Originally posted by: TonyPearson
As BarryW points out, IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) is now[
fully certified with VMWare ESX 3.0.2]. Here's the [
official IBM press release]. This is based onthe [
Storage Virtualization Certification Program] announced by VMware last week.
This is great news for everyone. I have said before that VMware is perhaps the best product EMC offers, and some EMC bloggers have returned the favor saying that SVC might just be the best disk system that IBM offers. While IBM and EMCare heavily competitive in other aspects of the IT storage industry, when it comes to delivering what is right for the customer, we can set aside those differences. IBM is the number one reseller of VMware, and it is a great pairing with SAN Volume Controller.
Of course, it is not a free-for-all. VMware has a few restrictions at this time:
- storage hardware
Disk managed by SVC must be on VMware's [Storage / SAN Compatibility GuideFor ESX Server 3.x]. As VMware certifies future storage that SVC supports, they will update the guide accordingly.
- guest operating systems
The VMware certification is limited to Windows operating system, specifically those listed on its [Guest OS Guide].The list looks fairly extensive, so if you were running Windows guests on VMware to SVC today via RPQ,you are probably covered. However, if you are running NetWare or Linux, then the VMware certification doesnot yet apply.
- host bus adapters
Only Qlogic host bus adapters are supported at this time. This is because VMware directly communicates to the host bus adapters as part of its "I/O virtualization" capabilities, and needs to work with or test with all the other HBA manufacturers.
- no RDM support
Raw Device Mapping (RDM) mode is currently not yet supported. This probably will only affect a small percentage of customers, as I don't know of any major applications that require this.
Of course, most of these issues can probably be addressed with additional testing, or minor software changes, and IBM will work with VMware to prioritize what added testing or software changes are needed to expand this support.
technorati tags: IBM, SAN Volume Controller, SVC, EMC, VMware, ESX, Server, Storage, Virtualization, Certification, Program, Windows, NetWare, Linux, RDM, HBA