October 2014 archive

vSphere Storage API Links

VAAI (Array Integration)

Is VAAI beneficial with Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) based solutions ? (CloudXC)
VAAI Comparison – Block versus NAS
(Cormac Hogan)
VAAI UNMAP Performance Considerations (Cormac Hogan)
VAAI and VSA: The Benefits are Real (Enterprise Storage Guide)
VMware vSphere 4.1 vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) understanding
(GeekSilver)
VAAI and Deployment – a Practical Example (NTPro.nl)
VMware VAAI pros and cons and the hidden fourth primitive (SearchVMware.com)
VMware VAAI Storage Array Support in Plain English (Stephen Foskett)
A Complete List of VMware VAAI Primitives (Stephen Foskett)
Exploring the performance benefits of VAAI (The Lower Case w)
vSphere 4.1 – What do the “vStorage APIs for Array Integration” mean to you? (Virtual Geek)
vSphere 4.1 and vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) (Virtual Storage Guy)
VMware vSphere VAAI Demo with NetApp (Virtual Storage Guy)
VAAI and the Unlimited VMs per Datastore Urban Myth (Virtualization Evangelist)
vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) (VMTN)
vStorage APIs for Array Integration FAQ (VMware KB)
VAAI Offloads and KAVG Latency (VMware vSphere Blog)
Low Level VAAI Behaviour (VMware vSphere Blog)
A brief history of VAAI & how VMware is contributing to T10 standards (VMware vSphere Blog)
VAAI Offload Failures & the role of the VMKernel Data Mover (VMware vSphere Blog)
VAAI Thin Provisioning Block Reclaim/UNMAP Issue (VMware vSphere Blog)
VAAI Thin Provisioning Block Reclaim/UNMAP In Action (VMware vSphere Blog)
VAAI Thin Provisioning Block Reclaim/UNMAP is back in 5.0U1 (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Array Integration (VAAI) (VMware Tech Paper)
VAAI sweetness (Yellow Bricks)
Using ESXTOP to check VAAI primitive stats (Yellow Bricks)
vStorage APIs for Array Integration aka VAAI (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere 5, VAAI and the Death of the Storage Array (ZDNet)

VASA (Storage Awareness)

What is VMware VASA? Not Much (Yet) (Stephen Foskett)

VAMP (Multi-pathing)

Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) Deep-Dive – Part 1 (Cormac Hogan)
Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) Deep-Dive – Part 2 (Cormac Hogan)
VMware PSP and SATP in Plain English
(Stephen Foskett)
Configure VMware ESX(i) Round Robin on EMC Storage (boche.net)
What’s that ALUA exactly? (Yellow Bricks)
Pluggable Storage Architecture, exploring the next version of ESX/vCenter (Yellow Bricks)
A couple important (ALUA and SRM) notes (Virtual Geek)
Understanding more about NMP RR and iooperationslimit=1 (Virtual Geek)
vSphere Introduces the Plug-n-Play SAN (Virtual Storage Guy)
VMware PSA, MPP, NMP, PSP, MRU, … And Tutti Quanti! (DeinosCloud)
Best practices for HP EVA, vSphere 4 and Round Robin multi-pathing (Ivobeerens.nl)
vSphere Round Robin MultiPathing (Phil the Virtualizer)
Multipathing policies in ESX 4.x (VMware KB)
Did you know that you can now prioritize I/O Paths in the event of a failover? (VMware vSphere Blog)
Configuration Settings for ALUA Devices (VMware vSphere Blog)
Path failure and related SATP/PSP behaviour (VMware vSphere Blog)

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So you have a virtualization blog, what are you doing to back it up?

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Have you ever had that awful sick to your stomach, oh shit feeling when you just realized you lost a lot of important data whether it be photos, documents or other important stuff that can’t easily be replaced? It sucks doesn’t it, usually it takes just one instance like that to inspire us to start taking backups seriously. Unfortunately though it won’t bring back what you lost. Backups are one of those things that many people don’t think about especially when they store data on a location that is hosted on the internet.

There are a great many people that are blogging about virtualization these days and most of them are using WordPress as their platform of choice to do it. WordPress is an ideal platform for blogging but all that hard work you put into blogging could be wiped out if you don’t properly backup your WordPress site.

But doesn’t my hosting provider backup my site?

You should never trust that your hosting provider is backing up your website, many of them do not backup your content and if they do they probably do not guarantee them. Some hosting providers will offer a backup option as a paid add-on service. In addition they usually are not backing up your WordPress MySQL database which contains much of your valuable content. Take a look at this notice from my hosting provider, I think you’ll find the policy is similar with whatever provider you use, if you don’t know check with them.

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How often should you backup your site?

