Pro Tips For Storage Performance Testing

Let’s face it — enterprise storage is a big investment.

And there are big, meaningful differences in how different storage products perform when you put them to the test.  Higher performing solutions can handle more workloads, more easily accommodate growth, and generate fewer unpleasant performance problems to deal with.  

Great performing solutions can save both money and time.

testing

Unfortunately, using publicly available information to compare different alternatives is a frustrating exercise at best.  Although we at VMware publish VSAN results frequently, that’s not the norm.  If you’d like a quick list of our published results to date, please scroll to the bottom of this post.

The lack of directly comparable performance testing information is not helpful if you have an important decision to make.

The solution?  Do your own head-to-head testing.  Investing in your own storage performance testing can help you figure out what’s the best product for you — and also avoid nasty surprises later on down the road.

And in this post, we’ll give you the basic do’s and don’t you’ll need to be successful in doing your own storage performance testing. Continue reading →

Partners: Become Software-Defined Storage Experts at Partner Exchange at VMworld 2015

At Partner Exchange @ VMworld 2015, partners will have exclusive opportunities to connect with the individuals who are transforming software-defined storage: from the Partner Lounge to targeted breakout sessions, there are plenty of opportunities to network, learn, and engage with customers. Not only will partners have access to all of the enablement, sessions, and information needed to succeed in selling VMware products, but also the opportunity to learn about the VMware partner roadmap to have well informed conversations with customers throughout VMworld.

VMware partners with a Partner Exchange Add-On Pass will be able to take advantage of the following activities and more during the week of VMworld.

Technical Boot Camps

Saturday, August 29th  |  VMware Campus  |  Palo Alto

Attend complimentary all-day technical Boot Camps at VMware’s newly renovated headquarters in Palo Alto. Transportation to and from the Moscone Center in San Francisco will be provided as well as breakfast, lunch, an afternoon networking reception, and a tour of VMware’s campus. For a full list of partner boot camps, visit the VMworld Content Catalog and begin building your schedule.

Partner Breakout Sessions

Sunday, August 30th  |  Moscone West  |  San Francisco

Attend partner-specific sessions to learn about the latest Virtual SAN features, tips to successfully sell software-defined storage solutions, and how to win SDDC deals against competition. For a full list of partner breakout sessions, visit the VMworld Content Catalog.

Partner Exchange Lounge

Sunday, August 30th – Thursday, September 3rd

Moscone West, Level 3  |  San Francisco

This year, the Partner Exchange Lounge will be bigger than ever with plenty of space for partners to network, relax, and unwind in-between sessions and meetings.  Partners will be able to use the Partner Exchange Lounge to book private meeting rooms, charge up their devices, grab coffee and snacks, and connect with peers throughout VMworld.  Special networking receptions will be held daily.

Having access to the Partner Exchange Lounge will give partners a unique opportunity to attend the Ask the Executives series everyday from 12:00-3:45pm and openly discuss any topic with various VMware executives such as Bask Iyer, CIO, and Chris Wolf, VMware CTO of Americas Sales.

To avoid long VMworld lines, partners will also be able to take a Hands-On Lab in the Hands-On Labs Hotspot located exclusively in the Partner Exchange Lounge. Completing this lab counts towards their Partner University Credits, Leaderboard Standing, and 2015 VTSP Accreditations.

Learn more about PEX at VMworld and register today. To stay up-to-date with the latest Partner Exchange news, follow @VMwarePEX on Twitter.

Take the EVO:RAIL Hands-on Lab Challenge!

Some modifications were made to the EVO:RAIL configuration and it is up to you to figure out what happened! You will have 60 minutes to complete the three tasks in the challenge lab.

Are you up for the EVO:RAIL Challenge?

If you’d like to take a shot at the EVO:RAIL Hands-on Lab Challenge and potentially win a free conference pass to VMworld 2015 or some free EVO:RAIL swag, simply take the lab. There is plenty of time to participate in the challenge which will run through August 20, 2015 with new winners selected monthly.

What are the rules?

  • It is open to everyone, everywhere (except VMware employees).
  • Competition starts May 1, 2015 and ends on August 20, 2015. Winners will be announced on or about the 1 st of each month and we will notify each winner by email.
  • You can take the challenge each month but you can only win once.

