EVO:RAIL features

Hi,
what about comparison evo:rail with simplivity or nutanix ?
What about the features like dedup, data protection over wan and so on. Are there some information already?
Regards,
Rob

Don't really want to get into comparison at this stage - as I feel fundmentally the architecture and business model for EVO:RAIL is very different from other hyper-converged systems. Notice how I said different, not better or worse. I've got a great respect for the folks at Nutanix and Simplivity, and don't feel its far to produce an apples to oranges comparison. It would like comparing motorcycle to car, and pointing out to everyone that one of the major limitation of the motorcycle is that only has two wheels...
EVO:RAIL in the current release is targetting the SMB/ROBO/VDI markets with hardware from wide range of vendors - in away that we hope will create a market place for the technology. Fundmentally, VMware is software company and remains so - all we have done is empowered new vendors to the market. So I hope it increases competition, which in the long run will only benefit customers as whole...
EVO:RAIL is based on the products in your DC that have been around for 10years - vCenter, ESX - clearly Virtual SAN and Log Insight are new to the party. The big advantage to me of this is - is you have a model that's 100% VMware, with a very simple and easy upgrade process - an upgrade process that's shares the self same cadences as the vSphere product. So they won't be an jive between the version of vSphere used by regular customers, and those who go the EVO:RAIL. Remember EVO:RAIL doesn't have a "controller" node like so many hyper-converged vendors do, its built into the ESX vmkernel....
The joke/irony I've been point out this week - is although we have a "converged" marketplace - the various vendors haven't converged on the same solution - either architecturally or from a business model perspective....

Similar Messages

EVO:RAIL - Use Cases?

I think as soon as the world becomes aware of EVO:RAIL then folks will start asking what the use cases are. It's clear that there are couple of immediate use cases, but I'm betting that customers will bring to the table applications that perhaps we hadn't considered. The other night I was our Tech Summit event (its private event for VMware SE/TAMs to attend prior to VMworld to get them up to speed on what the announcements are all about), and I was approached by a number of SE/TAMs who are interested in running EVO:RAIL in the basements and garages as the foundation to their homelabs. Even with the onsite of Cloud - and we have an internal cloud that SE/TAMs can use demo products to customers - just like the VMware Community they still have a passion for building out their own demos, just how they like them - that they can tailor make to handle customer questions that come up. I'm the same, despite being at VMware for 2+ years, I'm still running my own gear at home. It just worked out more cost effective form my needs than keeping my 42U rack at a colo.
I doubt that my might the "WAF" would apply to having a 4U box with 4 nodes inside it - in the spare bedroom. So I'm already looking at running EVO:RAIL in a nested configuration on my home lab gear for testing, videos and demos to customers. That work has already been done for the VMworld HoL, by William Lam (the undisputed king of nested ESX, well, perhaps Simon Gallagher comes close!) - who's done some excellent work on this already. So hopefully it won't take much work to get hold of the bits from the HoL, and pump the lastest build of EVO:RAIL into it...
Anyway, I digress use cases. It's clear that ROBO, SMB and VDI are the top use cases - situations where an appliance like model, with zero configuration (almost!) is needed. I think we perhaps be a bit careful with the SMB use case. EVO:RAIL is 4xNodes in a 4U configuration with each node presenting 192GB of RAM. One thing I've always been concerned with is how variable "SMB" is as term. Over here in a the US an SMB would be classed as company with <1000 employees. Over here in Europe, that would be regarded as still quite large for an SMB.. The same goes ROBO. So I guess what I'm saying is size is relative, and so we have to be careful when use terms like "small".
Folks who know me will know that I'm a big fan of VMware Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication - having written books about the version 1.0, 40 and 5.0 versions. I think there's use case where an EVO:RAIL is put into some colocation facilitiy and used as DR target. The important thing to remember about EVO:RAIL as its based on vSphere 5.5 U2, other products in the vCloud Suite family will work with it - like SRM, View, vCloud Director or vCAC... So its not some special "moded" version of the platform. Perhaps a better model for DR and EVO:RAIL is to run VR locally on it, and use vCloud Air as the target for recovery...? I guess we have to ask the question what's going to be more popular/easier. Two site with EVO:RAIL at either end, or EVO:RAIL enabled for DR to the cloud. Just to be clear. That isn't baked into EVO:RAIL today, I'm just blue sky thinking about the possibilities in the future.
So what do folks think here? Can you dream up any other scenarios where an EVO:RAIL would be good fit...?

