OnTap Select deployment on Oracle Cloud VMware Solution

[MicheleNicosia]

Good day All,

   I'm trying to understand if, given a onprem solution with the OnTap 9.x appliances sharing an SMB mount point for a VMware environment, i can PAIR the storage to a OnTap Select on a Oracle Cloud VMware Solution , which is a simple and regular unmanaged VMware Vpshere 8.x , where the customer has access like in a on-prem solution.

Of course having the possibility to extend the ontap to this environment in the cloud, completely managed by the customer, with all the data replicated using the features and capabilities from NetApp will be a major milestone to provide a DR environment, and consolidate the actual two Datacenter connected with a metrocluster IP.

I don't mind to provide a managed environment, this is not the case, but at least to be sure it is working as expected, they can use their license and the application is supported like in every virtualized environment.

Thank you.

Cheers

[elementx]

One of the tricky parts in OTS is that it (officially) support only Intel server-grade CPUs in ESXi. See the OTS docs for h/w requirements to make sure you're good h/w-wise.

I would also check the license (you can download an OTS eval), but as far as I know, there's nothing that would prevent you from legally deploying OTS on vSphere managed by you and used for your own purposes (that is, not to provide public IT services).

> I don't mind to provide a managed environment

I don't know if there's any difference whether vSphere is managed by you or not ("managed"), but if it was managed, that could be worse. If vSphere is managed by you, and OTS is yours, then the entire stack is yours.

If it's managed by a third party, they would presumably provision OTS VM for you, or at least the VMware cluster would belong to them, so maybe they would have to be the ones to license OTS, and as a Service Provider licensee maybe that would not be possible (check the OTS license).

So while you should check with NetApp or a partner, I think you may very well be in the clear here. You don't have to own the h/w and if you don't rent/resell, then that seems indistinguishable from internal on-prem use, in my opinion.

[MicheleNicosia]

Hello,

  indeed i thought asking here was likely (without any commitment) to get something from NetApp !  (At least)

But, thank you for the answer, it makes sense and i will first test the solution, then will manage the other issues.

In the meanwhile, as i believe you have had some experience on the community and the design, by chance do you know if there are available any Assets like Technical diagram , High Level Design, Draw.io or any other format for possible deployment diagrams and which show OTS on VMware?

The one in the documentation is really poor in quality...

Thank you again for your kind support.

Michele

[elementx]

NetApp employees aren't allowed to make commitments, so those of us who work at NetApp must be careful to indicate that any opinion (if we have it) is personal 🙂

I doubt many people have anything Oracle Cloud-related drawings, because so far it's been a rare ask. I don't know if the ONTAP Select icon is even available from Visio Cafe.

https://www.visiocafe.com/netapp.htm

Since ONTAP Select is just 1 simple icon, if I needed a very high quality image I'd just draw it from scratch. I usually just screenshot what I find by searching the Web.

[MicheleNicosia]

Probably i was not able to correctly express myself, sorry for that.

I just wanted to know, from Experts (beside they are NetApp's employee or not) what could be a possible solution mentally visualize a solution that i can work on for the feasibility.

Of course nobody is liable to express their own opinions, this is not the point, i'm in the early stage of conversation so i need to just check if the components are there, they are possibly usable and start putting them together on the Whiteboard.

Additionally I've just check the Pencils, which is good, but I did mean something different like a #SIMPLE# architecture, for NetAPP Ontap Select that can let me see a possible VMWare (note:VMware only, not Oracle solution) to start thinking about it.

Hopefully this is more clear!

THank you again!

[elementx · Accepted solution]

I'll let others contribute their tips if they have them and are willing to share, but there are many ways to do it, and many considerations that need to be considered before one embarks on creating a simple diagram. For example, here's a list of main considerations for SnapMirror:

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap/upgrade/special-considerations.html

You also need to consider if you may need to upgrade your on-premises system.

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap/data-protection/compatible-ontap-versions-snapmirror-concept.html

Then you need to figure out how your on-prem system and your cloud system should communicate: VPN, DIY VPN, or plain Internet.

After that comes VMware in the cloud: do you have only ONTAP-services (and which ones - NFS, iSCSI, both?) or both ONTAP and other data stores, how to configure the network to match that environment (VLANs, MTUs, etc.).

The simple answer is you probably want SnapMirror and there are simple diagrams inside.

https://www.netapp.com/media/17229-tr4015.pdf

The complicated answer is just that TR has 75 pages and there's probably another 200-300 to check (including Oracle Cloud's)... Someone with ONTAP and Oracle Cloud experience should be able to do this efficiently and quickly. After that - or as the final part of that - I'd do a PoC as well.

ONTAP Select evaluation download: https://www.netapp.com/forms/90-day-trial-of-ontap-select/