Depending on how often you blog you should backup your WordPress instance at least once a month. If you are blogging several times a week you should probably do it daily or weekly. You should also do a backup before you upgrade WordPress to a newer version or update your plug-ins. Just like you do in the data center you should also plan on preserving older backups for as long as possible as often you may have something corrupted or malicious content that has been that way for a while that you need to go back a while to find a clean copy.

What should you backup?

With WordPress there are two main sets of data that you need to back up to ensure all your content is backed up and you can easily recover if needed, your WordPress files and your WordPress database. When you install WordPress on your website there are hundreds of files that get copied to specific directories that contain the complete WordPress web application. A new install of WordPress is only about 16MB in size with around 1,100 files but as you add content that will grow. Your WordPress database is typically hosted on a MySQL database that is installed and managed by your hosting provider. The WordPress database has many tables that store configuration and content for your WordPress website.

How do I back it up?

So now we know what needs to be backed up, how do we actually do it? There are several ways that you can backup WordPress:

  1. Manually by copying all your files to a PC using FTP and then doing a SQL export of your WordPress MySQL database and copying that to your local PC as well.
  2. Automatically by using some type of PHP script that can run scheduled on your hosting provider server using a scheduling tool like cron.
  3. Automatically using a WordPress plug-in designed to backup WordPress.
  4. Some hosting providers will do it if you pay for a add-on backup service.

Doing a manual backup

This method is OK for ad-hoc backups but it can be tedious to do on a frequent basis and it can easily slip your mind. I used this method for years, I did it nowhere near as often as I should of and I got lucky a few times were I almost lost a lot of data. To backup WordPress manually you will need to copy the all appropriate files and directories from the hosting provider web server to your local PC or even better to a cloud storage platform like Dropbox. Below are the files and directories that are come with a new install of WordPress.

Move2

The easiest way to move the files is to use an FTP application to copy them from your old server to your local PC and then to your new server. It’s also a good idea to periodically do this to backup WordPress. If you need a FTP client, check out FileZilla which is a free open source application. You may need to setup a FTP username/password on your hosting site before you can connect to it. Create a new site in FileZilla and give it a name (i.e. mywebsite-old), use the IP address or DNS name of your website and then enter in your login credentials. Once you connect to your web server you’ll see the directory listing of the contents, what you see will usually vary by hosting providers, some providers partition you off so you don’t see much of the web server files.

You may not need all the files you see to backup WordPress but its best to copy everything to a sub-directory on your PC so you do have a full backup just in case. In the figure above you can see the 3 WordPress directories that you need to copy for sure along with all the files that start with “wp” in the root directory. I’ve manually copied things to my site in the past (i.e. images) which I copy also. Other files that are part of the hosting platform you typically don’t need to bring over but it doesn’t hurt to copy them any way. Once you’ve copied everything to your PC it’s time to move on to the next step, backing up your MySQL database.

Your WordPress database is typically hosted on a MySQL database that is installed and managed by your hosting provider. The WordPress database has many tables that store configuration and content for your WordPress website. You can find a complete description of the database tables here. Log into your hosting provider control panel for your website and you should see a link for database management via phpMyAdmin which is a free software tool that is written in PHP that is used to administer MySQL over the Web. Once you launch phpMyAdmin you should be prompted for a username and password to connect to your database. You probably won’t know it or remember it but you can easily look it up by opening the wpconfig.php file that you copied to your PC as part of the backup in a text editor like Notepad and looking for the MySQL section which will contain your MySQL username/password.

Note some hosting providers may require you to whitelist your IP address to do remote MySQL administration, if they do there should be a section in your hosting control panel to put in your IP address. Once you are logged into phpMyAdmin you want to Export your database, click the Export link. You may be prompted for a quick export where you don’t need to enter a lot of options which will work just fine, if you do get a selection screen you typically can just use the defaults and then just hit Go and it will ask you for a location for the file on your PC and then begin the Export. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Here’s how the Export screen looks with my hosting provider:

Backup-2

Once you have completed this it will create a .SQL file on your local PC that you should save with the other WordPress files that you copied. You now have everything you need to restore WordPress if needed by copying all the files you backed up back to the server and Importing the .SQL file back into WordPress, see my other post on moving to a new hosting provider for more info on how to do that.

Also note some hosting providers like GoDaddy provide a link in their control panel to kick off a database backup so you don’t have to go into PHPMyAdmin. They dump the resulting .SQL file in a db backup directory on your website, just make sure you copy the file from there to your local PC.

Doing an automatic backup with a PHP script and cron

I’m not going to go into much detail on this method, it can be a bit technical to setup. There are some WordPress plug-ins available that will make this easier to setup. Your hosting provider control panel should have a section to setup and manage cron jobs like below:

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You then need to configure the scheduling and action for the cron job for the cron job to perform like below:

Backup-4

Again look for some WordPress plug-ins that support cron or a PHP script that is written to backup WordPress MySQL databases. If you are feeling adventurous you could also write your own PHP script. Here’s one I found by searching the internet. Some scripts may only backup the database so make sure you know what the script is doing and where it is storing your backups.