You make some valid points there, but there's a couple of things that are worth clarifying....
Firstly, EVO:RAIL is pre-installed at factory. So really the only "installation" is racking up, and connecting to the TOR. In fact I think an EVO:RAIL is easier to setup that a VSA is, and gives more usable disk space, and lower cost per gigabyte..
IF the customer has given the OEM the IPs, IP Ranges, Hostnames, and Passwords - then it literally is a 15min setup after clicking "Build Appliance". On the other hand if the customer wants to customize the EVO:RAIL prior to build - such as changing the VLANs Tags (That they supplied) that would add a couple of minutes...
vDS is NOT a prequistie. EVO:RAIL uses standard switches... Although an EVO:RAIL is licensed for Enterprize Plus. There's no requirement to configure a Distributed Switches.
The real "asks" here is the customer needs 10Gb switch - I think its fair to say that isn't common in SMB/ROBO environment. I suspect many of the OEMs will be asking the customer to validate their switch configuation. Multicast for IPv4/IPv6 is used by the "Zero Network Configuation" on the management/VSAN networks. As the name suggest no configuration is required on the EVO:RAIL, its used as part of the discovery process for finding the nodes, and finding new appliances. One most switches this tick off box option on the switch for the VLANs that require it...
Anyone of my plans is to order an EVO:RAIL from one of our suppliers just like a customer would, and document/record that process. So i can get a feel for a real world customer experience would be. In fact I might see if my wife, Carmel can set it up... :-)

Renaming default Datacenter, Cluster, and Datastore object names in EVO:RAIL

Hello,
The Datacenter, Cluster, and vSAN Datastore objects in my newly-installed EVO:RAIL appliance all default to a label of "MARVIN-...". Is it safe to rename these labels appropriate to my environment, such as a geographic location for my Datacenter object? I suspect that it is okay because the underlying UID will not change, but am looking for confirmation from someone who has successfully done this in a lab or production environment and who has also been successful in applying EVO:RAIL patches afterward.
Thanks in advance.

Just to close the loop, I successfully renamed the datacenter, cluster, and vSAN objects in vCenter Server.
I kept a close watch on Log Insight at each step, and did log one error that I found suspicious following the object rename of the vSAN datastore:
2015-01-29T19:03:27.158Z <My 4th Host's FQDN> Hostd: [783C2B70 info 'DiskLib'] DISKLIB-LINK :DiskLinkGetSpaceUsedInfo: Failed to get the file system unique id for file vsan://118eb054-f123-469a-d542-XXXXXXXXXXXX, using id as "remote"
Where in my case the 4th host happens to currently be the HA master. I'm guessing this was just a transient error as it hasn't reappeared in the last 30 minutes, but I'll keep an eye out for it. There was no corresponding error viewed in vCenter Server, and I seem to be able to refresh the vSAN storage counter without issue.
Thanks again.

VMware EVO Rail includes VSAN ? Is it a new Licence model

There is a new vmware discussion forum for Evo rail. EVo Rail includes VSAN.
https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/evorail
Is it a new licence model , when the licence are bought new?
Is the gui different to the existent?

An EVO:RAIL appliance comes with:
8 licenses: vSphere 5.5 Enterprise +
vCenter Server
8 license: Virtual SAN
Log Insight licensed for all components
3 years of SNS
I hope that helps. Note that this is an appliance model, so HW+SW+Maintenance/Support.

EVO:Rail as stretched Cluster?

Hi all,
has anyone found information about the max. distance or RTT between the EVO appliances?
Or what about using EVO:Rail as stretched cluster - any thought's.
rgds
Tom

Just to 100% clear. EVO:RAIL deploys the standard edition of Virtual SAN - which specific does not support stretched clustered deployments where the storage available is across one network, across two sites...
EVO:RAIL requires 10Gps local networking to the appliance, and between the appliances in scaled-out scenario...
I hope that answers your question - keep them coming...
Regards
MIke

EVO RAIL

Where we get the online LAB to implement and work on EVO RAIL technology

Hi there - this is the URL you are looking for:
http://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalogs/lab/1724
Regards
Mike

Evo Rail Lab

How think about the lab HOL-SDC-1428: VMware EVO: RAIL Introduction?

Sorry - I'm not sure I understand this post. Is it a question?

