage and servers
    • sugarsync.com    Backup and data protection solutions
    • sun.com    Storage networking hardware and software (Bought by Oracle)
    • sunbeltsoftware.com    End point data protection security tools
    • sungard.com    Data protection and cloud services
    • superlumin.com    Application caching tools
    • supermicro.com    Server and storage solutions
    • surdoc.com    Cloud storage and backup
    • surgient.com    Cloud computing solutions
    • svlg.net    Silicon Valley Leadership Group
    • Swiftstack    Private cloud solutions
    • swifttest.com    NFS and CIFS storage testing solutions
    • sybase.com    Database solutions
    • sycamorenetworks.com    Networking solutions
    • Symantec.com    Data and storage management software
    • symbolicio.com    stealth startup
    • symform.com    Cloud storage and backup
    • syncsort.com    Information Management tools
    • synnex.com    Distributor
    • Synnex   IT Solutions
    • synology.com    SMB storage solutions
    • synopsys.com    Computer technology development and manufacturing
    • SysAid    Data center, DCIM and ITSM tools
    • t10.orgscsi-3.htm    ANSI T10 (SCSI information) site
    • t11.org    ANSI T11 page for Fibre Channel information
    • t3media.com    Cloud storage and video platform tools
    • tableausoftware.com    Data analytics software tools
    • tacit.com    WAN file system accelerator (Bought by Packeteer)
    • tacitnetworks.com    Wide area file access acceleration solution (Bought by Packeteer)
    • tandberg.com    Data management solutions (Bought by Cisco)
    • tapeandmedia.com    Information about magnetic tape media
    • tapepower.com    Site for tape topics
    • tarmin.com        Archiving solutions
    • teamdrive.com    Cloud storage
    • teamquest.com    IRM management and capacity management tools
    • TeamViewer.com    Remote support and Online meeting software
    • techdata.com    Distributor
    • tegile.com    Storage system solutions
    • tehutinetworks.net    High speed iSCSI adapters
    • tek-tools.com    SRM storage management software (Bought by Solarwinds)
    • TelecityGroup    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • tellabs.com    Networking components
    • Telx    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • teneros.com    Email archiving and management solutions
    • teracloud.com    Capacity planning and resource management software
    • teradata.com    Large scale database and data warehouse systems
    • teradici.com    PC over IP technologies
    • teranetics.com    Ethernet chips
    • Terascala    Data analytics and management solutions
    • ter.de    Optical storage libraries
    • terracloudinc.com    Cloud services
    • TerraScale.com    Scalable storage and server solutions
    • Verizon/Terremark   Cloud, hosting and managed services
    • Tevron   Application Response Time Monitoring
    • texmemsys.com    Solid State Disk storage
    • thebci.org    Business Continuity Institute
    • thecus.com    Multi-protocol storage
    • thegreengrid.org    Industry Trade Group
    • The Padcaster    Apple iPad tools
    • thepluggllc.com    Data center energy efficient floor tiles
    • theq3.com    Data storage security solutions
    • thinkaheadit.com aka Ahead    Value added reseller
    • thinkaheadit.com    Value added reseller (VAR)
    • thirdbrigade.com    Intrusion detection security tools (Bought by Trend Micro)
    • thirdio.com    SSD solutions
    • tiaonline.org    Telecommunications Industry Association
    • tidalsoftware.com    IT Management software tools (Bought by Cisco)
    • timespring.com    Continuous data protection solutions
    • tintri.com    NFS and NAS storage optimized for VMware
    • tivoli.com    Data management software
    • Softbank Telecom Corp.    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • Primary Data and Tonian    Stealth data virtualization startup
    • topgun-tech.com    Data Infrastructure Resource (Server, Storage, SANs)
    • top500.org    Top 500 super compute sites
    • topio.com    Data protection software (Bought by NetApp)
    • topspin.com    InfiniBand Technology (Bought by Cisco)(
    • Toshiba.com    Server and storage solutions
    • tpc.org    Transaction processing performance council
    • translattice.com    Distributed and elastic database and automation tools
    • Tredent.com    WAN optimization solutions
    • TrendMicro.com    Security and anti virus tools
    • trianz.com    VAR
    • tributary.com   Datra protection soultion tools including virtual, disk and tape-
    • trilogytechnologies.ie    Managed services provider
    • tritondata.com    IT services and VAR
    • trunkbow.com    Cloud, mobile and networking services
    • trustedcomputinggroup.org    Trusted computing industry trade group
    • trusteddatasolutions.com    VAR
    • trustedid.com    ID theft protection
    • trustware.com    Internet and data protection security tools
    • turnkeylinux.org   Turnkey Linux appliance –
    • tusc.com    VAR
    • twinstrata.com    BC/DR analysis and cloud access software
    • tw telecom   tw telecom    AWS connect parter, Hosting/cloud/access services
    • TSO logic    DCIM and data center power energy management tools
    • tzolkin.com    DNS and High Availability solutions

