Infinidat + VMware: Even Better with vVols
If you read our last blog discussing our deep integration with VMware, you know that Infinidat has always prioritized VMware use cases and integrations, with integrations into eight different VMware offerings from the core ESXi hypervisor, to management and monitoring tools, to emerging Tanzu and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) capabilities. But regardless of all those extensive integrations, some have pointed out there is one thing missing: VMware Virtual Volumes (vVols). Well, we’re thrilled to share that we’ve addressed that as part of our InfiniBox software release 6.0. See a demo from our product manager Gil Nadel:
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When we implement new features, we strive for not just “checking the box” but delivering class-leading capabilities. To that end, we have set a new bar for vVols scalability, with a vVols implementation designed for hundreds of thousands of vVols per system, and have explicitly tested beyond the 65K vVols limit that is currently holding back all other vVols implementations. In addition, our embedded VASA provider implementation builds on the HA architecture of InfiniBox controllers, and we have expanded Host PowerTools for VMware implementation to provide one-click vVols setup for virtual infrastructure (VI) admins.
The existing InfiniBox VMware integrations largely already cover the functionality of vVols, but vVols makes things even simpler for the VI admin:
| InfiniBox with VMFS | InfiniBox with vVols |
| Provision natively through vCenter with HPT-VM | Provision natively through vCenter with HPT-VM |
| Leverage container-native storage through separate Infinidat CSI driver installation | Leverage container-native storage through vSphere CNS on top of vVols |
| Deploy as Principal Storage in VCF via VMFS | Deploy as Principal Storage in VCF via vVols |
| Monitor performance through vRealize Operations (vROps) | Monitor performance through vROps |
| Provide single-VM snapshots and restores with HPT-VM | Provide single-VM snapshots and restores through vVols |
| Use InfiniBox full clones with VAAI cloning enhancements | Use vSphere fast clones to easily create InfiniBox snapshots of VDI golden images |
| Manage storage capabilities through InfiniBox APIs | Manage storage capabilities at a VM level via VMware Storage Policy-Based Management |
Our #1 priority is to ensure our customers have a great user experience. Whether it's building best-in-class VMware integrations, guaranteeing 100% availability, providing a dedicated technical advisor at no extra charge, or enabling automation of the entire stack via our REST APIs and integrations, we are here for our users to make their lives easier.
So, to our virtual infrastructure admin friends who have deployed exabytes of Tier 1 VMware workloads on our systems: thank you for your trust in InfiniBox. We are proud to have delivered comprehensive VMware integrations that simplify your workflows, and we’re excited about how our new vVols implementation will enhance your experience. We look forward to supporting many more petabytes of your critical VMware environments in the future. And to our readers considering InfiniBox for the first time: hopefully this has given you something interesting to think about as you consider the evolution of your VMware environment. Talk to your Infinidat rep or channel partner to see the value we can provide for your VMware workloads.