Doing an automatic backup with WordPress plug-in

This is probably the easiest and most convenient way to backup your WordPress site. There are many plug-ins available that will automate the backup of both your WordPress files and MySQL database so you don’t have to do anything but install the plug-in and configure it. You can search through the WordPress plug-in directory and you’ll see many of them. The one I ended up using which had 4.8 out of 5 stars and is free but has some paid add-on’s is UpDraftPlus Backup & Restoration. You can go to their add-on page which contains a big list of add-on’s and pricing for each that expand the flexibility, functionality and backup targets supported. Another popular WordPress backup plug-in is BackWPup.

You can backup your site just fine with the free version but it only puts the backup files on your hosting web server. If you want to use other backup destinations like Dropbox, Amazon E3, Rackspace, Google Drive and more it will cost you about $10 for each. If you do backup to your website only just remember to copy those files off periodically to somewhere safe.

Install UpDraftPlus like you would any other WordPress plug-in, once activated go into Settings, UpDraftPlus Backups in WordPress to setup your backup jobs and you will be at the main screen:

Backup-5

Here you can see your backup status and quick actions for backing up and restoring. It’s best to click on the Settings tab first to configure backup schedules and retention. Since most hosting providers now provide unlimited space don’t be afraid to retain a lot of backups.

 

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You can also specify what files to backup, database encryption if you are really paranoid, reporting, remote storage options and other advanced settings. Note by default with the free version it will not backup your core WordPress files (i.e. wp-admin) but unless you customize yours you won’t have to worry about those as you can easily download those again if needed. All the files specific to your WordPress site are in the Themes and Plugins directories.

Once the backup runs you can look at the log files to see everything that occurred during the backup, it’s not something you’ll need to do regularly but I looked as I was curious. If you are using the free version which puts the backups into your WordPress directory you’ll see a new sub-directory under wp-content called updraft that contains your backup files all zipped up, make sure you backup these backup files somewhere else!

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What about Backup as a Service?

If you prefer not to deal with your backups at all you can outsource them to a company that provides backup services for WordPress. Note both of these companies below backup both your WordPress files and database.

blogVault

One such company that does this is blogVault. Their Basic plan starts at $9/month for backing up a single site and retain 30 days of backups. If you have more than one site you they have a Plus plan for $19/month that will backup 3 sites. It works by installing their WordPress plug-in on your site and then their server automatically contacts the plugin everyday to backup new changes to your site.

bb-logo

Another company that provides WordPress backup services is Backup Buddy. Their Blogger plan rate is $80/year for backing up 2 sites with 1GB of backup space available. Presumably with that much space available you could store more than 60 days of backups with them. They also have a Freelancer plan available for $100/year for up to 10 sites with 1GB of backup space. Again it works by installing their WordPress plug-in on your site and then configuring it, they have a video that demonstrates this process.

Summary

And that’s all there is to it, pick the service/method/plug-in that works best for you. For me I’ve setup UpDraftPlus and will also periodically do manual backups as well. Regardless of how you do it the important thing is that you are backing up your WordPress site which contains all your hard work that you do not want to ever take the chance of losing.

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10 Ways to Ruin a Presentation

ruined-building-hurricane-katrina

I’m always looking to improve my public persona and a few months ago I wrote a post on how to gain confidence to be an effective public speaker. Recently I came across a great paper from Harvard Business Review entitled “How to Give a Killer Presentation” that is a great read. Within that there was a sidebar with great tips focused on surefire ways to ruin a presentation that I thought I’d pass along.

  1. Take a really long time to explain what your talk is about.

  2. Speak slowly and dramatically. Why talk when you can orate?

  3. Make sure you subtly let everyone know how important you are.

  4. Refer to your book repeatedly. Even better, quote yourself from it.

  5. Cram your slides with numerous text bullet points and multiple fonts.

  6. Use lots of unexplained technical jargon to make yourself sound smart.

  7. Speak at great length about the history of your organization and its glorious achievements.

  8. Don’t bother rehearsing to check how long your talk is running.

  9. Sound as if you’re reciting your talk from memory.

  10. Never, ever make eye contact with anyone in the audience.

 

Remember these are all ways to ruin your presentation, not improve it. So if you are guilty of any of these maybe it’s time to stop if you want to become a better speaker.

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Get your free virtualization tools right here!

SN-TNFREEBEER-small

Nothing beats free and many companies offer scaled down versions of their full products or purpose built mini tools as free tools. SolarWinds is one company which specializes in all sorts of tools that has many different free tools available for just about everything in the data center.

VMware has been developing free tools that they call Flings for several years now. Flings are lightweight, specific use tools developed by VMware Labs that often make up for some functionality that might be missing in their products. These tools often make their way into VMware products later on.