    Where To Learn More

    View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

    Links A-E
    Links F-J
    Links K-O
    Links P-T
    Links U-Z
    Other Links

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

    Data Infrastructure IT Industry Related Resource Links to Others

    IT Data Center and Data Infrastructure Industry Resources

    Updated 2/20/2018

    Following are some useful Data Infrastructure IT Industry Resource Links to cloud, virtual and traditional IT data infrastructure related web sites. The data infrastructure environment (servers, storage, IO and networking, hardware, software, services, virtual, container and cloud) is rapidly changing. You may encounter a missing URL, or a URL that has changed. This list is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes (additions, changes, and retirement).

    Disclaimer and note: URL’s submitted for inclusion on this site will be reviewed for consideration and to be in generally accepted good taste in regards to the theme of this site.

    Best effort has been made to validate and verify the data infrastructure URLs that appear on this page and web site however they are subject to change. The author and/or maintainer(s) of this page and web site make no endorsement to and assume no responsibility for the URLs and their content that are listed on this page.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    Send an email note to info at storageio dot com that includes company name, URL, contact name, title and phone number along with a brief 40 character description to be considered for addition to the above data infrastructure list, or, to be removed. Note that Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO LLC (e.g. StorageIO) does not sell, trade, barter, borrow or share your contact information per our Privacy and Disclosure policy. View related data infrastructure Server StorageIO content here, and signup for our free newsletter here.

    Links A-E
    Links F-J
    Links K-O
    Links P-T
    Links U-Z
    Other Links

    • www.10gea.org    10Gb Ethernet industry trade organization
    • www.1394ta.org    1394 (Firewire) trade association
    • www.3com.com    Networking equipment (Bought by HP)
    • www.3leafnetworks.com    I/O virtualization
    • www.3par.com    Clustered storage systems (Bought by HP)
    • www.3tera.com    IT Cloud management tools (Bought by CA)
    • www.4blox.com    Data center design services
    • www.4blox.com    Linux iSCSI target optimization stack
    • www.4bridgeworks.com aka Bridgeworks    SAN networking and connectivity solutions
    • www.80plus.org    Energy efficient power supply trade group

    Where To Learn More

    View additional NAS, NVMe, SSD, NVM, SCM, Data Infrastructure and HDD related topics via the following links.

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    Visit the following additional data infrastructure and IT data center related links.

    Links A-E
    Links F-J
    Links K-O
    Links P-T
    Links U-Z
    Other Links

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    Some popular 2016 storageioblog posts

    Some popular 2016 storageioblog posts

    server storage I/O trends

    Big Files and Lots of Little File Processing and Benchmarking with Vdbench – Need to test, validate, compare, contrast or simply apply workload to file systems, NAS or other file-based access? Want the flexibility and simplicity to software define your benchmark workload to meet various needs? For example, millions of small files or thousands of large 5GB, 10GB, 15GB (or larger) files with various read, write size and access patterns spanning a single directory, or many with various depths? Do you want the flexibility for different platforms including Windows, *NIX, bare metal, container, virtual or cloud without a bulk tool using simple scripts that produce lots of insightful results? Then you will want to check this post out.

