How to get the latest Pure1 Manage

Just kidding, it already happened. No VM to upgrade. No packages to push out to 9 datacenters. Pure SaaS goodness. (See what I did there?)

wpid1873-media_1439816916268.png

Want a little more detail in Pure1? Try out the expanded view. The expanded view shown below provides a little more insight into the Capacity, Health and Performance of the Flash Array.

wpid1877-media_1439818108462.png

Click the title of each section in order to drill down to more detail of each Flash Array. We will take a deeper look at our lab m70.

Performance

wpid1874-media_1439817148091.png

Health

wpid1875-media_1439817171432.png

Capacity

wpid1876-media_1439817223321.png

PureStorage + REST API + Splunk = Fun with Data about Data

A few months back I posted a powershell script to post Pure Storage data directly into VMware vCenter Operations Manager (now called vRealize Operations). Inspiration hit me like a brick when a big customer of mine said, “Do you have a plugin for Splunk?”

He already wrote some scripts in python to pull data from our REST API. He just said, “Sure wish I didn’t have to do this myself.” I took the hint. Now I am not a python person, so I did the best I could with the tools I have.
You will notice that the script is very similar to the one I wrote for vCOPS. That is because open REST API’s rock, if you don’t have one for your product you are wrong. 🙂

The formatting in WordPress ALWAYS breaks scripts when I paste them. So head over to GitHub and download the script today.
https://github.com/2vcps/post-rest2splunk/tree/master

Like before I schedule this as a task to run every 5 minutes. That seems to not explode the tiny Splunk VM I am running in VMware Fusion to test this out.

Dashboards. Check.

wpid1855-media_1429109420445.png

Some very basic Dashboards I created. I am not a Splunk ninja, perhaps you know one? I am sure people that have done this for a while can pull much better visuals out of this data.

wpid1856-media_1429109524852.png
wpid1857-media_1429109617758.png

Pivot Table

wpid1858-media_1429109962843.png

Stats from a Lab array some Averages computed by Splunk.

Gauge Report of Max Latency (that is micro seconds)

wpid1859-media_1429110138347.png

A 1000 of these is 1 millisecond 🙂 pretty nice.

From Wikipedia
A microsecond is an SI unit of time equal to one millionth (0.000001 or 10−6 or 1/1,000,000) of a second. Its symbol is μs. One microsecond is to one second as one second is to 11.574 days. A microsecond is equal to 1000 nanoseconds or 1/1,000 milliseconds.

Even if everything else didn’t help you at least you learned that today. Right?

The link to github again https://github.com/2vcps/post-rest2splunk/tree/master

Top 5 – Pure Storage Technical Blog Posts 2014

Today I thought it would be pretty cool to list out my favorite 5 technical blog posts that pertain to Pure Storage. These are posts that I use to show customers how to get things done without re-inventing the wheel. Big thanks to Barkz and Cody for all the hard work they put in this year. Looking forward to even more awesomeness this year.

SQL Server 2014 Prod/Dev with VMware PowerCLI and Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit – Rob “Barkz” Barker

Enhanced UNMAP script using with PowerCLI and RESTful API – Cody Hosterman

VMware PowerCLI  and Pure Storage – Cody Hosterman
Check out the great script to set all the vSphere Best Practices for the Pure Storage Flash Array.

Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit Enhancements – Rob “Barkz” Barker

PowerActions – The PowerCLI Plugin for the vSphere Web Client with UNMAP – Cody Hosterman

JO-Unicorn-Rainbow

VMware vCenter Operations Manager and Pure Storage Rest API

I was playing with the REST API and Powershell in order to provision vSphere Datastores. I started to think what else could we do with all the cool information we get from the Pure Storage REST API?
I remembered some really cool people here and here had used the open HTTP Post adapter. So I started to work on how to pull data out of the Flash Array and into vCOPS.

Pure Dashboard

media_1407352996822.png

We already get some pretty awesome stats in the Pure web GUI. What we don’t get is the trends and analysis. Also I don’t see how my data reduction increases and decreases over time. Also I don’t get stats from multiple arrays.

First Dashboard with Array Stats, Heat Map, and Health based in vCops Baseline

media_1407353219054.png
media_1407360492500.png

Array Level Stats

First each of these scripts require Powershell 4.0.
1. Enter the Flash Array Names in the variable for $FlashArrayName. You can see I have 4 arrays in the Pure SE Lab.
2. I create a file with the credential to vCOPS. Since we are going to schedule this script to run every few minutes you need to create this file. More information on creating that credential here http://blogs.technet.com/b/robcost/archive/2008/05/01/powershell-tip-storing-and-using-password-credentials.aspx

You MUST read and do that to create the cred.txt file in c:\temp that I reference in the script.

