Cat on demand emc vplex weakness

Michael Shea

Competitive Intelligence Analyst – EMC

[email protected]

CAT on Demand:EMC VPLEX Weakness

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Get out of the functional silo discussion

Specific VPLEX limits

Specific NetApp advantages

Things to remember

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What keeps EMC up at night?

Cloud requires standardization

− Automation and Orchestration requires standards

− Gets the CIO out of managing infrastructure

− Creates room for business innovation

Agile Data Infrastructure

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Cloud requires standardization

− Automation and Orchestration requires standards

− Gets the CIO out of managing infrastructure

− Creates room for business innovation

Agile Data Infrastructure is standardization

− One platform for calibrated scale

− One platform providing all required services

− The end of silo’s of functional storage


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“Standardize the infrastructure”

Joe Tucci – EMC CEO

Oracle Open World 2012 Keynote


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EMC: Cloud Requires “Federation”

VirtualClients

Private

Cloud

Public

CloudInformation

Virtualization

Security

Federation

VirtualApplications

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EMC: Cloud Requires “Federation”

VirtualClients

Private

Cloud

Public

CloudInformation

Virtualization

Security

Federation

VirtualApplications

Standardized

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EMC: Cloud Requires Federation

VirtualClients

Private

Cloud

Public

CloudInformation

Virtualization

Security

Federation (another layer of complexity)

VirtualApplications

??

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Why “Federate” when you can:

1. Standardize the existing and new storage platform and,

2. Rid the data center of the extra moving parts and,

3. Simplify operations and lower OPEX,

4. Get IT out of the way of the business?

A good question…

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Does what VMAX cannot –at VNX price points

Over 8,000 MetroClusters

Highest level of resiliency

Set and forget

Bullets in the Gun

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Does what VMAX cannot –at VNX price points

Over 8,000 MetroClusters

Highest level of resiliency

Set and forget

EMC has no answer to this

They pigeon-hole conversation

clustered ONTAP

Non-Disruptive Operations

Never migrate again

Any workload

Bullets in the Gun

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A Brief Tour of VPLEX

EMC positioning of siloes of storage functions

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Prod Data

Mobility

VPLEX


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Prod DR

Prod Data

DataMobility

Replication

RecoverPointVPLEX

Other Options:

MirrorView

Replicator

SRDF


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Prod

BUR

DR

Dev

Test

Prod

Prod Data

DataMobility

Replication

Mirroring

Local or

remote

RecoverPointVPLEX

Other Options:

MirrorView

Replicator

SRDF

Other Options:

VNX Snapshot

SnapView

SnapSure

SAN Copy

TimeFinder

VPLEX: Metro, Geo, Global

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Move and relocate VMs, applications, and data

over distance

Disaster avoidance

Data center migration

Workload rebalancing

MOBILITY

Maintain availability and non-stop access by

mirroring across locations

High availability

Eliminate storage operations from failover

AVAILABILITY

Access anywhere

Access anywhere

Access anywhere

Enable concurrent read / write access to data across locations

Instant and simultaneous data access over distance

Streamline workflows

COLLABORATION

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The moving parts - simplified

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• Hosts

• VPLEX Clusters & Engines

• FC SAN (no NAS!)

• Intercluster ISL

& Cross Connect ISL

• Block Storage Arrays

• VPLEX Witness

Cache

Cache Directory D Cache Directory F Cache Directory HCache Directory BCache Directory C Cache Directory E Cache Directory G

Cache

Engine Cache Coherency Directory

Block Address 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 …

Cache A

Cache C

Cache E

Cache G


Block Address 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 …

Cache A

Cache C

Cache E

Cache G

Cache Directory A

CacheCache

Distributed Cache Coherency – the key to VPLEXDirectory based distributed cache coherency efficiently maintains cache state consistency across all Engines

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Cache


Cache


Block Address 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 …

Cache A

Cache C

Cache E

Cache G


Block Address 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 …

Cache A

Cache C

Cache E

Cache G

Cache Directory A

New Write:Block 3

CacheCache


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Cache


Cache


Block Address 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 …

Cache A

Cache C

Cache E

Cache G


Block Address 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 …

Cache A

Cache C

Cache E

Cache G

Cache Directory A

Read:Block 3

CacheCache


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Cache


Cache


Block Address 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 …

Cache A

Cache C

Cache E

Cache G


Block Address 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 …

Cache A

Cache C

Cache E

Cache G

Cache Directory A

Read:Block 3

CacheCache


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Use FC over IP for back end fabric

Use existing SANs for back end fabric

Encapsulate existing LUNs

on arrays without migration (must be 4K

multiple)

