vSphere 6 Beta

[Schmoog]

So as you may or may not know... vSphere 6 has entered public beta...

Anybody else on her signed up/planning on signing up for the beta?

Even though it's public beta, they still make you sign a NDA and agree not to discuss the beta with people not participating.

If there's enough of us, maybe we can set up a private board or something to discuss our impressions/experiences?

[nsnidanko]

I am interested to see 3par's support for VVOLs. Obviously neither feature is on the SPOCK matrix but there is a post dating back to 2012:
http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Around-the ... 7bqHp3D_Z4

[Schmoog]

I'm very interested in that also.

I'm still not sure I understand why I need vvol, but I hope in testing it will become clear.

There's some other really great feature enhancements in vsphere 6 that I obviously can't discuss that I'm looking forward to trying out.

I am hopeful that hp will have good support for vvol since they've been involved with it with vmware from the beginning

[Schmoog]

I'm very interested in that also.

I'm still not sure I understand why I need vvol, but I hope in testing it will become clear.

There's some other really great feature enhancements in vsphere 6 that I obviously can't discuss that I'm looking forward to trying out.

I am hopeful that hp will have good support for vvol since they've been involved with it with vmware from the beginning

And just like that I thought of something great about vvol.

It essentially removes the need for vaai unmap. Sdelete will re-thin the vvol on the 3par end.

Removal of a vm results in the deletion of the vvol. No unmap required to keep things thin

[Schmoog]

I'm also curious to see how vvol will change the way we do replication, and how it integrates with site recovery manager

[bajorgensen]

Just to be clear, it is a PRIVATE beta, that is why there is an NDA.
This difference compared to previous beta programs is that it is open for everyne on VMware communities.

Creating a seperate discussion forum is a breach of the terms:

You may:
• Speak with other participants of the Beta Program about this program
• Post on the protected, private discussion forums
• Speak with your server vendor about this program, so long as you disclose that you are
under an NDA and so long as they are also under an NDA with VMware

You may NOT:
• Discuss this program publicly
• Discuss this program privately with any other people not listed above.


There is a HP beta program regarding vvols: hp-3par-vvol-beta@hp.com

If you are interested in being considered for the beta program, please reply with the following information:

1. Do you have at least one 3PAR array installed in a non-production environment that can be used exclusively for VVol beta? Yes or No
2. Serial number of your non-production 3PAR system that you would use for the VVol beta:
3. Is the 3PAR array configured for remote support? Yes or No
4. 3PAR software licenses available (i.e. HP 3PAR Virtual Copy, HP 3PAR Thin Provisioning, etc.):

So you have to have a non-production system available to participate...

[Schmoog]

I'm pretty sure creating a seperate discussion group viewable by only 3parug members who are beta participants would a) foster communication among board members and b) be in compliance with the nda

[Schmoog]

My guess is the reasoning behing requiring a non-production array is that a) they probably have to load some VERY beta code on it to enable vvol which may contain other bugs that could put data at risk and b) they'll probably want to roll back the code when the beta is over, which also could put data at risk.

Hence they dont want to put someones prod data on the line

[afidel]

My guess is the reasoning behing requiring a non-production array is that a) they probably have to load some VERY beta code on it to enable vvol which may contain other bugs that could put data at risk and b) they'll probably want to roll back the code when the beta is over, which also could put data at risk.

Hence they dont want to put someones prod data on the line

Since 3Par demo'd vvol support like 3 years ago I highly doubt the code is in an early beta stage at this point. However, as we've seen with VAAI and other T10 primitives the interaction between VMWare/Microsoft's code and the array code can produce unexpected results even in code that is otherwise solid.

[Schmoog]

True.

There have been some severe errors over the years. The odx corruption for one, and eva had a bug executing xcopy operations on large luns that was pretty critical as well