NetApp : Updated Technical Report for VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes with ONTAP

I am happy to announce an update of our VVol TR-4400, VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes with ONTAP. You may download the updated TR with the same URL used previously: https://www.netapp.com/us/media/tr-4400.pdf.

I might be weird in this respect, but I enjoy reading product manuals. But even though the prior VVol technical report was well written, it covered much the same content as our product documentation. So, when I set out to update this TR my goal was to focus on new content: VVol use cases and benefits, best practices, protection and troubleshooting.

I also added a section covering the new performance management capabilities of the VASA Provider 7.2 and ONTAP 9.4 releases. We've simplified the storage capabilities and how they are specified in this release to make it easier to get started with policy-based management. We've also updated the capabilities to reflect the latest ONTAP features such as Adaptive QoS, NetApp Volume Encryption, and FabricPool tiering.

Finally, I am thrilled to report that we see ONTAP VVol adoption growing significantly in recent months. This is especially strong on the SAN side, where VVols bring VM granular management that traditional VMFS datastores just don't offer. The number of customers and systems running VVols with SAN have roughly doubled since the last quarter. It's great to see this adoption as we've put much effort into our VVol development over the past four years.

I hope you find this update useful and welcome your feedback on this different document approach. In addition to the feedback address at the end of the TR, you may also leave your comments here (but please address product questions through your NetApp or partner systems engineers).