    Breaking the VMware ESXi 5.5 ACPI boot loop on Lenovo TD350 – Ever have a VMware host server go into a boot loop and purple screen of death (PSD) then displaying a message about ACPI or similar? After spending time searching and applying many filters to sift through the noise of false positive matches, finally found the simple fix (e.g. a BIOS setting) to break the VMware ESXi vSphere boot loop, or at least on a Lenovo server.

    Cloud and Object Storage

    Cloud conversations: AWS EBS, Glacier and S3 overview (Part I) – This is one of the perennial favorites that while new features have been added with others extended, the post series still provides a good overview, primer or refresher of various Amazon Web Services (AWS) services including how they work. Interesting in learning more about Microsoft and Azure, then check out this, this, this and this.

    Cloud Conversations: AWS EFS Elastic File System (Cloud NAS) – This is a companion to the above AWS as well as other cloud post series that looks at AWS Elastic File System. Note that other cloud service providers have also added NAS file access support, some are intra (e.g. inside AWS cloud), others are inter-cloud (e.g. inside and outside cloud) such as Azure (can work with external Windows Servers using SMB3). Even OpenStack has added NAS file with Manila folders and Ceph with CephFS among others. So when some people tell you that NAS and file access are dead particular for cloud, remind them of the increasing number of services and software stacks that are adding new services to allow their solution to be compatible with existing environments or applications.

    Server Storage I/O performance

    Collecting Transaction Per Minute from SQL Server and HammerDB – If you have used the free tool HammerDB (e.g. Hammora) for driving database workloads, simulations or benchmarks you should recall that the resulting statistics are rather lacking. Sure there is a nice GUI chart that shows current executing transactions per second (TPS) along with some very simple counters in the log. However compared to some other tools such as sysbench, Quest Benchmark Factory and YCSB among others, the Hammer metrics are rather lacking. In this post I show how you can collect some more metrics from SQL Server if you have to use HammerDB. View more server storage I/O performance benchmark and monitoring tools resources here.

    Windows Server 2016

    Gaining Server Storage I/O Insight into Microsoft Windows Server 2016 – Microsoft released into general availability Windows Server 2016 and this post looks at some of the new features along with functionality including Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), Storage Replica (SR) as well as other enhancements. With these new and enhanced features Windows Servers increase their interoperability with Azure, as well as supporting aggregated hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), disaggregated converged (CI) as well as traditional workloads along with Hyper-V (and containers). One of the other new enhancements in Windows Server 2016 which now uses ReFS (Reliable File System) as its default file system that you can read more about here. RIP Windows SIS (Single Instance Storage), or at least in Server 2016 With Windows Server 2016 Microsoft removed single instance storage replacing with new capabilities that you can read more about in the this post.

    Garbage data in garbage data out

    Garbage data in, garbage information out, big data or big garbage? There is a classic IT expression of garbage data in results in garbage data (or information out) in that your algorithms and data structures (which equals programs e.g. Niklaus Wirth) are only as good as the data they work on. What this means then is that if there is a large amount of big data then there can also be a big garbage in and garbage out problem unless addressed.

    Hard product vs. soft product – Hard product refers to something such as hardware, software or a service resource that is obtained and then joined with other resources in a particular way to create a soft product. Not to be confused with software, the soft product is the result or how resources get defined that give some ability or benefit. Think of a soft product as for how airlines can use the same airplane, serve the same coca cola, have same seats, yet their soft product is the service experience of how those are delivered, as well as how you find and buy or use them. Another way of thinking about it is hard products are the ingredients for a recipe, the recipe defines how those ingredients result in some food dish.

    how many IOPs can an HDD or SSD do

    Part II: How many IOPS can a HDD, HHDD or SSD do with VMware? – This is part of a multi-post series looking at how many IOPs (or bandwidth) various HDD and SSDs can do handling different workloads. Of course, your results will vary with configuration settings, tools among other considerations. However, some of the older rules of thumb (RUT) about RPM and other considerations for HDDs have changed and continue to do so. As an example of how HDDs continue to evolve check out this popular post from the 2016 list Which Enterprise HDDs to use for a Content Server Platform.

