This document summarizes an event hosted by Assyrus Srl about the evolution of enterprise storage. It discusses VMware Virtual SAN, a hyperconverged storage solution that aggregates locally attached storage from ESXi hosts. It also covers Microsoft Storage Spaces, which allows storage to be created from various types of internal and attached disks. The document provides examples of how Dell has implemented and supported both Virtual SAN and Storage Spaces on its PowerEdge servers and PowerVault storage enclosures to provide hyperconverged infrastructure solutions.

1. 6 Maggio 2016
Andrea Mauro
IT Director – Assyrus Srl
http://assyrus.it
Evento Dell-Assyrus sull'evoluzione dello
storage enterprise

2. 2
VMware
Virtual SAN

3. 3
VMware Virtual SAN
• Storage scale out architecture built
into the hypervisor
• Aggregates locally attached
storage from each ESXi host in a
cluster
• Dynamic capacity and
performance scalability
• Flash optimized storage solution
• Fully integrated with vSphere and
interoperable:
– vMotion, DRS, HA, VDP, VR …
• VM-centric data operations
vSphere + Virtual SAN
Hard disksHard disks
SSD SSD Hard disks
SSD
…
Virtual SAN Shared
Datastore
• Hypervisor-Converged storage platform

4. 4
Management Clusters
Use Cases
Backup and DR
Target
DMZ / Isolated
Tier 2 / Tier 3
Test / Dev / Staging
Private cloud
Virtual Desktop
ROBO
VDI
Site A Site B
vSphere
VSAN

5. 5
Two Ways to Build a Virtual SAN Node
Completely Hardware Independent
1. Virtual SAN Ready
Node
…with multiple options
available at GA + 30
Preconfigured server
ready to use Virtual
SAN…
2. Build Your
Own
…using the Virtual SAN
Compatibility Guide*
Choose individual
components …
Flash: SSD or PCIe
SAS/NL-SAS/ SATA
HDDs
Any Server on
vSphere Hardware
Compatibility List
HBA/RAID Controller

6. 6
Microsoft
Storage
Spaces

7. 7
Microsoft SDS : Past , Present and Future
Dependent on
Traditional
Storage
• Relied on 3rd
party SAN
vendors
1st wave SDS
• Introduction to Storage
Spaces
• “Remote File solution
for Hyper-V using
shared JBOD
• Introducied Scale Out
File Server ( SOFS)
• RDMA and
Multichannel
• SAN independence
Storage Spaces Direct
• Remote File solution for
Hyper-V using shared
nothing hardware
• Unlock use of DAS
• Reduce Cost
Software Storage Bus
• SATA and NVMe
• Node Fault Tolerance
• Health Services
Storage Spaces
Enhancements
• Scalable pools
• Data Rebalancing
Pre Windows 2012 Windows
2012
Windows 2012 R2 Windows 2016
2nd wave SDS
• Storage Tiering
• WriteBack Cache
(WBC)
• Scale Out File Server
improvements
• SMB Direct
Improvements
• Volume
Rebalancing
• Multiple
instances
• JBOD monitoring

8. 8
Dell’s Journey With Storage Spaces
Sept 2012:
Windows 2012
Release:
Understanding the
technology and
feedback to
Microsoft
Oct 2013:
Windows 2012
R2 Release
Internal testing
and active
feedback to
Microsoft
Nov 2013:
Worked closely
with Microsoft in
developing
JBOD
monitoring
feature
Feb 2014:
Support
Storage Spaces
using
PowerVault
MD1200 and
MD1220
May 2014:
Support Storage
Spaces using
PowerVault
MD3060e
End-End VDI
solution using
PowerVault
MD1220
Sept 2014:
Additional Hardware
Support with
12Gbps SAS . Select
PowerEdge servers ,
PowerVault MD1400
and MD1420
Oct 2014:
Launch Cloud
Platform System
(CPS) Powered by
Dell
Journey
Continues…

9. 9
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Supported Client Servers
Any Dell PowerEdge Server
6 Supported Dell Switches
(S4810, S5000, N4064, N4064F, N4032, N4023F)
10Gb iWARP or ROCE RDMA
Client Communication
2, 3 or 4 Storage Nodes
R630 or R730
SAS Direct Attach
(HA cabling)
2 to 4 Storage Enclosures
(MD1400, MD1420, MD3060e)
Compute
Networking
Client I/O
Controllers
Storage I/O
Storage
Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces (DSMS)
http://www.dell.com/microsoft

