VMworld Buzz: vVolumes, VMware’s game changer for storage

I attended session VSP3205 — Technology Preview: VMware vStorage APIs for VM and Application Granular Data – Satyam Vaghani, Vijay Ramachandran which was rumoured to be all about what’s coming up for storage. This certainly didn’t disappoint and turned out to be one of the coolest new technologies VMware is working on with its storage partners. Very strange that it wasn’t even mentioned in the keynote yesterday or not more highly billed. This is a game changer in storage! The session started looking at the issues with the current storage...

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NetApp PowerShell Toolkit, DataONTAP 1.7 released with VHD/VMDK file conversion and VHD alignment

NetApp has today updated it’s Powershell Toolkit, DataONTAP to version 1.7. I’ve said it before but a rebranding to PowerONTAP would be a much cooler! The major features include: VHD/VMDK file conversion. You can use ConvertTo-NaVhd and ConvertTo-NaVmdk to use NetApp FlexClone to convert between VHD files used on Hyper-V & XenServer and VMDK files on VMware. That could make any hypervisor migrations so much easier. VHD partition detection and alignment using Get-NaVirtualDiskAlignment and Repair-NaVirtualDiskAlignment...

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NetApp PowerShell Toolkit, DataONTAP 3 released with new Performance Monitoring and full ONTAP 8.2 API Support

Two major features have been added: A new cmdlet Invoke-NcSysstat which is like Invoke-NaSysstat and allows you to monitor cluster system performance stats for:  System, FCP, NFSv3, NFSv4, CIFS, iSCSI, Volume, Ifnet, LUN, and Disk. Invoke-NcSysstat works in both the cluster and Vserver context for Data ONTAP 8.2 and up. For Data ONTAP versions previous to 8.2, Invoke-NcSysstat must be run in the cluster context. Ifnet and Disk performance...

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NetApp releases its Virtual Storage Appliance, Data ONTAP Edge

NetApp has released its long awaited Virtual Storage Appliance which it has called Data ONTAP Edge and also has made available an evaluation version for the masses. NetApp previously had a VSA which was available only for partners but it was fairly limited in what it could do, had very limited disk space and wasn’t the simplest VSA to set up. I have worked with the previous VSA and blogged on how to make it a little more usable by increase...

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Installing & Maximising the NetApp ONTAP 8.1 Simulator

UPDATE 7 September 2012:  NetApp has released its Virtual Storage Appliance, Data ONTAP Edge which is a licensed functional VSA. One of the strengths of NetApp’s storage offering is that its controller operating system called Data ONTAP is the same across every NetApp Filer storage product they sell. This is hugely significant as it means if you know how to administer and configure the smallest FAS2000 Series Filers you...

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NetApp Simulator 8.1 7-Mode Walkthrough Setup Guide

This walkthrough guide is specifically using the current latest version of the NetApp Simulator ONTAP – version 8.1, and running the lab inside VMware Workstation 8 (*see Appendix B for Simulate ONTAP 8.1 Hardware and Software Requirements.) The NetApp Simulator is an excellent tool to learn about NetApp filers in a virtual lab environment. Step 1: Download or Obtain the Binaries Go to http://now.netapp.com/NOW/cgi-bin/simulator and...

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TechTips - How to Create a CIF Share on NetApp San

This tutorial will describe how to create a CIF share on a NetApp storage system using the wizard in the FilerView. Storage is always important in any network environment; NetApp has made it relatively simple to create CIF shares on their SAN's using the Filer and their Wizard tool. I will walk you through all of the steps to create CIF Shares from your NetApp SAN and share them to your Windows PC. It's a quick and easy process as long as you know the right steps. So to create your CIF Share from your NetApp SAN do the following: Open...

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Netapp Vfiler tutorial

What is NetApp Vfiler: Multi Store enables you to partition the storage and network resources of a single storage  system so  that it appears as multiple storage systems on the network. Multi store is a optional software License its available in NetApp you need to buy this feature. Benefit of Using Multistore: 1. Virtualization 2. Consolidation 3. Security 4. Disaster recovery and data migration MultiStore...

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