We have recently released a new version of the NetApp Storage Best Practices for VMware vSphere technical report TR-3749. I’m very excited as version 3.0 includes a number of new content that is highlighted by the addition of support for vSphere 5.
TR-3749 is “the bible” for configuring VMware on NetApp. it’s contents provide the basis for the rest of our VMware solutions based TRs in areas such as vCD, SRM, View, virtualizing Microsoft applications, XenDesktop on vSphere, etc. The contents provide an introduction with NetApp storage, VMware storage options, and storage networking design. These initial constructs are followed by chapters on architectural design best practices and configuration and provisioning automation via the NetApp VSC plug-in for vCenter.
Peter Learmonth led the team who updated the TR, and trust me here, this was no small feat. These engineering efforts led to a 28% increase in size from 92 to 118 pages! Below is a list of just some of the content that’s new in version 3.0.
- An introduction to storage concepts in vSphere 5
- Updated storage maximums, supported options, and NetApp integration tables
- Support for the VSC with the vCSA or vCenter Server Appliance
- Host Profiles
- VMFS 5
- Storage DRS, affinity rules and maintenance mode
- SIOC or Storage I/O Controls
After you download the TR, please share your feedback with us. Peter & team are working diligently on the next update and your feedback will help shape the content and structure of version 3.1, which is currently scheduled for the March 2012 time frame.
Page 14 states, in a footnote, “Support for NFS-managed VMDKs in SnapDrive is targeted for a future release of SnapDrive.”
However, SnapDrive 6.3 onwards (which has been available for a while now) provides this functionality, and this configuration is even supported for SMSQL.
Maybe the footnote should be updated…
-Darkstar
Also, the screenshots should be updated to System Manager 2.0 as version 1.x is EOA for some time now
…that reminds me, I still have to upgrade all our internal course material to System Manager 2.0 (and remove the FilerView screenshots altogether as this won’t be in 8.1 anymore)…
Other than that, it’s a pretty good TR (as I expected). You might want to add that LACP works best with Cisco switches, we had various problems getting it to work correctly with other switch vendors (most notably Alcatel, but also HP can be tricky to get running correctly with LACP enabled). I try to avoid it if at all possible…
Thanks for the feedback. Those are in plan for the next update.
Share and enjoy!
Peter
@Darkstar
Thank you for the feedback, it is being forwarded to the team as soon as I finish typing this follow up.
I’m very thankful that you updated the BP for the Flow Control settings – we had a long battle with NetApp, HP, VMware, Cisco, and our reseller as to what the settings should be because the NetApp Best Practices guide didn’t actually reflect best practices. In fact, following the document was one of the causes of a site outage.
Thanks for the update.