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ChrisJ615
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Nimble Storage: Storage Providers?

Guys - I'm looking at buying a Nimble storage solution, but have a couple of open vSphere questions regarding the array solution.

1. Does Nimble have any vSphere Storage Providers?

2. Is there any reason to use Storage Profiles for vCenter for the implimentation?

3. Does it play well with VCOPS?

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mjm2011
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1.   1. Does Nimble have any vSphere Storage Providers?

Nimble is currently working on a storage VASA provider as part of the VASA programs. Nimble already supports several VAAI features including:

     Block Zero,

     HW Assisted Locking, and

     Thin Provisioning (SCSI UNmap).

For more information from VMware for a specific model (e.g., CS240), you can look on the VMware compatibility lists as an example here:

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=san&productid=18899&deviceCa...

2. Is there any reason to use Storage Profiles for vCenter for the implementation?

Since Nimble Storage CASL architecture is tier-less, customers may not see much advantage with a single type of Nimble Storage system. However, if you have a mixed storage environment or different types of Nimble Storage arrays (e.g., CS2xx & CS4xx), then you may see advantages of putting the Nimble Storage array into its own profile. Within a single Nimble Storage array, all LUNs (Datastores) are pretty much treated uniformly by default, efficiently and fairly. You can override defaults by tweaking performance policies for specific requirements.

There is a good discussion of this feature here:

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2011/08/vsphere-50-storage-features-part-10-profile-driven-storage.h...

Customers could also leverage storage profiles for data protection use cases. For example, define a storage profile for “mission critical” VMs that need application consistent snapshot and replication, and another profile for local snapshot data protection only.  Then associate the storage profile with volumes that are configured with snapshot & replication within a volume collection.  Doing so would ensure the critical virtual machines have their VMDKs placed on volumes that have snapshot/replication schedule defined.  For more information, check out the vSphere best practices guide for Nimble Storage (http://info.nimblestorage.com/bpg-vsphere5.html)

3. Does it play well with VCOPS?

It may depend on which edition of vC Ops you have?  The foundation version would provide base level of health and workload badges to find anomaly in the environment.  The Nimble Storage auto support proactive alerts and trending info is complementary to vCenter Operations, as it allows you to drill deeper into the storage capacity utilization as well as performance response.

Hope this helps.

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SophieNics1978
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Hi,

We can help with this, contact Dalida Moger from Response Data Communications on 0207 871 0800 or email her at dalida.moger@rdc.uk.com and she can put you in touch with the technology experts, or put you in touch with the right people who can answer your questions.

Hope this helps

Best regards, Sophie

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mjm2011
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1.   1. Does Nimble have any vSphere Storage Providers?

Nimble is currently working on a storage VASA provider as part of the VASA programs. Nimble already supports several VAAI features including:

     Block Zero,

     HW Assisted Locking, and

     Thin Provisioning (SCSI UNmap).

For more information from VMware for a specific model (e.g., CS240), you can look on the VMware compatibility lists as an example here:

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=san&productid=18899&deviceCa...

2. Is there any reason to use Storage Profiles for vCenter for the implementation?

Since Nimble Storage CASL architecture is tier-less, customers may not see much advantage with a single type of Nimble Storage system. However, if you have a mixed storage environment or different types of Nimble Storage arrays (e.g., CS2xx & CS4xx), then you may see advantages of putting the Nimble Storage array into its own profile. Within a single Nimble Storage array, all LUNs (Datastores) are pretty much treated uniformly by default, efficiently and fairly. You can override defaults by tweaking performance policies for specific requirements.

There is a good discussion of this feature here:

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2011/08/vsphere-50-storage-features-part-10-profile-driven-storage.h...

Customers could also leverage storage profiles for data protection use cases. For example, define a storage profile for “mission critical” VMs that need application consistent snapshot and replication, and another profile for local snapshot data protection only.  Then associate the storage profile with volumes that are configured with snapshot & replication within a volume collection.  Doing so would ensure the critical virtual machines have their VMDKs placed on volumes that have snapshot/replication schedule defined.  For more information, check out the vSphere best practices guide for Nimble Storage (http://info.nimblestorage.com/bpg-vsphere5.html)

3. Does it play well with VCOPS?

It may depend on which edition of vC Ops you have?  The foundation version would provide base level of health and workload badges to find anomaly in the environment.  The Nimble Storage auto support proactive alerts and trending info is complementary to vCenter Operations, as it allows you to drill deeper into the storage capacity utilization as well as performance response.

Hope this helps.

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vSchu
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How fast do you need info on how well it performs? We are starting a POC this week on a Nimble unit and I can give you our info once we complete.

Donald Schubot | VCAP5-DCA, VCP4/5 | Blog: http://vschu.com/
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eegolf
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See our preformance results -> http://www.ciosolutions.com/Nimble+Storage+vs+Netapp+-+CASL+WAFL . There is a lot of technical informaton on our experiences thus far. Let me know if there are specific questions.

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