VAAI- Hear me now, believe me later

VAAI (vStorage API for Array Integration) was first introduced into vSphere in v4.1 with promises of deeper integration and control over supported storage Arrays.  Each feature (or Primitve) was designed to help us gain benefits from our Arrays. Vendors who didn’t support VAAI were frowned upon and those delivering on Continue Reading

EMC VNX – Combine NAR files. The EASY way

Anyone who has worked at length with EMC Clariion or VNX would be familiar with the good old NAR files. These are the important little files where statistics about array performance are saved/archived, so you can them open them in Analyzer and review the massive amount of performance metrics and Continue Reading

VMware ESXi CBT Bug – Your data may be at risk

Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is a great feature introduced in ESXi 4.0, that effectively brought incremental backup technology to our virtual machines. Third parties were able to leverage this so backups would only require the processing of blocks that have changed rather than all blocks. This saved inordinate amounts of time, Continue Reading

EMC Recoverpoint+VMware SRM – ‘discover Arrays’ failed.

I noticed this little gem today whilst in the process of adjusting some SRM documentation and grabbing some screenshots;                 I hadn’t received any alerts so didn’t think it was a major issue, but sounded like it’s the sort of error that may be annoying during execution Continue Reading

vSphere 6 Release Candidate – Out now (Beta only)

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2014/10/vsphere-6-0-rc-now-live.html It’s here…or is it. The above link went live and was then pulled, the explanation being that the vSPhere 6.0 RC is available, but ONLY for BETA program members. Regardless, the features and improvements listed are worthy of being posted;   •Quality: Improved overall quality of the product, increased Continue Reading