EMC FAST Sub-LUN

Question

Hi, I work for an EMC partner selling into the mid-market. I think that the FAST Sub-LUN technology is game changing in terms of how we sell storage arrays moving forward. Currently though as far as I am aware there are two problems: 1. How do we size for FAST Sub-LUN? I attended EMC World back in May and discussed this point with many EMC engineers and the feedback was that by launch there would be tools available. As far as I am aware there are no tools so this puts us in a difficult position as we have no 'scientific' way of determining how much EFD, FC and SATA storage we need. I was hoping by now we would have tools to analyze: 1. Navisphere Analyzer 2. VMware Capacity Planner (granularity would be at the server level, but this is better than nothing) 3. VMware vCenter performance metrics (granularity would be at the VM level, but this is better than nothing) 4. 3rd party tools (i.e. PerfMon, storage array analysis tools, ...) 5. Rule of thumb (i.e. based on what has been seen across a reasonable sample of customers) 2. FAST Sub-LUN is not supported on Celerra file systems It was suggested at EMC World that we would get this by the end of 2010, but the sooner the better as far as I am concerned, as this is not ideal from a customer's point of view. On the subject of sizing are there any guidelines in terms of sizing CIFS file systems? I have always worked on 0.1 IOPS per user, but there must something a bit more scientific than this. Any advise would be much appreciated. Many thanks Mark

Allen Ward · Answer

Hey Mark, I recently worked with our EMC account team to get a recommendation for FAST v2 implementation sizing and they were able to use a tool that used our Analyzer NAR files from the existing arrays to come up with a recommendation for drive size/count/distribution. I'm not sure if this is available to partners yet, but I know that EMC has it themselves.

MARKBURGESSSNS · Answer

Hi Allen,

Thanks for the update.

Clearly it is essential that partners have access to these tools otherwise it is impossible to size solutions with any degree of accuracy.

Do you know who we should talk to about this?

Alternatively can you escalate this internally so we can get the tools and white-papers released on Powerlink for partners.

Many thanks

Mark

Allen Ward · Answer

Mark, I'm afraid I can't help with that part. I'm a customer, not a partner or employee. The resources I have access to have nothing to do with the partner channel.

BRUSRodr · Answer

Hi Mark, I agree of course that this tools should be available for partners. I'm one of your partners.

I am quite now in a situation where I need to implement FAST in a new project and I have no clue idea how I can do this...

Is there in between any tool available ?

I have some doubt on the concept of FAST2...is it still a combination of host-based tools (Analyzer ?) and array-based tools ?

Or is all, from Flare30, arunning on the CX4 array ?

If you have any idea how I can handle this, thank you for your feedback.

Regards.

Jacky

Rainer_EMC · Answer

Hi Jacky, FAST2 is completely Flare based and automatic - it doesn't use Analyzer. You can find the details in the white paper on Powerlink. Rainer

BRUSRodr · Answer

Thank you Rainer. I will first read the papers, then if needed call my EMC technical contact. Regards. Santiago

BRUSRodr · Answer

Thanks Rainer. Santiago

Rainer_EMC · Answer

For sizing I suggest you work directly with your local EMC technical contact - they can give you recommendations based on your workload or application.

BRUSRodr · Answer

Thank you Rainer. Good news. I will have a look at the papers. Regards. Jacky

DaveZ1 · Answer

RE:

1. How do we size for FAST Sub-LUN?

as below, it is true that Flare will auto-manage for you. But determining the composition of the tiers beforehand does take some analytical work to make it most efficient.

We've got tools coming out this quarter that will allow you to take existing workloads and analyze them for FAST. To get access to these, you'll need to take advantage of PMAP, which is our access program for partners to get Unified performance data. That program is being realigned to make it more accessible - so stay tuned and contact EMC via your partner rep at emc. You will be required to take some courses and beyond that, pass an extensive test, but it's the same one our own people must take for the same level of access.

BRUSRodr · Answer

Thanks for the update, David. I'll check with my EMC representative. Regards. Jacky

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