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Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

 
5y53ng
Regular Advisor

Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

Howdy, been away for a while... 

 

So has anyone actually implemented the tiered architecture with 11.0?  I just had several Dell R810s dumped in my lap that have been collecting dust. I was considering using these to create a test SAN with 11.0 and load them up with a mix of 15K SAS and SSD to see what the performance is like.

 

Do you need to create a physically separate RAID group of SSD to implement the auto-tiering?

Bart_Heungens
Honored Contributor

Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

Hi,

 

I have it running already some time inside my environment.

What you will do is create indeed 2 types of VMFS datastores with different underlying disk technology (R5/R1 or SAS/SSD...) and that you will put your VMDK files on those different datastores...

Afterwards inside the CMC you have to define those 2 different VMDK files as 2 different tiers...

 

I will be posting this week (if time permits, lots of information collected at HP Discover last week) on my blog on OA on StoreVirtual...

www.bitcon.be

 

 

Kr,

Bart

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5y53ng
Regular Advisor

Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

Bart,

 

Thanks for the reply, sounds great! 

twg351
Occasional Advisor

Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

Looks like some have been able to get OS 11.0 up already, am I to understand two keys things about OS 11.0:

 

(1) OS 11.0 is the first version to allow Windows 2012 R2 to work with the SAN (iSCSI initiators, MPIO, etc.)

(2) Windows 2003 will not in any way be able to connect to the SAN's anymore (even a Windows 2003 server trying to connect a single volume)?

 

Sounds crazy, but I do still have some legacy W2003 systems using SAN volumes.  I am also looking to built a Windows 2012 R2 HyperV cluster early 2014.  

 

I get the feeling I can have one or the other?  Anyone confirm this?

Tom

oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

I haven't tested because I can't upgrade to v11 yet, butI believe the issue is the DSM for 2003 is no  longer supported.  I don't know why you wouldn't be able to use the MS MPIO option, but I would assume you would have to lose some of the benefits of the HP DSM.  It might work, but all in all at some point support has to end for these old OSes.  I"ve still got some legacy things running on 2k3, but at this point they are all VMs and not directly attaching to my SAN so I think I"ll be ok.

AuZZZie
Frequent Advisor

Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

CMC Upgrade path is delayed yet again now to Jan 15th according to the StoreVirtual 11 download page. That's only like the 4th or 5th date change though so take it with a grain of salt. 

 

I'm officially done with HP storage. Soon as next years budget allows I'll be moving to a new vendor, and I'll be ceasing to recommend HP storage to our clients. Love their servers, but their Storage team all need to be fired. 

 

For anyone wondering though, I upgraded my Hyper-V cluster to 2012 R2 and used the v11 DSM while keeping my SAN/IQ nodes @ 10.5. All seems to be working. So if you're like me and have given up on HP ever releasing it, you can still move to 2012 R2 and remain stable. 

Bart_Heungens
Honored Contributor

Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

Hi,

 

I do not know why the update is delayed again until january, but to say that you will stop buying HP storage for this does not make sense... At least for me...

 

Version 11 is already available for download via another way and I was able to update my Lefthand environment already a few weeks ago to 11.0, although not via the CMC way...

 

But if you really really really need/want 11.0, know that there are other ways...

 

 

Kr,

Bart

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oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

well I wouldn't not buy because of this, but I hate to say it, but the pattern of advances of this system going back to v8.5 has been a constant and increasingly large lag in features of modern SANs.  What does v11 get you for the hardware nodes?  SMI-S support? "increased performance"?  2012r2 support?  Those aren't "features", those are basic requirements of a SAN.  The VSA was innovative 5 years ago and I"m sure they could make it innovative again if they cared, but either they care and don't communicate it and have terrible results or they don't care and will let it die.

 

I decided to stick with this SAN this year, but come next it may be another story if there isn't a clear roadmap for the future of this product.

 

BTW, I have a few VSA nodes and would like to take advantage of AO.  How did you upgrade?  Just install a new node and do a node exchange?  X-mass is a good time for me to play around with this stuff. 

Bart_Heungens
Honored Contributor

Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

I understand your opinion, and partly I had the same feeling... Last week at HP Discover I could speak quite some HP people including Lefthand representatives, and I cannot tell you all the details (under NDA) but I can guarantee you that 2014 will be a great year... Believe me...

 

BTW at HP Discover there was a new model on demo that will be officialy launched/presented 1 of the upcoming weeks. AO not only on VSA but now also on a physical node... So yes SSD and SAS inside 1 node... I am currently writing a blog article on it and will publish it soon on my site...

 

Yes I did it thru the node swap feature... Worked fine, not ideal but shows me all the features of the product. Did already a lot of upgrades thru the CMC, sometimes it is fun to do it the other way...

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oikjn
Honored Contributor

Re: Version 11.0 Announced, Finally - Capacity Increase and Tiered-Storage

thanks.  I really like the VSA line and it does have a ton of potential.  I do sincerly hope HP does condinue to actively develope it.  Nice to at least hear the rhumor that things are comming in 2014.  I just wish they would publish a timeline or communicate something to us...  heck, they have this forum, they could post something here or have a representitive here post something.  Is there even a person on the team on this board?