For use w/ a VNX, the following are recommended:

VSI Uniifed Storage Management

VSI Storage Viewer

The other VSI features are more applicable to ESD based arrays (VMAX, etc). VSI Storage Pool Management, for example, is used for provisioning storage ONLY on ESD arrays (VMAX, etc).

The Unified Storage Management feature has a separate wizard framework for provisioning USD-based arrays (the VNX family).

Please send copy of your USM (unified storage mgmt) feature logs to nastoolsupport@emc.com and we will review and get back to you on the issue along w/ possible resolution.

Thanks,

Ken

Ken, thanks for the clarification. My question is if I want to use VSI to manage VMAX, should I install VSI storage Viewer. I assume it's not a must, but will it work on ESD arrays? Also are all these tools installed on vSphere client side? Thanks.

vsi is install on the vclient that will manage the storage not on every host or every esxi. just install on your notebook/pc that manage the environment.

are you install the vsi on windows 7/windows 2008? then run as administrator will do the trick

i use almost all vsi in our environment vsi usm and storage viewer 5.1 is cool plugins for vmware to monitor the iops performance on datastore. path management is usefull for changing the path. imagine you change the path on each host for each datastore for 20 host and 20 datastore then it will take ages, better using path management plugins for that job.

jingyi,

Yes, Storage Viewer does support VMAX arrays as well as VNX. For use on VMAX, you would want to install:

Storage Viewer

Storage Pool Manager

Path Management

and if you are using SRDF and/or SRDF along w/ SRM then also install:

SRA Utilities

Ken

I'm kind of curious about VSI might be competiting against ControlCenter because we are giving VSI out for free. If a customer only has VMAX/VNX/ESX environment. They can use SMC/Unisphere/VSI and native switch management software to manage the whole environment. I can't see there is a special reason to purchase ControlCenter.

ControlCenter does so much more than just simple provisioning (performance collection, call-home, reporting). It's like comparing apples and oranges

jingyi,

VSI should be installed on the workstation/server where you are running vSphere client to manage vCenter.

Storage Viewer is not required for use w/ ESD arrays, but I would highly recommend it. Storage Viewer will provde you more details on the storage that makes up your virtual disks than vSphere/vCenter alone. Storage Viewer will map a VM's storage all the way back to the storage array and then further to the actual disks and shelf. This can be very help ful information for layout design, troubleshooting, etc.

Ken

dynamox and jingyi,

comparing VSI to Control Center or Unisphere is comparing apples to oranges but not for the functions provided, rather it is the intended target audience of the tool that is apples and oranges.

Control Center and Unisphere are both targeted at the Storage Administrator, whereas VSI is targeted solely at the VMadmin who also wants some ability to manage the storage in their virtual environment. VSI makes no attempt at duplicating function, feature, etc of Control Center or Unisphere - these tools provide all the desired ability for a Storage Admin to completly manage the storage array.

Likewise my team, Partner Integrated Engineering, also makes a similar tool to VSI , known as ESI. ESI is for use in Microsoft environments and provides for the MS server admins ability to automatically provision in a MS cluster environment and even has direct integration with Sharepoint such that a MS admin can provision all the storage for Sharepoint and have all the necessary db's built, etc in just a few clicks within the same pane of glass....

let me know if you would like more info on either VSI or ESI. ESI should be available on Powerlink, let me know if that is not the case.

Thanks,

Ken