To learn more about the EVO:RAIL Hands-on Lab Challenge including the prizes, rules as well as terms and conditions, go to: https://www.vmware.com/promotions/evorail-challenge

To learn more about VMware EVO:RAIL, please visit us at: http://www.vmware.com/products/evorail

Explore VMware Virtual SAN and More at VMworld 2015

VMworld is quickly approaching, and this year’s agenda is packed with software-defined storage sessions, booth demos, and hands-on labs – from Virtual SAN to Virtual Volumes. Attend VMworld 2015 to learn how you can simplify your IT infrastructure and lower storage costs in the below sessions.

New & Noteworthy

Learn the latest VSAN technical trends, customer successes, and the future of virtualized storage at these must-see sessions.

STO5954-S Rethinking Enterprise Storage: The Rise Of Hyper-Converged Infrastructure
STO5333 Building a Stretched Cluster with Virtual SAN
STO5947 Virtual SAN Operations Management Using vRealize Operations
STO5883 Software Defined Storage: The next Evolution in Storage Architectures
STO4650-QT Five Common Customer Use Cases for Virtual SAN
STO6558-QT 10 Reasons Why VMware Virtual SAN Is the Best Hyperconverged Solution

Continue reading →

StorageReview.com VSAN Series

StorageReview-16x9-1170x658_cOur colleagues at StorageReview.com are midway through a great extended review of VSAN 6, worth reading if you’re interested.

In “VMware Virtual SAN Review: Overview and Configuration” the reviewer notes that “deploying and configuring VSAN is a simple process for those used to working in a virtualized environment, and especially for those that are familiar with vSphere“.

In “VMware Virtual SAN Review: VMmark Performance“, the choice of benchmark is interesting, as VMmark is usually seen as a compute and memory test — however, when considering hyperconverged storage, server resource utilization becomes important.  The reviewer was able to load up an impressive 18 times on a modest, 4-node VSAN configuration, noting that “the overhead of the shared storage component of VSAN didn’t inhibit the overall performance of the cluster” and that “at 18 tiles, we still had CPU resources leftover on all the nodes“.magnify

And in “VMware Virtual SAN Review: Sysbench OLTP Performance“, the reviewer spun up four transactional databases, one per server, and achieved an impressive 2,829 transactions per second, with “plenty of additional CPU headroom as well as some storage I/O headroom for additional activities”.

New: “VMware Virtual SAN Review: SQLserver Performance“, 4 SQLserver images delivered an impressive ~12,000 transactions per second, and with very good latency.

In each case, pricing for the tested systems are shared.  However, head-to-head pricing comparisons vs. traditional arrays aren’t easy to get at, as the VSAN clusters not only offer shared storage services, but also supports a large number of VMs on the same hardware.

More coming soon!

What Really Matters With Hyperconverged?

WhatI have now been on a steady diet of hyperconverged customer conversations for the last six months. That’s my nature — I learn about something by talking to the people who are actually doing it …

With all due respect to industry analysts, I’ve now been able to create a fairly accurate model of what most people are looking for — and it’s not exactly the picture that the analysts are painting.

Sampling bias aside, I’m finding that the more I talk to people, the more the observed customer shopping lists tend to converge into a very short, understandable agenda.

Keep in mind, the hyperconverged segment is moving fast, with many players and interesting choices. What was new and innovative a few years ago is simply table stakes today.

There’s now been enough real-world experiences that there are more than a few fully-informed buyers out there.  And they certainly have strong opinions! Continue reading →

Software-Defined Storage in OpenStack

openstack-sds-sessionIt’s time expand and showcase the strength of software-defined storage at the upcoming OpenStack Summit. Take a look at the abstract of the session I’m scheduled to participate as a speaker and lets’ get that bad boy vote in and into the schedule.

Getting the Bang for your Buck with Software-Defined Storage in OpenStack

OpenStack has become the standard infrastructure consumption layer for a variety of applications. These applications have different storage requirements and being able to provide a storage solution that matches these requirements is critical to ensure the adoption of OpenStack as the cloud platform of choice across a wide array of applications.

It is also important that enterprises that have made significant investments in storage gear are able to leverage those investments for their OpenStack deployments, while still having the choice of integrating newer storage technologies such as hyper-converged storage as they progress forward in their OpenStack journey.

This session will highlight how software-defined storage can enable enterprises to leverage their existing storage investments in building their OpenStack clouds and allow them to add newer technologies such as Virtual SAN as they go forward. The session will include

  • How to use policy driven storage to mix and match traditional SAN and newer hyper-converged storage for providing storage with different SLAs
  • Simplifying management and operation of a storage solution for OpenStack instances and volumes
  • Demo of a vSphere based software defined storage solution providing multi tier storage (SAN, Virtual SAN, NFS, etc) for OpenStack workloads.

