Server virtualization from VMware provides a powerful environment for consolidating a large number of physical servers, thereby delivering cost savings, asset optimization and enhanced flexibility to the data center. The IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system, combined with powerful management software from IBM Tivoli...

1. Storage for VMware vSphere
IBM Storwize V7000 Unified
Provides Enterprise-Class Value
Introduction
Server virtualization from VMware Points to Remember
provides a powerful environment for • IBM and VMware are strong partners with
consolidating a large number of physical a long history
servers, thereby delivering cost savings, • Storage is the single most important factor
asset optimization and enhanced in server virtualization
flexibility to the data center. The IBM
Storwize V7000 Unified storage system, • IBM achieves excellent scores in
combined with powerful management addressing key customer challenges for
software from IBM Tivoli, provides an server virtualization
ideal complement to VMware vSphere • The Storwize V7000 comes with a rich set
deployments by providing a highly of storage optimization features and
virtualized storage infrastructure performs well with mixed virtualized
designed to meet the specific needs of workloads
virtual server environments. • Unified storage provides great value
• The Storwize V7000 has become one of
This brief presents the customer the most versatile, scalable and highest
benefits of using Storwize V7000 performing storage solutions in the mid-
storage systems for server virtualization range market
with VMware vSphere. It discusses key
customer challenges and how they can
easily be met with the combined IBM
solution.
IBM and VMware – A Long History
As an early VMware Global Technology Alliance Partner and one of the largest OEMs
of VMware software, the IBM Corporation continues its decades-long investment in
©2012 The Tod Point Group www.TheTodPointGroup.com Page 1

2. server and storage virtualization. Indeed, reinforcing this commitment, IBM provides
formal and flexible support policies for IBM products running on or with VMware server
virtualization products.
Storage – The Single Most Important Factor in Server Virtualization
Storage is the most important element in successful server virtualization projects. As the
number of applications per server increases, the consolidation of once well-behaved
and predictable I/O patterns creates huge demands on storage systems. Even simple
sequential I/O streams essentially become totally random streams and storage
infrastructure that is not up to the task becomes a crippling bottleneck.
Nonetheless, with proper, well-planned underlying storage resources, server
virtualization can deliver even greater resource consolidation, administrative efficiency,
and cost savings while not only transforming data centers, but also the businesses that
those data centers fuel. And, attaining these transformative results depends on
enterprise-class storage to deliver the performance, availability, and flexibility to keep up
with the dynamic and consolidated nature of virtualized server environments.
Key Customer Challenges for Server Virtualization
We have identified four of the biggest challenges that customers face when considering
advanced server virtualization using VMware vSphere:
Application Resiliency
In today’s always-on world, tier-1 applications must always be up, well
performing, able to respond to changing demand patterns and tolerate
infrastructure changes and disruptions.
Of course, highly-available applications require the typical high availability (HA)
storage features including fault tolerance, no single point(s) of failure, and non-
disruptive upgrades and data migration. But the industry is evolving towards
solutions that go beyond typical HA practices. Recovery times must be minutes
and not hours; recovery points must be exactly where an application ended
processing (application consistent). Moreover, ideally an HA solution should not
require extensive specialized care, specialized staffing or complex procedures.
Ultimately the evolution leads to continuously available applications and storage
systems that support application resiliency must provide true data resiliency.
Explosive Data Growth
According to Reuters, “In any two days mankind creates as much online
information as it created in the previous 30,000 years. By 2021, that same
amount of information will be generated in less than an hour”. Nobody denies it
anymore – coping with explosive data growth is a requisite for survival and
business advantage.
Storage system scalability is one key requirement for coping with explosive data
growth, but there are many dimensions to data growth including storage capacity,
performance, manageability, cost, asset life-cycle management and overall
storage efficiency. What’s more, this growth must usually be accommodated
without and increase in headcount and frequently budget.
