HPE Storage Users Group

So much for customer upgradable....release notes specifically state to contact 3par-sps@hpe.com and have them "assist" you. One of the reasons the array was originally chosen was for the ability to not need 3par-sps@hpe.com, sorry but they are more of a PITA then a help.

Well. I still remember vmworld last year. HPE claimed to be the first storage vendor to support vvol replication from day 1. In the mean time vsphere 6.5 was released, but it took several months before 3.3.1 was even announced. Now we are almost a year later since vmworld and 3.3.1 is still not available for our boxes. I requested an upgrade, but they refused because the configuration of the boxes is too complex. Although there's nothing really special on them: 4 x volumes (2TB) and about 100 VM's on vvol.

3.3.1 is in "controlled release". I believe once it's made generally available, it will be customer upgradable.

I think your memory isn't quite 100% on this. I was at VMworld last year, and was in our vVol session that Eric Siebert did. I'm also at VMworld now (where we had a session talking about vVol replication). Last year we did not claim support for replication because it wasn't part of the VASA 2.0 provider that was available at that time. I have the slides from that session in 2016 and they specifically say that a drawback of vVols is that replication isn't supported yet. It was released this year with the VASA 3.0 provider.

As of last week, only two arrays supported array replication with vVols - 3PAR and Nimble. Yes, 3PAR requires 3.3.1. If you requested the 3.3.1 early when it was in controlled release, you might not have qualified but I've heard just about anyone who asks now can get it and it should be widely available soon. Feel free to email me and I'm happy to help. My email is calvin dot zito at hpe dot com. Note I will be traveling home from VMworld on Thursday so won't be of much help until I'm home.

Can confirm that two new 8440's that left the factory approx 4 weeks ago was shipped with 3.2.2 EMU4, this config is using the new fc/ip combo adapters so they were not installed at the factory since that version is not compatibile to the new cards.

Upgraded to 3.3.1 MU1 + P07 + P11. Note: IMC is still allowing to connect but is ignoring the new ip ports.

Tested DR-failover (system power failure) while running multiple instances of Iometer in an agressive pattern - failed over with no issues = so far everything working nicely.

3.3.1 MU1 was moved to active and default target for 9000/20k R2 last week.

HPE is cautious about the rollout and this is exactly what everyone has been screaming for over the last 3 years.
It is labeled active but non-default for 7k/8k/10k/20k so you probably can upgrade now.
HPE will probably to a trickle rollout on qualified customers, and have a minimum running hours target before 3.3.1 will be default.
I have high hopes for 3.3.1 MU1, and we will start testing soon, but will let other do production testing.
Remember 3.2.1 MU4, there is still chance to mess up late in the release cycle.

- Anders

Calvin, what's happening to vvols and peer persistance?

- Anders

Our new 8400 also have 3.2.2 MU4, we asked for the upgrade today.

How much time does it take for you to have the upgrade ?

As you probably know, today vVols replication supports asynch periodic. Peer Persistence needs synchronous. It is on the roadmap but I don't know the timing. That is going to take some engineering work so it's not coming in the very near future. If you need more details about timing, I'd suggest talking to your HPE rep.

I complained to our local HPE-rep that going through the "black-hole-in-india-HPE-"service"-center" would significantly delay the customers implementation plan (customers are getting shafted by the factory since they ship an invalid hardware/firmware combo) so HPE provided the 3.3.1 packages for 3P and SP to me and I installed it myself - not the easiest procedure but also not rocket-science if you have been working with 3par for a while, can't see end-users doing it themselves though.

But while that is said then it is clear to see that a lot of work is being done to better enable customers for self-service - the delivery model out of India is not good enough, eg. before summer I got a timeframe for 5 weeks out for something as simple as scheduling a firmware upgrade, and on most competitors arrays it something that you just do when you feel like it = the service delivery model is NOT a competitive differentiator.