This latest hyperconverged infrastructure release, HPE SimpliVity 4.1.0, enhances the efficiency, data mobility, and data protection that the HPE platform provides from edge to core to cloud. Get a closer look at some of the key new features, including a new container plug-in and a just released HCI installation video.
With the long-anticipated release of HPE SimpliVity 4.1.0, I am happy to bring you insights into its various new features and capabilities. This release will further enhance the efficient data mobility that HPE hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) provides with the data virtualization platform that supports edge to core to cloud computing.
Over the last couple of releases, HPE SimpliVity has extended its capabilities to provide a platform that is much easier to manage. Integrations with other HPE Storage portfolio products such as HPE InfoSight and HPE StoreOnce now enable customers to more efficiently support and protect their infrastructure.
The latest release also provides native integration with HPE Cloud Volumes. Edge has always been an area where customers have needed an efficient platform to manage multiple sites. Many retail, hospitality, and oil and gas customers have deployed HPE SimpliVity for its efficiency, simplicity, and scalability. Now these edge customers also want the ability to back up data to a centralized, long-term archive appliance across the WAN, or to a public cloud platform where they can get the convenience and cost-containment of a pay-as-you-go solution – and they don’t have to manage the infrastructure.
Let’s dive in and look at some of the key features of this new release.
HPE SimpliVity integration with HPE Cloud Volumes
HPE previously introduced support for external stores that enable customers to back up primary data to an on-premises device using HPE StoreOnce. We now support the ability to back up to the cloud using HPE Cloud Volumes Backup, although this method requires a secure client.
When you integrate HPE SimpliVity with HPE Cloud Volumes, you can:
- Create backup policies with the external store as the backup target
- Restore virtual machine data from the external store to an HPE SimpliVity cluster, and
- Manage backups stored on the external store as if they were traditional HPE SimpliVity backups.
Setting up backups from a HPE SimpliVity cluster to HPE StoreOnce is very easy. Right click on your cluster and provide the IP address of the secure client, store name, and credentials. It’s that simple!
You can monitor all of your external stores that are connected.
Also, you can easily add a rule to the backup policy so that all the backups to HPE Cloud Volumes are automated.
The data being sent to HPE Cloud Volumes is optimized and very efficient on the wire, so we have seen a significant amount of WAN bandwidth savings as well as capacity savings in these solutions.
Along with support for HPE Cloud Volumes, we also enable customers at edge sites to send backups to an HPE StoreOnce appliance at a data center across the WAN. This flexibility lets you send all of your backups to an HPE StoreOnce target at the core site, or send them directly to the cloud.
Bandwidth throttling
As more and more customers leverage HPE SimpliVity on their edge sites, there has been a request to set limits that prevent the backup traffic from affecting other application traffic on the WAN link. A new bandwidth throttling mechanism in HPE SimpliVity 4.1.0 allows customers to specify the maximum amount of bandwidth the HCI backup traffic will use, which prevents off-site backups from saturating the WAN. This new feature enables customers to further control the backup data by proactively throttling the amount of data that is traversed either in backup from or recovery to the HPE SimpliVity nodes.
Compliance is key for customers. With this release, backup reporting capabilities are extended, and backup reporting now provides the ability for customers to get insights into all the backups taken. Backups can be exported into a .CSV format for easy filtering and analysis. The report also provides information that can help better understand the status of the backups.
The report includes the backups that reside in a cluster or external store during a specified period.
- The external store report includes all backups for all clusters configured to use the external store.
- The cluster-level report includes only the backups that reside on the cluster that you selected when launching the backup report.
- The backups included in the report are filtered based on the permissions of the user that generates the report. If the user does not have permissions to access a virtual machine, that virtual machine's backups are not included in the report.
In addition to those items mentioned above, the report includes all of the fields available for backups, including the following:
- Virtual machine name
- Backup name
- Backup start date and time
- Backup completion date and time
- Backup state
- Backup location
When exported, the backup report is in CSV format.
CSI Plugin persistent volume
The HPE SimpliVity Container Storage Interface [CSI] driver for vSphere has been updated with a persistent volume feature that enables Kubernetes administrators to use the HCI platform’s storage for Kubernetes applications while providing HPE SimpliVity data protection. The latest CSI includes:
- Kubernetes snapshots
- Static and dynamic provisioning
- Read and write to a single pod
The CSI driver requires the following minimum software versions:
- VMware ESXi 6.7U3
- HPE SimpliVity 4.1.0
- Kubernetes 1.17
- vSphere Cloud Provider
Visit the Hewlett Packard Enterprise GitHub to learn more and to download the HPE SimpliVity CSI Plugin.
You can use Kubernetes commands to create and manage persistent volumes and persistent volume snapshots, but you can use the following HPE OmniStack CLI commands to provide an additional level of backup support:
- svt-backup-show
- svt-backup-restore
- svt-pv-backup
- svt-pv-policy-set
- svt-pv-show
Upgrade and deploy to VMware vSphere 7.0
This latest release of HPE SimpliVity 4.1.0 supports ESXi and vCenter 7.0, allowing customers to deploy new federations with vSphere 7.0. The single-click mechanism in the HPE SimpliVity Upgrade Manager now allows the upgrade of firmware, software and hosts to ESXi 7.0, making it very easy for customers to upgrade their existing infrastructures.
JUST RELEASED!
Check out this new installation and software deployment video from hyperconverged technology expert Markus Leinonen.
Find more information on these major new features and additional information on this release in:
- Blog: HPE SimpliVity advances edge leadership with comprehensive data protection, container integration
- HPE SimpliVity YouTube Channel
Meet HPE Blogger Vinay Jonnakuti, Senior Technical Marketing Manager for HPE HyperConverged Products and Solutions.
Storage Experts
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
twitter.com/HPE_Storage
linkedin.com/showcase/hpestorage/
hpe.com/storage
StorageExperts
Our team of Hewlett Packard Enterprise storage experts helps you to dive deep into relevant infrastructure topics.
