Category: VMware

How to: Configuring GPU Passthrough on a Virtual Machine

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GPU Capability on a VM

Recently there’s been a lot of talk regarding Machine Learning, IoT, Big Data, AI, etc. All of these industry buzz words have been the talk of the industry. These technologies now are starting to creep into the world of Virtualization. About ten years ago, it was all about moving away from Physical to Virtual, but now the conversation is starting to shift to a new conversation, which is Virtualization of new and emerging workloads.

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Day One Recap: VMworld 2018

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Wow! What an amazing day of announcements from VMworld 2018! If you didn’t already know, today was the first day of VMworld 2018, and it didn’t disappoint! Although I’ve never been to VMworld, I always follow each years event closely. With that said, I will be blogging each day to recap the major highlights and developments from the event.

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How to: Part Two – Configuring PureStorage Plugin for Veeam

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How to : Part Two – Configuring PureStorage Plugin for Veeam

Last week, I wrote a blog on how to install the PureStorage plugin for Veeam. In this blog post, I will show you how to configure the PureStorage Plugin within Veeam. This quick and easy process is required in order to utilize all of the PureStorage+Veeam awsomeness!

Requirements

Before we proceed any further, please take note of the following requirements. These requirements are necessary if you wish to utilize Storage Array Snapshots for Backups.

  • Veeam Backup and Replication Enterprise Plus licensing
  • Physical Proxy server with FC/iSCSI access to the PureStorage array (This proxy must be physcical and be zoned/have access to all LUNS housing VMs that you wish to backup/protect)
  • PureStorage array (no additional licenses are required to take snapshots on PureStorage. Go team Orange!)
  • Veeam Backup and replication server must have access to the PureStorage array over the network/Firewall. Port 443 must be allowed in order to access to the PureStorage Array

*Important Note: You can still add the PureStorage array without having a Physical Proxy setup; however, you won’t be able to backup VMs without it*

Benefits

According to Veeam’s website, the following benefits are described below (Taken From Veeam’s Website)

  • Reduce impact on performance of production workloads
  • Enable granular recovery from storage snapshots
  • Application consistent storage snapshot orchestration
  • Automated restore verification and on-demand labs: “Put your data to work”

If you would like more information on this, or if you aren’t a Pure customer, reach out to my buddy Brandon @PureStorage via Twitter at @bdwill

Continue reading “How to: Part Two – Configuring PureStorage Plugin for Veeam”

How to: Part One – Installing PureStorage Plugin for Veeam

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How to: Installing PureStorage Plugin for Veeam

Tuesday the most anticipated day finally came. The Veeam storage array plugin for PureStorage was finally announced!

Why is this a big deal? Simply put: Now backups can backup off the storage array snapshot itself, which provides faster backup and recovery of protected workloads. Additionally by utilizing this plugin, you will reduce snapshot stun and create a more efficient backup process.

Benefits

According to Veeam’s website, the following benefits are described below (Taken From Veeam’s Website)

  • Reduce impact on performance of production workloads
  • Enable granular recovery from storage snapshots
  • Application consistent storage snapshot orchestration
  • Automated restore verification and on-demand labs: “Put your data to work”

Convinced? I thought so. Let’s install the plugin to take advantage of these features! In this short how to, the steps needed to install this array integration plugin are covered.

If you would like more information on this, or if you aren’t a Pure customer, reach out to my buddy Brandon @PureStorage via Twitter at @bdwill

Continue reading “How to: Part One – Installing PureStorage Plugin for Veeam”

New Achievement: VMware vExpert 2018

After a slight delay, I was driving home Friday when I received confirmation of my vExpert 2018 application. The result?

vExpert Confirmation

I am happy to announce that I have officially achieved VMware vExpert 2018! This was my first year to apply, and I am very fortunate to have obtained this award/recognition.

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Becoming a vSAN Specialist: Section 3 – vSAN Configuration

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In this section, I will go over the following objectives found within the VMware vSAN Specialist Blueprint: Objective 3.1 – Identify physical network requirements

Objective 3.1 – Identify physical network requirements

Let’s start with the network basics.

  1. Dedicated network port for vSAN traffic
  2. 10GB (dedicated or shared) highly recommended, required for all flash deployments) <1ms latency
  3. 1GB dedicated for hybrid setups. Real work environments would suffer with 1GB (Minus ROBO) <1ms latency
  4. vSAN VMkernal port required for each ESXi host, even if it isn’t contributing storage
  5. ESXi hosts within a vSAN cluster must all utilize Layer 2/3 upstream

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Becoming a vSAN Specialist: Section 2 – vSAN Fundamentals

VSAN-featured

In this section, I will go over the following objectives found within the VMware vSAN Specialist Blueprint: Section 2 – vSAN Fundamentals

Objective 2.1 – Provide a high-level description of vSAN

Introduction to vSAN

vSAN is an enterprise-class software storage solution built directly into the VMware platform. It runs on commodity hardware (x86) or vSAN Ready nodes.  What does this mean? Instead of having a separate software solution controlling the storage, the actual ESXi hosts alongside with vSphere have the vSAN technology (Software Defined Storage) built directly into the kernel/software. This software then utilizes the commodity hardware (compute, storage, network) within the host/appliance to create the perfect marriage of virtualization and software defined storage. It utilizes storage policies to intelligently place VM objects on underlying local storage. This is the special sauce that makes vSAN so great. It automates storage on many levels, which in turn leads to significant simplification with regards to how storage is provisioned and managed.

Why is this important? Instead of having to buy separate software, you can utilize this software since it’s already a part of vSphere. This in combination with local disk installed within x86 hardware makes the vSAN solution a truly modern and software defined solution. This reduces costs and complexity.

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Becoming a vSAN Specialist: Section 1 – Storage Fundamentals

VSAN-featured

In this section, I will go over the following objectives found within the VMware vSAN Specialist Blueprint: Section 1- Storage Fundamentals

Objective 1.1 – Identify storage device characteristics

vSAN is very similar to today’s traditional storage technologies; however, there are some key differences and unique configurations vSAN utilizes to make it the technology it is today. Here are some of the storage device characteristics that make vSAN hum. These are also requirements in order to use vSAN. Be sure to check out the HCL for vSAN, as it’s the TRUTH and should always be followed to ensure success!

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Becoming a vSAN Specialist: The Process Begins

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Late last year, I made the decision to obtain the vSAN Specialist badge (2VB-601) that VMware just recently began offering. While I currently don’t have the necessary home lab equipment, I plan to get started and then figure out  the lab situation. My ideal plan is to have a three node NUC cluster running vSAN, but this may change. Regardless, the most important thing is to start, so here we go!

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