With the recent buzz from EMC about #EMCBreaksRecords on Twitter, Facebook and many other Social Media

avenues it was pretty visible that EMC has been secretly preparing
for one of the biggest announcements that was made today.
Along with FAST VP and upgrades on the VMAX, EMC also announced the much-anticipated unified storage platform VNX. The VNX strategy was very visible at EMC atleast for the
past year and was overdue for a release.
FAST, FAST VP
We have been talking about FAST for quite a few years now, atleast 1 year and 9 months. Here comes a new version for FAST on VMAX known as FAST VP (Fully Automated
Storage Tiering Virtual Pools), which was released today at the big event in NYC. Next as we know would be FAST to the FULLEST (possibly incorporating VPLEX solution to move
data across different subsystems).
All new features wrapped around in Enginuity 5875, this release is considered as one of the most aggressive code releases by EMC for the Symmetrix platform.
By the way, if you didnt know, Symmetrix is now more than 20 years old, probably the longest living brands in the Storage world still alive and kicking a**. Here is a blog
post talking about the 20-year history of Symmetrix.
http://storagenerve.com/2009/12/15/symmetrix-the-journey-of-20-years/
Some highlights of Enginuity 5875 include

FAST VP (Virtual Pools) SUB LUN Tiering

DARE (RSA based Encryption technology) added natively
VSI (Virtual Storage Integrator)
Addition of 10GB SRDF and iSCSI Directors
FLM (Federated Live Migration)
VAAI Support
ZPR or Zero Page Reclaim
There are some great posts already out by EMC Bloggers and many other independent bloggers around VMAX, FAST VP and the enhancements to VMAX platform. So I am not
going to recreate the wheel here.
Barry Burke has pushed out some very interesting posts on the features wrapped around in Enginuity 5875. This post talks about some featured enhancements to the VMAX
platform, customer benefits around migration, sub lun tiering, encryption, VAAI support, etc.
http://thestorageanarchist.typepad.com/weblog/2011/01/3017-vmax-2011-edition-powerful-trusted-smartest.html
Few other interesting posts here by Barry on FAST VP and how it works in customer environments.
A few questions / comments / observations on FAST VP

As I understand, VMAX Systems will need to be at Enginuity 5875 code level before you qualify for FAST VP, not a big deal (for some).
You need licenses for FAST VP.
Policies for FAST VP are configured from the SMC?
If you are already a FAST customer on VMAX and want to migrate to FAST VP, I suspect the licensing will change with this new feature.
As a customer of FAST today, migrating to FAST VP for sub lun level tiering, may require you to reanalyze your business requirements associated with virtual pools.
FAST policies today can be migrated to FAST VP policies, like the time of day, IOPS, etc?
FAST configuration for VMAX was typically done by the Professional Services Group. I am suspecting the same is true for FAST VP.
Tier Advisor is required to perform analysis in your environment is only available through EMC pre and post sales folks.
Though the native functionality of FAST VP is built within the Enginuity code, the activity and logic is driven from the service processor of the Symmetrix system,
again suspecting SMC is doing this work? Also suspecting without the SP being functional, FAST VP policies do not get updated and the process dies.
Do not know, the extent size 768KB on a VMAX is functionally and operationally any advantageous compared to a 42MB extent.
FAST VP policies seem to be very granular.
Once FAST VP is setup on Virtual Pools in a Storage Group, additional of any other Virtual Pools would require the customer to analyze the new Pools (using Tier
Advisor) before setting policies.
http://thestorageanarchist.typepad.com/weblog/2011/01/3018-fast-vpworlds-smartest-storage-tiering-part-1.html#more
http://thestorageanarchist.typepad.com/weblog/2011/01/3019-fast-vp-worlds-smartest-storage-tiering-part-2.html#more
The above posts from Barry are quite detailed and informative, if you are into Symmetrix technology, highly recommend reading it.
Discovered the blog by Itzikr from EMC Israel about 2 weeks ago
Itzikr talks in detail about Enginuity 5875, support for VAAI, VMware integration and FAST VP.
http://itzikr.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/emc-symmetrix-vmax-enginuity-5875-fast-vp-vaai-making-the-best-array-even-better/
And as usual a very informative and lengthy post from Chuck Hollis on VMAX platform.
http://chucksblog.emc.com/chucks_blog/2011/01/symmetrix-vmax-gets-even-smarter.html#more
A Video Stream from Wikibon covering todays announcement from EMC. The first few mins of the video talk about Symmetrix VMAX FAST VP.
http://www.justin.tv/wikibon/b/277797896
And lastly, one of my favorite posts from Nigel Poulton talking about FAST VP from late December.
http://blog.nigelpoulton.com/vmax-comes-of-age/
Enjoy reading the above posts!! Courteous comments welcome. Again thanks for visiting and reading the blog.