    Part II: What I did with Lenovo TS140 in my Server and Storage I/O Review – This is a popular post series of some things I have done with a Lenovo TS140 including defining with various software as well as hardware. This is a great price performer value system that several years ago after testing one Lenovo sent me, I returned that to Lenovo and bought several of them to join my other systems.

    Server and Storage I/O Benchmarking and Performance Resources – This is a collection of various server, storage I/O and networking hardware, software as well as services tools, techniques as well as tips for benchmarking, comparing, simulation, testing, gaining insight across cloud, virtual, container and legacy resources. Server and Storage I/O Benchmark Tools: Microsoft Diskspd (Part I) – This is one of the tools found on the server, storage I/O benchmarking and performance resources page. Diskspd is a tool developed by Microsoft as an alternative to using Iometer, vdbench, fio.exe, SQLIO among many others, plus, it is on github.

    server storage I/O nvme and ssd

    The NVM (Non Volatile Memory) and NVMe Place – Interesting and adoption in nand flash, nvram, 3D XPoint among other SSD and Non-volatile Memory (NVM) continues. Another popular post that you can find at thenvmeplace.com is this NVMe overview and primer – Part I. There is a growing interest, awareness and deployment adoption around NVM Express (NVMe) the new protocol for accessing NVMs and SSDs. Some of the common conversations and questions I encounter is confusion between NVM and NVMe, too which the answer is one (the former) are the media or devices, the other is the access method alternative to using AHCI/SATA or SCSI (e.g. SAS, iSCSI, FCP, SRP) among others.

    VMware VVOLs and storage I/O fundamentals (Part 1) – VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) continue to gain adoption and this post is part of an overview and primer. If you want to go deeper into VVOL as well as see some adoption insights check out Eric Sieberts post here over at vsphere-land.com

    Welcome to the Object Storage Center page – This is a micro site that has a primer and overview of cloud as well as object storage along with an expanding list of links to various resources, tips, technologies, tools, trends and industry activity.

    Where To Learn More

    www.storageio.com particular if you have not been there for awhile to check out the new streamlined look and navigation to various content including Server StorageIO update newsletters (free subscription) among other resources.

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What this all means and wrapping up

    Some of the popular posts for 2016 are perennial favorites and based on experience will probably appear on the 2017 list. However there are also several new posts that appeared in 2016 that I suspect will also appear on the 2017 version of the above list, along with new content from 2017.

    Thank you to all of you who frequent StorageIOblog.com as well as StorageIO.com along with our various micro sites including server storage I/O performance and benchmarking resources, thenvmeplace.com, thessdplace.com, cloud and objectstoragecenter.com, data protection diaries among others.

    Also thank you for viewing various partner venues and syndicates with extra ones appearing throughout 2017. Watch for more content in the coming weeks, months and throughout 2017 on software defined data infrastructures (SDDI) along with server, storage I/O, networking, hardware, software, cloud, container, data protection and related topics, trends, technologies, tools and tips.

    Again, thank you

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    Congratulations and welcome to all new and returning fellow vExperts for 2017

    Congratulations and welcome new and returning fellow 2017 vExperts

    server storage I/O trends

    VMware vExpert 2017

    The other day VMware announced the 2017 list of vExperts which you can view here.

    Congratulations and welcome to all new and returning fellow vExperts for 2017.

    In its ninth year, it is an honor to now have been named a vExpert for eight consecutive years.

    Where To Learn More

    Learn more about and view the list of 2017 VMware vExperts here.

    What this all means and wrapping up

    Thank you VMware and all of those involved with the vExpert process, as well as congratulations and best wishes to all new and returning vExperts. I’m Looking forward to being involved and participating in the VMware vExpert community for yet another year.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Cheers gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, vSAN and VMware vExpert. Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2023 Server StorageIO(R) and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    What Does Converged Infrastructure CI Hyperconverged HCI Mean to Storage I/O?

