What you need to know about EMC VNX in a Virtualised Environment

14th September 2011

When we recently recommended a new EMC VNX Storage Array to take the virtual infrastructure of one of our customers forward, we found that performance and reliability were not the only criteria on which it had to deliver.

In the absence of staff resource dedicated to virtualisation and/or storage (not uncommon in within the budgets of many SMEs and public bodies), the technology had to have a high degree of integration, allowing it to be managed without the need for specialist skills.

Since the customer already had vSphere in place, this wasn’t an issue.  EMC’s VNX range was the obvious choice, as its Unisphere plug-ins for the vSphere client allows the IT manager to see exactly where the virtual machines are located, on which LUNs or Storage Pools.  It also enables him to see what space is available, where and at what level, without the necessity to run cumbersome multiple management tools, crosschecking spreadsheets, etc.

It is also worth noting that the initial setup of the EMC Unisphere uses a simple wizard to adding vSphere hosts, creating the necessary storage for them and provisioning new datastores.  This is supported by EMC’s extensive library, which provides documentation on the integration of vSphere and VNX for jobs such as hosting a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Exchange and SQL.  (See EMC’s TechBook – ‘Using EMC VNX Storage with VMware vSphere’).

The end result for this project was a simple technology handover and skill transfer – and a very happy customer.

Author, Mark