10. 10
Private Cloud
Backup &
archival
Validated &
tested
solution
blocks
VDI
Hyper-V
Worldwide
installation
services and
total solution
support
SQL
SMB3 &
RDMA
Sizing &
performance
guidance
Standard
management
with MS System
Center, iDRAC,
OpenManage
Validated and tested solution blocks for reliable SOFS
operation
Pre-defined SKUs for 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 3x3 and 4x4 SOFS
configurations
Award winning, industry standard 13th Generation Dell
Enterprise PowerEdge servers and PowerVault JBODs
Low cost compute and networking with C-servers, FX, Blades,
PowerConnect & Force 10
RDMA solutions using iWarp and RoCE
Workload optimized turnkey solutions & Reference
Architectures (Private Cloud & VDI)
Launching
June2015
Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces (DSMS)

11. 11
DSMS as a Building Block for Storage Solutions
Customer- a la
carte
• Sizing guidance & Best
Practices
• Deployment Guide
• Best-in-class
components
• System Center
integration
Fast Track
Solutions
• Validated configuration
• Simple setup
• High availability
• Easy scalability
Reference
Architectures
• Verified configuration
• Deployment guide
• Scalable & Customizable
Partner & Dell
Services
• Best-in-class
components
• Professional expertise
and custom solution
development
• Microsoft compatibility
• System Center
integration
Dell Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces

12. 12
Traditional & New IT supporting software defined infrastructure
$0.09 Cost / Order per Minute
28.4 ms
Average disk latency
5,640
IOPs
1x R720XD
w/ 2.5” HDD
48TB
total storage
1.62 ms
Average disk latency
98,694
IOPs
1x R730XD
w/ 1.8” SDD & 3.5”
94.7% lower
response times
16.5x greater
I/O performance
The Value
• Storage spaces uses any mix of
drives in a storage pool.
Combining HDD’s and SSD’s in
the same pool using storage
tiers can move “Hot” data files
to SSD storage. Write-back
caches speeds random writes
to SSDs or other storage as
needed.
• 18x 1.8” SSDs density drives increased
performance beyond traditional 2.5”
• SanDisk DAS Cache for database
big data-optimized
Hadoop | Cloudera
workload-ready
Oracle | SAP | Microsoft
cloud-ready
Azure | VMware | OpenStack
Converged infrastructure-ready
VMware | Microsoft
Future-Ready Enterprise
software-defined
SDN | SDS | SDDC
70TB
total storage
software-defined
SDN | SDS | SDDC
workload-ready
Oracle | SAP | Microsoft

13. 13
Storage Spaces Direct
Scale for Technical Preview 2
Minimum of four servers
Maximum of twelve servers
Maximum of 240 disk devices in a single pool
Simple expansion
Add node(s) and expand pool
Rebalance for capacity
Scale-OutFile Server
Hyper-V Clusters
SMB3 StorageNetworkFabric
Shared JBOD
Storage
Internal
Disks

14. 14
Nutanix

15. 15

16. 16

17. 17

18. 18
ROBO

19. 19
Dell PowerEdge VRTX
Current environment
Complex, Inefficient, Rigid
Simple, Efficient, Versatile
Consolidation,
virtualization
capable
Optimal size,
acoustics &
power
Easy to
manage
Affordable
Versatile and
scalable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16IlDQnIMrk

20. 20
Dell PowerEdge VRTX
LCD Display
Panel
Up to 4 PowerEdge
M-Series Servers
Internal low
latency, fast
storage
Shared Storage
25 x 2.5” or 12 x 3.5”
(expandable)
8 External
PCIe Slots
Hot Plug
Redundant
PSUs
Remote
Management
Ports
Locking Front
Cover
Shared
DVD
KVM
Ports
Hot Plug
Redundan
t Blowers8 RJ45
NIC ports

21. 21
Dell PowerEdge FX
Density and
shared
infrastructure
efficiency
BLADES
Simplicity and
cost benefits
RACKS
The 2U high rack-based FX2 converged infrastructure enclosure can
host different blocks of compute and storage resources –
depending on workload needs.

