Quick tech specs
- Asynchronous and synchronous replication, Snapshots, Thin provisioning, Online volume migration, Support for VMware’s Vmotion/HA/DRS, 10TB limit per license of the VSA.
Know your gear
The Virtual SAN Appliance allows customers to use storage in the VMware servers for VMware features like Vmotion, HA, and DRS, without a physical SAN. Ideal for remote offices and small environments.
The Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA) encapsulates HP LeftHand's enterprise-class storage operating system, SAN/iQ, within a virtual machine for VMware ESX environments. With the VSA, customers can create virtual SANs (VSANs) using internal or DAS server storage. Ideal for small environments, remote offices, and for rescuing storage that is stranded in existing ESX servers, the VSA is a versatile appliance.
In small environments, several licenses of the VSA are used in conjunction with several licenses of VMware ESX and one license of VirtualCenter Management Server to create a completely fault tolerant environment. Should an ESX server suffer a catastrophic failure, the surviving servers can automatically start the failed virtual machines – the VSA hosts the vmdk files and enables VMware’s HA feature.
In remote offices, one or more licenses are used to replicate virtual machines and data across the WAN to a physical or virtual LeftHand SAN at the main datacenter for centralized backup. Such a configuration provides significant cost savings over host-based replication and reduces the total cost of ownership by centralizing storage management and data archival processes.
In the datacenter, the VSA creates an additional tier of storage that can coexist with existing SAN deployments. Data can be migrated from virtual SANs to physical SAN/iQ SANs and back to virtual SANs on the fly. The VSA also enables the creation of robust SANs using servers that would have otherwise been retired due to consolidation projects. In a twenty-server environment, VMware might consolidate the environment to 5 servers. Of the remaining 15, several can be grouped into a SAN using the VSA. The rest can be retired. Such an example leverages existing hardware to the fullest.
LeftHand Networks also offers turn-key iSCSI SAN storage modules with SAS or SATA drives at a variety of capacity points and performance levels. LeftHand SANs combine patented SAN/iQ storage functionality with enterprise-class servers from HP and IBM to deliver a full-featured SAN that can be deployed in minutes and that can scale seamlessly without downtime.
Included VSA Software Features:
• Clustering and Single-Pane-of-Glass Management for all storage nodes (virtual and physical)
• SAN/iQ Snapshots
• Multi-Site SAN (Synch Rep)
• Remote Copy (Asynch Rep)
• Thin Provisioning 2.0
• Online Volume Migration
Optional VSA Software Features:
• Multi-Site HA/DR solution pack
The VSA includes: SAN/iQ Software 2.0 TB License on 1 VMware® ESX Virtual Machine
The VSA requires 2GHz processor reserved, 1GB RAM reserved, and 1 virtual network adapter. Manages up to 2TB of space. Requires a minimum of 1 yr of support for each license.
In small environments, several licenses of the VSA are used in conjunction with several licenses of VMware ESX and one license of VirtualCenter Management Server to create a completely fault tolerant environment. Should an ESX server suffer a catastrophic failure, the surviving servers can automatically start the failed virtual machines – the VSA hosts the vmdk files and enables VMware’s HA feature.
In remote offices, one or more licenses are used to replicate virtual machines and data across the WAN to a physical or virtual LeftHand SAN at the main datacenter for centralized backup. Such a configuration provides significant cost savings over host-based replication and reduces the total cost of ownership by centralizing storage management and data archival processes.
In the datacenter, the VSA creates an additional tier of storage that can coexist with existing SAN deployments. Data can be migrated from virtual SANs to physical SAN/iQ SANs and back to virtual SANs on the fly. The VSA also enables the creation of robust SANs using servers that would have otherwise been retired due to consolidation projects. In a twenty-server environment, VMware might consolidate the environment to 5 servers. Of the remaining 15, several can be grouped into a SAN using the VSA. The rest can be retired. Such an example leverages existing hardware to the fullest.
LeftHand Networks also offers turn-key iSCSI SAN storage modules with SAS or SATA drives at a variety of capacity points and performance levels. LeftHand SANs combine patented SAN/iQ storage functionality with enterprise-class servers from HP and IBM to deliver a full-featured SAN that can be deployed in minutes and that can scale seamlessly without downtime.
Included VSA Software Features:
• Clustering and Single-Pane-of-Glass Management for all storage nodes (virtual and physical)
• SAN/iQ Snapshots
• Multi-Site SAN (Synch Rep)
• Remote Copy (Asynch Rep)
• Thin Provisioning 2.0
• Online Volume Migration
Optional VSA Software Features:
• Multi-Site HA/DR solution pack
The VSA includes: SAN/iQ Software 2.0 TB License on 1 VMware® ESX Virtual Machine
The VSA requires 2GHz processor reserved, 1GB RAM reserved, and 1 virtual network adapter. Manages up to 2TB of space. Requires a minimum of 1 yr of support for each license.