Take a minute and please vote.

VOTE! for session here: Getting the Bang for your buck with Software-Defined Storage in OpenStack

– Enjoy

For future updates on Virtual SAN (VSAN), vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVol) and other Storage and Availability technologies, as well as vSphere Integrated OpenStack (VIO), and Cloud-Native Apps (CNA) be sure to follow me on Twitter: @PunchingClouds

New VMware Virtual SAN Assessment Tool

vsan-assessment0logo2The VMware Virtual SAN Assessment Tool is now generally available!!!!

The Virtual SAN Assessment Tool is a usability and manageability tool that is available to the public free of charge. VMware is providing access to this solution using a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model that is accessible for any new or existing customers interested in Virtual SAN. The tool is designed to provide customers a simple one-stop shop solution for all things related to the assessments of Virtual SAN.

The Virtual SAN Assessment Tool is based on two components, and together they provide data collection and presentation in the form metrics visualization.

  • Virtual SAN Assessment Tool Portal – is a public web application that receives the I/O traces from customers infrastructures and presents the detailed results. It also provides the ability to export the results onto different document types excel, powerpoint, etc.
  • Virtual SAN Assessment Tool Collector – is a virtual appliance (OVF file) deployed in customer environment that collects data and sends it to the portal. The appliance is configured with 4 vCPUs / 8 gb ram / 200 gb disk space, and it introduces a low of overhead while collecting data.

vsan-assesment-logical

Continue reading →

Are You a Storage Expert? Prove It. Enter the Virtual SAN Challenge!

Screen Shot 2015-07-20 at 4.53.15 PM

Screen Shot 2015-07-20 at 4.53.35 PM

Think you know all there is about hyperconverged storage? Put your knowledge to the test and visit the Virtual SAN Challenge for a chance to win a GoPro Hero4 video cam!

We’re kicking off the Challenge today and are offering you three chances to win:

Quiz 1: July 21 – Aug 03

Quiz 2: Aug 04 – Aug 16

Quiz 3: Aug 17 – Aug 28

Ready to get started? Here’s what you need to know:

  • Visit our study page and improve your chances to ace the test on your first go. You only have one chance to ace each quiz so be sure to study up!
  • If you get stuck, don’t panic – we’ll provide you with helpful hints along the way.
  • No time? No problem. Each quiz is only 6 questions, so you can take it on your coffee break!

Now that you’re armed with everything you need to prove your storage mastery, click here to join the Virtual SAN Challenge – your GoPro Hero4 could be just a few clicks away!

We’ll announce winners across our social channels at the end of each challenge, so be sure to follow @VMwareVSAN on Twitter or ‘like’ us on Facebook to see if you’ve won. Good luck!

For more information about Virtual SAN, visit vmware.com/products/virtual-san, and keep an eye on the blog for upcoming tips and best practices for using Virtual SAN.

Virtual Blocks Blog Recap: Top Posts from June

VMware-Blog-Banner-Virtual-Blocks

Every month, we compile a list of the top Virtual Blocks posts from the previous month for you to enjoy.

Here are the top Virtual Blocks posts from June:

Helping IT Professionals Make Informed Choices Around Storage
The Virtual Blocks blog brings you up to speed on some recent discussion on how VMware Virtual SAN stacks up in some head-to-head performance tests.

Oracle on Virtual SAN 6
Chuck Hollis talks about Oracle RAC and its ability to scale linearly as more instances were added.

10 Things You Need to Know About VSAN
VMware Virtual SAN fundamentally changes the way vSphere admins do storage. While there are several items of great material, this blog post covers the bare essentials for busy IT professionals.

The Collapse of Storage
The storage industry is undergoing rapid structural change that has not been seen in decades. Going forward, everything we’ve come to know about storage will be changing. Chuck Hollis takes a closer look at what this means.

VSAN in 3 Minutes YouTube Series
Sometimes, there is never enough time in the day to sit and learn something new. To make things easier, we’ve started a new video series, “VSAN in 3 Minutes”. Quick, bite-sized and digestible videos to get you going in the right direction.

Be sure to subscribe to the Virtual Blocks blog, or follow our social channels at @vmwarevsan and Facebook.com/vmwarevsan for the latest updates.

For more information about VMware Virtual SAN, visit http://www.vmware.com/products/virtualsan.