EMC VPLEX
{{Short description|Virtual computer data storage product}}
EMC VPLEX is a virtual computer data storage product introduced by EMC Corporation in May 2010.{{Cite news |title= EMC launches VPlex, eyes teleporting petabytes globally |author= Larry Dignan |work= Between the Lines blog |date= May 10, 2010 |url= https://www.zdnet.com/article/emc-launches-vplex-eyes-teleporting-petabytes-globally/ |access-date= October 31, 2016 }} VPLEX implements a distributed "virtualization" layer within and across geographically disparate Fibre Channel storage area networks and data centers.{{cite news| url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/emc-now-performing-data-contortion-act/ | work=The New York Times | title=EMC Now Performing Data Contortion Act | first=Ashlee | last=Vance | author-link=Ashlee Vance | date= May 13, 2010}}
History
A previous virtual storage product from EMC Corporation called Invista was announced in 2005. It supported selected storage area network (SAN) switches from Cisco Systems and Brocade Communications Systems that used Fibre Channel connections.
Five months after the announcement, Invista had not shipped, and was expected to not have much impact until 2007.{{Cite news |title= Q&A: EMC's Mark Lewis on virtualization, competition |work= Computer World |date= October 18, 2005 |author= Lucas Mearian |url= http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/105517/Q_A_EMC_s_Mark_Lewis_on_virtualization_competition |accessdate= July 11, 2013 }}
A version 2.0 of Invista was released in December 2007,{{Cite news |title= Invista's not invisible; EMC unveils version 2.0 |date= December 10, 2007 |author= Dave Raffo |work= Search Storage |publisher= Tech Target |url= http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/1285382/Invistas-not-invisible-EMC-unveils-version-20 |accessdate= October 31, 2016 |archive-date= November 1, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161101102030/http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/news/1285382/Invistas-not-invisible-EMC-unveils-version-20 |url-status= dead }}
although a year later the product was called "under-delivered".{{Cite news |title= Is EMC's Maui another Invista: Biting off more than it can chew |author= Chris Mellor |date= November 4, 2008 |work= The Register |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/04/emc_maui_another_invista/?page=2 |accessdate= October 31, 2016 }}
By 2009, some analysts suggested the Invista product might best be shut down,{{Cite news |title= Why EMC should really rev InVista: Put up, or put down? |author= Chris Mellor |date= February 9, 2009 |work= The Register |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/09/emc_should_rev_invista/ |accessdate= July 11, 2013 }} and it was quietly withdrawn.{{Cite news |title= The Perez Peregrination: Invicta and the move to Dell |author= Chris Mellor |date= April 8, 2015 |work= The Register |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/08/a_perez_peregrination_dell_cisco_hp_invicta/ |accessdate= October 31, 2016 }}
Another EMC storage product called the Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) also was marketed when VPLEX was announced in May 2010, and a competing product was the IBM SAN Volume Controller.{{Cite news |title= Q&A: EMC's Brian Gallagher touts the new VPLEX appliance |work= Computer World |date= May 12, 2010 |author= Lucas Mearian |url= http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176646/Q_A_EMC_s_Brian_Gallagher_touts_the_new_VPLEX_appliance/ |accessdate= July 11, 2013 }}{{Cite news |title= Why EMC should really rev InVista: Put up, or put down? |author= Chris Mellor |date= February 9, 2009 |work= The Register |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/09/emc_should_rev_invista/ |accessdate= July 11, 2013 }}{{Cite news |title= EMC tempts storage buyers into its federation: Gelsinger's ginormous gamble |author= Chris Mellor |date= May 10, 2010 |work= The Register |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/10/emc_vplex/ |accessdate= October 31, 2016 }}{{Cite news|title=EMC VPLEX: Virtual Storage Beyond Real Walls |date=May 10, 2005 |author=Mark Peters |publisher=Enterprise Strategy Group |url=http://www.enterprisestrategygroup.com/2010/05/emc-vplex-virtual-storage-beyond-real-walls/ |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100512125623/http://www.enterprisestrategygroup.com/2010/05/emc-vplex-virtual-storage-beyond-real-walls/ |archivedate=May 12, 2010 |accessdate=October 31, 2016 }}
The first two products in 2010 were for deployments that were local and "metro" (up to 5 milliseconds delay), with others supporting longer delays promised for the future.{{Cite news |title= EMC's Vplex Puts Data on the Bullet Train |author= Kimberly Hill |work= Tech News World |date= May 10, 2010 |url= http://www.technewsworld.com/story/EMCs-Vplex-Puts-Data-on-the-Bullet-Train-69966.html |accessdate= October 31, 2016 }}
A "geo" version was announced in 2011 for replication over wider distances.{{Cite web |title= Long-Distance Application Mobility Enabled by EMC VPLEX Geo |date= June 13, 2011 |publisher= EMC |url= http://www.emc.com/collateral/hardware/white-papers/h8214-application-mobility-vplex-geo-wp.pdf |accessdate= October 31, 2016 }}
In 2013, a product marketed with the phrase software-defined storage called EMC ViPR was announced, which could use VPLEX for its data movement.{{Cite news |title= EMC Slides Into Software Defined Storage With ViPR |author= Henry Baltazar |work= ZDNet Forrester Research |date= May 13, 2013 |url= https://www.zdnet.com/article/emc-slides-into-software-defined-storage-with-vipr/ |access-date= October 31, 2016 }}
Architecture
Each VPLEX engine in a cluster consists of two redundant IO directors and one IO annex, each being a single rack unit (1U) physical device. Each engine has 32 Fibre Channel ports (the VS1 model 16 front-end ports and 16 back-end ports) or 16 Fibre Channel ports (the VS2 model has 8 front-end ports and 8 back-end ports) and is protected by two redundant stand-by power supplies.
Each VPLEX director is a bladed multi-core multi-processor x86 virtualization processing unit containing 4 hot-swappable IO modules. The 1U IO annex is used for intra-cluster director communication. Each director runs a Linux kernel and a specialized storage virtualization environment called GeoSynchrony, that provides proprietary clustering capability. Each cluster has a service management station which provides all alerting and software management capabilities.
VPLEX is based on standard EMC building block hardware architecture components such as those used in its Symmetrix product line. VPLEX uses an in-band architecture which means that data flowing between a host and a storage controller flows through one or more directors. On the front end, VPLEX presents an interface to a host which looks like a standard storage controller SCSI target. On the VPLEX back end, the VPLEX provides an interface to a physical storage controller that act like a host, essentially like a SCSI initiator.
A VPLEX cluster consists of one or more pairs of directors (up to 4 pairs). Any director from any engine can failover to any other director in the cluster in the case of hardware or path failure.