Local HA protection with

up to 4 Engines (8 directors) per site

“Stretch” a volume over distance - R/W

VPLEX can do these things

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Weaknesses to Exploit

Complex Installation – 112 Pages

Local

− Physical setup

− 17 Main Tasks

At least 75 discrete tasks

− Additional per LUN

− Additional per host

− Additional per WWN

Six separate tools

Metro or Geo

− Physical Setup – 2X

− 34 Main Tasks

At least 175 discrete tasks

− Additional per LUN

− Additional per host

− Additional per WWN

Six separate tools

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Single writer workloads

− vSphere: Good

− Databases: Not good

− Oracle RAC - the magic is in RAC, not VPLEX

VPLEX introduces a new management UI

− IONIX and Unisphere cannot manage VPLEX

VM Restart in A/A clusters when:

− Failure of VPLEX cluster at A – VMs must restart on B

− Loss of back end at A – VMs must restart on B

Stretched ESX clusters require Metro HA

VPLEX backend path load balancing – ROUND ROBIN

Where VPLEX falls down -1

Rollback

ScenariosAsync Con Grps

‘Dirty Cache’

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Witness (avoiding ‘split brain’)

− Metro Only

− Synchronous Consistency Groups only (no async fail over support)

− Geo: diagnostics only

− Independent from other clusters

All Directors should see all volumes

− Massive increase in initiator counts

Lose ONE director in a cluster and

− Asymmetric Backend Visibility = ‘degraded mode’

HA or NDU prevented

Performance is negatively impacted

Where VPLEX falls down - 2

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Failure handling in a vSphere deployment

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(<1ms) Metro

Cross Connect

(<10 ms) Metro

Host Restart hosts Restart hosts

VPLEX Cluster No interruption: alternate

path & witness (usually)

Manual restart on HA

side (sometimes Auto)

Disk No interruption: VPLEX

path to remote disk

No interruption: VPLEX

path to remote disk

Witness No interruption, VPLEX

invokes static rules

Suspend ‘non-preferred’

VPLEX and restart on

preferred

Intercluster Link Static rule invoked,

suspend on cluster, restart

hosts – no distributed

volume support

Preferred site: no

interruption

VM’s in non preferred

site: GOS fail, restart

VMs in preferred

No vSphere

Fault-tolerance support

but is road mapped

NEW

VPLEX Increases OPEX

LUN Operation Steps

Create a LUN Create it on array

Assign it to VPLEX

Map it to host

Resize a LUN Resize it on array

Resize it on VPLEX

Resize it on host

Snapshot of a LUN EMC ONLY

Make snap of LUN on array

Make clone of LUN on array

VPLEX drives

OPEX UP

NAS is not

supported

How do you NDU migrate to a new VPLEX cluster?

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VMAX – “Go Wide” - each host maps to each director

VPLEX – “NDU” - Each director sees all volumes

− Each host needs 4 paths to each LUN

vSphere – Each LUN visible to all cluster members

Best Practices – Conflicts and Impossibilities

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VMAX – “Go Wide” - each host maps to each director

VPLEX – “NDU” - Each director sees all volumes

− Each host needs 4 paths to each LUN

vSphere – Each LUN visible to all cluster members

Common sense time:

− How many initiators can VPLEX handle?

− How many does the solution require?

− How many best practices will be broken?

− How brittle will the resulting solution be?

Best Practices – Conflicts and Impossibilities

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VPLEX or SRM?

Disaster Avoidance Disaster Recovery

You know in advance You don’t know in advance

Goal is to be non-disruptive Always somewhat disruptive

Entire process can be slow (Hours to Days) Entire process needs to be FAST

Accomplished via VPLEX and vMotion Accomplished via SRM

Examples

Incoming hurricane

Power grid maintenance

Datacenter migration (over time)

Examples

Unexpected floods

Unexpected hardware failures

Datacenter migration (all at once)

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Supported synchronous Active / Active storage architecture

R/W on both ends, use a Witness

Stretched layer 2 connectivity

622 Mbps bandwidth (min) between sites

Latency requirements

− <1ms if Cross Connected Metro HA

− <10ms with vSphere 5 / Metro vMotion

− <50ms Geo

Single vCenter (w/ vCenter heartbeat)

Disaster Avoidance Requirements – VPLEX

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VPLEX Networking Recommendations

Plan for different I/O traffic patterns

Look at OTV and LISSP ** the real magic for application mobility

Put management traffic onto a vSwitch

Minimize latency

Use Cross Connect with Metro if possible (Make them!)

− Link requires own ISL and physical network

− Do not share with intercluster link

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What problem does VPLEX solve?

SAN only

Does not simplify storage infrastructure

Highly complex installation

Increases OPEX

No storage pooling support

Limited Business Continuity

No Storage Efficiency

No Cloning, Tiering

Takeaways

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Field Portal – fieldportal.netapp.com

− NetApp product and solution information

Communities – communities.netapp.com

− Solution and Technology spaces

− Experts live here

Resources

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Cat on demand emc vplex weakness

Engineering

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