I would like to know, does Nimble support VAAI Full Copy?

[daniel_moloney]

I was hoping to find out if Nimble provide support for Full Copy under VAAI?

I understand that Nimble provide LUN based cloning capability but would also like to know if this extends to Sub-LUN.

For example when cloning a VM will the Nimble array clone the VM at Zero size?

Thanks

[ajay59]

not yet Daniel, but copy offload is in the works. Glad to discuss more details with you live if you're interested.

[daniel_moloney]

Hi Ajay,

Great to hear this is something Nimble are working on, I would be happy to discuss further any additional detail when you have time.

Thanks.

[jhauf56]

I would also be interested in hearing more. Right now I am running a 8 copy clone of a 7 VM vApp and it takes hours. With Full Copy it should cut it to minutes.

[wen35 · Accepted solution]

Jesse, per our email exchange, hope you could take advantage of our zero copy clone feature for your vApp clones.  Feel free to post additional questions here.

For others that may also be interested:

-you could clone volume from Nimble side and present the clone as a new VMFS volume (we automate this step in the vCenter plugin today)

-once the new clone is provisioned, you could register all VMs in the cloned datastore

-invoke IP/network changes + new SID (for Windows)

The cloning is instantaneous and does not take up additional space for unchanged blocks.  So you get both space saving as well as rapid provisioning.