Some episodes are just going to be more popular than others, sometimes it is a surprise which episode will be popular, and sometimes it is a given. Episode 21 is all about VMware core storage, and who better to invite than Tech Marketing Architect Jason Massae. Jason owns core storage at VMware, and shares with us all the different new features introduced in vSphere 7.x, with a focus on both vVols and NVMe over Fabrics. Listen via Spotify (https://spoti.fi/3AW335F), Apple (https://apple.co/3aqSqwP), your podcast app of choice, or via the embedded player below.
Search Results for: vvol
Highlighting some VMworld on-demand sessions
It was a strange week for most of us. VMworld is THE event of the year, at least for those who focus on VMware technology and technology from the VMware ecosystem, and this year it was virtual. I spend a crazy amount of time watching keynotes and on-demand sessions. As always I had created this top 15 list, but after watching dozens of sessions I realized that I left out a few brilliant sessions which I would highly recommend watching. Here are the sessions that stood out to me the past couple of days. These sessions were interesting as they either contained unique content or just provided very useful use-cases.
- Choosing the Best GPU Accelerator Approach for Machine Learning [ETML1110] by Justin Murray and Shawn Kelly
- Simplify and Boost Apache Spark with vSphere with Tanzu [HCP2097] by Justin Murray and Enrique Corro
I would recommend watching both of these sessions, as HPC2097 goes over a great use case, especially as Spark can now leverage GPUs as well. Both sessions give you a better understanding of Kubernetes, Cloud Native workloads and GPU acceleration. Combine that with the announcements around Project Monterey, where VMware and NVIDIA have announced to work closely together to provide a new level of integration for the datacenter of the future.
- The Nerdfest VDI Demo: VDI*(AI + ML + Deep learning + GPU) [DWHV2820] by Johan van Amersfoort
Again a session on AI/ML, I just loved the demos that Johan included. It gives you an idea what is possible today with AI/ML. It is a 35-minute session, so you should be able to get through it rather fast!
- Core Storage Best Practice Deep Dive: Configuring the New Storage Features [HCI1691] by Jason Massae and Cody Hosterman
I had the session on the topic of vVols listed as a recommendation, but I just watched the Core Storage session, and I feel it may even be better. It discusses new technologies like NVMe over Fabric, but also discusses things like iSCSI best practices.
- Achieving Enterprise Comfort with VMware Cloud Foundation [HCI2338] by Paul McSharry
The last session I want to plug is by Paul McSharry. This session is full of best practices, design/sizing, and operational guidance around vSAN and VMware Cloud Foundation.
Oh, although I already had this session listed on the top 15, make sure to check out Frank Denneman’s 60 minutes of NUMA, that is… if you want to wreck your brain, it is DEEP!
Top 15 VMworld 2020 sessions to attend
VMworld 2020 is coming, which means I get to create a list of sessions again which I feel are worth attending. My focus will primarily be on sessions that are hosted by folks of the VMware Cloud Platform Business Unit, which means that the list will be dominated by sessions on the topic of vSAN, vSphere, VCF etc. The key reason for it being of course is that I know most of the speakers on those sessions, and I have attended many of those sessions in the past, so I know what to expect.
I have two sessions accepted this year. The two sessions are:
- vSAN 7.0: A Platform for both Virtual Machine and Containerized Workloads [HCI1814] – Duncan Epping & Cormac Hogan
- Change Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone: My Take 3 Journey [ETPD1043] – Duncan Epping
Make sure to attend these sessions, and if you have any questions, feel free to drop me a note on twitter! When it comes to my top 15 sessions, please note that these are in random order, and also note that if your (or a) session is not listed it doesn’t mean I feel your session isn’t going to be great, it simply means I had too many great sessions to pick from and I somehow had to limit the list. Here we go:
- Fast Forward to Future-Ready Infrastructure [HCI3074] by John Gilmartin
In this BU showcase, John Gilmartin will be discussing where HCI stands today, but more importantly, which direction we are heading towards! - 60 Minutes of NUMA [HCP2453] by Frank Denneman
Do you want to know everything you ever need to know about NUMA when it comes to vSphere? Make sure to watch this session, it was an instant classic last year, and I am sure it will be again this year! - Storage and Availability Vision [HCP3073] by Vijay Ramachandran and Jayanta Dey
This is the session where futures are discussed! Vijay and Jayanta will be sharing with you which concepts and functionality VMware is exploring for future releases of our HCI products. Definitely worth attending if you want to get a hint of our roadmap. -
The Datacenter of the Future [HCP3004] by Kit Colbert and Pere Monclus
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Datrium-based DRaaS Deep Dive: The What, Why, How of the new VMware DRaaS [HCI2886] by Nabil Quadri and Sazzala Reddy
As most of you know, VMware recently acquired Datrium. In this session, Nabil and Sazzala are going to dive deep into what their DR as a Service solution brings, how it works, and why you should be watching this space closely! - Extreme Performance Series: vSphere Compute and Memory Schedulers [HCP2583] by Xunjia Lu and Qasim Ali
