Are vVols on NetApp a good/bad idea?

[Blissitt]

Greetings,

We are largely a VMware/NetApp/NFS shop.  I have been experimenting with vVols lately in my test environment using the free virtual storage appliances from NetApp and EMC/Dell, both of which are hugely beneficial.  After getting vVols to work properly with NetApp one time and never again (and without creating my own "cookbook"), I tried the EMC appliance and it was as easy as falling off a log.  I do understand that EMC/Dell has a vested interest in having vVols working.  They also have the ease of not having an additional appliance in the mix.

While I don't have years of experience in NetApp or vVols, my impressions of vVols on NetApp are not encouraging, and I could never make a recommendation for them in our environment as of now.  My question to the forum is "Are they even worth pursuing at this time, or should we wait for a later version?"

[konnerth]

Hi,

There are two major benefits in using VVols with ONTAP:

• Policy-based management to speed VM provisioning and avoid mistakes
• VM granular management on SAN (performance, QoS, etc.)

Since you are using NFS, these may not be as compelling.  We are seeing significant growth in VVol SAN usage as customers upgrade to vSphere 6.X.

---Karl