Virtualization Frontier

The Right Storage for Virtualization

ToddMuirhead — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:22:00 GMT

So you want to know what the right storage solution is for your new VMware deployment you are planning. Or maybe you are ready to start deploying Microsoft Hyper-v and need to know which iSCSI array is right for you. Because there really isn't a single answer that is right for everybody, the answer is - It depends.

The question really should be how do I decide what is the right storage. What questions should I ask? and how do I find the answers? Or maybe more simply - What process should I follow to find the right answer? I think that the answer is basically to ask questions, learn about the options, and learn from others experiences. We did a similar focus topic on selecting a server for virtualization in the summer and now it is time to look at storage.

For the next three weeks on DellTechCenter we are going to focus on the question of what is the right storage for virtualization for a range of scenarios. There is a homepage for the topic and series of three web chats scheduled. So if you have a question about storage and virtualization get it answered here. We have lined up experts from the storage engineering teams to help out with the chats and assist in getting your questions answered.

Todd

Better Advice for Virtualization Solutions

ToddMuirhead — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:42:00 GMT

The super virtualization engineering team here at Dell recently upgraded the Dell Virtualization Advisor Tool. This free on-line tool prompts you to answer about 10 questions and then gives a detailed sizing of servers and storage. Additionally it will list the available services that might be useful when implementing the proposed solution. The part that I really like is it is easy to go back and change your answers to some of the questions to see how that affects the proposed solution. For example you can change your preferred storage from fibre channel to iSCSI.

In addition to support for VMware based solutions, it will now also provide Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer based solutions as well. So for those that are interested in what is needed for a Hyper-V solution with high-availability and "quick-migration" the advisor can help. Additionally if you want to get the specifications for a Xen Server solution with live migration and backup and recovery capabilities - the advisor has a configuration recommendation.

The other new feature of the advisor tool is the ability to specify what workloads you will be running in the VMs which makes the sizing more accurate. You are able to specify the number of test and dev, file servers, web servers, domain controller, DNS servers, and other you will be running as VMs.

Take advantage of the free advice.

Todd

Storage VMotion Support for iSCSI

ToddMuirhead — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:43:00 GMT

The VMware VI Team Blog recently had an entry announcing that Storage VMotion is now supported with iSCSI. Although many of you may not have known, until this announcement Storage Vmotion was only supported with fibre channel storage. I did a video demo of Storage VMotion a few months ago when it came out. The funny story is that I actually had to redo the video after recording it the first time because initially I had used an the iSCSI based PowerVault MD3000i as the source. When I found out that iSCSI wasn't supported, I had to re-record it - no big deal - but it made me really appreciate this announcement of support. This really makes Storage VMotion much more compelling as you can use it to migrate your VMs between fibre and iSCSI without interruption.

Todd

Storage Choice for Virtualization Can Be Easy

ToddMuirhead — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:19:00 GMT

After spending the last few weeks looking into which server to choose for virtualization, a natural next question is - What should I use for storage? I think that the answer here may be easier in some ways, but more complicated in other ways.

Mark Farley, on the InsideIT blog, highlighted a recent video by Darren Thomas, General Manager of Storage - aka Chief Storage Guy - here at Dell, that focuses on how storage virtualization works well with server virtualization. Just as VMs are able to use live migration to move from one physical server to another, virtualized storage can move those same VMs from one storage array to another. The result is that you have a tremendous amount of flexibility and availability.

There are three major categories for storage: local, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel. There are lots of choices within these, but I think that when deciding what to use to support your virtualization servers this is the best starting organization. If you are going to only have one virtualization server (or one per location) then local storage will work just great. If you already have an existing fibre channel SAN and existing expertise to manage it, then fibre may be the best solution for your virtualization server farm. Everybody else should probably take a really hard look at iSCSI.

Within the iSCSI category at Dell we have three areas to pick from: PowerVault MD3000i, Dell EqualLogic PS Series, and Dell | EMC AX and CX iSCSI arrays. I think that the decision here also breaks down very similar to how we arrived at the type of storage. For smaller deployments or those that do not need array level features like replication the PowerVault MD3000i (with an attractive entry-level price) is a good choice. For customers that already have some Dell|EMC fibre channel or iSCSI it might be a good idea to extend this environment with additional iSCSI for your virtualization needs. I think that the Dell|EqualLogic PS series is a strong contender for all other solutions.

Of course it's really a bit more complicated than this, but this is the way that I frame up a conversation around storage for virtualization solutions.

Todd