NetApp ESX Host Utilities vCenter Plugin

Last week we showed a NetApp demo at VMworld Europe of the NetApp ESX Host Utilities Kit (HUK) running as a vCenter Plugin.

Thus far, the Host Utilities, including the current 5.0R2 release needed to be installed at the console of each ESX host. With the 6.0 release this will changes and a single vCenter plugin instance will manage all the ESX hosts in the Datacenter from a centralized management location.

It will support both ESX and ESXi implementations as well as all protocols, FC, iSCSI, FCoE, NFS and you will be able to set all the necessary parameters for every ESX host in the cluster regardless of protocol implementation.

All wizards, and panels have similar look at feel to vCenter. Access to NetApp Arrays is provided via NetApp Zephyr APIs (ZAPI) over SSL  but if SSL has not been configured, or it's not required, a non-secure authentication method is available.

Additionally, you will be able to view the configuration details such as like Total capacity, Total used, Total allocated, System status,  IP information, and alerts that pertain to possible pathing problems, or any misconfigured driver parameters that NetApp recommends when connecting to ESX hosts. You will be able to address any of these issues from vCenter with the use of the Plugin.

In fact, we've demo the upcoming ESX Host Utilities Kit 6.0 at VMworld Europe last week. I apologize for the absence of sound on the video however, the Callouts makes it easy to follow.

The release of the new ESX Host Utilities Kit is dependent upon the official release of VMware's vSphere.

 

Comments

[ronnydm]

hello,

when is this available ???

[Nick Triantos]

Ronny,
Assuming everything runs smoothly during Beta (happening now), The release is expected at the end of August.

[Dan]

This looks awsome, does it also include mbralign in the features, I have clients migrating physical servers to ESXi 4.0.

I have found that when migrated the 2008 server changed its patition alignment, to 32,512. Since this has occured by migrating does anyone know if you can when migrating change the offset to the correct size by using the vm migrator? Just a thought, please comment.

Also when will 6.0 be available?

[Nick Triantos]

Hi Dan,

The VSC includes mbrscan/mbralign but these tools are only applicable to ESX and not ESXi since they require the console.

Some P2V converters allow you to align (i.e PlateSpin) other do not but they should not alter the status of pre-existing alignment.

Windows 2008 aligns depending on the Disk Size. If the disk 4GB then 1,024KB.
The default setting is configurable and therefore it can be found in the registry.

Look at the registry "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VDS\Alignment" where it provides all the senarios.

Try downloading a trial version of vOptimizer from visiocore since you're running ESXi.

[Philip]

This was expected at the end of August. Is this available now? If not, what is the expected date of release now? -Philip

[Nick Triantos]

Hi Phillip,

Yes it was expected end of August, however, we delayed it to add more functionality and so we had to extend the beta which dragged out the release date.

for example, in the initial release NFS support was not there. It had been added.

Our goal is to have this out within the next 30 days.

I'll be sure to post a blog when the bits post.

Thanks

[Lenny Tropiano]

WHere can I download ESX Host Utilities 6.0? We have valid NetApp and VMWare contracts.

[Nick Triantos]

The VSC 1.0 (aka Host Utilities for ESX) will be available from the NOW site upon release.