2. Benefits of NexentaStor
with VAAI, VASA, and SVA
Dan Boggs
Sr. Product Manager, Nexenta
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3. • What is VAAI?
– Vmware’s vStorage API for Array Integration
– Requires ESX/ESXi 4.1 or later
– Not really an API in the classic sense
• Set of SCSI-3 commands supported by ESX/ESXi
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4. • Why is it important to a customer?
– VAAI is a set of SCSI-3 commands which offload certain operations
from the host CPU and memory
– Enables more efficient use of host CPU and memory
– First three commands are supported in ESX/ESXi 4.1 and later.
Feature Benefit
Write-Same Offloads initialization of a virtual disk by having the
array controller write all zero’s to the v-disk
ATS Enables Vmware to lock a region on a LUN without
requiring the entire LUN to be locked allowing
commands to continue. Think cloaning
Block-Copy Offloads copying a region on a LUN to another
location from the host CPU by having the array
controller perform the task
Unmap Enables ESX/ESXi 5.0 and later to destroy VM’s and
return the freed storage to the Zvol
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5. • How do I get it?
– Upgrade to ESX/ESXi 5.0
– NexentaStor 3.1
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6. • VASA
– vSphere Storage APIs – Storage Awareness
– Future capability of NexentaStor
• Initial VM placement
– Identify the datastore
– What is the underlying LUN's ID
– Engage with the SAN admin
• Is the LUN Thin Provisioned
• Deduplication
• Tiered storage
• etc
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7. • Wouldn’t it be nice if a LUNs characteristics
were easily discovered in vSphere?
• VASA provides this capability
– It enables features of physical storage devices to
be displayed in vSphere
• LUN characteristics are passed from a storage
appliance to vCenter via a vCenter plugin
• Future capability being planned
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8. • What is SVA?
• Storage Virtual Appliance
– NexentaStor running as a VM
– Effectively turns DAS into shared storage
• Good option for VDI
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10. • Why run NexentaStor as a virtual appliance?
• Easily provision new storage
• Ability to grow or shrink hardware resources
• Deploy storage infrastructure in the cloud
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11. • How do I get it?
Download the Free Trial
images for VMware or
Citrix
OR
Download the standard
Free Trial
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12. Thank You!
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