BlueXP workload factory is an intelligent automation, management, and optimization service that implements industry best practices in the design, setu ...read more
Overview
Customers are on a fast-paced journey to constantly evolve, refine and optimize their virtualization and Hybrid Multi-cloud strategy. An integral part of the solution is to efficiently manage storage requirements across different workloads. ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere provides end-to-end life cycle management capabilities for virtual machine storage in VMware environments that use NetApp storage systems.
With the release of ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere 10.0, we made a significant pivot to deliver a next generation micro services-based appliance that enables storage consumption at scale in a vSphere-backed environment. With a focus on helping customers on their journey to build an agile virtualization platform, we are delighted to announce the general availability of ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere (OTV) 10.1.
In the initial release of OTV 10.0, we focused on demonstrating scale and availability with vVols and adapting an API-first approach. This positioned us with a strong future-proof foundational architecture to build out advanced integration capabilities. In this release, we have expanded the lifecycle management capabilities to traditional NFS, and VMFS-based datastores, introducing support for VMware Live Site Recovery (VLSR, formerly Site Recovery Manager[SRM]), and simple-to-use vCenter UI enhancements suitable for every vCenter administrator. Lastly, the administration of ONTAP tools itself has been greatly improved. This blog is aimed at providing an overview of the key product capabilities and its benefits.
Enhanced protocol coverage with NFS and VMFS Datastore Support
Based on various factors such as workload requirements, existing hardware and network topology in your datacenters; you may require file or block-based storage. To accommodate these requirements, customers can leverage ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere to provision and manage vVols, NFS, and VMFS datastore types through NFS and iSCSI protocols. Does your environment require different protocols? There's no need to worry, we will be adding more protocols in the upcoming versions.
Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) integration
Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) is now integrated as part of ONTAP tools 10 and conforms to VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) specifications. This release includes support for NFS datastores and iSCSI-based VMFS datastores. SRA workflows include failover, reprotect, and test failover commands invoked from VMware SRM. Also new is the support for VLSR shared site configurations which allow you to fan-in or fan-out your VLSR servers. You can read more about VLSR shared site configurations here https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Live-Recovery/services/vmware-live-site-recovery/GUID-BC46053B-644C-420B-BC68-B71D450711A5.html
Rich vCenter User Interface (UI) Integration Support for All Workflows
ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere 10.1 provide a rich user experience and interface for the most common workflows. You can now seamlessly manage Day-0 to Day-2 operations and extensively benefit from the following capabilities:
Manageability and Monitoring of NFS, VMFS, and vVols datastores
Storage Replication Adapter for NFS and VMFS datastores
VASA provider registration and unregistration
VAAI plug-in installation
Optimize host configuration
Enhanced Appliance Management and Administrative Operations
ONTAP tools 10.1 introduces a new and enhanced appliance administration interface called ONTAP tools Manager UI. This helps provide better control and manageability, specifically for a large fleet of vCenters, ONTAP platforms, and multi-tenant environments.
You can now leverage the ONTAP tools Manager UI page for:
Storage backend management: Add and manage ONTAP storage clusters to ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere and map them to onboarded vCenters globally.
vCenter management: Add and manage vCenters to ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere.
Analyse and troubleshoot: Collect log bundles for ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere.
Certificate management: Change the self-signed certificate to a custom CA certificate and renew or refresh all certificates.
Password management: Reset the OVA application password for the user.
Easy Deploy mode
ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere 10.1 supports a simplified deployment mode called “Easy Deploy”. In this mode, there are fewer user inputs and prerequisites needed to kick-start the deployment. This helps in quickly provisioning a single instance (without high availability) to experience a wide array of features of ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere 10.1 release.
Summary
OTV provides a unified management plane for storage lifecycle management capabilities such as provisioning, monitoring and disaster recovery capabilities. This helps you to efficiently manage the evolving storage needs in a large environments. With the newest release, ONTAP tools 10 introduces a plethora of features that simplifies Day-0-N operations. Enhanced integrations with VMware vSphere enable you to manage multiple VMware vCenters, ONTAP storage platforms and unparalleled levels of automation capabilities.
Call to action
Explore our documentation set to gain a deeper understanding of the rich capabilities
Download ONTAP tools 10.1 now and see for yourself how it can simplify storage management for vSphere, tear down silos, and boost your operational efficiency.
Best of all, there’s no cost. Full functionality is included in your ONTAP One license
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NetApp volumes added support to manage the local Administrators group of the SMB server. This article will explain what local groups are, what they are good for and how to manage them.
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StorageGRID provides several ways to encrypt your data at rest including the use of external key management servers. We have partnered with Entrust to add their KeyControl product to the lineup of supported Key management solutions for StorageGRID node encryption. KeyControl provides a highly available decentralized vault-based solution that is compliant with the Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP). This makes KeyControl an excellent option for StorageGRID. For more information on KeyControl and to try it for yourself, please visit their website. For installation and configuration instructions please read the KeyControl online documentation. You should also read through the StorageGRID documentation relating to encryption and KMS configuration.
Let’s walk through a basic implementation with a single site StorageGRID solution containing a mix of virtual appliances and a physical appliance. Only the physical appliance will be encrypted with a key from two KeyControl servers.
