So VNX is here. There will be post after post discussing the new platform but as is the case a lot of the software engineering effort has gone into supporting the new hardware and making some foundational changes to facilitate future functionality.
There are a couple of aspects to the launch which I found interesting and are worth highlighting.
Previously the Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) Solution for NAS on the Celerra was the EMC File Migration Appliance with file data being migrated to a destination tier of storage while stubs were dropped at the source, thereby making the migration transparent to the user.
While doing it this way allowed not only for tiering inside a system but tiering across systems, it showed that Pool based services were not being leveraged for File data. It also required an external appliance, physical or virtual, to orchestrate the data movement.
With VNX, File data moves between tiers inside the system at the sub-LUN level. Exactly the same way I described the process for Block data in a previous post leveraging the exact same Pool based services and with the exact same views and controls shown in Unisphere.
In VNX, FAST VP (Virtual Pools) is now a system wide service. Just like FAST Cache.
Looking towards replication, to date replication of file data has not been supported by RecoverPoint, but with VNX and the latest release of RecoverPoint this has changed. Replication of SAN LUNs and NAS File Systems are supported for system level disaster recovery with RecoverPoint Continuous Remote Replication. Users choose which VNX X-Blades they wish to replicate and RecoverPoint replicates the storage owned by that X-Blade while managing the required locking operations.
This Unified system level replication is VNX specific and not available on previous generations of EMC Unified Storage.
Also in this release of RecoverPoint, Block Level Data Deduplication For Data In Flight. This is for WAN transmission only, when data lands on storage at the destination location it won’t be deduplicated. In flight however the bandwidth savings can be dramatic with the system performing block level data deduplication first and then applying RecoverPoint compression to the unique data being transmitted to the destination to deliver more of a data transmission reduction.
I’d expect additional functionality in the direction going forward.
To focus on the sales process previously EMC Unified had an enabler code for everything. I can’t count the number of times I took a meeting and came across a solution to a problem only to find they hadn’t licensed that feature.
Well feature licensing is out and software suites are in. You license a suite or a Pack made up of suites and get all the functionality in that suite or suites. You might use that functionality now, you might use it later but you’re licensed for it right away.
The Suites break down across the usual lines of performance and protection.
-The FAST Suite
Does exactly what it says in the title. FAST, FAST Cache, Unisphere Analyzer and Unisphere Quality of Service Manager licensed to allow you to deploy a FLASH 1st storage architecture starting with a small number of Flash drives.
I expect The FAST Suite to be probably the most popular Suite for VNX.
-The Local Protection Suite
Snaps, Clones, Point In Time Recovery. Licenses for SnapView, SnapSure and RecoverPoint CDP. Anything you need for in system protection.
-The Remote Protection Suite
Licenses for Replicator, MirrorView and RecoverPoint CRR. Anything you need for remote replication.
-The Application Protection Suite
Licenses for Replication Manager and Data Protection Advisor for Replication Analysis. If you’re replicating data I cannot underline the importance of the gap analysis functionality of DPA. It finds those small configuration things which can kill you should the proverbial hit the fan.
-The Security And Compliance Suite
Licenses for Event Enabler (Anti-Virus, quota management and auditing), File Level Retention and Host Data Encryption.
To conclude, I found the most interesting parts of the VNX to be in what you can see are clearly the structural changes visible when you look deeply at VNX Block and VNX File.
As Pat Gelsinger stated in the Putting It All Together post VNX, VNXe, RecoverPoint Unified Replication and Unisphere management is the first phase.
If you read between the lines with what I’ve written above, the shape of things to come is Phase 2.
