1

I'd like to use the capabilities of two Dell EqualLogic SAN and a VMWare vSphere 6 installation to implement a storage virtualization solution.

Basically I'd like to put virtual SAN layer above my two physical SANs so that it can provide the same services as a usual SAN, this is for say, LUNs, iSCSI endpoint and more, NFS, CIFS shares, etc...

The idea is that whatever happens to the physical layer, I can replace the defective device in a transparent manner or attach new devices to the virtual layer so that more space is available.

On its end, the storage virtualization layer should make sure to replicate data for redundancy and use the capabilities of the physical devices for replication, snapshots and other.

It seems that VMWare's Virtual Volumes is what I'm looking for but I don't seem to be able to create a Virtual Volume/VMDK (a.k.a LUN) and allow a physical host to connect it via iSCSI.

Do you know any solution that could accomplish the requirements listed above? A bonus point would be to be able to use the resources from the VMWare infrastructure.

Spack
  • 1,604
  • 15
  • 22

1 Answers1

2

Very odd question - seemingly you don't know vSphere terribly well. It already allows for much of what you want - you can attach a range of storage to your hosts and move VMs between them as needed already - though you can't use CIFS. VMWare won't in itself manage and data replication but you can use it's built in Replication service to replicate whole VMs to help with DR. And while VVOLs may help you they're not THAT much different from what we have now with regular storage management, certainly it still requires your storage to manage any storage-to-storage replication. Also only more recently storage arrays support VVOLs.

As for your Equalogics, you need OS 8 on their and you need to implement the VSM as a VASA provider - it doesn't 'just happen'.

I think you need to research this a lot more and come back to use with clearer requirements.

Chopper3
  • 101,299
  • 9
  • 108
  • 239
  • You did not get at all what I tried to explain here. I know that vSphere can provide all of this. I just don't want to have to manage all my storage individually, I'm looking for a [distributed file system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clustered_file_system#Distributed_file_systems) like interface **between** vSphere and all my storage appliances so that I can move one or another part with little impact. Connecting everything to vSphere does not really help here. – Spack Apr 12 '16 at 20:38
  • I do understand, I just don't think you understand the current marketplace for Storage - either way you're looking for product recommendations, something we don't do on this site - as we make very clear in the text you've ignored when you sign up here - ask VMWare directly. – Chopper3 Apr 13 '16 at 08:26