Whatever the motivation that a vendor has for creating a free tool the end result is tools that don’t cost you anything that can make your virtual life much easier.

I just updated my free virtualization tools section with many new tools from companies like SolarWinds, VMTurbo, Unitrends and VMware Labs. So head on over there and check them out and if there is a tool missing that you want people to know about just let me know.

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What to know more about VMware VVols?

Of course you do, well I started a VVols link collection on them so you can find out more about them in preparation for their upcoming release in the next version of vSphere. There is not a lot of content out there right now but bookmark the link collection page as the links will continue to grow as more information is published. Just click on the image below or the VVols links in the right sidebar to go there.

 

VVols-new2

 

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Virtual Volumes Links

Key Links

Virtual Volumes (VVols) Program (VMware Developer Center)
Virtual Volumes FAQ (VMware)
Virtual Volumes Solution Overview (VMware)
vSphere Virtual Volumes Overview Video (VMware)
Virtual Volumes Feature Page (VMware)
VMware Compatibility Guide for VVOLs (VMware)
VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes: Getting Started Guide (VMware)
VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) interoperability with other vSphere products and features (2112039) (VMware KB article)
vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVols) Interoperability Matrix (VMware vSphere Blog)

General

Videos to help you learn about VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) concepts and architecture (vSphere-land)
Only 4 vendors support VVOLs on Day 1 of vSphere 6 GA (vSphere-land)

When it comes to implementing Virtual Volumes (VVols) you better be on time (vSphere-land)
Is it VVOLs or VVols? (vSphere-land)
So VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) is here, when will people start using it (vSphere-land)
How VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) will impact your backups (vSphere-land)
Want to learn more about VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols), here’s 3 great sessions to help you (vSphere-land)
Survey highlights interest in VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) but also challenges (vSphere-land)
Customer adoption of VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) (vSphere-land)
Analyzing The Register’s latest article on VVols (vSphere-land)
Happy Birthday VVols – VMware provides a one year update on adoption (vSphere-land)
Observations and feedback on VMware VVols gathered from HPE Discover attendees (vSphere-land)
VVOLs Snakes and Ladders (3PARDude)
VVols, VASA – And Why It All Matters (Chuck’s Blog)
Virtual Volumes – A closer look at Storage Containers (Cormac Hogan)
Virtual Volumes – A new way of doing snapshots (Cormac Hogan)
More Virtual Volumes (VVols) and Snapshots goodness (Cormac Hogan)
The value of Virtual Volumes (VVols) (Cormac Hogan)
Virtual Volumes (VVols) – Syslog and Scratch Usage (Cormac Hogan)
Virtual Volumes (VVols) and Replication/DR (Cormac Hogan)
Virtual Volumes (VVols), vSphere HA and Heartbeat Datastores (Cormac Hogan)
VM Snapshots with VSS – Traditional versus VVols (Cormac Hogan)
Losing the VASA Provider and/or vCenter Server in VVols (Cormac Hogan)
Compare and Contrast – VSAN and VVols (Cormac Hogan)
#VMworld Follow-up | 5. VMware VVols & NetApp Integration (DataCenter Dan)
vVol Technical Overview (Derek Seaman)
VVOLs and VMware (Enterprise Storage Forum)
VMware To Complete Storage Virtualization With VVols – (Enterprise Tech)
VVols: All Systems Go (Great White Technologies)
GreyBeards talk VVOLs with “Father of VVOLs”, Satyam Vaghani, CTO PernixData (GreyBeards on Storage)
VVOLS – Improving Per VM Management (IT Blood Pressure)
VMware Virtual Volumes (Jason Gaudreau’s Blog)
VVOLs What are they? (NerdKnobs)
Primary Data VMworld 2015 VVOLs Survey Key Findings (Primary Data)
#vBrownBag Follow-Up What’s New in vSphere 6 VVols Part 1 w Rawlinson Rivera (@punchingclouds) (Professional VMware)
#vBrownBag Follow-Up What’s New in vSphere 6 VVols Part 2 w Rawlinson Rivera (@punchingclouds) (Professional VMware)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 6.0: Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) (Settlersoman)
What are VVols? (Storage Switzerland)
How Storage Vendors Integrate VVols (Storage Switzerland)
Are VMware VVOL’s in your virtual server and storage I/O future? (StorageIOblog)
VMware VVOL’s and storage I/O fundamentals (Part I) (StorageIOblog)
VMware VVOL’s and storage I/O fundamentals (Part II) (StorageIOblog)
#vBrownBag vSphere 6 Introduction to VVOLs with Howard Marks (vBrownBag)
PEX Session Notes: VVOLs Technical Overview (vHersey)
VMware vSphere 6 – Virtual Volumes (vInfrastructure Blog)
At long last: VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) (Virtual Storage Zone)
VVOLs are more than just “per-VM”storage volumes (Virtual To The Core)
How To Create VMware Virtual Volumes (Virtualization Review)
Storage Policy-Based Management with vSphere 6.0 (Virtualization Review)
Boxing, VVOLs And Replication (Virtualization Review)
The State of vSphere Virtual Volumes (Virtualization Review)
5 Reasons To Adopt vSphere Virtual Volumes (Virtualization Review)
vSphere 6.0 New Features – What is VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols)? (VMware Arena)
Understanding Virtual Volumes (VVols) in VMware vSphere 6.0 (2113013) (VMware KB)
Virtual Volumes (VVols) vSphere APIs & Cloning Operation Scenarios (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Virtual Volumes (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Virtual Volumes Interoperability: VAAI APIs vs VVOLs (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Virtual Volumes Overview (VMware Storage YouTube)
Virtual Volumes part 1: Concepts (VMware Tech Pubs YouTube)
Virtual Volumes part 2: Architecture (VMware Tech Pubs YouTube)
Getting Ready for Virtual Volumes (VMware Virtual Blocks Blog)
Virtual Volumes: First Year In Review (VMware Virtual Blocks Blog)
What’s New in vSphere 6.0: Virtual Volumes (WoodITWork)
Virtual Volumes primer (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual Volumes and queueing (Yellow Bricks)