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3. Asset Optimization
After providing infrastructure that addresses these first two challenges, the name
of the game becomes asset optimization. The first objective is to drive asset
utilization up to the highest levels possible and, thus, provide the highest return
on assets. Server and storage virtualization improves asset utilization often by
thirty percentage points or more.
Storage virtualization can also extend asset life by way of over-subscription. The
life of older, existing storage assets can also be significantly extended by
virtualizing them behind newer assets. Moreover, an asset that can scale will
typically have a longer life. Also, a versatile asset can reduce asset sprawl by
simultaneously supporting many workloads and access protocols
Further optimization is possible by putting the right data in the right place at the
right time at the right price. Recent advances is automated storage tiering help
balance cost and performance.
What’s more, assets have finite lives and when they need to be retired there
must be a way to seamlessly transition from old to new assets.
In addition, discovering and tracking assets and their utilization promotes asset
optimization planning. Also, spotting trends, managing disk space, detecting over
utilized assets, etc., promotes application resilience.
Lastly, another way to optimize storage assets is to reduce the amount of data
stored or wasted and thereby avoid acquiring additional assets. Data reduction
techniques include intelligent backups, space-efficient snapshots, data de-
duplication, compression, archiving and policy-based file management.
Easy to Manage
The list of tasks that a VMware or storage administrator must accomplish is
daunting. Managing growth, solving performance issues, provisioning storage,
ensuring data is protected and restored all take time. As storage infrastructures
become increasingly complex, managing those infrastructures should not
become more complex. Most customers want a single pane of glass, a simple,
helpful and intuitive GUI and integration with vSphere vCenter.
VMware vSphere Integration and Certification
As noted earlier, storage is the most important element in successful server
virtualization projects. Indeed, as virtual machine density increases, asset utilization
skyrockets to the point where common storage coordination, initialization, or
management functions (such as backup) can overwhelm a server. So, VMware has
worked with its storage partners to develop a set of APIs, known as vStorage APIs, to
help offload critical coordination and many of the most resource-intensive functions to
its partners’ arrays.
VMware vSphere certification ensures that a vendor’s product has passed extensive
testing using test suites provided by VMware. Certification matrices are published by
VMware and include the Storwize V7000.
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4. The IBM Storwize V7000 Unified Solution – Enterprise-class Storage Solutions for
vSphere in the Midrange Market
Specifically designed for the mid-sized datacenter, IBM’s Storwize V7000 comes with a
rich set of storage optimization features – including an IBM software stack.
Derived from other IBM storage solutions including the IBM SAN Volume Controller
(SVC) which has been virtualizing storage since the year 2003 and the IBM DS8000
storage system, the Storwize V7000 leverages their proven functionality to provide
enterprise-class functions for the mid-range market.
The V7000 also comes tightly integrated with two key IBM Tivoli management products,
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager (FCM) and IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity
Center (TPC) for Disk Select. It also integrates tightly with VMware vSphere. Additional
IBM Tivoli products such as Tivoli Storage Manger for Virtual Environments (TSM VE)
or TPC-for Replication are also available.
Robust Data Protection
FCM uses the copy services capabilities of Storwize V7000, FlashCopy, to create point-
in-time snapshot copies. These are application aware copies of production data. This
copy is then retained on disk as backup allowing for a fast restore operation (Flashback).
FCM also allows mounting the copy on an auxiliary server (backup server) as a logical
copy. This copy (instead of the original data on the production server) is made
accessible for further processing. This processing includes creating a tape backup or
performing backup verification functions (for example, a database verify utility).
FCM is also integrated with the VMware vStorage API for Data Protection. FCM uses
this API to initiate a vSphere software snapshot of virtual machines and determines
which LUN(s) are associated with these virtual machines. FCM then invokes hardware
copy services to create a persistent snapshot copy of the LUN(s) that are hosting the
virtual machine’s datastore and vSphere snapshot.
The benefits of this feature for vSphere are numerous. Hardware snapshots are fast
and efficient and require no resource consumption on the host. Moreover, to improve
storage efficiency, data can be moved to TSM for long term retention and disaster
recovery. Data can also be de-duplicated when sent to TSM. For the utmost in speed
and efficiency, FCM can restore individual virtual machines, volumes and LUNs.