3. Change the $url variable to be the IP or name of your vCOPS UI server.
4. Don’t forget to modify the Pure Flash Array and Password in each script.

Find it on GitHub https://github.com/2vcps/purevcops-array

[code]
cls
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = { $true }
$FlashArrayName = @(‘pure1′,’pure2′,’pure3′,’pure4’)

$AuthAction = @{
password = "pass"
username = "user"
}

# will ignore SSL or TLS warnings when connecting to the site
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = {$true}
$pass = cat C:\temp\cred.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString
$mycred = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist "admin",$pass

# function to perform the HTTP Post web request
function post-vcops ($custval,$custval2,$custval3)
{
# url for the vCOps UI VM. Should be the IP, NETBIOS name or FQDN
$url = "<vcops ip>"
#write-host "Enter in the admin account for vCenter Operations"

# prompts for admin credentials for vCOps. If running as scheduled task replace with static credentials
$cred = $mycred

# sets resource name
$resname = $custval3

# sets adapter kind
$adaptkind = "Http Post"
$reskind = "Pure FlashArray"

# sets resource description
$resdesc = "<flasharraydesc>"

# sets the metric name
$metname = $custval2

# sets the alarm level
$alrmlev = "0"

# sets the alarm message
$alrmmsg = "alarm message"

# sets the time in epoch and in milliseconds
#This is setting us 7 hours behind
$epoch = [decimal]::Round((New-TimeSpan -Start (get-date -date "01/01/1970") -End (get-date)).TotalMilliseconds)

# takes the above values and combines them to set the body for the Http Post request
# these are comma separated and because they are positional, extra commas exist as place holders for
# parameters we didn’t specify
$body = "$resname,$adaptkind,$reskind,,$resdesc`n$metname,$alrmlev,$alrmmsg,$epoch,$custval"

# executes the Http Post Request
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://$url/HttpPostAdapter/OpenAPIServlet" -Credential $cred -Method Post -Body $body
#write-host $resname
#write-host $custval2 "=" $custval "on" $custval3
}
ForEach($element in $FlashArrayName)
{
$faName = $element.ToString()
$ApiToken = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri "https://${faName}/api/1.1/auth/apitoken" -Body $AuthAction

$SessionAction = @{
api_token = $ApiToken.api_token
}
Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri "https://${faName}/api/1.1/auth/session" -Body $SessionAction -SessionVariable Session

$PureStats = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri "https://${faName}/api/1.1/array?action=monitor" -WebSession $Session
$PureArray = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri "https://${faName}/api/1.1/array?space=true" -WebSession $Session
ForEach($FlashArray in $PureStats) {

$wIOs = $FlashArray.writes_per_sec
$rIOs = $FlashArray.reads_per_sec
$rLatency = $FlashArray.usec_per_read_op
$wLatency = $FlashArray.usec_per_write_op
$queueDepth = $FlashArray.queue_depth
$bwInbound = $FlashArray.input_per_sec
$bwOutbound = $FlashArray.output_per_sec
}
ForEach($FlashArray in $PureArray) {

$arrayCap =($FlashArray.capacity)
$arrayDR =($FlashArray.data_reduction)
$arraySS =($FlashArray.shared_space)
$arraySnap =($FlashArray.snapshots)
$arraySys =($FlashArray.system)
$arrayTP =($FlashArray.thin_provisioning)
$arrayTot =($FlashArray.total)
$arrayTR =($FlashArray.total_reduction)
$arrayVol =($FlashArray.volumes)
}

post-vcops($wIOs)("Write IO")($faName)
post-vcops($rIOs)("Read IO")($faName)
post-vcops($rLatency)("Read Latency")($faName)
post-vcops($wLatency)("Write Latency")($faName)
post-vcops($queueDepth)("Queue Depth")($faName)
post-vcops($bwInbound)("Input per Sec")($faName)
post-vcops($bwOutbound)("Output per Sec")($faName)

post-vcops($FlashArray.capacity)("Capacity")($faName)
post-vcops($FlashArray.data_reduction)("Real Data Reduction")($faName)
post-vcops($FlashArray.shared_space)("Shared Space")($faName)
post-vcops($FlashArray.snapshots)("Snapshot Space")($faName)
post-vcops($FlashArray.system)("System Space")($faName)
post-vcops($FlashArray.thin_provisioning)("TP Space")($faName)
post-vcops($FlashArray.total)("Total Space")($faName)
post-vcops($FlashArray.total_reduction)("Faker Total Reduction")($faName)
post-vcops($FlashArray.volumes)("Volumes")($faName)

