PernixData - An overview and a lot of excitement!

I could not stop myself to write this article as I was pretty excited about what I am hearing and reading about PernixData. 

PernixData is a start-up which is trying to innovate the old and left alone technology of Server Side Caching which could be a paradigm shift in the the field of how Datacenter and Virtualization works today.

They have come up with a Flash Virtualization Solution for Server side cache, which can sit on the ESXi host and can directly talk to vmkernel to cache IO on the ESXi on a Flash Drive. The cool part is that the PernixData FVP (Flash Virtualization Platform) actually is a distributed caching mechanism for a cluster of ESXi servers which can be a phenomenal product if it works the way the company claims.

This means that the customers DO NOT have to buy newer better arrays or disks, if the existing arrays do not support the throughput and I/O requirements of virtual machine workloads. Since the high speed caching layer will hold the data and will ensure performance while giving high availability it is a win-in situation for a customer. This can be revolutionary as this would reduce the need of upgrading storage arrays due to performance problems and save a ton of money for organizations.

"PernixData Flash Virtualization Platform (FVP) - an enterprise-class, high-speed, software-only data tier for application acceleration - enables a strategic shift in customers’ vision for virtualized data centers. PernixData FVP is created by virtualizing server-side flash via a scale out architecture. Virtualized applications transparently leverage FVP for unprecedented performance while requiring no changes to either the application or the underlying storage infrastructure. Clustered hypervisor features such as live migrations and distributed resource management continue to operate seamlessly with FVP. By virtualizing flash in servers, PernixData is picking up where hypervisors left off after virtualizing CPU and memory."

Source - pernixdata.com

You know the brains behind this?? Its an ex-VMware employee named Satyam Vaghani, he was one of the engineer who developed VMFS (needless to say anything else about the credentials)

To read more about it:-

Website - http://pernixdata.com/

Duncan on PernixData - http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2013/02/20/introducing-pernixdata-out-of-stealth/

Frank Denneman’s post on this top - http://frankdenneman.nl/2013/02/20/pernixdata-flash-virtualization-platform-will-revolutionize-virtual-infrastructure-ecosystem-design-2/

If things work, it might be another possible acquisition option for VMware to complete their Software Define Storage Strategy. Cannot wait to put my hands on it.. :-)

VMware Virtualization Blogs - Vote for the best in business!

Just wanted to notify all the readers about the voting for the Top 10 Virtualization blogs in the industry which is opened now.

This is an yearly election which is conducted by vsphere-land.com by opening a poll to the VMware community to rate the best blogs around the globe. Lets look at what vSphere Land has to to say about this Survey.

"There are over 200 blogs dedicated to VMware and virtualization, here’s your chance to pick your favorites and determine the top blogs. The last voting was a year ago and new bloggers are springing up every month. "

I am happy to announce that vXpress is also a candidate for this voting this year. :-) It is absolutely a pleasure to be listed by side of the some Masters of vBlogging.

Here is whom I voted for :-

@Cormac Hogan

@Yellow Bricks (Duncan Epping)

@Long White Clouds (Michael Webster)

@Frank Denneman(frankdenneman.nl)

@Virtu-Al (Alan Renouf)

@The Saffa Geek (Gregg Robertson)

Would appreciate and encourage you to Vote for the top 10 blogs as this helps the Virtualization bloggers across the globe to compete hard and provide quality content.

So what are you waiting for, head on over and take the survey to cast your ballot and reward the best bloggers for their hard work and dedication by letting them know that you appreciate them.

Click Here

Using the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)!!

With each project kick-off or a knowledge transfer session, I emphasize on the importance of VMware Hardware Compatibility List as being the bible for making procurement and implementation decisions for any  piece of hardware for your VMware environment.

The Hardware Compatibility List, more popularly known as VMware HCL within VMware, is a single point of reference for you to ensure that any hardware which you are planning to use with your VMware software has been tested and certified to work fine. I have seen the HCL evolved tremendously over the past few years and now it has become a robust and a reliable tool to provide information which you would need before taking your procurement decisions.

