VMware's software defined storage, get your VVol (Virtual Volume) overview here!

Posted by Paul Braren on Mar 1 2015 (updated on Feb 20 2022) in
  • ESXi
  • Virtualization
  • Storage
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    The lovely farmer’s market in downtown Mainz, on a beautiful Saturday Sep 27th, 2014. Right near the Gutenberg Museum.

    My work with IBM on VVol (Virtual Volume) over at IBM's European Storage Competence Center is now published! If you read TinkerTry last September, you know I went to work at Mainz Germany for a month. Now, you also know what I was really doing there. I love immersing myself in tech that's at the leading, speeding, and sometimes bleeding, edge. Using the latest software and microcode, pushing the boundaries of what's possible forward. Right up my alley. Months before it's "ready." I'm so glad I had my family's support for me to be thousands of miles away for a month, tackling this challenging work and a finicky Fiat stick-shift, in a very foreign land. With incredibly smart, experienced authors who were clearly way ahead of me.

    IBM-XIV-and-VMware-Synergy-with-the-IBM-Storage-Integration-Server
    Like in tennis, that's a good thing, helps you bring your game up, in a hurry. The relatively compact size of Europe also gave me the chance to enjoy weekends in the fullest, exploring and photographing western europe. Topping it all off, the opportunity of a lifetime to reconnect with my ancestors. Brings chills to my spine every time I think about that feeling, the adventure and thrill of it all, the Belgium waffles (in Belgium!), the autobahn, the stunning scenery.

    The exhilarating work in Germany later led to me flying off to San Francisco in early February for VMware's Partner Exchange 2015, standing right alongside HP's well known vSphere-land guy, Eric Siebert. Soon enough, I enjoyed the chance to also meet many distinguished bloggers and vExperts and VMUG leaders for the first time.

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    Roger Lund, Emad Younis, Paul Braren

    Even had a chance meeting with HomeServerShow.com superstar Kevin Schoonover. Then there were the incredible IBM colleagues who I had never met in person before, including XIV's Stephen Solewin and FlashSystem's Kristy Ortega. The titans of virtualization storage were all there together, showing off the promise of the industry-wide VVol initiative. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to the many partners and colleagues who stopped by to hear what's coming their way in 2015. The very next week, I found myself traveling to IBM Tucson AZ, working with IBM's software defined storage solution now announced as Spectrum Accelerate. Yeah, February was a pretty cool month for me, while it was literally very cold back at home.

    DARE-TO-THRIVE

    The subtext of this post is not so much "look at me, my life is interesting lately," it's intended to be more "work hard and enjoy what you do, it leads to opportunity."

    While TinkerTry's focus is on what's possible in the affordable home lab, eventually enterprise concepts and technologies have a way of making their way into the tech we can actually afford at home. So know that I don't plan to write about work stuff often, but this VVol thing is too cool to not mention, see also a nice VVol diagram here. So without further ado, here's my never-before-published blurb:*

    Many of you are already using XIV Storage for your VMware ESXi host storage needs. Some of you have made significant steps forward by enabling VAAI (vSphere Storage APIs), gaining a speed boost and some space reclamation controls. With 2015's expected VMware vSphere 6, coupled with IBM's XIV microcode announcement, you'll know longer have to just imagine not worry about LUNs, or the overhead of the VMFS filesystem (it's gone). Bless your vSphere environment with the ability to communicate directly with your IBM XIV Storage. Benefits of VVol include: ? increased simplicity for your vSphere admins ? increased granularity, creating snapshots of individual VMs instead of entire volumes ? GUI-based space reclamation controls ? dramatically enhanced speeds (featured in the lab demonstration video below) This video will teach you and tease you, giving you a glimpse of the great things to come from IBM and VMware in 2015. You'll be hooked on a feeling that you're well on your way to something even better.

    *I do not represent IBM in this post, or any post at TinkerTry.com. Opinions expressed here are my own, a disclaimer that appears above all 500+ articles.

    And finally, here they are, the articles, publication, and video:

    Or, if you just want to skip the video ahead to our lab demonstration, this link below skips ahead to just the right spot (3m 8s in):

    HZtf5CaJx_Y

    April 17 2015 Update

    It's official, VVOL is now VVol, see Eric's Siebert's April 9, 2015 post
    Is it VVOLs or VVols?

    Feb 13 2023 Update

    It's official, VVol is now vVol, example at vVols Getting Started Guide and Virtual Volume Objects - VMware Docs.

    Feb 20 2023 Update

    See also:

    It seems IBM has pulled the VVOL video from http://youtu.be/HZtf5CaJx_Y, but I found an archive of the title, it was called:
    vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVOL) with IBM XIV Storage System
    Description:

    Published on Feb 2, 2015
    Watch this video to learn how Virtual Volumes can work with IBM XIV Storage System for you and your emerging business needs. You can take advantage of easy automated provisioning, policy-compliant service levels, snapshot/cloning offloading, and instant space reclamation - ALL with hotspot free

    See also at TinkerTry

    fohr

    TinkerTry - PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency and more, including virtualization. My opinions here, not my employer's.

    Paul Braren, MCSE in 1998, VCP #2681 in 2005, vExpert 2014 to 2024, Veeam Vanguard Emeritus, 2015 to 2019.

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    After 6 successful years testing then shipping well over 1,000 Xeon D Bundles, Wiredzone had to stop selling them in mid-2021 due to cost, supply, and logistics challenges. So far, Xeon D-1700/2700 (Ice Lake D) was a minor refresh for 2023, with Xeon D-1800/2800 (Granite Rapids D) refresh looking a little better for 2024. More cores, but still just PCIe Gen4 and DDR4. Looking ahead, I'm glad it's Pat Gelsinger at Intel's helm. I'm also grateful to have had the honor of working at VMware when Pat was the CIO there. I'll leave it at that, given the whole Broadcom thing.

    Easily update VMware ESXi at TinkerTry.com/easy-update-to-latest-esxi