Comments on: Republished: FlexClones or Deduplication? http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/07/03/republished-flexclones-or-deduplication/ The weblog of an IT pro specializing in virtualization, storage, and servers Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:13:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: StickerShock http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/07/03/republished-flexclones-or-deduplication/comment-page-1/#comment-45657 StickerShock Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:20:08 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/?p=1438#comment-45657 FlexClone sounds great and all, but I just received a quote FlexClone licenses for 2 x N5600 filers and it is coming in at $25K PER FILER. And I have another two filers at my DR site. Ouch!! FlexClone sounds great and all, but I just received a quote FlexClone licenses for 2 x N5600 filers and it is coming in at $25K PER FILER. And I have another two filers at my DR site.

Ouch!!

]]> By: Jim Taylor http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/07/03/republished-flexclones-or-deduplication/comment-page-1/#comment-45092 Jim Taylor Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:57:12 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/?p=1438#comment-45092 Eric, Great job on the present version of RCU. Rich B and I went thru it while I was visiting NetApp for the national SE Tech Update a few weeks ago. Now that you tempt us with the existence of a new version, Partners get dibs right? ; ) T/C Jim Taylor Senior Systems Engineer ePlus Eric,
Great job on the present version of RCU.
Rich B and I went thru it while I was visiting NetApp for the national SE Tech Update a few weeks ago.

Now that you tempt us with the existence of a new version, Partners get dibs right? ; )

T/C

Jim Taylor
Senior Systems Engineer
ePlus

]]> By: Eric Forgette http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/07/03/republished-flexclones-or-deduplication/comment-page-1/#comment-45091 Eric Forgette Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:28:59 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/?p=1438#comment-45091 Hi Scott, Thanks for the author's note regarding RCU. I would like to clarify though, RCU addresses *ALL* the issues you brought up. I'm not being defensive (thought I am on the team that develops the RCU), I bring this up because the issues you noted were some of the things we set out to address very early on. VMware has provided a rich API which we are able to leverage to provide our customers a truly integrated solution. The next version of RCU (with more cool features) will be out soon... That was my attempt at marketing a free product. ;-) Seriously, with regard to 'FlexClones versus Deduplication', you should (with RCU or your own scripts) be able to leverage both. FlexClone will save you time and capacity when you deploy and Deduplication will continue to save you capacity over the life of the VM/Datastore. Cheers, -Eric Eric Forgette Software Engineer NetApp Hi Scott,
Thanks for the author’s note regarding RCU. I would like to clarify though, RCU addresses *ALL* the issues you brought up. I’m not being defensive (thought I am on the team that develops the RCU), I bring this up because the issues you noted were some of the things we set out to address very early on. VMware has provided a rich API which we are able to leverage to provide our customers a truly integrated solution.

The next version of RCU (with more cool features) will be out soon…
That was my attempt at marketing a free product. ;-)

Seriously, with regard to ‘FlexClones versus Deduplication’, you should (with RCU or your own scripts) be able to leverage both. FlexClone will save you time and capacity when you deploy and Deduplication will continue to save you capacity over the life of the VM/Datastore.

Cheers,
-Eric
Eric Forgette
Software Engineer
NetApp

]]> By: Alex Miroshnichenko http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/07/03/republished-flexclones-or-deduplication/comment-page-1/#comment-45076 Alex Miroshnichenko Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:04:58 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/?p=1438#comment-45076 Scott, You are right about the problems with integrating array based storage services with hypervisor operations. The problem with data dedup is that it requires a significant processing power inside the array in order to keep latencies to a minimum level suitable for online storage. Any device capable of such processing would be very expensive – and the practice confirms it. Similar considerations apply to FlexClone functionality - we all know that NetApp is not an inexpensive solution. I think there is a lot to be said about a software only implementation of FlexClone like functionality which would be totally storage vendor independent and would allow customers to freely mix different storage devices in the same system. Of course such software solution has to done right not to break performance. Alex. Scott,

You are right about the problems with integrating array based storage services with hypervisor operations.

The problem with data dedup is that it requires a significant processing power inside the array in order to keep latencies to a minimum level suitable for online storage. Any device capable of such processing would be very expensive – and the practice confirms it. Similar considerations apply to FlexClone functionality – we all know that NetApp is not an inexpensive solution.

I think there is a lot to be said about a software only implementation of FlexClone like functionality which would be totally storage vendor independent and would allow customers to freely mix different storage devices in the same system. Of course such software solution has to done right not to break performance.

Alex.

]]> By: MThibert http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/07/03/republished-flexclones-or-deduplication/comment-page-1/#comment-45068 MThibert Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:29:10 +0000 http://blog.scottlowe.org/?p=1438#comment-45068 Flexclone has a seamless integration with VMWare SRM. It gives the ability to test your DR without breaking your replication and without using more space (4k Blocks changes only) Flexclone has a seamless integration with VMWare SRM. It gives the ability to test your DR without breaking your replication and without using more space (4k Blocks changes only)

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