In environments where FCM is used with TSM, automatic backups by TSM can be
scheduled. The backup can start immediately after the point-in-time copy is created, or
at another time when resources are available to complete the backup request. If a
backup to TSM fails, FCM can restart the backup after the cause of the failure is
corrected. In this case, data already committed to TSM is not re-sent. FCM can also use
this point-in-time copy to create a clone database with or without changing the name of
the cloned database.
Automated Storage Tiering
The V7000 also ships with IBM’s Easy Tier automated sub-LUN storage tiering function.
This no-charge function can optimize the use of solid state disks (SSDs) and hard disk
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5. drives (HDDs) by maximizing performance gains while minimizing costs. Relocating just
5% of data to SSDs with Easy Tier can reduce response time 78%. Small chunks of
data can automatically percolate up or down a tier depending on its heat index.
Easy Tier manages the proper placement of data between SSDs and HDDs on a
continuous basis. Its continuous workload monitoring capability dynamically determines
whether or not data chunks should be on an SSD or an HDD, and, as necessary,
automatically moves these chunks non-disruptively from one tier to the other
Comprehensive Resource Management
TPC is a robust storage resource management tool that provides topology visualization
(SAN and disk), performance monitoring, capacity management, and comprehensive
disaster recovery assistance. TPC can provide near-real-time performance statistics or
analyze historical data. Combined with the Storwize V7000’s real-time reporting
performance troubleshooting is a wiz.
Scale Up or Scale Out or Both
IBM recently announced a clustering capability for Storwize V7000 that essentially
doubles the capacity and performance. So, customers can scale up by adding disks to a
single node or scale out by adding another node.
Truly Unified Block and File.
Also recently announced was the addition of file serving in addition to block serving – all
with a single unified interface. The value proposition of unified storage (multi protocol
and multi functionality) is the flexibility and ability to adapt to different usage scenarios
that enable a storage system to take on more personalities. What this means is that by
being able to support multiple interfaces and protocols along with different types of
media and functionality, a storage system becomes multifunctional. A multifunction
storage system may be configured for on-line primary storage with good availability and
performance and for lower-cost, high-capacity storage in addition to being used as
backup target. In other scenarios, a multifunction device may be configured to perform a
single function with the idea of later redeploying it to use a different personality or mode
of functionality.
In addition, most experts recommend a mix of file and block servers for VMware
environments. File storage is easier to manage, but has a little more overhead and
latency. Block storage is faster, but more complex. And, the Storwize V7000 Unified
scales up for file serving as it employs additional processing and does not interfere with
processing resources needed for block serving
What’s more, for file workloads, customers can optionally use IBM’s Active Cloud
Engine, which lowers storage costs by moving files transparently to the most
appropriate tier of storage, helps control storage growth by moving older files to tape
and deleting unwanted or expired files, improves data protection by identifying
candidates for backup or disaster recovery and creates a more powerful and scalable
storage environment. In the future, it will provide automated file management and
enable ubiquitous access to files from across the globe, reduce network costs and help
improve application performance by distributing files closer to users,
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6. Meeting Customer Challenges and More
Table 1 (below) illustrates how this system squarely addresses customers’ top
challenges. Almost every feature of Storwize V7000 addresses all these challenges.
Additionally, Storwize V7000’s unique architecture is particularly suited to server
virtualization. When provisioning storage for VMs, data can be striped across a large
number of disks. This is called wide-striping and it has a proven history of providing
high-performance in these demanding server virtualization environments. Moreover, a
single, non-clustered Storwize V7000 has been independently tested in mixed workload
environments with vSphere and has been shown to be able to support E-mail, database,
web serving and backup workloads simultaneously with excellent performance and
throughput. In addition, the use of solid-state disks (SSD’s) with automated tiering
software, IBM’s Easy Tier, more than tripled the mixed I/O capacity of the V7000 and
improved response time for these workloads by as much as 43%. The paper discussing
the testing can be found here. SSD’s can also be used effectively for vSphere’s swap
files which significantly benefits all workloads.