    What Does CI and HCI Mean to Storage I/O?

    server storage I/O trends

    Updated 1/17/2018

    Converged Infrastructure (CI), Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) along with Cluster or Cloud In Box (CIB) are popular trend topics that have gained both industry and customer adoption as part of data infrastructures. Data Infrastructures exists to support business, cloud and information technology (IT) among other applications that transform data into information or services. The fundamental role of legacy and software defined data infrastructures (SDDI) is to provide a platform environment for applications and data that is resilient, flexible, scalable, agile, efficient as well as cost-effective.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure overview

    Business, IT Information, Data and other Infrastructures

    Put another way, data infrastructures exist to protect, preserve, process, move, secure and serve data as well as their applications for information services delivery. Technologies that make up data infrastructures include hardware, software, cloud or managed services, servers, storage, I/O and networking along with people, processes, policies along with various tools spanning legacy, software-defined virtual, containers and cloud.

    As part of data infrastructures, CI, CIB and HCI enable simplified deployment of resources (servers, storage, I/O networking, hardware, software) across different environments. What do these various approaches (CI, HCI, CiB) mean for a hyperconverged (and converged) storage environment? What are the key concerns and considerations related specifically to storage? Most importantly, how do you know that you’re asking the right questions in order to get to the right answers?

    Join me on March 15 at 10:00 AM PT for a live (free) webinar organized by the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA) Ethernet Storage Forum (ESF). In this webinar (What Does Hyperconverged Mean to Storage) I will be joined by SNIA ESF chair John Kim of Mellanox to discuss moving beyond the hype to prepare, plan and make decisions for deploying CI, CiB and HCI.

    Some of the server, storage I/O and related topics we will be discussing during the webcast include:

  • What are the storage considerations for CI, CIB and HCI
  • Fast applications and fast servers need fast server storage I/O
  • Fast NVM storage including NVMe, flash and SSD
  • Networking and server storage I/O considerations
  • How to avoid aggravation-causing aggregation (bottlenecks)
  • Aggregated vs. desegregated vs. hybrid converged
  • Planning, comparing, benchmarking and decision-making
  • Data protection, management and east-west I/O traffic
  • Application and server I/O north-south traffic
  • Where To Learn More

  • SNIA ESF organized webinar on BrightTalk March 15, 2017
  • StorageIO.com (events, news, tips, resources) and StorageIOblog.com
  • Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC)
  • Software-Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC)
  • Data Infrastructure Primer and Overview (Its Whats Inside The Data Center)
  • Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    For many environments some form of converged, desegregated, aggregated or hyper-converged solution or approach will part of their data infrastructures. Join the SNIA ESF folks and me on March 15, 2017 (bring your questions) to discuss CI and HCI storage I/O topics, trends, technologies and themes.

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2024 Server StorageIO and UnlimitedIO. All Rights Reserved. StorageIO is a registered Trade Mark (TM) of Server StorageIO.

    If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

    If NVMe is the answer, what are the questions?

    server storage I/O trends

    Updated 5/31/2018

    If NVMe is the answer, then what are the various questions that should be asked?

    Some common questions that NVMe is the answer to include what is the difference between NVM and NVMe?

    Is NVMe only for servers, does NVMe require fabrics and what benefit is NVMe beyond more IOPs.

    Lets take a look at some of these common NVMe conversations and other questions.

    Main Features and Benefits of NVMe

    Some of the main feature and benefits of NVMe among others include:

    • Lower latency due to improve drivers and increased queues (and queue sizes)
    • Lower CPU used to handle larger number of I/Os (more CPU available for useful work)
    • Higher I/O activity rates (IOPS) to boost productivity unlock value of fast flash and NVM
    • Bandwidth improvements leveraging various fast PCIe interface and available lanes
    • Dual-pathing of devices like what is available with dual-path SAS devices
    • Unlock the value of more cores per processor socket and software threads (productivity)
    • Various packaging options, deployment scenarios and configuration options
    • Appears as a standard storage device on most operating systems
    • Plug-play with in-box drivers on many popular operating systems and hypervisors

    NVM and Media memory matters

    Whats the differences between NVM and NVMe? Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) which as its name implies is persistent electronic memory medium where data is stored. Today you commonly know about NVMs as NAND flash Solid State Devices (SSD), along with NVRAM among others emerging storage class memories (SCM).