EVO:RAIL and VSAN

Are there VSAN benchmarks on EVO:RAIL compared with traditional server based VSAN?

Sorry, I'm a bit confused about the question - you mean a comparison between EVO:RAIL and VMware Virtual SAN - or do you mean benchmarks between EVO:RAIL/VSAN - and conventional Storage Array connected over ethernet (iSCIS/NFS) or FC block storage?
For VSAN there's been a number of articles about performance which you might find useful - one caveat. In this release EVO:RAIL supports 16 nodes per cluster whereas Virtual SAN supports 32-nodes per cluster - so some of the sliding scale doesn't apply...
http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2014/09/microsoft-exchange-server-shows-great-performance-vmware-virtual-san.html
http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2014/08/web-2-0-applications-vmware-virtual-san.html
http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2014/03/vdi-performance-benchmarking-vmware-virtual-san-5-5.html
My colleague Duncan Epping has written extensively on some of the considerations around VSAN:
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2013/11/14/vsan-performance-many-sas-low-capacity-vs-sata-high-capacity/
and there's been some independent work too:
http://www.storagereview.com/vmware_vsan_posts_2_million_iops

EVO:RAIL Management Page not loging...

1. EVO:RAIL Configration 100% completed.
2. EVO:RAIL Management Page Connecting..( https://IP: 7443 )
3. Go login..
4. loading...loading...loading...loading...loading...loading...............................
Does not proceed from loading page...
What is the problem?...

Thanks for the log. It told me that you are using EVO:RAIL 1.0.1 release and based on your screenshot you are using either the browser that's set into one of either Chinese or Korean languages (sorry I can't tell). In 1.0.1 release, we had a known problem when EVO UI would set to use one of such languages, we would not be able to login into the UI (exactly the issue you are seeing). The fix for this problem would be to upgrade to 1.0.2 release using the bits from VMW's download site (https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?productId=442&downloadGroup=EVORAIL1_0_2). You would need to login to the EVO:RAIL UI using English setting (https://<ip>:7443/manage?lang=en) and perform the update to both EVO:RAIL rpm and offline bundle.
Ping us back if you have any problems getting through this and we can walk you upgrade process in another way if needed.
@Mike: the appliance is from Dell (with a very weird appliance ID - most likely from engineering samples)
Biteksystem: Are you evaluating this appliance or have you purchased it this way? Thanks.

EVO:Rail Training

For EVO:Rail to succeed vmware must make sure the availability of training for the same and not depend upon its hardware partners for Training.
Most of the hardware mentioned don't have a great track record in Training.
Vmware can also add a EVO:Rail Training Module in VSAN Deploy and Manage course.
Non Availability of the training was one of the reason that vmware VSA failed to get traction in the market.

You make some valid points there, but there's a couple of things that are worth clarifying....
Firstly, EVO:RAIL is pre-installed at factory. So really the only "installation" is racking up, and connecting to the TOR. In fact I think an EVO:RAIL is easier to setup that a VSA is, and gives more usable disk space, and lower cost per gigabyte..
IF the customer has given the OEM the IPs, IP Ranges, Hostnames, and Passwords - then it literally is a 15min setup after clicking "Build Appliance". On the other hand if the customer wants to customize the EVO:RAIL prior to build - such as changing the VLANs Tags (That they supplied) that would add a couple of minutes...
vDS is NOT a prequistie. EVO:RAIL uses standard switches... Although an EVO:RAIL is licensed for Enterprize Plus. There's no requirement to configure a Distributed Switches.
The real "asks" here is the customer needs 10Gb switch - I think its fair to say that isn't common in SMB/ROBO environment. I suspect many of the OEMs will be asking the customer to validate their switch configuation. Multicast for IPv4/IPv6 is used by the "Zero Network Configuation" on the management/VSAN networks. As the name suggest no configuration is required on the EVO:RAIL, its used as part of the discovery process for finding the nodes, and finding new appliances. One most switches this tick off box option on the switch for the VLANs that require it...
Anyone of my plans is to order an EVO:RAIL from one of our suppliers just like a customer would, and document/record that process. So i can get a feel for a real world customer experience would be. In fact I might see if my wife, Carmel can set it up... :-)

Re: Configure EVO:RAIL .. The Validation process was not successful...