I always try to watch 2 or 3 sessions in the Extreme Performance Series, these sessions are always very educational. I have learned something new every single time I’ve attended, or watched, one of these. Do note, this is a deep (as in DEEP) dive typically. - vSAN Technical Deep Dive [HCI1069] by Rakesh Radhakrishnan and Matt Amdur
Technical deep dives host by engineering and product management are always worth attending in my eyes, and both Rakesh and Matt will for sure deliver what you would expect a deep dive to be. - vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols): Modernize Your External Storage [HCI1692] by Cody Hosterman and Jason Massae
If I had to pick two people to tell me all about vVols it would probably be Cody and Jason, these guys understand core storage and vVols inside out, and on top of that understand very well how, and why, customers are implementing it! -
The Future of Networking with VMware NSX [VCNC1555] by Bruce Davie and Marcos Hernandez
A lot has changed in the world of networking the past decade or so, and with IoT and 5G around the corner, it is important to understand how VMware can help you moving into this new era. - vCenter Server 7 Deconstructed [HCP2328] by Emad Younis and Niels Hagoort
In this session Emad and Niels will be discussing the internals of vCenter Server. How did VMware integrate the Kubernetes effort? How does Lifecycle Manager help you manage your cluster? - HCI Management: Current and Future [HCI1514] by Junchi Zhang
In this session Junchi will be discussing the future of HCI management. In the last couple of years, this session has always been packed with demos of future functionality, and it has been my favorite the past couple of years for sure! -
What’s New in Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication [HCI1452] by Cato Grace and Velina Krasteva
A lot has changed for Site Recovery Manager in the past year, definitely worth getting a better understanding by watching this session! - Deep Dive: Storage for VMware Cloud Foundation [HCI2362] by Kevin Tebear and Ron Scott-Adams
The question of which storage platform to use with VCF comes up frequently, and in this session Kevin and Ron are going to discuss all the supported protocols and architectures, and they will be providing guidance and best practices around what to use and when/where. - Innovations in vSphere 7 vMotion: Architecture and Performance [HCP1508] by Sreekanth Setty and Yanlei Zhao
I watched this session last year, and it was very interesting, a lot of in-depth info around the changes introduced and the changes that will be introduced in the future, to further improve the vMotion process! -
Inside xLabs and Off-Roadmap Innovation in the VMware Office of the CTO [OCTO2406] by Daniel Beveridge and Chris Wolf
In the past couple of years Daniel and Chris have been hosting some very interesting sessions, some very fascinating ideas, concepts, and trends were shared, along with potential solutions for these.
Part 2: Is VSA the future of Software Defined Storage? (Customer use case)
About 6.5 years ago I wrote this blog post around the future of Software-Defined Storage and if the VSA (virtual storage appliance) is the future for it. Last week at VMworld a customer reminded me of this article. Not because they read the article and pointed me back at it, but because they implemented what I described in this post, almost to the letter.
This customer had an interesting implementation, which kind of resembles the diagram I added to the blog post, note I added a part to the diagram which I originally left out but had mentioned in the blog (yes that is why the diagram looks like it is ancient… it is):
I want to share with you what the customer is doing because there are still plenty of customers that do not realize that this is supported. Note that this is supported by both vSAN as well as VMware Cloud Foundation, providing you a future proof, scalable, and flexible full-stack HCI architecture which does not need to be implemented in a rip and replace approach!
This customer basically leverages almost all functionality of our Software-Defined Storage offering. They have vSAN with locally attached storage devices (all NVMe) for certain workloads. They have storage arrays with vVols enabled for particular workloads. They have a VAIO Filter Driver which they use for replication. They also heavily rely on our APIs for monitoring and reporting, and as you can imagine they are a big believer in Policy-Based Management, as that is what helps them with placing workloads on a particular type of storage.
Now you may ask yourself, why on earth would they have vSAN and vVols sitting next to each other? Well, they had a significant investment in storage already, the storage solution was fully vVols capable and when they started using vSAN for certain projects they simply fell in love with Storage Policy-Based Management and decided to get it enabled for their storage systems as well. Even though the plan is to go all-in on vSAN over time, the interesting part here, in my opinion, is the “openness” of the platform. Want to go all-in on vSAN? Go ahead! Want to have traditional storage next to HCI? Go ahead! Want to use software-based data services? Go ahead! You can mix and match, and it is fully supported.
Anyway, just wanted to share that bit, and figured it would also be fun to bring up this 6.5 years old article again. One more thing, I think it is also good to realize how long these transitions tend to take. If you would have asked me in 2013 when we would see customers using this approach my guess would have been 2-3 years. Almost 6.5 years later we are starting to see this being seriously looked at. Of course, platforms have to mature, but also customers have to get comfortable with the idea. Change simply takes a lot of time.
My recommended sessions for VMworld Europe 2019!