    Emerging SCM such as 3D XPoint among other mediums (or media if you prefer) have the premises of boosting both read and write performance beyond traditional NAND flash, closer to DRAM, while having durability also closer to DRAM. For now let’s set the media and mediums aside and get back to how they or will be accessed as well as used.

    server storage I/O NVMe fundamentals

    Server and Storage I/O Media access matters

    NVM Express (e.g. NVMe) is a standard industry protocol for accessing NVM media (SSD and flash devices, storage system, appliances). If NVMe is the answer, then depending on your point of view, NVMe can be (or is) a replacement (today or in the future) for AHCI/SATA, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). What this means is that NVMe can coexist or replace other block SCSI protocol implementations (e.g. Fibre Channel FCP aka FCP, iSCSI, SRP) as well as NBD (among others).

    Similar to the SCSI command set that is implemented on different networks (e.g. iSCSI (IP), FCP (Fibre Channel), SRP (InfiniBand), SAS) NVMe as a protocol is now implemented using PCIe with form factors of add-in cards (AiC), M.2 (e.g. gum sticks aka next-gen form factor or NGFF) as well as U.2 aka 8639 drive form factors. There are also the emerging NVMe over Fabrics variants including FC-NVMe (e.g. NVMe protocol over Fibre Channel) which is an alternative to SCSI_FCP (e.g. SCSI on Fibre Channel). An example of a PCIe AiC that I have include the Intel 750 400GB NVMe (among others). You should be able to find the Intel among other NVMe devices from your prefered vendor as well as different venues including Amazon.com.

    NVM, flash and NVMe SSD
    Left PCIe AiC x4 NVMe SSD, lower center M.2 NGFF, right SAS and SATA SSD

    The following image shows an NVMe U.2 (e.g. 8639) drive form factor device that from a distance looks like a SAS device and connector. However looking closer some extra pins or connectors that present a PCIe Gen 3 x4 (4 PCIe lanes) connection from the server or enclosure backplane to the devices. These U.2 devices plug into 8639 slots (right) that look like a SAS slot that can also accommodate SATA. Remember, SATA can plug into SAS, however not the other way around.

    NVMe U.2 8639 driveNVMe 8639 slot
    Left NVMe U.2 drive showing PCIe x4 connectors, right, NVMe U.2 8639 connector

    What NVMe U.2 means is that the 8639 slots can be used for 12Gbps SAS, 6Gbps SATA or x4 PCIe-based NVMe. Those devices in turn attach to their respective controllers (or adapters) and device driver software protocol stack. Several servers have U.2 or 8639 drive slots either in 2.5” or 1.8” form factors, sometimes these are also called or known as “blue” drives (or slots). The color coding simply helps to keep track of what slots can be used for different things.

    Navigating your various NVMe options

    If NVMe is the answer, then some device and component options are as follows.

    NVMe device components and options include:

    • Enclosures and connector port slots
    • Adapters and controllers
    • U.2, PCIe AIC and M.2 devices
    • Shared storage system or appliances
    • PCIe and NVMe switches

    If NVMe is the answer, what to use when, where and why?

    Why use an U.2 or 8639 slot when you could use PCIe AiC? Simple, your server or storage system may be PCIe slot constrained, yet have more available U.2 slots. There are U.2 drives from various vendors including Intel and Micro, as well as servers from Dell, Intel and Lenovo among many others.

    Why and when would you use an NVMe M.2 device? As a local read/write cache, or perhaps a boot and system device on servers or appliances that have M.2 slots. Many servers and smaller workstations including Intel NUC support M.2. Likewise, there are M.2 devices from many different vendors including Micron, Samsung among others.

    Where and why would you use NVMe PCIe AiC? Whenever you can and if you have enough PCIe slots of the proper form factor, mechanical and electrical (e.g. x1, x4, x8, x16) to support a particular card.