Hands-On Labs

HOL-SDC-1627 – VVol, Virtual SAN & Storage Policy-Based Management (VMware HOL)
HOL-PRT-1674 – Dell Storage presents Virtual Volumes, vSphere Metro Stretched Cluster and more (VMware HOL)

KB Articles

How Virtual Volumes and UNMAP primitive interact? (2112333) (VMware KB)
Virtual Volumes and VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) (2111731) (VMware KB)
Virtual Volumes at scale support with Horizon View workflows (2109267) (VMware KB)
Attempts to deploy a VM OVF or to migrate a virtual machine to Virtual Volumes datastores fail if contents of potential config-VVol exceed 4 GB limit (2111421) (VMware KB)

News/Analyst

Top five things you need to know about VMware Virtual Volumes (Computer Weekly)
VMware Takes Wrapper Off VVOLs (Consultia)
VVOLs and VMware (Enterprise Storage Forum)
Why I Love VVols – And So Will You (Evaluator Group)
Waiting For VMware VVOLs (Network Computing)
The VVOLs Cometh (Network Computing)
VMware VVOL technology drives progress in storage management (SearchServerVirtualization)
VMware VVOLs redefine storage (SearchStorage)
Five key VMware VVOLs takeaways (SearchVirtualStorage)
Virtual machine management: VVOLs ‘complete picture’ (SearchVirtualStorage)
VMware VVOLs poised to shake up storage offerings (SearchVirtualStorage)
How VMware VVOLs compares to VM-aware storage (SearchVMware)
How will VMware VVOLs affect you? (SearchVMware)
What’s required for VMware Virtual Volumes? (SearchVMware)
What are the benefits of VMware Virtual Volumes? (SearchVMware)
What are the key components of vSphere VVOLs? (SearchVMware)
How are vSphere Virtual Volumes managed? (SearchVMware)
Is it Time to Upgrade VMware Storage? (Storage Switzerland)
VMware Virtual Volumes – What impact will they have on the datacenter? (Taneja Group Panel Discussion)
VMware Virtual Volumes and their Impact on the Datacenter (Taneja Group w/VMware)
Implementation of VMware VVols by Different Vendors (Taneja Group)
Top Takeaways from Vmware VVOLs (Tech Target)
Two years in the making: Sneak peek at VMware’s future VVOL tech (The Register)
The triumph of VVOL: Everyone’s jumping into bed with VMware (The Register)
Six-starved storage bods rush to support vSphere and VVOLs (The Register)
Listen up, VMware admins: If the array won’t support it, VVOL won’t help you… (The Register)
After all the sound and fury, when will VVOL start to rock? (The Register)

Performance

VMware VVOLs potential performance problems (Ray On Storage)
Backup performance of VMware VVOLs (Virtual To The Core)

Vendor Specific

Atlantis

Atlantis Partners with VMware To Extend Virtual Volumes to $300 Billion In Existing Datacenter Storage (Atlantis Computing)

DataCore

DataCore Announces Universal VVols Support to Expand Reach of VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (DataCore)
VMworld 2016: DataCore Introduces Second-Generation Universal VVols Software Functionality, Certified by VMware to Manage All Types of Storage (DataCore)
DataCore Software – VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) Storage Podcast – Episode 246 (DABCC)

