With the release of Vnx's new version of block R5.32 and file V7.1, more and more users in the marketplace are focusing on this version. But many users do not know what the new version of Vnx is all about. Therefore, professional and technical consultants will face more and more problems in this area, in order to professional and technical advisers more comprehensive and systematic answer to the relevant questions, the series will be "high efficiency", "ease of use" and "effectiveness" of the three blocks are introduced separately.
Solution:
In the "Ease of use" aspect, I think the new version of VNX has six important enhancements:
1. in-family Data-in-place conversion;
3. Enhance statistical function;
4. VASA (vstorage API for Storage awareness);
5. Vaai function Introduction;
6. EMC applies synchronous unified snapshot Management (EMC Appsync Unified Snapshot Management).
in-family Data-in-place Conversion
This function refers to the migration of the same series of platforms, such as from VNX5300 to VNX5500. This platform migration is a real transformation, migrating from a low-end platform to a more high-end platform that retains the identity of the system once the migration is complete, where the original platform configuration migrates to the new platform without lengthy, complex, expensive data migrations.
Vnx migration process (as shown in the following illustration):
1, use tool URC (Upgrade readiness Check) to evaluate the current platform, URC tool will inform users of the system before the upgrade of the existence of the need to resolve the alarm problem, and assess whether the system supports the relevant platform upgrades.
2. For the migration of the VNX block platform, the replacement service processor (Processor) and base (chassis) need to be executed.
3, for Vnx Unified or file platform migration needs to replace the data Mover.
Plug-n-play upgrades is a hardware upgrade technology that supports two upgrades of BTU (block platform to unified platform) and FTU (file platform to unified platform).
BTU (block-to-unified): Add NAS protocol to the block platform, upgrade to a unified platform.
FTU (file-to-unified): Adds San protocol to the File platform, and becomes a unified platform after upgrading.
All two upgrades require the addition of system hardware, onsite support personnel, or customers using the command line to connect to the upgraded device through the serial port, and the storage array's applications will function throughout the upgrade process, reducing service costs while ensuring continuity of the original service.
Upgrade process (as shown in the following illustration):
1, use tool URC (Upgrade readiness Check) to evaluate the current platform, URC tool will inform users of the system before the upgrade of the existence of the need to resolve the alarm problem, and assess whether the system supports the relevant platform upgrades.
2, new hardware equipment shelves and wiring.
3, on the Plug-n-play to view the file software installation, after completion can be configured.
Enhance statistical functionality
Continuous monitoring enables administrators to quickly identify emerging performance and reliability issues, and by viewing history and trend information and reports, administrators can view VNX Health, provide proactive diagnostics, and quickly resolve problems.
Monitoring capabilities are enhanced in the new version. By default, the VNX system automatically monitors CPU usage, memory usage, and I/O latency for all File system NFS, and administrators can set KPI metrics, and when the system reaches the threshold of these KPIs, the system can perform logging, monitor specific time periods, Send a message or send an SNMP trap, and so on.
As for the statistical function, the VNX new version of the I/O real-time statistical information function has been enhanced, but also provides some additional statistical functions, the specific features as shown in the following table:
VASA (vstorage API for Storage Awareness)
Vasa is an API developed by VMware that uses vcenter to display storage information. Vasa functions are similar to those of Vnx Unisphere, as VNX enables storage administrators to better manage storage by Unisphere displaying host VMware information, and Vasa can obtain and display vsphere information in vcenter and VNX 5 environments. This allows VMware administrators to better manage VMware environments.
Vcenter get information to Vnx via Vasa:
3, LUN, file system, etc.
VMware administrators learn about the capacity properties of LUNs and file systems, such as whether to enable fast VP, or enable compression, to manage storage more efficiently, and to easily view, monitor the running state and capacity alarms of VNX storage in a VM environment.
Vaai Function Introduction
The array integrated storage API (the Vstorage API for array integration, abbreviated VAAI) is the API that VMware provides to storage device vendors. On the storage side, delegating some of the capabilities of the VMware infrastructure to the storage array will help greatly improve the performance of the VMware infrastructure. This is equivalent to "uninstall" part of the VMware Infrastructure (offload) to the underlying storage devices, such as Vnx, VMAX, Vplex, and Vnxe. If an operation does not support VAAI, the array returns an error message to the ESXi host, allowing the ESXi host to perform the operation.
EMC application Synchronous Unified Snapshot Management (EMC Appsync Unified Snapshot Management)
EMC Appsync is a way to protect virtualized Microsoft applications, with applications such as Exchange servers in EMC VNX environments. Appsync, which uses recoverpoint technology, is part of the VNX Application Protection suite and does not incur additional costs for users who have purchased the VNX Application Protection kit.
Here we can look at the use of VMware environments. In many environments, especially for cloud-deployed applications, it is rare to protect applications because vmotion can support the movement of applications between physical ESX servers, and an application can move from one physical server to another. However, Appsync can be implemented to protect applications in vmotion applications.