}
[/code]

 

For Volumes

Find it on GitHub https://github.com/2vcps/purevcops-volumes

[code]
cls
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = { $true }
$FlashArrayName = @(‘pure1′,’pure2′,’pure3′,’pure4’)

$AuthAction = @{
password = "pass"
username = "user"
}

# will ignore SSL or TLS warnings when connecting to the site
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = {$true}
$pass = cat C:\temp\cred.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString
$mycred = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist "admin",$pass

# function to perform the HTTP Post web request
function post-vcops ($custval,$custval2,$custval3,$custval4)
{
# url for the vCOps UI VM. Should be the IP, NETBIOS name or FQDN
$url = "<vcops ip or name>"
#write-host "Enter in the admin account for vCenter Operations"

# prompts for admin credentials for vCOps. If running as scheduled task replace with static credentials
$cred = $mycred

# sets resource name
$resname = $custval

# sets adapter kind
$adaptkind = "Http Post"
$reskind = "Flash Volumes"

# sets resource description
$resdesc = $custval4

# sets the metric name
$metname = $custval2

# sets the alarm level
$alrmlev = "0"

# sets the alarm message
$alrmmsg = "alarm message"

# sets the time in epoch and in milliseconds
#This is setting us 7 hours behind
$epoch = [decimal]::Round((New-TimeSpan -Start (get-date -date "01/01/1970") -End (get-date)).TotalMilliseconds)

# takes the above values and combines them to set the body for the Http Post request
# these are comma separated and because they are positional, extra commas exist as place holders for
# parameters we didn’t specify
$body = "$resname,$adaptkind,$reskind,,$resdesc`n$metname,$alrmlev,$alrmmsg,$epoch,$custval3"

# executes the Http Post Request
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://$url/HttpPostAdapter/OpenAPIServlet" -Credential $cred -Method Post -Body $body

write-host $custval,$custval2,$custval3
}
ForEach($element in $FlashArrayName)
{
$faName = $element.ToString()
$ApiToken = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri "https://${faName}/api/1.1/auth/apitoken" -Body $AuthAction

$SessionAction = @{
api_token = $ApiToken.api_token
}
Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri "https://${faName}/api/1.1/auth/session" -Body $SessionAction -SessionVariable Session

$PureStats = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri "https://${faName}/api/1.1/array?action=monitor" -WebSession $Session
$PureVolStats = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri "https://${faName}/api/1.1/volume?space=true" -WebSession $Session
ForEach($Volume in $PureVolStats) {
#$Volume.data_reduction
#$Volume.name
#$Volume.volumes
#$Volume.shared_space
#$Volume.system
#$Volume.total
#$Volume.total_reduction
#$Volume.snapshots
$adjVolumeSize = ($Volume.Size /1024)/1024/1024
#$Volume.thin_provisioning

post-vcops($Volume.Name)("Volume Size")($adjVolumeSize)($faName)
post-vcops($Volume.Name)("Volume Data Reduction")($Volume.data_reduction)($faName)
post-vcops($Volume.Name)("Volumes")($Volume.volumes)($faName)
post-vcops($Volume.Name)("Shared Space")($Volume.shared_space)($faName)
post-vcops($Volume.Name)("System")($Volume.system)($faName)
post-vcops($Volume.Name)("Total")($Volume.total)($faName)
post-vcops($Volume.Name)("Total Reduction")($Volume.total_reduction)($faName)
post-vcops($Volume.Name)("Thin Provisioning")($Volume.thin_provisioning)($faName)
post-vcops($Volume.Name)("Snapshots")($Volume.snapshots)($faName)
}
}
[/code]

Once each of the scripts is working schedule them as a task on a windows server. I do one for volumes and one for arrays and run them every 5 minutes indefintely. This will start to dump the data into vCOPS.

Now you can make Dashboards.

Creating Dashboards

media_1408382785427.png

Login to the UI for vCOPS. You must by in the custom UI, the standar UI hides all of the cool non-vSphere customization you can do.