FAST: Features, Drawbacks, Applications and some Questions

December 9th, 2009Devang Panchigar2 Comments

FAST (FULLY AUTOMATED STORAGE TIERING)

FAST made a debut in the storage market yesterday (12/08/09). Finally after the market buzz we got a preview of the product in terms of its features, functionality,
characteristics, possible shortcomings and use cases.
This blog post focuses on the features, the drawbacks and some applications around FAST. By no means is this a comprehensive or an exhaustive list of the above.
After all, FAST makes a debut, (The previous post on FAST).
..

Imagine the possibilities of FAST with this infrastructure

NOTE: Out of the box thinking by EMC, imagine the flexibility one would have with a large infrastructure and FAST moving data based on policy. Its all about the big picture.
..
..
Here are some features, highlights of FAST and how it operates.

FAST will perform data movement based on IOPS, average I/O size and write percentage. This is currently true for the Symmetrix V-Max, Clariion CX4 and Celerra
NS.

Three elements that define FAST: Storage Type, FAST policies and Storage Groups.
FAST is based on user defined configuration policies.
The configuration of FAST is typically done through FAST wizards (Symmetrix Management Console) on Symmetrix V-Max, FAST LUN Migrator for Clariion CX4 and
Rainfinity File Management Appliance or VE for Celerra NS.

..

..

..

..

User defined analysis period for FAST. That will enable FAST to recommend or perform data analysis and then a data move based on policy.
FAST created policies will associate with Storage Groups.
FAST policies will be configurable at a LUN / drive / drive type / speed etc level.
Data movement will take place based on a time of the date policy called COLD move or on usage policy called HOT move.
Data movement will take place between various drive types, various LUN types and LUN sizes. (LUN types, LUN sizes will need to be same for the source and
destination LUNs). For example a 9GB FBA LUN being migrated from Fibre to FLASH will need similar source and destination LUN properties.
FAST data analysis will be performed in the background.
For Symmetrix V-Max platform FAST will perform all analysis without the use of Symmetrix Performance Analyzer. Understanding is there will be some sort of API
plugin available on the Service Processor of the V-Max that will enable Symmetrix Management Console (FAST plugin) to interface with the Symmetrix through the SYMAPI
interface.
For Clariions, the performance data of the array will be monitored and collected by Navisphere Analyzer.
Based on the source LUN analysis, FAST will recommend the user to move the data either a faster speed drives or a slower speed drives.
FAST will enable roll back based on user preferences (automated).
FAST will be configurable by Symmetrix Management console wizards or SYMCLI
FAST configurable by Clariion Naviseccli and installed on a host connected to Clariion, Host software called FAST LUN Migrator.
FAST configurable by Rainfinity File Management Appliance GUI or CLI for Celerra NS out-of-box data movement. This enables the Celerra to move data to
another Celerra or Centera or Atmos.
FAST configurable by Rainfinity File Management / VE (Virtual Appliance) for Celerra NS in-the-box data movement.
FAST can be installed non-disruptively on all platforms.
FAST will operate both at an FBA and CKD level supporting open systems and mainframes for V-Max.
FAST will operate at a LUN level on Symmetrix V-Max
FAST will operate at a LUN level on Clariion CX4
FAST will operate at a file level on Celerra NS
FAST v1 users will be able to purchase a FAST v2 upgrade when its released in second half of 2010.
FAST can be purchased as a FAST suite or part of an ATSM (Advanced Tiering Storage Management) suite with bundled discounting prices.
For a unified storage system like a front end NAS (Celerra) with a backend SAN (Clariion), FAST can coexists at both levels. But it is not recommended to deploy
FAST at a Celerra LUN level.
FAST integrates with Symmetrix Management Console and with Rainfinity GUI (Celerra) for simple management. Though Clariion implementation will need one to
specialize in CLI.
..
..
FAST data movement on supported platforms (Symmetrix V-Max, Clariion CX4 and Celerra NS).