22. 22
Dell PowerEdge FX
Rear view of FX2s enclosure
1Gb passthru IO shown, 10Gb SFP+ & FN IO Aggregator options available
4 FC630 server blocks in a fully loaded FX2 enclosure
each with 8 1.8” SSDs

23. 23
Virtual Storage Appliance

24. 24
Virtual SAN 6.1

25. 25
VDI

26. 26
2U vs 24U
rack space occupied
New IT supporting software defined infrastructure
72% more
users
The Value
400 vs 232
supported users – power
user profile
• Horizon View VDI is about
delivering performance and
responsiveness to support
massively scalable
solutions.
• Huge rack space savings
• FX delivers modularity,
density, scalability, and better
economics for VDI
• Less servers equals cost
savings on power and
headcount required to
manage
$123
Cost/user
big data-optimized
Hadoop | Cloudera
workload-ready
Oracle | SAP | Microsoft
cloud-ready
Azure | VMware | OpenStack
virtual infrastructure-ready
VMware | Microsoft
Future-Ready Enterprise
software-defined
SDN | SDS | SDDC
4x B200m2 w/
NetApp 3200
4x FC430
W/ 2x FD332
92% less
rack space
software-defined
SDN | SDS | SDDC
Converged infrastructure-
ready
VMware | Microsoft

27. 27
Configurability Availability Expandability, I/O, Storage
• 4half width or8quarterwidth configurations
• Optional IOaggregator, 8:1 cabling
simplification
• Choice ofchassisorrackbasedmanagement
• Choice ofentry-level orswitched
configuration
• Redundant hot-plug PSUs (1100 or 1600W)
• Redundant hot-plug cooling fans
• Redundant out-of-band management fabric
• iDRAC on every node
• Entry “Express” and advanced “Enterprise”
levels of chassis-level management
• Front KVM access; LCD Display; USB;
• Upto2pass-thrumodules.1Gband10Gb
capable
• Upto8PCIeGen3I/Oexpansion slots(low
profile/half length)
PowerEdge FX2 Enclosure
Overview
• The Dell FX2 is a new 2U rack-based hybrid computing platform that provides a
greater dimension of functional flexibility along with a higher density of processing
power. It combines the density of blades with the advantages of rack-based systems.
Benefits
• Its modular design lets it hold varying sized building blocks of resources that
can be any combination of compute nodes and storage nodes configured in a
number of variations, depending on the intended use of the platform and the
amount of resource needed.

28. 28
PowerEdge R730xd
Overview
A mainstream 2S/2U rack server that offers highly dense, flexible storage
options – including in-box storage tiering and an industry leading cost
effective 100TB storage footprint for future scale out storage. Designed
for the scale out storage efficiency demanded by today’s XaaS providers,
Hadoop / Big Data users and co-location hosting.
Performance Availability Expandability, I/O, Storage
• 2S Intel Xeon Haswell processors (14 cores max each CPU;
28 total max cores)
• 24 DIMM slots supporting up to 1.5 TB memory
• Up to 4 optional NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs provide
extremely high IOPS over standard drives to reduce I/O
bottlenecks
• High performance PEC9 and dual PERC capability on 24
drive configuration
• Redundant power supply units (PSU’s)
• Hot plug and swappable PSU’s, HDDs and fans
• Dual SD card option for Failsafe Hypervisors
• iDRAC8 Express or Enterprise with Lifecycle
Controller, OpenManage
• OpenManage Mobile access
• Up to 24 x 2.5” HDD + 2 x 2.5” (rear) or 16 x 3.5”
HDD + 2 x 2.5” (rear) or 12 x 3.5” or 18 x 1.8” + 8 x
3.5”
• Up to 4 optional NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs
• Dell Fluid Cache support
• Choice of RAID options including dual PERC option
for even higher perforrnance
• 6 x PCIe Gen3 expansion slots and 1 dedicated PCIe
lane for RAID
• SNA: 4 x 1GbE, 2 x 10GbE, 2 x 40GbE (post launch)
Targeted Workloads
• Great database server with 1M+ IOPS in a 24 drive, dual PERC
configuration
• The best NAS / file server with integrated caching /tiering capabilities
• Excellent Collaboration, UCC, SharePoint, and Exchange server in low
cost, high capacity local drive configurations
Benefits
• Best scale out storage
• Best $/GB in a 2U form factor
• Easy lifecycle manageability with intuitive management tools

29. Grazie per il vostro tempo!