Varrow Blogs

I learned something new about NFS exports on a recent EMC NS480 project. The client I was working with wanted some CIFS shares that could be accessed by both Windows and NFS clients at the same time. I initially thought that this wouldn’t be possible because the CIFS shares were going to be on a [...]

EMC is set to release a new version of the FLARE operating system for CLARiiON CX4 arrays in the next couple weeks.  This version, FLARE 30, includes a number of highly anticipated features and I have a lot of customers anxiously awaiting its availability.  Two major new features are FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering) and [...]

I blogged earlier about designing with storage pools vs traditional raid groups.  I’m sure you were all overly excited to read about that – both of you.  Well one of the biggest benefits of using storage pools is now finally available from EMC.  I’m talking about the latest release of the FAST from EMC.  This [...]

Traditionally with EMC SAN and NAS arrays the design was based on raid groups (RG) and LUNs.  Overall the process was pretty straight forward.  First you create a raid group such as a raid 5 raid group that may have 5 drives.  I/O is usually one of the big concerns.  The I/O generated by an [...]

A few times this week, questions have come up around the use of RecoverPoint for protecting SQL databases or really any databases.  The main questions are, “What all do I need?” and “How what exactly does the process look like?” RecoverPoint is a cutting edge technology that enables you to provide continuous data protection (CDP) [...]

First off, the “Skin a cat” thing is just a figure of speech so if you’re a cat lover don’t report me to PETA.  I would never do something like that…….well…….unless the damn thing bit me or really pissed me off, then all bets are off!  Actually I’m sure this will make good FUD for [...]

I just wanted to write a quick note recapping the regional VMUG we had last week in Charlotte.  This isn’t really a recap since I didn’t get to go to many of the sessions.  For a decent writeup check out Simon’s here.  But, I work for a partner and we were really busy on Friday [...]

******UPDATE****** There is a new VMware driver out that corrects this incompatibility. You can download it here – http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx40_cisco_cna_v110110a/ZHcqYmRwKmViZHdlZQ I came across a much unexpected incompatibility this week between Cisco UCS VIC M81KR (Palo) and PowerPath VE. I was implementing Cisco Nexus 1000v and EMC PowerPath VE on Cisco UCS blades with the new Cisco [...]

Yes I know timely. What do you expect I am too busy soliciting for votes for our VMworld 2010 submission, have you heard? If not please visit here, and let your technical heart be your guide
Onward..so something I forgot to mention in the previous post is the idea of Cache Coherence, which provides active-active data sharing. This is the ability to create a consistent view of a volume, independent of its location. This is the core behind Storage Federation.
Now within this context you…

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Joe Kelly and I have submitted to speak at VMworld about RecoverPoint and Site Recovery Manager.  It should be an excellent session based on our experience in the field with the products so it won’t just be a feature overview, but actual information you can take back and use.  Joe is the man on this [...]

As I’m flying back to North Carolina from my one whole day at EMC World I was thinking a bit about the announcements that EMC has made this week.  VPLEX is a very interesting product and I was going over possible use cases in my head. If money was no object, or if you needed [...]

If you have or are looking at an EMC Clariion you may have heard about the relatively recent release of F.A.S.T for the Clariion line.  F.A.S.T stands for Fully Automated Storage Tiering which basically means the ability to move data between different tiers of disks (FC, SATA and FLASH).  EMC F.A.S.T is currently in stage [...]

The Clariion family of arrays includes the CX4-120, 240, 480, and 960.  As you would guess the higher the number the higher the number of disk drives supported hence the more powerfull the array.  Nothing earth shattering I know. What is a common denominator when it comes to questions about the different arrays?  “What kind [...]

Yesterday after Tech Field Day there was a very good debate on Twitter and here about what a Vblock is, and more importantly, what it isn’t. Lately I’ve been so busy I haven’t blogged but this exact topic was on my short list to do when time became available. It’s a discussion I’ve had with [...]

Many time we need to have performance data from a clients array.  If you have the full version of Navisphere Analyzer you can do this yourself but in many cases Navi Analyzer is not available.  If you are trying to troubleshoot performance problems or design a new array based on existing performance data you may [...]