VMworld2014 |14.10.| [STO1853] VMware Vision and Strategy for SDS

This session includes the standard-disclaimer! So this is information about future features, so there is no guarantee, they will be as described!

Storage Policy Based Management

Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) is on top of vVol, vSAN and vCloud Air. So these products use the same policy framework. Beneath policy-driven control plane there is the data plane.

Overview of vVol

• virtual disks are native array volumes
• array based data services (replication, snapshot, dedup, QoS, DR, …) are used instead of  software based services like VMware Snapshot, vSphere Replication, …
• configuration is based on Storage Policy-Based Management
• support for FC, iSCSI, NFS protocols
• currently there are more than 29 partners developing products that uses vVol
• HP (3PAR), NetApp, Dell will offer products at GA of vVol

vVol Architecture

• vSphere <-> (control path) Vendor Provider (VASA) <-> (control path) Array
• array presents a virtual datastore (it is not a vmfs-volume!)
• define Storage Policies
• data path is separated from control path

NEW: vSphere API for IO Filtering

This could be a next medium-sized thing! With IO Filter (VAIO: vSphere API for IO) it will be possible to plug software into the IO path. So online services like dedup, compression, caching, replication, encryption will be possible at this level. These filters will be installed in user space, so in case of problems it will just affect configured VMs instead of the whole host.

NexentaConnect for vSAN

With NexentaConnect you can use vSAN as storage for an integrated filer that supports these features:

• file storage
• NFS, SMB
• user data
• departmental data
• ISO files
• inline compression
• performance and health monitoring
• folder and volume level snapshots
• integrated in vCenter GUI
• global cache
• snapshot of folder – integrated in windows GUI

I did’t had a look at the solution yet, but its good to know there is an option when such thing is needed.