Symmetrix V-Max Data Movement

Clariion CX4 Data Movement

Celerra in the box data movement

Celerra in the box and out of box data movement

FAST introduction by EMC
..
..
FAST Drawbacks
Here are some drawbacks of FAST as I see it today.

Does not support Virtual provisioning. So the Virtual provisioned LUNs will not be FAST enabled. Sub-LUN expected in second half of 2010
FAST is not free and is charged based on RAW CAPACITY of the Storage Array.
FAST will only work with similar LUN types (example FBA LUNs can be migrated to FBA) and LUN sizes (9GB LUN can be migrated to a 9GB LUN) only.
FAST will require Professional Services and is not recommended for customer self implementation at least for the Clariion and the Celerra platforms. EMC is making
a claim that FAST can be self provisioned on the Symmetrix V-Max platform.
FAST works only on current generation systems like EMC V-Max Enginuity 5874, Clariion CX4 Release 29 and Celerra NS.
With Clariion CX4 and FAST implementation, requirement is to have Navisphere Analyzer.
With Celerra NS and FAST implementation, requirement is to have Rainfinity File Management /VE or Appliance.
With Symmetrix V-Max FAST implementation, requirement is to have Symmetrix Management Console (Not free any more starting with the V-Max)
For the Clariions, FAST only analyzes Fibre drives and LUN movement has to initiate from Fibre channel to FLASH or Fibre channel to SATA drives only. Movement
from FLASH to Fibre or SATA to Fibre has to be initiated manually.
A customer implementing Virtual Provisioning on Clariion CX4 and Symmetrix V-Max that is using 50% Thick Provisioning and 50% Virtual Provisioning. FAST will
not work with Virtual Provisioned LUNs. But the customer will probably pay for 100% of Storage Raw Capacity when it comes to paying for FAST either non-bundled or bundled in
an ATSM (Advanced Tiering Storage Management).
FAST does not support IBM System I platform currently.
..
..
Some real world FAST applications

vBlock

Acadia Service Model can now add granularity with offerings around on-demand resources using FAST at its core.
On Demand application and workload needs can be met for OLTP, Data Warehousing, Mainframe compute and Virtual compute using FAST driven policies.
Multi-tenancy with Private Clouds
Move high demand data on faster drives while rarely used data goes on slower drives.
Sell ITaaS based on SLAs. Higher SLAs can mean higher price. All automated processes controlled by policy.
Higher transactions typically mean low overall cost; mean higher efficiency means higher profits all achievable through FAST policy engine.
Need to see some real world implementations of FAST now. In theory and on paper, FAST looks pretty compelling but practically will it do the magic.
..
..
Some unanswered questions today

How does it prevent from LUNs jumping between Fiber, FLASH and SATA if the application has un-expected performance that day?

Manageability of FAST interfaces.

Usability of FAST interfaces.
Granular configuration policies associated with analysis.
Future upgrades.
Current implementations and how long and how effective are those.
Can you improve performance without using SSDs. Example with Fibre and SATA drives only.
With future upgrades from FAST v1 to FAST v2 what happens with current user defined policies.
Would Symcli scripts change with FAST implementation?
During lockout periods (Where Symmetrix configuration cannot change, eg before a BIN file change) would FAST still operate.
..
FAST is a bit of a new subject for me. Any experts please feel free to correct me if my understanding of FAST is incorrect at any level.
Stay tuned for a series of FAST posts over the next few days talking about various topics and how FAST plays within those areas.

