Part 1: My take on PernixData FVP

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Having posted an article on Software Defined Storage a short while ago, I want to follow up with some posts on vendors/products I mentioned.

pernixdata

First of all we’ll have a closer look at PernixData. Their product FVP, stands for Flash Virtualization Platform, is a flash virtualization layer which enables read and write caching using serverside SSD or PCIe flash device(s). Almost sounds like other caching products which are out there, don’t it… Well, PernixData FVP has features which are really distinctive advantages over other vendors/products. With a new (2.0) version of FVP coming up I decided to do a dual post. Version 2.0 should be released very soon.

What will FVP do for you? PernixData states:

Decouple storage performance from capacity

So what does that mean? Well, it means we no longer must try to fulfill storage performance requirements by offering more spindles in order to reach the much demanded IOPS. Next to that we must try to keep a low as possible latency. Doing so, what better place for flash to reside on the server! Keeping the I/O path as short as possible is key!!
When storage performance is no longer an issue, capacity requirements are easily met.

vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC)

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Recently I started studying for my second VMware VCAP exam. It made sense to plan the updated VCAP550-DCA exam, since vSphere 5.5 is among us for quite some time now.

vFRC

While doing so, you automatically run into vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC). A feature provided since vSphere 5.5 (only in the Enterprise+ bundle), but I never got to configure and/or test it. Hence this little write-up…

Running through the blueprint for VCAP550-DCA, you’ll see it listed under section 1, objective 1.1:

Section 1 – Implement and Manage Storage
Objective 1.1 – Implement Complex Storage Solutions

Skills and Abilities

  • Determine use cases for and configure VMware DirectPath I/O
  • Determine requirements for and configure NPIV
  • Understand use cases for Raw Device Mapping
  • Configure vCenter Server storage filters
  • Understand and apply VMFS re-signaturing
  • Understand and apply LUN masking using PSA-related commands
  • Configure Software iSCSI port binding
  • Configure and manage vSphere Flash Read Cache
  • Configure Datastore Clusters
  • Upgrade VMware storage infrastructure

Let’s check it out!!