With all the spotlights on the big HPE 3PAR storage announcement some days ago, I notice that not everyone is aware of the release of a new storage whitepaper called HPE StoreVirtual VSA Ready Nodes. Which is IMHO also a big step forward for everyone busy with StoreVirtual VSA.
So what is this all about and why is it important?
This document is THE BIBLE for everyone that wants to start with StoreVirtual VSA. It contains a list of all the things to think about when designing, sizing and implementing the solution:
- Architectural overview
- Reference configurations
- Performance estimates
- Networking configuration
- Storage configuration
- Installation checklists for hardware, hypervisor, networking and storage
- Installation best practices
Unless you go for the HyperConverged way (where everything like StoreVirtual VSA is pre-installed and configured for you), this is the reference document for you.
In my job role I get often questions about sizing and installation of a DIY StoreVirtual VSA solution. Which RAID controller, is cache important, what about tiering, expected IOPS, do I need 10Gb, etc. All evident and good questions! But now with an answer in an official HPE document.
Reference configurations
HPE created 4 reference solutions based on expectations like storage size and performance:
- HPE Ready Nodes Small
- HPE Ready Nodes Medium
- HPE Ready Nodes Medium Hybrid (with SSD tiering)
- HPE Ready Nodes Large Hybrid (with SSD tiering)
Not going to write out all the details here, but you have a good mix of DL360 and DL380 based solutions with storage going from 5 SAS drives up to a hybrid setup with 18 SAS and 6 SSD drives per node.
You get a complete list of the tested configurations including BOM (Bill of Material) for available capacity and expected performance. I know that this is just a reference with 3 nodes, make the math yourself if you have 4 or 6 or even more nodes.
Further in the document you get all details about the installation following all best practices for hardware, hypervisor, networking, storage and the VSA itself. All in 1 document, I told you it is the bible… 😉
Go get the StoreVirtual VSA Ready Nodes whitepaper here:
http://h20195.www2.hpe.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=a00000521ENW
Another important document is the StoreVirtual VSA Design and configuration guide. This document can be found here:
http://h20195.www2.hpe.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA4-8440ENW
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