PernixData is, as of today, the only server-side caching solution for VMware offering write-back capabilities, that is the possibility to accelerate write operations. This feature is extremely helpful in increasing performances in virtualized environments running write intensive applications like databases, mail servers and others. However, the usage of this feature requires some proper configuration in order to correctly protect VM with Veeam Backup
Why I don’t like blade servers
After the recent release of VMware VSAN, there has been a series of blog posts from some of my peers talking about the design considerations that VSAN has brought. If you read them in the order they were published, you can follow the conversation that is going on: VSAN –…
Tech
Continue Reading
Test Veeam Storage Snapshots in your lab
In a previous post, I described how you can configure a virtual proxy to access an iSCSI storage, in order to test DirectSAN backups. Veeam has an additional functionality, called Storage Snapshots, that improves even more DirectSAN backups performances when you have a supported storage. I’m going to show you in this post how you can configure it in your lab.
Tech
Continue Reading
Test DirectSAN backups without a physical Veeam server
One of the nice features of Veeam Backup & Replication, when it comes to backup speed, is the possibility to use DirectSAN as its backup method on vSphere environments. This option offers the best performances, but has some precise requirements at the hardware level. It could be easy to comply with them in a production environment, but what if you want to test it in your lab, where usually hardware options are limited? Don’t worry, there is a solution!
Tech
Continue Reading
Check the file system of your USB drive before using it as a backup target
One of the new features introduced in Veeam Backup & Replication 7.0 is the new “Backup Copy” job type. With it, an administrator can create a secondary location for his backups, without having to clone large backup files from the primary backups using tools like rsync or robocopy.
If you plan to use an external USB drive as your target for this kind of jobs, be sure to check the file system in use, before runnng into problems.
Analysis
Continue Reading
QoS: the next “Big Thing” in storage?
In the last months I talked with or looked at several storage vendors, and I saw a new topic becoming more and more important: QoS (Quality of Service). The list of vendors offering this feature (with differences in their own technologies) is becoming quite large: CloudByte, GridStore, Coho Data, SolidFire, HP 3Par, NetApp. And for sure I’m forgetting someone else.
As you can see in my short list, there are both startups that have this feature from their first release, and also big names who added QoS to their existing products. There is a new trend coming, and QoS is for sure becoming a “hot” topic in storage.
Tech
Continue Reading
PernixData in my Lab: some performance tests
Few weeks ago I published an article titled “My new “I/O Test Virtual Machine”, telling you about the VM I built to run my performance tests for virtualized environments. After a first post running those tests against my “plain” Lab and its enhanced version using another server-side caching solution, many of you asked me if I was planning to do the same tests with PernixData. So i did, and here are my findings.
Tech
Continue Reading
EFA: nice and free spam filter virtual appliance
EFA, Email Filtering Appliance, is the successor of ESVA, and is a free and powerful antispam virtual appliance. it’s free, it’s quickly installable thanks to the OVF format available for both VMware and Hyper-V environments, and it has a nice and easy web interface to administer everything.