Dell

Curious about VMware Virtual Volumes? (Dell)
Dell EqualLogic: Creating Virtual Volumes Datastores (Dell)
VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes on Dell PS Series (Dell)
vSphere Virtual Volumes and Dell Storage (Dell YouTube)
Dell Storage SC Series VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes – Part 1 (DellTechCenter YouTube)
Dell Storage SC Series VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes – Part 2 (DellTechCenter YouTube)
Virtual Volumes: Terminology and More (DellTechCenter YouTube)
Dell Announces VMware vVols and VSAN 6 Support (Storage Review)
Dell’s Implementation of VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) (Taneja Group)
Dell EqualLogic OS 8.0 with vSphere Virtual Volumes (Virtualization Review)
Virtual Volumes: Another Round of Data Center Transformation from Dell and VMware (VMware Virtual Blocks blog)

EMC

vRA 7 and VVols on VMAX3, VMAX All Flash (Drew Tonneson)
VMworld 2012 – Psst… Want to see the future of storage with VMware and EMC? (EMC)
VMworld 2013: vVol update with EMC VNX (EMC)
Virtual Volumes and EMC VMAX (EMC)
VVols Technical Preview for vVNX – Free download (EMC)
Using VMware Virtual Volumes With EMC VMAX3 and VMAX All Flash White Paper (EMC)
Manage VMware virtual volume datastores (EMC)
Manage VMware virtual volume datastores with CLI (EMC)
EMC Unity – Configuring VVols (EMC)
EMC Unity: Virtualization Integration (EMC)
VVols Tech Preview – Overview and Configuration (Part 1) (EMC YouTube)
VVols Tech Preview – Overview and Configuration (Part 2) (EMC YouTube)
VMworld 2016 EMC VVol Demo (EMC YouTube)
Configuring VVOLs with EMC Unity (ESXsi)
Deploying the EMC vVNX VVOLs Technical Preview (VirtXpert)
EMC Storage and Virtual Volumes (VMware Virtual Blocks)
EMC Unity With Native Virtual Volumes Support (VMware Virtual Blocks)
Virtual Volumes on EMC Unity (VMware Virtual Blocks)
UnityVSA VVOL 1 (YouTube)
UnityVSA VVOL 2 (YouTube)
UnityVSA VVOL 3 (YouTube)
UnityVSA VVOL 4 (YouTube)

Fujitsu

The Impact of VMware VVOLs on Storage (Fujitsu)

Hitachi (HDS)

VMware Virtual Volume Integration with Hitachi Storage Virtualization – A Winning Combination (HDS)
VVOL Demo by HDS: Worth a Watch (but let’s be careful out there) (HDS)
Hitachi Storage for VMware Virtual Volumes (VVol) FAQ (HDS)
Hitachi Storage Provider for VMware vCenter v3 (HDS)
Hitachi and VMware Virtual Volumes – Part 1 (HDS)
Hitachi and VMware Virtual Volumes – Part 2 (HDS)
Hitachi and VMware Virtual Volumes – Part 3 (HDS)
Hitachi Storage for VMware Virtual Volumes (VVol) FAQ (HDS)
Hitachi Virtual Volumes (VVol), Storage Containers and SPBM Demo (HDS)
Delivering Simplified Scalable IT with VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes and Hitachi Storage (webinar) (HDS)
Why VVol for All-Flash systems? (HDS)
VMware VVol – Real-world experience (HDS)
VVol’s with HNAS – How it works (HDS)
VMware vSphere 6.0 Virtual Volume Environment Deployment in File Storage From Hitachi (HDS)
VVOL Series: PART 1 Introduction (Paul Meehan)
VMware VVOL Series Part 2: Deeper Dive (Paul Meehan)
VMware VVOL Series Part 3: Implementation Considerations and Availability (Paul Meehan)
VMware VVol and HDS: An Introduction (Paul Meehan)
VVol and HDS Part 2: With and Without VVols (Paul Meehan)
VVol and HDS Part 3: New Storage Constructs (Paul Meehan)
VVol and HDS Part 4: So how is a VVol instantiated ? (Paul Meehan)
VMware VVol Part 5: Containers & Capability Profiles (Paul Meehan)
VMware VVol Part 6: The mythical Protocol Endpoint (Paul Meehan)
Experience with VMware VVols (Sam Walker)
HDS and VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVol) (Slideshare)
Not all VVols are Created Equal : Hitachi Storage for VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (VMware Virtual Blocks blog)

