Managing storage for virtual environments: A complete guide
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Article
Hyper-converged systems package hypervisor, storage together
A hyper-converged infrastructure product includes storage, servers and networking in nodes and could make virtual server storage provisioning a bit easier. Read Now
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Top VM storage options available today
Providing capacity for a virtual environment doesn't have to stop at SAN or NAS – today's options include everything from traditional arrays, to cloud, to virtual storage products. Read Now
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Converged infrastructure can take the pain out of VM provisioning
Converged infrastructure options pre-configure storage and server components to make installation easier on the administrator. Read Now
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Cloud storage offers low cost VM storage option
Cloud infrastructures offer benefits such as the ability to quickly scale up or down, easy setup and a flexible architecture. Read Now
Editor's note
Managing storage for virtual environments can be a difficult task. Virtualizing servers requires storage administrators to understand both the storage and the virtualization infrastructure. Furthermore, virtualization randomizes sequential I/O, which can cause a lag in performance. This makes the ability to properly size storage and report storage statistics for virtual environments critical to the efficiency of the infrastructure.
Performance monitoring, for example, can help administrators pinpoint the location of a host of problems, while using the right management tools for aspects such as capacity planning can help alleviate those pain points before they even happen. Meanwhile, best practices for managing storage in virtual environments can vary depending on the hypervisor, many of which have their own built-in management capabilities.
There is also storage hardware and software technology still new to the market that aims to make management of virtual server environments even easier. Products like VM-aware storage are built specifically to close the gap between the storage and hypervisor, while hyper-converged infrastructures ease installation by packaging the hypervisor and storage in one box.
To help you determine the best way to proceed with data storage management in your virtual environment, we've compiled some best practices, including an overview of storage technologies for VMs, top storage management tools and advice based on an environment's hypervisor type.
1Managing storage for virtual environments: Best practices
Among the difficulties storage administrators can encounter when managing storage for virtual environments are capacity and bottleneck issues. The following tips and best practices can help work around these challenges and run a more efficient virtual infrastructure.
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Best methods for improving storage for virtual environments
Virtual server storage operations can have a profound effect on the storage network. Here are 10 ways to help ensure that your storage yields its best I/O for the virtual machines (VMs) it supports. Read Now
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Using VM images to simplify provisioning
By creating images of a virtual machine, a storage administrator can automate some of the management and deployment tasks in a virtual environment. Read Now
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How to recover-in-place from a backup VM
When using recovery-in-place in a virtual environment, there are two main steps in failing back to the primary VM. Read Now
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Be aware of flash wear in virtual environments
Features such as deduplication and caching, which are essential to performance in a virtual environment, can also cause more wear on flash storage. Read Now
2Top tools for virtual server storage management
When it comes to storage capacity and performance in virtual environments, storage administrators have a number of choices available to them. Some tools, such as those for automated tiering or deduplication, might be built into the storage itself and can help maintain top-notch performance. And there are third-party vendor tools that can provide reports on a per-VM basis. The links below provide examples of some of the most helpful tools available from a variety of vendors.
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How storage capacity planning tools work in virtual environments
Because virtual servers are easy to create, delete and move, and their storage needs grow rapidly and unexpectedly, you need to stay on top of storage capacity planning issues. Read Now
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Using specialized tools for managing storage for virtual environments
Virtualization and storage management still present challenges, but nowadays server virtualization provides tighter integration and more effective management tools. Read Now
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Software, application integration alter virtual machine management
Learn how resource management tools and network and application integration help managers reduce complexity when supporting a large number of VMs. Read Now
3Using performance metrics to enhance storage for virtual environments
Performance monitoring is an essential aspect of managing storage for virtual environments. Recently, more storage performance monitoring tools designed specifically for virtual server environments have been hitting the market. These tools can report statistics on a per-VM or per-application basis to help administrators avoid performance problems or easily locate them. The content that follows outlines some of the different performance monitoring approaches for virtual environments.
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Avoid these four performance-stealing mistakes
There are simple settings in any given virtual environment that can put a strain on performance just by being activated. Read Now
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Performance monitoring for virtual server storage takes application approach
Storage performance monitoring is moving from siloed tools toward overall system-health offerings. But some proven tools are needed in complex virtual environments. Read Now
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The hypervisor's impact on storage performance
It's not always the storage that puts a wrench in performance of your virtual environment -- the hypervisor could be what's causing the I/O blender effect. Read Now
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Tools used to monitor the performance of storage for virtual environments
Storage performance monitoring ensures you're warned of low storage capacity and that you’re up to date on storage usage trends for virtual environments. Read Now
4Hypervisor-specific data storage management
The latest versions of VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V added new management features and also made improvements to existing ones. From the content below, learn what management features the various hypervisors provide and how to best work with them.
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Storage management updates in vSphere 6
Feature upgrades in VMware vSphere 6 include vMotion, high availability, data protection and replication. Read Now
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VMware VVOLs provide easier VM allocation
VVOLs are a new feature in VMware that allow administrators greater control over capacity and resources devoted to individual virtual machines. Read Now
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Managing storage in Hyper-V and vSphere
Find out how storage management differs between VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V implementations. Read Now
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Best practices for managing storage in a virtual Citrix environment
In this podcast, find out how Citrix XenServer storage management functionality compares with other virtual environments. Listen Now
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Understanding storage management with vSphere 5 implementations
VMware vSphere 5 storage enhancements include the vSphere Storage Appliance, expansion of the file system and increased integration with VMware vSphere Storage APIs for Storage Awareness. Read Now