    Can you mix and match different types of NVMe devices on the same server or appliance? As long as the physical server and its software (BIOS/UEFI, operating system, hypervisors, drivers) support it yes. Most server and appliance vendors support PCIe NVMe AiCs, however, pay attention to if they are x4, x8 both mechanical as well as electrical. Also, verify operating system and hypervisor device driver support. PCIe NVMe AiCs are available from Dell, Intel, Micron and many other vendors.

    Networking with your Server and NVMe Storage

    Keep in mind that context is important when discussing NVMe as there are devices for attaching as the back-end to servers, storage systems or appliances, as well as for front-end attachment (e.g. for attaching storage systems to servers). NVMe devices can also be internal to a server or storage system and appliance, or, accessible over a network. Think of NVMe as an upper-level command set protocol like SCSI that gets implemented on different networks (e.g. iSCSI, FCP, SRP).

    How can NVMe use PCIe as a transport to use devices that are outside of a server? Different vendors have PCIe adapter cards that support longer distances (few meters) to attach to devices. For example, Dell EMC DSSD has a special dual port (two x4 ports) that are PCIe x8 cards for attachment to the DSSD shared SSD devices.

    Note that there are also PCIe switches similar to SAS and InfiniBand among other switches. However just because these are switches, does not mean they are your regular off the shelf network type switch that your networking folks will know what to do with (or want to manage).

    The following example shows a shared storage system or appliance being accessed by servers using traditional block, NAS file or object protocols. In this example, the storage system or appliance has implemented NVMe devices (PCIe AiC, M.2, U.2) as part of their back-end storage. The back-end storage might be all NVMe, or a mix of NVMe, SAS or SATA SSD and perhaps some high-capacity HDD.

    NVMe and server storage access
    Servers accessing shared storage with NVMe back-end devices

    NVMe and server storage access via PCIe
    NVMe PCIe attached (via front-end) storage with various back-end devices

    In addition to shared PCIe-attached storage such as Dell EMC DSSD similar to what is shown above, there are also other NVMe options. For example, there are industry initiatives to support the NVMe protocol to use shared storage over fabric networks. There are different fabric networks, they range from RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) based as well as Fibre Channel NVME (e.g. FC-NVME) among others.

    An option that on the surface may not seem like a natural fit or leverage NVMe to its fullest is simply adding NVMe devices as back-end media to existing arrays and appliances. For example, adding NVMe devices as the back-end to iSCSI, SAS, FC, FCoE or other block-based, NAS file or object systems.

    NVMe and server storage access via shared PCIe
    NVMe over a fabric network (via front-end) with various back-end devices

    A common argument against using legacy storage access of shared NVMe is along the lines of why would you want to put a slow network or controller in front of a fast NVM device? You might not want to do that, or your vendor may tell you many reasons why you don’t want to do it particularly if they do not support it. On the other hand, just like other fast NVM SSD storage on shared systems, it may not be all about 100% full performance. Rather, for some environments, it might be about maximizing connectivity over many interfaces to faster NVM devices for several servers.

    NVMe and server storage I/O performance

    Is NVMe all about boosting the number of IOPS? NVMe can increase the number of IOPS, as well as support more bandwidth. However, it also reduces response time latency as would be expected with an SSD or NVM type of solution. The following image shows an example of not surprisingly an NVMe PCIe AiC x4 SSD outperforming (more IOPs, lower response time) compared to a 6Gb SATA SSD (apples to oranges). Also keep in mind that best benchmark or workload tool is your own application as well as your performance mileage will vary.

    NVMe using less CPU per IOP
    SATA SSD vs. NVMe PCIe AiC SSD IOPS, Latency and CPU per IOP

    The above image shows the lower amount of CPU per IOP given the newer, more streamlined driver and I/O software protocol of NVMe. With NVMe there is less overhead due to the new design, more queues and ability to unlock value not only in SSD also in servers with more sockets, cores and threads.