 

Go to Environment –> Environment Overview

media_1408383055768.png

Expand Resource Kinds

media_1408383114822.png

This lets you know that data is being accepted to the array. Other than the Powershell script bombing out and failing this is the only way you know it is working. Now for a new Dashboard.

Click Dashboards -> Add

media_1408383203181.png

Drag Resources, Metric Selector, Metric Graph and Heat Map to the Right

media_1408383262000.png

Name it and Click OK

Adjust the Layout

media_1408383477679.png

I like a nice Column for information and a bigger display area for graphs and heat maps. Adjust to your preference.

Edit the Resources Widget

media_1408383579549.png

Edit the Name and filters to tag

media_1408383667269.png

Now we just see the Flash Arrays

media_1408383734620.png
media_1408383840440.png

Select your Resource Provider I named mine Lab Flash Arrays as the Providing Widget for the Metric Selector. Also Select the Lab Flash Arrays and Metric Selector as the Providing Widgets for the Metric Graph.

Edit the Metric Graph Widget by clicking the gear icon

media_1408384372245.png

I change the Res. Interaction Mode to SampleCustomViews.xml. This way when I select a Flash Array the Graph does show up until I double click the Metric in the Metric Selector. You are of course free to do it as you like.

The Heat Map

media_1408384493307.png

Edit the heat map and you will find tons of options.

media_1408384631976.png

Create a Configuration

media_1408384728117.png

Name the New Configuration

media_1408384811714.png

Group by and Resource Kinds

media_1408384843862.png

Group by the Resource Kind and then select Pure Flash Array in the drop down.

Select the Metric to Size the Heatmap and Color the Heatmap

media_1408384873077.png

Adjust the colors if you think Read and Green are boring

media_1408384896168.png

Save the Config!

media_1408384924548.png

Look! A cool new heatmap

media_1408384959172.png

Do this for all the metrics you want to have as a drop down in teh dashboard.

Obviously there are a lot more things you can do with the Dashboards and widgets. Hopefully this is enough to get you kicked off.

A Brand New Dashboard

media_1408385301227.png

Staying through Thursday at VMworld? Come to PureStorage Evolve

When: Thursday August 28th
1:00pm – 5:45pm (conference) and 5:45pm – 10:00pm (networking pavilion)
Where: Yerba Buena Center

It will be awesome. Register today!

media_1406766982809.png
Why should you come?
Flash is changing virtualization more than any other technology. With storage no longer in the way the journey to 100% virtualization can be a reality and you can focus on the Cloud operations you need to move to the what is next for your IT organization. Stop letting legacy storage distract you form what can move your business forward. Come to

Provision vSphere Datastores on Pure Storage Volumes with Powershell

A week or so ago our Pure Storage powershell guru Barks @themsftdude sent out some examples of using Powershell to get information via the Pure Storage REST API. My brain immediately started to think how we could combine this with PowerCLI to get a script to create the LUN on Pure and then the datastore on vSphere. So now provision away with Powershell! You know, if that is what you like to do. We also have a vCenter plugin if you like that better.

So now you can take this code and put it into a file New-PSDataStore.ps1

What we are doing:

1. Login to vCenter and the REST API for the Array.
2. Create the Volume on the Flash Array.
3. Place the new volume in the Hostgroup with your ESX cluster.
4. Rescan the host.
5. Create the new Datastore.

Required parameters:

-FlashArray The name of your array
-vCenter Name of your vCenter host
-vCluster Name of the cluster your hosts are in. If you don’t have clusters (what?) you will need to modify the script slightly.
-HostGroup The name of the hostgroup in the Pure Flash Array.
-VolumeName Name of the volume and datastore
-VolumeSize  Size of the volume. This requires denoting the G for Gigabytes or T or Terabytes
-pureUser The Pure FlashArray username
-pureUser The Pure FlashArray  password

[powershell]
# example usage
#.\new-PSdatastore.ps1 -FlashArray "Array" -vCenter "vcenter" -vCluster "clustername" -HostGroup "HostGroup" -VolumeName "NewVol" -VolumeSize 500G -pureUser pureuser -purePass purepass
#On the Volume Size parameter you must include the letter after the number I have tested <number>G for Gigabytes and <number>T for Terabytes
#Special thanks to Barkz www.themicrosoftdude.com @themsftdude for the kickstart on the API calls.
#Find me @jon_2vcps on the twitters. Please make this script better.
# If you do not have a stored PowerCLI credential you will be prompted for the vCenter credentials.
#Not an official supported Pure Storage product, use as you wish at your own risk.
#

Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[string] $FlashArray,
[string] $VCenter,
[string] $vCluster,
[string] $HostGroup,
[string] $VolumeName,
[string] $VolumeSize,
[string] $pureUser,
[string] $purePass

)

Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core

#cls
$vname=$VolumeName
$vSize=$VolumeSize
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = { $true }
$FlashArrayName = $FlashArray
$vCenterServer = $VCenter
$esxHostGroup = $HostGroup
Connect-viserver -Server $vCenterServer

$workHost = get-vmhost -Location $vCluster | select-object -First 1

$AuthAction = @{
password = $purePass
username = $pureUser
}
$ApiToken = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri "https://${FlashArrayName}/api/1.1/auth/apitoken" -Body $AuthAction

$SessionAction = @{
api_token = $ApiToken.api_token
}
Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri "https://${FlashArrayName}/api/1.1/auth/session" -Body $SessionAction -SessionVariable Session

Invoke-RestMethod -Method POST -Uri "https://${FlashArrayName}/api/1.1/volume/${vname}?size=${vSize}" -WebSession $Session
Invoke-RestMethod -Method POST -Uri "https://${FlashArrayName}/api/1.1/hgroup/${esxHostGroup}/volume/${vname}" -WebSession $Session
$volDetails = Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -Uri "https://${FlashArrayName}/api/1.1/volume/${vname}" -WebSession $Session
$rescanHost = $workHost | Get-VMhostStorage -RescanAllHba
$volNAA = $volDetails.serial
$volNAA = $volNAA.substring(15)
$afterLUN = $workHost | Get-scsilun -CanonicalName "naa.624*${volNAA}"
New-Datastore -VMhost $workHost -Name $vname -Path $afterLUN -VMFS
[/powershell]

 

Not the Same Ol’ Sessions from Pure Storage at VMworld

I am really excited to be going to VMworld once again. I will be wearing my Orange Nike so most likely my feet won’t hurt quite as bad. Also expect the Pure Orange Superman to make an appearance.
IMG_2992
More about the sessions. So I will be attending VMworld San Francisco, and speaking in EMEA.

STO2996-SPO – The vExpert Storage Game Show

The session I am stoked to be a part of is STO2996-SPO – The vExpert Storage Game Show. It will be a fun and informative time about next generation storage architectures presented in the form of a game show.  PLUS,  two members of the audience will join the session to help the vExpert teams. I know everyone will want to be on my team in EMEA.

STO3000-SPO – Flash Storage Best Practices and Technology Preview 

This very exciting session with Vaughn and Cody (super-genius vExperts) will go into what to consider when moving your datacenter to all flash. Plus previews of the Pure VVOLs.  If you think you are not ready for all flash, come to this session and learn how Flashy you can be.

STO2999-SPO – Customers Unplugged: Real-World Results with VMware on Flash

I wish I had thought of this. Customers using All Flash with VMware. All Tech, No Slides.

STO1965 – Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive

Dive into Virtual Volumes with Rawlinson Rivera – VMware, Suzy Visvanathan – VMware and Vaughn Stewart – Pure Storage. So many customers have asked me what will VVOLS actually do over the last 3 years. This will be a great chance to find that out.

VAPP2132 – Virtualizing Mission Critical Applications on All Flash Storage 

How does Pure storage enable that final 10% of critical applications that just a few years ago people said would be impossible? Meet my friend Avi Nayek from Pure and Mohan Potheri from VMware and learn how flash eliminates storage as the road block to critical applications becoming virtual.

MGT1265 – Improving Cloud Operations Visibility with Log Management and vCenter Log Insight

Cody Hosterman, Did I tell you he is smart? Yeah. He is. Join Cody and Dominic Rivera from US Bank and Bill Roth from VMware on how to increase your Cloud Operations Visibility.

SDDC2754-SPO – New Kids on the Storage Block, File and Share: Lessons in Storage and Virtualization

Lessons from all the upstarts in the storage industry. Most of them are not “startups” anymore. Finding new ways to solve the issues of using Virtualization with legacy storage. Pure Storage, Nimble Storage, Tintri, Tegile, Coho Data, Data Gravity and moderated by Howard Marks from DeepStorage.net.