Once you have chosen your KeyControl deployment method and have the desired number of clustered KeyControl server installed, it is time to create a new vault.
In KeyControl, this is as simple as clicking the “Create Vault” button
Fill in the details for the vault.
Choose “KMIP” for the Type of vault
Give the vault a name
Add an optional description
Provide an admin name and email (the Email address will be the login name)
Click on the create vault button and when the vault has been created, a window will pop up containing the link to the Vault URL, username, and a randomly generated temporary password. Make sure you copy out these items as you will need them for the remaining steps.
Open the Vault URL and login with the provided credentials. You will be prompted to set a new password and log in with the new password.
Once logged into the vault click on the large Security icon in the middle. And then on Client Certificates to create the certificate bundle required to authenticate StorageGRID to the KMS.
In the Client certificate window, click on the “+” to create a new certificate.
In the Certificate creation window, provide a name for the certificate, and an expiration date. We will not have a CSR to upload and do not check the boxes for Authentication or Encryption. Click the Create button and the new certificate will be generated and appear in the Manage Client Certificate list.
Select the new certificate and click on the download button. Unzip the certificate package and you will have two .pem files: cacert.pem and certificate_name.pem. The named certificate file is a combined certificate and key that will need to be separated out into individual files with the Key text (highlighted in blue) as a new file named certificate_name.key. The “Bag Attributes” and “Key Attributes” sections are optional.
We are now ready for the StorageGRID configuration. For an appliance to use node encryption with an external KMS, it must be set at the time the appliance is installed. From inside the installer UI, select the Node Encryption menu item under the Configure Hardware Tab, check the box to enable node encryption and save. Repeat this step for all nodes to be encrypted. The node is now ready to be joined to the StorageGRID solution.
Once the node or nodes are all installed and part of the grid, you can now configure StorageGRID to use the KeyControl cluster for kms.
On the StorageGRID management UI under the Configuration tab, click on the Key management server menu item in the Security column.
Click the Create button to add the new KeyControl KMS.
Under the details for the new KMS configuration. Provide a name to identify the KMS, an encryption key name (If one exists already in the KeyControl Vault that you wish to use, or this will be the name of the new key created by this process), what site should be managed by this KMS or all sites not managed by another configured KMS, the port should remain the default, and the hostnames or IP’s on the KeyControl servers in the cluster.
After the details have been entered click the continue button to get to the next page to upload the server certificate. This is the cacert.pem file that was provided by the KeyControl client certificate creation.
Once the certificate is successfully uploaded, click the continue button for the next page where we upload the client certificate and key files.
The final step is to click the Test and save button. If all went well you should be greeted with a final window that informs you there is no existing key in the vault and a new key will be created.
Once the key is created you will see the new KMS in the list with a certificate status unknown. After a few minutes this will update to show the certificates are valid.
Clicking on the KMS name will bring up the information on the KMS. This is also where you can choose to rotate the keys.
You can click on the Encrypted nodes tab and verify the nodes encrypted and the keys used.
If we look in the KeyControl vault Objects, we see the keys in the vault and can compare to the StorageGRID keys in use.
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NetApp has introduced BlueXP™ workload factory for AWS and its workload factory GenAI capability to help you seamlessly create managed retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)-based AI applications, such as chatbots. With RAG, you can personalize foundational models to derive knowledge from your company's structured and unstructured data sources, ensuring your context-aware AI applications are tailored precisely to your needs. This step-by-step guide will walk you through an end-to-end example by showing you how to add context retrieval from your embedded Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP (FSx for ONTAP) data sources to an AI chatbot developed in LangChain, powered by AWS and workload factory GenAI capabilities.
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In today's fast-paced environment, businesses are seeking ways to optimize their cloud storage solutions while managing costs. Google Cloud NetApp Volumes now offers committed use discounts (CUDs) to help you cut costs on the resources that you need. CUDs offer significant savings in exchange for a commitment to use NetApp Volumes, and they empower customers with predictable budgeting, aiding in their fiscal planning.
How to sign up for CUDs
Signing up for CUDs is straightforward. Customers with a minimum commitment of $100,000 per year can request a CUD for their billing account. CUDs with a 1-year commitment qualify for a 15% discount. With a 3-year commitment, customers can receive a 20% discount. Discounts apply to all service levels—Flex, Standard, Premium, and Extreme—and can be distributed across multiple projects on the same billing account.
CUD utilization and billing
Committed use discounts are applied to data stored in NetApp Volumes across all tiers and for certain data management features. It's important to note that CUDs currently do not apply to features such as cross-region replication, backups, or tiered data.
Customers can monitor their CUD utilization and spending with a CUD analysis report in the Google Cloud Console. Monthly billing is based on the committed amount, with any overage billed at non-CUD rates.
Find out more
Committed use discounts for Google Cloud NetApp Volumes offer a strategic advantage for businesses looking to optimize their cloud storage costs. With flexibility in commitments, predictable budgeting, and competitive discounts, CUDs are an attractive option for many customers.
For more detailed information and guidance on CUDs, refer to the Google Cloud NetApp Volumes Committed Use Guide and schedule a 1:1 session with one of our specialists to discuss your specific use case.
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