Conclusion
The combination of VMware software and IBM Storwize V7000 offers significant
advantages for customers consolidating servers and storage to reduce costs and
optimize IT assets. A virtualized storage infrastructure with VMware and Storwize
V7000 can significantly improve administrator productivity, reduce performance
bottlenecks, increase storage utilization and reduce the storage footprint.
With the addition of unified block and file serving, active file management and clustering,
Storwize V7000 has become one of the most versatile, scalable and highest performing
storage solutions in the mid-range market.
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7. Table 1 – How Storwize V7000 Solution Meets Customer Challenges
vSphere
Storwize Explosive Integration
Solution Application Data Asset Easy to and
Feature Provider Resiliency Growth Optimization Manage Certification
Unified block and Storwize
file storage V7000
RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, Storwize
and 10 V7000
Storage Storwize
virtualization for V7000
local disks
Storage Storwize
virtualization for V7000
external
heterogeneous
disks (via Fibre
Channel)
Thin provisioning Storwize
V7000
Local mirror Storwize
Copies V7000
Enterprise-class Storwize
remote replication V7000
– synchronous Metro
(Multisite) Mirror*
Enterprise-class Storwize
remote replication V7000
– asynchronous Global
(Multisite) Mirror*
Automated Sub- Storwize
LUN Storage V7000
Tiering Easy Tier
High performance Storwize
SAS disk interfaces V7000
throughout)
Disk Form Factors Storwize
(3.5” & 2.5”, can be V7000
mixed)
High-performance Storwize
cluster interconnect V7000
Snapshot Copies Storwize
(256 targets, V7000
cascaded, FlashCopy
incremental, or
space-efficient)
Centralized Tivoli
management of FlashCopy
application- Manager
consistent (FCM)
snapshot copies
Scales up Storwize
independently V7000
Expansion
Scales out Storwize
Independently (to V7000
32 PB) Clustering
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8. vSphere
Storwize Explosive Integration
Solution Application Data Asset Easy to and
Feature Provider Resiliency Growth Optimization Manage Certification
Tight integration Storwize
with VMware V7000
vSphere
Unified Console Storwize
V7000
Simple GUI Storwize
V7000
vStorage APIs Storwize
V7000, FCM
& TSM*
vCenter Plug-in Storwize
V7000
Non-disruptive data Storwize
migration V7000
Performance Storwize
monitoring V7000 &
TPC – Disk
Select
Capacity TPC – Disk
management Select
Storage Resource TPC – Disk
Management Select
including topology
visualization (SAN
and disk)
Comprehensive TPC –
Disaster Recovery Replication
Manager*
Performs well with Storwize
mixed workloads V7000
Performance TPC – Disk
Optimization Select
Intelligent Backup TSM*
and Restore
File Management Active Cloud
(placement, Engine*
caching, life-cycle)
Interfaces with IBM Storwize
SAN Volume V7000
Controller (SVC)
3 year, 24x7 All
support for the
entire solution –
HW & SW
Fixed price IBM Global
implementation Technology
services Services
Competitive IBM Global
financing rates with Financing
flexible terms
*Note: Optional features are pre-installed for ease of deployment and can be enabled
with the input of a license key
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9. Nick Allen, Founder
May, 2012
Regarding the information in this report:
The Tod Point Group believes the information included in this report to be accurate. Data has been
received from a variety of sources, which we believe to be reliable, including manufacturers, distributors,
or users of the products discussed herein. The Tod Point Group cannot be held responsible for any
consequential damages resulting from the application of information or opinions contained in this report.
This document was developed with International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) funding. Although
the document may utilize publicly available material from various sources, including IBM, it does not
necessarily reflect the positions of such sources on the issues addressed in this document
©2012 The Tod Point Group www.TheTodPointGroup.com Page 9