I created a list of recommended sessions for VMworld US, so I figured I would do the same for VMworld Europe. I am limiting it to 15 sessions for Europe and removed some of the sessions I had listed for the US and added some others for EMEA. I personally have 2 sessions scheduled at the moment, and they filled up rather fast in the US, so make sure to register early: HCI1870BE and HBI2186BE.
Okay, here’s my top 15 list, please note that this is pretty much in random order:
- 60 Minutes of Non-Uniform Memory Architecture [HBI2278BE] by Frank Denneman
This session got raving reviews in the US, I attended it personally and I can highly recommend it. That is if you think your brain can handle it… it is deep! - PowerCLI Deep Dive [HBI1729BE] by Luc Dekens and Kyle Ruddy
What can I say? These guys speak PowerCLI. They know it inside out, just make sure you are ready to go deep! -
VMware Cloud Foundation Deep Dive [HBI2044BE] by Jason Shaw
I am a big fan of full-stack HCI solutions, and in this session, Jason talks about what VMware Cloud Foundation brings to the table. - HCI Management: Current and Future [HCI1207BE] by JunChi Zhang and Christian Dickmann
Every year these guys bring some really cool demos and they expect you to provide feedback at the end of the session. So if you want to have a chance to influence vSAN/vSphere, attend this one! - Project Pacific Technical Overview: Unifying vSphere and Kubernetes [HBI4500BE] by Michael West and Jared Rosoff
There was a lot of buzz surrounding the announcement of Project Pacific. I managed to sit in one or two sessions in the US, and knowing Jared was the lead engineering on this project I suspect that this session may even go deeper than the ones I attended in the US. - The Virtually Speaking Podcast Live: The Future of Storage [HCI1894PE] by Pete Flecha, John Nicholson, and guests
I was a guest on the US in this session, it was a lot of fun. A lively discussion, and great questions from the audience on top of that. Plus, it is amazing to see Pete Flecha do the intro and outro live, I always thought that was pre-recorded! - The Cloud Backbone Network: A Paradigm Shift in Corporate WAN [OCTO1911BE] by Israel Cidon
I have seen a session on this topic by Israel at an internal conference and it was nothing short of mind-blowing. I would highly recommend attending this if you want to learn more about how we could potentially improve corporate WANs in the future by leveraging SD-WAN technology. Mind, this session is foreward looking! - Showcase Keynote: HCI – The Foundation for your Future-proof Infrastructure [HCI3551KE] by Cormac Hogan and John Gilmartin
I presented this session in the US with John, Cormac will be presenting it in Europe with John. I am sure it will be filled with great demos once again, and I will definitely try to attend this one in person - Leveraging the Latest Server Technologies in vSphere [HBI2362BE] by Niels Hagoort
This session wasn’t on my list for the US, but after watching the recording I feel it is worth attending in person! A good overview of what we are doing with the latest HW technologist in vSphere. - vSphere Virtual Volumes: Technical Deep Dive [HBI2853BE] by Jason Massae and Thiruvengada Govinda Thirumal
The adoption of vVols is growing fast, and it is for a good reason. Jason and Thiruvengada will explain in-depth what vVols is and how it works, and of course what the benefits are of adopting it. - Tech Preview of Site Recovery Manager with Virtual Volumes [HCI2894BE] by Stefan Tsonev and Velina Krasteva
The tech preview of SRM for vVols has been discussed various times, but in this session by Stefan and Velina it is also demonstrated. So if you are interested in disaster recovery solutions in combination with vVols then this is one to attend! - Meet the [ML] Driver of the Self-Driving Datacenter [MLA1904BE] by Jad El-Zein and Arun Annavarapu
At VMworld US Project Magna was unveiled, VMware’s effort to deliver the self-driving datacenter. A very interesting concept, which is explained in this session by Jad and Arun. I’ve seen some of the work, and it has a lot of potential, highly recommend attending this session! - Technical Deep Dive on Cloud Native Storage 1.0 [HCI2763BE] by Cormac Hogan and Myles Gray
Cormac and Myles are the Cloud Native experts in our business unit, and I can guarantee that this will be a great session filled with cool demos. - Optimizing vSAN for Performance [HCI1757BE] by Paudie ORiordan
If anyone can explain how to optimize vSAN, how to do benchmarking, and what to avoid… it is Paudie. On top of that, he is a great speaker and you can basically ask him anything on the topic of storage. Must see! - Innovations in vMotion: Features, Performance, and Best Practices [HBI1421BE] by Sreekanth Setty and Arunachalam Ramanathan
I watched this session in the US, it provides an excellent overview of the enhancements introduced for vMotion to improve vMotion (and switch over) times. They also talk about some enhancements coming in the near future. Very interesting stuff.
Scheduling opens up tomorrow (24th of September), so make sure to hit the portal early. I guarantee that many of the sessions above will be full in a matter of days. So don’t say I did not warn you in advance!