The HCL is a very famous and popular tool amongst those who are a part of VMware community, but I thought it would be a good idea to blog about it and make this easy reference document which tells you how to use this tool effectively and quickly to find out any information which you need about hardware compatibility. The other reason is to ensure the the NEWBIES in the VMware community learn about this strong yet simple tool to make their life easier.

All right, let's begin with how to get to the VMware Hardware Compatibility List:-

Accessing VMware Hardware Compatibility List

1- Go to http://www.vmware.com/

2- Hover your mouse pointer on Support & Downloads & Click on Compatibility Guides

3- On the new page which appears click on View the VMware certified Compatibility Guides.

Alternatively, you can also go to http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

Once you are the Hardware Compatibility Search screen, you have 2 options from hereon, either you can use the Standard Search of click on a hyperlink which takes you to the Guided Search. See the screenshot below:-

Let us look at the Standard Search and then will have a quick look at the Guided Search.

Standard Search

The most important drop-down here is to select the type of Harware for which you are seeking compatibility. Click on the drop down next to the "What are you looking for" to see all the available options:-

I will take some time to explain the important one's:-

1-  Systems / Servers - As the name suggests, helps you find the compatible servers with all the releases of ESXi hypervisor. These servers can be Rack Mounter, Blade, Tower or from any Vendor such as HP, Dell, Cisco, IBM etc. There are multiple options under this search type for you to narrow down your search to your choice of server hardware. You can further drill down to stuff like the desirable BIOS version on a server to run a particular version of ESXi and much more.

2- Storage/SAN - Another important search criteria which helps you select the storage model and make and find compatibility for the same against a ESXi platform of your choice. This not only allows to check simple things such as make and model, but also allows you to drill down deeper and find out about VAAI (vStorage API for Array Integration) primitives support, Path policies recommended by the storage vendor, firmware or microcode level on the Storage Processors/Controllers & more.

3- VMware View - This option explore all the hardware possibilities for End user computing product line of VMware. From thin clients to supported protocols, all can be found here in this search.

4- Guest OS / Host OS - All the versions of Guest OS and Host OS supported on VMware Products at all the layers, whether end user or enterprise.

5- Site Recovery Manager - Searching for SRM compatibility with different types of SRA available from various storage vendors is something which can be easily found here, before implementing SRM in your infrastructure.

Along with these, there are others which are important and can be used to determine whether you have the right hardware to use VMware Products and features.

Now let's look at the Guided Search option.

Guided Search

For guided search you just need to click on link shown in the screenshots above. This will launch a simple wizard with a few easy to follow steps. Here is how it looks like:-

You have to go through the options and select what you are looking for. Ultimately you will get the results about the compatibility of VMware Products on the hardware which you have or want to procure.

I would strongly recommend you get familiar with this simple tool and use it without fail to ensure that you do not end up into situations which are unsupported by VMware Support.

I will leave you with other important links which you can use to take Compatibility and Interoperability decisions for your VMware environment and ensure that you always are in compliance by using the compatible and tested hardware. Following such practices would not only provide efficiency to your environment, but also provide up-time which is important to any business today

Compatibility Search Guide - http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

Guided Search Wizard - http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/wizard/request.php

Product Interoperability Matrixes - http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/sim/interop_matrix.php 

Partner Verified & Supported Products (PVSP) -http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/vcl/partnersupport.php

Applications Supported in VMware vSphere - http://vmware-alliances.force.com/supportedapps

To read more about applications supported on VMware vSphere refer to my previous blog article - 

Applications you can Virtualize on VMware vSphere Platform

Also, to see learn about more Tips on searching the VMware HCL refer to the following link - 

Tips for Searching the VMware Compatibility Guide

Hope this helps you take the correct decisions for your VMware Infrastructure.

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