I had a look at your log file - and i'm seeing loads of
05-Mar 18:14:25 WARN ConfigurationServiceImpl:152 - Configuration does not validate (CURSORY): ConfigurationValidation{normalValidationFieldErrors={passwords.vcPassword=올바른 암호가 아닙니다., passwords.esxiPassword=올바른 암호가 아닙니다., vendor.ovfs=EVO:RAIL에서 필요한 QEP 제공 솔루션을 찾을 수 없습니다. ESXi 호스트와 통신할 수 없기 때문일 수 있습니다.}, thoroughValidationFieldErrors={}}.
You need a password that meets SSO requirements for complexity...
These are:
–8 and 20 characters, one uppercase, one lowercase, and one special character. It cannot have any character repeated 3 times in a row)
So VMware1! would be a valid password
Not sure if this is your problem but it stood out immediately...
Regards
Mike

The password is not a problem. ㅠㅠ
What is the vCenter Server on by JSON file ESXi Server is a method that is configured?
Architecture consisting of a ESXi Server by vCenter JSON File...?
what are links in the vCenter Server and ESXi Server?
In the log.
Finding VC UUID ...
06-Mar 18:04:58 INFO HostDiscoveryServiceImpl: 115 - Found: 564d1ed5-70ff-a538-efee-0293e3093ea4
06-Mar 18:04:58 INFO HostDiscoveryServiceImpl: 118 - Finding primary host to extract asset tag ...
06-Mar 18:04:58 WARN HostDiscoveryServiceImpl: 121 - No primary host found!
06-Mar 18:04:58 WARN InitialHostDiscoveryJob: 71 - No initial hosts found.
Why "No primary host found!" ?? ㅠㅠ

SDDC-In-A-Box in Freedom of Choice

Wondering If there is customization tool page for EVO:RAIL to build with specific vendor hardware!

Hi there,
Thanks for your question.
The way the configuration gets onto the EVO-RAIL is using .JSON file - which is text file that contains the customers VLAN, IP, IP Ranges, Hostnames - in fact all the variables that would be required to stand-up a vSphere/vCenter/ESX/VSAN/Log Insight environment.
The supported partners will collect this info, encode it into the JSON, and the ship to the customer. If the customer wants to customize the build they can do it or they can use the JSON to just go...
The configuration process and management are viewable from some videos - some our Lead Engineer made, and some that I recorded myself the other week:
http://www.mikelaverick.com/2014/08/evorail-configuration-and-management-videos

Use of NFS or iSCSI datastores

A few queries..
1. Is it possible to make use of NFS or iSCSI storage as permanent datastores for a EVO:RAIL appliance?
2. What are the choices for VSAN data protection when creating VMs inside EVO:RAIL?

>>1. Is it possible to make use of NFS or iSCSI storage as permanent datastores for a EVO:RAIL appliance?
Yes, but they have to be manually configured on each one of the nodes (just like you would have to do on a regular vSphere deployment).
>>2. What are the choices for VSAN data protection when creating VMs inside EVO:RAIL
Any vSphere solution products (such as VDP) which are supported with vSphere 5.5 and VSAN 1.0 are supported with EVO:RAIL. Same idea applies to 3rd party solution as well as long as they are deemed supported with vSphere 5.5 and VSAN 1.0.

T500 SSD Samsung Evo 840

Hi,
I have had a T500 laptop for about 4.5 years now and am looking to replace my HDD. I am concerned that it is nearing the end of its lifespan. I have been looking at replacing it with a SSD - in particular a Samsung 840 EVO (MZ-7TE250BW). I am aware that I will not achieve SATA III speeds (Seems to be SATA I or possibly II - even so it will still be an improvement from my HDD).
According to what I found, the T500 has a 2.5" 9.5mm drive bay. However, the 840 EVO is 2.5" 7.0mm. So my question is this - can the SSD be plopped in to replace the HDD, or is there some adapter kit that is needed? Would the drive need a different casing / rails? Obviously 7.0mm would fit, but I don't know if the screws / connectors would line up and if something would be needed to fill in the extra space to make the drive more secure. There is a 840 EVO package that comes with a "notebook kit" but I don't know if that would work in my T500.
Thanks,
Mark
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I just successfully installed a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB into my old T500 Vista laptop. The 850 is the successor to the 840 and was cheaper.
I'm posting this because the Data Migration package that comes with the SSD did not work for reasons that I don't understand. I was left with a "bootmgr missing" message. I will explain the work around.
Hardware wise it was a piece of cake. Look online and you can find a video of how to replace a hdd in the t500. It is simple to remove the hdd case from its slot and remove the case from the hdd with a tiny phillips screwdriver. 2.5 inch 850 EVO fits perfectly in the hdd case re-using the rubber side rails on the hdd case. Don't miss that the flexible plastic tab is folded back into the slot atop the hdd and will have to be folded out with the screwdriver.
Since the Data Migration did not work, I found reference to the Acronis Backup software working well. I just happened to have the 2012 version installed on the laptop for backup purposes!
In summary, here is what you need. Samsung SSD, external HDD to USB cable, Acronis pack with Rescue Disk.
The cable can be loose or attached to an external HDD/SSD case. The Acronis Rescue Disk you create using the Acronis package. Acronis has detailed cloning instructions on their website.
In summary, after creating the Rescue Disk (CD/DVD), power down, remove the hdd and attach it to the external cable and plug in to USB; install the SSD (blank or with trash on it; it will be scrubbed) in the laptop hdd slot, boot up with the Acronis Bootable Rescue Disk, and use the Clone Disk feature of Acronis to clone the old drive into the SSD already installed in the laptop. After cloning, remove the Rescue Disk and unplug the USB cable. Boot up normally and hold your breathe! Mine booted just fine!
Good luck!