After all, FAST makes a debut

December 8th, 2009Devang Panchigar2 Comments

So EMC has proved critics like me wrong and have introduced EMC FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering) as an offering in Dec 2009. There were many skeptics like me
that saw this product release being stalled because of various reasons, here.

FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering)

Truly this was one of the most awaited products of 2009 from EMC after the initial announcement by EMC back in April 2009 along with the release of Symmetrix V-Max.
I have dedicated a separate deep-dive section for EMC FAST on the StorageNerve Blog, here
Along with FAST, EMC has also introduced some new enhancements to the EMC Symmetrix V-Max, Clariion CX4 and Celerra NS platforms. Currently FAST will be available on the
above 3 platforms at debut and will provide automated storage tiering in-the-box for Symmetrix V-Max, in-the-box for Clariion CX4 and out-of-box for Celerra NS
platforms.
As expected EMC has not made this feature free but rather offers a pricing model based on bundled software. FAST will be an available feature within ATSM: Advanced Tiering
Storage Management bundle and will be charged based on RAW Capacity of the Array (Symmetrix, Clariion and Celerra)
FAST will not be supported on EMC DMX-4 and Clariion CX3. In essence FAST is only compatible withEMC Symmetrix V-Max Enginuity Microcode 5874.xxx.xxx and Clariion
CX4 Flarecode Release 29.
FAST is a software only feature and integrates with existing hardware / software on the associated platforms.
The following are some of the features FAST will support at GA on the EMC Symmetrix V-Max, Clariion CX4 and Celerra NS platforms.
EMC Symmetrix V-Max

Symmetrix V-Max Data Movement

Volume / LUN based data movement (Automated Storage Tiering) for open systems and CKD mainframe volumes.
Management of FAST through Symmetrix Management Console or SymCLI
Data Movement can be accomplished between FLASH, fibre channel and SATA drives within the V-Max platform. Data can move in any direction and on any type of
the drives based on policy.
Data movement within a single frame or serial number only.
FAST suite can be purchased as a standalone software suite but will be available at a discounted price based on a bundled option with Symmetrix Optimizer, DCP:
Dynamic Cache Partitioning and SPC: Symmetrix Priority Controls.
Symmetrix Performance Analyzer will be required for FAST to operate on Symmetrix V-Max platform. (Based on the comment from Barry Burke below, Symmetrix
Performance Analyzer is not required for FAST to operate on the Symmetrix V-Max platform.
EMC Clariion CX4

Clariion CX4 Data Movement

LUN based data movement (Automated Storage Tiering)

Management of FAST will be enabled through CLI only. Not supported as an integrated part of Navisphere today.
Will work with Flarecode Release 29 (Clariion CX4) only.
Unlike the Symmetrix, the automated data movement will only be supported between fibre channel drives to FLASH or fibre channel drives to SATA. There is no
automation related to data movement from FLASH to fibre channel or FLASH to SATA or SATA to FLASH or SATA to fibre Channel drives.
Data movement within a single frame or serial number only.
FAST suite can be purchased as a standalone software suite but will be available at a discounted price based on bundled option with Navisphere Analyzer and
NQSM: Navisphere Quality Service Manager.
Navisphere Analyzer is required for FAST to operate.
EMC Celerra platform

Celerra in the box data movement

Celerra out of box data movement

File based data movement (Automated Storage Tiering)

Management of FAST can be accomplished through Rainfinity file management appliance GUI or CLI. Customers also have an option to purchase Rainfinity File
management/VE (Virtual Appliance), which has some limitations.
Data movement can be enabled to another tier in-the-box or to another Celerra or Centera or Atmos.
Celerra FAST is most interesting as it enables out the system data movement, like to another Celerra or Centera or Atmos.
FAST suite can be purchased as a standalone software suite but will be available at a discounted price based on a bundled option with Rainfinity File Management
Appliance or Rainfinity File Management /VE.
Based on EMC heat index charts, a before and after picture of a FAST implementation would look like this.