HPE

3PAR VVOLs Demo – from HPE Discover (3PAR Dude)
The 3PAR Architecture Matters: VMware VVols (Around the Storage Block)
HP 3PAR StoreServ’s VVols Integration Brings Long Awaited Storage Automation, Optimization and Simplification to Virtualized Environments (DCIG)
Evaluation of HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage with VMware Virtual Volumes (HP)
ATSB: VMware vVol and HP 3PAR Technology Preview (HP)
VMware VVols is coming. Will your storage be ready for it? HP 3PAR StoreServ will be! (HP)
HP 3PAR StoreServ integration with VMware Virtual Volumes Solution Brief (HP)
Got VVOLs? If you have 3PAR StoreServ you do (HP)
vSphere 6, VVOLs and 3PAR (HP)
Implementing VMware Virtual Volumes on HP 3PAR StoreServ (HP)
Revisiting VMware VVOLs and HP 3PAR integration (HP)
HP 3PAR StoreServ and VMware vVols Demo (HPE YouTube)
HP 3PAR and VMware vVols demo: deeper dive (HPE YouTube)
vVols and 3PAR Snapshot with PowerCLI (HPE YouTube)
VSphere 6, HP 3PAR And VVols (V-Strange)
Implementing VMware Virtual Volumes on HP 3PAR StoreServ (VMware Virtual Blocks blog)

Huawei

Huawei OceanStor Certified For VMware vSphere 6.0 and vVols (Storage Review)

IBM

VMware Virtual Volumes and XIV (IBM)
IBM Storage Provider for VMware VASA (IBM)
IBM Spectrum Control Base and VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) (IBM)
VMware Virtual Volumes with IBM Storage – The Power of Integration (IBM)
vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVOL) with IBM XIV Storage System (IBM Redbooks YouTube)
IBM Storage and the Beauty and Benefits of VVol (VMware Virtual Blocks blog)

Kaminario

VMware VVols with Kaminario K2 AFA (Kaminario)

NetApp

VMware Datastores and Virtual Volumes (DataCenter Dude)
Get your NetApp – VVols while they are HOT (Great White Technologies)
Deploying VVols on NTAP (Great White Technologies)
[BETA] Using VVOLs with NetApp and VMware (NetApp)
NetApp and VMware vVol Demo (NetApp)
NetApp @VMworld 2014 VVol Demo (NetApp)
Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) On Horizon to Deliver Software Defined Storage for vSphere (NetApp)
VMware VVols On NetApp CDOT Beta CookBook (NetApp)
NetApp Unlocks the Power of VMware VVOLs (NetApp)
vSphere Virtual Volumes for Horizon 6 & NetApp All-Flash FAS (NetApp)
Virtual Infrastructure with Vmware VVOLs (NetApp YouTube)
What are the prerequisites for VVOLs on NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP and vSphere 6.0? (Settlersoman)
How to configure VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) on NetApp to work with vSphere 6 – deplying VASA (Settlersoman)
Provisioning Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) on NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP and vSphere 6 (Settlersoman)

NexGen

ESG Lab Video Summary: NexGen Storage: Delivering QoS with VMware vSphere 6 VVols (ESG)
Using Storage QoS with VMware VVOL to Improve the End User Experience (NexGen)
NexGen Storage QoS Integration with VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) (NexGen)
Delivering Storage Quality of Service with VMware vSphere 6 and Virtual Volumes (NexGen)
vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVols) VM-Centric Storage Market Landscape Report (Taneja Group)

Nimble

VMware and Nimble Storage VVOL Integration Demo (Nimble Storage)
Nimble Storage & VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) – With vSphere 6 Demo (Nimble Storage YouTube)
VMware Virtual Volumes – The Next Level of Storage Integration (Nimble Storage)
VMware Virtual Volumes – Part 2 (Nimble Storage)
Virtual Volumes (VVOLs): Simplified, Dynamic, Granular VM Management (Nimble Storage)
Doing more with less – VVols and Simplified Storage Management (Nimble Storage)
Virtual Volumes on Nimble OS 3 (VMware Virtual Blocks Blog)

Pure Storage

VMware VVols: next-gen storage goes back to the future (Pure Storage)

SanBlaze

SANBlaze VirtuaLUN 7.3 VMware Certified for VASA 2.0 and VVOL (SanBlaze)
Configuring SANBlaze VirtuaLUN for use in VMWare VVOL Environment (SanBlaze)

SolidFire

VMware VVOLs with SolidFire Quality of Service (SolidFire)
vSphere 6 Storage – The Future of Storage at Scale (SolidFire)
Technical Demo – VMware VVOLs with SolidFire Quality of Service (SolidFire)
Ask the Experts: SPBM and VVols Storage with SolidFire (SolidFire YouTube)
Virtually Speaking Podcast Episode 14 – SolidFire VVols done right (VMware Virtual Blocks Blog)

StarWind

Want to try VVOLs? How about StarWind? (mwpreston dot net)

Tintri

Tintri upgrades virtual machine QoS and takes a shot at VVOLs (Computer Weekly)
Tintri VVols Demo (Tintri)
Virtualization, vVOLs and the Importance of VM-Aware Storage (Tintri)
VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) – What it is and what to look for in storage implementations (Tintri)
Tintri announces support for VMware vSphere 6 (Tintri)
VMware VVOL and Tintri (Tintri)

