Virtual Storage Console 2.0 is Available for Download

This morning NetApp released our unified vCenter plug-in for VMware vSphere the Virtual Storage Console 2.0 (aka the VSC2). Customers running NetApp FAS or 3-party storage arrays virtualized with vSeries can download the VSC via NOW.

(click to view at full size)

Last week I shared many of the details around the capabilities of the VSC 2 such as audit, optimize, provision, clone, backup & restore and more; in the following posts:

• Licensing Details for the VSC 2.0 vSphere Plug-in
  
  
• NetApp VSC 2.0 vCenter Plug-in Announced

I left out a few items in these posts including...

• The VSC is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions
  
• The use of the VSC2 is our recommended best practice for vSphere deployments
• We are close to posting an updated release of our vSphere storage best practices document, TR-3749 which will include the addition of the VSC2 along with details around vStorage integrations
• We are working with IBM to get the VSC2 available to N-Series customers and once I receive an update I'll pass it along.

As always, thanks to all who have commented and shared their thoughts and questions in the comments sections of these posts. You help keep the information flowing.

Comments

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=658313066]

Finally got VSC 2.0 installed on Win 2008 64 bit (make sure you "run as administrator" the first time!)

I'm very happy to see the vFiler support!
thanks!

[Brian]

Can't wait to see the updated TR-3749. Please let us know when it's available. Keep up the great work!

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=658313066]

Anyone else get this error from the new mbralign?:

No such file or directory at mbralign.pl line 1667.

from the new mbralign included in VSC 2.0?

AFAICT, There is no perl script included in the mbrtools.tar.gz downloaded from the VSC 2.0 Netapp vCenter plugin.

thanks

[Andrew]

Ditto on the administrator comment - to be more precise, make sure you "run as administrator" when launching the .msi file.

[Jose Maria Gonzalez]

Hi Vaughn

Great article, much appreciated.

Could you share with us how much this software cost? Or would it be include with the array?

Thanks a lot,

Jose Maria Gonzalez from El blog de Virtualizacion en Español

[Chris]

Vaughn, thanks for this!

I'm assuming this means NetApp is officially supporting vSphere 4.1 interoperability with SMVI 2.0?

[Paul Morris]

Hi Vaughn,

I installed the new VSC 2.0 and love the changes! However, since I installed it my SRM is no longer able to create FlexClones during testing. Any thoughts on this? I have cases open with NetApp and VMware.

[daniel kaiser]

Does anyone know when TR-3749 v3 will be released?

[Vaughn Stewart]

TR-3749 v2.1 will be published for VMworld 2010.

[Mark]

I also get "No such file or directory at mbralign.pl line 1667." using the VSC 2.0 version of MBRALIGN.

Is the extracted directory structure wrong somehow?

I'm running it from a CentOS VM by the way. Closest thing to a Service Console I could get.

[Fred]

Will this work with iscsi and software initiators. Can the alignment be fixed hot by migrating the storage to another lun? My esx side is aligned (128) but the guest os's are not.

[Josh]

Vaughn - any update on availability of VSC 2.0 for IBM N Series customers? Thanks!

[Vaughn Stewart]

@Josh - I'm still awaiting for IBM to give us the thumbs up. Admittedly its taking much longer than expected. i will blog as soon as I receive confirmation.