Z87-G45 Gaming not able to install Win7 x64 with Samsung 840 EVO

I have a brand new:
i5 4570
MSI Z87-G45 Gaming
250GB Samsung 840 EVO
1x 8GB Corsair ValueRam DDR3 1600
I got everything hooked up properly, but I am not able to install Win7 x64 through an USB pen drive (Kingston Datatravel 32GB USB3) I have a proper official and Legit MSDN ISO, formatted by the Win7 USB tool from MS itself.
Note that i do not have an optical device (DVD) installed so I cannot use it 'the old way'.
Bios settings are okay, everything is recognized
USB Legacy - Kingston Datatraveler
HDD Legacy - Samsung 840 EVO
Win7 setup loads properly; but before I can select the Harddrive / SSD to install Win7 on I get prompted that additional (3rd party) drivers are needed to proceed. The volume is not recognized. This happens 9 out of 10 times. In the 10% cases I do get the option to format the SSD and/or create partitions. However, installation fails after all, cannot load or find file ...
What I've tried so far:
Switch out the SATA cables and power cables
Switch through the various SATA ports on the MB 1 through 6
Tried UEFI and UEFI/Legacy (UEFI doesn't seem to work at all)
Update UEFI to V 1.50
All the above result in the case mentioned.
I have succesfully installed the SSD in an other PC, using the same pen drive and ISO and it worked like a charme, thus ruling out that the SSD, pen drive or image is corrupt.
Even when I switched out the SSD after Win7 setup has succesfully copied, unpacked and installed all the files (doing this on the other machine where it works like a charm). Then switching it to the MSI Z87...it fails; starting the setup procedure right from the start, like nothing was ever written on the SSD...
Finally i turned to Win8, and guess what, it installed without any glitches on the MSI Z87
What am I missing here, I would really want to install Win7 instead of Win8
Forgot to enable / disable something in the UEFI? I really don't know, google doesn't give much information on this specific problem (SSD is recognized properly by the BIOS / UEFI as far as I can tell)
The only thing I have not tried out so far is updating the Samsung SSD firmware to the 1.0 version which has been release 3 days ago...
Any clues, tips, hunches??

Quote from: Bernhard on 25-October-13, 18:33:41
Did you disable Secure Boot in the BIOS? If not, then Win7 won't load.
Hmmm not sure, thanks for the reply, will have to look into that later today!
I didn't change it from the default setting I think, unless it is part of the Win8 features in the UEFI. All where disabled by default, and I kept them disabled.
Where is Secure Boot listed in the UEFI, and any idea wether it is enabled by default?
::EDIT::
Found it in some screenshots, I cannot recall from the top of my head wether it was enabled or disabled, allthough my gutt feeling says it already is disabled.
http://cdn.pcper.com/files/imagecache/article_max_width/review/2013-05-31/09-MSI_SnapShot_23.gif
http://cdn.pcper.com/files/imagecache/article_max_width/review/2013-05-31/10-MSI_SnapShot_24.gif
Nice overview of the entire UEFI btw: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Motherboards/MSI-Z87-GD65-Gaming-Motherboard-Review/BIOS-Features-continued

EVO:RAIL features

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