VMworld 2014

vBrownBag VMworld 2014 – Nick Howell – Policy Based Management and VVols (vBrownBag/NetApp)
VMworld TV Interview: Peter Kielty of VMware Discussed Virtual Volumes (VMworld TV)
STO1965.1 – Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive (Rawlinson Rivera, VMware Suzy Visvanathan, VMware)
STO2554-SPO – Zooming In: How VMware Virtual Volumes (vVols) Will Provide Shared Storage with X-ray Vision (Patrick Dirks, VMware – Ivan Iannaccone, HP)

VMworld 2015

STO4649 – Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive (Ken Werneburg, VMware – Patrick Dirks, VMware)
STO5888 – Top 10 Thing You MUST Know Before Implementing Virtual Volumes (Eric Siebert, HP)
STO5074 – Explaining Advanced Virtual Volumes Configurations (Ken Werneburg, VMware – Andy Banta, SolidFire)
STO4452 – Virtual Volumes (VVOLS) a game changer for running Tier 1 Business Critical Databases (Sudhir Balasubramanian, VMware)
STO5822 – Putting Virtual Volumes to Work — Storage Best Practices for vSphere 6 and Beyond (Howard Marks, DeepStorage)
STO6263-SPO – Veritas Technologies: How to use vSphere 6 and Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) the right way (George Winter, Symnatec)
STO6285-SPO – Beyond the Hype: The Customer Experience with Storage QoS (Ben Bolles, NexGen Storage)
STO4805 – How Virtual Volumes Will Solve Storage Challenges in the Datacenter (David Glynn, Dell Storage)
STO5522 – Virtual Volumes Technical Panel (US Version) (Ken Werneburg, VMware)
STO5522 – Virtual Volumes Technical Panel (EMEA Version) (Ken Werneburg, VMware)
STO5571 – What’s New in Virtual Volumes (Michael Haag, VMware – Juan Novella, VMware)
STO5721 – Virtual Volumes on NetApp – Ready For Prime Time! (Peter Learmonth, NetApp – Ken Werneburg, VMware)
STO6284-SPO – New Ideas for Simply Better VM Automation, Business Continuity and Data Protection with and without Virtual Volumes (Paul Morrissey, HDS)
STO6559-QT – Cloud-like Operational Efficiency with Virtual Volumes (Juan Novella, VMware)
STO6671-SPO – VMware & IBM: Optimized to Manage Oceans of Data in a Digitally-Driven World (Eric Herzog, IBM – Paul Braren, IBM – Carlos Fuente, IBM)

VMworld 2016

VMware VVol Sessions

STO8159 – Snapshots Suck: How VSAN and VVol fix all your operational nightmares (Pete Flecha, VMware – John Nicholson, VMware)
STO7645 – Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive (Pete Flecha, VMware – Patrick Dirks, VMware)
STO9977-QT – 5 Tips for Getting The Most From Virtual Volumes and vSphere Storage Policy-Based Management (Ben Meadowcroft, VMware)
STO7549 – Achieving Agility, Flexibility , Scalability and Performance with VMware Software Defined Storage (SDS) and Virtual Volumes for Business critical databases (Mohan Potheri, VMware – Sudhir Balasubramanian, VMware)
STO7650 – Software-Defined Storage at VMware Primer (Duncan Epping, VMware – Lee Dilworth, VMware)

Partner VVol Sessions

STO9617-SPO – Containers & VVols – a technical deep dive on new technologies that revolutionize storage for vSphere (Eric Siebert, HPE – Charles Tierney, HPE)
STO8422 – Virtual Volumes: Why? (Rajib Ghosh, EMC – Ben Meadowcroft, VMware)
STO8619 – Transitioning to VVols: Partner Panel (Pete Flecha, VMware – 6 partner panelists)
SDDC9726-SPO – Making SolidFire Invisible in your VMware Environment (Josh Atwell, NetApp)
STO8694 – High-Speed Heroics: Array-based Replication and Recovery for VMware Virtual Volumes (Narayan Kumar, Nimble Storage – Julian Cates, Nimble Storage – Rawlinson Rivera, VMware, Inc)
STO8144 – VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes in a NetApp Environment (Rhett Bigler, NetApp – Pete Flecha, VMware)
VIRT8074 – The SDDC: Full Stack on vSphere 6.0 SAP Business Warehouse Powered By HANA, NSX, vRealize Operations, SDS-Virtual Volumes on Hitachi Unified Platform (Gregory Smith, Hitachi – Bob Goldsand, VMware)
STO8840 – Deploy Scalable Private Cloud with vSphere Virtual Volumes (Paul Morrissey, Hitachi Data Systems – Pete Flecha, VMware)
STO9054 – VVol and Storage Policy-Based Management ? Is It Everything They Said It Would Be? (Ben Bolles, Pivot3 – Jeremiah Francis, Financial Advocates)

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