!EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI4) is Out

 

Storage Integrator for VMware vSphere overview

EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) for VMware vSphere version 4.0 is a plug-in to VMware’s vSphere Client that provides a single management interface used for managing EMC storage within the

vSphere environment. Features can be added and removed from VSI independently, providing flexibility for customizing VSI user environments. Features are managed using the VSI Feature Manager.

VSI provides a unified user experience, allowing each of the features to be updated independently, and new features to be introduced rapidly in response to changing customer requirements.

Examples of features available for VSI are Storage Viewer (SV), Path Management, Storage Pool Management (SPM), Symmetrix SRA Utilities, and Unified Storage Management.

The SV feature extends the vSphere Client to facilitate the discovery and identification of EMC Symmetrix, CLARiiON, Celerra, and VPLEX storage devices that are allocated to VMware ESX/ESXi hosts

and virtual machines. SV presents the underlying storage details to the virtual datacenter administrator, merging the data of several different storage mapping tools into a few seamless vSphere Client

views. The Path Management feature for VMware Native Multipathing and PowerPath/VE provides a mechanism for changing the multipath policy for groups of LUNs based on storage class and virtualization object.

The SPM feature simplifies the provisioning of Symmetrix VMAX storage by a VMware administrator. SPM allows a VMware administrator to allocate storage as a resource using Symmetrix

Virtual Pools for ESX Servers, Clusters, and Resource Pools. The Symmetrix SRA Utilities feature helps users to more efficiently manage vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) configurations in

Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (RDF) environments. It provides SRM diagnostic tools that help users to easily identify configuration errors. SRA Utilities allows users to view and create consistency

groups and perform storage failback operations to restore a workload site back to the protection site after being failed over to a recovery site.

The Unified Storage Management VSI feature provides array-based storage management and provisioning for CLARiiON and Celerra storage arrays, and allows for virtual machine deduplication,

compression, cloning, and extending storage for Celerra arrays.

 

 

Path Management overview

The Path Management feature for EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) for VMware vSphere includes support for both VMware Native Multipathing Plugin (NMP) and PowerPath/VE.

Currently, the Storage Viewer feature displays multipath properties for both NMP and PowerPath/VE. Those properties include the number of paths, the state of those paths, the policy used to manage

those paths. The Path Management feature allows you to change the multipath policy and is a first step in allowing the VSI user to manage multiple paths from within the vSphere Client.

The Path Management feature allows a VSI user to change the multipath policy on a multitude of devices, based on both storage class and virtualization object. For example, all Symmetrix devices

for a given ESX host can be managed, or all CLARiiON devices for a given vSphere cluster. This ability will exist for both NMP owned and PowerPath/VE owned devices. This feature will be a valuable asset

to administrators who need to maintain consistent multipath policies across a large virtual datacenter containing a large number or wide variety of storage devices.

Pool Management overview

The EMC Storage Pool Management (SPM) feature simplifies the task of provisioning storage in the VMware environments, In Virtual Computing Environments, IT is offered as a service, user requirements change dynamically, and the underlying infrastructure is transparent to the end user. For example, in the VMware environment, VM’s can be provisioned in minutes to meet the demands of the users. As such, any underlying infrastructure, for example, storage that support the new VM needs to be provisioned quickly to meet the IT service level Agreement of the user. EMC VSI and the symmetrix Management Console, together manage storage as a shared resource pool that accelerates storage provisioning, so the IT service is available to the end-user faster.

Using SMC’s Storage Pool Management feature, an administrator creates a Virtualization Domain that corresponds to a vCenter instance with a Physical pooled storage defined by drive type and RAID protection type. A Virtualization Domain is a set of boundaries defined by a storage administrator to limit the physical Symmetrix array storage (thin pools) in which a VMware user can create LUNS.

Each thin pool contains storage of a particular type, defined by the Storage type with which they are labeled. A Storage Type if simply a label for a particular type of storage, It is defined by a storage administrator during SPM configuration and it utilized by a VMware user when provisioning storage.

Unified Storage Management overview

The EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified Storage Management feature can provision Network File System (NFS) datastores on NAS storage, and Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) datastores and Raw Device Mapping (RDM) volumes on block storage. The feature also performs array-based compression and array-based cloning of virtual machines in NFS datastores. The cloning functions include Full Clones (copies) and Fast Clones (snaps) of Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) files. VMware administrators can use the feature to manage NAS and block storage in VMware environments by using the existing vSphere Client user interface. VMware administrators can use the feature to:

Provision new NFS and VMFS datastores, and RDM volumes

Extend existing NFS datastores

Compress virtual machines in NFS datastores

Clone virtual machines in NFS datastores.

Fast Clones support – Limited to the same file system

Full Clones support – Limited to file systems on the same Data Mover

Integrate with VMware View

Apply recommended vSphere and Celerra settings to the newly created NFS file system and

Datastore To provision new NFS datastores, the feature:

Creates a file system with automatic file system extension and EMC Virtual Provisioning™ Exports the file system using NFS

Provides one or more ESX servers root access to the export

Creates an NFS datastore on the newly created Celerra file system

To provision new VMFS datastores, the feature:

Binds a Fibre Channel (FC) or iSCSI LUN in a user-specified RAID group or storage pool

Adds the newly bound LUN to the storage group associated with the selected ESX hosts.

Creates a VMFS datastore on the newly created block LUN

To provision new RDM volumes, the feature:

Binds a Fibre Channel (FC) or iSCSI LUN in a user-specified RAID group or storage pool

Does not add the newly bound LUN to any storage group, so the user is able assign it to any VM.