Documentation Update, Best Practices and vRealize

So a few updates. I just updated my vSphere Best Practices guide and it can be found here:

Download Best Practices Guide PDF

I normally do not create a blog post about updating the guide, but this one was a major overhaul and I think is worth mentioning. Furthermore, there are a few documents I have written and published that I want to mention.

1. FlashArray Plugin for vRealize Orchestrator User Guide
2. Implementing FlashArray in a vRealize Private Cloud

Best Practices Guide

First of note, this guide has been updated for vSphere 6.5 (up to patch 1 in fact)–this is probably the most important addition in terms of content. So automatic UNMAP, VMFS-6 etc.

Also, I have pretty much retired the MaxHWTransferSize recommendation to change it from 4 MB (the default) to 16 MB (the max). The original reasoning for this change was to increase the speed of XCOPY sessions, but frankly, it has minimal, if not zero, impact on this when the FlashArray is involved. So it doesn’t really make sense for it to be a default best practice. So Pure Storage no longer requires (we never really did anyways) or even recommends it. But we certainly still support making this change.

The next change is explanation. A bit of a brain dump. I spent a lot more time explaining recommendations and considerations for common questions that I get. How do we work with SIOC? SDRS? Disk.SchedQuantum? Capacity management? Alerting? UNMAP? Etc.

I have also removed pretty much all of it “integration” stuff in there. This guide focuses on using ESXi and vCenter with the FlashArray. Obviously the integration helps dramatically, but this guide is more about understanding the concepts then necessarily how to integrate. I certainly recommend using the integration though as it makes everything even better. But I felt it was out of the scope of the document–as there was simply too much and it overwhelmed the core message of the paper.

vRealize How-To’s

I have written two other documents as well, here are the links:

1.  FlashArray Plugin for vRealize Orchestrator User Guide
2. Implementing FlashArray in a vRealize Private Cloud

The first one is self-explanatory. Basically, everything you need to know about how to use our vRO plugin. From the basics: How do I install? How do I run workflows? How do I manage inventory? But also goes much deeper. How do I create workflows? How do I use actions? How do I create actions? How do I use the custom scriptable objects and methods in Javascript? As much or as little as you need. Basically another brain dump.

The second is more of general integration of the FlashArray into the vRealize Suite. How do I configure a FlashArray with Log Insight (our content pack), Operations Manager (our management pack), Orchestrator (our plugin), and Automation (XaaS)? Basics on installations and configuration and use. Should get you started for sure.

Don’t forget about this Webinar I did with Jon Harris at VMware on vRA and vRO:

http://windowsitpro.com/pure-storage/vRealize-Automation

Look for a more detailed vRA white paper in the coming months.