Data is getting bigger, virtualization is expanding, and data protection applications are ill-prepared to deal with it. This much we can all agree on. But Symantec's introduction of "V-Ray," which the company describes as "X-Ray vision into ... virtual environments" has just left me puzzled. Is this "marketecture" or some sort of technology or product? Symantec's V-Ray … [Read more...] about What Exactly Is Symantec V-Ray?
Storage Foundation
The Bridge: Veritas Thin (Provisioning) API
Thin provisioning needs communication to function, and zero page reclaim is only the array side of the story. WRITE_SAME helps reduce I/O load, but the server needs to use it. Wouldn't it be nice if the operating system, file system, or volume manager would use these commands to help recover capacity? We need a bridge. We need to cross the gulf between the storage array … [Read more...] about The Bridge: Veritas Thin (Provisioning) API
Zero Page Reclaim: Savior of Thin Provisioning?
In the previous post, I talked about how the Drobo uses metadata monitoring to solve the telephone game and make de-allocation possible. But that approach is challenging in complex enterprise environments. Instead, most enterprise arrays use a complex chain of semaphores to interpret signals from the connected hosts about the capacity that can be un-provisioned. On the … [Read more...] about Zero Page Reclaim: Savior of Thin Provisioning?
Symantec’s Thin API: The Plot Thickens
Last week, I lauded Symantec for introducing an API in Storage Foundation which will interact with the thin storage capabilities of supported arrays. Since then, I've learned more about this capability, and I am writing this update to share that knowledge. As I noted last week, the press release was a bit hard to follow and comprehend (and not just for me), and one of my … [Read more...] about Symantec’s Thin API: The Plot Thickens