FAST Implementation
A FAST implementation video
Here is a post, back from August 2009 on Gestalt IT describing how EMCs Unified Storage vision and federation may work. It is good to see, some of those things come to fruition
now, and at least FAST with Celerra proves it.
Stay tuned for a series of FAST posts over the next few days talking about various other topics and how FAST plays within those areas.

FAST, miles and miles away!!!

December 3rd, 2009Devang Panchigar8 Comments

Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST)

April 2009, that is when we heard about FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering). The hype around FAST is now built; we have all seen a 2 min demo of the product at Vmworld
2009. The industry, the analysts, the bloggers and EMC are all talking about it. EMC has promised this will be an exciting product and could help better integrate and federate
EMC products of the future.
But, where is FAST today?
Initially FAST v1 was set to release late Q3 or early Q4. We are almost at the end of Q4. The announcement of FAST came in April 2009 with the release of EMC Symmetrix V-Max
systems. The product was announced pre GA. Here is a blog post by Barry Burke (FAST: Fully Automated Storage Tiering) indicating a Q4 release date, but after all FAST is
nowhere to be found.
It seems FAST probably got shuffled somewhere in the scheduling, product marketing, technology design and development or ?. A product talked about, written about but rather
un-visible at this point. Here is a blog post from Chuck Hollis (Peering into the Storage Crystal Ball) indicating FAST v1 may now not be available until early 2010.
With a 2010 GA date, FAST will be a 9 to 11 month early announcement product technology that was sold and is being sold with the V-Max without an actual product.
FAST v1 will be available for the Symmetrix V-Max platform and then eventually for the Clariion and Celerra platforms. FAST v2 is due to be released in late Q2 2010.
Is EMC trying to bring some additional functionality from FAST v2 to FAST v1 since current test customers are probably not excited about FAST v1. It seems everyone in the
industry is looking forward to FAST v2 and the features it may bring together with it. At this point, there is really a lack of excitement around FAST v1. Is FAST in any sort of legal
battle today, which is causing additional delays, Chris Evans at The Storage Architect Blog has discussed the topic in the past.
At this point is FAST v1 something that should eventually be combined with FAST v2 before GA. Question remains, do we really need FAST v1 at this stage or can we wait for
FAST v2. Will organizations skip the implementation of FAST v1 and directly go to FAST v2. Is the product being delayed intentionally, so the gap between FAST v1 and FAST v2
implementation becomes narrow and customers can rather jump to FAST v2 without FAST v1.
Well anyways, FAST is now over-over-due, 8 months into the announcement, but no product. Along with FAST v1 in early 2010, we will see a new version of Enginuity Code for
the Symmetrix V-Max and some other expected enhancements around V-Max.
..
..
Some interesting links to dig more about FAST technology and its functionality.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/22/emc_fast/
http://gestaltit.com/all/tech/storage/stephen/emc-vmax-fast-coming-december/
http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/Peeling_the_Onion_on_EMCs_VMax
http://storagenerve.com/2009/10/20/policy-policy-policy/
http://gestaltit.com/featured/top/gestalt/emc-unified-platform-storage-tiering/
Note: The dates in this blog post are totally based on announcements happened so far and future time lines are based on some industry buzz around FAST. Its impossible to know
the exact dates of any product releases without an NDA.
Page 1 of 212
RSS

Email feedTwitter

About

LinkedIn

GestaltIT

Popular Posts (Today)

EMC Symmetrix DMX-4 and Symmetrix V-Max: Basic Differencesposted on June

Clariion Basics: DAE, DPE, SPE, Drives, Naming Conventions and Backend Architecture posted on January

EMC Clariion FLARE Code Operating Environmentposted on January

EMC SRDF Basicsposted on December

EMC Symmetrix: Calculations for Heads, Tracks, Cylinders, GBposted on March

EMC Symmetrix / DMX SRDF Setupposted on January

EMC Symmetrix Enginuity Operating Environmentposted on December

HPs RAID 6 (ADG Advanced Data Guarding)posted on February

EMC Symmetrix: VCMDB and ACLXposted on March

Clariion SPCollects for CX, CX3, CX4