    What this means is that NVMe and SSD can boost performance for activity (TPS, IOPs, gets, puts, reads, writes). NVMe can also lower response time latency while also enabling higher throughput bandwidth. In other words, you get more work out of your servers CPU (and memory). Granted SSDs have been used for decades to boost server performance and in many cases, delay an upgrade to a newer faster system by getting more work out of them (e.g. SSD marketing 202).

    NVMe maximizing your software license investments

    What may not be so obvious (e.g. SSD marketing 404) is that by getting more work activity done in a given amount of time, you can also stretch your software licenses further. What this means is that you can get more out of your IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, VMware and other software licenses by increasing their effective productivity. You might already be using virtualization to increase server hardware efficiency and utilization to cut costs. Why not go further and boost productivity to increase your software license (as well as servers) effectiveness by using NVMe and SSDs?

    Note that fast applications need fast software, servers, drivers, I/O protocols and devices.

    Also just because you have NVMe present or PCIe does not mean full performance, similar to how some vendors put SSDs behind their slow controllers and saw, well slow performance. On the other hand vendors who had or have fast controllers (software, firmware, hardware) that were HDD or are even SSD performance constrained can see a performance boost.

    Additional NVMe and related tips

    If you have a Windows server and have not overridden, check your power plan to make sure it is not improperly set to balanced instead of high performance. For example using PowerShell issue the following command:

    PowerCfg -SetActive "381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e"

    Another Windows related tip if you have not done so is enable task manager disk stats by issuing from a command line “diskperf –y”. Then display task manager and performance and see drive performance.

    Need to benchmark, validate, compare or test an NVMe, SSD (or even HDD) device or system, there are various tools and workloads for different scenarios. Likewise those various tools can be configured for different activity to reflect your needs (and application workloads). For example, Microsoft Diskspd, fio.exe, iometer and vdbench sample scripts are shown here (along with results) as a starting point for comparison or validation testing.

    Does M.2. mean you have NVMe? That depends as some systems implement M.2 with SATA, while others support NVMe, read the fine print or ask for clarification.

    Do all NVMe using PCIe run at the same speed? Not necessarily as some might be PCIe x1 or x4 or x8. Likewise some NVMe PCIe cards might be x8 (mechanical and electrical) yet split out into a pair of x4 ports. Also keep in mind that similar to a dual port HDD, NVMe U.2 drives can have two paths to a server, storage system controller or adapter, however both might not be active at the same time. You might also have a fast NVMe device attached to a slow server or storage system or adapter.

    Who to watch and keep an eye on in the NVMe ecosystem? Besides those mentioned above, others to keep an eye on include Broadcom, E8, Enmotus Fuzedrive (micro-tiering software), Excelero, Magnotics, Mellanox, Microsemi (e.g. PMC Sierra), Microsoft (Windows Server 2016 S2D + ReFS + Storage Tiering), NVM Express trade group, Seagate, VMware (Virtual NVMe driver part of vSphere ESXi in addition to previous driver support) and WD/Sandisk among many others.

    Where To Learn More

    Additional related content can be found at:

    Additional learning experiences along with common questions (and answers), as well as tips can be found in Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials book.

    Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials Book SDDC

    What This All Means

    NVMe is in your future, that was the answer, however there are the when, where, how, with what among other questions to be addressed. One of the great things IMHO about NVMe is that you can have it your way, where and when you need it, as a replacement or companion to what you have. Granted that will vary based on your preferred vendors as well as what they support today or in the future.

    If NVMe is the answer, Ask your vendor when they will support NVMe as a back-end for their storage systems, as well as a front-end. Also decide when will your servers (hardware, operating systems hypervisors) support NVMe and in what variation. Learn more why NVMe is the answer and related topics at www.thenvmeplace.com

    Ok, nuff said, for now.

    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Microsoft MVP Cloud and Data Center Management, VMware vExpert 2010-2017 (vSAN and vCloud). Author of Software Defined Data Infrastructure Essentials (CRC Press), as well as Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press), Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier) and twitter @storageio. Courteous comments are welcome for consideration. First published on https://storageioblog.com any reproduction in whole, in part, with changes to content, without source attribution under title or without permission is forbidden.

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