Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

Software Defined

Playing around with EMC CloudArray on VSAN

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Today I figured I would play around with EMC CloudArray a bit on top of VSAN. It comes with a VxRail appliance by default so I figured I would check what it has to offer. For those who don’t know. CloudArray allows you to provide NFS/CIFS and Object based storage to your datacenter leveraging local storage but also integrate it with cloud storage for archival purposes. A pretty cool solution if you ask me, and could be a great way to deliver file and object services in an easy fashion on top of VSAN. (But you could also use this in your lab to serve up NFS or iSCSI etc to your lab for shared storage.)

I signed up for a trial and downloaded the OVF. Deploying it was straight forward so no need to describe that, just like any other OVF. After the boot I grabbed the IP Address (we have DHCP in our lab) and did an “https://<ip of appliance/”. Now a setup screen shows up and it allows me to configure it. Fairly simple:

  • Click “Setup”
  • Click “Next”
  • Ensure “Enable CloudArray Portal” is ticked and click Next
  • Provide your account details so that the trial license can be pulled from the CloudArray website
  • Create an Admin account, I used “administrator”
  • Accept the EULA and click Finish
  • That was the setup, it will congratulate you and now you can configure it further

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Can I select VSAN as my placeholder datastore with SRM?

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I received a question today about SRM, vSphere Replication and VSAN. The current documentation for SRM says the following:

Do not select as placeholder datastores any datastores that you use as the replication target datastore for vSphere Replication.

The question was, what about when using VSAN? As with VSAN as the source and destination datastore I usually only have 1 datastore. What do I select as my placeholder datastore then? Well with VSAN the situation is different. When using VSAN the placeholder datastore selected can be the VSAN datastore where the VMs are also replicated to. This is a gap in our current documentation, and we will make sure to get this updated asap.

Can all VSAN Witness VMs for ROBO be in the same VLAN?

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Yesterday I received the question if all VSAN Witness VMs for ROBO can be in the same VLAN? The excellent VSAN 2 node and Stretched Cluster guide for VSAN describes an example of how things can be implemented with different VLANs for the VSAN Witness, which would look like this:

Now the question came in from a customer implementing ROBO at scale if it was possible to have all VSAN Witness VMs for ROBO in the same VLAN. The answer in short is: yes. Keep in mind that the  ROBO locations access the Witness VM over L3 and there is no multicast needed between the ROBO location. Only thing you need to do is set up the routes from the ROBO location to the main site with the central Witness VMs. All of them can be in the same VLAN, fully supported!

Looking for the VROps VSAN Content Pack?

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I just noticed the link for the VROps VSAN Content Pack had changed and it isn’t easy to find through google either. Figured I would post it quickly so at least it is indexed and easier to find. Also including the LogInsight VSAN content pack link for your convenience:

Kindle version of Essential Virtual SAN (6.2) available now!

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Just noticed the Kindle version of Essential Virtual SAN (6.2), second edition, is available now! We decided to go for an “e-book” first model to get it to market as quick as possible. I hope you will enjoy the book as much as Cormac and I did writing it. Pick it up!

Fully updated for the newest versions of VMware Virtual SAN, this guide show how to scale VMware’s fully distributed storage architecture to meet any enterprise storage requirement. World-class Virtual SAN experts Cormac Hogan and Duncan Epping thoroughly explain how Virtual SAN integrates into vSphere 6.x and enables the Software Defined Data Center (SDDC). You’ll learn how to take full advantage of Virtual SAN, and get up-to-the-minute insider guidance for architecture, implementation, and management.

If you want to order the paper version at a local book store, here are the ISBN details, or just go to Amazon and pre-order it of course.

  • ISBN-13: 978-0134511665
  • ISBN-10: 0134511662