VMware Cloud Community
TristanT
Contributor
Contributor
‎09-15-2010 08:39 AM

vSphere and IBM XIV Storage

You run XIV for vSphere workloads in your datacenter. You love it. Your performance is good. You enjoy stability, scalability, and ease of management. The hardware and software are reliable. IBM support is fantastic.

So...please tell me more! I read all kinds of positive and constructive things about storage solutions from HP, NetApp, EMC, Compellent, etc. I read very little from vSphere environments that are running on XIV. Google and VMTN searches yield far fewer search results with XIV than all other storage solutions.

You want to tell me all about XIV and what you love about it. You know you do... Thanks in advance!

0 Kudos
22 Replies
Hpapy_Gilmore10
Contributor
Contributor
‎02-24-2011 02:13 AM

True, XIV doesn't currently support VAAI but I'm sure it will soon (https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/anthonyv/entry/vmware_vsphere_4_1_vaai_and...)

This current lack of support hasn't caused us any issues in our environment as we're using vStorage API with NetBackup and the backups are working great, no agents and good performance

My personal view is that I think XIV is a great fit with VMWare as it makes the whole infrastructure so easy to manage and scale as required.  XIV is never going to be the fastest performing storage in the world, but I don't see that as an issue as if you really need the true high end performance for your servers/storage, generally you wouldn't be putting those types of servers into VMWare anyway.

The other great thing about XIV is that it lifts some of the smoke and mirrors around managing storage as no longer can the SAN guys complain about how hard their lives are as with XIV it's so easy

0 Kudos
cdc1
Expert
Expert
‎04-10-2011 10:42 PM

IBM now has VAAI support on XIV.

More info. here: http://aussiestorageblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/vaai-and-xiv-its-here/

I have some great news regarding VAAI support for XIV.
Let me detail the current situation:

    • VMware has approved the IBM driver for VAAI and we can now release  it to the public.   The IBM_VAAIP_MODULE plugin will be available  shortly from the ibm.com website.  When the release URL is available I  will update this post.   In the meantime you can get the driver from  your XIV TA (Technical Assistant) or IBM Account Team.   If they have  somehow missed the news, get them to talk to their XIV Product Manager  (or they can always talk to me!).
    • The VMware Hardware Compatibility guide found here shows that VMware support the three VAAI primitives with XIV, if you  are using ESX 4.1 or ESX 4.1 U1 and your XIV is on firmware release  10.2.4 or higher.
    • XIV firmware release 10.2.4a is available for install.    Installation of this firmware is non-disruptive (concurrent) and will be  performed by IBM.
    • The VAAI driver and installation of the 10.2.4a code are all supplied free of charge.


So what should your plan be?

    1. Ensure VAAI is disabled on your ESX hosts.
    2. Talk to your local XIV TA or IBM Service Representative (SSR) and arrange to have 10.2.4a firmware installed.
    3. When 10.2.4a code is installed, you can then begin installing the  VAAI driver on each of your ESX 4.1 servers.  You will need to reboot  each server to install the driver.
0 Kudos
Gabriel_Chapman
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎05-10-2011 11:24 AM

You can go larger on your data stores, in the XIV console you would set them to 2181 for a perfect 2TB lun. VAAI in 10.2.4.a and the appropriate drivers will give you a better bang for your buck. I'd use 8MB block as well.

there is a newly released vcenter plugin that gives you the ability to manage/create luns from vcenter as well.

Ex Gladio Equitas
0 Kudos