Restrictions of Native-San for Hyper-V

comdot · Thu Jul 19, 2012 10:49 am

Right Then,

I've not been able to get a proper answer out of sales so I thought I'd post on here. Could someone explain to me to differences and restrictions of Native for Hyper-V over the standard edition please?

I know that it's designed for a 2 server hyper-v installation and that suits me fine, but I can't get my head around how you enforce it? If I had to add another third hyper-v host in the future that wasn't running Starwind - would that be able to connect to the targets hosted on the san?

If I was running a target containing say exchange data and that target was connected to from the guest os's initiator rather than via hyper-v would that work or be blocked?

Is there somewhere that properly explains the restrictions and how they are enforced?

Thanks

Adam

Thu Jul 19, 2012 12:41 pm

Right now you cannot cluster more then two machines. BUT. This restriction will be flexed out in our minor update, so you'll be able to host CVS on say two (or three) nodes in a 3 or 5 or 100 node Hyper-V cluster.

comdot · Thu Jul 19, 2012 12:56 pm

Thanks for that

But what about my other question, I'm trying to ensure I don't buy something that won't cover all my needs.

Does Starwind hyper-v only provide storage for hyper-v ie cvs, or can I create targets to store other types of data that my hyper-v guests can connect to directly?

IE I'm looking to host my entire infrastructure on two big servers with Starwind and Hyper-v, I'll be running some guests as clusters that I want to be able to access HA targets directs ie exchange / sql servers - will this work with native for hyper-v?

Thu Jul 19, 2012 1:41 pm

We expose LUNs and really don't care much about what you store on them - CSV or anything else you want. Right now incoming connects are blocked but this restriction should be flexed out. You may rely on that.

comdot wrote:Thanks for that

But what about my other question, I'm trying to ensure I don't buy something that won't cover all my needs.

Does Starwind hyper-v only provide storage for hyper-v ie cvs, or can I create targets to store other types of data that my hyper-v guests can connect to directly?

IE I'm looking to host my entire infrastructure on two big servers with Starwind and Hyper-v, I'll be running some guests as clusters that I want to be able to access HA targets directs ie exchange / sql servers - will this work with native for hyper-v?

comdot · Thu Jul 19, 2012 3:58 pm

So currently if I have 2 guest vms running and they are on a csv so they can live migrate etc. If they are running say SQL and the SQL data is stored on another HA lun can the VM's connect into the san from the guest OS using their own iscsi initiators, which would in effect make them look like they were remote?

Yes
No
No - but we're changing the rules so you can.

If the answer is "no but" then I need a concrete idea of timescales as it has a big impact on my purchasing decisions.

Thu Jul 19, 2012 7:24 pm

No but we're changing it. VERY soon. Few weeks maximum (we're in a couple of days away from beta followed by release).

sammybendover · Thu Jul 19, 2012 8:26 pm

Thank you for clairifying this. The sales staff are NOT very helpful or polite when you tell them you are trying to understand how the technology works.

I hope the beta will be made availalble soon, I can test this setup on my 2 or 3 hyper-v machines running server 2012 RC and report my findings if that would be helpful.

Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:47 pm

Could you please PM me a names of people you think were not helpful and polite? I'm notoriously improving this company and your feedback is welcomed.

Yes, please apply for beta. Thanks!

sammybendover wrote:Thank you for clairifying this. The sales staff are NOT very helpful or polite when you tell them you are trying to understand how the technology works.

I hope the beta will be made availalble soon, I can test this setup on my 2 or 3 hyper-v machines running server 2012 RC and report my findings if that would be helpful.

comdot · Wed Jul 25, 2012 2:03 pm

How do I apply for the beta?

Can I get a firm date as to when the restriction stopping hyper-v guests connecting to LUNs presented from Native Edition will be flexed out as you put it?

I'm just in the processes of firming up a decision and it's urgent that I know for sure.

Thu Jul 26, 2012 6:20 am

Here we are (links published public):

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/forums/ ... t2753.html

We have a release facing many issues (and including this particular one) scheduled for mid-August.

comdot wrote:How do I apply for the beta?

Can I get a firm date as to when the restriction stopping hyper-v guests connecting to LUNs presented from Native Edition will be flexed out as you put it?

I'm just in the processes of firming up a decision and it's urgent that I know for sure.

comdot · Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:21 pm

Your post said 'Weeks' and here I am months later and you still havent released the update you told me was coming.

I feel very miss led I have purchased Starwind Native San for £1000s and can't do what I need to do with it..

Mon Nov 05, 2012 11:32 am

Adam,
Native SAN 6.0 will be available for download this Friday.
Sorry for the long waiting time!

comdot · Fri Nov 09, 2012 11:38 am

It's friday - but I can't find the download!!

Fri Nov 09, 2012 1:42 pm

Sorry for misinformation, release date has been moved to the next week.