STO2496-SPO – vSphere Storage Best Practices: Next-Gen Storage Technologies

The Chad and Vaughn show. Now with Rawlinson Rivera! Storage is changing. Did I say that yet?

More information on Pure Storage Sessions

Coming Soon: Support for VMware VVOLs
Pure Storage set to paint VMworld 2014 orange!

VAAI and XCOPY with Pure Storage

VAAI has been around (almost 4 years now)for a while now and this is one thing I don’t often hear customers or others talking about very often. When your vSphere hosts detect that Hardware Acceleration is compatible. The host will attempt to send VAAI compatible commands to the storage device. As we describe it usually Full Copy is explained as if you need to clone or Storage vMotion a VM the ESXi host issues a command to move the storage device to move the blocks. So when describing this in the past it was a very simple, the Host issue the command and the blocks move. Set it and forget it, right?

Not so fast, my friend!

media_1401732696712.png

As good ol’ Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast, my Friend!”

The VAAI Xcopy command tells the storage device to move 4096 KB (AKA 4MB) at a time. So every 4MB is a new command. Not a big deal for disk based xcopy because the blocks could only move from spindle to spindle so fast. Still way more efficient than before but sometimes not actually faster at all.

Along came the Flash Array.

The FlashArray, XCOPY and VAAI

media_1401731250956.png

The Pure Storage snapshot technology is used for XCOPY commands. No matter where they are coming from. This results in just a metadata pointer change in order to move the data. The blocks don’t actually move anywhere since they are stored once and mapped in metadata. This enables zero impact snaps and clones that can be created as fast as I can click the button in the GUI.
What does this all mean?
Since the ESXi host is telling the FlashArray to move 4MB at a time the copy function does not reach the full potential of what the FlashArray can really do. It is like using a freight train to move cargo across the country but only putting one box in each car.

Pure Storage recommendation

media_1401733336758.png

This is why Pure recommends changing the MaxHWTransferSize (the setting that controls the size of the transfer) to the maximum allowed 16384 (or 16MB).

Default is 4096
Commands to help you change the setting via the CLI

esxcfg-advcfg -g /DataMover/MaxHWTransferSize
Value of MaxHWTransferSize is 4096

Set the transfer size to the Pure Storage best practice:

esxcfg-advcfg -s 16384 /DataMover/MaxHWTransferSize
Value of MaxHWTransferSize is 16384

…but wait there is more!

So the Pure Storage FlashArray is cool with cloning multi TB volumes using xcopy with no impact on performance or space usage. So the question is why only 16MB at a time? (real answer should come from someone way smarter than me at VMware).

I am curious to try out a Storage vMotion or cloning persistent View desktops that fully use the power of the array.
Until then, still better than spinning disk or no VAAI at all.

Changing the vCenter Graphs to Microsecond

So if you are moving your data center to the next generation of Flash Storage you may have noticed your performance charts in VMware vCenter or other tools look something like this.

wpid1734-media_1400074458056.png

You start to think, what good is the millisecond scale in a microsecond world? (I know that screenshot is from vCOPS.)

Luckily VMware provided an answer (sorta kinda).

Using microsecond for Virtual Disk Metrics

wpid1735-media_1400074662471.png

Go ahead and select your VM and go to Monitor –> Performance and select Advanced.
First change the View from CPU to Virtual Disk(1).
Then select Chart Options(2)

wpid1736-media_1400074748513.png

Deselect the Legacy and move on to microseconds.

wpid1737-media_1400090502397.png

Then you can select Save Options to use these settings easily next time. The new settings will be saved in the drop down list in the top right corner.

wpid1738-media_1400090559293.png

Finally, you have a scale that can let you see what the Virtual Disks are doing for read and write latency.

wpid1739-media_1400090652937.png

Disk vs Virtual Disk Metrics

In the vSphere Online documentation the Disk Metric group is described as:
Disk utilization per host, virtual machine, or datastore. Disk metrics include I/O performance (such as latency and read/write speeds), and utilization metrics for storage as a finite resource.

While Virtual Disk is defined:
Disk utilization and disk performance metrics for virtual machines.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but the differences I see is even though they are both choices when a VM is selected only the Disk metric gives stats for the datastore device that the VM lives on and can be shown side by side with that VM’s stats but does NOT give the option to change the scale to microsecond if needed. Virtual Disk allows only VM level statistics but permits you to view them as microseconds at least for read and write latency.
Hope this helps.