I think it's technically similar, in that both products have a pluggable architecture. But VMware exposes their multipathing APIs so that third party vendors can write their own SATPs, whereas EMC does not expose a PowerPath API for this purpose; we write our own LAMs for both EMC and third-party arrays. I'm not sure what the future plans are for increasing third party array support.
Sorry, I should have elaborated instead of just expanding the acronym PowerPath LAMs are like pluggable, optional drivers that allow PP to manage particular array types. For example, there's a Symmetrix LAM (installed by default) that allows PP to recognize Symm devices and includes the Symm-specific path policies. Likewise the Invista LAM (typically not installed by default) does the same thing for VPLEX or Invista devices. The new NetApp LAM allows PP to manage NetApp FAS2240 arrays. Prior to this version, PowerPath for Windows did not support managing NetApp devices.
Thank you Sean. So is this EMC's plan to "open" PowerPath support for more 3rd party storage vendors ? Similar to what VMware does with its pluggable storage architecture ?
ahh..i see. I am surprised more customers do not ask for more support of 3rd party arrays. I used to work in a shop where we had HDS, Symm and StorageTek all presented to the same host a once (long story why, corporate politics ) . So this was multipathing hell where each vendor had their own failover software.
So if I read this correctly, PP support is specific to the 2240?
I have a customer with a 3240, and they are currently using the NetApp DSM....we are in the process of deploying a VNX with iSCSI connectivity, and need to connect a W2K3 host....using the MS iSCSI Sw adapter....
I was advised that I had to install PP to provide the multipathing, but I am concerned how this will impact the current connectivity to the NetApp.
dynamox
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Posted January 21st, 2014 10:00
Sean,
what does it mean, will PowerPath now support that specific array ? If yes, any restrictions/limitations ?