#Nimble storage arrays install
#Nimble storage arrays registration

Availability (RAID): Nimble arrays, which have a measured availability of 99.9997% across the entire install base use Triple Parity and Triple Parity+ RAID schemes for fast performance and high availability.

Encryption: Nimble arrays support data encryption using the AES-256 algorithm which can be enabled for the entire array, or selectively on a volume by volume basis.

Compression: Nimble arrays support inline compression which can be enabled on a per-vVol basis.

Deduplication: Nimble arrays support inline deduplication which can be enabled on a per-vVol basis.

The following data services are available when configuring storage capability profiles. From the Nimble UI, simply click “New Folder” and complete the wizard which pops up:Īrray Storage Capability Profiles and Storage Profiles In the case of vVols, a capacity limit is mandatory, although administrators can adjust the logical size of the container when necessary.

A folder can optionally impose a capacity limit for volumes which belong to the folder. Nimble folders are used to group volumes together for a common purpose. When a vVols managed folder is created Nimble automatically creates a vVols Storage Container. In vVols speak, a folder is essentially a storage container. Nimble OS 3 introduces the concept of folders. Incidentally, all VM workflows are supported – create, clone, snapshot, migrate, delete, HA/DRS. Once the VASA provider is registered all capability profiles created in Nimble OS map native Nimble capabilities to VM storage Profiles. Nimble Connection Manager for vSphere 6.0 version 3.0 is required for iSCSI connection management and the Nimble Directed PSP. The VASA vendor provider is built in to Nimble OS and runs on the array for high availability. Nimble Storage arrays require Nimble OS 3 or greater for Virtual Volumes compatibility. This holds true for the VASA provider as well, making the provider as highly available as the arrays themselves. Should the active controller in the Nimble array fail for some reason, the standby controller will take over and continue to provide data services without any resulting loss in performance. As the VASA provider runs directly on the array, it is also highly available thanks to the availability of the underlying platform. Nimble arrays are highly available in an active/standby configuration and have demonstrated uptime as measured across thousands of arrays at over 8,100 customers to be 99.9997% available. Nimble has made the design choice of running the VASA provider directly on the Nimble array itself, rather than relying on an external virtual appliance to host the provider. Since Nimble is a block storage array providing storage over iSCSI and Fibre Channel protocols and not a NAS, I guess it goes without saying that there is no NFS support for vVols on Nimble. One of the interesting things with Nimble is how they provide application policies pre-configured for commonly used applications.

Simple policies allow you to configure block size, compression, deduplication, flash usage policy, encryption, and data protection on a per-vVol basis. Like most vendor vVols implementations, Nimble vVols are tuned through SPBM to be an exact fit for the application that will run within them. Yes Nimble is currently offering array based replication functionality when managed in Nimble OS. From the near six-nines availability of the vendor provider running directly on array hardware, to built-in protection policies via SPBM, deferred volume deletion, and options for business continuance using array based replication, availability is paramount.

#Nimble storage arrays registration

There is a GUI-driven registration of the VASA provider, auto-creation of protocol endpoints, and a simple folder creation wizard that makes storage container provisioning a breeze.Īvailability is another theme that runs through the Nimble vVols offering. Product information for Nimble can be found at vVols on Nimble Storageįor starters, all Nimble arrays from the earliest production adaptive flash models to their newer all-flash models are capable of supporting vVols as of NimbleOS 3. As always for detailed information on the setup and configuration of any storage array I refer you to the respective vendor documentation. The purpose of this post is not to identify every configuration step and design consideration but I did want to share some of my takeaways with using vVols on Nimble Storage. The array setup, vVols configuration, and eventually management of my vVols was extremely simple, highly available, and had some pretty differentiating functionality. This was my first time ever touching a Nimble Storage array, and if I had to summarize the experience in one word it would be simplicity. I recently had the opportunity to test drive Virtual Volumes on Nimble Storage.